Alaska
Judge: State didn't violate suspect's right to speedy trial
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - The right of a Fairbanks murder case suspect to a speedy trial was not violated by delays in transporting him from Maine to Alaska, a judge ruled Tuesday.
An attorney for Steven Downs, 45, said it took 82 days to transport him to Alaska, making it impossible for Downs to be tried within 120 days, Fairbanks television station KTVF reported.
Downs is charged with first-degree murder and sexual assault in the 1993 death of Sophie Sergie, 20. She was found dead in a bathtub of a University of Alaska Fairbanks dorm bathroom. She had been shot and stabbed.
Downs was arrested in Maine in February.
Defense attorney James Howaniec at a hearing said Downs' right to a speedy trial had been violated.
Superior Court Judge Thomas Temple on Tuesday heard testimony regarding the delay and agreed with state prosecutors that the rule was not violated because of extenuating circumstances.
U.S. Marshal John Lajeunesse testified that there were at least two mechanical issues with the aircraft used to transport Downs to Alaska that caused a delay. Also, Lajeunesse said, a building where Downs was housed was under a medical quarantine on the day that Downs was supposed to be transported.
Howaniec in a statement said he was not troubled by the judge's decision.
Downs was a university student at the time of the killing and lived at the dorm where Sergie's body was found, according to Alaska State Troopers.
DNA genetic genealogy testing led to Downs, Alaska State Troopers said last year after his arrest in Auburn, Maine.
Missouri
Report: Staff believed inmate who died had headache or virus
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) - An internal investigation found that jailers and nurses at the St. Louis County Justice Center believed that a man suspected of shooting and wounding an officer had a bad headache or a virus before he became the fifth inmate at the lockup to die in custody last year.
Thirty-one-year-old Jo'von Mitchell had worked for hours on Dec. 23, pushing food carts and showed "no signs of distress" in surveillance video, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The report suggests the first sign of illness was when he could not get off the floor of his cell to visit a family member at about 1 p.m. on Dec. 24, and that he did not ask to be taken to a hospital until early the next morning.
Even though the jail staffers seemed to understand by 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 25 that Mitchell was very sick, it took more than eight hours to transport him to the infirmary. It's not clear what medical attention he received in the infirmary before a nurse found him unresponsive in a cell in the infirmary at 5 p.m. on Dec. 25. He died on Dec. 27. The medical examiner has not ruled on his cause of death.
Mitchell's brother said Tuesday in an interview that jailers should have rushed his brother to the hospital when he was unable to get to his feet, suggesting they did not care about his health because he is facing charges that he shot a county police officer in the arm while trying to evade arrest. Mitchell had been in custody since October 2016 on charges that included assault on a law enforcement officer.
The brother and the Post-Dispatch both received written statements from several inmates on Mitchell's floor who said that corrections officers could be heard saying Mitchell was faking his symptoms. The county's internal report does not address any of those allegations.
In an interview last week, Mitchell's cellmate, Ricardo Cueto, insisted the jail staff failed to act with urgency to treat an obviously very sick person, disputing statements shared by County Executive Sam Page's office that Mitchell had received immediate medical attention. Page's spokesman in a text last week said Mitchell had received treatment "within two minutes of reporting his symptoms to jail staff."
Florida
Man settles legal battle with city for $875,000
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Having twice failed to get its way at the U.S. Supreme Court, the city of Riviera Beach has agreed to pay $875,000 to settle a decade-long legal battle that began over a floating home.
The settlement was reached Monday and will be presented to the City Council for approval next month, the Palm Beach Post reported.
The city of Riviera Beach has already spent more than $1 million in attorneys' fees since 2006, when its fight began with Fane Lozman, a retired U.S. Marine who became a millionaire after inventing software used to track stock trades.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the city had no right to seize and destroy Lozman's 60-foot floating home by invoking centuries-old maritime laws.
Lozman had docked the home in the city marina and began protesting a now-abandoned multibillion-dollar redevelopment plan. The Supreme Court left it up to a district judge to determine how much the home was worth, and Lozman received nothing.
After both sides returned to the Supreme Court, the justices said in 2018 that they were deeply disturbed that Riviera Beach council members silenced Lozman by having him arrested while he was speaking to them during a 2006 meeting, and sent the case back to lower courts.
U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks took over the case in December and told both sides to resolve their differences. The proposed settlement would cover legal fees; the city also agreed to pay Lozman a single dollar.
In the floating home case, which Chief Justice John Roberts called his favorite of the term, the court cleared up a murky area of law, ruling that just because something floats, doesn't make it a boat.
In the First Amendment case, Lozman said the high court put government agencies on notice that they can't silence critics.
"You can fight city hall, but you better be able to give up half of your adult life to do it," Lozman said.
Connecticut
Single bullet lands man in prison for nearly 4 years
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut man with prior criminal convictions was sent to prison for nearly four years Wednesday for being in possession of a single bullet, federal prosecutors said.
In addition to the prison term, Tyshawn Coleman, 30, of Hartford, was sentenced to three years of probation. He pleaded guilty in October to possession of ammunition by a convicted felon.
Coleman was a passenger in a car pulled over in the early morning hours of August 5, 2017 after a witness had reported that the car was involved in a fatal shooting, authorities said.
An officer conducted a pat-down of Coleman and retrieved two clear zip-lock bags from his pocket, one containing marijuana, and the other containing a .45 caliber bullet, prosecutors said.
Coleman has previously been convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to first-degree assault, first-degree assault, and drug charges.
Published: Fri, Jan 17, 2020
