Category Archives: Fifth Amendment

SAN LUIS OBISPO On Wednesday morning, Sep. 22, Judge Craig van Rooyen ruled sufficient evidence was presented for Paul (44) and Ruben (80) Flores to be tried for the murder of Kristin Smart.

The father and son are charged in connection with the 1996 disappearance and murder of 19-year-old Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.

Smart was last seen with Paul leaving an off-campus party on Crandall Way in San Luis Obispo on May 25, 1996.

Although her remains have never been found, Smart was legally declared dead in 2002.

Paul and Ruben Flores were arrested at their homes this past April, nearly 25 years after Kristins disappearance.

Paul is charged with her murder. His father, Ruben, is charged as an accessory after the fact, accused of helping hide Kristins body.

Paul has remained in custody at the San Luis Obispo County Jail without bail since his arrest. Ruben is currently out on bail.

The preliminary hearing began on Monday, Aug. 2.

More than two dozen witnesses were called to testify, including current and former detectives, former friends and acquaintances of both Paul and Kristin, cadaver dog handlers, and soil experts.

Several people testified seeing Paul walk Smart back to her dorm after the party on Crandall Way.

Cadaver dog handlers who searched the dorms after she was reported missing testified that their dogs strongly alerted to Pauls room. Forensic experts testified they found human blood in the dirt beneath the deck of Ruben Floress home in Arroyo Grande but were unable to detect any DNA.

Investigators believed that Smarts remains were under Rubens deck and were recently relocated.

During closing arguments on Monday, San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Chris Peuvrelle said Paul Flores lied to cover up the murder of Kristin Smart.

Pauls defense attorney Robert Sanger said there is no case against Paul Flores, and there is certainly no case against Ruben Flores. He said there was nothing found in this case that is real evidence.

Rubens defense attorney Harold Mesick echoed the same thoughts and said the prosecution has tried to paint lipstick on a pig.

The Judge said he has a strong suspicion that Kristin Smart was murdered and buried under Rubens deck. He based his ruling on the standard of probable cause, which is a lesser standard of proof than what will be used by a jury in trial.

Kristin Smarts family has attended each day of the hearing, along with Susan Flores, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify on the first day.

Paul and Ruben Flores are scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 20.

After the ruling, San Luis Obispo District Attorney Dan Dow said, We continue to support the family of Kristin Smart as we work toward justice.

In response to the ruling, the family of Kristin Smart issued a statement on Sep. 23 saying:

Statement from the Family of Kristin Smart:

Yesterday was a very good day and we want to take this opportunity to thank all of Kristins supporters in San Luis Obispo and beyond. So many people have played such important roles over the past 25 years, and we are humbled by the amazing support and generosity we have received. We want to especially thank the District Attorneys Office for their relentless efforts.

Our family has always known that this was going to be a long, difficult, and emotional journey. We are now one step closer to justice for Kristin. She and all who have worked so hard toward this day deserve nothing less.

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The rest is here:
Paul and Ruben Flores Will Go To Trial For Murder of Kristin Smart - The Atascadero News

ByAndrew Hamm on Sep 24, 2021 at 2:59 pm

This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, whether the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 violates equal protection under the Fifth Amendment and the anti-commandeering doctrine of the 10th Amendment and whether BB&Ts arbitration agreement as to a predecessor banks accountholders is valid under the Federal Arbitration Act.

Four petitions involve a decision by the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit striking down some provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Congress passed ICWA to respond to concerns that state child-welfare practices were causing large numbers of Native American children to be inappropriately removed from their families and tribes and placed with non-Native foster families or adoptive parents. ICWA established minimum federal standards for most child-custody proceedings involving Native American children.

In March 2018, three states and seven individuals challenged many provisions of ICWA as unconstitutional. Although the district court largely agreed with the challengers, the en banc 5th Circuit later upheld various provisions. However, the en banc 5th Circuit also affirmed at times with a majority, at times by an equally divided court other rulings by the district court. According to the 5th Circuit, some ICWA provisions violate the 10th Amendment because they impermissibly commandeer the states. Those provisions include, among others, a requirement that state agencies bear the cost and burden of providing expert testimony to justify placing Native children in foster care, a requirement that state agencies provide remedial services to Native families, and a requirement that state agencies maintain certain child-placement records. The 5th Circuit also affirmed the district courts judgment that ICWAs preference for adoptive placement with other Indian families and Indian foster home[s] violates the equal-protection component of the Fifth Amendment.

In Haaland v. Brackeen, the federal government asks the justices to review and to reverse the 5th Circuit. In addition to disputing the rulings under the Fifth and 10th Amendments, the government argues that the individual plaintiffs do not have legal standing to challenge ICWAs placement preferences for other Indian families and Indian foster home[s]. In Cherokee Nation v. Brackeen, the Cherokee Nation and three other tribes have filed a companion petition in defense of ICWAs constitutionality. In Texas v. Haaland, Texas has filed a petition asking the justices to review ICWA provisions that, in the states view, the 5th Circuit erroneously upheld. Finally, in Brackeen v. Haaland, the individual challengers have filed their own petition for review.

In Branch Banking & Trust Company v. Sevier County Schools Federal Credit Union, BB&T asks the justices to review a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit invalidating BB&Ts modification to its bank services agreement to resolve disputes with accountholders through arbitration. To the 6th Circuit, the modification, though now nearly 20 years old, was invalid as to the accountholders whose accounts pre-dated the modification because their original agreement (with a predecessor bank) did not include any sort of dispute-resolution provision at all. BB&T argues that this reasoning conflicts with the Supreme Courts modern Federal Arbitration Act jurisprudence.

These and otherpetitions of the weekare below:

Ortiz v. Breslin20-7846Issues: (1) Whether the 14th Amendment prohibits prison authorities from indefinitely detaining supervisees based on an assumption that a municipality will not provide legally-mandated compliant housing; and (2) whether the Eighth Amendment bars prison authorities from extending incarceration for individuals based on their homelessness and indigence.

Belmora LLC v. Bayer Consumer Care AG21-195Issues: (1) Whether, in view of the principle of trademark territoriality, the zone of interests encompassed by Lanham Act Sections43(a)and14(3)extends to the foreign owner of a foreign trademark that has not registered or used the mark in the United States; and (2) whether, in the absence of an express limitations period in the Lanham Act, the timeliness of a Section 43(a) suit for false association and false advertising is governed by the most analogous state-law statute of limitations, or instead, by laches.

Branch Banking & Trust Company v. Sevier County Schools Federal Credit Union21-365Issue: Whether the Federal Arbitration Act displaces a state common-law rule forbidding companies from adding an arbitration requirement to their standard-form contract with customers unless the contract already includes a dispute-resolution clause.

Haaland v. Brackeen21-376Issues: (1) Whether various provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 namely, the minimum standards ofSection 1912(a), (d), (e), and (f); the placement-preference provisions ofSection 1915(a) and (b); and the recordkeeping provisions ofSections 1915(e)and1951(a) violate the anticommandeering doctrine of the 10th Amendment; (2) whether the individual plaintiffs have Article III standing to challenge ICWAs placement preferences for other Indian families and for Indian foster home[s]; and (3) whether Section 1915(a)(3) and (b)(iii) are rationally related to legitimate governmental interests and therefore consistent with equal protection.

Cherokee Nation v. Brackeen21-377Issues: (1) Whether the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit erred by invalidating six sets of Indian Child Welfare Act provisions 25 U.S.C. 1912(a), (d), (e)-(f),1915(a)-(b), (e), and1951(a) as impermissibly commandeering states (including via its equally divided affirmance); (2) whether the en banc 5th Circuit erred by reaching the merits of the plaintiffs claims that ICWAs placement preferences violate equal protection; and (3) whether the en banc 5th Circuit erred by affirming (via an equally divided court) the district courts judgment invalidating two of ICWAs placement preferences, 25 U.S.C. 1915(a)(3), (b)(iii), as failing to satisfy the rational-basis standard ofMorton v. Mancari.

Texas v. Haaland21-378Issues: (1) Whether Congress has the power under the Indian commerce clause or otherwise to enact laws governing state child-custody proceedings merely because the child is or may be an Indian; (2) whether the Indian classifications used in theIndian Child Welfare Actand its implementing regulations violate the Fifth Amendments equal-protection guarantee; (3) whether ICWA and its implementing regulations violate the anticommandeering doctrine by requiring states to implement Congresss child-custody regime; and (4) whether ICWA and its implementing regulations violate the nondelegation doctrine by allowing individual tribes to alter the placement preferences enacted by Congress.

Texas v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue21-379Issues: (1) Whether an agency rule delegating rulemaking authority to a private entity violates the nondelegation doctrine; and (2) whether the statute of limitations applicable to a challenge to an agency rule that delegates rulemaking authority to a private entity starts to run when the agency delegates the authority or when the private entity exercises the delegated authority.

Brackeen v. Haaland21-380Issues: (1) Whether theIndian Child Welfare Act of 1978s placement preferences which disfavor non-Indian adoptive families in child-placement proceedings involving an Indian child and thereby disadvantage those children discriminate on the basis of race in violation of the U.S. Constitution; and (2) whether ICWAs placement preferences exceed Congresss Article I authority by invading the arena of child placement the virtually exclusive province of the States, as stated inSosna v. Iowa and otherwise commandeering state courts and state agencies to carry out a federal child-placement program.

Weiss v. National Westminster Bank, PLC21-381Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to SCOTUSblog in various capacities, is counsel to the petitioners in this case.Issue: Whether a person who knowingly transfers substantial funds to a designated foreign terrorist organizations aids and abets that organizations terrorist acts for purposes of civil liability underJustice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.

Strauss v. Credit Lyonnais, S.A.21-382Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to SCOTUSblog in various capacities, is counsel to the petitioners in this case.Issue: Whether a person who knowingly transfers substantial funds to a designated foreign terrorist organizations aids and abets that organizations terrorist acts for purposes of civil liability underJustice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.

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Four petitions on the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act - SCOTUSblog

In 1975, the State of California passed a law that allows union organizers to enter agricultural facilities for up to three times a day, one hour at a time, and up to 120 days per year. Several farms challenged the law as a violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution saying that it was a per se physical taking of their private property without just compensation. A lower court ruled against the growers and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a rehearing. The case,Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, then went to the Supreme Court, which, on 23 June 2021, ruled 6-3 in favor of the growers. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts held that a physical appropriation is a taking whether it is permanent or temporary, for, as he explained, [t]he right to exclude is universally held to be a fundamental element of the property right in land.

When we think about the origins of property, we naturally, like Jean-Jacque Rousseau, think of land, of the first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of sayingThis is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him.With typical pithy flair, the property law scholar Carol Rose poses the problem as trac[ing] out what seems to be propertys quintessential moment of chutzpah: the act of establishing individual property for ones self simply by taking something out of the great commons of unowned resources.The seventeenth-century Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius frames the origin of property as the successor era to an imagined golden age when in the eyes of nature no distinctions of ownership were discernible.The common supposition is that at some point in time some human beings were the first creatures to declare something to be Mine!, and that something was a resource lying free for any taker.

At the core of this mythical frontier notion of property is the idea that property is necessarily based on violence or the threat of violence. After I put a fence around the land, the image of property is me sitting on the front porch with a loaded shotgun threatening to use violence against anyone who dares enter without my consent. Its a me against the world mentality that equates a claim of property with the right to use physical force to exclude others from using it. Its also a fundamentally anti-social view of humanity that property violates the liberty of others. Maybe the quintessential moment of property is not about grasping something lying free for any taker. And maybe its not based ultimately or purely on an individual exercising coercion and violence against all others. Perhaps the origins of property lie somewhere else: in the very human act of creating something new, something that did not previously exist in the great commons of nature. A piece of raw land becomes a strawberry farm.

Thinking about the origins of property in this way allows us to consider that the value of property lies within the fundamentally humane confines of a communityof other peopleandme, not other peopleorme. This is true of property all over the world. Not every human community has property in land, but all human groups have property in tools, utensils, or ornaments. I did say all. Every human community distinguishes things that belong to the individual from things that belong to others. However minimal it may be, there are some things about which only a particular individual can say, This is mine. Not all spears or ceremonial ornaments are the same. Like lacrosse sticks and Hello Kitty backpacks, the custom is such that there is but one individual who can wield or wear it.

Property is not merely my claim That spear is mine, nor just about me confronting an interloper who tries to grab my spear. Property is embedded as custom in the community that surrounds me. To claim property in anything is to have learned from my mentors when other people can know that what I say about such a thing is true. I draw upon the approval of my community to make such a claim. It is a me with my community mentality to say Hey, that spear is mine!

My community backs me up because I respect their claims to the property in the spears they create. We honor each others claims to the things we individually create because doing sopreventsquarrels and violence in our community.

Thats not to say we are a community of angels. Human beings are an insolent, rapacious breed, particularly when resources are scarce.But it is a mistake to confuse human fallibility for the ultimate explanation of property.That people quarrel and dispute claims of property does not mean property is inherently violent. When someone comes to take a spear I claim as mine, the question for the community is whether my claim is indeed true, for I too could be in the wrong or simply mistaken. Moreover, even if the community punishes the interloper for taking my spear without my consent, the ultimate explanation of property is still not violence. It is peace for the rest of the community who says to me, That spear is yours.

In 1975, the State of California unintentionally created conflict when it allowed union organizers in October 2015 toburst into a Cedar Point Nursery facility with bullhorns. The reason why the Constitution requires just compensation for physical takings of property is that it maintains peace. InCedar Pointthe Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot authorize people to enter an owners land without paying just compensation. In other words, it ruled for keeping the peace, here and now and for the unforeseeable future.

Read more here:
Keeping the peace: property and community | OUPblog - OUPblog

Record: 48-102. Pace: 52-110. Change on 2004: +1

With an off-day next Monday, this is my final scheduled recap of the year. I hoped the team might give me something warm and fluffy to take into the off-season, especially on what I think was the first game with the roof open since spring. After all, I've largely given up watching Diamondbacks games I don't have to recap: they're just not fun. While I will be at Chase over the last weekend, that's more likely to be a social event with a baseball game in the background. So this is, in all likelihood, my last meaningful experience of watching the 2021 Diamondbacks. It was, overall, as unsatisfactory an experience as most of the others. I guess there's something to be said for consistency.

The Diamondbacks actually had the lead after four innings, 3-2 - and it probably should have been 3-0. Humberto Mejia, announced as called up from Reno less than two hours before first pitch, made his third start for Arizona. The top of the first inning was of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it variety, taking only seven pitches. Mejia then worked around a lead-off double to post another zero in the second. And he deserved the same in the third, except for home-plate umpire Mike Muchlinski blowing what should have been an inning-ending strike three. Instead, the batter got to deliver a two-run double, giving Atlanta a 2-0 lead.

But Arizona came right back, scoring three in their half. Ildemaro Vargas led off with a walk and after Mejia couldn't get the bunt down, Josh Rojas singled. Ketel Marte doubled down into the right-field corner, scoring both men as the Braves kicked the relay about. Unfortunately, Marte was out at third on the play, otherwise he would also have scored on Daulton Varsho's subsequent triple. I would include video of one or other of those plays, but it appears the social media interns for both the D-backs and Bally Sports have checked out early. My Twitter feed showed more video from the Aces. Where Geraldo Perdomo has his first hit since getting promoted earlier today, I see.

Anyway, Varsho scored on a wild pitch, and Arizona had the lead! Neither side scored in the fourth. But the Braves certainly made up for that in the fifth, as the third time through the order proved to be far from the charm for Mejia. He faced four batters, and allowed three doubles and a single, before being lifted, with Atlanta now 5-3 up. Things only got worse from there, after Taylor Widener took over. Adam Duvall quickly launched a 483-ft bomb to the concourse in left center, the second longest by any Brave in the Statcast era. It wasn't until the eighth visiting batter that the first out of the fifth was recorded.

Not helped by errors from Vargas and Marte, Widener needed 33 pitches before he got out of the inning. By the time that happened, Atlanta had sent 12 men to the plate, and scored seven times, taking a 9-3 lead. Mejia's final line was an ugly one. Eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts, leading to six runs, all earned. Widener was charged with three runs in his inning of work, though two of those were unearned. Prof. Poppen did well in relief, with two scoreless innings, striking out three, though Brett de Geus allowed two runs in the ninth. And there was some cause for celebration in the bottom of the seventh, as Jake McCarthy came off the bench to hit his first major-league home-run (below - I guess the intern woke up).

On a night where the teams combined for 11 doubles (seven for Atlanta, four for Arizona), Marte and the Braves' Austin Riley each had three. There has only been one other game in the past decade where two players did that. The Rockies' Charlie Blackmon and Daniel Murphy did it against the Dodgers in September 2019. The night boosted Marte's average for the season to .327. While all the time lost to injury means he won't qualify for the batting title, that is currently the highest BA of any player in the majors with 250+ PA, because he overtook Vlad Guerrero Jr. as a result. Among Diamondbacks in that category, the only higher averages were Luis Gonzalez's .336 in 1999, and Marte's .329 in 2019.

Whether a result of the roof being open or not, there was a huge amount of loud contact being made. No fewer than a dozen balls, six by each team, were put into play at a speed of more than 102 mph, going up to Jorge Solars 110.8 mph double in the fifth. Arizonas hardest-hit was barely slower, a David Peralta groundout at 110.7 mph in the third. But the heart of the Atlanta order were basically unstoppable, their 2-4 hitters going 8-for-15 with six RBI. The defeat, combined with the Orioles victory over the Phillies, means Arizona and Baltimore are back in a Tankapalooza dead heat, at 48-102 (they own the tie-breaker). It also means Atlanta extend their lead in the NL East back to three games,

Click for details at Fangraphs.comA fifth of whisky: Ketel Marte, +17.8%Fifth Amendment: Humberto Mejia, -44.4%

Inexplicably, what had been quite a chatty Gameday Thread, died and went to heaven in the top of the fifth inning. Still, it ended up just shy of two hundred comments, with the hard souls taking part being: AzDbackfanInDc, Blind Squirrel has found his nut, Diamondhacks, GuruB, Jack Sommers, Jim McLennan, Makakilo, MrMrrbi, NikT77, Oldenschoole, Schilling2001, Snake_Bitten, kilnborn, makattack71 and since_98. The only comment with more than two recs was a GIF, so no award there tonight.

The same two teams will be back at it tomorrow night, in another 6:40 pm start. Luke Weaver goes up against Toby Decided of Atlanta.

See the article here:
Diamondbacks 4, Braves 11: Pleading the fifth - AZ Snake Pit

Attorneys rested their cases Monday in the weekslong preliminary hearing for Paul and Ruben Flores, who are charged in the death ofKristin Smart, the 19-year-old Cal Poly student who went missing on May 25, 1996.

San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Christopher Peuvrelle called three witnesses, including Jamilyn Holman, the next-door neighbor of Ruben Flores, who lives in the 700 block of White Court in Arroyo Grande. Investigators believe Smarts body was buried at Ruben Flores' house before it was relocated on Feb. 9, 2020.

Holman talked about taking cell phone pictures of a red SUV with a trailer parked in the driveway of her neighbors house. Later that night it was parked near the back deck, she said, near a location where an alleged burial site containing human blood was discovered more than a year later during search warrants at the residence.

The SUV was parkedon the side of the house and it was pulled in, instead of backing a trailer in, Holman said, stating that the incident was unusual and occurred four days after what she described as an FBI search of Ruben Flores residence on Feb. 5, 2020.

Attorneys for Paul and Ruben Flores on Thursday continued their cross-examinations of a crime scene technician and her process of excavating several locations at an Arroyo Grande residence, where investigators believe the remains of19-year-old Cal Poly student Kristin Smartwere buried.

Additionally, Holman testified seeing Ruben and Susan Flores, the parents of prime suspect Paul Flores, and Mike McConville, Susan Flores boyfriend, arguing and yelling profanities near the SUV during an operation in which they allegedly relocated Smart's body.

Paul Flores, 44, of San Pedro is charged with murdering Smart is his dorm room. His father, 80-year-old Ruben Flores, is charged with accessory to murder after the fact and is accused of hiding Smarts body under the backyard deck of his White Court residence.

Paul Flores was allegedly the last person seen with an intoxicated Smart at about 2 a.m. near the intersection of Perimeter Road and Grand Avenue, only steps away from their dorms, after walking back from an off-campus party.

Smart was never seen again. She was declared legally dead in 2002 and her body has never been found.

Paul and Ruben Flores were arrested on April 13 and charged one day later. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The arrests came after search warrants were served at the White Court residence in March and April, and in which ground-penetrating radar, cadaver dogs and an archaeologist were used to identify and excavate alleged burial sites where human blood was found in soil samples.

The preliminary hearing started on Aug. 2 and has included testimony from several K-9 handlers, forensic specialists, Smarts college friends and retired detectives who investigated her disappearance 25 years ago.

Smarts family has attended each day of the hearing, along with Susan Flores, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify on the first day.

At the hearings conclusion, Superior Court Judge Craig Van Rooyen will make a ruling on whether to uphold the charges, which is expected to come as soon as Wednesday. After the ruling, the case proceeds to trial.

Orcutt native Chris Lambert is credited with renewing public interest in the case with the Your Own Backyard podcast and along the way came into contact with Jennifer Hudson, who finished testimony Monday about two alleged encounters with Paul Flores in the summer following Smarts disappearance in 1996.

In addition, Sheriffs Office Detective Clint Cole testified about his interviews with David Stone, who lived at Ruben Flores home as a tenant for more than 10 years.

Stone rented a room near where Smart was allegedly buried and said his landlord never allowed anyone to enter the space under the deck, not even a plumber when they were called to make a fix, according to Cole, adding that Stone moved out in January 2020.

Its not that the public wasnt allowed in, its that Ruben Flores didnt want to pay the plumber another $150 for something he could fix himself? asked Harold Mesick, Ruben Flores attorney. The judge sustained the prosecutions objection over the question.

Holman took the stand last, testifying about the pictures she took of the SUV and the trailer from the roof line of her home, where she has lived since 2013, according to testimony.

Bob Sanger, Paul Flores attorney, asked how Holman knew it was an FBI search and she remembered hearing about it from a local TV broadcast. She later testified to listening to Lamberts podcast and following the case on the news prior to the 2020 search.

And the news gets everything right? Sanger asked.

Absolutely not, Holman said, shaking her head.

Holman said nothing happened with the photos and didnt think they would be important in the investigation until about a year later, when she was advised to contact investigators.

Upon cross examination from Mesick, Holman testified that a portion of her official statement about what she witnessed specifically that Ruben Flores worked through the night digging under the deck on Feb. 9, 2020 is not accurate. Holman clarified never witnessing digging activity.

In his closing statements, Peuvrelle cited Paul Flores lies about the origins of his black eye and not knowing who Smart was in the initial investigation, and the evidence obtained from the search warrants at the Arroyo Grande residence.

He also cited witness testimony, including from people who saw the two at the Crandall Way party, her friends and Denise Smart, Smarts mother who testified that she was close to her family and about a good news message left on the answering machine just before she went missing.

Theres no reason to run out on those relationships, Peuvrelle said. The truth, your honor, is that she is no longer with us.

In his closing argument, Sanger cited the consistency of his clients statements throughout the investigation, the possibility of other suspects and that the court must examine the evidence clinically rather than emotionally.

Weve got a strong suspicion something terrible happened to Kristin Smart, Sanger said. We dont have a strong suspicion of a crime and that Paul Flores [did it].

The hearing continues at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday in Superior Court.

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Arguments conclude in Flores preliminary hearing; ruling expected Wednesday - Lompoc Record

SAN LUIS OBISPO On Wednesday morning, Sep. 22, Judge Craig van Rooyen ruled sufficient evidence was presented for Paul (44) and Ruben (80) Flores to be tried for the murder of Kristin Smart.

The father and son are charged in connection with the 1996 disappearance and murder of 19-year-old Cal Poly student Kristin Smart.

Smart was last seen with Paul leaving an off-campus party on Crandall Way in San Luis Obispo on May 25, 1996.

Although her remains have never been found, Smart was legally declared dead in 2002.

Paul and Ruben Flores were arrested at their homes this past April, nearly 25 years after Kristins disappearance.

Paul is charged with her murder. His father, Ruben, is charged as an accessory after the fact, accused of helping hide Kristins body.

Paul has remained in custody at the San Luis Obispo County Jail without bail since his arrest. Ruben is currently out on bail.

The preliminary hearing began on Monday, Aug. 2.

More than two dozen witnesses were called to testify, including current and former detectives, former friends and acquaintances of both Paul and Kristin, cadaver dog handlers, and soil experts.

Several people testified seeing Paul walk Smart back to her dorm after the party on Crandall Way.

Cadaver dog handlers who searched the dorms after she was reported missing testified that their dogs strongly alerted to Pauls room. Forensic experts testified they found human blood in the dirt beneath the deck of Ruben Floress home in Arroyo Grande but were unable to detect any DNA.

Investigators believed that Smarts remains were under Rubens deck and were recently relocated.

During closing arguments on Monday, San Luis Obispo County Deputy District Attorney Chris Peuvrelle said Paul Flores lied to cover up the murder of Kristin Smart.

Pauls defense attorney Robert Sanger said there is no case against Paul Flores, and there is certainly no case against Ruben Flores. He said there was nothing found in this case that is real evidence.

Rubens defense attorney Harold Mesick echoed the same thoughts and said the prosecution has tried to paint lipstick on a pig.

The Judge said he has a strong suspicion that Kristin Smart was murdered and buried under Rubens deck. He based his ruling on the standard of probable cause, which is a lesser standard of proof than what will be used by a jury in trial.

Kristin Smarts family has attended each day of the hearing, along with Susan Flores, who invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify on the first day.

Paul and Ruben Flores are scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 20.

After the ruling, San Luis Obispo District Attorney Dan Dow said, We continue to support the family of Kristin Smart as we work toward justice.

In response to the ruling, the family of Kristin Smart issued a statement on Sep. 23 saying:

Statement from the Family of Kristin Smart:

Yesterday was a very good day and we want to take this opportunity to thank all of Kristins supporters in San Luis Obispo and beyond. So many people have played such important roles over the past 25 years, and we are humbled by the amazing support and generosity we have received. We want to especially thank the District Attorneys Office for their relentless efforts.

Our family has always known that this was going to be a long, difficult, and emotional journey. We are now one step closer to justice for Kristin. She and all who have worked so hard toward this day deserve nothing less.

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Paul and Ruben Flores Will Go To Trial For Murder of Kristin Smart - The Paso Robles Press

Erin Kimmerle knows how popular true crime and forensic mysteries are right now. She watches the TV shows, too.

She loves Hollywoods version huge investigative units, amazing labs and seemingly limitless budgets. Everyone embraces the challenge and the inevitability of cracking the case.

If only.

Her reality is not so glamorous. Kimmerle is executive director of the Institute of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Sciences at the University of South Florida.

Her TV show would be about the hundreds of thousands of people on the fringes of society whose cases wouldnt be resolved before the credits roll.

Solving real cold cases, she said, means scraping for funding, dealing with a lack of resources and a shortage of political will. It requires grit, embracing social justice and fighting for marginalized communities.

Since 1980, 250,000 cold cases remain unsolved in the United States.

What if we substituted cold case, or open case, and said, There are 250,000 men on the streets in the United States who committed murder and they are not held accountable, Kimmerle asked. It feels different, right?

She needs your help.

It is so important to engage the public and ask, Hey, do you know these individuals? Do you remember anything about them?

The community of local professionals committed to cold cases is a tight-knit group, she said.

They are a very different breed than the television stereotype, Kimmerle said. They really have to hustle all the time to get what they need to do their job.

Lets meet some of them.

Since childhood, Sergio Soto loved art and he was pretty good at it. Then, six years ago, he saw a flyer for Art of Forensics, a workshop to make clay renditions of missing persons using 3D-printed skulls from forensic anthropologists. He was hooked. As I worked, I imagined how devastating it would be, losing one of my own family members, and I couldnt stop. I had to stay involved, he said. Three years ago, a drawing he made of a missing woman in Tennessee got a tip that panned out. Kimmerle emailed him her picture. I got chills when I actually saw her. This was the face of a woman I imagined when I was looking at her skull, and now her family had closure.

In 2010, historic floods ravaged Tennessee, killing 21 people and destroying countless homes. Overwhelmed emergency service workers sent out a call to rural residents to check on neighbors and look for missing persons. Gennifer Goad, her father and two brothers scoured flooded farmlands around their home in Dickson. It was a moment in my life when I realized how important it is to help people get answers and closure when they are missing people they love, she said. Today, Goad is studying chemical isotope analysis, which can help identify where someone grew up. A lot of missing people are homeless, victims of human trafficking or migrant populations, but they have loved ones, somewhere.

In his career as a lawyer and Hillsborough state attorney, Mark Ober took scores of murder cases to trial, and hes been to countless crime scenes. One day, Kimmerle introduced him to a family member of Thomas Varnadoe, who died under mysterious conditions at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and whose body had not been recovered. Ober would never forget the pain he saw on the relatives face. I thought, we all have chapters in our lives. These lost and unidentified souls, and their families, deserve that dignity. They deserve to have their identity. They deserve a final chapter, he said. Ober continues to offer pro bono work on cold cases. Varnadoes body was ultimately identified, and he was given a proper funeral.

On Halloween 2003, Chris Turner was serving his first tour in the 82nd Airborne as a frontline medic. As he hid in a civilian minivan, two RPGs struck the vehicle. Turner survived, was awarded a Purple Heart and an Army Commendation Medal for valor and went on to serve two more tours. Back home, he tried a career in nursing, but he felt burned out. Then I took a biological anthropology class and fell in love with anatomy, how we evolved and how people are affected by their environment, he said. At first, he concentrated on forensic anthropology with the idea of recovering lost service members, but his focus changed when he found out about atrocities that happened, not in any foreign culture, but right here at home. Turner is researching the possibility of remains from the Ocoee massacre.

After a 1966 Supreme Court decision (Schmerber vs. California) ruled that collecting and analyzing a blood sample does not violate the Fifth Amendment and could be used in court as evidence, E.J. Salcines saw the future of forensic science. As a lawyer, judge, state attorney and professor, Salcines spent decades training prosecutors and advocating for forensics. He taught on the subject at Northwestern University in Chicago and wrote a trial manual on the admissibility of forensic evidence. I am proud that I was a pioneer.

Anthony Holloway wants anyone who thinks they got away with murder to know they should never feel comfortable. Someone is always, always going to be looking for them. He knows being a cold-case detective takes a certain dedication and perseverance, so he never assigns someone. He waits for a volunteer. Every cigarette butt, every hair sample and every statement is scrutinized all over again. Todays technology is applied to yesterdays evidence. What those detectives really need is new information. Maybe someone in a community didnt want to get involved then. Maybe they were just taking out the garbage and saw someone who fit a description. That someone can still provide an answer to a family who still wants to know, Why isnt my loved one here with me today?

Kelly Devers did not become a medical examiner for salary, respect or recognition. She could make more money in another field of medicine. People confuse coroners, who are not doctors and are often elected officials, with forensic pathologists, who completed medical school, three to four years of residency and fellowships for specialized training. Devers became a medical examiner to give voice to the voiceless. It sounds cliche, but we speak for the dead. We communicate for them in court, communicate for them with their families and any agency that was part of their life. She estimates there are 20 to 30 bodies at any given time in Hillsborough County that are not identified. We work through them slowly, one by one. Once in a while, we identify one and are able to reunite the remains with their family. That is a wonderful experience.

As a graduate student of applied anthropology studying under Kimmerle, Melissa Pope remembers walking in a field next to a family member looking for a cold-case homicide victim. The remains were never found. Pope knows that no matter how well she does her job, how much evidence she collects, how much time and how much of herself she puts into a case, it may not go the way she hopes. A room where she works is filled with unresolved original files. You dont have any control over the outcome, she said. Law enforcement can get stuck. They cant prosecute anyone, and you are left with a lot of unanswered questions.

Cpl. Moises Garcia describes his work as a calling. I dont know anybody who gets into this line of work that is not 100 percent committed. They are Type A, driven to find closure, and they dont stop. It takes a special person. The job means time away from family, from holidays and ball games. The desire to seek justice, there is no way to explain it, he said. But when you are able to hug that family after bringing them closure? There is nothing more rewarding.

The University of South Floridas Institute of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Sciences and the Tampa Bay Times will host a grand opening of the month-long exhibition Art of Forensics: Solving the Nations Cold Cases. The exhibit will feature clay busts and drawings, digital compositions, artifacts and portraits of people dedicated to solving cold cases. The event is free. There will be speakers and refreshments. 2-3 p.m. Oct. 3. Sulphur Springs Museum, 1101 E River Cove St., Tampa.

This year, the Art of Forensics exhibition is featuring 17 new facial reconstructions for Jane and John Does. Their deaths occurred between 1973-2020 in Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. If you have a tip, please contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS or http://www.crimestopperstb.com.

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On TV, old murder cases get solved pretty quickly. But its not that easy. - Tampa Bay Times

Ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli speaks to the press in front of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York with members of his legal team after the jury issued a verdict on Aug. 4, 2017.

Facing a little more than a year left of his seven-year securities fraud sentence, so-called Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli will face a civil trial later this year where state and federal regulators will try to permanently ban him from the pharmaceutical industry.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, who will be hearing the case without a jury, set a bench trial date for Dec. 14.

In an order on Tuesday, Judge Cote ordered Shkrelis counsel to confirm whether Shkreli will be present at his trial.

If so, she wants the parties to request any necessary writ of habeas corpus for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to transfer the 38-year-old from the Allenwood Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania to the Southern District of New York in lower Manhattan.

Shkrelis civil litigation stems from his decision to jack up the price of the live-saving drug Daraprim 40-fold, an act that earned him national scorn and a cult following for his unapologetic defense of that hike.

At the time, Shkreli served as CEO of the company then-named Turing Pharmaceuticals, but regulators claim that the anticompetitive conduct continued after he went to prison and his company got a rebranding as Vyera.

Daraprim is a lifesaving drug for vulnerable patients, Gail Levine, the deputy director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission, noted when unveiling the case in January 2020. Vyera kept the price of Daraprim astronomically high by illegally boxing out the competition.

New York Attorney General Letitia James(D), who also brought the case along with the FTC, echoed those sentiments at the time.

Martin Shkreli and Vyera not only enriched themselves by despicably jacking up the price of this life-saving medication by 4,000 percent in a single day, but held this critical drug hostage from patients and competitors as they illegally sought to maintain their monopoly, AG James wrote more than a year and a half ago. We filed this lawsuit to stop Vyeras egregious conduct, make the company pay for its illegal scheming, and block Martin Shkreli from ever working in the pharmaceutical industry again. We wont allow Pharma Bros to manipulate the market and line their pockets at the expense of vulnerable patients and the health care system.

Citing reporting in the Wall Street Journal, regulators claim that Shkreli exercised shadow power over Vyera and its Swiss corporate parent Phoenixus from behind bars.

In June, Judge Cote found that Shkreli used a contraband phone behind bars to communicate with his associates, including Vyera executive Akeel Mithani and Kevin Mulleady, an owner and former director of Vyera.

The judge gave a light sanction for that violation.

When asked during a deposition earlier this year whether he had a cell phone in prison, Shkreli invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to the ruling.

In late July, the U.S. government sold one of Shkrelis once-prized but since-forfeited possessions: Wu Tang Clans bespoke album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. The buyers identity is currently unknown.

(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Now We Know When Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Will Face Trial That Could Lead to Pharmaceutical Industry Ban - Law & Crime

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer will miss the rest of the season, including the playoffs, as MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to extend his paid administrative leave through to the end of the World Series, it was announced on Friday.

"Mr. Bauer agreed to extend his administrative leave through the playoffs in a measure of good faith and in an effort to minimize any distraction to the Dodgers organization and his teammates," Bauer's co-agents Jon Fetterolf and Rachel Luba said in a statement.

With Friday's decision, Bauers paid administrative leave was extended for the ninth time. The league initially placed Bauer on leave July 2 as it began investigating sexual assault allegations against him, stemming from two separate incidents with a woman at Bauer's residence in Pasadena, Calif.

The investigation being conducted by MLB remains active.

When asked Friday if Bauer would ever pitch again for the Dodgers, manager Dave Roberts said he had no idea.

Im just kind of focusing on the guys that are in the room and winning tonight," Roberts said. "I just really havent given any thought to that.

The Pasadena Police Department presented its investigation into sexual assault allegations against Bauer to the district attorneys office on Aug. 27. It is now up to the district attorney to decide whether the case will be filed or rejected.

"We have presented that case to the DAs office, and its currently under review," Pasadena PD Lt. Carolyn Gordon told The Athletic. There is no known timeline for when the district attorney's office will make its decision.

On Aug. 19, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied the woman's request for a long-term restraining order against Bauer.

After a hearing that lasted four days, Judge Dianna Gould-Saltman said that the 27-year-old San Diego womans petition seeking a domestic violence restraining order was "materially misleading," according to a report from the Associated Press. Gould-Saltman said Bauer followed the woman's boundaries when she set them, adding that he couldnt have been aware of the boundaries she didnt express to him, according to AP.

Bauer was present in court during the womans testimony but did not testify. His legal team said he would invoke the Fifth Amendment had he taken the stand.

(Photo: Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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Trevor Bauer to miss rest of season after MLB, MLBPA extend leave again - The Athletic

CHICAGO (CBS) City attorneys are asking the City Council to approve a $20.5 million settlement for two men who spent 23 years in prison, after prosecutors agreed to dismiss all charges against them, amid claims they were framed by a disgraced former Chicago Police detective.

The proposed settlement with Jose Montanez and Armando Serrano is on the agenda for the Finance Committee on Monday.

The two were convicted in the 1993 murder of Rodrigo Vargas, whose body was found in a van parked near a Chicago elementary school, but were later released after the Illinois Appellate Court reversed the convictions, finding profoundly alarming acts of misconduct in the Vargas murder probe, and Cook County prosecutors later asked a judge to dismiss the case altogether.

Attorneys from the Exoneration Project at the University of Chicago said Montanez and Serrano were framed by former Chicago Police Det. Reynaldo Guevara.

Montanez and Serranos nightmare began when eight bullets ripped through a van, killing 28-year-old Rodrigo Vargas. Initially, police had no suspect or motive. But that changed after Guevara connected with a jailhouse informant who testified that Montanez and Serrano told him they did the crime.

His entire account was fabricated based on facts fed to him by Detective Guevara, Russell Ainsworth, an attorney who represents Montanez, told the CBS 2 Investigators in 2016, four months after the pair were released from prison.

The $20.5 million settlement with Serrano and Montanez is not the first multimillion payout Chicago taxpayers are on the hook for due to claims Guevara framed suspects, and it likely wont be the last.

Dozens of other convictions linked to the now-retired Guevara have been thrown out. Hes been accused of manufacturing false evidence and framing the innocent.

In 2018, a federal jury awarded $17 million in damages to Jacques Rivera, who spent 21 years in prison for the murder of 16-year-old Felix Valentin before he was exonerated in 2011.

Rivera has accused Guevara of coercing the sole eyewitness a 12-year-old boy to falsely identify him as the gunman in Valentins death in 1988. He is one of 18 men whose convictions have been tossed out of court amid allegations that Guevara coerced witnesses, beat suspects, and falsified police reports.

Guevara repeatedly has refused to answer questions about allegations of misconduct in cases that have been overturned, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

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City Set To Pay $20.5 Million To Settle Lawsuit For Two Men Who Say They Were Framed By Former CPD Detective Reynaldo Guevara - CBS Chicago