Stephen G. Udall, county attorney of Apache County, Arizona, and an NDAA state director, has resigned to run for U.S. representative in the newly created First Congressional District of Arizona. Declaring that this is a challenge that he, his family and many friends feel he should undertake, Udall said, “Over 25 years ago I left a successful law practice in Flagstaff (and) took a cut in pay to return home to St. Johns and run for county attorney. While the rewards in private practice may have been greater, I have never regretted my decision to serve the public.” Udall said his membership in NDAA “has been very fulfilling and one of the highlights of my career.”
In a case eerily reminiscent of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado, five teenage Massachusetts students at New Bedford High School have been arrested and charged in connection with a reported plot to bomb the school and shoot fleeing students and faculty members. The office of NDAA board member and former treasurer Paul F. Walsh, Jr., DA of Bristol County, which includes New Bedford, will prosecute the cases. The arrests followed more than five weeks of investigation. According to news reports, a teacher received a tip from a student and informed school authorities who notified police, who in turn questioned the student. The student said the plan was “to kill as many students and teachers as possible,” after which the shooters would go to the roof of the school and kill each other by gunshots. The student told police the reason she disclosed the plan to her teacher was that she admired the teacher and did not want her to be a victim. The informing student, who admitted she had earlier agreed to go along with the plot, was also arrested and charged with conspiracy.
In one of Georgia’s most dramatic cases in recent years, DeKalb County DA J. Tom Morgan, an NDAA board member, completed an 11 month investigation with the arrest of former county Sheriff Sidney Dorsey for the assassination of the man who defeated him in a bitterly contested runoff election. Dorsey, 61, and two other men, including a former deputy sheriff, were charged with the murder of Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown, who was gunned down in front of his home three days before he was to be sworn in as sheriff of the corruption-plagued department. The break in the case came a few days before the arrests, when a former Dorsey deputy agreed to cooperate with authorities. After the arrests, DA Morgan disclosed that he learned two weeks before the arrests that he had also been an alleged assassination target. DeKalb County consists primarily of the city of Decatur, which adjoins Atlanta. The attorney for one of the defendants filed a motion asking that Morgan and lawyers in his office be removed from the case because Morgan allegedly was among those targeted for death by former Sheriff Dorsey. DA Morgan said he would fight any attempt to disqualify his office, declaring, “I will be there. No one knows more about this case.”
A man accused of kidnapping former Newton County (Indiana) Prosecuting Attorney John W. Barce, whose body was later found in a farmer’s field, is scheduled to stand trial July 9. Lloyd D. Lichti, 57, is charged with felony murder, kidnapping, criminal confinement, robbery and theft. Authorities believe Lichti kidnapped Barce in August during a meeting at a Lafayette, (IN) hotel. They said Lichti had a grudge against Barce over the handling of his father’s will. According to the Associated Press, Barce, 73, apparently died within hours of the abduction, probably from causes related to a heart ailment. Police arrested Lichti after they reported tracing a series of telephone calls Lichti made to Barce’s family, attempting to extort money from them. John Barce, who was prosecuting attorney of Newton County from 1958 to 1970, was the father of two current Indiana prosecuting attorneys: Judson G. (Jud) Barce, Benton County prosecuting attorney; and J. Edward (Ed) Barce, Newton County prosecuting attorney.
After more than 20 years, King County (Seattle) DA Norm Maleng’s office and King County sheriffs’ detectives cracked one of the Pacific Northwest’s most baffling serial murder cases—the Green River killings—with the arrest of one of the original suspects. After DNA evidence linked Gary Leon Ridgway, a commercial truck painter, with the murder of three women and circumstantial evidence linked him to a fourth victim, Ridgway was charged with four counts of aggravated first-degree murder. If convicted, Ridgeway will get either the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole. The Green River serial murder case gets its name from the fact that the first bodies found were in or near the Green River. When asked if the high cost of pursuing the death penalty would be a factor in his decision on what penalty to seek, DA Maleng, an NDAA board member, replied, “There is never a price tag on justice.” The Eastside Journal, a Seattle alternative newspaper, reported that King County would spend close to $1 million to provide a defense for Ridgway. This will cover the hiring of three public defenders, two private investigators, two paralegals and a clerk, plus $300,000 to pay experts to review the evidence against Ridgway. The paper adds, “This is on top of what Ridgway is paying top Seattle defense attorney Anthony Savage. Savage wouldn’t disclose his hourly rate but defense attorneys typically charge $200 an hour.”
Eight months after the Virginia Supreme Court overturned Paul Warner Powell’s death sentence for killing a teenager and raping her sister, Powell sent a rambling, profanity-laced letter to Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Paul B. Ebert, taunting Ebert for failing to make the death sentence stick and revealing details of the slaying that had not been known at the time of the trial. It was a very big mistake. As the result of the information in the letter, Powell—already serving three life sentences for the attack on the teenager’s younger sister—is under indictment on capital murder charges and again could face execution. In the letter, Powell said he had tried to sexually assault the teenager and stabbed her in the heart when she resisted his advances. Prosecutors previously had no evidence of an attempted sexual assault—a crime that makes the teenager’s killing a capital offense under Virginia law, which specifies that a murder may carry the death penalty only when committed in connection with another crime, such as rape, robbery or kidnapping. The Virginia Supreme Court had reversed Powell’s conviction and death sentence and ordered a new trial, ruling that Powell could not be charged with capital murder because the teenager’s murder and her sister’s rape were separate crimes. Powell’s taunting letter provided the prosecutor with the new evidence and opportunity to again seek Powell’s execution. In his letter to Ebert, Powell wrote mockingly: “Y’all should have known there is more to the story than what I told …Thank you for saving my life.” As Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney James A. Willett put it: “His (Powell’s) intent was to taunt and cause more pain. The effect was a confession.” On the basis of his letter to Commonwealth’s Attorney Ebert, Powell was indicted on a new charge of capital murder.
Scott Abdallah, former Lincoln County (South Dakota) state’s attorney, is the new U.S. attorney for South Dakota. Abdallah, an NDAA member during his seven years as a local prosecutor, said after he was sworn in to his new position that he will have four goals as U.S. attorney: fighting terrorism, improving communications between the various levels of law enforcement, enforcing existing firearms laws and restoring the confidence of Native Americans in the criminal justice system. Abdallah’s father, Gene, is a state legislator and former U.S. marshal for the district of South Dakota. Abdallah has been succeeded as state’s attorney by his former assistant, Tom Wollman, whose father, Roger D. Wollman, is chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Rick Maughner, an Indiana Superior Court judge in Cass County, a former Cass County prosecuting attorney and a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, has been ordered to active duty with the air force for a tour that could last two years. Senior Judge Garrett Palmer has come out of retirement to replace Maughner for the duration of Maughner’s military service.
The recipient of the California District Attorneys Association’s Witness of the Year Award is eight years old. She’s Midsi Sanchez, who was kidnapped by Curtis Dean Anderson as she walked home from school and was kept chained for two days in Anderson’s car, where she was repeatedly abused, assaulted, denied food and forced to drink alcoholic beverages while chained by her ankle to the car’s gearshift. On the third day, when Anderson left her alone in the car with the keys in the ignition while he went to obtain a 55-gallon trash bag, Midsi found the right key, freed herself and escaped. Midsi’s quick thinking probably saved her life, according to Deputy Solano County DA Donna Stashyn, who declared, “It doesn’t take much to put two and two together” and conclude that Anderson intended to kill Midsi and put her body in the bag. In a statement read to the court during Anderson’s sentencing hearing, Midsi wrote, “I think Anderson should go to jail for the rest of his life.” She got her wish. Anderson, 40, was sentenced to 251 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2213—212 years from the day he entered prison.
After six years as an assistant prosecuting attorney of Cuyahoga County (metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio), William F. B. Vodrey has moved to a magistrate’s post on the Cleveland Municipal Court.
Christopher Brauer, DA of Umatilla County, Oregon, is the new president of the Oregon District Attorneys Association. Gary Williams, DA of Crook County, is the new vice president.
In Michigan, Margaret Chiara, former Cass County prosecuting attorney and ex-president of the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, has been sworn in as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Michigan. Among those speaking at her swearing-in ceremony were Michigan Governor Engler and Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jim Gregart.
In California, Solano County Deputy DA George H. Williamson has been named one of the “top 100 most influential lawyers in California” by the California LawBusiness magazine. Williamson was cited not only for his expertise in capital murder cases but for his “intellect and charm.” One nominator wrote that Williamson “is the most valuable player year after year.”
Randall I. (Randy) Hillman is the new executive director of the Alabama District Attorneys Association, succeeding longtime executive director Tom Sorrells. Hillman is former chief assistant DA of Shelby County. Sorrells, in his farewell message, described Hillman as “a quality person (who) has the heart of a prosecutor.”
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