Marvell Woman Acquitted on Murder Charges

Starr Scaife of Marvell has been acquitted of capital murder charges in connection with the 2004 murder of her mother, Ritchie Scaife, because of mental disease.

Court documents were ordered sealed in the case but following an injunction filed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a judge ordered the files opened. The documents revealed that Scaife was under observation at the state mental hospital.

Several physiological tests were performed on Scaife with varying opinions attached to the case files.

On June 25, the Phillips County Circuit Court found that the defendant “lacked the capacity, as a result of mental disease, to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law.” The court committed Scaife to the care of the director of the department of Health and Human Services for further treatment and acquitted Scaife of all charges.

The Helena Daily World has the story.

Don’t Hide Xanex on Your Genitals

An alleged shaving accident resulted in two felony charges for a North Naples man who serves weekends in the Naples Jail Center.

On Sunday Paul Russo, 43, who serves weekends in jail for a prior criminal conviction, was being strip searched in the jail when a deputy noticed a bandage on his genitals, an arrest report said. The deputy asked Russo what the bandage was for.

“I cut myself shaving,” Russo said.

The deputy told Russo to remove the bandage, authorities said. When Russo gave the deputy the bandage, the deputy discovered four yellow Xanax pills attached to the adhesive side of the bandage.

Whole story.

Tougher DWI laws in New York

“Enough is enough,” state Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick) said in a news conference Tuesday. “We need to end this epidemic of drunk driving.” Fuschillo was joined by Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice and Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach).

Aggravated vehicular homicide is a felony carries a maximum penalty of 8 1/3 to 25 years imprisonment. Aggravated vehicular assault carries a maximum of 5 to 15 years in prison.

The law is aimed at drunken or drugged drivers who kill someone or cause a person serious injury, Rice said.

Read entire story.

West Memphis Three Defense Attorneys Reveal New Evidence

Evening Times has the whole story. The evidence portion of the story is below:

In July, a DNA testing status report filed by the defense stated that a hair found on a shoelace ligature on the body of Michael Moore matched DNA belonging to Terry Hobbs, the stepfather of Stevie Branch.

Shoelaces, believed to have been taken from the boys’ shoes, were used to bind the boys arms and legs together.

Police said at the time of that report that Hobbs wasn’t a suspect and attributed the hair to secondary transfer evidence.

However, in Monday’s filing the defense states that a hair found at the root of a tree near where the boys’ bodies were found matches the DNA of David Jacoby, a friend of Terry Hobbs.

Further new evidence pointing to Echols’ innocence, the defense claims, are test results that show DNA from someone other than Echols, Baldwin or Misskelley was found on the penis of Stevie Branch.

Additionally, the filing states that forensic experts, among them, Dr. Michael Baden, former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, found that some of the wounds on the victims were caused by “animals at the crime scene – not by knives used by the perpetrators, as the prosecution claimed.”

Commercial Appeal: Related Story

West Memphis may create “Environmental Court”

While they won’t be stopping global warming, Paul Luker hopes that the proposed court will help deal more effectively with code enforcement.  West Memphis Councilwoman, Ramona Taylor, believes that the  current system is faulty because code violators are tried in the same court as criminal violators.  Taylor says this makes the code violations look less serious by comparison.

In my experience, the only code violations I have seen come through the court are having an inoperable car on the premises or failing to mow the yard. While the code should be enforced, I want a court to treat those violators with much more leniency than more violent criminal offenders.

The local court’s current practice is to give the violator a week or two to correct the problem, i.e. move the car or mow the yard, or they receive a monetary penalty. I am not sure what else the proposed court would or should accomplish.

Supplying ingredients to the “purple drank” or “sizzurp” may cost West Memphis Doctor his license

Local West Memphis physician, Dr. James Miller said he had never heard of the street drug concoction “purple drank” or “sizzurp” until a state investigator showed up asking why he was prescribing so much of its key ingredients. . .

. . . [T]he state physician licensing board thinks he should have known better. He now faces a December hearing to determine whether he should lose his medical license.

Read whole story here.

UPDATE: Trip Cook reported the following:

In August, Miller was the subject of an Emergency Order of Suspension by the board.

The board lifted the order of suspension in September, but voted to prohibit Miller’s use of his DEA permit until his hearing.

A DEA permit allows a physician to prescribe scheduled medications.

Trice said the reinstatement came from a request by Miller.

“He made a request of the board to permit him to treat his other patients if he could just give up his DEA permit during this period of time,” Trice said. “Since that is what the board was mad at him about, the board accepted his offer.”

The investigation included information from the West Memphis Police Department, a state pharmacy oversight group and reviews of medical records by physicians.

“Misconduct and incompetence” at the Washington state DWI toxicology lab

Defense attorneys will start arguing next week to dismiss hundreds of drunken-driving cases across Washington based on what they allege is a pattern of misconduct and incompetence at the state toxicology lab.

Already, 36 people arrested on suspicion of DUI had their licenses reinstated last month, after several Department of Licensing hearing examiners expressed a lack of confidence in the Seattle lab’s test results.

Read the whole story here.

UPDATE.

Private company exempt from FOI law?

A privately owned company should not have to make its records public, even though it was lead contractor on a high-dollar state project, said Jeffrey Moore, attorney for Nabholz Construction Co, Thursday before the state Supreme Court.

“Up to this point the court has never extended the Freedom of Information Act such that a private industry can be sued directly under the Freedom of Information Act,” Moore argued before the court.

Ron Hope, attorney for Contractors for Public Protection Association, urged the high court to uphold a March ruling by Pulaski County Judge Marion Humphrey that ordered Nabholz to release a detailed listing of $2.5 million in overhead expenses it received for construction of a $35 million dormitory at the University of Arkansas.

Link to original story.

The Supreme Court may be skeptical of Hope’s argument.

Judge raises Mitchell-Ford’s bond to $50,000

The Commercial Appeal reports that the bond for Tamara Mitchell-Ford was increased to $50,000 from $100 this morning by a judge citing her local criminal record, which includes a drunken driving conviction and two pending DUIs.

General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Louis Montesi said he may review the bond further if prosecutors present documentation of DUI convictions in three other states, including Mississippi, Alabama and South Carolina.

Appeals Court affirms 90 year sentence

A California man Wednesday lost his appeal of drug convictions and a 90-year prison sentence.

The state Court of Appeals affirmed Kendrick Darrough’s convictions in Drew County Circuit Court on charges of possession of cocaine and marijuana with intend to deliver.

Darrough, of Oakland, Calif., was arrested Jan. 24, 2005, after a tip led state drug enforcement agents to stop his vehicle. Officers found three small containers of cocaine and nearly 90 bags of marijuana in the vehicle.

In his appeal, Darrough argued there was not enough evidence to support the convictions. The appeals court unanimously rejected the argument.

Read story here.