National Roundup

New Hampshire
Review: Domestic violence ruling a ‘reasonable application’ of law
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A judge’s decision to deny a protective order to a woman who was later shot and critically injured, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, “represented a reasonable application of current New Hampshire law to the facts of the case,” an internal review concluded Tuesday.

A committee conducted the review of the petition denial and released a report following a request from New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, the state’s former attorney general. It also made recommendations, such as reviewing and updating protection order-related forms, and providing access to legal assistance to domestic violence survivors.

The woman was shot on Nov. 15 in Salem, Massachusetts. The man, who had lived in New Hampshire, died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

The woman had obtained a temporary restraining order against the man in September alleging that he sexually and physically abused her for years. A month later, Circuit Judge Polly Hall dismissed the woman’s petition for a permanent order, writing “the court cannot find that the defendant’s conduct constitutes a credible present threat to plaintiff’s safety.”

Hall told the committee her conclusion was based on several factors, including the lack of any act of physical violence committed by the man since 2016, her understanding that the man’s threats were related to “blackmail” and reputational or emotional harm, and her finding that the woman had a generalized fear of what the man might do, rather than a fear of a specific physical threat.

Hall also looked at several court cases addressing the issue of credible present threat. She found that while the man’s behavior was “controlling and coercive” and demonstrated his anger at her attempt to end their relationship, it didn’t establish a credible present threat to her safety as defined by the law.

The review was led by Circuit Court Judge Susan Carbon, former director of the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Indiana
Prosecutors seek to move case against boy into adult court
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A 15-year-old northern Indiana boy accused of molesting and killing a 6-year-old girl should be tried as an adult, prosecutors said Monday

The St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office filed a petition to have the teenager’s case moved to superior court, where he would be tried as an adult and receive a harsher sentence if convicted.

St. Joseph Probate Court Magistrate Graham Polando has not yet scheduled a hearing to consider the petition to waive the case to superior court.

The prosecutor’s office said it decided to file the petition after reviewing the circumstances and evidence in the case and talking to the victim’s family.

Proceedings against the boy have been continuing in probate court since March, when he was charged with molesting and strangling Grace Ross on March 12 in a wooded are near New Carlisle. Court documents state the boy, then 14, told police a “shadowy man” controlled him and made him strangle Ross after she had followed him into the woods.

Prosecutors and the boy’s attorneys agreed last month  the boy was competent.

Indiana law states a probate court shall waive jurisdiction to superior court in cases that would involve felonies if committed by an adult “unless it would be in the best interests of the child and the safety and welfare of the community for the child to remain within the juvenile justice system.”

Kansas
State Supreme Court takes up overturned day care death case
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Supreme Court has agreed to consider an appeals court decision overturning the conviction of a day care worker in the death of a 9-month-old.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports  that the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office is seeking to have the murder conviction against Carrody Buchhorn reinstated.

The office appealed after the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled  in August that Buchhorn should get a new trial because her attorney did not adequately question a coroner’s ruling on how 9-month-old Oliver “Ollie” Ortiz died. He was found unresponsive in 2016 at the Sunshine Kids Group Daycare Home in Eudora.

Her defense team argued the child’s fatal head injury could have been inflicted up to a week before he died. The coroner said the boy would have become unresponsive immediately.

The 2018  trial ended with Buchhorn, now 47, convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10-years in prison.

Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden told the Journal-World last Wednesday that the petition for review was accepted but a date in court had not yet been scheduled. He said it could be several months before the case reaches the court’s docket.

Buchhorn is now free while the case works its way through the courts.

Wisconsin
Prosecutors add 6th homicide count in parade crash
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors added a sixth intentional homicide count Monday against a Wisconsin man accused of driving his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee.

Investigators allege Darrell Brooks Jr., 39, turned into the parade route in Waukesha on Nov. 21 and swerved the vehicle side-to-side without slowing down as he struck dozens of people. Authorities announced later that night that five people had died.

Police arrested Brooks shortly afterward as he knocked on a homeowner’s door asking for help calling a ride.

Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper filed five counts of first-degree intentional homicide against Brooks on Nov. 23, for victims ranging in age from 52 to 81.

The sixth charge is for Jackson Sparks, an 8-year-old boy who had been walking in the parade with his 12-year-old brother Tucker, who also was hurt in the crash.

Willy Medina, a spokesman for the state public defender’s office, which is representing Brooks, declined to comment on the added count.

Brooks’ alleged motive remains unknown. Investigators have said he was fleeing the scene of a domestic dispute when he turned into the parade but police were not pursuing him. He was free on $1,000 bail in a Milwaukee County case earlier in November in which he is accused of intentionally striking a woman with his car.