Monthly Archives: November 2008

Linda Schneider’s lawyers say she’s being abused by jailers

Nov. 26, 20085:39 p.m.

Update: Judge Belot ordered a hearing on Linda Schneider’s claims.

The wife of a Haysville doctor, charged along with her husband for illegally prescribing painkillers, is once again seeking release from jail. This time, her lawyers say she’s being mistreated in the Butler County Jail, having been put in solitary confinement and suffering from an infection possibly caused by a centipede bite.

Although Stephen Schneider was released in April to await trial, federal judges have repeatedly denied Linda Atterbury Schneider’s bond, because they’ve deemed her a flight risk. Earlier this month, her lawyers asked for her release, saying prosecutors would consent to her release as long as they could proceed to trial without her in case she jumped bond.

“No judge in his or her right mind would do so,” U.S. Senior District Judge Monti Belot said, denying the request.

Belot then suggested Schneider’s lawyers concentrate on preparing for trial Feb. 2 “rather than wasting their time (not to mention the court’s) with the type of motion practice which has necessitated this order.”

Today, Linda Schneider’s lawyers filed another request for her release because of abuse in the jail.

The motion said her latest problems began three weeks ago with an infection on the back of her neck.

“The cause of the infection is not clear, as it was apparently never diagnosed by a physician, but it is suspected that it was either staph, or a centipede bite (as there was a centipede infestation in the dorm in which Ms. Atterbury is housed, with the insects constantly falling from the ceiling onto the inmates),” the motion reads.

Lawyers said a jail nurse told Linda Schneider to tie her hair back while the infection heals. But a guard found the hair-tie and jail officials deemed it contraband, then placed her in solitary confinement.

Kevin Byers, a Columbus, Ohio, lawyer representing Linda Schneider, asked Belot to intervene on her behalf with jail officials.

Linda Schneider, a former licensed practical nurse, managed her husband’s medical clinic in Haysville before federal authorities charged them in a 34-count indictment nearly a year ago, saying they ran a “pill mill” that resulted in the drug overdose deaths of nearly 60 patients.

The Schneiders have maintained their innocence as they await trial.

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Anti-abortion preacher petitions to get Tiller’s shooter pardoned

Nov. 25, 20085:41 p.m.

An anti-abortion preacher who spent four years in prison in connection with clinic bombings now wants President Bush to pardon the woman who shot Wichita abortion provider George Tiller 15 years ago.

Shelley Shannon

Shelley Shannon

Rev. Michael Bray of Maryland has an online petition to ask Bush to pardon Shelley Shannon, who shot Tiller at his clinic on Aug. 19, 1993.

Shannon finished serving her Kansas prison time for attempted murder and aggravated assault in April 2005. But she’s now serving a federal sentence in Dublin, Calif., in connection with the shooting. She also was convicted of fire and bombing attacks on other abortion clinics, including those in Oregon, California and Nevada, which authorities learned about through letters she wrote from jail following Tiller’s shooting.

Bray said in a statement on his Web site, defending Shannon: “Unfortunately, as with all anti-abortion cases where the defenders of the innocents are charged with crimes and brought before the judges in this land, there is no consideration given to the ‘defense of necessity’ -– that these interventions were necessary because a true human being is murdered in every intentional abortion.”

Bray was sentenced to prison in 1985 in connection with the bombings of seven abortion clinics and has written about the use of force in stopping abortion. Some consider him a terrorist. Others call him a hero.

“The suggestion of pardoning a violent criminal for the attempted murder of Dr. Tiller and attacks on abortion clinics highlights the twisted notion of life held by these domestic right-to-life terrorists, ” said Dan Monnat, a Wichita lawyer who represents Tiller. “Her letters, which you can find on the Internet, say ‘don’t insult me by saying I’ve repented.’ “

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Lawyers use Twitter, too.

Nov. 25, 20082:00 p.m.

Updated with link to KSN story

Most of the people around the Sedgwick County Courthouse, and around Wichita, know I use Twitter to help cover hearings and trials live from the courtroom. You can even follow the updates if you don’t sign up, using the my Twitter feed at the left of this page.

But lawyers are using Twitter to do research and pass professional information.

I follow several lawyers, including Anne Reed — an expert on juries from Milwaukee, whom I met via Twitter when I began “tweeting” my first trial.

A former lawyer, Grant Griffiths, recently posted a series on his blog on “How to Use Twitter as a Lawyer.”

As Griffiths points out, JDScoop gets you started with “145 lawyers (and legal professionals) to follow on Twitter.”

And Kevin O’Keefe, another Wisconsin lawyer, has a post on how to use Twitter to market a law firm.

There’s apparently a lot of tweeting out on in, and outside, the courtrooms.

Update: For more on Twitter basics, see this report from fellow tweeter Anita Cochran.

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Fleetwood named new chief judge for Sedgwick County district court

Nov. 25, 200812:05 p.m.

James Fleetwood will become the new chief judge for Sedgwick County District Court, the Kansas Supreme Court announced this morning.

Judge Fleetwood

Judge Fleetwood

Fleetwood will oversee the administration and other activities in the courthouse. He takes over for Michael Corrigan, who is retiring in January. Fleetwood will fill out the final year of Corrigan’s appointment, then be eligible for reappointment to two-year terms.

“I hear it’s even more stressful,” Fleetwood said from his office this morning. “There’s just so many employee issues and making sure everything runs smoothly.”

Fleetwood was elected to the Sedgwick County bench in 1997, after serving two years in general private practice. He began his career in the environmental law section of Koch Industries Inc. He’s a 1989 graduate of Washburn University School of Law.

For the past year, Fleetwood has served as the presiding judge of the civil courts.

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Western Kansas couple to see murder case dismissed

Nov. 21, 200812:56 p.m.

Update: The charges against the Floyds were dismissed.

Chad and Shannon Floyd have something to be thankful for next week: They won’t face murder charges.

The husband and wife are set to meet with a judge in Johnson City on Monday to sign a final order of dismissal in a murder case against them that’s dragged on for three years, through two trials that both ended without a verdict.

No one has ever found the body of Michael Golub, 27. Golub was a former boyfriend of Shannon Floyd and they were involved in a custody dispute over their son when Golub disappeared on May 20, 2005. The Floyds said he never showed up to get the boy that night. His pickup was found six days later on a county road in northwest Grant County.

Prosecutors Richard Guinn and Barry Disney for the Kansas Attorney General’s Office claimed Chad and Shannon Floyd shot Golub when he came to pick up his son. Prosecutors said the custody battle was interfering with plans for the Floyds to move to Montana. The couple purchased a gun that same day, and investigators found Golub’s blood had dripped between the planks on the Floyd’s front porch. Prosecutors said Chad Floyd had told a friend he’d pay Golub $50,000 to drop the case and said he wished Golub would disappear.

Lawyers Dan Monnat and Kurt Kerns of Wichita argued for the defense that there were people near the Floyds’ house that night who would have heard the gunshots — but didn’t — and that a different friend of theirs showed up unexpectedly when the killing was supposedly taking place.

They also suggested that Golub’s role as an informant in a local drug case led to his disappearance.

Adding to the rural courtroom drama: The Floyds are an affluent family that owns a chain of banks in the western part of Kansas and in eastern Colorado.

Under the terms of the dismissal, the state can file the charges again if prosecutors discover evidence that “materially strengthens” their case.

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Remembering Judge Tom Reid

7:58 p.m.

I didn’t know U.S. Magistrate Judge Tom Reid well before he died this past Sunday, but my wife did. This week she remembered him with a personal story. It is about him. And me.

Tom ReidGaye Tibbets and I had been dating, but were not yet married, when she ran into Judge Reid at the federal courthouse four years ago, as she prepared for one of the many cases that she’s argued during the past 20 years as a Wichita lawyer.

“Something is different about you,” she remembered the judge saying.

“Well, judge, I’m in love,” she said. “Maybe that’s what you’re seeing.”

“I know that feeling of falling in love,” Judge Reid said. “You might not think so, because I’m in my 70s, but I remember it well.”

Reid, 79, is survived by the woman he never forgot falling in love with some 50 years before — his wife, Sharon — and by his daughters, Jennifer Reid and Amy Schell, and their extended families.

His funeral mass is set for 10:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Mary’s Church, 106 E. Eighth, in his home town of Newton.

Do you have a story about Judge Reid? Please share it in the comments below or at his guest book.

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Man headed to trial for threat over policeman’s name

4:50 p.m.

Hassan Ramzah probably can relate a little to verbal assaults on Barack Obama during this past presidential campaign.

A man was ordered this morning to stand trial for criminal threat to Ramzah, a captain with the Wichita Police Department, because of Ramzah’s name.

William Bakker heard evidence at a preliminary hearing this morning that he saw Ramzah’s name on the WPD Web site and called Patrol East. Officer J.W. Kasparek reported he took the call at around 2 a.m. on June 28. Kasparek said the caller appeared intoxicated.

The officer said Bakker identified himself as Jason Sanchez, and demanded to speak to Ramzah, who is African-American. When told Ramzah was not on duty, police said the caller referred to Ramzah with a racial slur and called him a Muslim.

Kasparek said the caller then claimed to have a gun and said “I’ve shot people like that.” The caller also said he didn’t think a black man who was a Muslim should have achieved the rank of captain at the WPD “without being shot.”

Police were able to trace Bakker through the phone number.

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Former Sedgwick County judge in line for Kansas Supreme Court

Friday6:13 p.m.

Tom Malone, a former Wichita lawyer and Sedgwick County District judge, is among three finalists announced today for the Kansas Supreme Court.

Malone’s name was sent to Gov. Kathleen Sebilius, along with Overland Park attorney Dan Biles and Douglas County Chief District Judge Robert Fairchild. Sebelius will have 60 days to make her appointment.

Sebelius’ choice will fill the opening left by Chief Justice Kay McFarland, who is retiring after 31 years on the state’s highest court.

The replacement will serve as justice. Robert E. Davis will become chief justice as the next senior person on the current Kansas Supreme Court bench.

Malone practiced with the Wichita law firm of Redmond and Nazar from 1979 to 1990, when he was appointed to the Sedgwick County district bench. He served there until being appointed to the Kansas Court of Appeals in 2003.

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Man authorities call Nazi accused of sex with runaway

Thursday7:38 p.m.

Update: Angel was found not guilty.

A local man prosecutors call a Nazi is set to stand trial next week, accused of taking in a runaway girl and having sex with her.

Harold Angel has pleaded not guilty to aggravated indecent liberties with a child and will take his case to a jury next week before Sedgwick County District Judge Greg Waller. Marc Bennett is prosecuting the case and Jama Mitchell is Angel’s public defender.

The trial begins with jury selection Monday.

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Langston pays for recount in tight Sedgwick County judicial race

Nov. 12, 20086:03 p.m.

Karen Langston isn’t ready to give up just yet on regaining a seat on the Sedgwick County district court bench.

Langston trailed incumbent Warren Wilbert by only 444 votes Monday, after provisional ballots were counted. This afternoon, Langston asked for a recount of the paper ballots at a cost of $15,000, county election commissioner Bill Gale said.

Kansas law provides for free recounts only for statewide and national offices. The county will absorb the cost if the recount shows Langston the winner. Otherwise, she’ll have to pay.

After election day last week, Wilbert had a 1,067-vote advantage. But the Republican saw that lead more than cut in half as provisional ballots were counted.

Wilbert has been a judge since 1995 but faced his first contested election this year after being publicly disciplined by the state judicial ethics commission in 2006.

Langston served as district court judge from 2000 to 2004 as a Republican before switching parties to run against Wilbert. If she prevails, she would be the only woman to win a race for the Sedgwick County bench in this election.

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