MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2002
STATE
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • 17A
KC death suit dismissed
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit charging police officers' indifference led to the murder of a teenage girl.
Filed in 2000 in U.S. District Court named Aubrey Phalp's family, the lawsuit named the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, 10 police officers and four men, including Phalp's convicted killer, Todd Miller Dean.
The lawsuit claimed police didn't believe Phalp, then 17, when she reported on June 25, 1998, that four men either attacked and threatened her or observed the incident.
Her body was pulled from a lake in Miami County on Aug. 5, three days after she disappeared. Deal was convicted of the killing and sentenced to
life in prison without possibility of parole for 25 years.
The lawsuit alleged police told the accused attackers Phalp was not credible because she had bipolar disorder and had not been taking her medication regularly.
Phalp's father, mother and brother contended in the lawsuit she had been denied her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
U. S. District Judge Julie A. Robinson dismissed the claims against all three groups of defendants. There was no trial.
Phalp's family contended Overland Park didn't adequately train its officers to deal with persons with bipolar disorder.
The ruling states in part:
The rulingists in part,
"Plaintiffs believe that Aubrey's
civil rights would not have been violated and she would not have been killed had Overland Park given its officers more or better training on dealing with mental illness and specifically, bipolar disorder. But even if true, this fact alone does not demonstrate deliberate indifference on the part of Overland Park."
Randall Phalp, the victim's father,
said Friday the ruling surprised him.
Robinson also found no evidence was presented that showed Phalp's bipolar disorder "substantially limited a major life activity," as required by the federal statute.
"This does not put to rest the underlying issues at all," Randell Phalp said. "The police were aware of my daughter's mental illness and used that to discriminate against her."
Prosecutors seek to use photos in murder case
The Associated Press
OLATHE — Prosecutors in John E. Robinson Sr.'s capital murder trial argued they should be allowed to show photographs of the women he is accused of killing.
The defense contends showing photos of the women while they were alive would prejudice jurors against Robinson and would have no value in proving whether he killed the women.
But in a motion filed Thursday in response to a defense filmed, prosecutors said the photographs could help witnesses identify the women—and help prosecutors link them to Robinson.
Prosecutors want to show pictures of alleged victims Suzette Trouten and Izabel Lewicka to several witnesses who they say could not identify the women any other way.
If hotel employees see pre-death pictures, they can say Robinson rented a room for Trouten two weeks before she disappeared, according to the response. Also, three witnesses can say they saw Lewicka and Robinson together, and two others can say Lewicka called herself Izabela Robinson.
Another woman can say another alleged victim, Lisa Stasi, attended a Christmas party with Robinson, and that Stasi was considering going to work for him, according to the response.
Prosecutors want to use two pictures taken of a fourth alleged victim, Beverly Bonner, when she was alive so a witness can say Robinson, calling himself James Turner, used a private mailbox opened in Bonner's name.
The mailbox company kept a driver's license photo and a passport photo of Bonner when the box was opened, the response said.
Robinson faces capital murder charges in Kansas and Missouri. His first trial is scheduled for Sept. 16 in Johnson County District Court.
The Johnson County case involves a young woman who disappeared in 1985 and two other women whose bodies were found two years ago in barrels on rural property Robinson owns in Linn County.
The case in Missouri's Cass County involves two women and a girl whose bodies were found in barrels inside a storage locker.
Company to settle suit in explosion
The Associated Press
WICHITA — ONEOK will pay an undisclosed sum to settle a lawsuit arising from last year's deadly natural gas explosions in Hutchinson.
The Tulaa, Okla-based company reached the settlement Friday with the heirs of John and Mary Ann Hahn, who died of their injuries after a gas explosion in the trailer park where they lived.
The Hahn's died just days after a Jan. 18, 2001, gas explosion destroyed their mobile home in the Big Chief Mobile Home Park.
A Sedgwick County District Court judge will rule next week on a request to remove a cap on punitive damages.
In a prepared statement, Biberstein and another attorney, Jay Fowler, blamed the gas company.
ONEOK spokesman Weldon Watson declined to comment on the settlement.
A district judge had previously ruled that ONEOK could be held liable for actions by Western Resources, before ONEOK bought the company.
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