Colorado: Carbon monoxide grand jury proceedings sealed
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — The proceedings of a grand jury that indicted three men in the carbon monoxide deaths of a Denver family will remain off limits to the public.
However, prosecutors agreed Monday to give the defendants a full transcript of the Aspen grand jury’s year-long proceedings.
The decision came during the first court hearing for two building inspectors and the owner of a plumbing and heating company charged in the deaths of Parker and Caroline Lofgren and their two children.
The family died in an Aspen-area home over Thanksgiving weekend in 2008. Investigators say a faulty snowmelt system under the house’s driveway leaked carbon monoxide, an odorless gas, into the house.
Authorities didn’t find a carbon monoxide detector in the home.
California: Mother unfit for trial in infant bathtub death
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Doctors say a Fresno mother charged with drowning her infant son in a motel bathtub is unfit to stand trial for murder, but the prosecutor wants a jury to decide her competency.
Investigators say Gabriela Espinosa had planned to kill herself and three of her children in the Fresno Economy Inn on April 17. Police say she drowned her 2-month-old son Gabriel then drove away, leaving two other children alone in the same room.
Two court-appointed doctors say Espinosa is legally incompetent and defense attorney Barbara Hope O’Neill wants her sent to a state hospital.
But prosecutor Jeff Dupras on Monday challenged the doctors’ findings, saying Espinosa appears to have no problem communicating with her lawyer in court.
The judge set a Sept. 27 hearing to determine whether Espinosa can stand trial.
Maryland: Former top public defender sues state
BALTIMORE (AP) — Maryland’s former top public defender is suing the state almost a year after two members of the agency’s three-member board of trustees fired her.
In Nancy Forster’s suit filed Monday in Baltimore Circuit Court she alleges that board chairman T. Wray McCurdy and member Margaret A. Mead “overstepped their authority” with “not negotiable” demands for structural and personnel changes.
Forster was fired from the 900-employee Office of the Public Defender in August 2009. Her ouster led to legislative reform of the previously obscure board.
The suit seeks at least $1 million in compensatory and punitive damages but does not request reinstatement. McCurdy and Mead and spokesmen for Gov. Martin O’Malley and the Office of the Attorney General, which will defend the suit, declined to comment.
Tennessee: Inmate argues he’s too mentally ill to be executed
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee prisoner, condemned to death, is trying to convince a Knoxville judge he is too mentally ill to be executed.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported the hearing for Billy Ray Irick was scheduled to continue Tuesday with presentation of testimony from a mental health expert summoned by prosecutors.
Irick was convicted in the 1985 rape and killing of 7-year-old Paula Kery Dyer — a child he was babysitting.
Defense attorney C. Eugene Shiles argued Monday that Irick doesn’t understand his connection to the child’s death and is not competent to be executed.
Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner is hearing the appeal. The Tennessee Supreme Court on Aug. 4 refused to stay Irick’s scheduled Dec. 7 execution.
Florida: Penis-pump scammers accused of fraud
HIALEAH, Fla. (AP) — An indictment shows two South Florida companies bilked Medicare on penis-pump sales, part of $2 million in bogus billings on medical equipment.
Charlie RX and Happy Trips of Hialeah together billed $63,000 for the $395 pumps intended only for men. According to charges unsealed Monday in federal court in Miami, the federal health care program paid the medical-equipment providers over $28,000. Among the payments were phony claims for four pumps for a single female patient.
In February, two men who ran the companies were indicted on charges of health care fraud.
Last week, two others who authorities say were in hiding were arrested in connection with the scam. Both are accused of stealing Medicare patients’ numbers and doctors’ identifications to submit bogus bills.
Connecticut: Teenage boy arraigned in hit-and-run
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Police say a Connecticut teenager told authorities he was texting on his cell phone when his car struck a woman walking with her two children and the family dog, and he drove away because he thought he hit a bush.
Nineteen-year-old Justin Wallace was arraigned Monday in New Haven Superior Court in connection with the hit-and-run in Guilford on July 24. Police say the woman and dog suffered minor injuries and the children weren’t hurt.
An arrest warrant says Wallace told police he was texting and didn’t see Lori Rogers walking with the children and dog on Tanner Marsh Road, a short distance from his home.
Wallace declined to comment after his court appearance. He hasn’t entered pleas yet to evading responsibility, reckless driving, driving while texting and other crimes.
Pennsylvania: Man charged in fiancee frying pan attack
JEANNETTE, Pa. (AP) — A western Pennsylvania man is accused of violently beating his fiancee with a frying pan, a little over a year after he was found not guilty of charges he purposely poked out her eye with an umbrella.
Police say 54-year-old Timothy Lenhart attacked his girlfriend, Jennifer Hix, last month.
During a court hearing Monday, Jeannette Police Officer Justin Scalzo said Hix suffered broken ribs and facial injuries in the July 10 attack. Hix had to be airlifted to a hospital.
In March 2009, Lenhart was acquitted of all charges after police said he intentionally poked Hix’s eye out during an argument. Lenhart claimed he was acting in self-defense after Hix picked up a glass table.
Lenhart denied the charges following Monday’s hearing. He faces charges including attempted homicide and aggravated assault.
