Texas
Court that deals with immigration has 17000 cases
HOUSTON (AP) — People scheduled for hearings at an immigration court in Houston should be prepared to wait more than a year due to nearly 17,000 pending cases and a shortage of judges.
The Houston Chronicle reported Monday that the October government shutdown also delayed hearings in the court that’s under the Department of Justice.
The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University reports the four judges assigned to Houston’s downtown immigration court had 16,647 pending cases in November. That’s the most statewide and up more than 250 percent since 2009. Court times for hearings in Houston reached an average 555 days, up from 298 four years ago.
TRAC data shows more than 50,000 cases pending statewide last month.
Administrators with the court system have acknowledged the need to hire more judges.
Massachusetts
Ex-Mass. speaker appeals to US Supreme Court
BOSTON (AP) — Former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse his convictions on public corruption charges and grant him a new trial.
There is no guarantee the country’s highest court will even entertain DiMasi’s petition filed last week.
DiMasi’s attorney, Thomas Kiley, tells the Boston Herald that the odds that the court will take up the case are long but “we will never stop fighting.”
The 68-year-old DiMasi, a Democrat, was convicted in 2011 of conspiracy, extortion and theft of honest services by fraud, a bribery charge. He was accused of using his political clout to steer lucrative state contracts to Cognos, a Canadian software firm with U.S. headquarters in Burlington, in exchange for payments of $65,000. He was sentenced to eight years in prison.
Kansas
Convicted child molester has new trial scheduled
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered a retrial for a man serving a life sentence for abusing a child.
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that Derek John Holt, who was convicted of indecent liberties with a child in Bourbon County in southeast Kansas five years ago, will get the new trial because a court reporter failed to record critical parts of his first trial, The Wichita Eagle reported.
Holt is serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole for 25 years under a 2006 Kansas statute that toughened penalties for sex offenders whose victims are children.
Richard Ney, the Wichita defense lawyer who argued Holt’s appeal, said that in more than three decades practicing criminal law he can’t remember seeing a case where the trial record was so spotty that it had to be retried.
“Something of this nature is almost unheard of,” he said.
Ney said while it’s not unusual for bits of testimony to be missed in a transcript, Holt’s was missing all of the lawyers’ arguments and judge’s ruling on key issues in the case, including the denial of a defense request to have the alleged victim undergo a psychological evaluation.
Holt’s defense sought the evaluation because of inconsistencies in the girl’s statements and concern that her testimony may have either been coached or part of a dream. The girl was 3 when the crime is alleged to have occurred and 5 when it went to trial.
The Supreme Court ruled that Holt’s request was critical to the defense. But the justices said they didn’t have enough transcript to decide if the judge erred in denying the request. Efforts by the court to track down the reporter failed, records said.
“We simply cannot ascertain what the basis of the trial court’s ruling was, and we therefore cannot ascertain whether the trial court abused its discretion,” Justice Eric Rosen wrote for the unanimous court.
“This is not the fault of the trial court or the parties; it is the consequence of a rare breakdown in the transcription process coupled with the absence of any meaningful recollection of the motion arguments and, more importantly, the basis of the motion’s resolution.”
Maine
Suspect in 1976 stabbing slaying faces 2014 trial
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — A homeless Seattle man charged in connection with a 1976 slaying in Maine is scheduled to go on trial next year.
A Kennebec County Superior Court judge last week said Gary Raub will go on trial in late May or early June.
The 65-year-old Raub was arrested in Seattle in 2012 in connection with the stabbing death of Blanche Kimball in her Augusta home. Raub at one time rented a room from Kimball but denied involvement in her death at the time and has pleaded not guilty.
Maine police developed a DNA profile from blood found in Kimball’s kitchen and matched it to Raub by asking him to participate in a chewing gum survey.
The Kennebec Journal reports that Raub’s lawyers want to present an alternate suspect theory at trial.
Washington
Judge considers fate of sex offender files
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — A judge in Washington state will soon decide whether the public has access to detailed records of low-level sex offenders.
The Tri-City Herald reports that Judge Bruce Spanner heard arguments during a hearing Friday in Benton County Superior Court. He plans to make a decision in the coming weeks.
A Mesa woman, Donna Zink, has requested copies of records that include names, birthdays, phone numbers, pictures and other information for Level 1 sex offenders. Level 1 sex offenders are the most common and considered the least likely to reoffend, and law enforcement agencies say Level 1 registrants may be first-time offenders and that they typically know their victims.
Level 2 and 3 sex offenders have a higher risk of re-offending, and information about those people are regularly posted online by law enforcement agencies.
Zink said people have the right to know about convicted sex offenders in their area that may live or work near them. She received records from Franklin County, but Benton County officials notified the offenders, providing them a chance to challenge the release of the files.
Benton County Deputy Prosecutor Ryan Lukson agreed that the information is subject to public disclosure.
Lawyers on the other side argue that the sex offenders will face harm if the files are released. They also argued that the crimes for some offenders were committed many years ago and that the offenders believe they have paid their dues. They told the judge that the offenders still have privacy rights.
The lawyers representing the sex offenders also argued that the records at issue are investigative files used by law enforcement officers and exempt from public disclosure.
