Gun News Oct. 2, 2000

AP1002.doc

Court backs minimum terms for gun crimes
Judges side with Ottawa: Supreme Court rules mandatory penalty is
fair
Luiza Chwialkowska National Post OTTAWA
Federal firearms legislation survived a key constitutional challenge
yesterday when a near-unanimous Supreme Court ruled that special
mandatory minimum sentences for crimes committed with a gun do
not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.”
The decision upholds the four-year sentence of Marty Lorraine
Morrissey, a 35-year-old labourer from Belmont, N.S., who was
convicted of criminal negligence causing death with a firearm in the
1996 shooting of his friend Adrian Teed.
At Morrissey’s 1996 trial, Judge Edward Scanlan of the Nova
Scotia Supreme Court struck down the section of the 1995 Firearms
Act, finding the mandatory penalty too severe for crimes that do not
involve intent to kill.
The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overruled the decision, and was
supported by the Supreme Court yesterday.
“The offence of criminal negligence causing death requires proof of
wanton and reckless disregard for the lives and safety of other
people-a high threshold to pass,” wrote Justice Charles Gonthier for
the majority.
Mandatory minimum sentences are rare in Canadian law, which
relies heavily on judicial discretion. The Supreme Court itself has
championed the “individualization” of sentences, and in 1987 it struck
down a mandatory minimum sentence for drug importation.
Mandatory terms are used for first and second-degree murder, repeat
impaired driving, and firearms crimes.
“This offence does not punish accidents. Nor does it punish the
merely unfortunate,” wrote Judge Gonthier. “[The crime] is no trivial
matter, and Parliament has treated it accordingly.”
The Firearms Act includes four year minimum sentences for
manslaughter, sexual assault, and robbery with a firearm.
A long-time alcoholic, Morrissey was severely intoxicated and
taking Valium on May 14, 1996, when he tried to wake up Mr.
Teed, who was asleep in the top bunk of a cabin in the woods.
Holding a loaded rifle he had sawed off earlier that day, Morrissey
fell as he tried to climb the bunk bed. The gun discharged as he fell,
and the bullet struck Mr. Teed in the head, killing him.
Morrissey had said the gun was for use in a robbery, or in a planned
suicide.
The court subtracted one year for time Morrissey served prior to his
trial.
All nine judges agreed that Morrissey’s sentence was just, but
Justice Louise Arbour wrote a concurrent opinion joined by Chief
Justice Beverley McLachlin that urged a “more individualized
approach” to future cases.
“I would uphold the constitutionality of [the law] generally, while
declining to apply it in a future case if the minimum penalty is found
to be grossly disproportionate for that future offender,” wrote Judge
Arbour.
The court is expected to rule soon in the case of Robert Latimer, a
Saskatchewan farmer seeking a special exemption from the mandatory
murder sentence for killing his severely disabled daughter Tracy “out
of necessity.”

Maryland Trigger Lock Law Kicks In
By Daniel LeDuc Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 1,
2000
Beginning today, all handguns sold in Maryland will have to be
sold with a trigger lock as Gov. Parris N. Glendening’s controversial
gun control law takes effect statewide.
The locks are the first step toward a requirement that new handguns
sold in the state be equipped with built-in locks. That requirement will
take effect Jan. 1, 2002.
Also today, gun manufacturers must begin supplying shell casings
from new handguns to the Maryland State Police, which is creating a
database of shells’ “fingerprints,” which will be used to match guns
used in crimes to their owners.
The gun law is among dozens of laws–including measures
governing electronic commerce, cable television late fees and
legislative lobbying–that take effect today after passage by the
General Assembly during this year’s legislative session.
“Starting Sunday, fewer children in Maryland will be the victims of
accidental shootings,” said Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D-
Montgomery), who was one of the gun proposal’s chief sponsors.
He acknowledged that the new law is not a panacea but insisted that
it would reduce gun violence.
“Ultimately, the responsibility still lies with the gun owner,” he
said. “This makes it easier for a gun owner to be responsible and takes
away any excuse to be irresponsible.”
The law also requires a five-year prison sentence for people
previously convicted of a violent crime who are caught illegally
possessing a firearm, and it prohibits anyone convicted of a violent
crime or felony while a juvenile from possessing a handgun until age
30. And, beginning Jan. 1, the law will require someone who wants to
buy a handgun to undergo two hours of firearms safety training.
Gun rights advocates say the law will have no practical effect in
Maryland. Nearly all gun manufacturers already supply trigger locks
with their firearms, said Sanford Abrams, who is vice president of the
Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association and an operator of a
Baltimore County gun shop. All that is being added, he said, is that
gun dealers must supply gun locks with the used handguns they sell.
He also said that the shell casings provided to the state police
probably will provide little help to investigators, because the markings
on shells change over time as a gun is fired and because there will be
difficulty using the casings as evidence in court since so many people
will have handled them before their arriving at the state police lab.
Defense lawyers will have an easy time casting doubt on whether the
casings actually came from the guns involved in investigations, he
said.
The ultimate goal of the gun law sponsors is to ban ownership of
handguns, Abrams said.
“If they can’t ban them, they want to make it as difficult and
expensive as they can to prevent you from buying a gun,” he said. But
it’s backfiring, he added. “My sales have gone through the roof
compared to last year because of the fear of this law.”
Also today, Maryland becomes the first state where an electronic
commerce law takes effect. Lobbied for by computer giants such as
Microsoft Corp., the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act
allows companies to reach into customers’ computers and “repossess”
a product if they fall behind on payments. And the law permits
companies to send legal notices about new restrictions by e-mail
without proof that the e-mail has reached its destination.
With Internet commerce expanding, software manufacturers have
pushed legislatures throughout the nation to pass laws making legally
binding the terms the companies set on the use of their products, even
though most consumers would not know what those conditions are
until after they had spent their money and read the fine print.
Another law taking effect today allows cable television companies
and other businesses to charge customers late fees. The law essentially
overturns a recent state Court of Appeals decision limiting those fees.
Now, businesses may charge up to 10 percent of a bill or $5,
whichever is greater, as a penalty for late payment.
Also as of today, the governor, legislators and other top officials
will have to disclose any business transactions valued at more than
$1,000 that they have with registered lobbyists in the state. Legislators
balked at a proposal to ban such deals.

Turtles Released With Transmitters
SAN DIEGO (AP)
Three sea turtles outfitted with transmitters were released into the
ocean Sunday as part of a research program to track their migration
through the Pacific.
The Pacific loggerheads have lived at Sea World more than two
decades. They were expected to take a few days to get their bearings,
then head west to nesting grounds in Japan.
“Just think, this is the first time in 20 years they can’t see the
bottom,” said Scott Eckert, a senior biologist at the Hubbs-Sea World
Research Institute.
Each turtle, weighing 250 to 300 pounds and believed to be 35 to
42 years old, carries a small tracking device on its shell that will give
the turtle’s location and measure the surface water temperature.
A similar attempt last year to learn more about sea turtles’
migration patterns hinted that they follow a band of warm water across
the Pacific. That project ended when the transmitters’ batteries ran out
near Hawaii, Eckert said.
The turtles are expected to take up to a year to swim more than
6,000 miles to the Japanese coast. The data gathered from the
transmitters also could reveal where turtles feed and mate.
The sea turtles are listed by the United States as threatened or
endangered.

Judge Won’t Reopen Davidian Lawsuit
WACO, Texas (AP)– A federal judge rejected a second attempt by
plaintiffs to reopen the Branch Davidians’ wrongful-death lawsuit
against the government.
Attorneys David T. Hardy and Jim Brannon asked U.S. District
Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. to reconsider his ruling that rejected the
notion that flashes picked up on FBI infrared video on the final day of
the 51-day standoff at the sect’s Waco compound were blasts from FBI
weapons.
In a ruling last week, the judge said the lawyers’ request was
without merit.
Brannon said Sunday that it was his impression that “the judge was
not going to let anything get in the way of his ruling, including the
facts. His mind was made up a long time ago.”
The plaintiffs alleged that another gunfire test performed in early
September near Fort Collins, Colo., shows flaws in how a March 19
test to help analyze the flashes on the infrared video was conducted.
The test was in conjunction with the lawsuit and Special Counsel
John Danforth’s investigation of the government’s actions at the
compound. A court-appointed expert determined the flashes from the
compound video were actually sunlight reflecting off debris.
The lawsuit arose from the standoff that started Feb. 28, 1993,
when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents attempted to
search the Davidian compound for illegal weapons and arrest sect
leader David Koresh. Four agents and six Davidians were killed in an
ensuing gun battle that triggered the sect’s standoff with the
government.
Danforth, the civil jury in Smith’s court and Smith’s judgment in the
case absolved the government of wrongdoing in the initial raid and in
the April 19, 1993, fire that ended the standoff. Koresh and about 80
followers perished in the blaze that destroyed the compound hours
after FBI agents began a tear-gassing operation meant to end the
ordeal.

Calif. Cops Kill Man Who Stabbed 3
VENTURA, Calif. (AP)
A man stabbed three staff members in a hospital waiting room, then
was shot and killed by police, authorities said Sunday.
The victims’ wounds were not life-threatening.
The attack happened at Community Memorial Hospital late
Saturday, when the man “jumped one of the staff, started hitting him,
and took out a knife and started stabbing him,” said police Lt. Carl
Handy.
Two staff members who tried to intervene also were stabbed.
Officers first tried to subdue the man by firing a non-lethal beanbag
round, but that failed, Handy said. “When he came at the officers with
a knife, he was shot one time and he died about two hours later,” he
said.
The motive for the attack was not known, Handy said. He said
police had had previous contact with the man but he would not give
details.
The hospital referred questions on the wounded workers to Handy,
who said they were “doing fine.”

Ex-Convicts’ Pasts Haunt Them
by MARTA W. ALDRICH Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (AP)
Mitzi Ann Shepard believes eight words stand between her and her
dream of becoming a nurse practitioner: Have you ever been convicted
of a felony?
Released from prison in 1997 after serving 15 months for killing a
boyfriend she describes as abusive, Shepard answered the question
truthfully on 13 job applications.
She didn’t get a single call back.
“I understand now why so many people return to prison,” said
Shepard, 37, a licensed practical nurse who was one semester short of
a college degree when she was convicted.
Shepard says she could triple her salary if she was able to become a
nurse practitioner, a position that would require more schooling. But
based on responses from employers, she is discouraged about her
chances of being accepted at a college.
“You’re not given a dog’s chance,” she said.
In a nation of opportunity and a justice system that touts
rehabilitation, ex-cons are often the exception. Those pursuing a new
start are shadowed by those eight words when applying for jobs,
college, professional licenses and military clearance, even losing
voting rights in some states.
Businesses, meanwhile, are caught in the middle. With
unemployment at a record lows, they’re desperate for workers. Yet, a
litigious culture makes it imperative that employers screen workers
who could put them at risk.
“The intent of the eight-word question is not to fail to give people a
second chance. It’s to protect the public, the organization, the
employees and to avoid lawsuits,” said Wendy Bliss, a Denver
consultant and president-elect of the Society for Human Resource
Management.
Roger Catanzano, who owns a Nashville telemarketing business,
has hired about 300 former prisoners since 1992. Some were good
employees, some weren’t.
“You just have to find the right kind of jobs” for them, he said. “I
wouldn’t put them at my cash register right off.”
Asking about past felony convictions is standard on job
applications and allowed under federal Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission guidelines.
But from Shepard’s experience, it’s a route to unemployment.
“When you see that question, you either lie or you put the truth and
say ‘yes’ and your application is discarded,” she told the Tennessee
Board of Paroles in August when seeking a pardon by Gov. Don
Sundquist. Her request is pending.
While it’s unknown how many people lie about past convictions,
some studies have shown that one-third of applications or resumes
generally contain distortions, embellishments or falsehoods.
Counselors working with ex-cons don’t recommend lying, which is
grounds for firing if the applicant is hired. However, they understand
the frustration that often leads to it.
“People feel they made a mistake. They did their time. They’re
trying to put their lives back together and continually are reminded of
this mistake,” said Enrico Cullen, manager of career development for
the Fortune Society, which annually helps about 200 ex-cons find jobs
in New York City.
He says former prisoners can be motivated, loyal workers.
“They’re willing to come in early and stay late. They’re more
grateful than some employees who don’t have this hurdle to
overcome,” Cullen said.
Harmon Wray, who works for the United Methodist denomination
on criminal justice issues, said employers should open their minds
about a growing segment of society.
Nationwide, there were 4.5 million people on probation or parole in
1999, compared to 3.2 million in 1990 and 1.3 million in 1980,
according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In Tennessee, 36,000 people were on probation or parole earlier
this year, compared to 21,000 in 1990, the state correction department
reported.
“If a person answers the felony question honestly on an application,
I would see it as an opportunity to ask them about it and get to know
who this person is, rather than just to write them off,” Wray said.
Even if social responsibility doesn’t motivate employers, market
conditions and federal tax credits of up to $2,400 per employee may.
Shepard says she shot and killed her then-boyfriend, Jerry Macklen,
after obtaining a restraining order to keep him away. She says he came
to her home and assaulted and raped her. A jury convicted her of
manslaughter, however, rejecting her argument of self-defense.
District Attorney Clayburn Peeples, who prosecuted Shepard,
supports her application for a pardon, saying she suffered from a
pattern of violent physical and emotional abuse.
But Shepard says “nobody cares about the mitigating
circumstances.”
Macklen’s family is equally passionate in opposing Shepard’s
pardon, questioning her claims of abuse and reminding the parole
board that Macklen never got a second chance.
Shepard’s nursing license was revoked after her 1993 conviction.
She successful petitioned a state licensing board earlier this year to get
it back. She finally landed a job about a half-hour drive from her
Humboldt home with a Jackson doctor who was a friend of her family.
Still, she hopes to eventually go back to school to fulfill her dream
of becoming a nurse practitioner.
“My son is 13. I have to think of him, and this would make a huge
difference in providing him a college education,” she says.
“Maybe I don’t deserve this, but I do know I can do more than I’m
doing now,” Shepard says. “I know I can better myself and I can better
the lives of others by pursuing my dream.”

2 Convicted Men Cleared By DNA Test
HOUSTON, Texas (AP)
Two men cleared of rape convictions by DNA evidence are causing
Texas officials to review old cases and question the reliability of
eyewitness testimony.
“What we’re seeing is the system correct itself,” University of
Houston Law Center professor Sandra Guerra told the Houston
Chronicle. “We shouldn’t see these same kinds of cases repeat.”
DNA evidence last week cleared Anthony Robinson, convicted of
raping a woman at the University of Houston, and Carlos Lavernia,
who was thought to be a serial rapist in Austin.
Robinson, 39, said he is happy to get his life back, but wonders
where he would be if hadn’t spent more than a decade in prison. He
was convicted in 1987, two years before DNA evidence was
admissible in Harris County courts. He was sentenced to 27 years in
prison and paroled in 1997.
Lavernia, convicted in 1985, was sentenced to 99 years in prison;
Travis County officials are working to release him. Investigators in
Austin say they are now reviewing cases before 1996 for offenses,
including murder and sexual assaults, where DNA testing could have
been used as evidence.
At least 70 people in the United States have been exonerated by
DNA evidence since the technology became available in the late
1980s, according to statistics kept by the New York-based Innocence
Project. Lavernia’s release would be the sixth in Texas involving DNA
evidence.
When he was arrested, Robinson said he was innocent and offered a
blood sample. After he was paroled, Robinson saved $1,800 to pay for
the DNA testing.
Harris County District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. said that
without scientific proof, there is no foolproof way to ensure the
accuracy of witnesses. Robinson was visiting a friend at the university
when campus police picked him out in a parking lot as matching the
description the victim had given.
“The bottom line is you can’t” ensure that kind of accuracy, Holmes
said. “The one thing justice has going for it before a conviction is the
jury has to believe beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Court Rejects Gunmakers’ Appeal
WASHINGTON (AP)
Two gunmakers who challenged Congress’ authority to ban the
manufacture, sale and possession of semiautomatic assault weapons
lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.
The court, without comment, rejected an appeal that said Congress
exceeded its power to regulate interstate commerce when it outlawed
such weapons in 1994.
The 1994 law, an amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968,
defines semiautomatic assault weapons to include a list of specified
firearms and “copies or duplicates of the firearms in any caliber.”
Navegar Inc. and Penn Arms Inc. challenged the federal ban in
1995.
Florida-based Navegar, doing business as Intratec, manufactures
two semiautomatic pistols, the TEC-DC9 and TEC-22, which are
among the specifically banned weapons.
Pennsylvania-based Penn Arms makes the Strike 12, a 12-gauge
revolving cylinder shotgun. All such shotguns are treated as
semiautomatic assault weapons under the 1994 law.
A federal trial judge and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia upheld the ban. In its ruling last year, the appeals
court called the law a permissible “regulation of activities having a
substantial effect on interstate commerce.”
The appeals court cited Congress’ “intent to control the flow
through interstate commerce of semiautomatic assault weapons bought
or manufactured in one state and subsequently transported into other
states.”
In the appeal acted on Monday, the gunmakers argued that the
appeals court ruling conflicts with recent Supreme Court decisions that
pared congressional power by narrowing the definition of interstate
commerce.
In one, the Supreme Court said Congress exceeded its authority in
banning possession of guns within 1,000 feet of schools. In another,
the court struck down a key provision of the Violence Against Women
Act.
The gunmakers’ appeal said the appeals court wrongly presumed
that “the manufacture and transfer of semiautomatic assault weapons
was for a national market.”
They said the appeals court “had no basis for concluding … that the
intrastate manufacture, transfer or possession of semiautomatic assault
weapons had a substantial effect on interstate commerce.”
Justice Department lawyers urged the court to reject the appeal.
“Federal regulation of firearms and assault weapons is based in large
part on evidence that the nationwide market for firearms renders
purely local prohibitions ineffective,” they said.
The case is Navegar v. U.S., 99-1874.

Thurmond Hopes To Leave Hospital
WASHINGTON (AP)
Sen. Strom Thurmond, hospitalized overnight after losing
consciousness in a restaurant, was “doing very well” and hoped to go
home Monday, his spokeswoman said Sunday.
Thurmond, 97, the oldest senator in U.S. history, was “very alert”
when aide Genevieve Erny spoke with him Sunday morning. He was
still doing well in the late afternoon, she said.
“He seems to be doing very well,” Erny said. “They still have not
conclusively determined the cause of the occurrence, but … it may be
the result of dehydration.”
Thurmond, R-S.C., was having lunch with two friends Saturday in
an Alexandria, Va., restaurant when he took ill and lay his head on the
table. After restaurant workers called an ambulance, Thurmond was
taken first to an Alexandria hospital before transferring to Walter Reed
Army Medical Center in Washington.
Erny said doctors expected Thurmond to leave Walter Reed on
Monday.
She said Thurmond had been very tired Saturday and briefly lost
consciousness, but “even after the incident occurred, he was still doing
well as far as sitting up, speaking with staffers, joking with staffers.”
Thurmond has been hospitalized several times in recent years for
various problems and had prostate surgery in 1999.
In May, Thurmond spent three days in Walter Reed for what an
aide said was a back problem. Earlier that month, he was twice
hospitalized for upset stomach and fatigue.
Erny said Saturday’s episode was unrelated to Thurmond’s previous
illnesses.
The longest-serving senator and oldest member of Congress,
Thurmond was first elected to the Senate in 1954. When he was re-
elected to his eighth Senate term in November 1996, Thurmond said it
would be his last campaign. His term expires in January 2003.

Million Family March Heads to D.C.
by JESSE J. HOLLAND WASHINGTON (AP)
A group of religious leaders rode into downtown Washington
Friday in the first wave of buses headed to the nation’s capital for the
Million Family March, organizers said.
“We’re here to serve notice that the masses are on the way,”
proclaimed Benjamin Muhammad, the march’s national director.
The Million Family March will be on Oct. 16, the fifth anniversary
of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March.
Farrakhan has called for people of all races and religions to “rise
above their symbols” and gather at the Washington Mall in support of
the American family. Muhammad, formerly known as Ben Chavis and
a former NAACP director, helped organize the original march.
More than 100 pastors, imams and clerics from Washington met in
Arlington, Va., for a prayer breakfast sponsored by the American
Clergy Leadership Conference Friday morning. Then they rode a bus
together into Washington.
While Muhammad said the march would be nonpolitical and
nonpartisan, he called it “the largest gathering just before the national
elections, so it will impact the outcome.”
Farrakhan has asked marchers to withhold their choice for president
until the march, when he hinted that he may endorse a candidate.
The organizers would be willing to meet with any national
candidate about making an appearance, Muhammad said.
“To the extent these candidates now focus on families is the extent
they may get the attention of the millions of families who are
participating in the Million Family March,” he said.
On Tuesday, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe
Lieberman, the first Jewish politician to run on a major U.S. political
ticket, told American Urban Radio Networks he was open to meeting
Farrakhan to promote reconciliation in the United States.
The Muslim leader campaigns for black empowerment, but has
drawn criticism for statements against whites and Jews. He once called
Judaism a “gutter religion.”
On the Net: Million Family March:

http://www.millionfamilymarch.com

Inmates not so `nonviolent’
Escapees from the minimum-security Glenwood Jail include hard-
core, violent criminals, records reveal
BY MARK SCHLUEB Beacon Journal staff writer
The list of “nonviolent” criminals who escaped from the Glenwood
Jail last year includes a rapist, a carjacker, a robber and a man once
indicted for murder.
Summit County Sheriff’s Office administrators have said they’re
trying to improve security at the Glenwood Jail-a minimum-security
jailhouse that routinely leads Ohio in escapes-but recently
downplayed the facility’s poor record because lawbreakers are sent to
Glenwood for nonviolent offenses.
But a review of criminal records shows that many of the 1999
escapees from the Oriana House Inc.-owned facility had violent crimes
in their past, ranging from domestic violence and stalking to abduction
and rape.
Court records show that Glenwood Jail’s 1999 escapees included:
A man who once bit off half of a man’s ear.
A man who pulled a gun and stole $25 from an Akron woman and
her grown son just four months before his escape.
A man who pulled a high school student from his car, beat him,
stole the car and wrecked it.
A man who was caught with stolen Jet Skis soon after his escape
and who injured the officer who arrested him.
Two others who’ve escaped from Glenwood more than once.
Internal memos obtained by the Akron Beacon Journal indicate that
sheriff’s deputies have struggled for years with lax security and drug
use by inmates at Glenwood, which is operated jointly by the sheriff’s
office and Oriana House.
Sheriff’s officials say it’s tough to prevent escapes because the
doors are kept unlocked to comply with fire codes, and there’s no
perimeter fence outside.
And because there’s no medical staff at Glenwood, inmates are
allowed to check themselves out to see a doctor. Some don’t come
back.
Summit County Councilman Larry Givens, a former Akron police
chief, asked Sheriff Richard L. Warren two weeks ago to open an
investigation of security problems at Glenwood. There were 29
escapes from the jail in 1999 alone.
“Why should we put our police and the public in harm’s way, when
these inmates should have been in a secure facility? It bothers me a lot
that police officers or citizens are victimized when these guys should
be behind locked doors,” Givens said.
One of the worst arrest records among 1999′s escapees is held by
Ira Knox III, who was indicted in 1988 for abducting and raping a
juvenile. While he was waiting for his trial to start, Knox and a
handful of other inmates helped two others-a murderer and a rapist-
overpower a social worker and escape.
Knox was convicted of sexual battery and breaking and entering,
and his role in the jail break earned him another conviction for
obstruction of justice. That same year, a federal grand jury indicted
him for a separate crime, transporting a 16-year-old girl across state
lines for prostitution.
After his release from state prison, Knox continued to rack up a
long list of crimes, court records show. But by December 1999, he was
sitting in Glenwood Jail.
Then on Dec. 16, Knox signed himself out to go to St. Thomas
Hospital. He never arrived at the hospital, and didn’t come back to
Glenwood.
Ten days later, Knox was arrested on charges of selling stolen
merchandise. The breaking and entering and escape charges won Knox
a trip to the county-owned Community Based Correctional Facility,
which is operated under contract by Oriana House, the same company
that owns the Glenwood Jail.
But Oriana workers hadn’t caught on to Knox’s pattern: He signed
himself out on May 3, ostensibly to look for a job. Knox didn’t come
back, and was again arrested for escape a few days later.
Sheriff’s jail Chief Steve Finical said Oriana House staffers screen
criminal defendants before approving them for placement in the
minimum-security Glenwood Jail, where they can receive treatment
for chemical addiction and other problems. Sheriff’s personnel don’t
review Oriana’s screening results.
“I think they’re taking a pretty close look at them to screen out
those individuals that have significant violent tendencies. Nobody can
guarantee that somebody’s never going to be violent, but you look at
past history and certain indicators, and I think they’ve improved on
that,” Finical said.
“You have to look at how far back those crimes were committed.
You have to make a determination of whether they’re still a risk, or if it
was an isolated incident.”
But some deputies who have worked in Glenwood were
uncomfortable with the mix of inmates in the facility, where drunk
drivers are sent for the state’s mandatory three-day DUI program.
“You’ve got these first-time DUI offenders in for the weekend, and
they’re in there with these multiple-offender street thugs,” said a
sheriff’s deputy who worked in Glenwood and spoke on condition of
anonymity.
Oriana House Executive Vice President Bernie Rochford said
Oriana staffers consider past crimes when trying to determine if an
offender would benefit from one of Glenwood’s treatment programs.
“That’s something the staff looks at and tries to determine whether
that still poses a risk or a concern,” he said.
But screenings aside, judges are the ones who decide whether a
lawbreaker belongs in Glenwood, amid the tighter security of the
Summit County Jail, or out on the street, Rochford said.
“I would say in some cases, the alternative of releasing somebody
to the street is less attractive than putting them in Glenwood,” he said.
“Through the screening process, there are people we won’t consider,
but I can’t remember the last time a judge referred someone and we
said, `No we won’t take them.”
Sheriff’s administrators said they’ll assign two investigators to look
at Oriana House programs and security at the Glenwood Jail in
response to the request from Councilman Givens.
The investigators won’t have to look far for information about
security lapses. Internal sheriff’s office memos obtained by the Beacon
Journal show security problems are nothing new at Glenwood.
In July 1996, a deputy assigned to Glenwood reported evidence of
“serious drug abuse going on at Glenwood Jail” to his superior. Other
deputies told the Beacon Journal that so much liquor, drugs, pizza and
other contraband has been passed to inmates through one jailhouse
window that deputies began referring to it as “the drive-through
window.”
A state jail inspector met with sheriff’s officials in August 1997 to
talk about a spike in the number of escapes. A month later, a sheriff’s
administrator ordered deputies not to file escape charges against
Glenwood escapees, unless the inmate was one of a small percentage
who’d been transferred from the Summit County Jail.
Judges were provided with information about escapees in lieu of
filing charges, and judges could choose to issue arrest warrants for
contempt of court. The no-charges policy was meant to distinguish
genuine escapees from those who failed to return from medical
appointments, Finical said.
Other deputies said the policy was aimed at concealing the number
of escapes from Glenwood. Regardless, the policy was reversed about
10 months later, around the same time Oriana House was receiving
public criticism for allowing delinquents to escape from its juvenile
halfway house.
Officials with both the sheriff’s office and Oriana House say they’re
talking about ways to tighten security at Glenwood. Solutions could
include providing in-house medical care.
“The catch to that is it’s going to cost a lot more money to have
those kinds of services,” Oriana’s Rochford said. “It’s a matter of
trying to balance the resources.”

Colo., Ore. To Vote on Gun Checks
By JON SARCHE, LITTLETON, Colo. (AP)
Guns and gun shows are Colorado tradition, tools for rural life and
independence. The same goes for Oregon. Seemingly out of place in
both states are Nov. 7 ballot questions proposing background checks
for all gun show purchases.
But it was a gun show that last year furnished part of the arsenal
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold took to Columbine High School in
Littleton, where they killed 13 people and themselves.
A year before, in Oregon, a disturbed 15-year-old named Kip
Kinkel killed his parents and two students with guns obtained from his
father.
Driven by the bloodshed, and impatient with their legislators,
backers of both measures hope voters will impose more control on this
deep-rooted Western culture. Gun groups object, fearing erosion of
what they consider a constitutional right.
Federally licensed gun dealers already check backgrounds before a
sale and record the transaction, whether at a store or gun show. They
screen for criminal records and other bars to gun ownership, such as
mental hospital commitment.
The Colorado and Oregon measures would require background
checks before private gun sales as well.
“There’s just something inherently wrong with someone with a
record going to Table A (at a gun show) and having to go through a
background check, but if you go to Table B, you’re not required to do
anything,” said a proponent, Sheriff Bob Kennedy of Jackson County,
Ore.
Private sales of all guns require background checks now in seven
states; for handguns only in 11 states.
Colorado’s Amendment 22 would cover all firearms sold at gun
shows – defined as any place 25 guns or more are for sale, or where at
least three gun owners are selling any number of firearms. A licensed
dealer must be present to check buyers’ backgrounds.
Oregon’s Measure 5 is similar, requiring background checks any
time at least 25 guns are for sale. Licensed dealers would do the
background checks.
Indications are both measures could pass.
In Colorado, the Rocky Mountain News reported a poll Sept. 11
that found 85 percent support it. Financial support also is telling:
backers report raising $524,000 by Sept. 19 including $115,000 from
Handgun Control in Washington. Opponents reported $76,000 in
donations, mostly from the National Rifle Association.
An Oregonian newspaper poll found 77 percent support for
Oregon’s measure. Oregon campaign finances won’t be reported until
Oct. 9.
Dudley Brown, head of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners in Denver,
warns that passage is “the next step toward gun registration in
America, and registration always leads to confiscation.”
John Shaffer, a hunter and gunsmith-in-training at the Shootin Shop
in Littleton, a Denver suburb, was undecided how he’d vote, but
worried about an economic threat. “I feel if it passes, I won’t have a
job,” he said.
School killings don’t belong in the debate, said John Velleco,
spokesman for Gun Owners of America in Springfield, Va. He said
proponents are using the tragedies to obscure the threat to freedom,
“Political vultures,” he said, “are stepping over the bodies of the dead
to pursue an agenda.” As a result, “We have more people getting
concerned about losing their rights.”
Firmly on the other side is Tom Mauser. His 15-year-old son,
Daniel, died at Columbine. On leave from his state agency job, Mauser
works for Sane Alternatives to the Firearm Epidemic, sponsor of the
Colorado measure. He sometimes campaigns wearing Daniel’s nearly
new athletic shoes.
When Oregon’s legislature rejected gun show background checks,
state Sen. Ginny Burdick formed Stop Gun Violence and used the
citizen initiative to put the issue to voters. “Convicts, juveniles and
mentally disturbed people are the ones we want to stop,” said Burdick,
a Democrat representing Portland.
She also enlisted NRA members to voice their support in a state
voter pamphlet. John Brogoitti of Pendleton wrote: “Measure 5 is a
reasonable measure that would not interfere in any way with my rights
as a law-abiding gun owner.”

Four Charged in Fla. Priest Robbery
MILTON, Fla. (AP)
Four men have been charged with robbing a Roman Catholic priest
who had opened the door to his parsonage to answer a false cry for
help.
Jonathan Hindall, 19, is charged with home invasion robbery, false
imprisonment, aggravated assault and grand larceny; Brian Kelley, 21,
and Mitchell Eddins and Eric Collins, both 20, are charged with
assisting him.
Officials at Santa Rosa County Jail confirmed all four men were
still being held late Saturday, Hindal on $1 million bond and the others
on $100,000 each. Jail officials had no information on lawyers
representing them.
The Rev. Thom Crandall picked Hindall out of a photo lineup, but
said he did not know him or the others.
Crandall was robbed Sept. 23 when he opened the door at St. Rose
of Lima Roman Catholic Church to assist a man claiming to need help.
The man put a gun to his face and ordered him to hand over the night’s
collection from the church and some collectible coins and Civil War-
era money from a safe.
Crandall said the robber tied him up with his shoelace and left.
“I just hope it never happens again,” Crandall said.

A year after lethal raid, Mena case still rankles activists
Mexican immigrant was shot by police using wrong address in search
for drugs
By Tillie Fong Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
One year after Ismael Mena was killed by Denver SWAT officers
in a drug raid, community supporters say justice still hasn’t been
served.
“We are still looking for police to be accountable for their actions,”
said Cynthia Gallegos, co-chairwoman of the Justice for Mena
Committee.
“This shows that we will not forget.”
Gallegos was one of the speakers at a candlelight vigil Friday night
at the City and County Building. About 30 people attended.
Mena, 45, a father of nine, was killed last Sept. 29 by SWAT
members who were carrying out a no-knock drug raid at a house he
was renting at 3738 High St.
He was shot eight times after he pointed a gun at officers when they
stormed his bedroom. Mena’s neighbors and roommates said he was
likely sleeping after working a graveyard shift at the Coca-Cola
Bottling Co. No drugs were found in the house.
It was later determined authorities had targeted the wrong house.
Officer Joseph Bini is facing perjury charges for statements he
made to a judge to obtain the warrant used in the Mena raid. His trial is
set for Oct. 10.
Earlier this year, the city settled with the Mena family, who live in
Jalisco, Mexico, paying them more than $400,000.
Over the summer, the procedures for obtaining and executing
warrants for no-knock raids were based on recommendations from a
panel appointed by Mayor Wellington Webb after the Mena shooting.
Experienced narcotics officers and supervisors must now approve
requests for no-knock raids before they are requested from a judge.
Officers also now have three days instead of 10 to execute the warrant.
But for some, the changes aren’t enough.
Stephen Nash, head of End the Politics of Cruelty, said the
community needs to monitor police.
He asked people to sign up for the new Denver Copwatch program,
where citizens monitor police actions.
“The idea is to shine a light on what police do,” he said.

N.Y. Mother Attempts To Rob Bank
NEW YORK (AP)
A would-be bank robber chose an odd getaway vehicle – a slow-
moving city bus.
Valerie Coletti, 41, allegedly collected $8,300 in cash from a bank
in Brooklyn and made her escape on a bus. The bus was stopped by
police about a block from the bank, and Coletti, a mother of two
college-age sons, was arrested.
The bungled robbery happened Friday at about 10:30 a.m., when
Coletti allegedly strode to a teller’s window, holding a blue bag and
pointing a black gun at the teller, police said.
After Coletti got the money and left the bank, an employee ran out
and flagged a police van from the 61st Precinct.
“The employee said, ‘We’ve just been robbed, and the lady who
robbed us is on the city bus that just passed you,”‘ said Police Officer
Jeff Childs. The cops went after the bus.
With a description of the robber, Childs boarded the bus about a
block from the bank. The bus was full, but Childs zeroed in on a
woman sitting in the last row.
“She didn’t move, she didn’t say a word,” Childs said.
Childs approached her and ordered the woman to put her hands up.
Police recovered two pellet guns from the woman.
Police said Coletti told them she took the bus because she didn’t
have money for a cab. The Brooklyn resident remained in federal
custody Friday night.

Mausers say they’ll adopt Chinese girl
Upon return, they’ll push for gun-control measure
By John Sanko Denver Rocky Mountain News Capitol Bureau
Tom Mauser, who formed a gun-control group after his son was
killed at Columbine High School, said Thursday his family will go to
China next month to adopt a little girl.
The SAFE Colorado spokesman, his wife, Linda, and their
daughter, Christie, who will be 15 next week, will leave Oct. 11.
Mauser said they will fly to Hong Kong and then to Canton, where
the girl, who was born Nov. 22, is in an orphanage. Her name is Lie
Hai Xing, which he said means “ocean star.”
She’ll be getting an American name when she returns to Colorado
with the Mausers, but that’s “top secret,” her proud new father said. He
said the adoption probably will take two weeks.
When he returns, he immediately will resume efforts to persuade
state voters to pass Amendment 22, requiring criminal background
checks on all firearm sales at gun shows.
Mauser said the idea of adopting a child originated with his wife
after their son, Daniel, died in the Columbine slayings last year.
“We can never replace Daniel,” Mauser said. “It’s certainly not that.
But the time we gave to Daniel, we can give to someone else now. We
still can present two wonderful adults to the world.
“It wasn’t something that was on the radar screen for us before all
this happened. It was really my wife’s idea. But we are so happy and
so pleased.
“And she is such a beautiful little girl.”

Worker Charged With Killing Boss
FAIRFIELD, Ohio (AP)
A packaging plant worker shot her supervisor to death after an
argument, then waited in the factory parking lot to be arrested,
authorities said.
Sophal Prom, 34, will be arraigned Tuesday on a murder charge.
She is accused of leaving the Prestige Display& Packaging Inc.
plant Thursday night and returning with a gun to kill Darlene Adams,
42, of Newport, Ky.
Police did not say what the argument was about, but employee
Leon Lucy is was “about some boxes.” A witness said Prom emptied
the gun, reloaded and kept firing.
“There were in excess of 10 wounds of entrance and exit wounds
as well,” Butler County Coroner Richard Burkhardt said.

Md 1st To Adopt Bullet ID System
By TOM STUCKEY, Associated Press Writer ANNAPOLIS, Md.
(AP)
Beginning on Sunday, with every new handgun sold in Maryland,
the manufacturer will have to give state police a spent shell casing
carrying the weapon’s ballistic fingerprint.
Under the law – the first of its kind in the nation – the unique markings
on the casing will then be entered into a database. When detectives
find a bullet casing at a crime scene, they can go to the computer and
instantly identify the gun it came from.
“Countless hours of investigative work can now be eliminated from
the process of identifying the crime gun and who may have been in
possession of it,” State Police Superintendent David Mitchell said.
A similar New York state law takes effect March 1.
Five months after the Maryland law was signed, questions remain
about its effectiveness.
There are no criminal penalties for noncompliance by
manufacturers, and state police have told dealers they can continue
selling guns even if manufacturers do not pack shell casings with the
weapons.
State Police spokesman Maj. Greg Shipley said manufacturers have
been told it is their responsibility to make sure guns sold in Maryland
are accompanied by a casing.
Gun owner Jim Purtillo of Silver Spring questioned the value of the
law. “It’s about making it harder for people to buy guns,” he said.
“Bad guys typically don’t leave shell casings from a revolver at a
crime scene.”
The National Rifle Association did not return several calls for
comment.
Maryland gun dealers have worried that manufacturers or
distributors may stop shipping guns into the state. But at least two
major manufacturers are making efforts to comply: Smith & Wesson,
the nation’s largest maker of handguns, and Beretta USA.
Beretta USA said it will pack shell casings with handguns it knows
will be sold in Maryland, but warned that its distributors are scattered
throughout the country and guns sent elsewhere could wind up back
here.
“If we get an order from Florida, we don’t have any way of
knowing that gun is going to Maryland. It will not include the shell
casing,” Beretta spokesman Jeff Reh said.
Neither company could say whether its gun prices will increase as a
result.
Sanford Abrams, vice president of the Maryland Licensed Gun
Dealers Association, said the ballistics fingerprints may have little
legal value because a shell casing will travel through so many hands
from the manufacturer to state police.
“The chain of custody stinks,” he said.
Abrams also questioned whether ballistic fingerprints will have any
practical value because the markings left on shell casings by firing
pins change after repeated firings.
The requirement is part of sweeping new gun legislation in
Maryland. Sunday also is the effective date for laws prohibiting
handguns from being sold without an external trigger lock and barring
anyone under 30 with a juvenile record for violent crimes from buying
a handgun.
Beginning in 2002, Maryland residents also will have to complete a
state-approved gun safety course before buying a weapon, and the
following year, all handguns sold will have to be equipped with built-
in locks.

Feathers Fly Over School Suspension
ATLANTA (Reuters)
Feathers flew in a suburban Atlanta school on Thursday as officials
faced criticism for suspending a sixth grader for possession of a
Tweety Bird wallet that violated a school weapons policy.
Ashley Smith, an 11-year-old girl at Garrett Middle School, was
suspended for two weeks on Tuesday after school officials noticed her
wallet, which bore an image of the yellow bird-like cartoon character,
was attached to a 10-inch key chain.
The Cobb County school district, which oversees the school, has
banned chains as part a zero-tolerance weapons policy that places the
items in the same category as pellet guns, ice picks and swords.
Officials said Smith, who maintains a Web site devoted to Tweety
Bird, would not be able to appeal the suspension. They noted that
students are routinely shown samples of items banned under the
weapons policy at the beginning of the school year.
“These items have been used in the past as weapons. A chain like
the one in question can have any number of devices attached to it and
it becomes a very dangerous weapon,” said Jay Dillon,
communications director for Cobb County school district.
Dillon, who said he could not comment directly on the Smith
suspension, added that it fell to the discretion of school principals to
determine whether certain items would be banned under the weapons
policy.
Callers to radio talk shows in Atlanta spent much of the day
mocking the suspension. Civil liberties experts also rushed to the
defense of Smith, noting that the school district may have violated the
girl’s right to due process.
“They shouldn’t have jumped to immediately suspend her,” Jerry
Weber, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
of Georgia, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.
In 1994, the ACLU successfully represented Atlanta student Rose
Marie Spearman after she was suspended and charged with criminal
weapons possession for bringing African tribal knives to school for a
class project.

Who Deserves More Prosecution, Doctors or Gun Owners?
UTICA, N.Y. (Reuters/Zogby)
Americans are split over whether there is a greater need for laws
disciplining negligent doctors or careless gun owners, a Zogby
American Values poll finds.
In a Zogby American Values survey of 1028 respondents, 43.1% of
those surveyed thought that it was more important to pass legislation
holding doctors accountable for their mistakes than the owners of guns
used in a crime.
A similar 40.3% placed a higher degree importance in having the
owners of guns prosecuted when someone uses their firearms in a
crime.
The remaining 16.6% were not sure.
The poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.2%.
What we asked:
“A recent study showed that three times as many people died as a
result of mistakes at the hands of physicians than by firearms. Which
of the following do you think is more important:
1. Pass legislation that ensures disciplinary action against doctors who
make mistakes that cost people their lives.
2. Pass legislation that takes disciplinary action against gun owners
whose guns result in the death of someone.”

Martin Sheen in New Anti-Bush Ad
By LAURA MECKLER, WASHINGTON (AP)
In a new TV ad, a pretend president weighs into a real-live
campaign. And like his character, Martin Sheen is siding with the
Democrats.
Handgun Control Inc. is spending about a half million dollars to air
a new campaign commercial featuring Sheen talking about Republican
George W. Bush (news – web sites)’s record on gun control.
“Should the next president be the candidate of the gun lobby?”
Sheen asks, speaking to the camera with an American flag filling the
background. “Should he have signed a bill that allows hidden
handguns in churches, hospitals and amusement parks?”
“That’s Governor Bush’s record,” says Sheen, who plays President
Bartlett on NBC’s “The West Wing.”
Handgun Control approached Sheen about taping the ad after his
brother, Joe Estevez, did a voiceover for a gun industry commercial.
The brothers have similar voices, and Sheen accused the industry of
trying to deceive viewers into thinking it was him.
Sheen, who donated his time, also made a second Handgun Control
spot that does not mention any candidate. It is not airing yet.
Sheen’s commercial will air in Cleveland, Milwaukee and St. Louis,
all large cities in states that are important to the presidential election. It
comes on the heels of a $1.4 million run in seven cities of another
Handgun Control ad about Bush.
Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett said Bush would not be a pawn of the
gun lobby but would set his own agenda based on “what’s right for
America.” And he said Bush would “reverse the trend of lax
enforcement of existing gun laws by the Clinton-Gore administration.”
Separately on Thursday, the Sierra Club launched a $3 million ad
and direct mail campaign criticizing Bush’s record on the environment
and touting Gore’s. Both point viewers to the Internet for more
information. The TV ads will begin running Monday in 16 markets.
The group, which has run several anti-Bush ads, also is buying e-
mail lists of people who said they were interested in the environment.
“It’s sort of like the Internet equivalent of direct mail,” said
political director Dan Weiss.

Gun-Toting Inmates Make Jailbreak
YAZOO CITY, Miss. ( APBnews.com)
Investigators are trying to determine if two inmates who escaped
this morning from the Yazoo County Jail had outside help.
Sheriff James T. Williams said that the men used a gun to get their
jailers to open their cell doors and the doors to the outside.
“We’re trying to figure out how it got there,” he said.
Ronald Thomas and Wade Phillips, also known as Napoleon Wade
Henry, were at large this afternoon after the 5:30 a.m. escape.
Drive away from facility
Williams said the pair were cellmates and had been arrested by Yazoo
City police on charges of possession of stolen vehicles.
One of the men complained to a jailer that he felt sick. When the
guard came to the cell, the inmate displayed a gun, Williams said. The
guard, under orders from the prisoners, then asked a female jailer in
the control tower to open the cell door.
Thomas and Phillips told the woman to unlock the outside doors.
They propped them open, ordered her out of a tower and drove away
from the jail after locking the two jailers in their cell.
The woman guard was shot in the buttocks during the incident,
Williams said. She was treated at a hospital in Yazoo City and
released.

Cops Kill Suspect in Girl’s Rape, Murder
ST. LOUIS ( APBnews.com)
A 15-year-old high school honor student was raped and killed and
her assailant was shot dead by police in a bizarre attack that began in
the shadows of a park, authorities said today.
Investigators today were still trying to piece together the brutal
events that led to the deaths of young Crystal Williams and her alleged
killer, Antonio Donohue, a 21-year-old street tough, said Richard
Wilkes, a spokesman for the Metropolitan St. Louis Police
Department.
He said police are trying to understand how an incident that began
as a simple armed robbery escalated into a 40-minute explosion of
violence.
An empty wallet
Authorities said the incident began about 10 p.m. Wednesday as
Williams and her 19-year-old boyfriend sat in their parked car outside
Tink Bradley Park. A few yards away, two young men sat together on
a park bench, authorities said.
After a few minutes, the two men, one of them Donohue, the other
still unidentified, approached the young couple, Wilkes said. Donohue
allegedly pulled out a handgun, ordered the couple into another car and
announced that they planned to rob them.
“They took the boyfriend’s wallet,” Wilkes said. “But there was
nothing in it.”
It was then, authorities said, that the case took a deadly turn. For
reasons that police cannot explain, Donohue ordered his accomplice to
leave, Wilkes said. The man remains at large.
Then, at gunpoint, he ordered Williams’ boyfriend, whose name has
not been released, to drive aimlessly through the streets of the north
side St. Louis neighborhood.
Forced into trunk
At some point, in what police speculate may have been a drug-
fueled frenzy, Donohue forced the boyfriend into the trunk of the car,
Wilkes said.
Then he allegedly turned his fury on Williams, raping the girl and
strangling her. Donohue then got out of the car and opened the trunk to
release the boyfriend, Wilkes said. The two men struggled briefly and
Donohue fled, Wilkes said.
Donohue returned a few minutes later, driving a different car.
Somewhere along the way, he apparently dumped the gun, Wilkes
said. This time, he was carrying a knife, and again, he and the
boyfriend struggled. The boyfriend was not seriously injured, Wilkes
said.
Struggle for gun
Police soon arrived on the scene and Donohue turned on them,
trying to wrestle a gun away from one of the officers, Wilkes said.
The officer fired, killing the suspect, Wilkes said.
A short time later, investigators found Williams’s body lying in the
back seat of the car. The pantyhose that had been used to strangle her
lay alongside her body, authorities said.

Freeing of sex offenders halted
Prison chief responds to plea from Salazar for time to appeal
By Karen Abbott Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
Colorado’s prisons chief Saturday called off the planned release of
more than 100 imprisoned sex offenders.
The halt came after a plea from Attorney General Ken Salazar, who
wants time to appeal a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that requires
the freeing of hundreds of rapists and pedophiles from parole or
prison.
Acting on the Sept. 18 ruling, Department of Corrections chief John
Suthers ordered 170 sex offenders released from parole last week; 112
were set to be freed from prison this week.
The action came so quickly that victims didn’t receive the warnings
the law says they must have.
“I understand that this is a court decision that is rectifying,
supposedly, a past wrong, but what concerns me is its effect on
victims,” said Jennifer Gamblin of Denver, a two-time rape survivor
and victims advocate.
“Victims were not notified.”
In reviewing a 1993 case of a child molester in Denver, the
Supreme Court decided that legislators had enacted conflicting laws on
the sentencing of offenders.
As a result, the court said, offenders who committed their crimes
between July 1, 1993, and July 1, 1996, can be paroled for no longer
than the unserved portions of their original prison sentences, or five
years, whichever is less.
That meant that nearly 300 sex offenders were wrongly on parole or
behind bars for parole violations.
Salazar said prison officials acted too quickly in releasing them
without a judge reviewing each convict’s case.
Salazar deputy Don Quick, who is in charge of criminal matters,
said district judges are supposed to make sure each sex offender really
is among those who legally must be released. The judges also make
sure each convict provides up-to-date information to local sex offender
registries.
Suthers said a lawyer on Salazar’s staff advised prison officials last
week that the releases had to start immediately and that