Indiana
Judge orders school to let trans student use boys restroom
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Friday ordering a central Indiana middle school to allow a transgender student to have access to the boys restroom.
The order issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt requires John R. Wooden Middle School to allow the seventh-grader identified only as A.C. to have access to the restroom while litigation continues.
Pratt cited Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.
“The overwhelming majority of federal courts — including the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit — have recently examined transgender education-discrimination claims under Title IX and concluded that preventing a transgender student from using a school restroom consistent with the student’s gender identity violates Title IX. This Court concurs,” Pratt wrote in her ruling.
The 7th Circuit handles federal appeals from Indiana.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and Indiana Legal Services filed a lawsuit against the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville in December 2021, on behalf of the transgender student.
“The law is clear: denying transgender students their right to use the correct restroom is discrimination,” Stevie Pactor, an ACLU of Indiana attorney, said in a statement. “We hope that public schools and legislators will take notice and forgo future challenges by providing equal treatment to all students.”
“We are happy that, with this order, our client will have the same opportunities as his peers to learn, grow, and succeed at school,” Megan Stuart, an attorney for Indiana Legal Services, said in the statement. “His worries should be about things like homework and friendships, not whether he can use a restroom.”
A message seeking comment was left for the administration of the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville.
Delaware
Prisoner released as state’s retrial effort ends
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A man who spent about half of his life behind bars for a murder he said he didn’t commit was released from prison after Delaware prosecutors decided to essentially dismiss his case.
Mark Purnell walked out of the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center late Thursday, just after a New Castle County prosecutor filed a memo ending a bid to retry him for the 2006 killing of Tamika Giles in a Wilmington neighborhood, The News Journal of Wilmington reported.
Friday was the deadline for prosecutors to file legal briefs responding to Purnell’s arguments for the case to end or let him get out on bail before his scheduled August retrial.
“It is like a dream,” said Purnell, 32, who hadn’t been freed since he was 16. “It is a dream come true.”
In overturning his second-degree murder conviction last year, the Delaware Supreme Court last year said that new evidence from attorneys and investigators created a “strong inference” that Purnell was innocent.
New Castle prosecutor Annemarie Puit wrote Thursday that “there remains evidence” Purnell committed the crime, but added that prosecutors pursue trials only in cases they believe have a “reasonable likelihood of conviction.”
“After careful consideration of all the evidence in the case, the state has determined it can no longer ethically proceed,” Puit wrote.
Prosecutors met with Giles’ family twice in April and are “disappointed that they will not see justice here.” A spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice declined further comment beyond Thursday’s memo.
Purnell began his attempts to be freed with a handwritten, 133-page appeal filed without the help of attorneys in 2010. His appeal was rejected and revived by various courts. His efforts were boosted by the involvement of lawyers.
The Supreme Court ruling discredited much of the testimony used to convict Purnell. The court also criticized Wilmington police for “troubling” investigative tactics used during the interrogation of a teenager who would become the state’s primary witness.
Purnell said he may eventually seek compensation for his time behind bars, which could be asked for through a federal lawsuit. For now, Purnell looks forward to spending time with family.
“I want to be successful and be a positive energy in this world,” he said. “I’ve got to prove right everyone that believed in me.”
Arizona
Couple get prison terms in a 2019 murder case
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona couple who prompted a nationwide manhunt in 2019 after escaping from custody have both been sentenced in a Tucson murder case.
Pima County prosecutors said Blane Barksdale, who turns 59 next month, received a 22-year prison term Friday while his wife got a five-year sentence. Both were credited with almost three years already served.
The couple was charged in the disappearance of 72-year-old Frank Bligh, whose Tucson home burned down in an April 2019 explosion and fire.
Blane Barksdale pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and as part of a plea agreement, prosecutors said he had to tell Tucson police where Bligh’s body was buried. It was found four months ago in a wilderness area.
Susan Barksdale, who is in her early 60s, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case.
Prosecutors said the couple befriended Bligh and then pawned some of his gun collection after he was killed.
U.S. Marshals found and arrested the Barksdales in upstate New York in May 2019, but they escaped three months later in Utah from a prisoner transport van that was bringing them back to Tucson to face charges.
Federal authorities located the couple 16 days later some 90 miles (144 kilometers) northeast of Phoenix and re-arrested them.
California
Prosecutor: Funeral home director left remains to rot
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles funeral home owner illegally left the remains of 11 people, including infants, in stages of decay and mummification and faces more than a decade in jail, prosecutors said Friday.
City Attorney Mike Feuer, whose office can only file misdemeanor offenses, announced the charges Friday, calling it an “incredibly sad and shocking situation” and said that officials could smell the odor from outside the San Fernando Valley facility.
“Eleven people died, including very young children, and the funeral director hired to compassionately prepare the bodies for burial allegedly just let them rot, with neither the decency nor the dignity that all our loved ones deserve,” Feuer said in a statement. “Their deaths are one tragedy, and this alleged monstrous mistreatment is a second tragedy.”
Funeral homes that mistreat human remains have made headlines for years. Funeral home regulations vary across the U.S., with some states requiring annual inspections and several requiring no inspections at all.
In one of the most extreme cases, more than 330 decaying corpses were found in 2002 in the Tri-State Crematory near the tiny community of Noble, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta. The former operator pleaded guilty to nearly 800 criminal charges related to fraud and corpse abuse after the bodies were found.
In Los Angeles, authorities opened an investigation into the Mark B. Allen Mortuary and Cremations Services Inc., after receiving complaints from families. The mortuary, owned by Mark B. Allen, is now closed and phone numbers listed for the business were disconnected.
It was not immediately clear whether Allen has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. He faces 22 misdemeanor charges — two for each person — from the state’s Health and Safety Code, where one statute makes it illegal for anyone to dispose of human remains anywhere that is not a cemetery. The second statute that Allen faces is disposing of remains illegally through his role as a funeral director. The maximum penalty is $110,000 and 11 years in jail.
Indiana
Man convicted in 2020 slayings of 2 teenage boys
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — A Gary man was sentenced to 130 years in prison Friday after being convicted in the 2020 killings of two teenage boys found shot to death in a northwest Indiana home.
A Lake County jury found Alvino S. “Vino” Amaya, 37, guilty of two counts of murder and a firearm enhancement last month in the slayings of 18-year-old Elijah Robinson and Maxwell Kroll, 17.
Prosecutors said the teens were slain execution-style on Oct. 16, 2020, in a residence near Griffith as Amaya was searching for a missing handgun.
Judge Salvador Vasquez said Amaya’s character showed he was “horribly violent.” He knew the sentence meant Amaya would die in prison.
“We all have to live with that decision,” Vasquez said of the sentence, the Post-Tribune reported. “You deserve all this.”
Amaya said he would appeal.
“All of this was over a gun,” Robinson’s father, Jonathan Robinson said. “Something that cost a few hundred dollars. Now, my son is gone forever.”
Amaya’s lawyer, Steven Mullins, asked for a 60-year sentence — 55 years on both murder counts, to run concurrently, with another five years on the firearms enhancement.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jacquelyn Altpeter asked for the 130-year sentence — 60 years each on both murder counts and 10 additional years for the firearms enhancement.
Wisconsin
86-year-old guilty of killing wife in 1975
STURGEON BAY, Wis. (AP) — A jury in Door County on Friday found an 86-year-old man guilty of killing his wife and disposing of her body more than four decades ago.
Jurors returned guilty verdicts on charges of first-degree murder and disinterment of the dead against Richard Pierce, who has maintained his innocence.
Carol Jean Pierce has not been seen since Sept. 5, 1975 and her remains have never been found. Investigators say Richard Pierce moved to Cheboygan, Michigan shortly after his wife disappeared.
Investigators searched Pierce’s Michigan home in 2008. Prosecutors believe that Carol Jean Pierce’s body was hidden in the Michigan home for years until Richard Pierce removed it.
In September of 2018, the Wisconsin Cold Case Review Team looked at the case and concluded there was enough evidence to show Richard Pierce was set to gain from his wife’s disappearance, WBAY-TV reported.
Investigators from Sturgeon Bay and Michigan then spent weeks searching Richard Pierce’s property in Michigan, looking for possible evidence related to the woman’s disappearance. Her remains were never located. However, a cadaver dog handler testified at trial that the dog had six hits for human remains in Pierce’s house.
The prosecution argued that Pierce would benefit from his wife’s death, getting her property, including a home and truck, and could move on with a new girlfriend.
Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 5.
