Man sues Hertz over receipt that cleared him of murder
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan man who spent nearly five years in custody is suing a car rental company for failing to produce in a timely manner a receipt that would have proved his innocence long before he was convicted of a 2011 murder.
The evidence from Hertz was finally obtained in 2018, leading to Herbert Alford’s exoneration in Ingham County last year.
Alford filed a lawsuit against Hertz on Tuesday, although the case will be slowed by the company’s bankruptcy reorganization. He is seeking financial compensation.
“There is no question that (Alford) would have avoided going to prison had they produced this documentation,” attorney Jamie White told WLNS-TV.
Hertz had no immediate comment Wednesday.
Alford was convicted of second-degree murder in 2016 in the shooting death of Michael Adams after Hertz failed to respond to requests for records, White said.
In 2018, Hertz finally produced a receipt that showed Alford was renting a car at a Lansing-area airport at the time that Adams was shot, White said. He was killed in a Lansing neighborhood 20 minutes away from the airport.
The conviction was thrown out and charges were finally dropped in 2020, after Alford had served nearly five years in prison and jail.
Michigan department sued over refusal to share virus records
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan health department is being sued over its refusal to release more information about COVID-19 deaths tied to nursing homes.
The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, which often takes aggressive action to get public records, filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Detroit journalist Charlie LeDuff, who is seeking ages, dates of death and whether the person became ill at a long-term care facility.
The health department told LeDuff that the information is exempt under the state’s public records law.
“Not only does the public have the right to know this information, we have the need to know. ... If we’re going to fix end-of-life care moving forward, it’s going to require a hard look at how the state’s policies treated our most vulnerable population,” said LeDuff, who was on a 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting team at The New York Times.
LeDuff said he is not seeking the names of the deceased so privacy concerns shouldn’t be raised as a defense by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration.
The health department generally doesn’t comment on lawsuits, spokesman Bob Wheaton said Wednesday.
The legal group noted that the state sells death certificates that contain more information than is being requested by LeDuff.
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://legalnews.com/subscriptions
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
http://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
