Florida
Charges dropped against family accused of attacking gay man in relationship with adult son
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — South Florida prosecutors dropped criminal charges on Tuesday against a couple and their adult son who had been accused of severely beating a man who had been in a relationship with the son.
Yevhen Makarenko, his wife, Inna, and their son Oleh had each been charged with attempted murder, burglary and kidnapping in the August 2021 beating, the Sun Sentinel reported. Prosecutors had filed hate crime charges against them in April 2022.
Broward County Assistant State Attorney Veronica Walker wrote in a memorandum outlining the decision not to prosecute that a crime appears to have been committed, but there is no likelihood of conviction.
Defense attorney George Palaidis said the Makarenkos were at home when the attack occurred, as prosecutors acknowledged that cellphone records failed to place the family at the crime scene.
Deputies found the victim at his Pompano Beach home in August 2021, officials said. He initially told detectives that he fell down while drinking alcohol but later said that he had been beaten by Oleh Makarenko and his family.
Investigators learned that the victim and Oleh Makarenko had been dating for several months when his parents found out about the relationship and disapproved. But prosecutors said they were unable to corroborate significant portions of the victim’s account.
Massachusetts
Man accused of killing wife sentenced in case involving sale of fake Andy Warhol paintings
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man charged with killing his wife was sentenced Tuesday to more than three years behind bars over an unrelated art fraud case involving the sale of two fake Andy Warhol paintings.
Brian Walshe, who faces first-degree murder and other charges in the death of 39-year-old Ana Walshe, was sentenced to 37 months for selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings. He was also ordered to pay $475,000 in restitution.
In 2016, a buyer found an advertisement for the two paintings on eBay, two of Warhol’s “Shadows,” a series of untitled, abstract paintings from 1978, prosecutors said.
After paying Walshe $80,000 for the abstract paintings, the buyer didn’t find any promised Warhol Foundation authentication stamps on the paintings, prosecutors said. The person also noticed the canvas and staples looked new and that the painting didn’t look identical to those in the eBay ad, concluding the paintings must not be authentic. The buyer tried and failed to get his money back.
Walshe’s scheme, prosecutors said, started with his selling the two original Warhol paintings in 2011 to a gallery. From there, he obtained replicas of the paintings in 2015 and sold those to a buyer in France before trying to sell the two fake abstracts on eBay.
A lawyer for Walshe had requested time served.
Walshe still faces a potential trial in the murder case, in which he is accused of killing Ana Walshe and dismembering her and disposing of her body. The couple’s three children were placed in state custody.
Ana Walshe, who is originally from Serbia, was last seen early on Jan. 1 following a New Year’s Eve dinner at her Massachusetts home with her husband and a family friend, prosecutors said.
Brian Walshe said she was called back to Washington, D.C., on New Year’s Day for a work emergency. He didn’t contact her employer until Jan. 4, saying she was missing.
Ana Walshe divided her time between the nation’s capital, where she worked for an international property management company, and the family home in the affluent coastal community of Cohasset.
Brian Walshe had been on home confinement with some exceptions while awaiting sentencing in the art fraud case.
Prosecutors have said that starting Jan. 1 and for several days after, Brian Walshe made multiple online searches for “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember.”
Investigators said they found Jan. 3 surveillance video of a man resembling Brian Walshe throwing what appeared to be heavy trash bags into a dumpster at an apartment complex in Abington, not far from Cohasset.
Prosecutors also said that Ana Walshe had taken out $2.7 million in life insurance naming her husband as the sole beneficiary.
Wisconsin
DA asks State Supreme Court to decide abortion lawsuit without lower court ruling
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican prosecutor asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to decide whether a 174-year-old state law bans abortion in the state without waiting for a ruling from a lower appellate court.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion, reactivated an 1849 law that conservatives have interpreted as banning abortion.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit arguing that the law is too old to enforce and conflicts with a 1985 law permitting abortions before fetuses can survive outside the womb. Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper ruled in July that since the law doesn’t use the term “abortion,” it only prohibits attacking a woman in an attempt to kill her unborn child. The ruling emboldened Planned Parenthood to resume offering abortions in the state.
Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski, a Republican who is defending the statutes as a ban, said in December that he would appeal the Dane County ruling. He filed a petition with the state Supreme Court on Tuesday asking the justices to take the case without waiting for a decision from a lower state appeals court.
Urmanski’s attorney, Matt Thome, wrote in the petition that the state Supreme Court should decide the appeal because its ruling will have a statewide impact and guide policymakers. The case will eventually end up before the high court anyway, he added.
The petition states that Kaul agrees that the state Supreme Court should take the appeal directly. State Justice Department spokesperson Melanie Conklin had no immediate comment.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s chief strategy officer, Michelle Velasquez, said in a statement that the organization agrees that allowing the appeal to go through lower courts would only create needless delays before the Supreme Court issues a final decision.
Urmanski faces an uphill battle if the state Supreme Court takes the case. Liberal justices control the court, and one of them, Justice Janet Protasiewicz, repeatedly stated on the campaign trail last year that she supports abortion rights.
Charges dropped against family accused of attacking gay man in relationship with adult son
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — South Florida prosecutors dropped criminal charges on Tuesday against a couple and their adult son who had been accused of severely beating a man who had been in a relationship with the son.
Yevhen Makarenko, his wife, Inna, and their son Oleh had each been charged with attempted murder, burglary and kidnapping in the August 2021 beating, the Sun Sentinel reported. Prosecutors had filed hate crime charges against them in April 2022.
Broward County Assistant State Attorney Veronica Walker wrote in a memorandum outlining the decision not to prosecute that a crime appears to have been committed, but there is no likelihood of conviction.
Defense attorney George Palaidis said the Makarenkos were at home when the attack occurred, as prosecutors acknowledged that cellphone records failed to place the family at the crime scene.
Deputies found the victim at his Pompano Beach home in August 2021, officials said. He initially told detectives that he fell down while drinking alcohol but later said that he had been beaten by Oleh Makarenko and his family.
Investigators learned that the victim and Oleh Makarenko had been dating for several months when his parents found out about the relationship and disapproved. But prosecutors said they were unable to corroborate significant portions of the victim’s account.
Massachusetts
Man accused of killing wife sentenced in case involving sale of fake Andy Warhol paintings
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man charged with killing his wife was sentenced Tuesday to more than three years behind bars over an unrelated art fraud case involving the sale of two fake Andy Warhol paintings.
Brian Walshe, who faces first-degree murder and other charges in the death of 39-year-old Ana Walshe, was sentenced to 37 months for selling two fake Andy Warhol paintings. He was also ordered to pay $475,000 in restitution.
In 2016, a buyer found an advertisement for the two paintings on eBay, two of Warhol’s “Shadows,” a series of untitled, abstract paintings from 1978, prosecutors said.
After paying Walshe $80,000 for the abstract paintings, the buyer didn’t find any promised Warhol Foundation authentication stamps on the paintings, prosecutors said. The person also noticed the canvas and staples looked new and that the painting didn’t look identical to those in the eBay ad, concluding the paintings must not be authentic. The buyer tried and failed to get his money back.
Walshe’s scheme, prosecutors said, started with his selling the two original Warhol paintings in 2011 to a gallery. From there, he obtained replicas of the paintings in 2015 and sold those to a buyer in France before trying to sell the two fake abstracts on eBay.
A lawyer for Walshe had requested time served.
Walshe still faces a potential trial in the murder case, in which he is accused of killing Ana Walshe and dismembering her and disposing of her body. The couple’s three children were placed in state custody.
Ana Walshe, who is originally from Serbia, was last seen early on Jan. 1 following a New Year’s Eve dinner at her Massachusetts home with her husband and a family friend, prosecutors said.
Brian Walshe said she was called back to Washington, D.C., on New Year’s Day for a work emergency. He didn’t contact her employer until Jan. 4, saying she was missing.
Ana Walshe divided her time between the nation’s capital, where she worked for an international property management company, and the family home in the affluent coastal community of Cohasset.
Brian Walshe had been on home confinement with some exceptions while awaiting sentencing in the art fraud case.
Prosecutors have said that starting Jan. 1 and for several days after, Brian Walshe made multiple online searches for “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember.”
Investigators said they found Jan. 3 surveillance video of a man resembling Brian Walshe throwing what appeared to be heavy trash bags into a dumpster at an apartment complex in Abington, not far from Cohasset.
Prosecutors also said that Ana Walshe had taken out $2.7 million in life insurance naming her husband as the sole beneficiary.
Wisconsin
DA asks State Supreme Court to decide abortion lawsuit without lower court ruling
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican prosecutor asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday to decide whether a 174-year-old state law bans abortion in the state without waiting for a ruling from a lower appellate court.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion, reactivated an 1849 law that conservatives have interpreted as banning abortion.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit arguing that the law is too old to enforce and conflicts with a 1985 law permitting abortions before fetuses can survive outside the womb. Dane County Circuit Judge Diane Schlipper ruled in July that since the law doesn’t use the term “abortion,” it only prohibits attacking a woman in an attempt to kill her unborn child. The ruling emboldened Planned Parenthood to resume offering abortions in the state.
Sheboygan County District Attorney Joel Urmanski, a Republican who is defending the statutes as a ban, said in December that he would appeal the Dane County ruling. He filed a petition with the state Supreme Court on Tuesday asking the justices to take the case without waiting for a decision from a lower state appeals court.
Urmanski’s attorney, Matt Thome, wrote in the petition that the state Supreme Court should decide the appeal because its ruling will have a statewide impact and guide policymakers. The case will eventually end up before the high court anyway, he added.
The petition states that Kaul agrees that the state Supreme Court should take the appeal directly. State Justice Department spokesperson Melanie Conklin had no immediate comment.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin’s chief strategy officer, Michelle Velasquez, said in a statement that the organization agrees that allowing the appeal to go through lower courts would only create needless delays before the Supreme Court issues a final decision.
Urmanski faces an uphill battle if the state Supreme Court takes the case. Liberal justices control the court, and one of them, Justice Janet Protasiewicz, repeatedly stated on the campaign trail last year that she supports abortion rights.
