Kansas
Analysis: Some rape cases tough to prosecute
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Blurred memories make alcohol-fueled acquaintance rapes a challenge to prosecute, according to a newspaper analysis of court records in the county where the University of Kansas is located.
In the past 10 years, Douglas County juries convicted three rapists, the Lawrence Journal-World reports. In the cases, the rapists overpowered their victims, threatened them with weapons or broke into their homes.
But in the few rape trials involving a drunken victim who had been socializing with her alleged attacker, juries acquitted the accused rapist each time. More cases of this sort never went to trial, and defendants either pleaded to lesser crimes or saw their charges dismissed altogether.
Low conviction rates and a high percentage of plea bargains in rape cases aren’t unique to Douglas County, experts say.
Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said many times prosecutors believe an illegal act occurred but that the circumstances would be so difficult to prove it was rape instead of drunken sex that it’s not prudent to bring charges or put a victim through the process of a criminal case. And for cases that have made it to trial, he said, “Typically what the juries will tell us when they get done with these cases is, ‘We think something wrong happened; we just don’t think it was rape.’”
Lawrence defense attorney Kevin Babbit said most people’s “gut reaction” is to assume an alleged victim wouldn’t make such a claim if it weren’t true. But Babbit, who defended two men acquitted of acquaintance rape in Douglas County in the past 10 years, plus several sexual assault defendants who accepted plea deals, said the justice system depends on the ability to test the statements people make.
Since 2005, the year Branson became district attorney, 48 people — all men — have been charged with rape in adult-on-adult cases in Douglas County, according to court data.
Seven defendants stood trial, and juries found three guilty and four not guilty, the Journal-World’s analysis found. All four of the acquitted men were accused of raping acquaintances — including one live-in girlfriend — and at least two of those cases involved heavily intoxicated victims.
Twenty-six of the defendants pleaded guilty (all but one to lesser crimes), 10 had their charges dismissed, and five cases are pending.
Branson estimated his office files charges in about 30 percent of the sexual assault investigations it gets from law enforcement, compared with roughly 40 percent for other crimes.
University of Kansas law professor Corey Rayburn Yung said the numbers are “disheartening.” Yung said rape is widely underreported and that low conviction rates can further deter victims from pursuing prosecution.
“That creates a cycle that leaves more rapists out in the street to find more victims,” Yung said, “and they’re not deterred.”
Texas
Killer’s wife pleads guilty in DA murder case
KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) — A North Texas woman has pleaded guilty to murder and been sentenced to 40 years in prison after she testified that she helped her husband gun down a district attorney, his wife and a top assistant in a revenge plot.
Kim Williams appeared in court Tuesday, two weeks after her husband, Eric Williams, was sentenced to death for one of the three killings.
She testified during Eric Williams’ sentencing hearing that she was a “willing participant,” driving the getaway car after the January 2013 shooting of prosecutor Mark Hasse and helping hide weapons after the March 2013 shootings of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia.
Eric Williams was prosecuted in 2012 for stealing county-owned equipment. He lost his job and law license as a result.
New York
Reputed mobster gets $300,000 for conviction
NEW YORK (AP) — A reputed New York mobster has won a $300,000 settlement after his conviction for a 1994 murder was overturned.
The Daily News reports that Mario Fortunato’s lawsuit was settled in the New York state Court of Claims on Dec. 19.
Fortunato’s lawyer, Irving Cohen, declined to comment Tuesday.
Fortunato was convicted in federal court and later in state court in the 1994 murder of Tino Lombardi. Both verdicts were overturned by appeals courts.
A spokeswoman for Attorney General Eric Schneiderman confirmed the settlement for the 22 months that Fortunato spent in state prison.
Fortunato was charged with luring Lombardi to a Mafia social club in Brooklyn where he was shot by hit men.
Mobster-turned-informant Michael D’Urso was wounded in the shooting. He called the settlement “a complete disgrace.”
Mississippi
Texas law firm target of $7.9M lawsuit over spill
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — Two Texas attorneys have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by three Mississippi businessmen who argue they are owed $7.9 million for steering to the lawyers thousands of people seeking to resolve claims against BP from the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
Gulf Coast businessmen Scott Walker, Kirk Ladner and Steve Seymour filed the lawsuit in October in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Attorneys Michael Pohl and Jimmy Williamson, both of Houston, Texas, filed separate motions to dismiss on Dec. 22 in federal court. Final briefs in the lawsuit are scheduled to be filed on or before Jan. 20.
The lawsuit alleges Walker, Ladner and Seymour steered 9,486 clients to the lawyers. The lawsuit says the three got some money but are still owed $7.9 million.
In the motions to dismiss, Pohl and Williamson deny the allegations in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Pohl and Williamson formed a joint venture to represent clients injured by the BP oil catastrophe from spring through summer 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Walker and the others argue in their lawsuit that as a result of their efforts, “many seafood restaurants and seafood dealers and other oil spill claimants” signed contracts to be represented.
Under their contracts with Pohl and Williamson, Seymour, Walker, and Ladner were to be paid $1,500 an hour, the lawsuit said.
However, Pohl and Williamson argue they never agreed to such payments and such payments are not found anywhere in the parties’ written contracts.
“The essence of the plaintiffs’ claims appears to be that the plaintiffs agreed to accept or accepted money to improperly solicit BP clients for Pohl and Williamson,” the motions to dismiss say. “It is illegal for a non-lawyer to accept or agree to accept money to improperly solicit clients for a lawyer. Under both Texas and Mississippi Law, a claimant may not recover under any theory for illegal conduct.”
