Missouri
Shooter at Jewish centers appeals death sentence
LIBERTY, Mo. (AP) — An avowed anti-Semite who shot three people to death at two suburban Kansas City Jewish sites in 2014 is asking the Kansas Supreme Court to overturn his death sentence, saying he should not have been allowed him to represent himself at trial.
The appeal from Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. is scheduled to go before the state Supreme Court on Monday. He was convicted of one count of capital murder, three counts of attempted murder, and assault and weapons charges in August 2015.
Miller’s attorneys argue that the Johnson County Court judge who oversaw his trial should not have allowed him to represent himself. They say the judge did not consider whether Miller had mental health issues that would make him incompetent to represent himself in a complex capital case.
Miller, from Aurora, Missouri, also argues that the judge should have allowed him to present mitigating evidence during the penalty phase, and that the death penalty itself is unconstitutional.
Miller, who is also known as Frazier Glenn Close, testified during trial that he drove to the Kansas City area in April 2014 to kill Jews before he died. He said at the time that he didn’t expect to live long because he had chronic emphysema.
He ambushed and killed William Corporon, 69, and Corporon’s 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas. He then shot 53-year-old Terri LaManno at the nearby Village Shalom retirement center.
All of his victims were Christians.
During the trial, Miller frequently interrupted proceedings with outbursts aimed at the judge, jury and prosecutor. After he was convicted, he said he didn’t care if he was sentenced to death.
In his closing arguments during the penalty phase, Miller spent nearly an hour complaining that Jewish people were running the government, media and Federal Reserve. He yelled “Heil Hitler” when he was sentenced to death.
Miller is a Vietnam War veteran who founded the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in his native North Carolina and later the White Patriot Party. He also ran on a white-power platform during campaigns for the U.S. House in 2006 and the U.S. Senate in 2010 in Missouri.
New York
Plaintiff loses after lawyer refuses to wear mask in court
NEW YORK (AP) — A woman lost her personal injury lawsuit after her lawyer refused to wear a mask in court and the judge threw out her case, which had been set for trial.
The New York Daily News reported Friday that Brooklyn Judge Lawrence Knipel tossed the case after attorney Howard Greenwald said he could not breathe wearing the mask in the newly reopened court.
“I want the record to reflect that I am speaking with great difficulty,” Greenwald, 68, told the judge. “I want to the record to reflect that I am sweating profusely from the effort.”
He said, “I just can’t do this,” according to the transcript.
“I don’t contest the rule,” he said. “I just am not physically able to comply with the rule to do my job as a lawyer.”
Knipel, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 last spring, insisted the lawyer comply with rules requiring masks in all state court buildings.
“Forget about my personal experience with COVID,” the judge told the newspaper. “We have over half a million dead in this country. We have protocols. The most important protocol is wearing a mask.”
The lawsuit focused on a 2017 car crash that fractured the woman’s leg.
Knipel told the newspaper the woman would have legal recourse to continue her litigation even though he dismissed the case.
South Carolina
Attorney charged in lewd act case has license suspended
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Supreme Court suspended the law license of an attorney charged earlier this month with a lewd act on a child that happened more than 15 years ago.
Harry Gregory Jr., 61, was arrested March 18 in a raid involving more than a dozen officers who also searched his Columbia home.
Police have released few details about the crime Gregory is charged with committing other than it happened between 2002 and 2004.
Gregory’s lawyer said he has no criminal record and emphasized the allegations are more than 15 years old.
The state Supreme Court suspended Gregory’s law license Thursday, a common practice when an attorney is charged with a felony. The suspension can be lifted if he is found not guilty or the charge is dismissed.
Gregory was appointed director of the State Accident Fund in 2003 and ran the agency for more than a decade. The office provides workers’ compensation insurance for government agencies.
Kentucky
Lawyer charged with stealing from victim’s children
PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal grand jury this week charged an Eastern Kentucky attorney with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars that was meant for the children of a man killed in a car wreck, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Timothy Belcher, of Elkhorn City, was indicted on Thursday on seven charges of fraud and three charges of filing false tax returns.
In 2001, Belcher represented the the widow of a man killed in a car wreck in Pike County in a wrongful-death lawsuit. He won a settlement in 2004, with half the money going to the widow and half to an escrow account for the man’s children.
Belcher controlled the account and was supposed to distribute the money to the children later. Instead, he used it for business and personal expenses, including mortgages, food, insurance and cell phones, the indictment said.
In 2007, there was $817,155 in the account, but by 2018, there was just $389 left, the indictment said.
When confronted in 2019 by another attorney acting on behalf of the family, Belcher admitted he had spent the money and was “sick and broke,” according to a Supreme Court order.
A grand jury in Pike County indicted Belcher in July 2019, and the state Supreme Court suspended his license two months later.
Belcher filed tax returns for 2013, 2014 and 2016 that didn’t include the money he had taken, the indictment said.
The bank fraud charges against Belcher are punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
California
San Diego County pays $4M in misconduct suits against deputy
SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego County has so far spent more than $4 million to settle a dozen lawsuits brought after a sheriff’s deputy admitted to on-duty misconduct with 16 women, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The Union-Tribune cited documents that show lawyers for the county continue to litigate eight other lawsuits connected to former Deputy Richard Fischer.
In addition to the millions of dollars San Diego County is paying to close out civil cases, the county is paying for Fischer’s legal defense.
Private attorney Joseph Kutyla has been paid more than $570,000 over the last three years to defend Fischer and the Sheriff’s Department that employed him.
Fischer pleaded guilty in 2019 to assault and battery by an officer and false imprisonment. He was released from jail after serving about five months of a 44-month sentence.
Before striking a plea deal, Fischer had faced 20 charges, including an allegation that he forced one woman to perform a sex act. As part of the deal, prosecutors dismissed that criminal complaint — including the alleged sexual assault — and filed a new one that had seven charges, but named all 16 women as victims.
The women said Fischer groped, hugged or tried to kiss them after they encountered him on the job.
County officials said they had no choice but to outsource the legal work.
“Because conflict of interest rules prevent County Counsel from representing both the county and Deputy Fischer, the county has retained independent counsel to advise and defend Deputy Fischer,” spokesman Michael Workman said in an email to the newspaper.
Mississippi
Inmates sue over jail lights that won’t shut off
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) — Inmates in a south Mississippi jail say they are sleep-deprived because the lights in their cells have remained on constantly for the past four months.
The Sun Herald reported that the problem started in late November in the Jackson County Jail.
“It’s the lights in the cells. They are all run by a computer board, and we can’t turn them off,” Capt. Tyrone Nelson said. “It’s not as simple as an on-off switch. A control board that controls all the lights burned out. It’s like the brain of a car — if that goes out, nothing works.”
Four inmates have filed federal lawsuits saying their civil rights are being violated because they are being subjected to substandard conditions leading to sleep deprivation.
They are seeking unspecified monetary damages in the suits against Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell, Lt. Mitchell McMillian, Nelson and Jackson County.
Each inmate filed a grievance at the jail kiosk, but McMillian told them that the jail staff was waiting on parts to fix the problem.
Nelson said when the control board malfunctions, the system is set up for the lights to automatically shift on as a safety measure.
“The lights in the cells are on, but it’s not that bright,” Nelson said. “It’s not to the point like its a bright flashing light that’s keeping them up and causing discomfort. But we’ve done our part and we are just waiting on this company to fix the problem. We are really at their mercy.”
Nelson didn’t know the full name of the company, but said the staff calls it Douglas. Ezell said there is nothing his staff can do besides wait on the company to rectify the problem.
Pennsylvania
2 of 3 sex assault cases against former police inspector dropped
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Charges have been dropped in two of three sexual assault cases against a former Philadelphia police inspector.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Philadelphia district attorney’s office on Friday withdrew the second case against former inspector Carl Holmes Jr. in a week, leaving only one case against him.
Holmes, 55, was charged in 2019 with sexual assault of three female officers after a grand jury probe concluded that he abused his power after mentoring female officers at the police academy and in other roles. The charges came two years after the city settled a female detective’s sexual harassment lawsuit involving him for $1.25 million.
The woman whose case was withdrawn Friday read a statement during the online court hearing saying she doesn’t agree with the decision but took part in the process even though it has been “retraumatizing.”
Prosecutors earlier withdrew another case after the former officer involved failed to appear during a preliminary hearing. Those charges had previously been dismissed by a judge for lack of prosecution but were refiled by the district attorney’s office.
Defense attorney Gregory Pagano has argued that Holmes is innocent and has been the victim of what he likens to a “witch hunt.” In a motion to dismiss the case last fall, he said the allegations had received wide press coverage and the complainants “have exhaustively litigated civil claims” against the department for about a decade.
Pagano also filed a motion Friday to disqualify the prosecutor’s office from the case, saying the district attorney failed to disclose that while a defense attorney, he represented a man who was shot seven times by Holmes during a 1994 robbery of a west Philadelphia convenience store.
The district attorney’s office declined comment on both of Friday’s developments, the newspaper reported.
New Hampshire
Trial for driver in motorcyclist deaths likely to be delayed
LANCASTER, N.H. (AP) — A trial tentatively scheduled for June for a pickup truck driver charged with causing the deaths of seven motorcyclists in 2019 may be delayed, with both sides still gathering information on the case.
Volodymyr Zhukovskyy face multiple counts of negligent homicide, manslaughter and driving under the influence in the June 21, 2019, crash in Randolph.
He’s been jailed since the crash and has pleaded not guilty. The victims, members of the Jarheads Motorcycle Club, were from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
During a status call with a judge on Monday, prosecutors talked about deadlines from earlier this year that haven’t been met and about an assistant attorney general who started with the case, but is leaving in three weeks. A defense lawyer said he hasn’t had the chance to conduct any depositions yet because of delays in getting information from the state.
Prosecutors said a trial could be delayed until 2022, but defense attorneys argued for it to take place later this year.
The judge took the matter under advisement.
