National Roundup

Illinois
Judge reassigned after placing child in court’s adult lockup
CHICAGO (AP) — A judge has been reassigned to administrative duties after surveillance video was made public showing her putting a child in a courtroom lock-up reserved for adults, according to Cook County Circuit Court officials.

Judge Jackie Portman-Brown was removed from the bench pending a March 4 meeting of the Executive Committee of the Circuit Court of Cook County, says Pat Milhizer, a spokesman for Chief Judge Timothy Evans. Milhizer didn’t respond to questions about the reason for Portman-Brown’s re-assignment.

A video released by the Cook County sheriff’s office shows Portman-Brown escorting the child into the lockup while a male sheriff’s deputy is seen looking on. The Feb. 19 video also shows a female sheriff’s deputy locking the wire-mesh door to the cell and standing in front of the door. It appears the deputy is talking to the child for much of her 10-minute stay.

The child’s face is blurred in the video, and her exact age hasn’t been disclosed. The judge’s motivation for placing the child in the lock-up hasn’t been disclosed, and telephone calls Thursday to Portman-Brown for comment wasn’t immediately returned.

“The Cook County sheriff’s office is conducting an internal investigation into the incident to determine whether all policies and procedures were followed by the deputies,” according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.

Wyoming
Death penalty case appealed to Supreme Court
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — The only man currently facing possible execution in Wyoming has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Seventy-five-year-old Dale Wayne Eaton argues lower courts didn’t property determine his mental competency.

Jurors in 2004 found Eaton guilty of charges including premeditated first-degree murder in the kidnapping, rape and slaying of 18-year-old Lisa Marie Kimmell in central Wyoming in 1988.

The jury found that Eaton should be put to death. A federal judge stayed Eaton’s execution in 2014 but an appeals court ruled in 2019 that prosecutors could again pursue death for Eaton, the Casper Star-Tribune reports.

Kimmell disappeared while driving from Denver to visit her parents in Billings, Montana. Investigators determined Eaton kidnapped Kimmell for several days before clubbing and stabbing her and pushing her into the North Platte River.

Kimmell’s body was found in the North Platte River near Casper soon after her disappearance.

The case went unsolved until Eaton went to prison for assault in another case in the 1990s. Investigators linked Eaton’s DNA to Kimmell’s body and unearthed Kimmell’s car on Eaton’s property in 2002.

Alabama
Mother and grandmother get 20 years for chaining boy
PRATTVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The mother and grandmother of an Alabama boy found naked and chained inside a home were sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The boy’s mother, Dannielle Nicole Martin, 32, and grandmother, Vickie Seale Higgenbotham, 58, were given maximum sentences on Thursday after pleading guilty to aggravated child abuse, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

An anonymous call in 2018 led Autauga County authorities to the home where the 13-year-old boy was found naked and chained to a door. He and two other children were removed from the home.

The boy’s stepfather had pleaded guilty to child abuse, a lesser charge than the women. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and almost two years of supervised probation, according to the Advertiser.

Two uncles pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and got six months unsupervised probation, the newspaper reported.

Connecticut
Whistleblower officer’s lawsuit settled for $500K
A lawsuit filed by a deceased Connecticut police officer who helped expose harassment and profiling of Latino residents of East Haven and helped send four colleagues to prison has been settled, an attorney for the late officer confirmed.

The wife of the late Vincent Ferrara will receive a payment of $250,000 this year and another next year. She will also get eight years of health benefits through the town as part of the deal reached just before the suit was scheduled for trial, Hearst Connecticut Media reported Thursday.

“This substantial settlement comes, sadly, after Vince Ferrara’s death, but I think he would be pleased,” said James Brewer, an attorney for Ferrara’s estate.

Ferrara sued the town and former Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. alleging he suffered retribution for cooperating with federal investigators in the case that led to the arrest of four officers in 2012.

Ferrara was fired in January 2019 over unrelated allegations and died last May of brain cancer at age 54.

Rhode Island
Man says in lawsuit he was abused by priest
A Rhode Island man was molested as a child by a Roman Catholic priest who also trafficked children for sex while church leaders looked the other way, the man alleges in a lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Providence.

Robert Houllahan, 51, of Providence, said in the suit filed Thursday that he was sexually abused by the late Rev. Normand Demers, who received the “protection and affirmative assistance” of the diocese and its leaders, The Providence Journal reported.

The diocese, current Bishop Thomas Tobin and retired Bishop Louis Gelineau are among the defendants named in the suit.

The Associated Press left telephone and email messages with a diocese spokeswoman on Friday.

Gelineau, when reached by the newspaper, said he would not be able to analyze the issues or recall facts enough to make a comment.

Demers was involved with foreign missions that had been described as orphanages or schools but that were in fact known to the diocese as a source of child sexual abuse victims, the suit says.

The diocese also assigned Demers to a parish even after learning he had been charged with abusing children in Haiti, the suit says.

Houllahan does not say he was trafficked for sex but said he saw children from Central America when he was brought to Demers’ private quarters in the rectory of St. Joseph in Providence in 1976, where he was molested by Demers and another man, according to his allegations in the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.

Demers, who died in 2018, was included on a list released by the diocese last year of clerics who had been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors.