By Daniel Bendsten

The Wyoming Supreme Court upheld an Albany County jury’s conviction of a Laramie man for strangulation of a household member, with charges stemming from a fight with his girlfriend that occurred on the Snowy Range Road Bridge. During that incident, Morones was accused of choking his girlfriend on two separate occasions, with one strangulation incident occurring at Laramie Lanes bowling alley an another occurring atop the bridge.

22-year-old Mario Morones was convicted in May 2019 of one count of strangulation and acquitted on another strangulation charge.

Attorneys for Morones appealed his conviction, arguing there wasn’t enough evidence for the jury to convict. Because the description in the jury instructions for each strangulation charge contained identical language, Morones’s attorneys also contended jurors would not have able to discern which incident of strangulation they intended to convict Morones for.

The Supreme Court ultimately upheld Morones’s conviction, noting that jurors didn’t appear to be confused about which count corresponded to which alleged strangulation incident.

However, they did warn courts about providing more specificity in jury instructions.

“The jury instructions were identical and each simply listed the elements of the crime without referring to the specific conduct allegedly committed under each count. The verdict form likewise made no distinction between the two counts,” the Supreme Court stated. “In Triplett v. State, we emphasized the importance of specificity to ensure a constitutionally-guaranteed unanimous verdict. … Because the jury instructions and verdict form were identical, some jurors may have convicted based on the bowling alley incident, while others may have convicted based on the bridge incident.”

During opening arguments at Morones’s trial, prosecutors and defense attorneys distinguished between the two strangulation charges chronologically.

“The parties consistently described the events in a sequential fashion describing the incident outside the bowling alley as first, and the incident on the bridge as second,” the Supreme Court stated. “Even so, we caution the State and district courts to be mindful of the need for specificity in cases involving multiple counts of the same crime.”

Morones was arrested Oct. 26, 2018, for the strangulation after an investigation that stemmed from Laramie Police Department officer Troy Bartel seeing a truck on the bridge “driving very slowly and going to both sides of the road.”

The driver informed Bartel that a woman, who was in the passenger’s seat, had flagged her down and gotten into her truck amid an attack from her boyfriend.

At the time, the driver and the victim were looking for the victim’s phone and purse, which had been thrown over the bridge by her boyfriend.

Separately, and around the same time, LPD officer Peter Belgarde had stopped Morones for suspicion of a DUI.

When Belgarde questioned Morones, he made a few incriminating statements when explaining he had gotten into an argument with his girlfriend.

Morones told Belgarde he may have choked his girlfriend when “he went to grab her when she shrugged her arms up so his right hand ended up going over her lower throat or chest area and his left hand was on her right shoulder,” according to Bartel’s affidavit of probable cause.

“Morones stated he may have put pressure on her neck but it was because he was trying to pull her closer,” the affidavit states.

Morones’s blood-alcohol concentration was recorded at 0.15% shortly after.

When Bartel talked to the victim on the day of the incident, she said that she and Morones had been at Laramie Lanes when he “became aggressive” and she decided to leave the bowling alley.

“The victim started to run away from Morones when he grabbed her and then choked her with both hands in front of her with his thumbs across her throat and fingers to the back of her neck,” the affidavit states.

When Morones let go of her, she ran south down Third Street and ran across the Snowy Range Road Bridge.

Morones reportedly got in his truck, drove over the bridge, parked, and grabbed her purse and threw it over the bridge.

The affidavit states that Morones began choking his girlfriend on the bridge again before she fought him off and entered the passenger’s seat of a passing truck.

When the victim was inspected, she had numerous red marks on her neck and she was bleeding from a cut on her head.

As part of the appeal to the Wyoming Supreme Court, Morones’s attorneys contended that Kricken improperly allow hearsay testimony from the girlfriend’s nurse to be used as evidence. That nurse testified to the victim’s account of the strangulation.

However, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled that testimony was allowable under a hearsay exception in the Wyoming Rule of Evidence which states that hearsay can be admitted when it involves “(s)tatements made for purposes of medical diagnosis or treatment and describing medical history, or past or present symptoms, pain, or sensations, or the inception or general character of the cause or external source thereof insofar as reasonably pertinent to diagnosis or treatment.”

The Supreme Court ruled that the victim’s account of the strangulation was made “For the purpose of medical diagnosis or treatment.”

“The victim in this case gave her narrative of what occurred and, based on that description, the SANE nurse focused her assessment on the victim’s head, neck, and back. That exam identified physical injuries sufficient for the treating physician to reach his diagnosis— strangulation,” the Supreme Court rules. “Further, based on the victim’s statement, she underwent a diagnostic CT scan to ensure there was no internal damage to the structures in her neck and throat. The victim’s statement plainly meets the second prong of the test because the treating physician in this case relied on it for diagnosis and treatment.”

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By Jill Sederstrom

A former Colorado doctor was sentenced to 30 days behind bars after he pleaded guilty to choking a nurse in a recovery room full of patients after she objected to him turning off patient vital signs machines.

Mark Randle Ryan, 58, was also sentenced to three years of deferred judgement, three years of probation, 100 hours of community service, mental health treatment and anger management therapy for the incident, according to a statement from the District Attorney’s office of the 18^th Judicial District.

“This happened in front of other patients and in front of other professionals,” Judge Theresa Slade told Ryan during the sentencing. “When you did this to (the nurse), she couldn’t care for other patients, and you put them at risk. You don’t get to act this way, ever.”

Ryan had been working as a contract anesthesiologist at Sky Ridge Medical Center on Oct. 8, 2018 when prosecutors said he and a charge nurse—who has been identified as Beth Duche—got into argument after Ryan began turning off vital-sign machines for patients who were recovering from surgery.

Ryan contended that the continuous beeping from the machines was creating “alarm fatigue” for the nurses but Duche disagreed and intervened, according to local station KCNC-TV.

Ryan grabbed the nurse by her throat and squeezed it so hard she would later tell Lone Tree police officers that she saw stars.

In court Monday, Ryan said that he had “blacked out” and didn’t remember the attack clearly.

“It’s hard to believe I blacked out but I really did,” he said, according to the local station. “All I could tell was that my hands were around, feel your jaw, feel throat, soft tissues—I did not know what was going on. I remember separating hands away from the throat.”

Duche—who said she has suffered from PTSD, panic attacks and insomnia after the incident—said she believed at the time that Ryan was going to kill her.

“I was assaulted by a colleague who took a Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. No amount of stress Mr. Ryan was experiencing in his life should make him snap to that extent,” she said.

She had argued that Ryan should receive the maximum punishment, 90 days behind bars.

Ryan pleaded guilty on March 9 to one count of second-degree assault by strangulation and one count of third-degree assault, prosecutors said.

He has already relinquished his medical license.

“Few people in society have as much responsibility as the medical professionals we trust to treat us in the hospital. This defendant was an anesthesiologist, who worked in stressful situations every day to monitor patients during surgery,” District Attorney George Brauchler said in the release. “No occupation, regardless of stress, provides an excuse for assault, especially strangulation. The message here is clear: Teacher, electrician, attorney or doctor … viciously attack a coworker and go to jail.”

Ryan is scheduled to begin his jail time Thursday.

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By Jacob Kaye

The NYPD officer who allegedly used an illegal chokehold on an unarmed Black man during an arrest on the Rockaway Boardwalk on Sunday, June 21, has been arrested.

David Afanador, 39, faces charges of attempted strangulation and strangulation, the NYPD announced Thursday. Afanador turned himself into the Queens District Attorney’s office, according to police. He was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning, the Queens DA’s office said.

Under the new police reforms signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this month, the use of the chokehold by a police officer is considered a felony.

“The ink from the pen Governor Cuomo used to sign this legislation was barely dry before this officer allegedly employed the very tactic the new law was designed to prohibit,” said District Attorney Melinda Katz. “Police officers are entrusted to serve and protect  and the conduct alleged here cannot be tolerated. This police officer is now a defendant and is accused of using a chokehold, a maneuver we know has been lethal. This Office has zero tolerance for police misconduct.”

Afanador is accused of using the illegal maneuver to detain Ricky Bellevue during the weekend arrest. The incident was caught on camera by a bystander and widely shared online.

Soon after the video went viral, the NYPD released an officer’s body cam footage of the incident and suspended Afanador without pay by nightfall.

The incident began around 8:45 a.m., on Sunday, June 21, on the Rockaway Boardwalk at 131st Street. Three men on the boardwalk began to get into a verbal altercation with at least four police officers, the body cam footage shows.

At one point during the dispute, Bellevue, 35, appears to reach inside of a trashcan, at which point several officers tackle him to the ground, video shows.

While being cuffed, Afanador appears to wrap his arm around Bellevue’s neck. “He’s choking him,” someone call be heard yelling off camera.

Afanador can be seen holding Bellevue in the alleged chokehold after Bellevue had been put in handcuffs, according to Katz. Bellevue can be seeing going limp as he lost consciousness under Afanador’s maneuver, the DA said. Afanador eventually pulled his arm from around Bellevue’s neck after another officer taps on his shoulder.

If convicted, Afanador faces seven years in prison.

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By Patty Nieberg and Thomas Peipert

The Colorado governor on Thursday ordered prosecutors to reopen the investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police who stopped him on the street in suburban Denver last year because he was “being suspicious.”

Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing state Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate and possibly prosecute the three white officers previously cleared in McClain’s death. McClain’s name has become a rallying cry during the national reckoning over racism and police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd and others.

“Elijah McClain should be alive today, and we owe it to his family to take this step and elevate the pursuit of justice in his name to a statewide concern,” Polis said in a statement.

He said he had spoken with McClain’s mother and was moved by her description of her son as a “responsible and curious child … who could inspire the darkest soul.”

Police in Aurora responded to a call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his arms as he walked down a street on Aug. 24. Police body-camera video shows an officer getting out of his car, approaching McClain and saying, “Stop right there. Stop. Stop. … I have a right to stop you because you’re being suspicious.”

Police say McClain refused to stop walking and fought back when officers confronted him and tried to take him into custody.

In the video, the officer turns McClain around and repeats, “Stop tensing up.” As McClain tries to escape the officer’s grip, the officer says, “Relax, or I’m going to have to change this situation.”

As other officers join to restrain McClain, he begs them to let go and says, “You guys started to arrest me, and I was stopping my music to listen.”

One of the officers put him in a chokehold that cuts off blood to the brain, something that has been banned in several places in the wake of Floyd’s death May 25 under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer and the global protests that followed.

In the video, McClain tells officers: “Let go of me. I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.” Those words have appeared on scores of social media posts demanding justice for McClain.

He was on the ground for 15 minutes as several officers and paramedics stood by. Paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of the sedative ketamine to calm him down, and he suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. McClain was declared brain dead Aug. 27 and was taken off life support three days later.

A forensic pathologist could not determine what exactly led to his death but said physical exertion during the confrontation likely contributed.

McClain’s younger sister, Samara McClain, told The Denver Post shortly after his death that her brother was walking to a corner store to get tea for a cousin and often wore masks when he was outside because he had a blood condition that caused him to get cold easily.

In the video, Elijah McClain sobs as he repeatedly tells officers, “I’m just different.” Samara McClain said her brother was a massage therapist who planned to go to college.

The Police Department put the three officers on leave, but they returned to the force when District Attorney Dave Young said there was insufficient evidence to support charging them.

“Ultimately, while I may share the vast public opinion that Elijah McClain’s death could have been avoided, it is not my role to file criminal charges based on opinion, but rather, on the evidence revealed from the investigation and applicable Colorado law,” Young said shortly before Polis ordered the investigation reopened.

Aurora police said interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson won’t comment to avoid interfering with the investigation.

Mari Newman, the McClain family’s attorney, said she was pleased with the governor’s decision.

“Clearly, Aurora has no intention of taking responsibility for murdering an innocent young man,” she said. “Its entire effort is to defend its brutality at all costs, and to lie to the public it is supposed to serve. It is time for a responsible adult to step in.”

Colorado’s attorney general said in a statement that the investigation will be thorough and “worthy of public trust and confidence in the criminal justice system.”

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By Jonny Wakefield

The lawyer for a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young girl has filed a formal complaint over an Edmonton Police Service news release that he says sparked vigilantism and violent threats.

Mark Jordan, the lawyer for Wade Stene, says demonstrators have been camped outside his client’s mother’s home for more than a week after police issued a news release saying Stene posed a safety risk to children while out on bail.