Arkansas
Inmate who was beaten in back of patrol car files federal lawsuit
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An inmate who was beaten by an Arkansas police officer in the back of a patrol car filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the former officer and his police chief, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights.
Attorneys for Billy Lee Coram filed the lawsuit against former Jonesboro police officer Joseph Harris, Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott and the city of Jonesboro over the Aug. 8 beating. Harris was fired after he was caught on his patrol car camera punching, elbowing and slamming a car door against the head of Coram, who was being transferred from a local hospital back to the county jail.
Jonesboro Police released video of the video and announced Harris’ firing in August. Elliott said he had reviewed the video after receiving a complaint from the county sheriff’s office about the incident.
Elliott did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. Jonesboro City Attorney Carol Duncan said the city had not been served yet, but does not comment on pending litigation. A number was not listed for Harris.
In the video, Coram is wearing a hospital gown and choking himself with a seatbelt wrapped his neck as the car is moving in the roughly 12-minute video. After the car pulls over, Harris opens the door and punches and elbows Coram several times in the face as he unwinds the belt.
Harris later slams the car door against Coram’s head. According to the lawsuit, Coram had been taken to the hospital after ingesting a baggie of fentanyl and had run away from the hospital when he panicked. He had wrapped the seatbelt around his neck to try and gag himself to dislodge the fentanyl he believed was still in his system, the lawsuit said.
“In the moment, I thought he was going to kill me. I’ve dealt with a lot of cops, but never one as vicious as Officer Harris,” Coram said in a statement released by his attorneys. “He was stone cold; he didn’t say nothing and was just hellbent on punishing me.”
Elliott last month referred the case to local prosecutors. The Craighead County prosecutor did not immediately return a call on Tuesday.
The lawsuit claims that Elliott knew Harris had an “established and well-known employment history of using excessive force, engaging in deceptive practices and making threats against law-abiding citizens.” They include his use of excessive force during an arrest when he worked off-duty at a night club in 2022.
Coram is being held in the Poinsett County jail on an escape charge, but a court date had not been set yet.
New Hampshire
Man who killed 2 professors as a teen challenges his sentence
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty as a teenager to the 2001 stabbing deaths of two married Dartmouth College professors is challenging his life-without-parole sentence, saying that the New Hampshire Constitution prohibits it.
Robert Tulloch was 17 when he killed Half Zantop and Susanne Zantop in Hanover as part of a conspiracy he and his best friend concocted to rob and kill people before fleeing to Australia with their ill-gotten gains.
Tulloch, 41, awaits resentencing at a later date, following a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles amounts to “cruel and unusual” punishment. Another opinion made that decision retroactive, giving hundreds of juvenile lifers a shot at freedom. In 2021, the court found that a minor did not have to be found incapable of being rehabilitated before being sentenced to life without parole.
At least 28 states have banned such sentences for crimes committed when the defendant is a child. But efforts to pass similar legislation in New Hampshire have not succeeded.
The New Hampshire Constitution says no court of law “shall deem excessive bail or sureties, impose excessive fines, or inflict cruel or unusual punishments.”
That language would include sentencing someone to life without parole when they commit a crime as a child, Tulloch’s lawyer, Richard Guerriero, wrote in a memorandum. He also argued that the state constitution’s language is broader and offers more protection than the U.S. Constitution’s.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and other organizations filed a brief in support of Tulloch.
Prosecutors said in court documents that Guerriero’s argument is not compelling. They have said it is possible they will ask for a similar life-without-parole sentence for Tulloch.
If a judge finds that the state constitution permits life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed by children, Guerriero also asked for findings that a defendant is incapable of change and proof beyond a reasonable doubt that such a sentence is appropriate.
Tulloch is the last of five men who awaits resentencing under a state supreme court ruling. Three were resentenced to lengthy terms with a chance at parole. One was resentenced to life without parole after refusing to attend his hearing or authorize his attorneys to argue for a lesser sentence.
Tulloch’s friend, James Parker, 40, was released from prison on parole in June. He was 16 when the crimes were committed. Parker had pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to second-degree murder in the death of Susanne Zantop. He served nearly the minimum term of his 25-years-to-life sentence.
Parker agreed to testify against Tulloch, who had planned to use an insanity defense at his trial. But Tulloch changed his mind and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
The teens, bored with their lives in nearby Chelsea, Vermont, wanted to move to Australia and estimated they needed $10,000 for the trip. They eventually decided they would knock on homeowners’ doors under the pretext of conducting a survey on environmental issues, then tie up their victims and steal their credit cards and ATM information. They planned to make their captives provide their PINs before killing them.
For about six months, they had tried to talk their way into four other homes in Vermont and New Hampshire, but were turned away or found no one home.
Parker, who cooperated with prosecutors, said they picked the Zantop house because it looked expensive and it was surrounded by trees. Susanne Zantop, 55, was head of Dartmouth’s German studies department and her husband, Half Zantop, 62, taught Earth sciences.
Parker and Tulloch were arrested weeks later.
Pennsylvania
County must tell voters if it counted their mail-in ballot, court rules
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Republican-controlled county in Pennsylvania violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters whether their mail-in ballot would be counted in April’s primary election, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The case is one of several election-related lawsuits being fought in courts in Pennsylvania, a presidential battleground state where November’s contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be close.
Through a 2-1 decision, the statewide Commonwealth Court panel upheld a Washington County judge’s month-old order.
The order requires county employees to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision.
It also requires Washington County to allow those voters to vote by provisional ballot.
In the 19-page majority opinion, Judge Michael Wojcik wrote that the county’s past policy “emasculates” the law’s guarantees that voters can protest the rejection of their ballot and take advantage of the “statutory failsafe” of casting a provisional ballot.
The local NAACP branch, the Center for Coalfield Justice and seven voters whose ballots had been rejected in the April 23 primary sued the county earlier this summer, accusing Washington County of violating the constitutional due process rights of voters by deliberately concealing whether their ballot had been counted.
New Hampshire
Woman to plead guilty in death of her 5-year-old son
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire woman is preparing to plead guilty in the death of her 5-year-old son, according to court documents.
Danielle Dauphinais, 38, will plead guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and two counts of witness tampering in the death of her son Elijah Lewis, according to a plea agreement filed Monday. She faces up to 55 years in prison.
The child was discovered missing and found dead in October 2021 in a Massachusetts park. An autopsy showed he suffered facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and pressure ulcers.
Dauphinais’ boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence and witness tampering in 2022 in connection with the boy’s death. He was sentenced to 22 to 45 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Elijah was starved, neglected and physically abused. During Stapf’s sentencing, they read a series of texts between Stapf and Dauphinais that expressed hostility toward Elijah.
When Elijah died and child welfare workers started to investigate his disappearance, the couple put his body in a container and brought him to Ames Nowell State Park in Abington, Massachusetts, where Stapf dug a hole and buried him, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said that when Elijah was found, he was 3 feet (0.91 meters) tall and weighed 19 pounds, while an average 5-year-old boy would be about 3.6 feet (1.1 meter) tall and closer to 40 pounds.
When Elijah was still missing, Stapf and Dauphinais were arrested in New York on charges of witness tampering and child endangerment. Days after their arrest, Elijah’s remains were found.
Dauphinais was indicted in 2022 on one count of first-degree murder alleging that she purposely caused her son’s death, one count of second-degree murder alleging she acted recklessly in causing his death, and three counts of witness tampering.
She had initially pleaded not guilty before opting to change her plea.
Minnesota
Woman gets 20 years in killing o real estate agent
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge sentenced a woman to 20 years in prison Tuesday for her alleged role in the 2019 New Year’s Eve killing of a Minneapolis real estate agent.
Elsa Segura pleaded guilty to kidnapping to commit great bodily harm or terrorize as part of an agreement with prosecutors in the case of the death of Monique Baugh, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
Segura had been found guilty of murder and other counts in 2021, but the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned the conviction this year, citing faulty jury instructions. The plea deal means Segura will avoid a second trial.
Prosecutors say Segura lured Baugh to a phony home showing in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove, where she was kidnapped. Baugh was found, fatally shot, in a Minneapolis alley in the early hours of 2020.
Prosecutors said she was killed in a complicated revenge scheme against Baugh’s boyfriend, Jon Mitchell-Momoh, a recording artist who had a falling out with former business associate Lyndon Akeem Wiggins, who was also a drug dealer and Segura’s romantic partner.
Mitchell-Momoh, whom Wiggins allegedly considered a snitch, was also shot in front of the couple’s children, then ages 1 and 3. He survived.
The state Supreme Court also tossed Wiggins’ conviction this year, similarly citing faulty jury instructions. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that he is being held in the county jail and faces retrial.
The high court has affirmed the convictions of two other defendants who were accused of kidnapping Baugh. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced all four to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Inmate who was beaten in back of patrol car files federal lawsuit
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An inmate who was beaten by an Arkansas police officer in the back of a patrol car filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the former officer and his police chief, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights.
Attorneys for Billy Lee Coram filed the lawsuit against former Jonesboro police officer Joseph Harris, Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott and the city of Jonesboro over the Aug. 8 beating. Harris was fired after he was caught on his patrol car camera punching, elbowing and slamming a car door against the head of Coram, who was being transferred from a local hospital back to the county jail.
Jonesboro Police released video of the video and announced Harris’ firing in August. Elliott said he had reviewed the video after receiving a complaint from the county sheriff’s office about the incident.
Elliott did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment. Jonesboro City Attorney Carol Duncan said the city had not been served yet, but does not comment on pending litigation. A number was not listed for Harris.
In the video, Coram is wearing a hospital gown and choking himself with a seatbelt wrapped his neck as the car is moving in the roughly 12-minute video. After the car pulls over, Harris opens the door and punches and elbows Coram several times in the face as he unwinds the belt.
Harris later slams the car door against Coram’s head. According to the lawsuit, Coram had been taken to the hospital after ingesting a baggie of fentanyl and had run away from the hospital when he panicked. He had wrapped the seatbelt around his neck to try and gag himself to dislodge the fentanyl he believed was still in his system, the lawsuit said.
“In the moment, I thought he was going to kill me. I’ve dealt with a lot of cops, but never one as vicious as Officer Harris,” Coram said in a statement released by his attorneys. “He was stone cold; he didn’t say nothing and was just hellbent on punishing me.”
Elliott last month referred the case to local prosecutors. The Craighead County prosecutor did not immediately return a call on Tuesday.
The lawsuit claims that Elliott knew Harris had an “established and well-known employment history of using excessive force, engaging in deceptive practices and making threats against law-abiding citizens.” They include his use of excessive force during an arrest when he worked off-duty at a night club in 2022.
Coram is being held in the Poinsett County jail on an escape charge, but a court date had not been set yet.
New Hampshire
Man who killed 2 professors as a teen challenges his sentence
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty as a teenager to the 2001 stabbing deaths of two married Dartmouth College professors is challenging his life-without-parole sentence, saying that the New Hampshire Constitution prohibits it.
Robert Tulloch was 17 when he killed Half Zantop and Susanne Zantop in Hanover as part of a conspiracy he and his best friend concocted to rob and kill people before fleeing to Australia with their ill-gotten gains.
Tulloch, 41, awaits resentencing at a later date, following a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles amounts to “cruel and unusual” punishment. Another opinion made that decision retroactive, giving hundreds of juvenile lifers a shot at freedom. In 2021, the court found that a minor did not have to be found incapable of being rehabilitated before being sentenced to life without parole.
At least 28 states have banned such sentences for crimes committed when the defendant is a child. But efforts to pass similar legislation in New Hampshire have not succeeded.
The New Hampshire Constitution says no court of law “shall deem excessive bail or sureties, impose excessive fines, or inflict cruel or unusual punishments.”
That language would include sentencing someone to life without parole when they commit a crime as a child, Tulloch’s lawyer, Richard Guerriero, wrote in a memorandum. He also argued that the state constitution’s language is broader and offers more protection than the U.S. Constitution’s.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and other organizations filed a brief in support of Tulloch.
Prosecutors said in court documents that Guerriero’s argument is not compelling. They have said it is possible they will ask for a similar life-without-parole sentence for Tulloch.
If a judge finds that the state constitution permits life-without-parole sentences for crimes committed by children, Guerriero also asked for findings that a defendant is incapable of change and proof beyond a reasonable doubt that such a sentence is appropriate.
Tulloch is the last of five men who awaits resentencing under a state supreme court ruling. Three were resentenced to lengthy terms with a chance at parole. One was resentenced to life without parole after refusing to attend his hearing or authorize his attorneys to argue for a lesser sentence.
Tulloch’s friend, James Parker, 40, was released from prison on parole in June. He was 16 when the crimes were committed. Parker had pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to second-degree murder in the death of Susanne Zantop. He served nearly the minimum term of his 25-years-to-life sentence.
Parker agreed to testify against Tulloch, who had planned to use an insanity defense at his trial. But Tulloch changed his mind and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder.
The teens, bored with their lives in nearby Chelsea, Vermont, wanted to move to Australia and estimated they needed $10,000 for the trip. They eventually decided they would knock on homeowners’ doors under the pretext of conducting a survey on environmental issues, then tie up their victims and steal their credit cards and ATM information. They planned to make their captives provide their PINs before killing them.
For about six months, they had tried to talk their way into four other homes in Vermont and New Hampshire, but were turned away or found no one home.
Parker, who cooperated with prosecutors, said they picked the Zantop house because it looked expensive and it was surrounded by trees. Susanne Zantop, 55, was head of Dartmouth’s German studies department and her husband, Half Zantop, 62, taught Earth sciences.
Parker and Tulloch were arrested weeks later.
Pennsylvania
County must tell voters if it counted their mail-in ballot, court rules
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Republican-controlled county in Pennsylvania violated state law when election workers refused to tell voters whether their mail-in ballot would be counted in April’s primary election, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The case is one of several election-related lawsuits being fought in courts in Pennsylvania, a presidential battleground state where November’s contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris could be close.
Through a 2-1 decision, the statewide Commonwealth Court panel upheld a Washington County judge’s month-old order.
The order requires county employees to notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision.
It also requires Washington County to allow those voters to vote by provisional ballot.
In the 19-page majority opinion, Judge Michael Wojcik wrote that the county’s past policy “emasculates” the law’s guarantees that voters can protest the rejection of their ballot and take advantage of the “statutory failsafe” of casting a provisional ballot.
The local NAACP branch, the Center for Coalfield Justice and seven voters whose ballots had been rejected in the April 23 primary sued the county earlier this summer, accusing Washington County of violating the constitutional due process rights of voters by deliberately concealing whether their ballot had been counted.
New Hampshire
Woman to plead guilty in death of her 5-year-old son
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire woman is preparing to plead guilty in the death of her 5-year-old son, according to court documents.
Danielle Dauphinais, 38, will plead guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and two counts of witness tampering in the death of her son Elijah Lewis, according to a plea agreement filed Monday. She faces up to 55 years in prison.
The child was discovered missing and found dead in October 2021 in a Massachusetts park. An autopsy showed he suffered facial and scalp injuries, acute fentanyl intoxication, malnourishment and pressure ulcers.
Dauphinais’ boyfriend, Joseph Stapf, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, second-degree assault, falsifying physical evidence and witness tampering in 2022 in connection with the boy’s death. He was sentenced to 22 to 45 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Elijah was starved, neglected and physically abused. During Stapf’s sentencing, they read a series of texts between Stapf and Dauphinais that expressed hostility toward Elijah.
When Elijah died and child welfare workers started to investigate his disappearance, the couple put his body in a container and brought him to Ames Nowell State Park in Abington, Massachusetts, where Stapf dug a hole and buried him, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said that when Elijah was found, he was 3 feet (0.91 meters) tall and weighed 19 pounds, while an average 5-year-old boy would be about 3.6 feet (1.1 meter) tall and closer to 40 pounds.
When Elijah was still missing, Stapf and Dauphinais were arrested in New York on charges of witness tampering and child endangerment. Days after their arrest, Elijah’s remains were found.
Dauphinais was indicted in 2022 on one count of first-degree murder alleging that she purposely caused her son’s death, one count of second-degree murder alleging she acted recklessly in causing his death, and three counts of witness tampering.
She had initially pleaded not guilty before opting to change her plea.
Minnesota
Woman gets 20 years in killing o real estate agent
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge sentenced a woman to 20 years in prison Tuesday for her alleged role in the 2019 New Year’s Eve killing of a Minneapolis real estate agent.
Elsa Segura pleaded guilty to kidnapping to commit great bodily harm or terrorize as part of an agreement with prosecutors in the case of the death of Monique Baugh, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said.
Segura had been found guilty of murder and other counts in 2021, but the Minnesota Supreme Court overturned the conviction this year, citing faulty jury instructions. The plea deal means Segura will avoid a second trial.
Prosecutors say Segura lured Baugh to a phony home showing in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove, where she was kidnapped. Baugh was found, fatally shot, in a Minneapolis alley in the early hours of 2020.
Prosecutors said she was killed in a complicated revenge scheme against Baugh’s boyfriend, Jon Mitchell-Momoh, a recording artist who had a falling out with former business associate Lyndon Akeem Wiggins, who was also a drug dealer and Segura’s romantic partner.
Mitchell-Momoh, whom Wiggins allegedly considered a snitch, was also shot in front of the couple’s children, then ages 1 and 3. He survived.
The state Supreme Court also tossed Wiggins’ conviction this year, similarly citing faulty jury instructions. The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that he is being held in the county jail and faces retrial.
The high court has affirmed the convictions of two other defendants who were accused of kidnapping Baugh. Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill sentenced all four to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
