Court Digest

Texas
Sexual assault charges dropped against woman abused as child
DENTON, Texas (AP) — Sexual assault charges have been dropped against a Texas woman who, as a child, had been rescued from a closet after suffering horrific abuse.

Lauren Kavanaugh was indicted in 2019 on three counts of sexual assault of a child. Authorities said at the time that Kavanaugh admitted having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl she met through a Facebook page that Kavanaugh used to support and befriend other abuse victims.

Kavanaugh was 8 years old and weighed 25 pounds (11.3 kilograms) in 2001 when investigators found her in a Dallas County mobile home closet. Authorities say she’d also been sexually abused, and Kavanaugh has spoken publicly about the abuse that she suffered.

The criminal charges were dismissed last week in Denton County and Kavanaugh, now 28, was released from jail, the The Dallas Morning News reported.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment Tuesday from a lawyer for Kavanaugh.

First Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck told the Star-Telegram that she couldn’t divulge all the details but said the arrangement involved treatment for Kavanaugh.

“Overall, it was the right thing to do,” Beck said.

Kansas
Jay-Z’s group raises $1M to investigate wrongful convictions
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — An organization run by rapper Jay-Z has facilitated donations totaling $1 million for the local innocence project to investigate wrongful convictions in Wyandotte County.

The money was raised by Team Roc, which is the criminal justice division of Jay-Z’s entertainment organization, Roc Nation, the Kansas City Star reported.

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, called it “a huge investment,” adding that the ability to look at these cases is going to shine a light on what the group needs to do to provide a just criminal legal system in Wyandotte County.

Among those injustices is the wrongful conviction of Lamonte McIntyre, who spent 23 years in prison for two murders he did not commit in Kansas City, Kansas. Another is the case of Olin “Pete” Coones Jr., who spent 12 years in prison before he was exonerated of a Wyandotte County murder — only to die from cancer that went undiagnosed 108 days after he was freed.

About 40 others have asked the innocence project to investigate their convictions in Wyandotte County, Rojo Bushnell said Monday.

In September, Team Roc filed a petition seeking records from the Kansas City, Kansas, police department related to what it calls  a history of officer misconduct within the department.

Texas
Judge: ‘Texas 7’ death row inmate deserves new trial
A Jewish death row inmate who was part of the so-called “Texas 7” gang should get a new capital murder trial because the judge who presided over his case held anti-Semitic views, a state district judge said Monday.

Dallas Criminal District Court Judge Lela Mays found that her predecessor, former Judge Vickers Cunningham, violated Randy Halprin’s right to a fair trial by not recusing himself from Halprin’s trial for bias. She recommended that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals toss Halprin’s conviction and death sentence imposed by Cunningham.

Cunningham could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Halprin and six other inmates escaped from prison in 2000. The group later robbed a sporting goods store in Irving, Texas, fatally shooting responding police officer Aubrey Hawkins as they fled.

The men were referred to as the “Texas 7” gang of escaped prisoners. One member killed himself before the group was arrested. Four have been executed, while Halprin and Patrick Murphy await execution.

The allegations against Cunningham, who oversaw Halprin’s trial in 2003, came after a Dallas Morning News story in 2018 revealed that he has a living trust that rewards his children for marrying straight. Cunningham confirmed the trust but said he was not a bigot, the newspaper reported.

The story prompted an investigation from Halprin’s lawyers, which found that Cunningham used racial slurs and anti-Semitic language to refer to Halprin and some of his co-defendants, according to an appeal they filed in state court. Cunningham also denied this.

The Texas Court of Appeals halted Halprin’s execution in 2019, and ordered the case be sent back to the Dallas County court that convicted him so it can review Halprin’s claims.

Virginia
Appeal seeking early release denied in slaying
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A former University of Virginia lacrosse player’s efforts to get released early from his 25-year sentence in the 2010 slaying of his ex-girlfriend have been denied, again, by a federal appellate court.

George Huguely V, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of Yeardley Love, who also played lacrosse at U.Va. and was two weeks away from graduation when she was slain. Love, 22, of suburban Baltimore, was found dead in her apartment after Huguely kicked a hole in her bedroom door and beat her during a day of heavy drinking, according to trial testimony.

In an unpublished opinion issued last month, a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Huguely’s attempt to appeal a denial by a federal judge, The Daily Progress reported. He then petitioned for a rehearing before a full panel of judges, which was denied last week. Huguely remains set for release in 2030. He’s filed multiple unsuccessful appeals, and it’s unclear if he has any more legal options.

Huguely also is being sued for wrongful death by Love’s mother and sister. The suit seeks compensation for assault and battery and punitive damages for her death, and is set for a jury trial in April, according to online court records.

Nevada
New murder charges against accused killer of four in Reno
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Douglas County’s district attorney filed a criminal complaint Monday accusing a Salvadoran immigrant of killing two women in Gardnerville after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled he can’t be tried for those crimes simultaneously in Washoe County where he is accused of fatally shooting a Reno couple days later in 2019.

The high court ruled last month Wilber Ernesto Martinez Guzman must be tried in the counties where the slayings took place. The court ordered a judge in neighboring Washoe County to dismiss the charges related to Douglas County because the grand jury in Reno lacked proper jurisdiction to indict him for those crimes.

Douglas County District Attorney Mark Jackson initiated the new process with a complaint filed in East Fork Justice Court in Minden south of Carson City charging Martinez Guzman with the deaths of Connie Koontz and Sophia Renken.

Prosecutors say he stole a .22 caliber revolver from Gerald and Sharon David’s Reno home on Jan. 4, 2019. They say he burglarized and killed Koontz five days later, then did the same to Renken the next week before burglarizing and killing the Davids on Jan. 15.

The Washoe County grand jury indicted him on four murder charges and five burglary charges.

Martinez Guzman has been held in the Washoe County Jail in Reno since his arrest in the days that followed. The new arrest warrant orders him to continue to be held there without bail. Jackson and Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks earlier announced their intention to seek the death penalty if he’s convicted.

In a 5-2 decision on Sept. 30, the Supreme Court justices agreed with Martinez Guzman’s public defenders that he is entitled to separate trials.

The trial in Reno had been scheduled to begin early next year. Martinez Guzman was in the country illegally and had worked as a landscaper at all three properties where the four were killed over a two-week period, police said. T hey said he confessed to the shootings.

Prosecutors had argued that Nevada law allowed for one trial because the facts in the cases were “intertwined,” including evidence showing Martinez Guzman shot all four victims with the same gun he stole from the Davids’ residence.

Those theories “were too speculative and unsupported by the evidence” to allow the Douglas County killings to be tried in Washoe County, Justice Lidia Stiglich wrote in the majority opinion. “There is no evidence that Martinez Guzman took the firearm in preparation for the burglaries and murder in Douglas County.”

Ohio
Ex-school employee gets life sentence for teen sex assaults
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Calling him a “cancer in the community,” a judge on Tuesday ordered a former school employee in northern Ohio to spend the rest of his life in prison for sexually assaulting several teenage boys.

The judge sentenced Ronald Stevens to at least 101 years in prison.

Stevens supervised the janitorial staff at Ottawa Hills Local Schools, where most of the victims were students. School officials said he was temporarily off the job when he was arrested in December 2019.

He was convicted last month of rape, sexual battery and gross sexual imposition. Prosecutors said the crimes involved at least six teenage boys and occurred between August 2017 and November 2019 .

Several of the victims addressed the court during sentencing and called for Stevens to be punished.

Stevens declined to speak in court, but his lawyer said his client maintains his innocence and plans to appeal.

The school board accepted his resignation following his conviction.

Florida
Police: Former judge arrested after pulling gun on neighbor
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — A former South Florida judge who resigned this year amid misconduct allegations is now accused of pulling a gun on his neighbor.

Miguel Fernando Mirabel, 51, was charged with aggravated assault with a firearm following an argument on Sunday at the apartment complex where he lives in Coral Gables, an arrest report said.

The report said Mirabel was unloading groceries in the garage of his building when a man asked to be let in through a gate, saying he’d left his phone upstairs in his cousin’s apartment. They began arguing; Mirabel said the man became belligerent and called him names. Mirabel told the man he was “going to fight him.”

The man called 911, and investigators said a recording of the call contradicts aspects of Mirabel’s story, the report said.

The former Miami-Dade County judge told police he had asked the man which apartment he lived in, and the man offered an apartment number that didn’t exist.

The neighbor came down and let the cousin into the garage, the report said.

The former judge also told investigators that he held his unloaded handgun behind his back with the safety on, the report said. But on the 911 recording, the man was heard saying: “Do not get near me, go back, and leave me alone,” and he told the dispatcher “he has a Glock,” and “he cocked it twice.”

Maribel was booked into jail, posted bond and was released. It was not immediately known whether he has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf.

Washington
Man accused of   kidnapping woman, trying to kill infant
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A Ridgefield, Washington man is being held on $1 million bail after authorities say he kidnapped a woman early Sunday as she sought help at a Vancouver, Washington convenience store, assaulted her and tried to kill their infant.

Aarondeep Johal, 32, was reportedly out of custody on bail in a pending case with the same victim and had a no-contact order, The Columbian reported.

He appeared Monday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of attempted domestic violence murder, kidnapping, assault, and other charges.

Deputy Prosecutor Gabriel Foster told Judge John Fairgrieve that a threat assessment found the victim is at “extreme risk of being killed by the defendant.”

In response, Johal said, “I’ve never touched (the alleged victim) in my life.”

According to an affidavit of probable cause, a 7-Eleven clerk told police that a woman asked to use the phone and that a man dragged her out, pushed her into a car and sped off, court records state.

They were found at the victim’s apartment and the woman had a laceration on her head, police said. Officers said Johal threatened to kill the baby and pressed her against a wall, the affidavit states.

A crisis entry hostage team responded, and an officer eventually punched Johal to get him to release the child, according to the Vancouver Police Department.

The infant and her mother were taken to hospitals. The baby remained hospitalized Monday afternoon, police said.