Court Digest

Indiana
Attorneys: Dismissal exonerates mentally ill man in killing
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Attorneys for a mentally disabled Indiana man whose conviction in the 2002 slaying of a 94-year-old woman was overturned last year say a judge's recent dismissal of the case means he has been exonerated.

Andrew Royer was freed from prison in April 2020 following more than 15 years of incarceration after a special judge overturned his conviction in Helen Sailor's killing. The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling in April, finding that Royer, now 46, did not receive a fair trial.

On Wednesday, two days after a judge dismissed the case against Royer, his attorneys declared that his legal saga was finally over.

"Andy Royer stands before you an exonerated man. When the state dismissed our case, our prayers were collectively answered," his attorney, Elliot Slosar, said at a news conference in South Bend.

Royer, who attended Wednesday's news conference with his mother and stepfather, said he felt like a "whole different person" after so many years of incarceration.

Royer's attorney had filed an appeal in June 2018 seeking to overturn his conviction, arguing that his murder confession in Sailor's slaying was coerced. Sailor was found strangled in November 2002 in her apartment in the northern Indiana city of Elkhart.

A jury convicted Royer of murder in 2005 and he was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

In the April decision, a panel of judges on the state appeals court found that the Elkhart police detective who interrogated Royer disregarded his mental disability and fed him details of Sailor's murder.

That detective was removed from the Elkhart homicide unit prior to Royer's trial, and this information constituted newly discovered evidence, the court said.

Elkhart County Prosecutor Vicki Becker requested in June that the charges be dropped.

While the case was dismissed "without prejudice" — meaning Becker could re-file charges — she said Wednesday that "additional investigation would need to be done before I use the finite resources of the state to go forward" again with charges.
"Mr. Royer is innocent at this point, and there are no criminal charges pending against him," she told the South Bend Tribune.

According to the Notre Dame Law School Exoneration Justice Clinic, which assisted Royer's attorneys, police took advantage of his intellectual disability to coerce his false confession during a two-day interrogation. The clinic called his conviction a product of "gross police and prosecutorial misconduct."

Royer's co-defendant, Lana Canen, was also convicted in Sailor's killing. She was released in 2012 after a detective recanted his testimony that linked her to the case based on fingerprint evidence.

A witness who had implicated Canen and Royer in the slaying later recanted, saying that police pressured her to make a statement.

California
Court: Man convicted in 1983 killing should get new trial
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A man convicted three years ago in the 1983 murder of his former girlfriend in her San Francisco Bay Area home has been granted a new trial by a state appeals court because the defense lawyer never told the jury the name of another man whose DNA was found under the victim's fingernails.

Sherill Smothers was sentenced in 2018 to 25 years to life in prison for the fatal stabbing of Marsha Carter, 25, in December 1983 in the Richmond home where she lived with her four children. Her body was found in the trunk of a car in West Sacramento 10 days later. Smothers was charged after DNA testing found his blood in the victim's bathroom, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.

Investigators also traced DNA found under Carter's fingernails to a Wisconsin resident who had a criminal record and told investigators he had never been to California. He has not been charged with a crime related to the case.

At Smothers' trial, his lawyer told jurors that an unknown man's DNA had been found under the victim's fingernails but never mentioned the man by name. The lawyer explained later that he had no good-faith reason to place the man in California.

Shortly after the trial, defense investigators found evidence that the man had traveled to California in late 1983, looking for work. Superior Court Judge John Kennedy refused to overturn Smothers' conviction based on that evidence but was overruled Tuesday by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.

"How else would (the DNA sample) have gotten there in the absence of (the man) being in contact with Carter?" Rebecca Wiseman, a retired appellate justice assigned to the court for the case, said in a 3-0 ruling granting Smothers a new trial because of ineffective legal representation.

She said prosecutors had accused Smothers of trying to recruit a killer in the neighborhood, including a witness who testified against him. Smothers denied any involvement in the killing, and there was no evidence that he had any contact with the man, Wiseman said.

If Smothers' lawyer had identified the man to the jury, Wiseman said, it "would have exposed holes in the prosecution's conspiracy theory."

Gary Dubcoff, Smothers' appellate lawyer, had argued the murder charge should have been dismissed because of undue delay in bringing the case to trial. But the appeals court rejected that.

Wiseman said the DNA technology was not available until 2001, and the investigation did not begin until 2008 because of a backlog in the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, and Smothers was not identified as a suspect until 2015.

Smothers was paralyzed by an auto accident in the 1990s and is a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair.

"My hope is that there won't be another trial and that he can go home" after nearly three years in prison, Dubcoff told the newspaper Tuesday.

District Attorney Diana Becton's office declined to comment. Prosecutors could ask the state Supreme Court to review the ruling.


Massachusetts
Satanic Temple suit over Boston council prayer moves forward
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has allowed a  lawsuit  filed by the Satanic Temple against Boston to move forward.

U.S. District Court Judge Allison Burroughs rejected the city's bid to dismiss the Salem-based group's lawsuit challenging the Boston City Council's traditional opening prayer at its public meetings. The Boston Herald reports the Boston judge did, however, toss certain parts of the complaint.

The newspaper says Burroughs denied the Satanists' arguments that the prayer is discriminatory and a violation of the 14th Amendment but allowed its arguments that it violates the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause.

The Salem-based group, which has lodged freedom of religion challenges nationwide, argues the council's policy for its opening prayer is discriminatory and unconstitutional because it does not permit prayer from every religious organization that wishes to deliver one.

The city maintains the prayer isn't discriminatory. It says the council doesn't accept requests to deliver the prayer but instead allows each council member to invite a speaker of their choice a few times a year.

"It's clearly the definition of discriminatory when you allow functionaries of the state deciding what viewpoints are allowed in the public square," Lucien Greaves, the group's co-founder, told the Herald when it filed the suit in January.

New York
Mario Batali harassment probe settlement: $600K to accusers
NEW YORK (AP) — Celebrity chef Mario Batali, his business partner and their New York City restaurant company have agreed to pay $600,000 to resolve a four-year investigation by the state attorney general's office into allegations that Batali, restaurant managers and other workers sexually harassed employees.

The money will be split among at least 20 former employees of B&B Hospitality and their Manhattan restaurants Babbo, Lupa and the now-closed Del Posto, all of which Batali co-owned with Joseph Bastianich until March 2019, Attorney General Letitia James announced Friday.

The company must also revise employee training materials and submit reports to the attorney general's office for the next three years documenting harassment and discrimination training and policies.

Batali, whose high-flying career crumbled amid myriad sexual harassment and misconduct allegations, was accused in the New York investigation of pulling a waitress' hand toward his crotch as she served him and showing a waiter an unwelcome pornographic video.

Chefs and managers at the Batali-owned restaurants were accused of degrading women with misogynistic comments and showing favoritism to male employees.

In one instance, according to James' investigation, a restaurant manager told female servers to wear makeup and get breast implants. The manager also referred to female employees as "sensitive" and "little girl" in front of guests, the investigation found.

Juliana Imperati, a former line cook at Del Posto, said in a statement that the restaurants leadership made employees feel "as if it is a rite of passage to be harassed at work."

Messages seeking comment were left for lawyers for Batali and Bastianich. Both men's signatures appeared on the settlement agreement, dated Thursday.

In a statement, James said Batali and Bastianich permitted "shameful behavior" in the workplace.

"Celebrity and fame does not absolve someone from following the law," James said. "Sexual harassment is unacceptable for anyone, anywhere — no matter how powerful the perpetrator."

Batali, known for his orange Crocs and ponytail, stepped down from day-to-day operations at his restaurant empire and left the since-discontinued ABC cooking show "The Chew" in December 2017 after four women accused him of inappropriate touching.

Batali apologized that month, saying the allegations "match up" with ways he has acted.

"I have made many mistakes and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans and my team," Batali said in an email newsletter. "My behavior was wrong and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility."

In 2018, New York City police said they were investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against Batali after a woman told "60 Minutes" he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2005. Batali denied assaulting the woman and no charges have been filed.

In 2019, Batali was charged with indecent assault and battery for allegedly forcibly kissing and groping a woman at a Boston restaurant in 2017.


Georgia
3 decades later, man is charged with killing boy, 8
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — A convicted sex offender has been arrested more than 30 years after an 8-year-old boy was found dead in the woods of an Atlanta suburb.

James Michael Coates, 56, faces multiple charges, including murder and aggravated child molestation in the 1988 killing of Joshua Harmon, Roswell police announced Friday. He was taken into custody Wednesday after a traffic stop as he rode in an Uber.

Coates, of Woodstock, was arrested after DNA evidence collected from the crime scene linked him to the killing, police said.

Detectives, police officers, scientists and others who worked the case over the years "never gave up hope in bringing Josh's killer to justice," Roswell Police Chief James Conroy said at a Friday news conference.

"This was a tragedy that no family should endure," Conroy said. "The death of Josh and the fact that his killer remained free for such a long time is unimaginable."

Joshua was reported missing by his parents on May 15, 1988, after he didn't return home for dinner. After several hours of searching, his body was found in a wooded area near the apartment where he lived.

Police said the case went cold, but they revisited leads over the years, and law enforcement technology improved.

With the permission of his family, police say they exhumed the boy's body in February 2021 in hopes of finding more evidence. Additional DNA testing was done on evidence from the crime scene, and police say the testing linked Coates to the crime.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Coates has twice been convicted of child molestation for crimes that happened in 1990 and 1993. He was behind bars for nearly 20 years after the 1993 conviction, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Coates remained jailed Friday, and it wasn't known whether he has an attorney who could be reached for comment on his behalf.