South Dakota
Man charged with murder for allegedly running down deputy during cop chase
South Dakota prosecutors charged a Sioux Falls man on Monday with first-degree murder and aggravated eluding in the death of a deputy who was struck while putting out spikes during a police chase.
Joseph Gene Hoek, 40, was ordered held without bail at his first court appearance in the death of Moody County Chief Deputy Ken Prorok, 51, of Wentworth, who died during the pursuit on Friday.
People close to Hoek described him as being on a “downward spiral” marked by drug use and escalating threats of violence, Special Agent Jeffrey Kollars of the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation wrote in a court filing dated Sunday.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is prosecuting the case himself. He said he still needs to investigate any mitigating factors, then sit down with Prorok’s family, and then with the sheriff and his deputies, before deciding whether to seek the death penalty.
“I believe the attorney general should lead from the front and I’ve always tried to do that,” Jackley told The Associated Press. “Especially when it involves a law enforcement officer that gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
Hoek’s attorney, Manuel De Castro, told AP his initial impression is that Hoek was “overcharged,” and that “there are some mental health issues that need to be explored.” But he said he’s still gathering information.
“I know it’s an emotional case for everybody involved. But we’ll go from there,” he said.
Kollars wrote that Madison police responded Friday afternoon to a call about a man, identified as Hoek, making “homicidal threats” near the business where the caller worked. Police spotted his car and tried to stop him, but Hoek sped off on Highway 34 toward Interstate 29, according to the agent.
The chase reached 115 mph (185 kph). Prorok stopped to deploy stop spikes across Highway 34. But a witness said he saw the approaching car intentionally swerve and strike the chief deputy before it went into the ditch and flipped, the agent wrote. Hoek ran off on foot.
The witness followed Hoek, ran him down and detained Hoek until officers arrived, the filing said.
Prorock died at the scene. Hoek was checked at a hospital but was not seriously hurt.
Kollars wrote that he interviewed Hoek after he waived his right to remain silent. The agent wrote that Hoek told him he had gone to the business to collect from the caller, who he said owed him money.
“When Hoek was told that a Deputy Sheriff was killed by his actions and decisions, he responded that he didn’t believe me,” the agent wrote. But Hoek had claimed that he has problems with anxiety and panic attacks that sometimes affect his memory, the agent said.
Investigators who searched the car found suspected THC vapes, suspected marijuana paraphernalia and “blunts,” and containers of cold medicine, the agent wrote. Outside the car they found an apparent bong and an unopened bottle of liquor, he said.
When asked about drugs, Hoek told authorities he suffered from pain and that he had obtained the prescription narcotic pain reliever hydrocodone on some emergency room visits. But he said many doctors denied him the medications he wanted. He said he had used medical marijuana for anxiety “days prior” and had been prescribed the anti-anxiety drug Xanax but couldn’t recall the last time he used it.
Hoek also said he had been kicked out of several relatives’ homes but did not specify why.
The person who called police told investigators Hoek had been a “family friend” who “started scaring him” and “started acting weird lately,” which led the person to obtain no-contact and no-trespass orders last month, the agent wrote.
Hoek’s mother told investigators that she believed her son “was suffering from mental health issues and was self-medicating,” but was smart enough to fool mental health professionals who evaluated him, so he would get released quickly with no help. She also said he was addicted to dextromethorphan, a cough medicine that is sometimes abused.
One person said Hoek’s “downward spiral” escalated after she obtained an order for protection against him last month and that he became “increasingly physically violent,” the agent wrote.
South Carolina
State wants to restart executions with firing squad, electric chair and lethal injection
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawyers for four death row inmates who have run out of appeals are expected to argue to the South Carolina Supreme Court that the state’s old electric chair and new firing squad are cruel and unusual punishments.
Attorneys for the inmates also plan to argue Tuesday that a 2023 law meant to allow lethal injections to restart keeps secret too many details about the new drug and protocol used to kill prisoners.
In the balance are the death sentences of 33 inmates who are on South Carolina’s death row. While there hasn’t been a formal moratorium, the state hasn’t performed an execution in nearly 13 years after the drugs it used for lethal injection expired and companies refused to sell more to prison officials unless they could hide their identities from the public.
South Carolina says all three methods fit existing protocols. “Courts have never held the death has to be instantaneous or painless,” wrote Grayson Lambert, a lawyer for Gov. Henry McMaster’s office.
If the Supreme Court justices allow executions to restart and any additional appeals are unsuccessful, South Carolina’s death chamber, unused since May 2011, could suddenly get quite busy.
Four inmates are suing, but four more have also run out of appeals, although two of them face a competency hearing before they could be executed, according to Justice 360, a group that describes itself as fighting for the inmates and for fairness and transparency in death penalty and other major criminal cases.
The state asked the Supreme Court to toss out a lower court ruling after a 2022 trial that the electric chair and the firing squad are cruel and unusual punishments. The justices added questions about last year’s shield law to the appeal and Tuesday’s arguments.
Circuit Judge Jocelyn Newman sided with the inmates whose experts testified prisoners would feel terrible pain whether their bodies were “cooking” by 2,000 volts of electricity in the chair, built in 1912, or if their hearts were stopped by bullets — assuming the three shooters were on target — from the yet-to-be used firing squad.
South Carolina’s current execution law requires inmates to be sent to the electric chair unless they choose a different method.
Mississippi
Favre must finish repaying misspent welfare money, auditor says
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s state auditor filed court papers Monday renewing his call for Brett Favre to repay the state for welfare money that the auditor says was improperly spent on projects backed by the retired NFL quarterback.
Auditor Shad White’s demand of nearly $730,000 from Favre is the latest twist in a long-running legal battle over money that was supposed to help some of the poorest people in one of the poorest states in the nation.
Favre, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member who lives in Mississippi, filed lawsuits in February 2023 accusing White and two national sportscasters of defaming him in public discussions about welfare misspending.
White said in 2020 that Favre had improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees from a nonprofit organization that spent welfare with approval from the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program was to go toward a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre agreed to lead fundraising efforts for the facility at his alma mater, where his daughter started playing on the volleyball team in 2017.
“Favre had no legal right to the possession or control of this $1.1 Million,” White’s attorneys wrote in the court filing Monday.
Favre repaid $500,000 to the state in May 2020 and $600,000 in October 2021, but the new court filing said he still owes $729,790 because interest caused growth in the original amount he owed.
“It boggles the mind that Mr. Favre could imagine he is entitled to the equivalent of an interest-free loan of $1.1 million in taxpayer money, especially money intended for the benefit of the poor,” White said in a statement Monday.
The Associated Press left voicemail messages for two of Favre’s attorneys Monday, and they did not immediately respond.
In October, a federal judge dismissed Favre’s defamation lawsuit against Shannon Sharpe, a former NFL player who’s now a broadcaster. In May, Favre ended his lawsuit against sportscaster Pat McAfee, who is a former NFL punter, after McAfee apologized for on-air statements that Favre had been “stealing from poor people in Mississippi.”
Favre’s defamation lawsuit against White is still pending, and White’s filing Monday was a counterclaim in that suit.
Mississippi prosecutors have said millions of federal welfare dollars for low-income residents were squandered on projects supported by wealthy or well-connected people from 2016 to 2019.
A lawsuit filed by the Department of Human Services in 2022 said TANF money was improperly spent, including on projects Favre supported: $5 million for the volleyball arena and $1.7 million toward development of a concussion treatment drug.
No criminal charges have been brought against Favre, although a former department director and other people have pleaded guilty to their part in the misspending.
Lawmakers allowed a firing squad to be added in 2021. No legislation has been proposed in South Carolina to add nitrogen gas, which was used for the first time to kill an inmate last month in Alabama.
On the shield law, attorneys for the inmates argue South Carolina’s law is more secretive than any other state. They said prison officials should not be allowed to hide the identities of drug companies, the names of anyone helping with an execution and the exact procedure followed.
In September, prison officials announced they now have the sedative pentobarbital and changed the method of lethal injection execution from using three drugs to just one. They released few other details other than saying South Carolina’s method is similar to the protocol followed by the federal government and six other states.
The inmates argue pentobarbital, compounded and mixed, has a shelf life of about 45 days. They want to know if there is a regular supplier for the drug and what guidelines are in place to make sure the potency is right.
Too weak, and inmates may suffer without dying. Too strong, and the drug molecules can form tiny clumps that would cause intense pain when injected, according to court papers.
“No inmate in the country has ever been put to death with such little transparency about how he or she would be executed,” Justice 360 lawyer Lindsey Vann wrote.
Lawyers for the state said the inmates want the information so they can piece together who is supplying the drugs and put them under public pressure to stop.
“Each additional piece of information is a puzzle piece, and with enough of them, Respondents (or anyone else) may put them together to identify an individual or entity protected by the Shield Statute,” Lambert wrote.
South Carolina used to carry out an average of three executions a year and had more than 60 inmates on death row when the last execution was carried out in 2011. Since then, successful appeals and deaths have lowered the number to 33.
Prosecutors have sent only three new prisoners to death row in the past 13 years. Facing rising costs, the lack of lethal injection drugs and more vigorous defenses, they are choosing to accept guilty pleas and life in prison without parole.
Man charged with murder for allegedly running down deputy during cop chase
South Dakota prosecutors charged a Sioux Falls man on Monday with first-degree murder and aggravated eluding in the death of a deputy who was struck while putting out spikes during a police chase.
Joseph Gene Hoek, 40, was ordered held without bail at his first court appearance in the death of Moody County Chief Deputy Ken Prorok, 51, of Wentworth, who died during the pursuit on Friday.
People close to Hoek described him as being on a “downward spiral” marked by drug use and escalating threats of violence, Special Agent Jeffrey Kollars of the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation wrote in a court filing dated Sunday.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley is prosecuting the case himself. He said he still needs to investigate any mitigating factors, then sit down with Prorok’s family, and then with the sheriff and his deputies, before deciding whether to seek the death penalty.
“I believe the attorney general should lead from the front and I’ve always tried to do that,” Jackley told The Associated Press. “Especially when it involves a law enforcement officer that gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
Hoek’s attorney, Manuel De Castro, told AP his initial impression is that Hoek was “overcharged,” and that “there are some mental health issues that need to be explored.” But he said he’s still gathering information.
“I know it’s an emotional case for everybody involved. But we’ll go from there,” he said.
Kollars wrote that Madison police responded Friday afternoon to a call about a man, identified as Hoek, making “homicidal threats” near the business where the caller worked. Police spotted his car and tried to stop him, but Hoek sped off on Highway 34 toward Interstate 29, according to the agent.
The chase reached 115 mph (185 kph). Prorok stopped to deploy stop spikes across Highway 34. But a witness said he saw the approaching car intentionally swerve and strike the chief deputy before it went into the ditch and flipped, the agent wrote. Hoek ran off on foot.
The witness followed Hoek, ran him down and detained Hoek until officers arrived, the filing said.
Prorock died at the scene. Hoek was checked at a hospital but was not seriously hurt.
Kollars wrote that he interviewed Hoek after he waived his right to remain silent. The agent wrote that Hoek told him he had gone to the business to collect from the caller, who he said owed him money.
“When Hoek was told that a Deputy Sheriff was killed by his actions and decisions, he responded that he didn’t believe me,” the agent wrote. But Hoek had claimed that he has problems with anxiety and panic attacks that sometimes affect his memory, the agent said.
Investigators who searched the car found suspected THC vapes, suspected marijuana paraphernalia and “blunts,” and containers of cold medicine, the agent wrote. Outside the car they found an apparent bong and an unopened bottle of liquor, he said.
When asked about drugs, Hoek told authorities he suffered from pain and that he had obtained the prescription narcotic pain reliever hydrocodone on some emergency room visits. But he said many doctors denied him the medications he wanted. He said he had used medical marijuana for anxiety “days prior” and had been prescribed the anti-anxiety drug Xanax but couldn’t recall the last time he used it.
Hoek also said he had been kicked out of several relatives’ homes but did not specify why.
The person who called police told investigators Hoek had been a “family friend” who “started scaring him” and “started acting weird lately,” which led the person to obtain no-contact and no-trespass orders last month, the agent wrote.
Hoek’s mother told investigators that she believed her son “was suffering from mental health issues and was self-medicating,” but was smart enough to fool mental health professionals who evaluated him, so he would get released quickly with no help. She also said he was addicted to dextromethorphan, a cough medicine that is sometimes abused.
One person said Hoek’s “downward spiral” escalated after she obtained an order for protection against him last month and that he became “increasingly physically violent,” the agent wrote.
South Carolina
State wants to restart executions with firing squad, electric chair and lethal injection
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawyers for four death row inmates who have run out of appeals are expected to argue to the South Carolina Supreme Court that the state’s old electric chair and new firing squad are cruel and unusual punishments.
Attorneys for the inmates also plan to argue Tuesday that a 2023 law meant to allow lethal injections to restart keeps secret too many details about the new drug and protocol used to kill prisoners.
In the balance are the death sentences of 33 inmates who are on South Carolina’s death row. While there hasn’t been a formal moratorium, the state hasn’t performed an execution in nearly 13 years after the drugs it used for lethal injection expired and companies refused to sell more to prison officials unless they could hide their identities from the public.
South Carolina says all three methods fit existing protocols. “Courts have never held the death has to be instantaneous or painless,” wrote Grayson Lambert, a lawyer for Gov. Henry McMaster’s office.
If the Supreme Court justices allow executions to restart and any additional appeals are unsuccessful, South Carolina’s death chamber, unused since May 2011, could suddenly get quite busy.
Four inmates are suing, but four more have also run out of appeals, although two of them face a competency hearing before they could be executed, according to Justice 360, a group that describes itself as fighting for the inmates and for fairness and transparency in death penalty and other major criminal cases.
The state asked the Supreme Court to toss out a lower court ruling after a 2022 trial that the electric chair and the firing squad are cruel and unusual punishments. The justices added questions about last year’s shield law to the appeal and Tuesday’s arguments.
Circuit Judge Jocelyn Newman sided with the inmates whose experts testified prisoners would feel terrible pain whether their bodies were “cooking” by 2,000 volts of electricity in the chair, built in 1912, or if their hearts were stopped by bullets — assuming the three shooters were on target — from the yet-to-be used firing squad.
South Carolina’s current execution law requires inmates to be sent to the electric chair unless they choose a different method.
Mississippi
Favre must finish repaying misspent welfare money, auditor says
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s state auditor filed court papers Monday renewing his call for Brett Favre to repay the state for welfare money that the auditor says was improperly spent on projects backed by the retired NFL quarterback.
Auditor Shad White’s demand of nearly $730,000 from Favre is the latest twist in a long-running legal battle over money that was supposed to help some of the poorest people in one of the poorest states in the nation.
Favre, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member who lives in Mississippi, filed lawsuits in February 2023 accusing White and two national sportscasters of defaming him in public discussions about welfare misspending.
White said in 2020 that Favre had improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees from a nonprofit organization that spent welfare with approval from the Mississippi Department of Human Services. The money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program was to go toward a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi. Favre agreed to lead fundraising efforts for the facility at his alma mater, where his daughter started playing on the volleyball team in 2017.
“Favre had no legal right to the possession or control of this $1.1 Million,” White’s attorneys wrote in the court filing Monday.
Favre repaid $500,000 to the state in May 2020 and $600,000 in October 2021, but the new court filing said he still owes $729,790 because interest caused growth in the original amount he owed.
“It boggles the mind that Mr. Favre could imagine he is entitled to the equivalent of an interest-free loan of $1.1 million in taxpayer money, especially money intended for the benefit of the poor,” White said in a statement Monday.
The Associated Press left voicemail messages for two of Favre’s attorneys Monday, and they did not immediately respond.
In October, a federal judge dismissed Favre’s defamation lawsuit against Shannon Sharpe, a former NFL player who’s now a broadcaster. In May, Favre ended his lawsuit against sportscaster Pat McAfee, who is a former NFL punter, after McAfee apologized for on-air statements that Favre had been “stealing from poor people in Mississippi.”
Favre’s defamation lawsuit against White is still pending, and White’s filing Monday was a counterclaim in that suit.
Mississippi prosecutors have said millions of federal welfare dollars for low-income residents were squandered on projects supported by wealthy or well-connected people from 2016 to 2019.
A lawsuit filed by the Department of Human Services in 2022 said TANF money was improperly spent, including on projects Favre supported: $5 million for the volleyball arena and $1.7 million toward development of a concussion treatment drug.
No criminal charges have been brought against Favre, although a former department director and other people have pleaded guilty to their part in the misspending.
Lawmakers allowed a firing squad to be added in 2021. No legislation has been proposed in South Carolina to add nitrogen gas, which was used for the first time to kill an inmate last month in Alabama.
On the shield law, attorneys for the inmates argue South Carolina’s law is more secretive than any other state. They said prison officials should not be allowed to hide the identities of drug companies, the names of anyone helping with an execution and the exact procedure followed.
In September, prison officials announced they now have the sedative pentobarbital and changed the method of lethal injection execution from using three drugs to just one. They released few other details other than saying South Carolina’s method is similar to the protocol followed by the federal government and six other states.
The inmates argue pentobarbital, compounded and mixed, has a shelf life of about 45 days. They want to know if there is a regular supplier for the drug and what guidelines are in place to make sure the potency is right.
Too weak, and inmates may suffer without dying. Too strong, and the drug molecules can form tiny clumps that would cause intense pain when injected, according to court papers.
“No inmate in the country has ever been put to death with such little transparency about how he or she would be executed,” Justice 360 lawyer Lindsey Vann wrote.
Lawyers for the state said the inmates want the information so they can piece together who is supplying the drugs and put them under public pressure to stop.
“Each additional piece of information is a puzzle piece, and with enough of them, Respondents (or anyone else) may put them together to identify an individual or entity protected by the Shield Statute,” Lambert wrote.
South Carolina used to carry out an average of three executions a year and had more than 60 inmates on death row when the last execution was carried out in 2011. Since then, successful appeals and deaths have lowered the number to 33.
Prosecutors have sent only three new prisoners to death row in the past 13 years. Facing rising costs, the lack of lethal injection drugs and more vigorous defenses, they are choosing to accept guilty pleas and life in prison without parole.
