Illinois
Attorney for man charged in 1972 slaying of teen wants statements suppressed
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — An attorney for a Minnesota man charged in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old suburban Chicago girl more than half a century ago wants statements he made at a police station suppressed.
Attorney Terry Ekl argued in a recent defense motion that statements Barry Whelpley made to Naperville investigators at the Minnesota police station should be excluded because they occurred in a continuation of a seven-hour interrogation that began at his home, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald reported Tuesday.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Aug. 10.
Whelpley, 78, is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault in the 1972 death of Julie Ann Hanson, of Naperville. The Minnesota man was arrested two years ago after DNA evidence linked him to the case.
Hanson disappeared on July 7, 1972, while riding her bicycle to her brother’s baseball game. Her body was discovered a day later in a field. She had been stabbed 36 times, coroners said.
Will County Judge David Carlson ruled last year that statements Whelpley made to police or his wife at his home were inadmissible.
Elk wrote in his latest motion that Whelpley “was interrogated for seven hours at his residence without being advised of his Miranda warnings in violation of the Fifth Amendment. After he was placed under arrest and transported to the police station, the interrogation continued almost immediately.”
In his motion, Ekl argues that even though Whelpley was read his Miranda rights at the police station, investigators continually referenced statements he made to police at the home. A video of the police station interrogation shows police spent the first 15 minutes summarizing what Whelpley said at his home.
Allowing the statements from the police station would circumvent Carlson’s previous ruling, Ekl argued.
Prosecutors declined to comment on the motion Tuesday, according to the Arlington Heights Daily Herald. They have until July 10 to respond to Ekl’s motion.
Ekl did not disclose what Whelpley said at the police station but said his client did not confess to the killing.
The girl’s murder remained unsolved for decades. The breakthrough in the case came through technological advancements in DNA and genetic genealogy analysis, police said. From that came the scientific evidence that pointed to Whelpley, a 1964 graduate of Naperville High School who lived about a mile from the girl’s house when she was killed.
Whelpley remains in jail on $10 million bail.
Arkansas
Appeals court rules death row inmate can sue state over DNA test refusal
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that an Arkansas inmate on death row can sue the state in his effort to have new tests run on DNA evidence that could clear him.
The three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis, Missouri, did not address the merits of Stacey Eugene Johnson’s case, but limited its review “to the threshold issues of whether Johnson has standing and whether the defendants are immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment.”
“The defendants here are not immune from suit under the Eleventh Amendment because Johnson seeks prospective declaratory and injunctive relief and has alleged a sufficient connection between the defendants and Act 1780’s enforcement,” the appellate panel said in Monday’s ruling. Act 1780 is a law that allows for post-conviction DNA testing.
“The Sevier County Prosecuting Attorney and the Director of the State Crime Lab have a sufficient connection because they possess and control evidence that Johnson seeks to test, and they have refused to provide it to him ... And the Attorney General has a sufficient connection because he has refused to agree to DNA testing and opposed Johnson’s Act 1780 petition.”
Attorney General Tim Griffin acknowledged in a text message to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the decision was a setback, but he said he is confident the state will ultimately prevail in its bid to execute Johnson.
“I am disappointed by (Monday’s) decision,” Griffin said, “but now this case will move forward to the merits. This statute is constitutional, and I look forward to defending it.”
Johnson, 53, came within a day of being executed in 2017 for the 1993 murder of Carol Heath in De Queen, Arkansas.
Johnson was one of eight Arkansas prisoners scheduled for an unprecedented string of back-to-back executions in 2017 by then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson. He has been on death row since 1997 for Heath’s murder.
But the day before Johnson was to be put to death, the state Supreme Court stayed his execution in a 4-3 decision and remanded the case to a trial court for a hearing on his petition requesting additional testing of physical evidence found at the crime scene, which Johnson claims could prove his innocence.
In 2019, after a lower court denied Johnson’s request, the Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling in a 5-2 decision, clearing the way for Johnson’s execution.
Shortly before his scheduled execution date, Johnson, assisted by the Innocence Project, filed a petition in state court under Arkansas’ post-conviction DNA testing statute, known as Act 1780, seeking DNA testing on 26 pieces of physical evidence related to Heath’s murder, including swabs taken from Heath’s body and hairs found at the crime scene that were never tested.
Johnson, who is Black, argued that the proposed DNA testing might collectively point to a specific Caucasian perpetrator and call Johnson’s guilt into question. Johnson, who has spent a quarter-century on death row, has argued for years that the untested evidence could possibly implicate Brandon Ramsey, Heath’s now-deceased ex-boyfriend.
Johnson was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1994. That conviction was later reversed on appeal because of an evidentiary error, and in 1997 he was again found guilty and sentenced to death. The Arkansas Supreme Court affirmed Johnson’s conviction and death sentence on an appeal.
In 2021, following a denial by the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case, Johnson sued the state attorney general, the prosecuting attorney of Sevier County and the director of the state Crime Laboratory, saying that the continued refusal to allow new DNA testing constituted a denial of due process. Johnson also sought an order declaring Act 1780 unconstitutional and an injunction requiring the defendants to release the DNA evidence for further testing.
Last year, after U.S. District Judge Kristine G. Baker denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the defendants appealed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which affirmed Baker’s ruling Monday.
Washington
State to pay $3.1M to settle lawsuit in which state failed to turn over evidence
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state is set to pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit over alleged severe neglect at an adult family home — in addition to more than $300,000 in penalties levied by a judge for wrongful withholding of evidence, officials said.
The settlement announced by Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office Monday will pay $3,125,000 to plaintiff Emily Tobin, The Seattle Times reported.
Tobin has developmental disabilities and was allegedly neglected after the state placed her at the home in the Seattle suburb of Kent. The settlement, which requires court approval, would also stop a court-ordered investigation into the state’s handling of evidence.
King County Superior Court Judge Michael Ryan previously slammed the Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Social and Health Services for an “egregious” and “cavalier” failure to turn over thousands of pages of records to Tobin’s attorneys.
Ryan in March fined the state $200,000 for its conduct and added another $122,555 in attorney’s fees in a May order.
The Attorney General’s Office acknowledged that it had withheld some 11,000 pages of records relevant to the lawsuit while trying to get it dismissed. The state has since admitted it had found another 100,000 pages of additional documents it needed to turn over.
David Moody, an attorney representing Tobin, told the newspaper in a statement, “Emily is grateful to the Court” for starting to hold the attorney general’s office accountable.
Moody called the conduct “a stain” on the Attorney General’s office “that reaches the highest level.”
Ferguson took responsibility for the errors in a statement sent through his office Monday.
“AG Ferguson recognizes that the buck stops with him. Discovery sanctions are unacceptable,” said the statement emailed by Brionna Aho, a spokesperson for the office.
The lawsuit and discovery violations come at a politically inopportune time for Ferguson, a Democrat who is running for governor.
The statement from his office said that “the issues that led to the sanctions” show a need for better communication between the AG’s office and Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), and said some of the problems arose when an attorney went on parental leave.
“We are reviewing our discovery protocols to determine what changes are appropriate. AG Ferguson is overseeing a review. A personnel investigation is ongoing,” the statement said.
The lawsuit filed in 2021 alleged “negligent care and treatment” of Tobin by the state and the Ayasha Adult Family Home.
An attorney representing Ayasha Adult Family Home previously denied the lawsuit’s allegations, which included a lack of nutritious diet and lack of hygiene care, in a statement, saying Tobin “and was provided quality care during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Illinois
Former airline customer-service agent charged with $1.9M fraud
CHICAGO (AP) — A former Southwest Airlines customer-service agent has been indicted and charged with fraud for allegedly making and selling travel vouchers worth nearly $1.9 million.
Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that DaJuan Martin was working at Chicago’s Midway Airport when he filled out the vouchers with phony names, then sold them to others including a co-defendant, Ned Brooks, at less than face value.
In an indictment handed down Monday, Martin, 36, of Bolingbrook, Illinois, was charged with 12 counts of wire fraud. Brooks, 46, of Chicago, was charged with four counts of wire fraud. Each count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Martin worked for Southwest between November 2018 and June 2022. As a customer-service agent, he had authority to issue the vouchers to customers who experienced service problems. Brooks and others would send Martin text messages when they wanted vouchers, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of nearly $1.9 million from Martin, $732,000 from Brooks, nearly $27,000 in cash and a 2021 Land Rover.
