Sunday, May 31, 2009

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid to let go 8 process servers to cut costs

Mark Puente/Plain Dealer Reporter - May 30, 2009

CLEVELAND -- Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid plans to dismiss eight process servers whose sole responsibility is to serve subpoenas in civil cases.

The 18-member team is largely staffed by political hires or friends of former Sheriff Gerald McFaul or his top aides. Reid plans to reduce the staff to 10; the remaining eight will be notified in two weeks.

The workers all earn about $26,000 a year and receive full benefits and mileage allowances. Most of them are retired from other jobs. Reid ordered a thorough audit of the agency when he took office this month and told department heads to trim costs.

Civil administrators consolidated routes and duties of the process servers without affecting the operation, he said. Reid estimated the cuts will save $250,000 a year.

Dismissing the employees was a cost-saving opportunity, not a way to punish people because of how they got the job, he added.

Read the rest of the story:
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid to let go 8 process servers to cut costs

------------------------------

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Hennepin Co. cases reviewed due to unserved summons

KSTP.com - Nicole Muehlhausen - 05/20/2009

Imagine opening up the mail and finding out you're in default—a judge issuing a judgment against you that could lead to your financial ruin.

It’s happened to up to 200 people in Hennepin County, all by mistake. Authorities say one man is to blame and he could go to prison.

Angus Mceachern, 23, had one key job: Serve people with papers saying they're being sued for owing money. But investigators say he never did that and now 1,000 cases are under review.

Mceachern, of Brooklyn Center, faces 13 counts of perjury. He’s accused of lying about serving people with legal papers, leading to huge consequences for homeowners like Valerie Pitel.

Pitel says without warning, a judge entered a default judgment against her when she didn't show up for a court hearing she didn't know she had.

"I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know what to do," she said.

Read the rest of the story:
Hennepin Co. cases reviewed due to unserved summons
--------------------------------

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Brooklyn Center server of court papers charged with lying about delivery

StarTribune.com - May 20, 2009 - 11:51 PM

A Brooklyn Center man who served papers notifying people of lawsuits against them lied about completing the notifications for 13 people, leaving them facing default judgments for cases they didn't know about, according to criminal charges.

Angus McEachern, 23, was charged Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court with 13 counts of perjury. The court vacated 186 default judgments in response to the allegations. Default judgments are entered against civil defendants who fail to respond to a lawsuit.

McEachern told investigators that he signed about 200 false affidavits during the six months he was employed by Major Legal Professional Process Serving in 2008, the charges said.

Read the rest of the story:
Brooklyn Center server of court papers charged with lying about delivery

------------------------------------

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Landowner vows battle with MJUSD

May 16, 2009 - Ryan McCarthy/Appeal-Democrat

A landowner whose property the Marysville Joint Unified School District seeks in an eminent domain proceeding says he's hired the best law firm in the state to represent him and his family in the legal fight.

"I look forward to a very long and costly court battle with you," Stephen Hull said in a letter to the school district.

The letter notes the Sacramento law firm — Desmond, Nolan, Livaich & Cunnigham — is handling the eminent domain case involving family property along Hammonton-Smartville Road near Yuba College.

Marysville Joint Unified plans to build the East Linda Intermediate School — replacing the now-closed Alicia school — at the site.

Hull in a separate correspondence also contends that a process server partially blocked a road near his home in El Dorado County and then damaged the driveway by spinning tires when trying to serve him with court papers.

"I was outraged by his behavior," Hull stated.

The March letters are among documents filed this week at Yuba County Superior Court in connection with the land where Marysville Joint Unified wants to construct school buildings.

In another filing this week, the attorney for the Marysville school district said that Hull sought to evade the process server, who tried 27 times to serve Hull and that the school district was "required to pay for several stakeouts" to serve Hull...

Read the rest of the story:
Landowner vows battle with MJUSD

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Default Line

Foreclosures keep rising and auction workers keep reading
By Diane Dietz - The Register-Guard- May 12, 2009

Lacy Nash, with Oregon Process Service, often reads foreclosure sale postponements to herself and someone at an adjacent desk in the entrance to the Lane County Courthouse. Legally, foreclosure sales or sale postponements must be read somewhere in the county.

The precise moment that Lane County residents lose their houses to foreclosure — or get a formal reprieve — comes with considerable anti-climax.

On Tuesday, for example, at 11 a.m., attorney Robert Russell stepped into the hallway on the eighth floor of the Citizens Building in downtown Eugene, stood with his left hand in the pocket of his crisply pleated slacks and read a piece of paper.

The foreclosure auction of Meyer’s General Store in Blue River and the attached apartment where the owner lives would be “postponed indefinitely,” Russell said.

If a reporter hadn’t been there to witness the reading, Russell would have been alone. But he said he’d read the legal paperwork out loud anyway. “Yeah, I’m supposed to,” he said.

Two hours later, in the lobby of the Lane County Court House, Lacey Nash, a young woman with a pierced cheek and a nose ring, took a seat at a Formica table and read the fate of three Eugene houses.

This time, each auction was formally postponed until dates in June and July.

Nash, an employee with Oregon Process Services, said her company either conducts the auctions or postpones the auctions at the same spot at the court house as many as three times each weekday — at 10 a.m., at 11 a.m. and at 1 p.m.

“There’s definitely a lot,” Nash said. “Just this morning we got at least 15 (notices) letting people know their houses are being sold.”

Read the rest of the story:
THE DEFAULT LINE

------------------------------

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Defendant Was Properly Served, Texas Court Says

By JEFF GORMAN - Courthouse News Service - May 7, 2009

A Texas man was properly served notice of a lawsuit when the process server attached the papers to his front door after four unsuccessful attempts to serve the defendant at his home, a Texas appeals court ruled. The court refused to grant the defendant a new trial.

Hollerman Development tried to serve Marco Padilla with a breach of contract lawsuit at his home four times. The motion court allowed the process server to attach the papers to the front door, but Padilla found the "beat up" papers in the bushes.

Padilla's lawyer advised him that he had not been properly served and to take a wait-and-see approach. Hollerman won a default judgment.

Padilla moved for a new trial, but the lower court denied his motion. Judge Stone of the San Antonio-based 4th District Court of Appeal upheld the decision.

"Padilla was properly served with Hollerman's complaint," Stone wrote, "and his mistaken reliance on his attorney's advice does not excuse his failure to respond in some way to the lawsuit."

Read the story:
Defendant Was Properly Served, Texas Court Says

--------------------------------

Monday, May 11, 2009

Jury Finds Man Guilty Of Process Server Murder

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4)

A jury has found James Whitler guilty of first degree murder. The Loveland man was accused in the beating death of a process server.

Whitler was also found guilty of two counts of first degree attempted murder and two counts of child abuse and reckless endangerment.

Whitler killed Stephen Allen and then attacked his own children. The children testified against their father at the trial.

Allen served Whitler divorce papers just before the deadly attack.

Whitler's attorney argued his client acted in a fit of rage.

Read the story here:
Jury Finds Man Guilty Of Process Server Murder

---------------------------------

Loveland man convicted of killing process server

Examiner.com - FORT COLLINS, CO

A Loveland man has been convicted of beating a process server to death with a baseball bat.

A Larimer County jury on Monday found 46-year-old James Whitler guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 57-year-old Stephen Allen.

Jurors also convicted Whitler of two counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of child abuse and two counts of reckless endangerment. They started deliberating Friday.

Prosecutors say Whitler beat Allen with a baseball bat after Allen served Whitler divorce papers at his Loveland home last year. They also say Whitler choked his two children.

Read the story here:
Loveland man convicted of killing process server

------------------------------------

Jury Rules Man Guilty In Process Server Slaying

Prosecutors Say Man Hit Process Server More Than 20 Times With Bat

DENVER -- Jurors returned a guilty verdict late Monday afternoon in the case of man accused of beating a process server to death with a baseball bat.

The jurors started deliberating Friday and continued Monday morning.

Forty-six-year-old James Whitler was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 57-year-old Stephen Allen.

Prosecutors said Whitler beat Allen with a baseball bat 20 times after Whitler delivered divorce papers.

Whitler's defense attorney Eric Vanatta said his client's actions were not premeditated and that he snapped amid a "hurricane of emotions" when Allen served him divorce papers at his Loveland home last year.

But prosecutors say Whitler had plenty of time to think about what he was doing.

Read the story here:
Jury Rules Man Guilty In Process Server Slaying

----------------------------------

Thursday, May 7, 2009

One witness and defense rests in Whitler's murder trial

Jury to get instructions Friday
BY NATE TAYLOR • NateTaylor@coloradoan.com • May 7, 2009

Defense attorneys Wednesday afternoon called just one witness on behalf of James Whitler before resting their case in the Loveland man's murder trial.


The one witness was Pam Buffington, an investigator with the Fort Collins public defender's office who explained about 15 photos depicting Whitler's injuries two days after he allegedly beat process server Stephen Allen to death with a T-ball bat and then allegedly strangled his two children. Allen died after serving divorce papers and a temporary restraining order to Whitler.

Attorneys and Judge Dan Kaup will meet today to argue about and create jury instructions, which will be read to jurors Friday just before closing arguments.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating the evidence Friday.

Read the rest of the story:
One witness and defense rests in Whitler's murder trial

--------------------------------------

Whitler's children take the stand in process server murder trial

By Hallie Woods • For Loveland Connection • May 5, 2009

The two young children of a Loveland man accused of killing a process server testified that their father said he would “get them out of here” minutes before he stabbed his daughter twice and strangled both children.
Advertisement

James Whitler’s son, 11, and daughter, 13, whose names Loveland Connection is withholding, avoided making eye contact with their father Monday as they gave their accounts of what happened the day process server Stephen Allen was beaten to death.

Whitler is accused of fatally beating Allen with a baseball bat May 28, 2008, after Allen and Lisa Whitler served Whitler with divorce papers and a restraining order.

Whitler allegedly then turned on his two children.

Both children said their father had “planted in their mind” that their mother was a terrible person who was ruining their family...

Read the rest of the story:

Whitler's children take the stand in process server murder trial


-------------------------------

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Whitler told cops: 'I kind of just snapped'

Nate Taylor - Fort Collins Coloradoan - May 6, 2009

FORT COLLINS - Jurors in James Whitler's murder trial saw a video recording Tuesday of Whitler telling authorities he began beating Stephen Allen, the man he's accused of murdering, after he came to view the process server as the object of his marriage's lost hope.

Whitler also told investigators he was praying to God to take care of his two children while he strangled them after beating Allen.

If sheriff's deputies hadn't stopped him, he said he probably would have killed his children and then himself.

It was Allen and Whitler's wife, Lisa, who delivered divorce papers and a restraining order to James Whitler on May 28, 2008, prompting the Loveland man to go into what he described on the video as "blind rage."

Whitler told investigators during his interview hours after his arrest on May 28 he probably hit Allen 15 or 20 times during a struggle that left Allen battered and spattered blood on furniture, walls, floors and ceilings throughout the Whitler home in west Loveland.

Read the rest of the story:
Whitler told cops: 'I kind of just snapped'

Daughter finishes testimony in process server murder trial

BY NATE TAYLOR • Loveland Connection, CO • May 5, 2009

The 13-year-old daughter of a Loveland man accused of trying to kill her and her 11-year-old brother says she now sees her father as the "bad guy" after thinking he was the "good guy" during the days immediately after the father killed process server Stephen Allen.
Advertisement

James Whitler's daughter finished her testimony this morning during his first-degree murder trial. Whitler is accused of strangling his two children after he beat process server Stephen Allen to death with a baseball bat in the moments after receiving documents from his wife for a divorce and a restraining order.

The girl finished her testimony today after recounting for jurors on Monday the details of how her father beat Allen and then turned his rage toward her and her brother by strangling them after telling them he wanted to "make them forget" what they'd just seen.

Read the rest of the story:

Daughter finishes testimony in process server murder trial

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Ex-wife: Whitler calmly read papers before attacking process server

BY NATE TAYLOR • NateTaylor@coloradoan.com • May 2, 2009

James Whitler's ex-wife confronted him in court Friday afternoon, describing to jurors how tension in her family grew leading to the day she filed for divorce and her husband is accused of beating process server Stephen Allen to death with a baseball bat.

Lisa Whitler said - in the week leading up to May 28, 2008, when she filed for divorce and got a court-issued restraining order protecting herself and her children from James Whitler - her children on more than one occasion sent electronic "hate messages" to her.

The voice and text messages were sent while the 10- and 12-year-old children were living with James Whitler, who moved back into the family home after living at an apartment for six months while the couple was separated, according to Lisa Whitler's testimony.

Her testimony concluded proceedings in James Whitler's murder trial Friday, day two of the prosecution's presentation of evidence.

Whitler is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder.

The Whitlers' 10-year-old son is scheduled to testify when proceedings continue Monday.

Lisa Whitler said one text message she received said, "DIE DIE DIE." And prosecutors played a voice message for jurors during which her son is heard saying, "Dad has a hearing on Monday so we don't have to see you anymore."

It was that message from her son that convinced Lisa Whitler to deliver the divorce papers and restraining order to her husband the same day she filed for divorce, instead of the next day as she'd planned.

Lisa Whitler said her attorney arranged for Stephen Allen to meet her to serve the documents to James Whitler. She said Allen gave her the option to come with him, arrange for a police officer to help or for him to serve the papers on his own.

Read the rest of the story:

Ex-wife: Whitler calmly read papers before attacking process server


----------------------------------------

Judge reverses order about news updates from process server murder trial

Loveland Connection staff • May 1, 2009

District Court Judge Daniel J. Kaup has changed his decision limiting the dissemination of information to the public during the murder trial of James Whitler.
Advertisement

After deciding Thursday that media outlets covering the trial could not report about courtroom proceedings until after court had adjourned for the day, Kaup changed his ruling this morning saying news updates could be filed throughout the day from outside the courtroom.

Kaup said he changed his mind after reflecting on his original decision and made the new ruling official after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed with his inclination to allow updates outside the courtroom.

"I have reason to pause whether this court has the authority to tell someone they can't update a Web site," Kaup said. "There still can be no transmissions of any kind leaving the courtroom while court is in session."

Whitler is on trial for for first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.

He is accused of beating process server Stephen Allen to death with a baseball bat at his west Loveland home in May 2008 and then turning his rage on his two children trying to choke them to death after he was served divorce papers and a restraining order.

Read the rest of the story:
Judge reverses order about news updates from process server murder trial

------------------------------------------