Nevada
Former judge banned from bench for handcuffing lawyer
LAS VEGAS (AP) - A former Las Vegas justice of the peace has been barred for life from serving as judge in Nevada for ordering a defense attorney handcuffed when she would not stop speaking in court in an effort to keep a client out of jail.
The Nevada Supreme Court on Monday posted a Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline order censuring Conrad Hafen for courtroom incidents between December 2014 and last May.
That's when he had Deputy Clark County Public Defender Zohra Bakhtary detained on a misdemeanor contempt finding after he ordered her to stop talking. He sentenced her client to jail for petty theft.
Hafen lost a re-election bid.
He represented himself before the disciplinary commission and could not be reached to comment.
Bakhtary says she respects the ruling.
Connecticut
Judge releases man declared insane after 2001 fatal shooting
NORWICH, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut judge has freed a 64-year-old inmate who was found to be insane when he fatally shot a man in Salem 15 years ago.
Norwich Superior Court Judge Arthur Hadden granted the release of William Adamson from the supervision of the state's Psychiatric Security Review Board on Monday.
Two psychiatrists testified in November that the Montville man is no longer a threat to the public. Hadden wrote in his decision that although Adamson continues to have "an active psychiatric disability," it does not render him a danger to himself or others.
Adamson was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the December 2001 death of 38-year-old Steven Roesler.
Hadden says those found not guilty because of mental illness are entitled to release after their recovery.
Pennsylvania
Cops: Wife killed husband after fight over burned casserole
TARENTUM, Pa. (AP) - Police in Pennsylvania say a woman fatally shot her husband after arguing about a casserole she burned, then took a photo of the body, texted it to a friend and showered before calling 911.
According to court records, Frazer police responding to the call Monday night found 42-year-old Dennis Drum Sr. lying dead on a bed with a gun in his hand and a gunshot wound to the forehead, the Tribune-Review reported.
His wife, 38-year-old Teresa Drum, told officers her husband shot himself after they argued about the burnt casserole and over the fact that she drank his last beer. She said he shot himself as she called 911.
She showed paramedics the cellphone photo she took of his body, claiming she sent it to a friend because she didn't know what to do. The friend told her to call authorities. Police say there was no gun in Dennis Drum's hand in that photo and it was taken 11 minutes before the 911 call was made.
Teresa Drum was charged Tuesday with criminal homicide and was being held without bail at the Allegheny County Jail. No attorney information was listed in online court documents.
During police questioning later, she told officers she drank seven beers and her husband was insulting her and cursing her cooking.
She said they wound up in the bedroom, where her husband pulled the gun from a holster and she put her finger on the trigger and it went off, court documents said.
She told police she took a shower "to rinse off" and then put her bloody clothes in a laundry basket before calling police, according to the documents.
The couple's two children were in the house at the time but were unhurt, said Frazer police Chief Terry Kuhns. He wouldn't give their ages, but said they are now with family members.
Drum faces a preliminary hearing March 8.
Wisconsin
Police can take blood from unconscious drivers
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that law enforcement officers can take blood samples from unconscious drivers without a warrant under certain circumstances.
The court ruled Wednesday that an officer can be justified in taking a blood sample without a warrant when delaying would lead to the destruction of evidence, namely falling levels of alcohol in the drunken driver's bloodstream.
The ruling concerned the case of David Howes, who in 2013 crashed his motorcycle into a deer. Howes had previous drunken driving convictions and smelled of alcohol, was unconscious and unable to give consent when a Dane County sheriff's deputy ordered hospital staff to take a blood sample from Howes two hours after the crash.
Howes had argued the deputy violated his rights.
New Mexico
Man pleads guilty to killing wife with crowbar blows to head
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A 44-year-old northwestern New Mexico man has admitted killing his wife by striking her twice in the head with a crowbar, saying he was angry that she had been texting with another man.
Dennison Hale of Tohatchi pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder in federal court in Albuquerque in the Feb. 23, 2016 killing of his wife.
Court documents don't provide the victim's name but identify both she and Hale as members of the Navajo Nation and say the killing occurred in the couple's home north of Gallup on the tribe's reservation.
The U.S. Attorney's Office says Hale will be sentenced between 15 and 20 years in prison.
Published: Thu, Mar 02, 2017
