Archives

Tot-beater could face death penalty

MESA — A jury will decide whether a Mesa man will spend life in prison or face the death penalty for beating his friend’s baby to death.

The case stems from a February 2005 incident in which Christohper Langin, 33, was left to babysit the daughter of his neighbor, Michael Plummer, 34. The two men were friends from high school, and Langin lived in a trailer behind Plummer’s east Mesa home at the time.

The 3-year-old girl, Angeline, was developmentally delayed and could barely speak. She was found 24 hours later inside Langin’s fetid trailer beaten and bruised head to toe, according to court records.

Plummer knew Langin had a history of substance abuse and violent tendencies, said Maricopa County prosecutor Patricia Stevens, but he still allowed Langin to care for his daughter.

Records say that the actual cause of death was due to “blunt force trauma to her head.”

In September, a jury in Maricopa County Superior Court found Langin guilty of first-degree murder, child abuse and aggravated assault, according to court documents. Now its members must decide if Langin should face the death penalty.

Joey Hamby, a defense lawyer for Langin, told jurors last week that they should spare Langin from the death penalty because his client suffered from “potential methamphetamine induced psychosis” at the time of Angeline’s death.

Hamby also stated that they planned to bring in expert witnesses to testify Langin’s history of family tragedy, significant brain impairment, and long-standing substance abuse and childhood domestic abuse.

“We will not deny the fact that Chris did abuse meth and alcohol, he has suffered through multiple relapses and has about 11 teeth left, which indicates harsh drug use,” Hamby said.

Growing up, Langin was a special education student who did not graduate from high school or receive a GED, Hamby added. He has no arrest record in Arizona, so the death penalty is too harsh, he said.

“So is life in prison the right sentence, or is death? I believe life in prison is the right decision for Chris Langin,” Hamby told the jury.

Stevens, however, said a sad “life story” should not be a mitigating factor to justify Langin’s actions.

The jury is set to decide Langin’s fate by Nov. 20.

= = =

>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Endangered birds at risk in Southwest, biologists say

TUCSON — A local nonprofit says the southwestern willow flycatcher faces extinction, and it is asking a federal judge to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to set aside more land for the bird population to flourish.

The case stems from a longstanding legal tussle between federal wildlife officials and the Center for Biological Diversity, a 40,000-member nonprofit based in Tucson that is dedicated to preserving and restoring ecosystems and biodiversity.

In this case, the fight involves the southwest willow flycatcher, a small migratory bird barely 15 centimeters long. It travels throughout the Southwest – from west Texas to southern California – to breed between the months of April and September. The flycatcher nests in riparian habitats where there is running water and dense growths of trees.

It was listed as endangered in 1995, and a plan was hatched to protect and preserve it. The nonprofit says Interior officials have shirked this duty.

In its 17-page complaint, the nonprofit claims wildlife officials have:

• failed to designate enough land for the flycatcher population to recover,
• incorrectly interpreted the research for the recovery plan,
• allowed politics to taint the scientific data used,
• and excluded ideal places that previous studies found to be perfect for the flycatcher’s recovery.

The nonprofit sent a letter to Interior officials in August 2007 indicating their intent to sue the department over these issues. They never responded, the complaint states.

It also states that officials left several lands out of the preservation plan that scientists said were necessary for the flycatcher’s successful recovery. Officials cut about 50 percent of the streamside areas away, according to the complaint.

Politics may have played a role. The complaint cites a recent report from the Inspector General’s office, whose investigators found deputy assistant Secretary of the Interior Julie MacDonald influenced how the flycatcher’s recovery area was decided.

"The reduction of habitat proposed for designation (376,095 acres) to the amount which was included in the final designation (120,824 acres) is partially attributable to this improper political interference," the complaint claims.

If they are correct, it would be another instance of political interference on science under the Bush administration. White House lawyers were recently found to have altered public reports about global warming that were based on scientific data.

Geoff Hickcox, a lawyer at the Western Environmental Law Center in Durango, Colo., is representing the Center for Biological Diversity.

Patient care, racial issues lead to TMC Healthcare suit

TUCSON — Two former employees at one of the city’s largest medical facilities are accusing their old bosses of discriminating against blacks and sweeping a possible patient assault under the rug, according to a recent lawsuit.

The 12-page complaint comes from Akhere and Debbie Okojie, an African-American couple who worked for TMC Healthcare from January 2004 until September 2007.

The Okojies, who are originally from Nigeria, claim the problems at TMC began in December 2005. That’s when Debbie notified her boss by email that a co-worker was allegedly creating a hostile work environment by making sexual jokes while they worked together at the Youth Unit, the complaint states.

The co-worker allegedly discussed his first orgasm, sex with his wife and made racial jokes such as, "South Africa was better when the whites ruled; now all they have is criminals who can’t run the country," according to the complaint. Debbie claims he also insulted her and mentioned a white-supremacist group. She says the hospital did not investigate the matter.

According to the complaint, problems at the hospital started to snowball. Debbie claims the co-worker showed inappropriate moves containing nudity to kids in the Youth Unit; she witnessed TMC security guards allegedly restraining and assaulting an 18-year-old patient; and supervisors created a hostile work environment by ignoring her repeated emails for help, transferring her to another unit and firing her husband, Akhere.

But TMC’s top executive, Frank Alvarez, reinstated Akhere. One week later, he left office.

Debbie claims the problems continued until she and her husband were terminated on the same day for allegedly committing time card fraud.

The Arizona Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated the incidents and found the Okojies had a right to sue the hospital. Now the matter is before a federal judge in Tucson.

Tucson lawyers Don Awerkamp and Ivelisse Bonilla are representing the Okojies.

Bolivian painter sues Rocky Point paper, art dealer

PUERTO PEÑASCO — The owner of a local collectibles boutique made illegal copies of a Bolivian artist’s oil paintings and sold them as prints on the Internet, according to a recent lawsuit.

The suit involves 20 large oil paintings created by Jose Moreno Aparicio, who splits his time between Bolivia, Mexico , and the Arizona border town of Ajo. The paintings in question show jungle scenes and tropical birds such as parrots and toucans.

In his six-page complaint, Moreno claims Lannette Deann Phillips had copied his works and advertised them for sale on various websites for her business, Rocky Point Collectibles. He also claims that Jim and Sandra O’Hare, owners of Puerto Peñasco’s biggest local newspaper, the Rocky Point Times , collected the money from these sales.

As a result, Moreno is suing all three of them in federal court in Tucson. He is demanding:

• An accounting of all sales and gross profits from the sale of those 20 works,

• Recovery of all indirect and direct profits from those sales,

• Damages worth up to $150,000 per painting,

• A permanent injunction against all future sales,

• The delivery of all DVDs, CD-ROMs, photographs, blueprints, negatives and other materials that contain the copies so that they can be destroyed,

• Money for attorney fees and court costs.

Houston lawyer Dana A. LeJune is representing Moreno. Click here to download a list of the paintings in question.