National Roundup

Virginia
Ex-officer pleads guilty to helping inmate escape
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A former correctional officer has been sentenced to 20 days in jail after pleading guilty to helping an inmate escape after developing an inappropriate relationship.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports  that Destiny Harris, 23, pleaded guilty Monday to aiding in the escape of Rashad Williams, 18, from Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center last year. Williams and a second prisoner, 20-year-old Jabar Taylor, were the first inmates to break out of the center in 20 years.

On July 13, Williams and Taylor overpowered a security employee, took his keys, cut a hole in a fence and were driven away by a waiting car, according to evidence. They were captured 12 days later in Michigan.

Harris told Williams’ brother where to pick up Williams, Chesterfield Commonwealth’s Attorney Stacey Davenport said. But when Harris was questioned, she immediately cooperated.

The plea deal and punishment were based on Harris’ “extensive cooperation” and lack of a prior criminal record, Davenport said. Harris was taken into custody but was to be released later Monday for time served.

Williams, who authorities said was the escape’s mastermind, pleaded guilty to 10 felonies and is scheduled to be sentenced in November. Taylor pleaded guilty April 1 and was sentenced to 6½ years.

Colorado
Prosecutors say father killed son because of photographs
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado father killed his 13-year-old son in 2012 over photographs that triggered a fatal rage, prosecutors argued in court Monday.

Mark Redwine stands trial in the killing of his son Dylan, who disappeared in November 2012 in the Vallecito area near Durango during a court-ordered visit over Thanksgiving break. Redwine told investigators he left Dylan alone at home to run errands and returned to find him missing.

Fred Johnson, special deputy district attorney, suggested that on the night he was killed, Dylan may have mentioned or shown his father “compromising photographs” of Redwine dressed in women’s underwear and eating feces from a diaper, The Denver Post reported.

“A damaged relationship, exposed with compromising photographs, photographs in the hands of a 13-year-old who is disgusted by it, which triggered a violent rage in the defendant,” Johnson said.

Redwine, who has pleaded not guilty, was arrested after a grand jury indicted him in July 2017, accusing him of second-degree murder and child abuse resulting in death. He faces up to 48 years in prison if he’s found guilty of his son’s death.

Redwine’s public defender John Moran argued that text messages show Dylan had previously confronted his father about the photographs during a cross-country trip without suffering any harm.

Moran said the photographs “come from deep within Mark’s private life” and that the prosecution won’t be able to prove a connection between his son’s death and the photographs.

Dylan’s skull was found by hikers in 2015. Forensic anthropologists said the skull had injuries consistent with blunt force trauma at two locations, the indictment said.

Moran said during his opening statements that Dylan ran away from home and suggested he could have been attacked by a bear or a mountain lion — referencing the skull injury as a tooth mark on Dylan’s skull.

The case drew nation attention when Redwine and the boy’s mother, Elaine Hall, leveled accusations at each other during appearances on the syndicated “Dr. Phil” television show in 2013. TV host Nancy Grace also did a show Dylan’s disappearance.

Johnson said investigators found traces of Dylan’s blood in Redwine’s living room and a cadaver-sniffing dog alerted them to the smell of human remains in the back of Redwine’s truck and on his clothing.

Moran said the “infinitesimally small” amount of blood found in Redwine’s living room is likely to be found in anyone’s house, referring to the dog’s scent as “junk science.”

Prosecutors said that Dylan’s body was found without his wallet or his backpack, which Moran said does not point to a scenario in which the boy ran away.

The prosecution described the first night when rescue crews were deployed to search for Dylan, scouring the woods near Redwine’s home. At around 11 p.m., all the lights in Redwine’s house went out, Johnson said.

“At a time when most people would have been out in the woods with a flashlight, a time when most people would know to leave the light on in case a child was lost in the woods ... At 11 p.m., the defendant’s house went dark,” Johnson said. “Dylan was gone.”

Redwine’s day in court was postponed in 2020 and a judge granted several mistrials because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The trial is expected to continue through mid-to-late July. Testimony began Tuesday.

Georgia
Sons of Confederate Veterans sue to return monument
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — The Sons of Confederate Veterans group has sued to return a 30-foot-high (9-meter) obelisk to a site in front of a Georgia courthouse.

The monument was taken down and moved to storage last year after a judge in Decatur agreed with the city’s argument that it had become a threat to public safety during protests about racism and police brutality.

The suit was filed Wednesday, two days short of a year after the monument’s removal, news outlets reported.

The group suggests that city officials colluded to get around a state law protecting historic monuments, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

It contends that the monument was not found to be a public nuisance.

DeKalb County Judge Clarence Seeliger’s ruling last year said it had become “an increasingly frequent target of graffiti and vandalism, a figurative lightning rod for friction among citizens, and a potential catastrophe that could happen at any time if individuals attempt to forcibly remove or destroy it.”

His final order, in September, said the obelisk should never be returned to the square.

“The world is full of controversy. And if we were to say anything that causes controversy is a public nuisance, that’s an endless road to go down,” attorney Walker Chandler, who filed the lawsuit, told WXIA-TV.

In an email to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Decatur City Attorney Bryan Downs called the suit a “tardy, vexatious attack on properly entered rulings by a Georgia court of law.”

He said the group had more than three months to try to intervene before Seeliger’s final order but did nothing.

“The Petition they have now filed is factually incorrect, legally flawed, and procedurally deficient,” Downs wrote. “In short, it is a lost cause.”