Hearing set in fatal shooting over loose dog
WALLED LAKE (AP) — A judge has set a January 8 probable-cause hearing for a Detroit-area man accused of fatally shooting a neighbor who complained about his loose dog.
Charles J. Simkins, 28, of Walled Lake appeared in court last week on first-degree murder and firearms charges in the death of Edwin Criswell, 45.
Authorities say Criswell confronted Simkins about Simkins’ dog getting into Criswell’s yard. They say Simkins confronted animal control officers with a handgun three days earlier when they came investigating a barking dog complaint.
Defense lawyer Todd Flood says Simkins has no criminal record and is a Marine Corps veteran who served in Fallujah, Iraq.
Judge fights ruling against her
DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit-area judge wants a federal appeals court to intervene in a lawsuit linked to the accidental consumption of alcohol by a child at a Detroit Tigers game.
The parents of Leo Ratte are suing Judge Judy Hartsfield. In 2008, the seven-year-old boy was temporarily removed from them when his father mistakenly gave him Mike’s Hard Lemonade at Comerica Park.
A police officer took steps to put Leo into protective custody for several days. Hartsfield had a practice of signing blank forms and leaving them to be filled in by authorities to remove children from parents.
Federal Judge Avern Cohn recently said Hartsfield has no immunity in the case and can be sued. She wants an appeals court to overturn that decision.
Federal judge dismisses ‘popcorn lung’ lawsuit
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge in Iowa has dismissed a Michigan couple’s lawsuit that claimed butter flavorings in microwave popcorn left the husband with lung disease.
U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett ruled last week that Michigan’s three-year statute of limitations barred the lawsuit brought by David and Barbara Stults of Grand Rapids.
The couple had been seeking damages for negligence, breach of warranty and loss of consortium against companies that produced butter flavorings containing diacetyl.
David Stults claimed that he ate microwave popcorn daily for years, but wasn’t warned that it contained a hazardous chemical.
Bennett says the defendants, Bush Boake Allen, Inc. and International Flavors & Fragrances, stopped selling flavorings with diacetyl in 2005. The lawsuit was filed in 2011 and brought in Iowa because some of the popcorn was produced there.
Court: Defendant’s rights were not violated
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that criminal defendants aren’t entitled to question in court every person who handled evidence used against them.
Scott Speers, 36, was convicted of burglary and sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing guns from a Martinsville gun shop. He argued on appeal that his right of confrontation was violated because the state failed to present for cross-examination a lab technician who transferred blood evidence from broken glass onto a swab for DNA testing.
But the state Supreme Court unanimously rejected that claim. Justice Robert Rucker wrote that it’s up to prosecutors to decide which steps in the evidence chain require testimony.
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