Alaska
Attorney seeks witness in Hoonah shooting lawsuit
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An attorney representing the widow of a slain Hoonah police officer says the southeast Alaska city is refusing to provide a witness who can answer questions about police officer training.
Juneau attorney Mark Choate in court Wednesday urged Superior Court Judge Louis Menendez to order the city to produce someone who can answer training questions.
The Juneau Empire reports an attorney for the city says sufficient documents have been provided to answer the questions.
Choate represents the widow of Matthew Tokuoka, one of two officers shot and killed in 2010 by John Marvin Jr.
The lawsuit contends that Hoonah was negligent in training officers in dealing with people who have mental health problems.
Menendez did not immediately rule on Choate’s request. A trial is scheduled for next month.
Colorado
Man accused of stealing cemetery brass flower urns
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A Grand Junction man is accused of stealing $9,000 worth of flower urns from a cemetery, many of them from the graves of veterans.
A judge ordered 26-year-old David Gillespie to be held on $5,000 bond on Wednesday in the thefts of 15 brass urns from Memorial Gardens.
The cemetery estimated that the urns are worth $600 a piece. However, The Daily Sentinel reports that Gillespie is accused of selling 11 of them to a metal company for a total of $124.
Police say Gillespie told the company he had collected the urns from the Utah property of his recently deceased grandfather.
Indiana
Prison again for man convicted of killing officer
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A man convicted of killing a South Bend police officer in the 1970s is heading back to prison for stealing meat from a supermarket.
A St. Joseph County judge ordered the a 7-1/2 years sentence on Wednesday for 60-year-old Robert Fultz for convictions of theft and being a habitual offender. WSBT-TV reports Fultz was charged with taking $170 in meat from a Martin’s supermarket this year.
Fultz was convicted of fatally shooting South Bend police Cpl. Tom DeRue during an armed robbery in 1974.
The South Bend Tribune reports Fultz was at first given a life sentence but it was later reduced to 15 years to 25 years.
Since serving that sentence, Fultz has been convicted several times for burglary, theft and other crimes.
South Dakota
Couple sentenced for neglecting nearly 70 horses
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A western South Dakota couple convicted of neglecting horses were sentenced to jail during a hearing they didn’t attend.
Don Harwood on Wednesday was sentenced to five years in jail and his wife, Terri, was sentenced to a one-year term. They each will be on probation for several years after their jail time. Don Harwood also must undergo drug testing while on probation and is banned from possessing horses for the next nine years.
Harwood is a “terrible horse person,” Magistrate Judge Shawn Pahlke said.
Pahlke gave Don Harwood a lengthier jail term than his wife because he did not cooperate with a presentence investigation and because of his criminal record, which includes drug and driving under the influence convictions, the Rapid City Journal reported.
Law officers in January seized 69 horses at the property the Harwoods rented in Rapid Valley. Authorities said the horses did not have food or water, and some were thin and weak.
“Not getting up and going out to provide water is not the action of a caring person,” Pahlke said Wednesday.
A jury in August convicted the Harwoods on nine counts each of inhumane treatment of an animal.
Pahlke on Wednesday questioned Don Harwood’s attorney, Robbie Rohl, about why the couple was not present — something the judge said was unusual and unfortunate.
Rohl reminded the judge that the Harwoods had each provided their attorneys with waivers allowing the attorneys to represent them at court hearings.
Trial will go ahead for general facing sex charges
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — A military appeals court won't stop the court-martial of a U.S. Army general facing trial on sexual assault charges.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces denied a petition filed by lawyers for Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair. The August filing sought to halt the case based on their claim that top Pentagon officials exerted improper pressure to criminally prosecute him.
Sinclair pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges that include forcible sodomy, indecent acts and violating orders. Most of the charges stem from a three-year affair with a female captain who says the married general twice forced her to perform oral sex while she served under his command in Iraq and Afghanistan.
After several delays, Sinclair's trial is set to begin Jan. 7 at Fort Bragg, N.C.
