Missouri: Judge overturns 1996 murder conviction
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The state’s attorney general asked an appeals court to keep a former house painter behind bars while prosecutors appeal a judge’s decision to overturn the man’s 1996 murder conviction.
Attorney General Chris Koster filed his appeal on Monday, the deadline for the state to challenge DeKalb County Senior Judge Warren McElwain’s decision earlier this month to overturn Dale Helmig’s conviction, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Helmig was convicted of murdering his mother, Norma Helmig, in 1993. Her body was found tied to a concrete block in a flood-swollen river in Osage County. Her son was sentenced to life in prison. He won a new trial in a federal case alleging jury misconduct in 2005, but that decision was overturned on appeal.
Koster has not taken a position on Helmig’s guilt, but has said it is appropriate for an appellate court to review whether McElwain acted within his jurisdiction in tossing out the conviction.
Helmig’s attorney, Sean O’Brien, also filed paperwork on Monday asking the appellate court to release Helmig on bond.
“There is no reason that Dale can’t observe the holidays with his brother and his daughter while the Attorney General resists his inevitable exoneration,” O’Brien said. Helmig remains in custody at the Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron.
McElwain cited prosecutorial zeal, false evidence and poor representation in overturning the 1996 conviction. He called the case a “miscarriage of justice” and subsequently warned Koster’s office that he would release Helmig on bail unless documents were filed by Monday.
Koster’s appeal argues that Helmig’s claims are “procedurally barred from review as a result of his failure to litigate the claims either at trial, on direct appeal or in a post-conviction proceeding.” And even if the claims had been brought up previously, they still do not warrant a new trial, the appeal argues.
McElwain, who serves in the northwest Missouri county where Helmig is imprisoned, suggested in his ruling that Norma Helmig’s husband, Ted, was a more likely suspect than Dale Helmig. Ted Helmig and his wife were going through a bitter divorce at the time. Their rift included an incident at a Jefferson City diner where Ted Helmig threw a drink at his wife — a dispute wrongly blamed on Dale Helmig at his murder trial.
New testimony presented earlier this year showed that Norma Helmig’s purse — which washed up along the Missouri River six months after her body was found — included several personal checks canceled by her bank 10 days after her disappearance.
That scenario refutes the prosecution’s account that Dale Helmig threw her purse out of his car window while driving back to a Fulton motel the night his mother went missing. Ted Helmig has consistently denied killing his wife.
Kentucky: Man sues UofL football players, bar over fight
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Louisville man has sued two college football players and a bar over allegations that the players beat him up last year.
Andrew Howell filed suit last week in Jefferson Circuit Court claiming University of Louisville offensive linemen Ryan Kessling and Josh Byrom attacked him “without provocation” on Nov. 19, 2009, at the Granville Inn.
Howell claims he has severe head trauma and a brain injury. No criminal charges were filed against either player.
Travis Lock, an attorney for Howell, says his client was watching a fight between some football players and others when he was hit.
Kessling is a 6-foot-5, 314-pound junior who has played in nine games this year. Byrom is a 6-5, 305-pound senior who has played in 10 games this year.
Washington, D.C.: Environmental groups sue EPA over lead ammo
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three environmental groups are suing the Environmental Protection Agency to try to force it to prevent lead poisoning of wildlife from spent ammunition and lost fishing tackle.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington by the Center for Biological Diversity and two other groups. It comes after the EPA denied their petition to ban lead ammunition and tackle, which the groups say kills 10 million to 20 million birds and other animals a year by lead poisoning.
The EPA has said it does not have the legal authority to ban lead in ammunition. And the agency said that the groups did not demonstrate a ban for fishing tackle was necessary to protect against unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.
Massachusetts: Big Dig trooper death lawsuit settled for $9M
BOSTON (AP) — The family of a Massachusetts state trooper who died when he fell off his motorcycle and was thrown into the handrails in a Big Dig tunnel has settled a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and several contractors for $9 million.
The suit was settled last week according to documents filed in Suffolk Superior Court.
The family of Trooper Vincent Cila alleged in its suit that the poor design of the handrails on walkways lining the tunnels had been called into question.
A lawyer for the family tells The Boston Globe she hopes the settlement prompts removal of the rails that have been blamed for the deaths of several motorists, including Cila in July 2005.
A spokesman for the agency responsible for the tunnels, as well as the agency’s insurer, refused comment on the settlement.
Florida: Discrimination suit targets credit checks
MIAMI (AP) — A federal lawsuit contends that University of Miami credit history checks of job candidates discriminate unfairly against minorities.
The potential class-action lawsuit filed Monday claims that use of credit histories in hiring decisions violates the Civil Rights Act. The suit argues there is no link between credit histories and job performance or trustworthiness. It also says minorities tend to have more credit issues than whites and others.
The lawsuit seeking unspecified damages was filed on behalf of Loudy Appollon, an African-American woman who didn’t get a job at Miami’s medical school because of her credit history. The suit seeks to represent all similar unsuccessful job applicants since June 24, 2009.
The university declined to comment.
