Indiana
Former workers file suit against state lawmaker
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A state lawmaker who was one of nine Republican state senators to vote against a right-to-work law two years ago is accused in a lawsuit of failing to pay his employees more than $220,000 in wages and other benefits.
Sen. Brent Waltz is contesting the lawsuit, saying he was an adviser to, but never an officer or owner of Indianapolis Diversified Machining.
The Indianapolis Star reports that company records indicate Waltz owned a fifth of IDM, served as its chief financial officer and earned an annual salary of more than $60,000. The company's bylaws list Waltz as an owner.
Waltz said those records are inaccurate and that he only had stock options he never invoked.
More than 40 workers filed a lawsuit against IDM after it closed in 2009. The lawsuit was filed in Marion County Court against Waltz, four of the company's other founders and The Baron Group, an investment banking firm owned by Waltz. Earlier this year, they won a partial judgment against the company for $720,000 in unpaid wages, damages and attorney fees.
None of that money has been collected. Other aspects of the lawsuit are pending, including accusations of fraud, conversion and unjust enrichment and whether the workers can pursue the company's assets as well as Waltz's personal assets.
Most employees lost a month of wages as well as unused vacation when the company abruptly closed in March 2009. They also learned that IDM did not pay Social Security taxes that had been withheld from their paychecks.
Former workers say the biggest shock was that IDM paid Waltz and The Baron Group $148,000 after the company closed.
"If they didn't have any money left, that's understandable. But to say there's no money left and then to start giving money away to somebody other than the employees?" said Ray Gainey, a former IDM shipping clerk.
Waltz said IDM wrote the checks to him and his company to cover investment banking services and services related to the company's closure and attempted sale. He said he also loaned money to four company officers for personal expenses.
The company had planned to pay the employees with a $106,000 payment from a customer that never materialized, Waltz said.
North Carolina
Group reviewing man's conviction in death of student
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina group is reviewing the case of a man convicted of killing a University of North Carolina Charlotte student more than six years ago.
The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence is investigating claims that Mike Carver, 46, was wrongly convicted of killing Irnia Yarmolenko, The Charlotte Observer reported.
The Gaston County man was convicted in 2011 of killing the woman and was sentenced to life in prison. The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the conviction last year.
Yarmolenko was found strangled May 5, 2008, three days after she turned 20. Her body was on the ground beside her car at the bottom of a 75-foot embankment near the Catawba River. A bungee cord, a ribbon and the drawstring from her sweatshirt were wrapped around her neck.
Executive Director Christine Mumma said lawyers with the Center on Actual Innocence think Carver's claim is credible, but she would not say why.
Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell says he's confident Carver is guilty and will not cooperate in the group's investigation.
Ohio
Daughter gets life in foster mom's stabbing death
PAINESVILLE, Ohio (AP) - A northeast Ohio teenager who killed her foster mother in 2012 at her foster father's urging has been sentenced to life in prison with a chance for parole in 30 years.
Nineteen-year-old Sabrina Zunich pleaded guilty last month to aggravated murder in the stabbing death of 41-year-old Lisa Knoefel in their home in the Cleveland suburbs.
Zunich testified at the trial of Kevin Knoefel that he'd threatened suicide if his wife wasn't killed. Zunich and the now 44-year-old Kevin Knoefel were romantically involved.
Kevin Knoefel received the same sentence as Zunich after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder and sexual battery. Prosecutors say Knoefel wanted his wife dead to collect $750,000 in life insurance.
Published: Tue, Sep 30, 2014
