Archive for the 'Courts' Category

Judge overrules Ragland’s motion for new civil trial

- bortiz@herald-leader.com

In a tersely worded opinion, a Fayette judge Wednesday refused to throw out $60 million in punitive damages against Shane Ragland for the sniper-style shooting death of a University of Kentucky football player in 1994.

“This court … can find no greater act of reprehensibility than the premeditated, senseless killing of a young man about to enter the prime of his life, particularly in light of the purported motive …” Circuit Judge Thomas Clark wrote. “To lie in wait, in the dark of night, and assassinate a person for purportedly being blackballed from a fraternity years earlier, the court can find no greater reprehensible conduct.”

Ragland has admitted to fatally shooting Trent DiGiuro in front of a Woodland Avenue rental house while he was celebrating his upcoming 21st birthday. Police and prosecutors say Ragland was angry because he wrongly believed DiGiuro had gotten him kicked out of a fraternity.

DiGiuro’s family sued Ragland, and in August a jury awarded the family $63.3 million, including $3.3 million in lost wages.

Ragland and his attorneys did not attend the civil trial. But in September, they filed a motion asking for the verdict to be tossed and requesting a new trial.

Clark overruled that motion in an order that became public on Wednesday.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Judge refuses to dismiss bid-rigging case

The Associated Press

FRANKFORT — A federal judge has denied a request to dismiss bid-rigging charges against a former government official, a construction contractor and one of his aides.

U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves ruled Wednesday that the public release of an FBI affidavit doesn’t warrant dismissal of the charges.

Attorneys for former Kentucky Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert, road builder Leonard Lawson, and Lawson aide Brian Billings had asked that the case be dismissed. They claimed that the affidavit left in a public file where it could be obtained by reporters prejudiced the grand jury that issued the indictment in September.

The affidavit provided details of the bid-rigging investigation four weeks before the grand jury brought charges of conspiracy, misapplication of property and obstruction of justice.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Retired teacher’s murderer resentenced

HARRODSBURG — Confessed killer Louis Lee Anderson was resentenced Tuesday to life without parole for
25 years.

Anderson was resentenced after the Kentucky Supreme Court vacated his previous sentence. The state Supreme Court had ruled in another case that life without the possibility of parole is not a sentencing option for juveniles.

Mercer Circuit Court Judge Darren Peckler originally had sentenced Anderson to life without the possibility of parole. But Anderson appealed, arguing that he was 17 at the time of the murder and should have been sentenced as a juvenile because he was considered a youthful offender at the time of his indictment.

In October 2007, Anderson entered a conditional plea of guilty to the 2006 robbery and murder of retired teacher Louise Pulliam. Under the conditional plea, Anderson reserved the right to appeal Peckler’s decision that the maximum punishment Anderson could face was life without parole.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Double-murder suspect asks for change of venue

FLEMINGSBURG, Ky. (AP) — A judge is weighing whether to move the trial of an eastern Kentucky man charged with killing a man and his mother during a rampage in January.
Attorneys fof Roy I. Pollard have asked Fleming Circuit Judge Stockton B. Wood to move Pollard’s trial because an unbiased jury cannot be found in Fleming County.
Pollard is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for allegedly shooting Jason Thompson and his aunt, Willa Thompson on Jan. 11, 2008, at their homes in the Muses Mill community. He has also been charged with unlawful imprisonment for allegedly kidnapping his ex-wife Bonnie Butler, as well as assault, and burglary in relation to the incident.
The Ledger-Independent in Maysville reported that Commonwealth’s Attorney Kathryn B. Hendrickson has opposed the request to move the trial.
———
Information from: The Ledger Independent, http://www.maysville-online.com

Share/Save/Bookmark

Three plead guilty in Harrison, Pendleton bank robberies

By Becky Barnes

Three of the five individuals accused of robbing or being accomplices to area bank robberies have entered guilty pleas to their charges. The remaining two will be on trial next week.

On Friday, Nov. 26, Jeffrey Allen Pratt, 30, pleaded guilty to two central Kentucky bank robberies in U.S. District Court in Lexington.

Read more in the Cynthiana Democrat.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Grand jury indicts 82-year-old Berea man for pain pills

By Ronica Shannon
Register News Writer


A Berea man will go to trial after being indicted Thursday for two drug trafficking charges involving Oxycontin and Lortabs.

Archie Anglin, 82, of 1721 KY 1016, faces two counts of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance and one count of third-degree trafficking in a controlled substance.

Read more in the Richmond Register.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Judge: Clear Ky. record of former death row inmate

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Kentucky to expunge the record of a man who was once on Death Row.

U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves’s order on Thursday clears the record of 62-year-old Eugene Williams Gall in the kidnapping, rape and death of 12-year-old Lisa Jansen in 1978.

A federal appeals court overturned Gall’s conviction in 2001 saying prosecutors failed to prove key elements of the case and that the prohibition against double jeopardy forbade a retrial.

Kentucky turned Gall over to Ohio, where he is serving a life sentence for rape and murder.

Gall’s attorney, public defender Tim Arnold, says the decision may make it easier for him to argue for parole in 2021. A message left with the Montgomery County, Ohio, prosecutor’s office, was not immediately returned Friday.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Vacation memories continue in court for Frankfort man

The Frankfort man charged with trying to pick up a prostitute in the presence of his young son while their family vacationed in August in Florida has rejected a plea deal, an official says.

The official in the Florida State Attorney’s office said John W. Phillips, 46, 205 Hiawatha Trail, appeared in Volusia County District Court Nov. 24.

Read more in the Frankfort State-Journal.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Rios murder retrial begins Tuesday, victim was from Danville

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Opening statements are scheduled to begin Tuesday morning in the retrial of Steven Rios, a former Columbia police officer sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for the 2004 murder of 23-year-old University of Missouri student Jesse Valencia, who was from Danville.

On Monday morning, attorneys selected a Clay County jury of 12 primary and 3 alternate jurors for the trial, which will be held in Boone County Circuit Court. Later in the day, Judge Frank Conley denied a defense motion to suppress evidence from a Columbia police interview of Rios, now 31, conducted just days after Valencia’s death.

Read more in the Columbian Missourian.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Retired nurse beaten to death

By Steve Lannen
slannen@herald-leader.com

On a wet and freezing Monday evening, Lillie McGlothen placed a wreath outside her mother’s home.

Steps away, the front door to Marilyn Hegge’s brown brick ranch had been sealed by forensics investigators. On Sunday, which was Hegge’s 78th birthday, a granddaughter found her body beaten inside.

“It’s scary not knowing what happened to her,” McGlothen said. “I can’t think of anyone who would do this to her.”

Lexington police are investigating Hegge’s death as a homicide. She died of a head injury after an assault, according to a Fayette County coroner’s report.

Shortly before 4 p.m. Sunday, police were called to Hegge’s home at 3728 Red River Drive, off Man o’ War Boulevard near Tates Creek Road, Lexington police Lt. Scott Blakely said.

Blakely said an adult granddaughter found Hegge in a bedroom, and the house was not broken into.

Neighbors said Hegge, who used a walker to get around, lived alone. A granddaughter sometimes stayed with her.

Hegge was retired from the University of Kentucky, where she worked as a neonatal nurse until 1992, a UK spokeswoman said.

She never married but adopted two children from Costa Rica, one of those McGlothen.

“She was a great woman. She adopted me when I was 5 years old. She was a single parent, she worked all her life. She took care of everybody,” McGlothen said.

Days before, the family gathered at the house to celebrate Thanksgiving. Many had planned to gather again on Sunday for Hegge’s birthday.

“I’m still stunned. I can’t believe she is gone,” McGlothen said.

Gaye Whalen, a nurse and lactation consultant who worked with Hegge at UK and worshiped with her at the Newman Center, described her as a humble, unassuming person.

“She’s just a very nurturing person and really gave a lot to her patients and her grandchildren,” Whalen said. “It’s very shocking to think that somebody that gives so much of their heart and soul … that something bad could happen.”

Chris Brown said he’d known Hegge for more than 15 years. He did some handiwork around the house and occasionally fixed her car.

Brown said he received a phone call Monday morning telling him Hegge was dead.

“At first, I thought it might have been a mistake,” he said. “I just can’t believe she’d have any trouble with anybody.”

Anyone with information is asked to call Lexington police, (859) 258-3700.

Herald-Leader Staff Writer Karla Ward contributed to this report.

Earlier: Lexington death ruled a homicide

Share/Save/Bookmark