Court Digest

Illinois
Chicago man exonerated in 2011 murder case where legally blind eyewitness gave testimony
Darien Harris spent more than 12 years in an Illinois prison, convicted of murder in part on the testimony of an eyewitness who was legally blind.

Harris, who was released from prison on Tuesday, was convicted in 2014 for the 2011 fatal shooting of a man at a gas station on Chicago’s South Side.

His case is the latest in a dozen exonerations this year in Chicago’s Cook County, where defendants have been represented by attorneys with The Exoneration Project.

“It does seem in the past few months there have been a larger number than usual,” said Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, a lecturer in law and staff attorney for The Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago Law School.

Since 2009, more than 200 people have been exonerated through the group’s work, according to data from the organization.

About 150 of the convictions were tied to former Chicago police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who regularly framed people for drug crimes they didn’t commit. Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said in December 2022 that 237 convictions vacated in recent years were linked to Watts and his unit.

Harris is one of four Chicago men who have been exonerated over the past few weeks.

On Dec. 14, James Soto and his cousin, David Ayala, had their murder convictions vacated after spending more than 40 years each in Illinois’ prisons. Each had been sentenced to life in prison. Soto also was represented by The Exoneration Project.

Brian Beals, 57, was freed two days earlier after a judge dismissed murder and other charges and vacated his conviction. Beals had spent 35 years behind bars.

Harris was sentenced to 76 years in prison.

“But I fought, and now I’m here,” Harris, now 30, said after his release. “I fought. Keep on fighting, everybody. Just keep on fighting. Never give up.”

Myerscough-Mueller said evidence showed the eyewitness had advanced glaucoma and lied about his eyesight issues at Harris’ trial. Evidence also included testimony from a gas station attendant who said Harris wasn’t the shooter.

Judges and prosecutors are giving such cases “more serious looks,” added Josh Tepfer, another attorney with The Exoneration Project, which is among a number of organizations across the United States seeking justice for the wrongfully imprisoned.

“They see repeat problems,” Tepfer said.

Also this week, an Oklahoma judge exonerated 71-year-old Glynn Simmons who spent 48 years in prison for a 1974 murder. Simmons was released in July after prosecutors agreed that key evidence in his case was not turned over to his defense lawyers.

Two men who served decades in prison for separate murders in New York City were exonerated last month after reinvestigations found they had been convicted based on unreliable witness testimony. The Legal Aid Society and the Innocence Project were involved in those cases.

California
Federal court revives lawsuit against Nirvana over 1991 ‘Nevermind’ naked baby album cover
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal appeals court last week revived a child sexual exploitation lawsuit filed by the man who appeared naked as a 4-month-old on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album “Nevermind.”

Spencer Elden’s lawsuit against the grunge rock group alleges that he has suffered “permanent harm” as the band and others profited from the image of him underwater in a swimming pool, appearing to grab for a dollar bill on a fish hook.

The suit says the image violated federal laws on child sexual abuse material, although no criminal charges were ever sought.

A federal judge in California threw out the lawsuit last year but allowed Elden to file a revised version, which the judge later dismissed on grounds that it was outside the 10-year statute of limitations of one of the laws used as a cause of action.

Thursday’s decision by a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California reversed that ruling and sent the case back to the lower court.

The appellate panel found that each republication of an image “may constitute a new personal injury” with a new deadline and cited the image’s appearance on a 30th anniversary reissue of “Nevermind” in 2021.

“The question whether the ‘Nevermind’ album cover meets the definition of child pornography is not at issue in this appeal,” the court wrote, according to the New York Times.

In an email to The Associated Press, Nirvana attorney Bert Deixler called the ruling a “procedural setback.”

“We will defend this meritless case with vigor and expect to prevail,” he wrote.

New Hampshire
Man pleads guilty to threats and vandalism targeting public radio journalists
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire man pleaded guilty to threatening public radio journalists and vandalizing their homes, prosecutors said last week.

Tucker Cockerline, 32, of Salem, N.H., pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to conspiracy to commit stalking through interstate travel and the use of a facility of interstate commerce.

The harassment and intimidation of the victims included the vandalism — on five separate occasions — of the victims’ homes and the home of one of the victims’ parents with bricks, large rocks and red spray paint, according to investigators.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 19, 2024.

Cockerline was initially arrested and charged in June along with two alleged co-conspirators. The defendants were subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury along with a fourth suspect in September.

Prosecutors allege the men were involved in a plot to vandalize homes associated with New Hampshire Public Radio reporter Lauren Chooljian and news director Daniel Barrick in retaliation for a report detailing sexual misconduct allegations against a prominent businessman.

Each charge in the indictment carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine and restitution.

Arizona
Man gets 50-year prison sentence for fatal stabbing of pregnant wife
PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for the 2012 killing of his estranged, pregnant wife and the couple’s unborn child, authorities said last week.

Maricopa County prosecutors said 36-year-old Gilbert Villareal fled to Mexico after the killing, spent three years in a Mexican jail for a different domestic violence incident and wasn’t extradited to Phoenix until September 2021.

He was sentenced earlier this month after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.

Shelia Lomes, 22, was trying to leave Villareal at the time of her death and living in a west Phoenix apartment with her 2-year-old son.

Phoenix police said residents at the apartment complex reported hearing a woman screaming and banging on doors for help on the night of March 26, 2012.

Lomes was later found dead in a stairwell after being stabbed 38 times and a knife was located nearby, investigators said.

Lomes’ young son was crying and standing beside his mother’s body when police arrived on the scene.

Authorities said Villareal was arrested and convicted in Mexico for attempted homicide after he stabbed a woman in Cancun in December 2016.

In addition to the long prison term for the 2012 killings, Villareal also received five lifetime injunctions and is not allowed to contact the victim’s family.

Colorado
Former funeral home operator gets probation for mixing cremated human remains
FRISCO, Colo. (AP) — The former owner of two central Colorado funeral homes has been sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty to charges that her funeral home included the cremated remains of an adult when it gave the ashes of a stillborn boy to his parents in December 2019.

Staci Kent was also fined $5,000 when she was sentenced earlier this month, the Summit Daily reported.

Kent and her husband, former Lake County Coroner Shannon Kent, were charged with unlawful acts of cremation related to their funeral home in Leadville. They also owned a funeral home in Silverthorne.

Staci Kent pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful cremation, and a second count was dismissed. She also pleaded guilty to violating the mortuary consumer protection law. Prosecutors dismissed a charge of abuse of a corpse and a charge of violating a law that describes how funeral homes must care for bodies.

Shannon Kent pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful cremation in December 2022 and was sentenced February to six months in jail. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed 12 other charges, including five counts of abuse of a corpse.

The case began when the mother of the stillborn boy contacted law enforcement in February 2020 to report that she had received more ashes than the infant-sized urn they purchased would hold, prosecutors said. A scientific analysis showed the cremated remains the family received included the remains of an infant and those of an adult, including a piece of an earring and surgical staples, indicating the infant may not have been cremated alone, prosecutors said.

When the family confronted Shannon Kent about the quantity of ashes, the father said Kent told him the additional material was from the cardboard box or the clothing in which the infant had been cremated, court records said.

The Leadville case wraps up as a couple that owned funeral homes in Colorado Springs and Penrose — Jon and Carie Hallford — face felony charges for failing to cremate nearly 200 bodies over a period of four years and giving some families fake ashes. The bodies were discovered in early October. The Hallfords are jailed with their bail set at $2 million each.

Missouri
Urgent care chain to pay $9.1M  settlement over  allegations of false claims
ST. LOUIS (AP) — One of the largest urgent care chains in Missouri will pay $9.1 million to settle allegations that the company submitted false claims for medical services, including COVID-19 testing.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in St. Louis on Thursday announced the settlement with Total Access Urgent Care, which operates more than two dozen clinics in the St. Louis area.

“This settlement will fully repay three federal health care programs for TAUC’s overbilling for COVID tests and office visits,” U.S. Attorney Sayler A. Fleming said in a news release.

Federal prosecutors said Total Access Urgent Care submitted false insurance claims for COVID-19 testing between April 2021 and December 2021, using improper billing codes that resulted in the company getting reimbursements at a rate that was too high.

From 2017 to 2021, TAUC was accused of falsely claiming that doctors participated in some office visits that were actually overseen by non-physician practitioners. The reimbursement rate is higher for visits involving physicians.

Total Access Urgent Care said in a statement that it “cooperated fully” with the investigation, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.