Court Digest

Pennsylvania
New trial ordered for man accused of killing wife, faking ATV crash
YORK, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a man accused of killing his wife and then faking an all-terrain vehicle accident to cover up the slaying almost a decade ago.

The state’s highest court ruled 5-2 Friday that 48-year-old Joseph Fitzpatrick III might not have been convicted of first-degree murder in York County in 2015 without the admission into evidence of a note from his wife which the court called inadmissible hearsay that injected “significant prejudice” into the trial, the York Daily Record reported.

Fitzpatrick was accused of having drowned 43-year-old Annemarie Fitzpatrick in a Chanceford Township creek in June 2012 and then telling police they crashed their ATV in the water. Authorities alleged that he wanted out of his marriage, was emotionally involved with another woman and had a $1.7 million life insurance policy on his wife.

Hours before her death, prosecutors have said, Annemarie Fitzpatrick wrote, dated and signed a note in her day-planner at work saying “If anything happens to me — Joe.” She also wrote an email to herself titled “if something happens to me” saying the couple had marital problems and a huge log had almost fallen on her the night before.

“Joe was on the pile with the log and had me untying a tarp directly below,” the email said, according to prosecutors.

The trial judge, in a rare move, set aside the jury verdict, saying prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to support a conviction. The Pennsylvania Superior Court reinstated the conviction, saying the note was allowed as evidence to show the victim’s state of mind, an exception to the hearsay rule. The court said the email wasn’t admissible but ruled that its admission was harmless “in light of the overwhelming evidence against Fitzpatrick.”

In a 47-page opinion for the high court’s majority, Justice David Wecht said the note not only reflected the woman’s fear but also asserted that her husband would be responsible “if something untoward or violent happened to her.” Offering the note as proof of that would be inadmissible hearsay, and Wecht said it was offered “and repeatedly highlighted” to “establish the truth of the matters asserted therein.”

“The remaining evidence simply was not so overwhelming so as to overcome the note’s enormous impact,” Wecht said. “Accordingly, the admission of the note cannot be deemed harmless.”

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sallie Updyke Mundy said the note could have been allowed to show that the defendant’s wife feared him, if the judge read a limiting instruction to the jury, but she would have upheld the conviction even though that was not done.

Defense attorney Chris Ferro called the ruling a “thorough and well written repudiation of the evidence used to secure this conviction,” the newspaper reported.

“We are one step closer to righting a terrible wrong,” Ferro said. “Joe Fitzpatrick is innocent.”

A representative of the York County district attorney’s office said prosecutors were analyzing the high court’s opinion.

“We look forward to retrying Joseph Fitzpatrick,” spokesperson Kyle King said.

New Mexico
Ex-state police officer convicted of drug charges
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former New Mexico State Police Officer has been convicted of distributing marijuana intended for a 16-year-old girl he pulled over and a separate drugs-for-sex scheme.

U.S. District Court records show 36-year-old Daniel Capehart of Bloomfield was convicted Thursday of two counts of distributing marijuana and a third count of distributing methamphetamine. He faces between five and 40 years in prison, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Prosecutors say Capehart pulled over the teen and a friend in Farmington on June 15, 2018. He obtained the girl’s phone number and birthday and began texting her about an hour later. One text said told the girl she was “the most beautiful woman” he had ever met.

The girl and her father reported the texts to a San Juan County sheriff’s detective, who used the girl’s phone to text the officer. Authorities say Capehart twice left marijuana intended for the girl at drop locations, once near a high school.

That same month, the FBI made contact with a female who said she’d been texting with Capehart for about nine months. The agent began texting with her, and authorities say Capehart proposed a scheme in which he would arrest someone for transporting marijuana and give the woman some of the drugs in exchange for sex. The next day, he pulled over and arrested an undercover FBI agent and left the drugs at a pre-arranged location near an elementary school.


South Dakota
Trial moved involving US marshals charged in vaccine dispute
ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) — A federal contempt of court trial involving three members of the U.S. Marshals Service has been moved from Aberdeen to Sioux Falls, according to court documents.

Three supervisory marshals, including the agency’s Chief of Staff John Kilgallon, were accused of allowing a deputy marshal to leave the courthouse in Aberdeen with prisoners in tow on May 10, after the marshal refused to tell the judge whether she had been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Trial was originally set for Sept. 13 in Aberdeen, but will now begin Dec. 14 in Sioux Falls. U.S. District Judge Brian C. Buescher, who is presiding over the case, said Sioux Falls is a more convenient place for proceedings for all parties involved in the case, the Aberdeen American News reported.

U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann, who filed the criminal contempt of court  and obstruction of justice charges, has dropped out of the case. Buescher is based in Nebraska.

In court documents recusing himself from the case, Kornmann wrote that Department of Justice policies should not trump lawful federal court order and the case “has nothing to do with requiring anyone to be fully vaccinated.”

The Marshals Service operates under the DOJ, an executive branch agency, but it is tasked with the protection and enforcement of federal courts. Federal law grants the Marshal Service “final authority regarding security requirements for the judicial branch.”


North Carolina
Settlement reached over 2020 police clash with protesters
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Civil rights groups in North Carolina have reached a settlement with the city of Charlotte and its police department in a lawsuit filed last year after officers surrounded and gassed demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd.

The terms of the agreement include extensive revisions to police directives, including a ban on the use of CS tear gas during protests, the ACLU of North Carolina said in a news release Friday. Police will also be banned from using chemical weapons to “kettle” or trap protesters under the agreement, which also says crowd dispersal orders must be communicated clearly and repeatedly in English and Spanish, allowing protesters reasonable time to disperse.

“People should not be brutalized when they are exercising their right to protest,” Kristie Puckett-Williams, statewide manager of the ACLU of North Carolina’s Campaign for Smart Justice, said in a statement Friday.

The groups’ lawsuit accused police of orchestrating a violent attack on hundreds of peaceful protesters during a protest over Floyd’s killing on June 2, 2020. The clash was captured on video and sparked outrage.

“We are a learning agency and always looking for ways to improve as we owe that to the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and all of those we serve because it is the right thing to do,” Johnny Jennings, chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer.

The newspaper reported police had previously announced some changes to their policies.

New Hampshire
Bishop denies allegations of past sexual abuse
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The head of the Roman Catholic Church in New Hampshire “categorically denies” recent allegations that he committed sexual abuse while serving as a priest in New York in the 1980s, according to a statement issued by his lawyer on Saturday.

A lawsuit filed July 14 in a New York state court accuses Bishop Peter Libasci of the Diocese of Manchester of abusing a male youth on numerous occasions in 1983 and 1984. The abuse resulted in “physical, psychological and emotional injuries,” the lawsuit says.

In a statement on behalf of Libasci, attorney Michael Connolly said the allegation is not true.

“Bishop Libasci has dedicated over 43 years to serving others as a Roman Catholic priest, during which time he has earned an impeccable reputation for treating all individuals with dignity and respect,” Connolly wrote. “While Bishop Libasci has great compassion for victims of sexual abuse, he will be forced to vigorously defend against these false allegations in court.”

The lawsuit accuses the bishop of abusing a boy who was 12 or 13 while Libasci was a pastor at the Roman Catholic Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the Saints Cyril and Methodius School in Deer Park, New York. The school, which this year merged with another school to become Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School, is also a defendant in the suit.

 The Diocese of Manchester said last week that it’s aware of the lawsuit but that Libasci’s status has not been changed.

A national group that supports victims of clergy sexual abuse said it’s “very concerned” that Libasci has not stepped aside.

“We worry that allowing the Bishop to remain in ministry may further endanger young lives in New Hampshire,” the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said in a statement on Saturday. “We hope that the Bishop’s Metropolitan or the Vatican intervene to correct this troubling situation immediately.”

The Diocese of Rockville Center, which includes Saints Cyril and Methodius, filed for bankruptcy last year after the state suspended the statute of limitations for suing over sexual abuse by priests. More than 200 lawsuits have been brought against the diocese since the 2019 passage of a New York law that gives victims the right to sue over decades-old sexual abuse by clergy members, teachers and other adults.

The Diocese of Manchester, meanwhile, has launched a public effort to address past abuse. In 2019, it released the names of 73 priests who had been accused of sexually abusing children as part of what it called an effort to take accountability for abuse that stretched as far back as 1950.

Most of the named priests have died, and others either left the ministry or have been banned from public ministry as priests.


Minnesota
Sex abuse lawsuit vs. former hockey coach adds 3 plaintiffs
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Three former hockey players — including former Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Frank Pietrangelo — have joined an existing federal lawsuit against multiple organizations and a college and youth coach who allegedly sexually abused them during the 1980s, according to a civil complaint filed on Friday.

Pietrangelo and two others were added to an amended lawsuit originally filed in district court in Minneapolis on May 13, bringing the total of plaintiffs to eight.

They’ve accused Thomas “Chico” Adrahtas of repeated sexual assault, abuse, molestation and harassment while they played on his teams at various levels of the sport. Many of the alleged victims, all male, were minors at the time.

The accusations against Adrahtas were first reported by The Athletic in 2020.

Adrahtas coached several amateur teams in the Chicago area and moved to the college ranks for the 1984-85 season as an assistant at Minnesota. He returned to Illinois, changing jobs frequently. His last post was as the head coach at Robert Morris University in Chicago, before his resignation in 2018 in light of an investigation into his alleged abuse.

The defendants in the lawsuit are Adrahtas, the University of Minnesota, USA Hockey and the Amateur Hockey Association Illinois.

Pietrangelo played at Minnesota from 1982-86. He won a Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 1991 and appeared in 141 NHL games, including a stint with the Hartford Whalers.