Court Roundup

North Carolina Peterson's lawyer says SBI problems go even deeper RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- An internal investigation continues into cases handled by a discredited former State Bureau of Investigation agent, according to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. The News & Observer of Raleigh obtained a letter to Cooper where attorney David Rudolf points out his investigation into Duane Deaver's role in a case that won a new trial for Durham author Michael Peterson. Rudolf said there are more cases where the ex-SBI agent or others he trained made unreliable bloodstain pattern analysis. "All of this occurred before the evidence introduced during the Peterson hearings this month, which indicate the problems with Deaver and bloodstain analysis by the SBI are far deeper than was previously known," Rudolf wrote to Cooper. Cooper wrote back, saying the investigation continues. "The SBI director has informed me that the SBI is continuing this investigation into Agent Deaver's other cases and blood spatter cases in general and the SBI would be glad to accept any information which you believe would be helpful to them," Cooper wrote. An independent 2010 review commissioned by Cooper found 34 cases where Deaver misreported test results, withheld results that could have helped the defendant or overstated the strength of the evidence to the benefit of prosecutors. Deaver worked for the SBI for more than 20 years before he was fired a year ago. He had a degree in zoology, and had two outside courses in bloodstain pattern analysis. Deaver's work was the main reason Peterson's first-degree murder conviction was overturned and he was granted a new trial last month in the 2001 death of his wife, who was found in a pool of blood at the bottom of a staircase in the couple's Durham mansion. Greg Taylor was exonerated of murder in Wake County based in large part on Deaver's flawed analysis. Prosecutors have vowed to try Peterson again, and a former assistant attorney general who handled Peterson's unsuccessful request for a new trial in the state's appellate court said there is plenty of evidence outside of Deaver's bloodstain work that can be used to convict Peterson again. Bud Crumpler told WRAL-TV (http://bit.ly/tRQ1XJ ) that he felt the crucial witness in the case was Dr. Deborah Radisch, the chief medical examiner for North Carolina. She performed the autopsy on Peterson's wife and testified it appeared she was viciously beaten in the head. Crumpler also pointed out a family friend of Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in Germany in 1985. Crumpler said he decided to speak out after Peterson talked about how much he still loved his wife when he was released from jail last month as he awaits his new trial. "That's all I could stand, so I felt I had to do something," Crumpler told the TV station. Rudolf told WRAL-TV that Crumpler's assessment of the case is way off because Deaver was the prosecution's key witness and the only person that could testify that Peterson was close to his wife when the blows were made to her head. "The state has no alleged murder weapon and no credible motive," Rudolf said. "In short, there is no evidence pointing to Michael Peterson's guilt without Duane Deaver's junk science." Louisiana School waiver ruling appealed BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- The state is asking the Louisiana Supreme Court to reverse a Baton Rouge judge and uphold the legality of a 2010 law that lets school districts seek four-year waivers from some education laws and rules in an effort to improve student achievement. State District Judge Mike Caldwell agreed in July with the Louisiana Federation of Teachers that the waiver law -- known as the Red Tape Reduction and Local Empowerment Act -- is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. But Assistant Attorney General Angelique Freel, who represents the state and BESE in the case, argues in documents filed at the Supreme Court that BESE has been constitutionally designated as the entity to oversee Louisiana's public education system. "BESE's powers to supervise and control the public schools come directly from the laws passed by the Legislature. By the passage of Act 749 of the 2010 Regular Session, the Louisiana Legislature simply prescribed additional duties to BESE," Freel writes. "Here, the Legislature recognized that BESE's expertise in supervising the school system would lend itself to the issuance of waivers under the Act," she adds in the documents filed Dec. 2 at the high court. The Advocate reports the justices are scheduled to hear the case Jan. 23. LFT attorney Larry Samuel argued to Caldwell in July that the Legislature "shifted" its constitutional authority to a state agency by "giving to BESE the authority to determine what the law should be." When Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the act into law, he said the act would trim burdensome rules that hinder academic growth and aid lower-performing schools on the verge of state takeover. Iowa Man convicted in Iowa of Nebraska bank robbery SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A 23-year-old South Dakota man who has already admitted robbing a bank in Iowa faces up to 20 years after admitting he robbed a bank in northeast Nebraska. A news release from federal prosecutors says Karlis Baisden, of Vermillion, S.D., pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court in Sioux City, Iowa. Prosecutors say Baisden robbed the Cedar Security Bank in Fordyce, Neb., on Dec. 14, 2010. He got away with about $19,000. During a search of Baisden's residence, officers seized letters written by Baisden in which he admitted robbing the bank in Fordyce and his intention to rob a bank in Lawton, Iowa. In June Baisden pleaded guilty to three charges stemming from the Lawton robbery, which occurred on April 6. Published: Wed, Jan 4, 2012