Category Archives: Around the courthouse

Missing the verdict but will return with a new walk, new type of coverage

April 15, 20098:00 a.m.

An appointment with a scalpel kept me from making this morning’s verdict in the RICO case I began covering last month. But when I return, we’re going to try a new kind of courts coverage through this blog.

An old high school sports injury finally caught up with me, and I’ll be recuperating from total knee replacement surgery for the next six weeks. You can monitor my recovery via Twitter, or from the sidebar on this page.

When I return in June, we’re planning a different approach to this blog that we hope will help people better understand the criminal justice system. Details will come soon, so stay tuned.

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Recapped: A glossary of gang slang

March 12, 20094:09 p.m.

The Crips trial going on the past couple of weeks has revealed a life within our city where violence visits regularly. Not only are details of testimony about the gang lifestyle foreign to many, so is its language. You don’t need the Urban Dictionary to keep track. I’ve compiled a list, according to witness testimony the past few weeks.

  • OG: original gangster.
  • Jumped in: being beaten up as an initiation to joining a gang. You can also leave a gang by being “jumped out.”
  • Blessed in: being taken into the gang on the word of a current member.
  • Do work: committing crimes, including robberies and drive-by shootings.
  • Rock it up: make powder cocaine into crack cocaine using baking soda and boiling water.
  • Half a bird: 10 ounces of crack.
  • Snow white: cocaine.
  • Greens: marijuana; (syn.) trees.
  • CK and/or BK: Initials for “Crip killer” or “Blood killer” used by members of those rival gangs.
  • Shot caller: A gang member, usually an OG who gives orders to younger members.
  • Spot: a house or apartment run by a gang member for selling drugs and stashing guns and money.
This has caused questioning such as the following exchange between lawyer Carl Maughan and witness Prentice Byrd this week:

Q. You testified about “OG” meaning original gangster. There is also some other terms, right? “BG,” what does that mean?

A. Baby gangster.

Q. That’s baby gangster. “YG?”

A. Young gangster.

(transcribed by Jana Hoelscher, court reporter)

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Federal judge says ‘Twitter is on’

Feb. 23, 20094:33 p.m.

Live coverage of courts in Wichita expanded today, when a federal judge said he will allow me to use Twitter during the trial of six accused gang members.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten told defense counsel that he would allow me to file live posts, via Twitter, from his Wichita courtroom. Twitter is a micro-blogging social network platform that allows users to file and follow short posts of 140 characters or less.

“Twitter is on,” Marten told the lawyers in a brief hearing this afternoon. Marten said he will allow attorneys to file any objections they have for the record.

Marten is tech-savvy, and led efforts to make sure the renovation of the 1932 federal courthouse in Wichita included updates for a wired environment. The courthouse has wireless Internet connections that allow attorneys to access files back at their offices from the courtroom, for example.

I’ve covered several trials, hearings and other proceedings in state court during the past year. But this will be the first time I’ve been allowed to do it in federal court.

Federal court traditionally has tighter rules. For instance, federal courts do not allow cameras, video or audio recording in the courtroom.

“I don’t see this as prejudicial,” Marten said.

Marten will tell jurors not to view news coverage, including the posts on Twitter, which also feed into this blog and accompany related stories on Kansas.com.

Bloggers covered the federal trial of Scooter Libby in Washingon D.C., filing “live updates” while sitting in an adjacent press room in 2007.

A federal judge in Sioux City, Iowa allowed a reporter for the Cedar Rapids, Gazette to live blog a tax fraud trial last year.

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Wichita woman wrote $200,000 in business checks to herself

Jan. 29, 200912:30 p.m.

Becky Vanderhoff-Huber was an office manager for Plains Petroleum when she started writing company checks to her self. For more than a year, she wrote checks in her own name, and by the time the company found out she’d stolen nearly $200,000.

This morning, Sedgwick County District Judge Mark Vining sentenced the 32-year-old mother of two to three years in prison and ordered her to repay $199,467.

Vanderhoff-Huber pleaded guilty in November to felony theft. Prosecutors say she didn’t try to hide what she was doing. She cut numerous company checks to herself, one for $9,146.08, from February 2006 to September 2007.

Investigators never learned where the money went, and prosecutors said Vanderhoff-Huber did not live an extravagant lifestyle.

At the time of her arrest, Vanderhoff-Huber said in a financial affidavit that she worked at Horizon Milling in Wichita making $2,400 a month.

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A packed courtroom says farewell to Judge Pilshaw

Jan. 5, 200910:44 p.m.

The cake was decorated to look like law books with a gavel on top. The books carried the dates of Judge Rebecca Pilshaw’s reign on the Sedgwick County District Court bench: 1993-2008.

A courtroom packed with lawyers, fellow judges, police and court staff ate the cake and sipped punch in a farewell reception for Rebecca Pilshaw today, who leaves after this year’s election defeat and a turbulent end to a long career of public service.

“I served 15 years in woman years, and those count for more because we have to work harder for everything,” said Pilshaw, whose departure leaves the Sedgwick County district bench all male.

The five women who ran for judge in this past election were all defeated.

Pilshaw presided over many high-profile cases with a reputation for a boisterous sense of humor and a heavy gavel. Her laugh boomed across the courtroom and she was known for pushing sentencing guidelines to their limits to give the most prison time for the toughest offenders. Pilshaw’s sentencing practices are a reason why reversal rates by appeals courts aren’t always an accurate measure of an elected judge’s worth. Some of the cases she had reversed were for being too tough on crime.

The tough persona also ultimately cost her a seat on the bench, after being reprimanded for losing her temper in court. That toughness also drew criticism from the lawyers who stood before her. Both were issues in the election.

But there was no sign of hard feelings by anyone at today’s reception. There were smiles, hugs and tears. In court, lawyers and judges are used to heated disputes, then walking away friends.

Pilshaw said she plans to return to private practice, where she’ll take cases defending the rights of those accused of crimes.

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A new face joins Wichita’s Parents of Murdered Children

Dec. 18, 20087:53 p.m.

I did a double take when I saw Andrea Brooks in the courtroom of a trial that didn’t involve her murdered sister, Chelsea.

Now Andrea, 20, is volunteering with Wichita’s chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. Andrea and her family said Parents of Murdered Children helped them through their difficulty navigating the court system as they waited more than two years and watched three defendants in the case of Chelsea’s killing at age 14. It ended just two weeks ago with the sentencing of Elgin Robinson.

This week, Andrea was in court with another family enduring a tragic loss: that of Kailee Hundley, the 13-month-old girl who died accidentally at day care. Jessica Cummings, the day care provider, was convicted Wednesday of involuntary manslaughter, as Andrea helped console Kailee’s family.

“I decided I wanted to give something back,” Andrea said. “Because Corinne helped me so much.”

There’s rarely a murder trial in Wichita where you won’t see Corinne Radke, who founded the local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children. She has been a steady shoulder for the tears of those who have lost loved ones, as she lost her son, to violence. I’ve even seen Corinne in trials where we were the only ones in the gallery: no family for either the victim or defendant.

If you want to volunteer for, or need help from, Parents of Murdered Children, call the local office at 316-265-1600.

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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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City of Wichita gets grant for mental health court

Sept. 11, 20083:05 p.m.

Wichita Municipal Court officials tell us that the city has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice for a mental health court.

City officials say the court has been trying to get a grant for two years. Although they don’t know how much money they’ll be getting, they have received approval for federal funding.

The word on the new court follows a story I wrote for the Eagle about the growing problem of mentally ill people ending up in prison and another story about the training received by police for handling mentally ill people in crisis situations.

According to criminal justice experts, the mental health court is the next step in helping reduce the numbers in prison. Mental health courts follow the model of drug courts as a way of giving alternatives to punishment for people who may have run afoul of the law because of their illnesses or addictions.

Wichita Municipal Court has already developed drug courts for city offenders charged with misdemeanors.

Sedgwick County District Court is beginning a drug court for more serious offenders this fall. Parole officers and mental health providers have told us they hope that a mental health court for felony offenders also will follow.

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Courthouse shoe-shine stand remains untended, but “Buddy’s” condition improves

Aug. 13, 20082:59 p.m.

Courthouse patrons may have noticed the shoe-shine stand is empty this week, as the entrepreneur who has tended it for more than 30 years is in the hospital recovering from pneumonia.

Buddy Crumble has been upgraded from critical to fair condition this afternoon at Via Christi Regional Medical Center-St. Francis Campus. Eula West, who cheerily greets those walking into the county courthouse from her post at the Information Desk, said she visited Crumble, 76, earlier this week and found him in his usual good spirits.

“I asked him what he was going to do when he gets out of the hospital, and he said, ‘Oh, I have a lot of women who take care of me,’ ” Eula said. “I told him, well, I figured it was all those women would end up killing him.”

Attorneys across Wichita rallied to support Crumble in late 2005, when he tried to move his business from the basement, where the county had moved him in 1998, into the newly renovated lobby. By early 2006, the county had negotiated a new lease for Crumble, in the lobby.

Crumble continued to operate his business in the lobby but has not worked as much this year, because of health problems.

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