News from Wisconsin
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Woman's rape conviction from Japan enforced by Wisconsin court
Court: Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Wisconsin
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| On Monday, Judge Michael D. Guolee of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court delivered a landmark ruling in favor of a woman seeking justice for her rape in Japan by a U.S. Navy sailor.[5] For victim Catherine Fischer, this verdict, the first in which a foreign judgment for rape has been enforced in a U.S. court, marks a victory in her 12-year struggle.
Fischer met Bloke Deans in 2002 near the U.S. Naval Base at Yokosuka, where he later assaulted her in her van. Fischer claimed she was refused medical treatment and was held by the Japanese police for 12 hours. It is customary for the Japanese police to photograph a reenactment of the rape between the victim and a police officer; however, Fischer refused to do so.[6] Fischer sought to have this practice abandoned and also demanded that the Japanese government set up a 24-hour rape crisis center.[5]
Over the next 12 years, Fischer went on to file seven court cases in both the U.S. and Japan, originally fighting to have Deans extradited to Japan. She was unsuccessful due to the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the two nations. SOFA, the legal framework that governs U.S. service members stationed in Japan, gives the military the right to exercise jurisdiction over its own personnel for crimes committed while on duty.[5] As part of her campaign, Fischer sought to have SOFA amended or discarded.
In 2004, a civil judgment by a Tokyo court ordered Deans to pay 3 million yen ($58,000) in damages to Fischer, but by the time the ruling was issued Deans had been removed from Japan by the U.S. Navy; he was given an honorable discharge when his military service ended.[7][6][5] Fischer did not receive compensation until 2008, when she received money from a Japanese Ministry of Defense fund for victims of crimes committed by U.S. military personnel.[7] After being contacted by a woman in the U.S. who claimed Deans also raped her, Fischer began searching for Deans in the U.S. and found him in Milwaukee where he was incarcerated for 45 days for misdemeanor child-neglect.[5][7]
The battle in the Milwaukee County Circuit Court began with a hearing on September 6, 2013, where the court decided to proceed with the case.[7] In court, Deans objected that the official English translation of the 2004 ruling named the defendant as “Broke Deans,” instead of “Bloke Deans.”[7] Deans also objected that when the original Japanese judgment was photocopied, the official court certification page was obscured. Fischer’s lawyer Chris Hanewicz, who worked the case pro bono, argued that Deans’ objections were “trivial and overly technical.”[7]
Judge Michael D. Guolee ruled that the Japanese civil court judgment was valid and enforceable, and Deans was required to compensate Fischer.[8] Fischer accepted the nominal sum of $1 as settlement, stating, “I did this for all the women who have been raped in this country [Japan] by the U.S. military over the last 70 years.”[5] Fischer believes that even though Deans is still not in prison, this landmark verdict will make it more difficult for U.S. military personnel to escape justice after committing a crime in Japan. |
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News from Minnesota
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Man convicted of killing wife, dumping body in Mississippi River gets 27.5 years
Court: Minnesota Second Judicial District
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| Her body was stripped bare, her face had gashes and she had a broken finger as she was found floating in the Mississippi river close to downtown St. Paul. The sight was so gruesome her body could not be identified without dental records. Her name was Kira Steger.[9]
Minnesota Second Judicial District Judge Leonardo Castro told Steger's husband and convicted murderer at his sentencing trial on Monday, "Jeffery Trevino, it is my belief on some level that you probably did not set out to kill Ms. Steger." Castro added, however, that his choice to dump Kira Steger’s body into the river to conceal his actions last February was “dishonorable, depraved and malicious.”[9]
Trevino’s crime was second-degree unintentional murder; a jury found him guilty in October and acquitted him of second-degree intentional murder, which would have indicated a planned murder. Castro gave Trevino a sentence longer than the maximum sentencing guidelines, which indicate a 15-year ceiling for second-degree unintentional murder prison sentences. Castro gave him 27.5 years, with at least 18 in prison.[10][11][12]
“He dumped my daughter like a piece of trash in the nation’s most polluted waterway,” Kira’s mother Marcie Steger told the court.[10]
Kira’s sister Kari-Ann Steger had a similarly tearful statement. “This monster is a calculated criminal…He deserves no mercy,” she said.[11]
Kira’s father Jay Steger and other sister Felicia Krejci also gave statements. The family asked for 30 years, and said after the sentencing they were satisfied with the result. Trevino’s attorney John Conard called for the minimum term recommended by the Minnesota guidelines, about 10.5 years, citing his clean record and military service.[12] Assistant Ramsey County attorneys Andrew R.K. Johnson and Richard Dusterhoft said “aggravating factors” called for the heavy sentence, an assertion with which Castro concurred. Castro cited Trevino’s elaborate coverup, in which he commissioned Steger’s friends to look for her body.[12]
Steger, 30, and Trevino, 39, had been on a date at the Mall of America the night she went missing last winter, two and a half months before her body was spotted in the Mississippi River. At the trial, prosecutors said that Trevino’s motive was Steger’s affair with a coworker and request for divorce, both of which she had told her family about. The last contact anyone else had with Steger was a text message to her boyfriend that night shortly before midnight.[12][9]
Conard plans to appeal the sentence, pending Trevino’s approval.[9] |
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News from Nevada
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Nevada reporter doesn't have to reveal sources, court says
Court: Nevada Supreme Court
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| The Nevada Supreme Court upheld the state's shield law for journalists on November 27, 2013. The ruling allows a Las Vegas TV show to keep their sources confidential.
Jeff Guinn and his company, Aspen Financial Services, were facing lawsuits for the mismanagement of their investors' money. Guinn responded by filing a countersuit. He argued that the negative reports about his company on the TV show "Ralston Reports," hosted by political commentator Jon Ralston, amounted to libel. Though Dana Gentry, the show's executive producer, was not a defendant in the lawsuit, she was subpoenaed to testify. Guinn alleged that Gentry received gifts and services in exchange for information and was seeking to bring her to court to testify to that effect.
The court ruled that Gentry and her TV show did not have to disclose any information, upholding a 2011 ruling by District Judge Allan Earl which stopped the subpoena. Justice Michael Douglas wrote in the unanimous decision:
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As this court has previously explained the statute ‘confers upon journalists an absolute privilege from disclosure of their sources and information in any proceeding’ in order ‘to enhance the newsgathering process’[13][4]
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Guinn and his attorney said the information they were seeking from Gentry was personal, rather than work-related. However, the court found that "[t]he circumstances of this case demonstrate that Aspen actually is effectively seeking to confirm the identities of Gentry’s sources."[14]
Mike Hengel, editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, praised the court's decision, stating:
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The ruling is a relief to any responsible news organization that depends on its ability to cultivate credible news sources and occasionally protect their identity.[14][4]
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News from West Virginia
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Agribusiness giant, Monsanto, settles class action lawsuit
Court: Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia
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| On November 22, 2013, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia approved a $93 million dollar settlement agreement between Monsanto and the residents of the West Virginian town of Nitro.[15]
For over fifty years, Monsanto--the biotechnology-agribusiness giant who dominates American crop production with its genetically modified seeds--manufactured herbicides, chemicals, and rubber products from its Nitro plant. One such chemical produced was Agent Orange--the notorious Vietnam-War era defoliant, whose by-product of dioxin has been known to cause birth defects, cancer, learning disabilities, and impairments to the immune and reproductive systems.[16]
In 2004, Nitro residents filed a class action law suit, claiming that the dioxin produced by Monsanto’s plant created dioxin-laced dust and pollutants which spread across the city and pervaded many near-by homes. In February 2012, after seven years of litigation, Monsanto agreed to settle the case rather than face the possibility of a potential six-month trial.[16]
The settlement agreement provides for a 30-year medical monitoring plan for residents with $21 million allotted for initial testing for dioxin, up to $63 million for funding the plan in the future, and $9 million for the cleaning of 4,500 homes contaminated by dioxin.[17] Judge Derek Swope of the Ninth Judicial Circuit approved the settlement in January 2013, but several Nitro residents had filed an appeal primarily arguing that the agreement failed to benefit more of the residents involved in the class action suit. The state supreme court found otherwise, stating that “[t]he settlement results from zealous, rigorous advocacy by both parties. Therefore, we cannot conclude that the circuit court abused its discretion in finding it to be fair, adequate, and reasonable.”[15]
In addition to the clean-up, medical testing and treatment of residents, the settlement agreement also stipulates that Nitro residents may still reserve the right to bring personal injury suits against Monsanto if they develop dioxin-related illnesses. With regard to legal fees, attorneys for the class-action plaintiffs will expect to see up to $29.5 million for their advocacy on behalf of the residents and making Monsanto accountable for its unsafe practices.[16] |
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News from Colorado
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Colorado Court of Appeals upholds ruling of overturned murder conviction
Court: Colorado Court of Appeals
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| On November 21st, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the 2009 decision of the Lincoln County District Court to overturn the murder conviction of David Bueno. The ruling to overturn was due to the discovery of evidence that had been withheld by the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office during the trial.[18]
David Bueno was charged and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of fellow inmate Jeffrey Heird, a white supremacist who was stabbed to death in 2004 at the Limon Correctional Facility. District Attorney Carol Chambers sought the death penalty for Bueno. Following the murder, prison workers found two notes. One read "Killers are Bueno and Perez," referring to Alejandro Perez, who was charged with murder along with Bueno. The second note was allegedly written by the Aryan Nation, and threatened to "exterminate" white prisoners who "refuse to accept their proud race," and included a hit list of other white inmates. One man on the list, David Hollenbeck, was attacked the following week and died from the injuries. This second note supports the defense's argument that Heird was killed by other white supremacists, and that prosecutors did not properly look into any other suspects. The note, however, was removed by the prosecution from the evidence file and consequently not used in defense of Bueno.[19]
The judge in Alejandro Perez's case ordered the note to be given to the defense. This was about 15 months after the conviction of Bueno. In contrast to Bueno's life sentence, the jury acquitted Perez. “The facts of both cases were largely he same. Perez’s acquittal was absolute proof that the evidence would have made a difference in Bueno’s trial,” said Derek Samuelson, David Bueno's lawyer.[18]
After the note was entered into evidence, Judge Douglas Tallman, who presided over the case, vacated the conviction and granted the motion for a new trial. In his decision, he stated "The Trial Court cannot say with certainty the District Attorney acted in bad faith by withholding relevant and possibly exculpatory evidence...[But] it is apparent to the Trial Court that a conscious decision was made at some point early in this case to keep the information from the Defendant by separating these documents from the balance of Watson's working file." The District Attorney's Office filed an appeal, and assistant district attorney Leslie Hanson's statement claimed that the letter had indeed been available to the defense well before the trial.[20]
The Court of Appeals judges ruled that Judge Tallman's decision to overturn Bueno's conviction was legally sound, and upheld his ruling.
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Now that two courts have confirmed that the prosecutors from the 18th Judicial District withheld critical evidence when a man’s life was on the line, one can’t help but question what’s going in other cases where some of the very same people are seeking the death penalty.[18] -Derek Samuelson, lawyer for David Bueno[4]
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A spokesperson for the DA's office said that they "respectfully disagree with the Court of Appeals' decision, and are assessing whether to further appeal."[18] |
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News from Georgia
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New indictment upheld in Georgia corruption case
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
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| A Georgia Court of Appeals panel has made a major ruling involving a locally-infamous corruption case. A former county commissioner in Georgia has been charged and indicted on two counts of bribery and one failure to disclose in a conflict of interest case bearing political ramifications. Kevin Kenerly, a former member of the Gwinnett County Commission, has been denied a motion to drop the grand jury indictment that has brought him up on two separate occasions, both of which involve similar charges.[5] The unique nature of the indictment--the fact that it is from a grand jury--has left it in controversial waters. Kenerly tried to have the charges tossed in the 9th Superior Court, but that motion was also denied earlier this year.
Kenerly was accused of failing to disclose a partnership with a developer while approving a rezoning. Additionally, Kenerly is accused of taking kickbacks from the development on the order of $1 million.[6] Kenerly claims that the relationship with the developer was public and known. In the last Gwinnett County election cycle, Kenerly's opposition ran an ad featuring him playing poker with the developer, which Kenerly is now citing as conclusive evidence that the relationship was "de facto" public and known, and therefore not requiring further disclosure.
A state law says that a case cannot be made on the same charges if a second indictment is tossed.[5] The first indictment was thrown out by the same Court of Appeals because the statute of limitations had expired. Georgia law only allows for four years for charges to be filed in felony cases, with some "tolling" exceptions. The prosecution tried to capitalize on those tolling exceptions, but none prevailed in the round of hearings involving the first indictment.[21] For the prosecution, choosing the charges is a difficult balance; if they charge too many and they get tossed, there will be little left to indict on the next round. In light of the recent Court of Appeals ruling, the prosecution will likely move on to criminal court. |
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