National Roundup

Wisconsin
New trial on tap for man convicted of killing wife
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin appellate court has ordered a new trial for a man convicted in the 1998 poisoning death of his wife.

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a lower court judge erred in 2017 when he reinstated Mark Jensen’s conviction in the death of his wife, Julie, the Kenosha News reported. It was a case that depended heavily on a letter and voicemail messages Julie Jensen left before her death.

The long-running case began when Julie Jensen’s body was found in the Pleasant Prairie home she shared with her husband and their two sons. Her death was initially ruled a suicide and it took more than nine years for the case to go to trial.

Mark Jensen, now 60, has maintained his innocence. His attorneys argued Julie Jensen was depressed and killed herself after framing her husband. Prosecutors said Jensen killed his wife with antifreeze in order to be with his mistress and that he searched the internet for ways to make her death look like a suicide.

Jensen was eventually convicted in 2008, on evidence that included a letter Julie Jensen wrote before her death and gave to a neighbor. In it, she wrote that “if anything happens to me” that her husband “would be my first suspect.”

The case has bounced between the Wisconsin Supreme Court and several federal courts. In 2017, Kenosha County Circuit Judge Chad Kerkman reinstated Jensen’s conviction despite earlier decisions by the state Supreme Court and federal courts to disallow Julie Jensen’s letter.

“That the jury improperly heard Julie’s voice from the grave in the way it did means there is no doubt that Jensen’s rights under the federal Confrontation Clause were violated,” the state Supreme Court said in ordering a new trial.

South Carolina
State sued over its ban on LGBTQ sex education
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — It is against state law in South Carolina for public school sex education classes to mention anything other than heterosexual relationships, unless the talk involves sexually transmitted diseases. A federal lawsuit now aims to change that.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights and Lambda Legal said their lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks to overturn the Comprehensive Health Education Act of 1988 as an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

“The law singles out LGBTQ students for negative treatment,” a news release introducing the lawsuit said. “It prevents LGBTQ students from receiving any health education about their relationships except in the context of sexually transmitted diseases, without imposing any comparable restriction on health education about heterosexual people.”

The law also says that any teacher who allows “a discussion of alternate sexual lifestyles” including “homosexual relationships except in the context of instruction concerning sexually transmitted diseases” can be fired.

State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman, named as a defendant in the lawsuit, agrees that the law is on shaky ground.

She requested an opinion on its constitutionality from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. That opinion says “a court would likely conclude” that the law violates the equal protection clause requiring that people in similar circumstances be treated the same under the law.

“I agree with the arguments and evidence presented in the opinion,” Spearman said in a statement cited by news outlets. “I also believe that parents should continue to have the final say in whether or not their child participates in health education curriculum.”

Hawaii
Mom of missing kids waives extradition; bail stays at $5M
HONOLULU (AP) — Bail will remain at $5 million for a mother arrested in Hawaii over the disappearance of her two Idaho children, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Lori Vallow wore an orange jumpsuit in court on the Hawaiian island of Kauai for a hearing on her request to reduce bail. After the judge denied the request, her defense attorney, Craig De Costa, said she is waiving an extradition hearing, which had been scheduled for March 2.

She wants to expedite her return to Idaho, De Costa said. Kauai Prosecutor Justin Kollar said he will work with Idaho authorities on logistics for her departure. The judge set a March 4 status hearing to make sure she has been picked up.

Kauai police arrested Vallow last week on an Idaho warrant. She has been charged with two felony counts of child abandonment.

Seven-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan have not been seen since September. Their disappearance captured worldwide attention after authorities pleaded for help in finding them.
Police in the city of Rexburg, Idaho, have said they “strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee’s lives are in danger.”

Earlier this week, her Kauai defense attorneys filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider Vallow’s $5 million bail. On Wednesday, De Costa urged Judge Kathleen Watanabe to “ignore the publicity, ignore the hype” and set reasonable bail.

Vallow, 46, is a flight risk, prosecutors said. “Given the extensive media attention, she is clearly aware that the authorities have prioritized her case,” prosecutors said. “She also has the means to move across an ocean.”

Prosecutors noted that Vallow’s husband, Chad Daybell, had $152,000 in a First Hawaiian Bank account.

Police also have said Vallow and Daybell have lied about the children’s whereabouts.

Vallow, also known as Lori Daybell, is also accused of disobeying a court order that required her to bring her children to Idaho authorities last month. De Costa said she is fighting the order because it would allow authorities to take her children into foster care.

The tangled case includes investigations into three deaths. Vallow’s estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix last July by her brother, Alex Cox. Then Cox, who claimed the shooting was in self-defense, died of unknown causes in December.

Vallow moved her family to Idaho in late August. In October, Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy Daybell, died of what her obituary said was natural causes. When Daybell married Vallow roughly two weeks after Tammy’s death, law enforcement became suspicious and had her remains exhumed.

Test results on Daybell’s remains and toxicology results for Cox have not yet been released.

Rexburg police questioned Daybell and Vallow about the missing children in late November, and when detectives returned the next day for a follow-up interview the couple had left town.

In December, Idaho authorities asked police on Kauai for help finding the couple. On Jan. 26, Kauai police served a search warrant on a vehicle and condo the couple were renting in the resort town of Princeville.

The couple’s move to Kauai was “pre-planned,” De Costa said. Kollar said it’s concerning that it seemed to have been planned before Vallow’s husband died.

Kauai police did not arrest Daybell and he doesn’t face any charges.