trial - Bad Sporters https://www.badsporters.com News Blogging About Athletes Being Caught Up Mon, 22 Jun 2020 12:22:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 Trial date imminent for mother of Mackay fugitive https://www.badsporters.com/2020/06/22/trial-date-imminent-for-mother-of-mackay-fugitive/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/06/22/trial-date-imminent-for-mother-of-mackay-fugitive/#respond Mon, 22 Jun 2020 12:22:53 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=7580 THE case against a mother accused of helping her millionaire-turned-fugitive son flee the country will be set down for trial. Elizabeth Anne Turner is charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice between July 1, 2013 and September 15, 2017 and providing false testimony. More Stories: Mum in court over allegation she helped Mackay […]

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THE case against a mother accused of helping her millionaire-turned-fugitive son flee the country will be set down for trial.

Elizabeth Anne Turner is charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice between July 1, 2013 and September 15, 2017 and providing false testimony.

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The matter was briefly mentioned at Mackay District Court today and adjourned for mention on July 1 “for the allocation of a trial date”.

Ms Turner is accused of buying and preparing a yacht to help her son, Markis Scott Turner, flee the country ahead of a drug smuggling and trafficking trial.

Markis Scott Turner was arrested in the Philippines after fleeing Australia ahead of a drug smuggling and trafficking trial.

Markis Scott Turner was arrested in the Philippines after fleeing Australia ahead of a drug smuggling and trafficking trial.

Mr Turner was arrested and charged in May 2011 over allegations he was a major player in a multimillion-dollar drug syndicate.

It is alleged he imported more than 71 kilograms of cocaine from South America into Australia after the Australian Federal Police seized barrels of hydraulic oil reportedly containing drugs at Mackay railway yards. The trial was to start in September 2015.

Mr Turner, who was on supreme court bail, last reported to police about 6.30am on August 14 that year and disappeared until his capture two years later in 2017 in the Philippines, where he remains awaiting extradition.

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How a daring escape plot allegedly unfolded

Freedom bid for Mackay mum accused of faking son’s death

Mum charged after allegedly covering for millionaire son

It is also alleged Ms Turner deliberately misled judicial proceedings by telling the Brisbane Supreme Court she had not been in contact with her son for several weeks and believed he had taken his own life on April 21, 2016.

She has previously denied the charges, although no formal pleas have been entered.

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Man charged in Washburn University football player killing seeks new lawyer, more time before trial https://www.badsporters.com/2020/06/16/man-charged-in-washburn-university-football-player-killing-seeks-new-lawyer-more-time-before-trial/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/06/16/man-charged-in-washburn-university-football-player-killing-seeks-new-lawyer-more-time-before-trial/#respond Tue, 16 Jun 2020 23:11:52 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=7389 TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) — A 19-year-old man charged with the shooting death of one Washburn University football player and the wounding of a second player filed a motion in April seeking to replace his defense attorney. Francisco A. Mendez is charged with offenses on April 28, 2019, of:– Premeditated first-degree murder of Dwane Simmons, 23.– […]

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TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) — A 19-year-old man charged with the shooting death of one Washburn University football player and the wounding of a second player filed a motion in April seeking to replace his defense attorney.

Francisco A. Mendez is charged with offenses on April 28, 2019, of:
– Premeditated first-degree murder of Dwane Simmons, 23.
– Attempted first-degree murder of Corey Ballentine, who was wounded.
– Three counts of attempted first-degree murder of Channon Ross, Kevin Neal and James Letcher, who were with Simmons and Ballentine.

The five men were Washburn University football players. Of the 12 charges Mendez faces, five are tied to events on April 28, 2019.

Mendez is to appear before Shawnee County District Court Judge Cheryl Rios on Thursday when the judge will hear motions seeking the judge to appoint another defense attorney represent Mendez and to continue the Mendez case.

Mendez earlier has asked the judge to appoint a defense attorney to replace KiAnn Caprice, Mendez’ current attorney. The judge has denied it.

During a phone call played during another hearing, Mendez said Caprice hadn’t filed a lot of motions he wanted her to file, and he intended to fire Caprice in six months.

In a handwritten motion signed by Mendez, he asked the judge to replace Caprice “for failing to provide the defendant ‘effective’ assistance of counsel.”

Three areas “raise major concern,” Mendez wrote.

They are a “significant breakdown” in communication between Mendez and Caprice, including an “irrevocable breakdown” in the attorney-client relationship, Mendez wrote.

She has failed to investigate Mendez’ case in his best interest, Mendez said.

“She has the responsibility to investigate, including interviewing witnesses, testing physical evidence consulting with appropriate experts,” and investigating the credibility of prosecution wigtnesses, Mendez wrote.

Caprice also has failed to file meritorious motions on his behanlf, Mendez wrote.

The shootings occurred outside 1287 S.W. Lane, where Simmons was fatally wounded, and Ballentine suffered a gunshot wound to the buttocks. Ballentine played the 2019-2020 season on the New York Giants football team.

Mendez’ nine-day trial has been scheduled to start on July 13, but it’s expected that no jury trials in Shawnee County District Court will be conducted before September 1 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The courthouse re-opened to the public on Monday after it was closed for three months since mid-March.

Of the 12 charges he faces, Mendez also is charged with two counts of two aggravated robberies on April 27, 2019, in what is referred to as the “Central Park robbery.”

Mendez is also charged with five aggravated robberies on April 30, 2019.

According to testimony during Mendez’s preliminary hearing, Ballentine, Simmons and three other members of the WU football team were standing at S.W. 13th and Lane celebrating Ballentine’s good fortune to be drafted into professional football on the New York Giants when Ballentine and Simmons were shot.

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Trial date to be reset for man accused of killing football player https://www.badsporters.com/2020/06/16/trial-date-to-be-reset-for-man-accused-of-killing-football-player/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/06/16/trial-date-to-be-reset-for-man-accused-of-killing-football-player/#respond Tue, 16 Jun 2020 06:28:02 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=7336 Tim Hrenchir @timhrenchir Monday Jun 15, 2020 at 1:38 PM Shawnee County District Court officials intend to reschedule the jury trial that was set to begin next month for Francisco A. “Franky” Mendez, who is charged with last year’s first-degree murder of Washburn University football player Dwane Simmons. The case against Mendez is scheduled to be […]

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Shawnee County District Court officials intend to reschedule the jury trial that was set to begin next month for Francisco A. “Franky” Mendez, who is charged with last year’s first-degree murder of Washburn University football player Dwane Simmons.

The case against Mendez is scheduled to be taken up at 2 p.m. Thursday on a district court criminal assignment docket, according to information posted on the court’s website.

Mendez, 19, faces charges that include first-degree murder in the April 2019 gunshot slaying of Simmons, 23, near 1287 S.W. Lane. He also is charged with attempted murder in that same shooting of Simmons’ best friend, Corey Ballentine, a former Washburn player who had been drafted hours earlier by the NFL’s New York Giants.

Simmons died at the scene. Ballentine survived after being shot once in the buttocks. He played this past season for the Giants.

Shawnee County District Judge Cheryl Rios found Mendez competent to stand trial on May 9 and tentatively scheduled his trial to begin July 13.

In addition to the charges linked to the death of Simmons and the wounding of Ballentine, Mendez is charged with:

• Three counts of attempted murder linked to the same incident regarding shots fired at Washburn football players Channon Ross, Kevin Neal Jr. and James Letcher Jr., who weren’t hit.

• Seven counts of aggravated robbery victimizing other people. The counts were linked to a carjacking committed April 27 at 2130 S.W. Fairlawn Road and an April 30 robbery of cash and cellphones committed near 1300 S.W. Clay.

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Minnesota judge rules ‘Miracle on Ice’ player Mark Pavelich competent to stand trial in assault case https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/31/minnesota-judge-rules-miracle-on-ice-player-mark-pavelich-competent-to-stand-trial-in-assault-case/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/31/minnesota-judge-rules-miracle-on-ice-player-mark-pavelich-competent-to-stand-trial-in-assault-case/#respond Sun, 31 May 2020 22:40:01 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=6839 MINNEAPOLIS — Mark Pavelich, the famed “Miracle on Ice” Olympic hockey player charged with assaulting his North Shore neighbor last fall, has been found competent to stand trial. Cook County (Minn.) District Judge Michael Cuzzo found this month that, based on a recent examination, Pavelich “presently has sufficient ability to rationally consult with counsel, understand […]

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MINNEAPOLIS — Mark Pavelich, the famed “Miracle on Ice” Olympic hockey player charged with assaulting his North Shore neighbor last fall, has been found competent to stand trial.

Cook County (Minn.) District Judge Michael Cuzzo found this month that, based on a recent examination, Pavelich “presently has sufficient ability to rationally consult with counsel, understand the proceedings and participate in his defense.” That allows the criminal case to proceed, months after Pavelich was civilly committed.

Pavelich, 62, is facing two felony assault charges and two felony weapons charges after allegedly striking a neighbor with a long metal pole and sending him to the hospital with serious injuries after returning to Pavelich’s Lutsen-area home following a day of fishing together in August.

Pavelich had accused his neighbor of “spiking his beer,” and the victim suffered cracked ribs, a bruised kidney and was “in and out of shock” when he was found, charges state.

Pavelich was found incompetent to stand trial on the charges in October.

In December, Pavelich was committed to the Minnesota Security Hospital in St. Peter after being found “mentally ill and dangerous.” The doctor who recommended his commitment said Pavelich may suffer from an “unspecified neurocognitive” affliction. His family has said they suspect CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which may have resulted from repeated blows to the head while playing hockey, including 355 games in the NHL.

“Mark is the most kind and gentle person you’d ever know,” his sister, Jean Gevik, previously told the Star Tribune. “This is a totally different guy.”

CTE — which can only be discovered through an autopsy — often manifests in erratic behavior and has been suspected in the deaths of a number of professional athletes.

After initially refusing treatment, in March Pavelich began to take medication and was following doctors’ orders, according to court filings.

Earlier this week his defense attorney, Chris Stocke, filed a motion to dismiss the two felony weapons charges — possessing a short-barreled shotgun and possessing a firearm with a missing serial number — saying they were found in an illegal search.

“The fruits of the illegal search warrant must be suppressed, which results in the state lacking probable cause to move forward” with the charges.

Stocke did not return a call seeking comment. Pavelich’s next hearing is June 22, and no trial has been scheduled.

For Pavelich, the best outcome may be a plea deal that avoids a trial — and prison time — said David Schultz, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who has been following the “fascinating and tragic” case. The defense will most likely focus on Pavelich’s mental state at the time of the incident that “could perhaps exculpate responsibility,” he said.

“You don’t want somebody to walk away without being held responsible, but on the other hand he’s likely not responsible for what he did,” Schultz said. “It’s not clear what justice actually is.”

Pavelich attended Eveleth High School and the University of Minnesota-Duluth and was a member of the 1980 U.S. hockey team that upset the Soviet Union and went on to beat Finland to win the gold medal. He played the bulk of his NHL career with the New York Rangers and after retirement in 1992 became a land developer and shied away from the spotlight.

Staff reporter Paul Walsh contributed to this report.

©2020 Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Copyright 2020 Tribune Content Agency.

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Ex-Chelsea star Diego Costa charged with tax fraud and set to stand trial https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/30/ex-chelsea-star-diego-costa-charged-with-tax-fraud-and-set-to-stand-trial/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/30/ex-chelsea-star-diego-costa-charged-with-tax-fraud-and-set-to-stand-trial/#respond Sat, 30 May 2020 04:03:26 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=6774 Former Chelsea striker Diego Costa is reportedly set to stand trial on charges of tax fraud in Spain next week. The 31-year-old has been accused of failing to pay more than €1 million (£813,000) worth of taxes. Costa is alleged to have not declared €5.15m (£4.19m) of total payments received when joining Chelsea in 2014, […]

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Former Chelsea striker Diego Costa is reportedly set to stand trial on charges of tax fraud in Spain next week.

The 31-year-old has been accused of failing to pay more than €1 million (£813,000) worth of taxes.

Costa is alleged to have not declared €5.15m (£4.19m) of total payments received when joining Chelsea in 2014, as well as €1m in image rights.

According to the Evening Standard, prosecutors are pushing for Costa to be put behind bars for a six-month period.

Such charges in Spain can be punished by a sentence in prison if the defendant is found guilty, though Costa is unlikely to be sent to jail.



Diego Costa is due in court next week on charges of tax fraud
Diego Costa is due in court next week on charges of tax fraud

If found guilty, Costa could pay an increased fine to avoid jail time.

As it stands he is already facing a fine of €507,208 (£457,128), which could be upped by a further €36,500 (£32,896).

Barcelona star Lionel Messi was previously convicted of tax fraud and handed a 21-month prison sentence, which was later reduced to a fine.

Cristiano Ronaldo also struck a similar deal with the Spanish courts during his time at Real Madrid which saw him pay a €19million fine.

Costa moved to Chelsea for a fee of £32million from Atletico Madrid, to whom he has since returned.

He has made 19 appearances so far this season, including both legs of their Champions League last-16 victory against Liverpool.

His future at the Wanda Metropolitano could be in doubt though, as Napoli are demanding he be included in a player-plus-cash deal that would see Arkadiusz Milik go the other way.

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Costa is officially due to appear in court on June 4 – just a week before the La Liga season is due to resume again following the coronavirus outbreak.

Atletico are currently sixth in the table, but just two points separates them and Sevilla in third.

Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.

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Mother of 3 convicted of killing ex-Chicago Bears player's pregnant girlfriend pushes for new trial https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/29/mother-of-3-convicted-of-killing-ex-chicago-bears-players-pregnant-girlfriend-pushes-for-new-trial/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/29/mother-of-3-convicted-of-killing-ex-chicago-bears-players-pregnant-girlfriend-pushes-for-new-trial/#respond Fri, 29 May 2020 01:45:44 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=6712 For many from the Chicago area, Oct. 4, 2007, began with the stunning news that Rhoni Reuter, the longtime pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bears player Shaun Gayle, had been murdered. Now Reuter’s convicted killer hopes she’ll be granted a new trial and is speaking out about her case for the first time on television. […]

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For many from the Chicago area, Oct. 4, 2007, began with the stunning news that Rhoni Reuter, the longtime pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bears player Shaun Gayle, had been murdered.

Now Reuter’s convicted killer hopes she’ll be granted a new trial and is speaking out about her case for the first time on television.

“I did not [kill Reuter], and I am not capable of doing anything like [that]. I’m a mother myself, that’s unconscionable to me. Absolutely not,” Marni Yang, a 51-year-old mother of three, told ABC’s Juju Chang in a recent interview for “20/20.”

Reuter, 42, was seven months pregnant when she was found dead on the kitchen floor of her apartment in Deerfield, Illinois. There were no signs of robbery or forced entry at the crime scene. Authorities said she had been shot multiple times at point-blank range with a 9mm handgun, with two shots fired directly at her abdomen. To investigators, it suggested that the shooter was aiming not just at Reuter, but also at the unborn child.

Reuter’s killing rocked the quiet, affluent Chicago suburb. It was the first murder Deerfield had seen in 30 years and Gayle had been a safety on the celebrated Chicago Bears team that won the 1985 Super Bowl.

Gayle had been dating Reuter for 18 years while seeing a number of other women at various times over the years as well, including Yang. It was clear to authorities that someone wanted his pregnant girlfriend dead. During her trial, prosecutors argued that Yang’s motive was fueled by jealousy.

Yang, who has long maintained her innocence, was convicted in 2011 of killing Reuter and is currently serving a double life sentence.

Her new defense attorney Jed Stone filed a post-conviction relief petition in October 2019 citing new evidence that he believes will prove Yang was wrongfully convicted. Yang, who has exhausted all her requests to appeal, hired a new legal team led by Stone in this last attempt for a new trial.

The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a motion to dismiss Yang’s petition, describing it as a “skillfully, lawyerly rebranding of the facts and the overwhelming evidence against Marni.”

“It’s not a rebranding of the facts,” Stone told “20/20.” “It’s taking a look at the facts, and putting them in a light of truth.”

Who would kill Rhoni Reuter?

Although Gayle and Reuter were together for almost two decades, they never lived together.

Her family say they were surprised when they learned of Gayle’s non-monogamous relationship with Reuter.

“I wouldn’t think that my sister would have put up with that sort of relationship,” her brother, Thad Reuter, told “20/20” in a 2011 interview.

Her sister-in-law, Anna Reuter, agreed, saying, “She loved Shaun with her whole heart, and I think she expected the same back. I really didn’t see any other people in the picture at all.”

On the day Rhoni Reuter’s body was discovered, Gayle called Deerfield police, saying a reporter had called him asking if he knew anything about being named a suspect in a shooting there. When the officer who took the call confirmed to Gayle that Reuter was the victim, the former NFL player broke down in hysterical sobs.

“Don’t go to her house,” the officer told him, and asked him instead to come to the police station.

When Gayle arrived, Deerfield Deputy Chief Rick Wilk said the former NFL player was “visibly upset,” but it was “a little suspicious” to Wilk that Gayle had called within hours of the murder occurring.

During questioning, Lake County Major Crimes Task Force Detective Scott Frost said Gayle became strangely composed.

“He … was very reserved, very calm.,” Frost said.

Frost said he asked Gayle what he had done in the last 24 hours, and that some of his details on timing seemed to be off.

“We’re having issues with his timeline from… what he did the night before, what time did he go to bed, what time did he leave,” Frost said.

On the morning of the murder, Gayle told police he slept in, worked out with a trainer and then got a haircut mid-morning at a barber about 10 minutes away from Reuter’s apartment.

Frost said Gayle insisted he was innocent. Police asked him about other women with whom he had been involved recently.

“He, kindly enough, gives us a list of a list of almost 18, or 16 different women that he either went on a date with or got a phone number from or was romantically involved with… these are 18 women over a three-year period,” Frost said.

“You have several women that could have been jealous of Rhoni,” Wilk added.

When asked who he believed the killer might be, police said Gayle named Monika Kurowska, whom he had a relationship with a year prior and he said it had ended badly.

Kurowska was a Polish fitness model and personal trainer, whom Gayle said he had dated for several months in 2006.

Gayle said one night Kurowska came to his apartment complex and began ringing his neighbors’ buzzers. He found her outside of his apartment with a bloody hand, and later discovered one of his windows had been broken. Gayle eventually obtained a protective order against her.

In a statement to ABC News, Kurowska said she was upset when she got to Gayle’s home and saw him with another woman. She says she wanted to speak to him, but he wouldn’t open the door. She knocked on his window, and in the heat of her frustration, she said she accidentally broke it. She said she decided to end the relationship and that she never saw Gayle again.

Gayle told police he believed Kurowska was sending harassing letters to various people in his life, including Reuter, her mother and other women he had been seeing. The anonymous letters were written in broken English and claimed Gayle was romancing a number of women at the same time.

When Rhoni Reuter’s mother received one of these letters, she called Gayle. He assured her that her daughter was safe and that the letters were from “a crazed fan,” according to Thad Reuter.

When Rhoni Reuter’s body was found, detectives recovered one of these letters inside her purse.

While being questioned by investigators, Kurowska denied sending the letters and said she was at a training session with a client when Rhoni Reuter was murdered, which checked out.

Police cleared Kurowska as a suspect, and eventually cleared Gayle as well. Soon, they began focusing on another woman Gayle had been casually seeing: Marni Yang.

The mysterious letters

Yang, a divorced mother of three who worked multiple jobs, including as a real estate agent, said she met Gayle at a Bears convention where she was working security. She said the two started seeing each other after he reached out to her about investing in real estate.

When police first called Yang in for questioning regarding the Reuter investigation two months after the murder, she told them she and Gayle had known each other for about six years.

As part of their investigation, the police obtained a warrant to search his house, which included seizing his computer.

After gaining access to his email, investigators told Gayle that they believed Yang had been accessing his email for years, but Yang denies this.

“There is absolutely no way that I would even have had access to anything like that,” she told “20/20.”

Though police said other people they interviewed within her circle told them Yang often bragged about being Gayle’s girlfriend, she denied that was the case.

“I don’t think the word ‘boyfriend’ was ever used, really,” she told “20/20.” “That was not what I referred to him as.”

Investigators suspected that Yang was the one responsible for sending harassing letters to Reuter, her mother and other women in Gayle’s life. They believed she had discovered emails from Kurowska in Gayle’s inbox and copied her pattern of broken English to make it appear as if the letters had come from Kurowska.

During a search of Yang’s house, police said they discovered mailing labels with the addresses of the women in Gayle’s life — the same ones who had received the letters.

Yang denies she had sent the letters and claims instead that she was one of the women who received such a letter.

Police discovered that she had owned a 9mm handgun, which used bullets that matched the caliber of the ones found at the crime scene. Yang had also purchased two volumes of a book with instructions on how to make a homemade silencer and then bought the materials listed in the book at a Home Depot store, according to prosecutors.

Yang told police she didn’t have the gun at the time the murder took place; in her post-conviction relief petition, she claims that her son’s friend has admitted to stealing it from her home during a get-together months before the murder. She told “20/20” the book was part of “a gag gift” for a former police officer she had dated. “Firearms are a hobby of his,” she said.

According to prosecutors, one of the most damning pieces of evidence against Yang was a recorded conversation she had with a close friend, Christi Paschen, who calls herself a professional psychic. Yang has said Paschen was only an acquaintance.

During the conversation, Yang told Paschen, who was secretly working with investigators and wearing a recording device, that she had put on an elaborate disguise and shot Reuter. That disguise, prosecutors say, seemed to match witnesses’ description of the suspect on the day of the murder.

“[Reuter] started screaming … At that point, I realized we are now at the point of no return, OK? … And I just started emptying the clip,” Yang is heard telling Paschen on the recording. “I took maybe one or two steps into the kitchen to finish the job.”

On March 15, 2011, Yang was found guilty of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of an unborn child. She was given a double life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Marni Yang: ‘I knew perfectly well that I was being recorded’

Sitting in Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois, Yang opened up about her case for the first time in front of a TV camera.

“I feel like prior to this, I don’t think it would have mattered,” she told “20/20.” “I feel like there is a time. That time is now.”

The crux of Yang’s defense is that she now claims that she knew Paschen was wired and falsely confessed to the murder on purpose in order to protect her son, whom she believed police were investigating as the murder suspect.

“I knew perfectly well that I was being recorded,” Yang said. “I saw the wire.”

Her attorney Jed Stone claims there are recorded phone calls between Yang and her parents that took place before her conversation with Paschen, in which Yang told them she planned to make up a story about the murder and “let the attorneys sort it out with police.”

“It was a rash and ill-conceived decision to protect my children,” Yang said. “I lied.”

In its motion to dismiss Yang’s post-conviction relief petition, the state says that three months after the murder, when police interrogated Yang over a number of days, they told her repeatedly that her son was not a suspect.

During her trial, prosecutors pointed to a surveillance video from a gas station in Reuter’s neighborhood that showed a car driving near the scene around the time of the murder, which they said matched the description of the one Yang had rented that same week.

Yang’s defense team argued in its post-conviction relief petition that the prosecutors got the make and model of the car wrong.

In response, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office says Yang’s defense team made similar arguments at trial, which the jury rejected.

Yang, an aspiring fitness model, now claims she had car trouble that day and that she had rented the car for a photoshoot. However, when asked about it during her interview with “20/20”, she couldn’t remember the name of the photographer with whom she was working.

Her defense team also claims that ballistics evidence proves the person who shot Reuter was much taller than Yang, who is only 5 feet tall.

“I think the strongest piece of evidence that we have is the scientific evidence of the bullet trajectories, showing that Marni Yang, because of her height, could not have fired the bullets that killed Rhoni Reuter,” Stone told “20/20.”

In response, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office says that the conclusion that the shooter was someone taller than Yang is flawed. They said the defense relied on the medical examiner’s report, which stated that a particular wound was going downward. However, when the medical examiner testified at trial, he said that after examining the tissue he determined that wound was actually going upward.

The state also argues that many of the statements that Yang’s defense team filed as part of the petition were not notarized or were not sworn to, and therefore those claims should be dismissed.

The petition filed by Yang’s legal team includes a number of allegations from her children about the investigation and the case against their mother, including that police forced two of her children to sign written statements they knew to be false.

Yang’s children, Emily, Andrew and Brandon Yang, were home alone when police showed up with a search warrant at their house three months after the murder. Just 16 years old at the time, Emily and Andrew said they were brought to different police stations and questioned separately without a parent or attorney present.

“The only way that I got out of that situation was to write down a statement … that my mother wasn’t home the morning of the murder… but she was home that morning,” Andrew Yang said, adding that he “had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized” after the ordeal.

At trial, Emily Yang testified that her mother told her she had sent those harassing letters so that all the women Gayle was involved with could find out about each other. But she now says that police told her to write that in her statement.

“I didn’t know anything and they wouldn’t accept that. And … the mental frustration, it really broke me,” Emily Yang said. “And it got to the point where I started banging my head on the table.”

The State’s Attorney’s Office denies the children’s statements were coerced. They said when Emily Yang testified she never said her statement to the police was a lie.

Yang’s children are standing by their mother now in support of her defense.

“I would just say to her that … no matter… everything that she’s been through, [she can] be proud that she’s raised … a really good young man,” Andrew Yang told “20/20.”

“I’m hoping that we can all get through this together,” Emily Yang added.

Marni Yang’s father, Larry Merar, has paid around $1 million for her defense. It’s money that Stone acknowledged could have gone to help support Merar’s grandchildren while their mother is in prison, but more so, he added, “it bothers me greatly that Larry Merar can’t do this for 9,000 other people… in America’s prisons and jails who are innocent.”

Although a judge ruled in December 2019 that her petition can move forward, the next step in the proceedings for Marni Yang’s case has been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. A few weeks ago, she cited the health crisis in a new petition for clemency, which is scheduled to be heard in July.

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New trial for woman charged with crashing Zack Kassian’s truck in 2015 https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/26/new-trial-for-woman-charged-with-crashing-zack-kassians-truck-in-2015-2/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/26/new-trial-for-woman-charged-with-crashing-zack-kassians-truck-in-2015-2/#respond Tue, 26 May 2020 15:30:47 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=6568 Alison De Courcy-Ireland was charged with being impaired in 2015 accident that left former Canadiens player with a broken nose and foot. The woman who was charged with impaired driving while she was allegedly behind the wheel of former Montreal Canadien Zack Kassian’s pickup truck when it crashed in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce more than four years ago […]

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Alison De Courcy-Ireland was charged with being impaired in 2015 accident that left former Canadiens player with a broken nose and foot.

The woman who was charged with impaired driving while she was allegedly behind the wheel of former Montreal Canadien Zack Kassian’s pickup truck when it crashed in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce more than four years ago will have to undergo a second trial in October.

Alison De Courcy-Ireland, 25, was supposed to learn her fate as far back as May 3, 2019, the date Quebec Court Judge Denis Mondor originally set to deliver his decision on the two charges she has faced since 2016; operating a motor vehicle while her ability to drive was impaired by alcohol or a drug and causing an accident while impaired that left Kassian injured.

Kassian, 29, never played a regular-season game with the Canadiens. The team obtained him through a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on July 1, 2015. Kassian was with the Canadiens as they prepared for the start of the 2015-16 regular season when a pickup truck loaned to him by a dealership crashed into a tree on Clanranald Ave., near the corner of Côte-St-Luc Rd.

The hockey player suffered a broken nose and a broken left foot in the crash. The NHL suspended Kassian without pay because he had violated the league’s substance-abuse program the night of the crash. Kassian was already in the program before he was traded to the Canadiens and during De Courcy-Ireland’s trial admitted he consumed alcohol and cocaine at his home in the hours before the crash occurred.

While Kassian was recovering, the Canadiens traded him to the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 28, 2015. He is still an Oiler and was enjoying the best season of his NHL career when the league was shut down in March by the COVID-19 pandemic.


A truck in which former Canadiens player Zack Kassian was a passenger is towed away after crashing on Clanranald Ave. near the corner of Côte-St-Luc Rd. in Montreal on Oct. 4, 2015.

Photo courtesy of Steve Petrenko

When Kassian testified during De Courcy-Ireland’s trial in February 2019, he did so on a video linkup from a location in Edmonton to accommodate his hockey schedule. He will likely be called to testify again when De Courcy-Ireland’s second trial is held at the Montreal courthouse.

On Monday, Quebec Court Judge Mélanie Hébert set three days, beginning on Oct. 7, as the dates for the second trial.

The new trial was ordered by a different judge earlier this year on a request from the Crown after it was determined that Mondor, the judge in the first trial, was unable to deliver his verdict because he is suffering from an undisclosed illness.

On Feb. 7, 2019, Mondor heard the closing arguments of the prosecutor in the case and said he would deliver his decision in three months. On April 26, 2019, he sent emails to lawyers on both sides of the case informing them that he was unable to deliver the decision as scheduled on May 3, 2019.

The date was pushed back three times until a coordinating judge at the Montreal courthouse informed both parties that Mondor was ill.

When the date was delayed again to February, the Crown requested a new trial. While the time that the judge took to deliberate on the decision would not have counted if De Courcy-Ireland argued it had taken too long to prosecute her case the Crown conceded in its motion that it should take “appropriate measures” to bring a case to its end.

pcherry@postmedia.com

 

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New trial for woman charged with crashing Zack Kassian’s truck in 2015 https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/26/new-trial-for-woman-charged-with-crashing-zack-kassians-truck-in-2015/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/26/new-trial-for-woman-charged-with-crashing-zack-kassians-truck-in-2015/#respond Tue, 26 May 2020 14:35:00 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=6566 Alison De Courcy-Ireland was charged with being impaired in 2015 accident that left former Canadiens player with a broken nose and foot. The woman who was charged with impaired driving while she was allegedly behind the wheel of former Montreal Canadien Zack Kassian’s pickup truck when it crashed in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce more than four years ago […]

The post New trial for woman charged with crashing Zack Kassian’s truck in 2015 first appeared on Bad Sporters.

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Alison De Courcy-Ireland was charged with being impaired in 2015 accident that left former Canadiens player with a broken nose and foot.

The woman who was charged with impaired driving while she was allegedly behind the wheel of former Montreal Canadien Zack Kassian’s pickup truck when it crashed in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce more than four years ago will have to undergo a second trial in October.

Alison De Courcy-Ireland, 25, was supposed to learn her fate as far back as May 3, 2019, the date Quebec Court Judge Denis Mondor originally set to deliver his decision on the two charges she has faced since 2016; operating a motor vehicle while her ability to drive was impaired by alcohol or a drug and causing an accident while impaired that left Kassian injured.

Kassian, 29, never played a regular-season game with the Canadiens. The team obtained him through a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on July 1, 2015. Kassian was with the Canadiens as they prepared for the start of the 2015-16 regular season when a pickup truck loaned to him by a dealership crashed into a tree on Clanranald Ave., near the corner of Côte-St-Luc Rd.

The hockey player suffered a broken nose and a broken left foot in the crash. The NHL suspended Kassian without pay because he had violated the league’s substance-abuse program the night of the crash. Kassian was already in the program before he was traded to the Canadiens and during De Courcy-Ireland’s trial admitted he consumed alcohol and cocaine at his home in the hours before the crash occurred.

While Kassian was recovering, the Canadiens traded him to the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 28, 2015. He is still an Oiler and was enjoying the best season of his NHL career when the league was shut down in March by the COVID-19 pandemic.


A truck in which former Canadiens player Zack Kassian was a passenger is towed away after crashing on Clanranald Ave. near the corner of Côte-St-Luc Rd. in Montreal on Oct. 4, 2015.

Photo courtesy of Steve Petrenko

When Kassian testified during De Courcy-Ireland’s trial in February 2019, he did so on a video linkup from a location in Edmonton to accommodate his hockey schedule. He will likely be called to testify again when De Courcy-Ireland’s second trial is held at the Montreal courthouse.

On Monday, Quebec Court Judge Mélanie Hébert set three days, beginning on Oct. 7, as the dates for the second trial.

The new trial was ordered by a different judge earlier this year on a request from the Crown after it was determined that Mondor, the judge in the first trial, was unable to deliver his verdict because he is suffering from an undisclosed illness.

On Feb. 7, 2019, Mondor heard the closing arguments of the prosecutor in the case and said he would deliver his decision in three months. On April 26, 2019, he sent emails to lawyers on both sides of the case informing them that he was unable to deliver the decision as scheduled on May 3, 2019.

The date was pushed back three times until a coordinating judge at the Montreal courthouse informed both parties that Mondor was ill.

When the date was delayed again to February, the Crown requested a new trial. While the time that the judge took to deliberate on the decision would not have counted if De Courcy-Ireland argued it had taken too long to prosecute her case the Crown conceded in its motion that it should take “appropriate measures” to bring a case to its end.

pcherry@postmedia.com

 

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A second trial for woman charged with crashing Zack Kassian https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/26/a-second-trial-for-woman-charged-with-crashing-zack-kassian/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/26/a-second-trial-for-woman-charged-with-crashing-zack-kassian/#respond Tue, 26 May 2020 01:44:44 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=6543 Article content The woman who was charged with impaired driving while she was allegedly behind the wheel of former Montreal Canadien Zack Kassian’s pickup truck when it crashed in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce more than four years ago will have to undergo a second trial in October. Alison De Courcy-Ireland, 25, was supposed to learn her fate as […]

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Article content

The woman who was charged with impaired driving while she was allegedly behind the wheel of former Montreal Canadien Zack Kassian’s pickup truck when it crashed in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce more than four years ago will have to undergo a second trial in October.

Alison De Courcy-Ireland, 25, was supposed to learn her fate as far back as May 3, 2019, the date Quebec Court Judge Denis Mondor originally set to deliver his decision on the two charges she has faced since 2016; operating a motor vehicle while her ability to drive was impaired by alcohol or a drug and causing an accident while impaired that left Kassian injured.

Kassian, 29, never played a regular-season game with the Canadiens. The team obtained him through a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on July 1, 2015. Kassian was with the Canadiens as they prepared for the start of the 2015-16 regular season when a pickup truck loaned to him by a dealership crashed into a tree on Clanranald Ave., near the corner of Côte-St-Luc Rd.

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Dublin star facing trial accused of assaulting player during match https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/21/dublin-star-facing-trial-accused-of-assaulting-player-during-match/ https://www.badsporters.com/2020/05/21/dublin-star-facing-trial-accused-of-assaulting-player-during-match/#respond Thu, 21 May 2020 09:47:41 +0000 https://badsporters.com/?p=6335 A Dublin county footballer is facing trial accused of assaulting a player during a GAA match. Cormac Costello, 25, with an address at Lorcan Crescent in Santry, Dublin, faces a charge of assault causing harm to Naomh Mearnog Gaelic footballer Aodan Fee on July 6 last year. It allegedly happened when Mr Costello was a […]

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A Dublin county footballer is facing trial accused of assaulting a player during a GAA match.

Cormac Costello, 25, with an address at Lorcan Crescent in Santry, Dublin, faces a charge of assault causing harm to Naomh Mearnog Gaelic footballer Aodan Fee on July 6 last year.

It allegedly happened when Mr Costello was a spectator at a game at Naomh Mearnog’s pitch in Portmarnock, in north Co. Dublin.

The All-Ireland star had been charged in recent weeks and his case was listed before Dublin District Court yesterday/today (MON).

However, the All-Ireland star did not have to attend due to the impact of covid-19 on the operation of the courts.

Judge John Cheatle was furnished with a certificate with the details of arrest and the charging procedure.

He was also told that the Director of Public Prosecutions has directed summary disposal, meaning the case should be dealt with at district court level, and not in the circuit court which has tougher sentencing powers.



Dublin’s Cormac Costello

However, he deferred ruling on the issue of jurisdiction.

The court’s presenting sergeant had made enquiries and was informed some medical reports were still awaited.

Defence solicitor Robert Purcell said his client had been charged at a city-centre station and but the incident allegedly happened in Portmarnock.

Judge Cheatle adjourned the case to Swords District Court on September 14 next when the case will be listed for mention.

He noted that the trial venue has yet to be decided, the medical report was outstanding and he excused the accused from appearing on the next date.

Judge Cheatle acceded to a request from Mr Purcell to make an order for disclosure of video evidence, statements and medical reports.

Mr Costello has not yet indicated how he will plead.

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