Court Digest

North Dakota
Family of man who died after arrest settles suit against city
VALLEY CITY, N.D. (AP) — The family of a man who died after being arrested by Valley City police in 2018 has reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit against the city, Barnes County and two police officers.

The family of 72-year-old Warren Lindvold has settled the lawsuit for $325,000, KQDJ reported. The defendants did not admit to any liability in the case.

Lindvold died in a Fargo hospital several days after his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving. His family’s federal lawsuit says he died of a broken neck after being arrested.

The lawsuit says the officers were aware Lindvold had a type of arthritis that limited his mobility and which may have made him appear intoxicated. The suit also claimed the officers used excessive force during the arrest.

The North Dakota Insurance Reserve will pay the settlement on behalf of the defendants.

City Attorney Carl Martineck says one of the arresting officers, Sgt. Wade Hannig, remains with the department. Martineck says the other officer, Christopher Olson, is now with the North Dakota Highway Patrol.

Washington
Suit: Cop delivered teen into prostitution
SEATTLE (AP) — A woman is suing King County, saying nearly three decades ago an undercover sheriff’s detective drove her to a massage parlor knowing she was 17 and walking into an abusive situation.

The now 44-year-old woman, who asked to be identified by her initials, M.T., filed a claim last year against King County seeking up to $20 million in damages, The Seattle Times reported.

“He drove me to the front door with the traffickers on the other side, waiting for me,” the woman told the newspaper.

The woman’s lawsuit raises troubling questions about when ethical boundaries are crossed between undercover police work and an officer’s sworn duty to protect the vulnerable.

M.T.’s suit contends the detective, as well as deputies who checked her identification at the business later the same night, all knew she was a minor. Nonetheless, they ignored mandatory reporting laws and “failed to exercise even the slightest care … to prevent the life-altering sexual and physical abuse that M.T. subsequently endured,” according to the lawsuit.

A lawyer defending King County declined an interview request, and King County Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht’s office did not respond to questions about current protocols for deputies facing similar situations.

The county tried to get the case thrown out of court, arguing the statute of limitations had expired. In May, a judge denied that argument. The case is set for trial in March.

In 1994, prosecutors used evidence compiled by undercover detective Jon Holland and other deputies to convict the massage parlor’s operators, Michael Larry Landry, and Rochelle C. King. Landry served more than two years in prison, while King got a year of community supervision.

When Landry pleaded guilty to six felony counts of promoting prostitution, he admitted he “knowingly advanced the prostitution of (M.T.),” as well as two other girls and three women, court records show.

Prosecutors initially sought to postpone turning over detectives’ notes and other records to M.T.’s lawyers. After the May ruling, the county turned over the documents, including reports showing the man who drove M.T. to the massage parlor was Holland.

Holland, 56, who is retired, did not respond to requests for comment.

For years, M.T. said she struggled with low self-esteem, post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts.

Two years ago, after seeking trauma therapy from the King County Sexual Abuse Resource Center, M.T. said she started attending support group meetings for sex trade survivors, “and from there, my whole life changed.”

Alaska
Pandemic delays sentencing for man in killing
PALMER, Alaska (AP) — A hearing for the first of four people set to be sentenced for the killing of an Alaska teenager has been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dominic Johnson was scheduled to be sentenced during the hearing beginning Oct. 28, KTUU-TV reported  Monday.

Judge Gregory Heath cited ongoing issues caused by the pandemic when he rescheduled the hearing to start Dec. 30.

Johnson was one of three men convicted of first-degree murder for killing 16-year-old David Grunwald of Palmer in November 2016.

A jury found Johnson guilty of nine charges in December 2018. He was the second member of the group to go on trial.

Erick Almandinger was the first to be tried and was convicted in May 2018.

Bradley Renfro was tried in Fairbanks because of the attention surrounding the first two trials. A jury convicted him in October 2019.

A fourth man, Austin Barrett, entered an agreement with state prosecutors in February and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Grunwald was hit with a pistol outside Almandinger’s home in Palmer and then shot in the head in a remote area near the Knik River, authorities said.

The teen was reported missing Nov. 13, 2016, and his Ford Bronco was found burned the next day. Johnson led authorities to the body a few weeks later.

Grunwald’s mother, Edie Grunwald, said family members purchased tickets to travel to Johnson’s October sentencing. She said it has been difficult to have justice delayed.

“Everybody was real hopeful to get all of this done this year because people really want to get on with their lives,” Grunwald said.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.

Nevada
State pays $2.85M to woman wrongly imprisoned for decades
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada is paying another $2.85 million to a woman who spent almost 34 years in prison for a murder she didn’t commit before she was exonerated by DNA evidence, the state attorney general announced Monday.

Cathy Woods, now 70, also received a Certificate of Innocence in the 1976 murder of a University of Nevada, Reno student, Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a statement. He said the settlement was approved Friday by a state court judge in Reno.

“Ms. Woods has been declared an innocent woman and will receive compensation for the years of freedom she lost,” Ford said.

Woods was the longest-ever wrongfully incarcerated woman in U.S. history, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. She now lives near Anacortes, Washington.

She received a separate $3 million settlement from Washoe County in 2019 and $3 million in August from the cities of Reno and Shreveport, Louisiana.

She is the second former Nevada inmate compensated under a law passed by state lawmakers in 2019 allowing for payment to people wrongfully convicted of a crime.

DeMarlo Berry, 45, received $2.25 million and an innocence certificate in August after serving more than 22 years in prison in the 1994 killing of a fast-food restaurant manager in Las Vegas. Another inmate already serving a life sentence for a separate murder confessed to the killing, and a former jailhouse informant recanted testimony that Berry told him he was guilty.

Woods also used the name Anita Carter. She was 26 and worked as a bartender when Michelle Mitchell, 19, was found in a garage near the UNR campus with her throat slashed and her hands tied, according to  the exonerations registry.

Woods moved about a year later to Louisiana, where in 1979 she told a counselor at a psychiatric hospital about the slaying of a girl named Michelle in Reno. Woods was tried in Nevada and convicted of murder in 1980. The state Supreme Court overturned that case but Woods was convicted again in 1985.

She was released from prison in 2014 after DNA from a cigarette found near the murder scene linked Oregon inmate Rodney Halbower to Mitchell’s death. Halbower is serving life in prison for two other murders in the San Francisco Bay Area the same year Mitchell was killed.

Woods sued for damages from the state, county, cities and former detectives she accused of coercing a fabricated confession while she was a psychiatric patient in Louisiana.

Hawaii
Ex-officer accused of seeking sex to sabotage DUI case
HONOLULU (AP) — A former Maui police officer is accused of using his position to solicit sex in exchange for sabotaging a case alleging his target drove under the influence of an intoxicant.

A court document filed last week charges Brandon Saffeels with honest services wire fraud.

As a Maui officer, Saffeels had access to people’s phone numbers, addresses and criminal histories. Last year, he allegedly used that information to obtain an individual’s cell phone number and solicit sex in exchange for promising to provide false testimony in that person’s driving under the influence of an intoxicant case, U.S. prosecutors said.

He later tried to cover up what he did by lying to federal law enforcement officers about it, prosecutors said.

His defense attorney, Victor Bakke, declined to comment Monday.

A Maui police spokeswoman said Saffeels was terminated last year.

Oregon
Arson suspect faces new charges over dead animals
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A man accused of intentionally setting a fire in Phoenix that contributed to the Almeda fire now faces added criminal charges surrounding the deaths of eight animals.

Michael Jarrod Bakkela, 41, made his first court appearance Friday on eight new misdemeanor counts of animal abuse surrounding animals that allegedly perished in the portion of the fire he allegedly set, according to a filing from the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office in Jackson County Circuit Court.

The charges accuse Bakkela of causing the death of animals including a sheep, a canary, a lamb, chickens, a raccoon and the goldfish, The Mail Tribune reported.

The court document identifies four owners of the pets and livestock.

Last month, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals argued in a letter that “cruelty to animals charges must not be lost in this fire.”

Markiewicz is separately prosecuting Bakkela on arson, criminal mischief and reckless endangering charges accusing him of starting the fire in Phoenix, according to court documents. Bakkela pleaded not guilty to those charges in September, KDRV-TV reported. It wasn’t immediately known if he has had a lawyer appointed to his case.

On Oct. 1, Markiewicz filed notice in the case that prosecutors will seek steeper penalties for reasons including “harm greater than typical,” that the crimes “were committed during an ongoing fire or catastrophe,” claims that Bakkela is a “repeat property offender” and because the crime occurred while he was on probation.

He is being held in the Jackson County Jail on over $5 million bail.

Oklahoma
Oklahoma County prosecutor reduces charges in protest case
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater agreed Monday to reduce criminal charges against five young people accused of inciting a riot following a confrontation with police in June.

Court records show five defendants initially charged with felony inciting a riot each received a deferred sentence after pleading guilty Monday to a misdemeanor count of obstructing an officer.

“I believe that the guilty pleas today acknowledge the conduct that led to charges being filed while offering the individual an opportunity to dispose of their criminal cases without ruining the remainder of their young lives,” Prater said in a statement.

Those who entered guilty pleas on Monday were Trevor Webb, 26; Tyreke Baker, 20; Mia Hogsett, 32; Sincere Terry, 19; and Preston Nabors, 23.

The five were arrested after a confrontation with a police officer while they were painting a street mural outside the Oklahoma City Police Department. The incident followed two days of street protests in Oklahoma City over racial injustice and police brutality.

Prater has faced some criticism for charging several people involved in those protests with felony terrorism charges amid allegations they broke windows of downtown businesses and set fire to a sheriff’s department van.