Anne Pressly News Updates Only - No Discussion Please...

[lorettalockhorn]

...UPDATE II: Strong followup on the Marianna angle from Fox 16. Vance was not originally a suspect in the April rape, but when -- seven months later -- Marianna police got Crime Lab results that ruled out their original suspect, their focus changed. And here apparently is the link. Vance's girlfriend was arrested for attempting to pawn stolen property. Property from the rape victim? Doesn't say. But it put Vance on the radar in Marianna and that led to the match with DNA gathered in the Pressly case. Criminal stupidity and luck may have combined in this week's arrest.

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkans...e_evidenc.aspx

[samanthajane13]

Man accused in TV anchor death appears in 2nd case
By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell, Associated Press Writer – 49 mins ago

MARIANNA, Ark. – The man accused of killing an Arkansas television anchorwoman has pleaded not guilty in a separate rape and burglary case in his hometown of Marianna.

Curtis Lavelle Vance arrived at the Lee County Courthouse Thursday wearing a bullet-resistant vest and escorted by six police officers. In a brief hearing, Circuit Judge Ann B. Hudson accepted the plea and set trial for July 27.

Little Rock police detectives say a DNA sample from the crime scene of TV anchorwoman Anne Pressley's slaying last year linked Vance to her killing and the Marianna attack.

As he arrived at the courthouse, the 28-year-old only shook his head and said "No" when asked whether he was worried about the DNA evidence.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/...nchor_attacked

[lorettalockhorn]

Filing links suspect’s hair to Pressly
DNA evidence in capital murder case to get independent retesting

LITTLE ROCK — Curtis Lavelle Vance, the man accused of beating a Little Rock news anchor to death last year, makes his fourth Pulaski County Court appearance today, as recent court filings show the physical evidence against him is his hair found at the crime scene.

The 28-year-old Marianna man is charged with capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft in the October beating death of news anchor Anne Pressly. Authorities haven’t said whether they will seek the death penalty, but have not ruled it out.

Va n c e w a s arrested on the capital murder charge about 4 /2 weeks after Pressly died, with police revealing only that his genetic material was found in her Club Road home in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock and that he had denied being in Little Rock at the time.

Police didn’t reveal what the material was, reporting only that they confirmed the DNA was Vance’s after collecting a sample from his mouth. Police said Vance willingly allowed those oral swabs, but he has since denied that.

Recent filings by the defense show that Vance’s hair was found in Pressly’s home. The filings don’t say how much hair was found or where it was discovered. The filings are part of an April motion for independent DNA testing - granted by Circuit Judge Chris Piazza - of all of the DNA evidence: the hair and the oral swabs plus scrapings from underneath Pressly’s fingernails, which don’t appear to have resulted in any incriminating evidence.

Authorities have since collected a second sample of Vance’s hair as part of an effort to confirm the first DNA findings, a routine procedure in capital-murder cases. That hair sample was collected at the Pulaski County jail on Thursday by Little Rock detectives, court records show.

Today’s 9 a.m. hearing appears to be a routine proceeding. Piazza set the date for a report on plea negotiations, but with DNA testing incomplete, the case seems unlikely to be resolved soon.

Piazza has set a September trial date out of consideration for speedy trial rules that require jailed defendants be tried within nine months. However, Criminal Procedure Rule 28.3 allows the nine-month time frame to be extended at the request of the defense or if the judge finds good cause for an extension.

According to 2008 figures from the Administrative Office of the Courts, the average capital murder case in Arkansas takes about 409 days - about

1 13 /2 months - to go before a jury, while a Pulaski County capital murder case averages 390 days - 13 months - to go to trial.

Vance has been jailed since his Nov. 26 arrest, with prosecutors filing their case in circuit court 10 weeks later and adding the charges of rape, burglary and theft.

Pressly, a 26-year-old KATV, Channel 7 morning news anchor, was found in bed by her mother, beaten bloody and unconscious, about three hours before sunrise on Oct. 20. Patti Cannady went to her daughter’s home at 4:30 a.m., concerned because Pressly hadn’t answered the phone. She’d last been seen alive the night before after attending a friend’s birthday party. Pressly never regained consciousness and died five days later.

Vance became a suspect in her slaying after DNA from the April 2008 rape of a Marianna school teacher matched the genetic material found at Pressly’s home. Marianna police who were investigating the attack relayed their suspicions about Vance to Little Rock police, who questioned him and collected a sample of his DNA that led to his arrest.

This article was published Tuesday, May 12, 2009.
Arkansas, Pages 7, 14 on 05/12/2009

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/...riber/national

[lorettalockhorn]

Defense seeks mental report in Pressly case
Suspect seeks new attorneys, citing lack of trust in counsel

LITTLE ROCK — The man accused of killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly will undergo a mental evaluation but his attorneys say they don’t expect to use an insanity defense. The evaluation process could delay his capital-murder trial, which is scheduled for September.

Curtis Lavelle Vance also used the opportunity of his fourth Pulaski County Circuit Court appearance on Tuesday to complain about his public defenders, telling Judge Chris Piazza that he doesn’t trust them, he’s stopped talking to them and that they’ve been keeping information about his case from him.

“I don’t want these people,” the 28-year-old Marianna man said, complaining that the attorneys were keeping him “blind.”

“I don’t trust them no more,” he said. “I don’t feel safe talking to them no more.”

In his last Pulaski County court appearance in March, defense attorneys disclosed that Vance had given two interviews to police over their objections. The judge said then that he couldn’t force police to allow the defense to attend those interviews if Vance initiates them and waives his right to counsel. Also at that hearing, the judge turned aside a defense request to prohibit other inmates from asking Vance about his case.

Vance is charged with capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft, accused of fatally beating and raping the KATV, Channel 7, morning news anchor during an Oct. 20 break-in at her home in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood. Pressly died five days after her mother found her in bed, bloody and unresponsive. The 26-year-old never regained consciousness.

Police say Vance’s DNA places him at the crime scene.

Vance told the judge Tuesday that he was particularly concerned about his defense team because he hasn’t seen the results of any DNA testing and indicated he wasn’t aware that police said his hair was found at Pressly’s home until he read about it in the newspaper. He noted that police collected a hair sample from him last week.

“Y’all have got the world thinking I’ve done this,” Vance said, his voice deep and resonant.

Piazza urged Vance to cooperate with his attorneys and advised him to be patient about evidence testing. Piazza noted that he only allowed defense DNA evidence testing to begin last month and said the testing likely hasn’t been completed. The judge refused to appoint Vance new attorneys, saying he couldn’t get involved in decisions made by the Arkansas Public Defender Commission. But Piazza said he’d be willing to discuss Vance’s legal representation after the mental evaluation is complete.

Piazza praised the defense team - Katherine Streett, Lott Rolfe and Teri Chambers - as “good attorneys,” which didn’t appear to mollify Vance.

“That’s your opinion,” Vance responded.

The attorneys didn’t react to Vance’s accusations, which came after Streett asked for the mental evaluation. Streett didn’t say exactly why she thought the examination, which is arranged through the Arkansas State Hospital, was necessary, except to say Vance had “issues” that need to be explored. The report could take as long as three months to complete, but Piazza said he hoped it would be done by Vance’s next court appearance on June 16. With the case set for trial on Sept. 9, Piazza set Aug. 18 as the cutoff date for plea negotiations. Piazza said he would also take up unresolved motions then, but the case can’t progress until questions about Vance’s mental fitness are resolved.

At Streett’s request, Piazza did agree to seal the results of the mental testing, saying the findings would eventually be made public. But Streett did decline the judge’s offer to change Vance’s plea to innocent by reason of mental disease or defect, saying she doesn’t plan to use that defense.

Bill James, the attorney for Vance in a rape case in Marianna, said the Lee County Circuit judge has already approved a mental evaluation for his client. Vance’s next appearance in that court is June 22.

At Vance’s January arraignment on the Little Rock charges, Piazza had predicted Vance’s mental health might be called into question and asked his defenders to decide if they wanted the evaluation by Feb. 17, but they declined the examination at the time.

Tuesday’s appearance was Vance’s first without a bullet-resistant vest and squad of deputy bodyguards keeping him separate from other jail inmates. Piazza said in March that he didn’t see the need for the extra protection and ordered him to be brought to court like every other prisoner. Tuesday, Vance arrived shackled to a handful of other inmates, although his case was the first to be called up and bailiffs immediately took him out of the courtroom when the seven minute hearing ceased.

His mother was the first to arrive for Tuesday’s proceedings. Jacqueline Burnett was joined by another son and two or three supporters. She acknowledged to them that Vance was in a lot of trouble.

“I’m praying for a miracle,” she told them.

Pressly’s parents, Patti and Guy Cannady, were the next to arrive, and they were eventually joined by friends and supporters who filled half of the seating in the courtroom. Also joining the Cannadys was Kristen Edwards, the Marianna woman whom Vance is accused of raping. She is also a prosecution witness in the capital-murder case.

But before most spectators had entered the courtroom, Burnett and Patti Cannady shared a long tearful embrace, whispering to each other in the mostly empty courtroom, before holding hands and praying together.

The Cannadys greeted their supporters with hugs, handshakes and smiles, but Patti Cannady’s demeanor turned grim when Vance entered the room.

Cannady took up a front row seat next to her husband, leaned forward and glared at her daughter’s accused killer. Vance met her gaze from across the courtroom and stared back at her for several moments until bailiff Ronnie Smith noticed and stepped between them.

This article was published Wednesday, May 13, 2009.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 13 on 05/13/2009



http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/...?news/arkansas

These two paragraphs weren't online, but were in the print addition:

As is her practice, Vance's mother caled out to her son as he was led into the courtroom.
"I love you, Lavelle," she said. "Your mother loves you."

[lorettalockhorn]

Pressly-case suspect refuses to aid in mental evaluation

LITTLE ROCK — The Marianna man accused of killing a Little Rock television news anchor has declined to cooperate with state doctors seeking to assess his competency to stand trial.

Curtis Lavelle Vance met with doctors at the Arkansas State Hospital two weeks after he appeared in Pulaski County Circuit Court on May 12 and complained about his attorneys and sought to have them fired. Vance said he felt that Katherine Street, Lott Rolfe IV and Teri Chambers hadn’t been keeping him informed about his case and weren’t working hard enough on his defense.

But Vance’s refusal to cooperate with examiners at the State Hospital doesn’t mean he’s unfit to stand trial on capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft charges related to the October slaying of Anne Pressly, according to reports to presiding Circuit Judge Chris Piazza by the psychiatrist, Stacy McBain of the State Hospital. Vance is duefor his fifth court appearance at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday for a hearing about the doctor’s findings.

“The defendant gave a wellstated, rational and reasonable explanation as to why he did not wish to participate and reported he had no history of mental illness or mental health treatment,” McBain wrote thejudge in a foursentence letter. “It is my opinion that Mr. Vance’s unwillingness to participate in the examination is not the result of mental disease or defect.”

At the requestof prosecutors and the defense, McBain expounded on her findings in a second report to the judge dated Tuesday, emphasizing that her findings don’t represent a formal diagnosis of the 28-year-old Vance.

“Due to Mr. Vance’s unwillingness to participate, I have not performed a formal examination of the defendant’s competencyto stand trial,” McBain reported in a second four-sentence report. “During my brief interaction with Mr. Vance and review of the limited data he provided to me, I found no evidence that would indicate the defendant lacks the capacity to understand the proceedings against him or the capacity to effectively assist his attorney in his own defense due to mental disease or defect.”

Members of Vance’s defense team requested the mental evaluation at the May hearing where he said he didn’t trust them. His defense attorneys said they didn’t expect to use an insanity defense in the case.

Prosecutors haven’t said whether they’ll seek the death penalty for Vance on the capital-murder count, but execution remains a possibility unless prosecutors waive it in favor of seeking a life sentence without parole.

Recent court filings show Vance’s defenders are preparingfor a death-penalty trial, seeking records from the Arkansas Department of Human Services about any investigations into Vance and his family.

If the records show any abuse of Vance or his two brothers, Myron Vance and Baron Jarvis Vance, that could be used as mitigating evidence to show a jury considering ordering Vance’s execution, defense filings show.

Vance has had a contentious relationship with his defense team. At a March hearing, Vance’s attorneys revealed that he had voluntarily met with police twice since his November arrest. The team sought to block further police questioning of Vance or at least be included in any further interviews.

The judge declined, saying Vance could speak to whomever he wanted to, including police, as long as investigators respected his constitutional rights.

Pressly, 26, died in October, five days after she was discovered beaten and unconsciousin her home in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood. She was last seen at a party with friends the night before she was found beaten.

Vance was arrested 10 weeks later after police reported linking him to the slaying by unspecified DNA. He faces trial in September.

That evidence, since revealed to be Vance’s hair, is being challenged by Vance’s defense team, which is having its own testing done.

DNA has also linked Vance to the April 2008 rape of a Marianna schoolteacher, Kristen Edwards. Vance has since been charged with rape in Lee County, with his next court appearance there June 22.

This article was published today at 5:54 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 11, 20 on 06/13/2009

Petition for Writ of Certiorari:

http://showtime.arkansasonline.com/e/pdf2/adgappeal.pdf

Probable Cause Statement/Affidavit:

http://showtime.arkansasonline.com/e/pdf2/affidavit.pdf

Amended Order prohibiting release of jail records 12/8/08:

http://showtime.arkansasonline.com/e...vanceorder.pdf

[lorettalockhorn]

Update: Prosecutor Says Vance Confessed To Killing Pressly


The man accused of killing KATV's Anne Pressly appeared in Pulaski County Circuit Court Tuesday after refusing to submit to a mental evaluation.

The hearing was to determine alleged killer Curtis Vance's mental capacity to stand trial for Pressly's October 2008 murder.

Pressly's severely beaten body was discovered in her Little Rock home by her mother on Oct. 20, 2008. She died five days later.

Curtis Vance was arrested a month later.

Before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza Tuesday, Vance said his rights were violated because he's seen no DNA evidence linking him to the crime scene.

In response to Vance's outspoken opposition, deputy prosecutor John Johnson said Vance has already confessed to the crime three times.

Vance responded, saying those confessions were under "extreme pressure," including being threatened at gunpoint by police.

During the hearing, documents relevant to Vance and his history from the Department of Human Services were submitted in court.

"It's not uncommon for us to be asked to turn over records relating to the parties in a criminal case," said Julie Munsell with DHS. "In this case, we were ordered by the court to turn over documents relating to the defendant."

Munsell said the court will sift through the stacks of records, determining what is relevant to Vance's criminal case and what could affect his mental capacity to stand trial.

"The defendant's records are supposed to be properly integrated into the court documents, but as it relates to other individuals who are not involved in the case we'd asked that their confidentiality be maintained and remain sealed," she said.

Vance refused to cooperate with a state psychiatrist during a recent mental evaluation. His lawyers asked that Vance be remanded to the state hospital for 30 days for evaluation.

Judge Piazza suspended his decision on that request and instead scheduled a hearing to determine Vance's mental capacity for July 9.

The state examiner and an independent psychiatrist from Atlanta will provide their findings at that time.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/...=86662&catid=2

[lorettalockhorn]

Judge receives mental update in Pressly case
Slaying suspect has confessed three times, prosecutors say

LITTLE ROCK — The Marianna man accused of killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly has “confessed” three times to the slaying, a Pulaski County prosecutor revealed during a court hearing Tuesday.

The claim by chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson prompted a challenge from defendant Curtis Lavelle Vance, who said his statements were made under duress because Little Rock police had threatened his life.

“That was under extreme pressure,” Vance said. “I had a gun in my face.”

Prosecutors denied Vance’s allegations of coercion after the hearing. The 28-year-old Marianna man has met with police three times to give statements. The first meeting was after his November arrest on a capital murder charge accusing him in the death of Pressly, who was found brutally beaten at her Little Rock home on Oct. 20. She died five days later.

Police say Vance initiated the next two interviews - in December and February - and has agreed every time to waive his rights to have his lawyers present during interviews.

The substance of those interviews hasn’t been revealed, but Vance’s lawyers, who have filed 37 motions in the case, haven’t challenged the legality of those statements.

Vance also faces rape, residential burglary and theft charges in the attack on 26-year-old Pressly during a break-in at her home in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood.

Vance could face the death penalty, though prosecutors have not said if they intend to pursue that sentence.

Authorities say they linked Vance to the killing after finding his DNA, in the form of hair, at the crime scene and that Vance had initially denied being in Little Rock when Pressly was attacked.

Vance’s hour-long appearance Tuesday in circuit court was for Judge Chris Piazza to be apprised of the results of a mental evaluation conducted at the request of Vance’s attorneys. A state psychiatrist reported that Vance declined to cooperate with examiners but that she found him competent to stand trial after speaking with him about his refusal.

The judge set a July 9 hearing to rule on Vance’s fitness for trial. The hearing will feature testimony of a Georgia psychiatrist working for the defense who has met with Vance.

Vance’s defense team had hoped to persuade Piazza to order their client committed to the State Hospital for at least a month, describing state psychiatrist Stacy McBain’s findings as “inadequate.” Attorney Katherine Streett said McBain spent only 15 minutes with Vance, didn’t perform any tests and didn’t take notes.

But Johnson countered that Vance has had all the examination he’s entitled to under the law.He accused Vance of deliberately trying to delay proceedings because he feared the outcome.

“Mr. Vance is trying to hold everyone back because he doesn’t like what he’s being told about his chances by his counsel,” Johnson said. “It’s my opinion that his rights have been protected.”

Johnson argued that defense attorneys have already had Vance examined by at least one psychiatrist. Streett disputed that Vance has been formally examined by a defense doctor, but she did acknowledge that the Georgia doctor met with Vance sometime before a February hearing during which the defense initially declined a State Hospital evaluation. Streett said the defense isn’t planning an insanity defense, but Vance’s defenders don’t think he’s competent for trial.

“We have indications based on our interactions with our client that he’s not fit,” she said.

Streett said Vance probably wouldn’t cooperate with doctors if he was committed for a month, but she said their observations of Vance would help determine if he’s mentally sound.

Piazza refused to hospitalize Vance, saying he didn’t think it would be productive.

“If he’s unwilling to cooperate ... then I don’t think society or the state should wait until Mr. Vance is so inclined to participate” in a mental examination at the State Hospital, the judge said.

Piazza also overruled defense objections that Vance’s attorneys turn over to prosecutors any medical and psychiatric recordst hey have on Vance.

Prosecutors want state doctors to review those records, if they exist, in advance of next month’s hearing. Defense attorneys wouldn’t say whether they have any records but argued that they shouldn’t have to divulge them to prosecutors unless they mount an insanity defense.

But Piazza did agree to a defense motion to keep prosecutors from immediately seeing “voluminous” records from the Arkansas Department of Human Services about Vance and his family. The defense sought the records to use as potentially mitigating evidence to show a jury considering ordering Vance’s execution.

A Department of Human Services attorney, Charles Thompson, presented the records to the judge and said the agency is still searching for more. The nature of the records wasn’t disclosed. The defense will review them, then challenge any records they think might be considered confidential, possibly revealing protected medical and legal information. Piazza will ultimately decide what prosecutors will see.

During Tuesday’s hearing,Vance again complained about his attorneys, saying they still haven’t shown him the DNA evidence against him.

“There’s nothing to show my guilt in this,” Vance told the judge, leading Johnson to counter that Vance has admitted to attacking Pressly.

Vance showed the judge a crumpled piece of paper that he said was proof that DNA evidence hasn’t been provided to him. The paper, read out loud in part by the judge, turned out to be part of an arrest affidavit from Lee County where he’s charged with rape in the April 2008 attack on a Marianna schoolteacher. The teacher, Kristen Edwards, attended Monday’s hearing.

“I haven’t seen no facts from the [Arkansas Crime Laboratory],” complained Vance, who was wearing handcuffs and leg shackles that had been tied together with a long leather strap.

His outburst prompted his attorneys to enter a whispered conversation with the judge and prosecutors at the bench without Vance. After about five minutes, the judge called Vance up to join them.

The hushed discussions couldn’t be heard clearly, but Piazza asked Vance, “Is there some reason you don’t trust them?” The judge also told Vance that his defense attorneys are good lawyers and that Vance should give them a chance. The exchange lasted about two minutes.

Vance’s defenders said they’ve received about 6,000 pages of documentation from prosecutors and that they expected to receive all of the available DNA evidence soon. Piazza used the exchange to again address the defendant, telling Vance that he will eventually see all of the evidence against him.

“They’re going to give you all of this information and sit down with you,” the judge said.

“Yes sir,” Vance responded.

This article was published today at 4:31 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 15 on 06/17/2009

[SaraSidle]

sounds like a lot of unnecessary stalling to me. IMO sara

[lorettalockhorn]

More dismissed than charged in Pressly case
Hospital mum on how many let go over records breaches

LITTLE ROCK — The president and chief executive officer of St. Vincent Health System said Tuesday that the hospital has fired more people for illegally accessing the medical records of Anne Pressly than those who were charged in federal court Monday.

Peter Banko still would not reveal the number of people who were fired for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, known as HIPAA. But in November, he said that as many as six people had been terminated.

Banko said Tuesday that he was not including a physician, Jay Holland, in those figures, because Holland is not a hospital employee.

However, while Holland still has his hospital privileges, “there were some actions taken by the medical staff against Dr. Holland” for the violations, Banko said. He refused to offer any more details.

Holland and two formerhospital employees, patient accounts representative Sarah Elizabeth Miller and emergency room coordinator Candida Griffin, were charged Monday in federal court in Little Rock with misdemeanor violations of the HIPAA law for accessing Pressly’s records on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21.

Pressly, 26, was a morning news anchor for KATV, Channel 7, whose mother found her savagely beaten in her Little Rock home early Oct. 20. Pressly was rushed to St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, but she never regained consciousness. She died at the Little Rock hospital on Oct. 25.

In what quickly became a high-profile case, 28-year-old Curtis Lavelle Vance of Marianna was arrested Nov. 26 and faces charges of capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft. Prosecutors are considering seeking the death penalty against him.

Banko said Tuesday that hedid not know why the other people who were fired have not been charged, and U.S. Attorney Jane Duke has said she wants to withhold her comments on the case until the three are arraigned next month. She didn’t say whether her office expects to charge anyone else in the case.

Holland’s attorney, Ralph Cloar of Little Rock, said Holland, who operates a clinic in the Hillcrest neighborhood, isn’t ready yet to comment publicly on the matter. He called Holland “a very compassionate general practitioner” who committed what amounts to a “technical violation” because he didn’t look at the file for the purpose of giving information to anyone else.

“He’s ashamed this happened,” Cloar said, explaining that Holland simply looked at the file, which his privileges allowed him access to, “saw what was happening,” and then “got right out, and never went back in it.”

“You’ll see this is very minor, the lowest level,” Cloar said, adding that nonetheless, “It’s been tough for him to come to where he is” in acknowledging he violated the law.

“I don’t believe anybody that accessed it [the file] was malicious,” Banko said. “It’s very common with people who are celebrities for others to get curious.” In fact, Banko said, Pressly’s celebrity status, combined with a previous experience he had, prompted the hospital to monitor her medical records each day and to “take swift action” upon discovering the forbidden peeks.

One reason hospitals take it seriously when an employee violates privacy laws “is because of the serious penalties associated with HIPAA violations,” said Elisa White, general counsel and vice president of the Arkansas Hospital Association, which represents and advocates for hospitals throughout the state.

White noted that the hospitals themselves are subject to both civil and criminal sanctions carrying “very stringent penalties,” which force them to keep strict policies in place for dealing with violations.

“The hospitals are put in a position of facing some very serious consequences if they don’t,” she said.

Violations are easily discovered, White said. “State surveyors can come in, the federal government can come in and doan audit, or individuals can file complaints on behalf of themselves or relatives,” she said.

Another major consideration is that “all of us, as patients, expect our private information to be used for only very specific purposes,” such as billing and internal hospital use, White said.

Because of that, Congress made it clear through enacting the HIPAA law that “privacy is very important - so important that violations of these regulations can lead to civil and criminal violations for the individuals and the facilities as well,” she said.

“I think we want our healthcare providers to be held to a higher standard for privacy,” White added.

Banko said St. Vincent Infirmary educates its employees on confidentiality “and other compliance issues,” and all employees must sign a “values and ethics at work” statement.

“We take patient privacy very seriously,” he said. “There are various things we do to monitor patient records. ... We do routine audits, and once people make bad decisions, we have to act on it.”

This article was published today at 2:47 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 11, 20 on 07/01/2009

[FDInLaw]

The man charged with killing anchorwoman Anne Pressly filed his own court motion and asked for new attorneys.

In the handwritten motion filed Wednesday, Curtis Vance, 28, asks the court to release DNA and forensic evidence as well as medical records against him. The six page motion cites court cases as legal precedent while repeatedly emphasizing his desire to change his attorneys.

In the notification portion, Vance also accuses his public defenders of intentionally trying to harm his defense.

“As it is known by record within the Court from the defandant’s most recent court appearances before the Court, not only has the Court disregarded the clearly established rights to the assistance of guaranteed ‘effective assistance’ of counsel, (Strickland v. Washington) supra, wherein which the defendant is being FORCED to have appointed “public defenders?” who intentionally, conspiratorally, harmfully cause Curtis Vance to have NO DEFENSE AT ALL… the defendant, who has been deteriorated within his a fighting chance at serious accusations, these “public defenders?” have caused Curtis L. Vance to receive no defense.”

The only mention of the attack against Pressly comes in a footnote on the motion where Vance writes:

“It must be noted here that there were not one but two (2) other individuals who were ARRESTED and then taken into custody about this case. Guys were SEEN on video tape at the Shell Superstop on East 9th street in Pressly’s car, used Pressly’s credit cards, etc. Yet this information was known but withheld by Vance’s own legal defense team, from Vance, who found it out by means of other sources, who knew about it.”

Court and police affidavits, however, indicate only Vance was arrested in connection with Pressly’s murder. There are also no police records that substantiate Vance’s claim that the morning anchorwoman’s vehicle was ever moved from the driveway of her Club Road home in the Heights. . .

http://www.fox16.com/news/local/stor...Q.cspx?rss=315

[lorettalockhorn]

Owners level Pressly’s home, plan to rebuild
Neighbors hope for closure

LITTLE ROCK — After a group of her friends said a prayer and released pink balloons Monday morning, a demolition crew leveled the small, white house where slain KATV, Channel 7, news anchor Anne Pressly was attacked last year.

The noise of a track hoe pushing and lifting the home’s remains into a steady train of dump trucks broke the silence of the quiet Heights neighborhood for much of the morning. The demolition is the first step toward the new owners’ plans to rebuild on the site, now somewhat infamous as the site of Pressly’s October assault.

Motorists slowed as they drove by the house at 4910 Club Road, a practice neighbors said has become common since the 26-year-old was found severely beaten and unconscious October 20. Pressly never regained consciousness and died five days later at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock.

“Every day it would seem someone would drive down the road, slow down and look at the house,” said Marietta Smith, who has lived just around the corner at 1905 N. Monroe St. since 1977. “If it’s not there for people to stare at, I think it will provide some closure.”

The home, which was built in 1940, was sold July 1 to a couple who have lived in 13 homes in the past 23 years, buying, fixing and reselling each before moving onto the next. Charlotte Whitt, one of the new owners, said the 2,000-square foot retirement “bungalow” that she and her husband, John, plan to build on the site will be their last home.

The former owners, Dick and Debra Flowers, put the white ranch house up for sale quietly in February, with just a sign in the yard.

The Flowerses, who live next door, bought the home in 1999 for $124,000, according to Pulaski County tax assessor records.

The current value of the home is appraised at $272,700. Whitt declined to say how much she and her husband paid for the home.

Whitt said “the timing was right” for the sale but she didn’t want to proceed without Pressly’s parents’ blessing.

Any reservations they might have had would have been a deal breaker, but Whitt said they were very supportive of her plans.

“They were excited and happy that we were doing it and supported us 100 percent,” Whitt said.

She echoed neighbors’ desires to forget the scene of police and ambulances.

“You can’t drive by the house without thinking about police tape all around it,” she said. “I just think this will be a healing process for this neighborhood.”

Homes that were once the site of gruesome crimes often are hard to sell. Peggy Mitchell, who has lived at 1825 N. Monroe St. for 21 years, said she couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to live in the home after what happened.

“It was time,” Mitchell said. “I’m not normally glad when an old house in this neighborhood is torn down, but this time I am.”

Before the house was demolished, Habitat for Humanity gutted it, taking windows, doors, the stove, hot water heater and anything else that could be reused.

“If any of that material can be used to help somebody else, I think Anne would have liked that,” Whitt said.

Demolition was halted temporarily Monday because it had proceeded without a demolition permit, said Terry Gates, a permits and records assistant for Little Rock. The city requires a permit before any demolition can take place.

Whitt said when she heard from the contractor Monday that the project didn’t have a permit, she was surprised. She said it was the result of a mix-up between her and Gattis Excavating, the company she hired to demolish the house. Both thought the other had applied for the permit, Whitt said.

The crew had returned to carting off debris by Monday afternoon after receiving the required permit, Whitt said.

The Pulaski County Prosecutor’s office, which is preparing the capital murder prosecution of suspect Curtis Lavelle Vance, didn’t know about the demolition either, but Deputy Prosecutor John Johnson said he saw no reason why it would affect the trial.

When he found out the home was being sold a few months back, Johnson went back to the home one last time to look around inside and outside.

“If there was anything about that house that we needed to be preserved, frankly we would have done that before,” he said, adding that it wasn’t unusual to not have access to a former crime scene in a home that had passed hands to new owners or was otherwise off-limits.

DNA evidence collected at the scene helped police identify Vance as a suspect. The numerous photos of the home taken when Pressly was found and afterward will be enough for the trial, scheduled for September, Johnson said.

This article was published today at 5:21 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 14 on 07/14/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

3 plead guilty, admit accessing Pressly files 2 fired by hospital, doctor broke privacy law

LITTLE ROCK — A Little Rock physician and two former hospital employees pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor violations of federal privacy laws, admitting their curiosity led them to access the confidential medical records of a local television personality who was brutally beaten by an intruder last year in her home.

Anne Pressly, 26, a news anchor at KATV, Channel 7, never recovered from the early-morning attack on Oct. 20, 2008. She died at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center on Oct. 25.

As Pressly’s parents watched from front-row seats in the courtroom, U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry L. Jones Jr. accepted the guilty pleas Monday afternoon from Dr. Jay Holland, 56, of Little Rock; Sarah Elizabeth Miller, 28, of England; and Candida Griffin, 34, of Little Rock.

Holland is a doctor who operates a clinic in the Hillcrest neighborhood and is medical director of Select Specialty Hospital, a business located on the sixth floor of St. Vincent’s at West Markham Street and South University Avenue. Miller was a patient accounts representative at the hospital’s Sherwood branch. Griffin was the emergency-room unit coordinator at the main hospital in Little Rock.

U.S. Attorney Jane Duke said after the hearing that prosecutions for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, known as HIPAA, are rare, so much so that an “informal survey” of HIPAA prosecutions across the country shows that until now, only 10 people had been charged since the law was enacted.

“I think that’s partly because the law is new and also because this is one of those areas where there is a lot of compliance,” Duke said.

Even before final modifications were made to the law’s Privacy Rule on Aug. 14, 2002, Duke said, the medical field had “seen it coming for so long” and had already provided training and put internal controls in place.

According to the Web site of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, HIPAA was enacted on Aug. 21, 1996, but its privacy regulations were developed later.

The act’s Privacy Rule, as the regulations are called, protects all “individually identifiable health information” held or transmitted by a covered entity, or its business associate, in any form or media, whether electronic, paper or oral.

The covered entities, including hospitals, may disclose protected health information only to certain authorized authorities, in certain authorized situations.

The intense publicity surrounding Pressly’s case, coupled with the knowledge that curiosity often accompanies situations involving celebrities, led the hospital to monitor her records closely and quickly discover the unauthorized breaches, St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center’s president, Peter Banko, said in July.

The hospital immediately fired Miller and Griffin upon determining that neither had a legitimate reason for accessing the records - 12 times in Miller’s case and three times by Griffin, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Hoey told the judge onMonday.

Holland isn’t a hospital employee, but Duke said Monday that the hospital suspended the doctor’s privileges for two weeks and required him to complete online training about HIPAA.

The misdemeanor violations are punishable by up to a year in federal prison, a fine of up to $50,000 or both.

None of the three will be sentenced until after U.S. probation officers conduct a pre-sentence investigation and prepare a report, which usually takes 45 to 60 days.

None of the three made any public comments after the brief hearing, and Pressly’s parents also declined to make a statement.

At the hearing, however, Hoey offered a few more details of the violations than were available when the three were charged on July 1.

Hoey said Holland admitted to the FBI that on Oct. 20, as he and his wife sat at home watching televised news reports about the attack on Pressly, he heard some reports that she had dieda nd believed them to be inaccurate. He logged in to the hospital’s computer system from his home computer to confirm that she was still alive, then immediately logged off, Hoey said. She said the records show he accessed Pressly’s records two times, four minutes apart.

Holland, standing at a courtroom lectern with defense attorney Ralph Cloar at his side, agreed those facts were correct.

Miller, accompanied by attorney Timothy Allen Blair of Cabot, appeared tearful as she approached the lectern and agreed, in nearly inaudible tones, with Hoey’s rendition of facts: that in performing her duties of checking patients in and out and processing patient billing, she accessed Pressly’s records 12 times on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21, “because she was curious.”

Hoey said the reason there were so many different log-ons was that Miller would quickly log off when a customer approached her computer, and then would log on again “when the coast was clear.”

Griffin’s duties in the emergency room were secretarial in nature and included ordering patient tests and entering data into electronic patient files, Hoey said.

She said that on Oct. 20, a charge nurse told Griffin that she was to “tell anyone who inquired” that Pressly wasn’t a patient there. The charge nurse also told Griffin to set up an alias for Pressly. But on Oct. 21, after Pressly left the emergency room and was in the intensive care unit, Griffin “became curious” and accessed Pressly’s medical chart to find out if she was still alive. Records show Griffin accessed the records three times, Hoey said.

Griffin, represented by attorney Justin T. Eisele of Little Rock, agreed with the facts presented by Hoey.

Banko, St. Vincent’s president, said in July that the hospital fired more people in connection with the breaches than those that were charged, but he wouldn’t reveal the number of people fired or the nature of their infractions.

Asked about that on Monday, Duke said, “At this point, we do not anticipate any additional criminal charges.” She said she couldn’t comment on matters that don’t result in charges.

“The HIPAA privacy protections are real, and we hope that through vigorous enforcement of HIPAA’s right-to-privacy protections and swift prosecution of those who violate HIPAA, we can deter those in the medical industry who have access to protected health information from searching others’ medical records merely to satisfy theirown curiosity,” Duke said.

On Nov. 26, 2008, Little Rock police arrested Curtis Lavelle Vance, 28, of Marianna in Pressly’s slaying. He faces charges of capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft. Prosecutors haven’t announced if they will seek the death penalty. Vance, who is also charged with raping a woman in Marianna in 2008, has proclaimed his innocence, while authorities say he is linked to both attacks through DNA evidence.

This article was published today at 5:04 a.m.
Front Section, Pages 1, 6 on 07/21/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Attorneys detail case for Vance’s execution

LITTLE ROCK — In a Monday court filing, Pulaski County prosecutors listed five reasons for seeking the death penalty against the Marianna man accused of killing Little Rock TV news anchor Anne Pressly. A jury will only need to believe one of them to sentence Curtis Lavelle Vance to death.

Vance makes his seventh court appearance before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza at 9 a.m. today for his attorneys to argue for a delay in the proceedings. The defense wants his trial set back for at least six months, arguing that the nature of a capital-murder trial effectively forces them to prepare for two trials: one to determine guilt, and then a sentencing hearing if he is convicted.

At Vance’s last appearance three weeks ago, his attorney Katherine Streett also said defense DNA testing couldn’t be completed by the September trial date.

Today’s hearing could shed more light on the evidence against the 28-year-old Vance as both sides are scheduled to update the judge on the progress of discovery, the process in which the sides exchange evidence before trial. Prosecutors have said they have “hours” of Vance on videotape speaking with police and giving three “confessions.”

DNA extracted from hair found at the scene of Pressly’s fatal beating links Vance to the October attack at her Club Road home, court filings say without elaborating on the amount of hair found or where it was discovered. The defense is challenging the claim with its own testing.

Chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson filed 13 responses Monday to more than two dozen defense motions submitted last month, among them a notice that prosecutors intend to use the allegations that Vance raped a Marianna schoolteacher as evidence against him at his capital-murder trial. Vance, reportedly linked to that attack by DNA, is also charged with rape in Lee County over the claim that he sexually assaulted Kristen Edwards in his hometown in April.

The Lee County charge is among the five reasons prosecutors list in seeking the death penalty for Vance, who also is charged with rape, residential burglary and theft in the attack on the 26-year-old KATV, Channel 7, news anchor. She was found beaten bloody and unconscious by her mother and died five days later without regaining consciousness. Vance was arrested about 4 1 /2 weeks later after telling police he wasn’t in Little Rock at the time of the attack on Pressly.

Arkansas Code Annotated 5-4-604 outlines 10 conditions of a crime that allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty, and the five reasons submitted by prosecutors fulfill four of those conditions.

The 1 1 /2-page filing also claims as a reason for seeking the death penalty that Vance has previously committed a felony against his longtime girlfriend, 25-year-old Sheannika Loreal Cooper of Marianna. The filing doesn’t describe the nature of the allegation, but states it involved “the use or threat of violence to another person or the creation of a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury” to Cooper.

Also listed as reasons are claims that Pressly was killed to keep Vance from being arrested, that the crime was motivated by financial gain and that Pressly was killed in an “especially cruel or depraved manner.”

This article was published today at 4:42 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 7, 12 on 07/28/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Trial start delayed in Arkansas TV anchor slaying

LITTLE ROCK — The man accused of killing an Arkansas television anchorwoman will face trial in November, a judge ruled Tuesday, as prosecutors prepare for what will likely be a death-penalty case.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza pushed back the capital murder trial of Curtis Lavelle Vance to Nov. 2 after his defense lawyers said they needed more time to conduct DNA testing. Vance previously faced a Sept. 9 trial in the death of Anne Pressly, a morning anchorwoman for Little Rock television station KATV.

However, Piazza warned lawyers there would be no other delays.

“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to grant a continuance ... but I won’t grant another in this trial,” Piazza told lawyers. The judge later added: “We’re going to finish this in a week, I promise you.”

Katherine Streett, who heads Vance’s team of public defenders, asked for the delay to conduct DNA testing on evidence gathered from Pressly’s home after she was attacked Oct. 20. Police also collected a DNA swab from Vance’s mouth during their investigation and recently took hair samples from him.

Deputy Prosecutor John Johnson opposed the request, saying defense lawyers knew the two kind of DNA testing investigators performed on the samples. Johnson also questioned why Pressly’s family should have to “live with a continuance.”

Vance remained silent during the short hearing. He recently filed a handwritten motion to Piazza, asking his lawyers be removed. When Piazza asked if Vance wanted it withdrawn, he simply shook his head “yes.”

Vance has pleaded not guilty to capital murder and other charges stemming from Pressly’s death. Pressly’s mother found her daughter severely beaten after she missed a wake-up call at her Little Rock home. Pressly never regained consciousness and died at a hospital Oct. 25.

Police worked for weeks without a named suspect until a DNA sample taken from Pressly’s home matched an unsolved rape case from Marianna, about 90 miles east of Little Rock. Detectives singled out Vance as a suspect, as he was seen loitering around homes that had robbed in small Delta town.

If convicted, Vance would face either a death sentence or a life sentence. Prosecutors have yet to say whether they’ll seek death for Vance, though they filed a statement with the court Monday listing reasons why the death penalty could be used. Those reasons include the Marianna rape that Vance is charged with, an alleged attack on his girlfriend and that Pressly died in an “especially cruel or depraved manner.” Vance has pleaded not guilty to the rape charge.

A pretrial hearing in the Pressly case will be Oct. 6.

This article was published today at 1:09 p.m.

[lorettalockhorn]

Judge grants 2-month delay in Pressly case

Nov. 2 is new date for trial; suspect will keep attorneys

LITTLE ROCK — The 28-year-old Marianna man accused of killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly withdrew his handwritten request for new attorneys with a nod of his head on Tuesday after Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza agreed to delay his capital murder trial by two months.

Saying that he wants the case to be concluded by the end of the year, Piazza set Curtis Lavelle Vance’s trial for Nov. 2.

Addressing Vance’s motion for new legal representation took about 30 seconds out of the 21-minute hearing. Vance didn’t speak when the judge asked him about the six-page, pencil-and-lined-paper motion he filed last month, but his lead defense attorney, Katherine Streett, told Piazza that her client was no longer interested.

“He’s indicated he doesn’t wish to address that motion,” she said.

Questioned directly by the judge about withdrawing the request, Vance, who appeared lethargic and withdrawn in wrist and leg shackles bound together by a leather strap, nodded yes. In the motion, he had accused Streett and his two other attorneys of deliberately conspiring against him, saying they’d crippled his defense. He’s also complained in court that they hadn’t shown him any of the evidence they’ve obtained from prosecutors, specifically DNA.

His attorneys responded by telling the judge that Vance was refusing to talk with them and didn’t trust them, according to a transcript of a bench conference between the attorneys and the judge.

The bulk of Tuesday’s hearing was devoted to his defense attorneys’ request for a six-month trial delay. Streett told the judge that defenders needed more time, both to prepare for a possible sentencing hearing and for testing of DNA evidence received from the prosecution.

“We don’t think we can possibly be ready to try this in September,” Streett said, saying prosecutors have had since October to do their testing.

The 26-year-old Pressly was fatally beaten in her Heights neighborhood home that month, with Vance arrested about 4 1 /2 weeks later after his DNA, in the form of hair, was found at her home. He told police he was not in Little Rock when Pressly was attacked.

Authorities haven’t disclosed how much hair was found or where it was located, but a prosecution submission at Tuesday’s hearing shows evidence was lifted from Pressly’s comforter and underwear. Vance is also charged with rape, residential burglary and theft in the case.

Streett told the judge that the defense investigation into the 28-year-old Vance’s background continues to expand as his defenders seek evidence they could present to a jury to counter the prosecution’s arguments about why he deserves to be executed. Also, she said, the DNA testing sought by the defense to challenge the prosecution’s DNA findings will take six to eight weeks, Streett said. Vance’s attorneys have compared the effort with having to prepare for two trials at once.

She offered to provide the judge with a written assessment of defense efforts, but asked that the filing be sealed, a reflection of the ongoing defense effort to keep from tipping off prosecutors about their strategy until Vance’s attorneys absolutely have to reveal it.

Chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson objected to the submission, saying that sealing the filings would put prosecutors at a disadvantage in arguing against a trial delay.

“I can’t imagine any set of circumstances that would allow them to submit a motion for continuance under seal,” Johnson said.

Johnson told the judge that the defense was using a lab that couldn’t do the range of testing that’s been performed by the state Crime Laboratory.

“The lab they’ve contracted doesn’t even perform the testing needed to challenge the Crime Lab,” he said.

The state lab has performed two types of testing, Johnson told the judge, one that detects male genetic material and a second, which tests for DNA that is inherited from the mother. The lab also conducted hair analysis, he said.

Johnson also accused the defense of foot-dragging, saying that the lawyers could have begun arranging their testing three months ago.

“Why hasn’t [DNA] been sent before and why are the victim’s family being put in the position of having to suffer through a continuance when this defendant has had this information since April?” he said.

Streett disputed Johnson’s claims, saying the defense only recently received the police findings.

“We are only now in a position for testing. We have only now received results,” she told the judge.

Johnson doesn’t know the defense strategy, Streett told the judge, including what laboratories defenders will use.

The request for a continuance was not unreasonable, the judge said, but he said there won’t be any more delays, scheduling a pretrial hearing for Oct. 6 and trial for Nov. 2.

“I won’t grant another,” Piazza said.

He declined the defense attorneys’ offer to see their progress reports, saying he’d take them at their word that they need more time. Piazza said he expected the trial would only last five days after Johnson expressed concern the proceedings could conflict with another capital-murder trial.

“We’re going to finish this in a week, I promise you that,” Piazza said.

Both sides initially agreed that the discovery process, where the sides exchange evidence ahead of trial, had been completed until Johnson showed the judge an April report on the DNA evidence, which Streett said she hadn’t received.

The judge urged the sides to make sure they stayed in touch on new developments.

“Let’s make sure we communicate with each other,” he said.

“We’ve had a good rapport,” Johnson told the judge.

Prosecutors say Vance has confessed three times in three voluntary interviews with police, two of which he requested, captured on hours of videotape. Vance has claimed he was coerced at gunpoint into any admissions.

In their latest filings, prosecutors list five points on why he should be executed, including allegations that he committed a previous violent felony against his longtime girlfriend, raped a Marianna teacher, killed Pressly to elude police and committed the crime for personal gain. State law outlines 10 conditions, but a jury only has to believe one to impose the death penalty.

This article was published today at 4:22 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 9, 18 on 07/29/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Judge OKs DNA Test For Anchor Slaying Suspect

Curtis Vance Seeks Evidence In Unrelated Rape Charge

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A Pulaski County judge has approved a defense request for DNA testing of evidence from a Lee County rape case against a man accused of killing a TV news anchor.

Judge Chris Piazza on Friday approved the motion filed by Curtis Lavelle Vance's defense attorneys.

Vance's lawyers said they don't expect their examination to delay the 28-year-old's November capital-murder trial in Little Rock in the slaying of TV news anchor Anne Pressly.

His attorneys argued they need to do their own testing to defend Vance against the rape allegations because Pulaski County prosecutors plan to use the case against Vance in his capital-murder trial.

In the Lee County case, Vance is accused of raping a schoolteacher during an April 2008 break-in at her Marianna home.

http://www.4029tv.com/news/20631314/detail.html

[lorettalockhorn]

Prosecutors Say Vance's Rights Weren't Violated

Little Rock - Pulaski County prosecutors say the rights of the man charged with killing KATV's Anne Pressly were never violated.

Prosecutors have filed a four-page response to defense claims that police repeatedly violated the rights of Curtis Lavelle Vance. Vance is charged with capital murder in the October 2008 beating death of Pressly, and with the rape of a woman in Marianna.

Vance's attorney has filed a motion saying police misled and lied to Vance and that every statement he has made to authorities should be thrown out of court.

Deputy prosecutor John Johnson's response says Vance frequently cooperated with police - even after he was arrested. Johnson says Vance also signed a permission form to provide saliva for DNA testing.

Prosecutors may seek the death penalty if Vance is convicted of Pressly's murder.

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/1009/664491.html#

[lorettalockhorn]

Officers testify at hearing of Vance

Two say he gave varying accounts

LITTLE ROCK — A dirty sock, worn as a glove by a fellow burglar, spread Curtis Lavelle Vance’s bodily fluids and hair over Anne Pressly’s body and bed, the Marianna man accused of killing the Little Rock TV news anchor once told police, denying he was present during her fatal beating.

The statement by Vance, recorded during a Dec. 10 interview with Little Rock detectives, was played Tuesday for Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza during the first day of a two-day suppression hearing.

Piazza also heard testimony that Vance had given detectives a very different version of events when he was charged in Pressly’s killing two weeks earlier. In that account, which was not recorded, Vance admitted to beating Pressly in the face with some kind of object after she awoke to find him in her bedroom with his pants down, detectives Tommy Hudson and J.C. White testified, reading from their notes about the interview on the November night he was arrested.

A picture of the object hand-drawn by Vance was shown to the judge. It appeared to be some kind of spade, and the detectives testified that Vance said he’d gotten it from a storage shed at Pressly’s home then later he’d thrown it into the Arkansas River off the Broadway bridge in North Little Rock.

Prosecutors will play more recorded statements from Vance, including an hours-long video interview, when proceedings resume at 9:30 a.m. today at the Pulaski County Courthouse.

Vance, charged with capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft, faces the death penalty if convicted at trial next month. Pressly’s mother found the 26-year-old KATV, Channel 7, news anchor beaten bloody and unconscious in her bed on Oct. 20. Pressly died five days later. Vance was arrested about 4 1 /2 weeks later, just hours after his DNA was matched to evidence in Pressly’s killing and to the rape of a Marianna schoolteacher.

But Vance wasn’t the only suspect until the DNA match, White testified. He was one of three possible suspects questioned at the suggestion of Marianna police. Little Rock detectives went to him first - because he was closest, living only two blocks from Marianna police headquarters. Vance agreed to an interview at the police station, where the detectives told him they were investigating a rape, but didn’t disclose they were talking about Pressly, White testified.

“He was very forthcoming about wanting to clear his name,” White told the judge.

Prosecutors played the 25-minute interview in which Vance denied being in Little Rock around the time Pressly was attacked. He told the detectives he hadn’t been in Little Rock since the first of October 2008. Asked by the detectives if he’d ever been unfaithful to his girlfriend, the mother of this three children, Vance strongly denied it.

“I haven’t had no outstanding relationships with no one, nowhere,” he said. “I haven’t had no sex with anyone in Little Rock.”

Vance left after the interview, White testified, saying police had no reason to hold him.

But the next day, Nov. 26, when the state Crime Laboratory matched his DNA to evidence in the Pressly slaying, investigators got a capitalmurder warrant and started hunting for Vance, eventually arresting him shortly before midnight at his half brother’s home near 24th and Cross streets in Little Rock.

Detective Hudson described Vance as polite after his arrest, agreeable to speaking with the detectives, but firmly refusing to allow police to record the interrogation.

“The first story he told us, his M.O. - his words - was breaking into homes and stealing laptops,” the detective told the judge, reading from his notes from the meeting. “We confronted him and told him we had DNA that puts him at the scene of the murder of Anne Pressly.”

Vance said he was driving through the neighborhood looking for homes to burglarize when he decided on Pressly’s house in The Heights neighborhood, the detective said. Vance described prying open the back door - a claim that didn’t match the evidence - then taking her computer and a credit card from her purse, the detective said. Vance said he found Pressly asleep in her bedroom, Hudson testified.

“He stated she was naked and he became sexually aroused. But he didn’t sexually assault her,” Hudson told the judge, saying Pressly fought with Vance.

“He said Ms. Pressly woke up and he began striking her with a tool.”

The detectives ended the questioning at 2:36 a.m. Thanksgiving morning, three hours after Vance’s arrest, when he asked for an attorney, Hudson told the judge. Vance appeared particularly incensed by the rape allegation, Hudson testified.

Two weeks later on Dec. 10, Vance sent a message from jail that he wanted to speak with White again. In a convoluted recorded statement played for the judge, Vance told the detectives he and a friend from Marianna had come to Little Rock to get some money by burglarizing homes.

“Our whole purpose was to come up here and rob so I could get some money for my birthday,” he said. “That was the whole mission.”

Vance said he and his friend picked up a third man,“Slick,” and it was under Slick’s direction they chose The Heights, a neighborhood where residents seldom shut their curtains, allowing thieves to see if they had anything worth stealing.

Pressly’s door wasn’t locked, Vance said, and the men began searching the home after letting her dogs out. Vance said he found Pressly in bed asleep with her computer, some kind of “black night things over her eyes,” Vance said. He and his Marianna friend covered their hands with some of Vance’s dirty socks, which had been left in his car, he said.

Vance said he was outside Pressly’s home with the computer when the Marianna friend fatally beat Pressly using an iron pole. Vance told detectives he’d tried to cover for his friends, but his conscience wouldn’t let him. Being falsely accused of Pressly’s rape and murder was God’s judgment, Vance said, but he wanted the right men to be apprehended.

“I guess this is God telling me I shouldn’t break into houses,” he said. “I didn’t know the critical condition they had put this woman in. If I did, I’d probably have called the police or at least an ambulance. It bothered me. It bothered me bad. I wanted to come to authorities bad.”

Confronted by the detectives about his DNA on Pressly’s body and bed, Vance said he’d soiled the sock his friend was wearing earlier that night when the men had been with a prostitute.

“I’d wiped myself off with my sock. The sock had hair on it,” he said.

Vance’s defenders hope to persuade the judge to throw out the statements, claiming police lied to Vance and misled him to gain his cooperation. They’ve also argued Vance didn’t have the ability to intelligently waive his rights and that police collected two of his statements in violation of a court order. Vance has claimed police at least once threatened him at gunpoint, but his defense team hasn’t pursued that allegation.

Prosecutors have the burden of proving Vance’s interviews were taken legally. They dispute any police wrongdoing, producing for the judge on Tuesday waivers signed by Vance allowing investigators to collect a DNA sample and agreeing to each police interrogation. Police testified Tuesday that any lies investigators might have told Vance were interrogation techniques designed to elicit the truth from him about Pressly’s killing...

to be continued below

[lorettalockhorn]

The first two hours of Tuesday’s six-hour proceeding were devoted to 48 defense motions, several of them challenges to the death penalty routinely filed in capital-murder cases and which were rejected by the judge. Notably, Piazza refused to sequester jurors.

“What you’re telling them [by sequestration] is you don’t trust them to follow the law,” he said. “My experience in 30 years is jurors take this seriously. If we can’t rely on them to take their oath seriously there’s not much point in going through this process.”

Piazza also decisively turned down a defense requests to bar the press and public from the ongoing suppression hearing. Teri Chambers, one of the three attorneys representing Vance, said pretrial publicity generated by news reports of the hearing would taint jury selection. Piazza said he was committed to an open courtroom.

“I’ve always been of the feeling that the right of the public to view these proceedings is one of the most important we have,” he said. “I think the more you hide, the worse it gets as far as scrutiny.”

This article was published today at 4:53 a.m.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/07/2009

[samanthajane13]

Suspect in TV anchor death says police tricked him
By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer Jon Gambrell, Associated Press Writer – 57 mins ago

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The man accused of killing an Arkansas TV anchorwoman says police trickery led him to tell investigators different versions of what happened the night she was attacked at her home.

Curtis Vance is charged in last October's beating death of KATV journalist Anne Pressly and faces a number of other accusations. He has pleaded not guilty and faces a Nov. 2 trial.

At an evidence hearing Thursday, Vance said officers threatened him with the death penalty to win a confession, but tapes of police interviews don't include a reference to penalties Vance might face.

Vance took the stand as his defense team is trying to keep jurors from hearing what police say are taped confessions. A judge could rule later Thursday on whether the evidence can be used at trial.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091008/...nchor_attacked

[lorettalockhorn]

Stumbled across this video report on the WESH/Orlando, FL front page:

http://www.wesh.com/video/21224040/index.html

[lorettalockhorn]

Vance evidence survives

Judge sees no coerced confession in Pressly case
LITTLE ROCK — Testifying against the advice of his attorneys, the Marianna man accused of raping and killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly said Wednesday that he is the victim of a frame-up by investigators who threatened and abused him before getting him to implicate himself in the slaying through “police trickery.”

But Curtis Lavelle Vance’s claims of innocence and police wrongdoing during his 1 1 /2 hours of testimony failed to convince Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza that DNA evidence and four incriminating statements he has given police about Pressly’s October 2008 beating death should be thrown out of court. All of the evidence showed Vance had willingly cooperated with police, the judge ruled in denying Vance’s requests to suppress evidence against him.

“I just don’t see intimidation,” said Piazza, whoseruling capped three days of testimony. “I don’t think this is a coerced confession.”

Vance’s attorneys told Piazza they advised Vance against testifying while they raise issues about his competency to stand trial. In his rulings Wednesday, the judge, in disputing a defense claim that Vance isn’t very smart and likely has mental retardation, noted Vance’s testimony.

“His intelligence functioning seems quite good,” Piazza said. “I don’t see that as a problem in the case.”

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty at Vance’s Nov. 2 capital-murder trial.

Vance has given police a series of statements, at times contradictory, in which he has admitted to molesting and beating the KATV, Channel 7, news reporter after surprising her in her sleep. He said he acted out of rage over the frustrations in his own life, according to evidence presented during this week’s hearing.

Police linked him to Pressly’s killing by DNA, and his first response to their inquiries was to deny that he’d been in Little Rock around the time she was attacked.

Vance also has blamed a friend for the killing, claimed he found the 26-year-old woman already beaten by unknown parties while burglarizing her home and expressed bewilderment over how his DNA could’ve been found in her home.

Thursday, he testified that detectives coached him on what to say, telling him during his arrest that he would surely get the death penalty if he didn’t confess and show remorse.

“I felt like if I gave them even a little half of what they wanted, I’d be safe,” he said, complaining that he was treated like “public enemy No. 1” by police when he was arrested.

“I thought something bad was going to happen.”

He admitted he’d requested two subsequent meetings with police, testifying that at times he gave the officers contradictory stories in the hopes that they would investigate the claims and realize he didn’t rape and kill Pressly. He said he also hoped the detectives would give him more details about the charges against him, complaining his attorneys hadn’t fully discussed his case with him.

“I don’t know too much about this case,” he said. “To this day, I still don’t know too much about this case.”

He said he also agreed to the interviews as a break from jail, where he spent 23 hours a day in solitary.

“I wanted to get out and smoke a little bit,” he said. “I think I’m the only inmate in the Pulaski County jail that can’t smoke.”

He said detectives never physically harmed him but he complained they were verbally abusive at times. He singled out Little Rock detective J.C. White, accusing the investigator of “playing a game” and using “police trickery” to get him to incriminate himself.

“I hoped J.C. White would come to his senses because they know I didn’t commit this crime,” he said.

Vance also accused police of framing him for Pressly’s killing with hair they took from his Marianna home the day before his arrest. He also claimed an officer pointed a gun at him while he was handcuffed in a patrol car and demanded that he confess to Pressly’s killing even if he had to make up the details.

Chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson disputed Vance’s claim that police had coached him on what to say. If that was true, Johnson asked, why has Vance never admitted to raping Pressly?

Vance said: “They was basically telling me what to say. I told them I had nothing to do with this case,”

Johnson said: “Have you yet in all of these hours of testimony ever yet admitted to rape? There are some things you couldn’t admit to yourself that you’ve done. Why couldn’t police force you to say you [raped her]?”

Vance said admitting to investigators’ “sick” descriptions of her rape didn’t have anything to do with showing sorrow for what happened to her.

“I didn’t think that had anything to do with being remorseful,” he said.

Police also believed that Vance beat Pressly with a gun, Johnson said, but detectives couldn’t make him admit to using a pistol, only getting him to draw a picture of some kind of spadelike tool.

“If they wanted you todraw a gun, why didn’t you draw a gun?” Johnson said.

“I was telling them partially what they wanted to hear,” Vance said.

“I want to know how you were only able to say certain things if you were afraid of them,” Johnson asked.

“I wouldn’t let myself get that down and dirty,” Vance said.

But why would he subject himself to multiple interviews, the prosecutor asked, if he was afraid of the investigators, like detective TommyHudson?

“If he’s making you tell lies, why do you want to talk to him?” Johnson said.

“I had to find out a lot of information on my own,” Vance said, acknowledging he was refusing to cooperate with his lawyers at the time and wanted police to tell him about the evidence against him.

“You had all of these other people [defense attorneys] to talk to, but you weren’t talking to them, you were talking to police?” Johnson countered.

Pressed by the prosecutor to explain why he would admit to the fatal attack on Pressly, Vance said he hoped detectives could get his jail conditions improved.

Isolation at the jail was wearing on him, Vance said.

“You’d confess to rape and murder to get off lockdown?” Johnson said, calling the claim “ridiculous.”

“I’m trying to improve my situation at jail, and at the same time I’m trying to find out about my case,” Vance said.

Defense attorney Teri Chambers called on the judge to throw the evidence against Vance out, arguing that police “mentally” wore down the “low intellectually functioning” Vance until he confessed.

“They became accusatory until they got the answers they wanted,” she said.

Johnson countered that Vance knew what he was doing each time. The defendant thought he was smarter than police, the prosecutor said.

“This is a man who wanted to talk himself out of the box,” Johnson said...


continued below

[lorettalockhorn]

...The judge also rejected a defense motion to delay Vance’s Nov. 2 capital murder trial while they have a doctor test him for mental retardation. Vance has an IQ of 75, but psychiatrists who have examined him recently found signs his intelligence might be as low as the 65-point threshold for retardation, defense attorney Katherine Streett told the judge.

The U.S. Supreme Court has banned the execution of defendants with mental retardation on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment.

The next option for the defense is seeking a hearing to prove to the judge that Vance has mental retardation, whichcould force prosecutors to not seek the death penalty.

Streett warned the judge that the decision against allowing the defense to explore the possibility of Vance’s retardation would result in any conviction being overturned on appeal. She acknowledged the defense should’ve challenged Vance’s intelligence sooner, but said they had been more focused on determining if his refusal to cooperate with his attorneys stemmed from mental illness. Proof of his low intelligence could be found in his choice of working with police rather than his court-appointed defenders,she said.

“The fact he talks a lot doesn’t indicate he knows what he’s talking about,” she said.

Piazza also rejected police brutalityclaims regarding Vance’s Nov. 26 arrest, noting that arresting murder suspects are never “tender moments” but police didn’t appear to have used more force than necessary. Vance and his brother, Myron, claimed that a detective slapped Vance three times as Vance was handcuffed, but neither could identify the officer, and both provided contradictory descriptions of the detective.

Prosecutors called nine officers to the stand to describe Vance’s arrest at his aunt’s home on Cross Street in Little Rock. All of the officers testified there was no unusual roughness in Vance’s arrest.

This article was published today at 4:38 a.m.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 10/09/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Pressly’s mother suing 3, hospital

Daughter’s privacy violated, she says

LITTLE ROCK — The mother of Anne Pressly is suing St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, a doctor with hospital privileges and two former employees, claiming they violated the privacy of the TV news anchor by accessing her medical records during the five days she was at the hospital before she died.

The doctor and the former employees are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to illegally viewing Pressly’s records in the days before her death.

Pressly, 26, was found beaten bloody and unconscious in her bed by her mother, Patricia Cannady, one year ago today. Pressly, who worked for KATV, Channel 7, never recovered and died on Oct. 25. Police arrested Curtis Lavelle Vance of Marianna 39 days later on the strength of DNA recovered from hair found at her Heights neighborhood home.

In the nine-page filing before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Marion Humphrey, the lawsuit states that the hospital’s record system doesn’t have protections to keep employees and doctors from accessing medical records they have no legitimate reason to see. The hospital should have better protections for its patients, particularly ones like Pressly who are public figures, the lawsuit claims.

“Failure to take any action to secure its database and the medical records of patients such as Anne Pressly fell far below the standard of care required of institutions such as St. Vincent’s,” the filing states. “This failure for all practical purposes made the violation of the privacy rights of any public figure who happened to be taken to St.

Vincent’s infirmary highly likely.”

Cannady is suing as the administratrix of her daughter’s estate, not only complaining of privacy violations but also claiming outrage and negligence.

“The conduct of the defendants was extreme and outrageous, was beyond all possible bounds of decency and was utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the filing states. “[Pressly’s] privacy was invaded and she was deprived of the dignity and respect to which she was entitled. Invasion of privacy constitutes damage even if the individual whose privacy is invaded is not aware of the invasion. The damages suffered by [Pressly] during her lifetime survive her and are subject to be asserted by [Cannady] in her capacity as administratrix of the estate.”

The hospital has acknowledged firing at least six employees for violating Pressly’s privacy but won’t say exactly how many, and officials on Monday would release only a three-sentence statement defending the hospital.

“We take every patient’s privacy seriously,” the statement from spokesman Margaret Preston reads. “We stand by our commitment to patient privacy, our safeguards and how we handled this situation.”

Jay Holland, a doctor who worked at the hospital; Candida Griffin, a former emergency-room coordinator; and Sara Elizabeth Miller, a former account representative, are targets of Cannady’s lawsuit. The three have each pleaded guilty in federal court to a single misdemeanor count of violating federal health privacy laws, known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. They each face a maximum of year in jail and a $50,000 fine when they are sentenced next Monday.

Griffin and Miller were fired, acknowledging in their June court appearance that they looked at Pressly’s records out of curiosity during the first two days of her stay in the emergency room before she was moved to intensive care.

Holland told federal investigators he accessed her records from home on the day the attack was discovered after hearing rumors Pressly had died. He had his hospital privileges revoked for two weeks and had to complete training about the privacy law. Those guilty pleas could affect the civil suit.

“A plea of guilty in a criminal case is admissible as evidence in a civil suit,” Cannady’s attorney, Bobby McDaniel of Jonesboro, said.

There have been no discussions with the hospital about a settlement, McDaniel said. Cannady won’t entertain a settlement offer until the hospital enacts protections to prevent what happened to her daughter from happening to others, he said.

“We want to try to protect innocent people,” he said.

The lawsuit also names the hospital’s insurance providers - Catholic Health Initiatives and First Initiatives Insurance Co. - as defendants, acknowledging that the hospital, as a nonprofit institution, might be immune from prosecution.

Vance, who turns 29 on Wednesday, initially denied being in Little Rock when Pressly was attacked. After he was arrested and charged with capital murder, he gave police conflicting stories, at times admitting to attacking and molesting Pressly during a burglary. He also has blamed the slaying on others and said he doesn’t know who raped and killed her.

Vance, facing the death penalty, is scheduled to go on trial in less than two weeks. He is also charged with rape, residential burglary and theft.

This article was published today at 5:02 a.m.

[lorettalockhorn]

Claim Vance retarded still lawyers’ tack

They also seek to scrap tapes of police interviews

LITTLE ROCK — Defense attorneys for the Marianna man accused of killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly are pressing their claim that he could be mentally retarded - which would prohibit him from being executed - but are resisting a Pulaski County circuit judge’s request that they prove it by Friday.

Curtis Lavelle Vance’s defenders also are petitioning Judge Chris Piazza to order redactions in the three recorded interviews Vance gave to detectives, two weeks after the defense lost an effort to suppress those statements.

Among the latest filings in the capital-murder case, prosecutors moved Wednesday to challenge a defense strategy aimed at discrediting those statements to police.

In the Wednesday motion, chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson said the defense should be prevented from calling “several healthcare professionals” whom they have listed as witnesses. Johnson didn’t identify the witnesses, but indicated that they include a clinical psychologist.

The prosecution claims that the testimony of those witnesses should be barred from trial because Vance’s lawyers haven’t asserted a defense of insanity or mental defect to the capital-murder and rape charges. Proposed testimony by a psychologist that inconsistencies in Vance’s stories to police are because of his “mental deficits” is inadmissible, Johnson stated in the filing.

“The defense has notified the state that the anticipated testimony from these witnesses will be to prove the defendant’s ‘low intellectual functioning and cognitive impairment and the role they play in his suggestibility’ - going to the reliability of his statements,” the motion states. “Judging the credibility of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses is one of the functions of the jury. Expert testimony on the credibility of witnesses is an invasion of the jury’s province.”

On Wednesday, the judge set a hearing for 9:30 a.m. Friday to consider the defense motions, but Vance’s defenders responded a couple of hours later by asking the judge to delay the hearing and Vance’s Nov. 2 trial.

Vance’s lawyers argue that they need as much as two-months for doctors to fully determine Vance’s intelligence, a request the judge rebuffed two weeks ago. The judge reset the trial once before, saying the delay, from September to November, was the only postponement he would approve. The defense had sought a six-month delay.

Vance, who turns 29 today, faces the death penalty over Pressly’s October 2008 slaying.

Sunday will mark the first anniversary of the beating death of the 26-year-old KATV, Channel 7, news anchor. She succumbed to her injuries five days after her mother found her in bed, beaten and unconscious. Vance was charged 4 1/2 weeks later on the strength of DNA extracted from hair found at Pressly’s home in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood.

Before his arrest, Vance denied being in Little Rock when Pressly was attacked. When confronted by detectives with the genetic evidence at his Nov. 26 arrest, he admitted to attacking Pressly, saying he had beaten her during a burglary.

In subsequent interviews, he gave conflicting statements about the attack, at one point blaming the fatal beating on accomplices and then claiming that he didn’t know who had assaulted her before again admitting to detectives that he had beaten her with a stick during a break-in.

Defense attorneys argue that some of those statements should be redacted, arguing that admissions Vance made to “prior crimes or other bad acts” should be restricted. The 2 1 /2-page motion does not elaborate, but Vance admitted at times to making a living as a burglar who specialized in stealing laptop computers and discussed how he sought work as a lookout for other burglars.

The defense lawyers claim that jurors would be prejudiced against their client if they were allowed to hear him make those statements, according to the filing, which also seeks to have the judge remove recorded statements made by police officers:

Telling Vance that he would have to testify at trial. Those comments are impermissible because they violate Vance’s Fifth Amendment rights not to take the stand.

Describing their opinions about the case, particularly when detectives say they believe or disbelieve Vance.

Calling Vance a “murderer,” “rapist,” “psychopath” or other similar terms.

Vance’s lawyers have acknowledged that initial testing shows that Vance has an IQ of 75, 10 points higher than the state standard for retardation, but say their experts have found evidence that Vance has low mental functioning and that they need more time for examinations.

A finding by the judge that Vance is retarded would take the death penalty off the table. The Arkansas Legislature barred putting defendants with retardation to death in 2006 with Arkansas Code Annotated 5-4-618.

This article was published today at 5:55 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/22/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Psychologist: Vance low IQ merits testing

Suspect likely retarded, he states in court filings

LITTLE ROCK — Curtis Lavelle Vance’s poor performance in school, failure to earn a high-school diploma, inability to hold a job, lack of a driver’s license and failure to live independently are indications he is mentally retarded, when taken into consideration with his IQ , a defense psychologist has reported in court filings.

Vance, 29, of Marianna, accused of capital murder in the death of Little Rock TV news anchor Anne Pressly, makes his ninth Pulaski County Circuit Court appearance at 9:30 a.m. today before Judge Chris Piazza. His attorneys are attempting to persuade the judge to give them more time to establish that Vance has mild mental retardation - a finding that would force prosecutors to drop their efforts to have him executed if he is convicted in Pressly’s October 2008 beating death.

Vance, also charged with rape, residential burglary and theft, is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 2. The proceedings are to run at least a week, but the judge has said the trial could take up to two weeks.

Stephen Greenspan, a psychologist, university professor and trial consultant who specializes in intellectual disabilities like retardation, reported that Vance’s medical records indicate he has some brain dysfunction, possibly from a childhood beating. A June intelligence test showed Vance has an IQ of 75, higher than the legal level of 65 that allows retardation to be presumed, but low enough to call into question his intelligence in the absence of more testing and examination, according to Greenspan’s seven-page affidavit.

Key to establishing Vance’s IQ will be evaluating how well he functions in the real world, known as adaptive functioning, Greenspan wrote, observing that many who know Vance view him as “slow.” Vance has never lived on his own, the Colorado psychologist noted, and reports that Vance’s lack of a driver’s license is significant because it is something “universally desired byyoung adults.”

“I believe that it is very possible, indeed likely, that further evaluation will support a diagnosis of [mental retardation],” Greenspan wrote.

He estimated that he would need at least two months, given his own schedule, to conduct the necessary interviews with Vance’s family, friends and associates and also to review school and other records in order to conduct a complete evaluation.

“Contrary to IQ data, which can be obtained ina day or two, evaluation of adaptive functioning, and of the information that would be used as part of such an evaluation takes considerable time,” the affidavit states.

Greenspan, who, according to his Web site, www.stephen-greenspan.com, can earn up to $200 per hour as an expert witness, has consulted with the defense as a courtesy. The defense has asked the judge to give extra weight to Greenspan’s recommendation, based in part on his report that he has diagnosed less than half of the defendants he has consulted for as having retardation.

But Piazza has already rejected a defense request to delay the trial based on Greenspan’s report, saying at a hearing two weeks ago that he thought the defense could accomplish the necessary interviews by the trial date.

But the defense renewed its effort this week to convince the judge, arguing that Vance’s IQ places him at the high end of the range for mild mental retardation. Piazza set today’s hearing to determine Vance’s mental state, but the defense responded with another request for a delay, asking that both the trial and the mental-status hearing be pushed back. Vance’s defenders have said that by refusing to give them the time they seek to determine their client’s mental functioning, the judge is increasing the chances for any conviction to be overturned on appeal.

In the most recent filing, the defense again cites Greenspan’s recommendation, but bolsters his claims with affidavits from two other retardation experts: Russell Stetler, national mitigation coordinator of the Office of the Federal Public Defender, who has taught about capitalcase investigation in 29 states and has taught in Arkansas for the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the state Public Defender Commission; and Texas attorney Richard H. Burr, who has written and lectured about representing capital-murder defendants who have retardation.

“Capital defendants who have mental retardation are almost always in the highestfunctioning group of people with mental retardation; that is, they almost always are classified as having ... ‘mild’ mental retardation. Approximately 89 percent of persons who have mental retardation are ‘mildly retarded,” Burr wrote in his affidavit.

“One of the striking characteristics of people with mild mental retardation is that, without IQ testing and a thorough assessment of adaptive functioning, it is difficult for anyone - especially lay people - to determine whether that person is mentally retarded.”

This article was published today at 4:42 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 10/23/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Vance lawyers to appear in court

Lawyers for the man accused of killing an Arkansas television anchorwoman have one last chance to delay his upcoming capital murder trial.

Curtis Lavelle Vance is accused of killing KATV personality Anne Pressly. On Friday, his team of public defenders will appear before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza to argue portions of his confessions to police shouldn’t be used at trial. They also want his Nov. 2 trial date to be pushed back.

Piazza previously ruled that the taped confessions, as well as DNA evidence, can be used at trial.

Vance has pleaded not guilty to the slaying. His lawyers say he also may be mentally disabled, though tests show he is intelligent enough to be eligible for the death penalty.

This article was published today at 10:36 a.m.

[lorettalockhorn]

Police duped Vance, team to argue

LITTLE ROCK — Attorneys for the Marianna man accused of killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly announced Friday that they’ll argue at trial that police duped Curtis Lavelle Vance into incriminating himself in the slaying.

The announcement from Vance’s defenders capped a wide-ranging five-hour hearing before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza in which the judge agreed to defense requests to set limits on where news cameras can film at the courthouse and discussed plans to screen potential jurors for possible bias.

Defense attorney Katherine Streett told the judge that Vance is denying wrongdoing and the defense plans toattack the reliability of the statements Vance gave police, arguing that detectives duped Vance into incriminating himself. Streett has argued that Vance has mild retardation, and told the judge her client is more gullible than the average person.

Vance was first linked to Pressly’s slaying by DNA samples taken from hair found in her home. After hewas arrested and charged with capital murder, Vance gave police conflicting stories, at times admitting to attacking and molesting Pressly during a burglary. He also has blamed the slaying on others and said he doesn’t know who raped and killed her.

“We have an expert who will testify our client is more suggestible than someone else might be,” Streett said,announcing that the defense has hired a Colorado psychologist, Dr. Stephen Greenspan, who has written a book and newspaper articles about extreme suggestibility.

But the judge, at least for now, set limits on how far the defense can follow that strategy.

Prosecutors argued that the use of mental-health experts bythe defense should be limited because Vance’s attorneys have rejected a defense based on insanity or mental retardation. Piazza sided with the prosecution, saying that the defense is free to argue that Vance had been tricked by police into confessing. But the judge said he wouldn’t allow witnesses to testify about the credibility of Vance’s statements, saying weighing that evidence is solely up to the jury. Piazza said his ruling is grounded in Arkansas Supreme Court precedent, but agreed to reconsider his decision if the defense could provide him case law to the contrary.

Piazza also rebuffed defense efforts to delay the 29-year-old Vance’s Nov. 2 capital-murder trial in the October 2008 slaying of Pressly, 26, who worked at KATV, Channel 7. The defense sought the delay to determine Vance’s mental status, maintaining that he likely has mild mental retardation. Streett said the defense needed more time for experts to confirm their belief.

But P iazza found no grounds for the defense claim after hearing testimony from a state psychiatrist who examined Vance last month as part of his defense to a rape charge in his hometown, where he is accused of sexually assaulting a schoolteacher about nine months before Pressly was killed. Piazza said he found the testimony of Dr. Stacy McBain, a psychiatrist from the State Hospital, convincing on top of with what he has personally seen of Vance, both in the defendant’s testimonyand the 6 1 /2 hours of recorded statements Vance has given police.

“In my opinion, he was competent to stand trial,” McBain testified, saying she had diagnosed him with marijuana abuse and antisocial personality disorder.

But, she said, she couldn’t support a defense claim that Vance has mental retardation, saying she’d based her diagnosis on an interview with Vance, psychological tests conducted at the State Hospital and a review of the statements he gave to police after his arrest.

“I didn’t see anything that would cause me concern for mental defect,” she testified.

McBain rejected defense accusations that she was unqualified to examine Vance, didn’t account for his 75-point IQ (10 points above the legal presumption for retardation) and lacked sufficient medical and school records to draw her conclusions about him. McBain also countered defense attorneys’ claims that his failure to hold down a steady job or live independently were symptoms of mental retardation. Vance told her he didn’t want to work a steady job, McBain said, and he chose to live with girlfriends or family rather than live independently.

The judge also disallowed defense efforts to throw out large portions of Vance’s recorded statements to investigators, agreeing to about 11 of the defense’s about 80 requests to remove statements the defense claimed were inadmissible. Defense attorneys and prosecutors argued over Vance’s statements almost line by line during Friday’s hearing, a painstaking process that consumed most of Friday’s hearing.

“It’s hard to extricate just a little bit,” Piazza said. “I just don’t see how we can take part [of a statement] out and give it any context.”

The judge ruled two weeksago that the statements could be used as evidence, but agreed Friday to a few cuts sought by the defense. Some of the redactions the judge approved were as short as one line and included detectives calling Vance a murderer and suggesting he might be a serial killer.

Streett, the defense attorney, argued prosecutors just wanted the comments played for jurors to make their client look bad. Vance’s admissions to police that he made his living as a burglar and smoked a lot of marijuana, most of which the judge refused to restrict, do nothing to prove the criminal charges against him, Streett said, but would go a long way in making himlook bad to jurors.

“All it does is make him look like a thug,” she said. “We’re not asking all of the details to be taken out.”

Prosecutors accused the defense of attempting to neuter Vance’s admissions, which include him describing the burglary of Pressly’s home and how he beat her with a stick. They asked the judge, in light of his ruling two weeks ago that the statements were legally obtained, to let jurors hear the recordings without editing. Only by hearing all of Vance’s multiple statements, representing three police interviews, could jurors see Vance’s efforts to cover up his rape and murder of Pressly, prosecutors argued.

“It’s one lie built on another lie built on another lie trying to get out of it,” chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson told the judge. “This is how he chose to [explain] himself to police. Just because it hurts him doesn’t make it irrelevant.”

This article was published today at 6:56 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 10/24/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Remembering Anne Pressly after one year:

http://cfc.katv.com/videoondemand.cfm?id=51374

[lorettalockhorn]

3 who peeked at Pressly file get probation

Parents scold them in court

LITTLE ROCK — A year and a day after the death of KATV-TV, Channel 7 news anchor Anne Pressly, who was raped and beaten in her home, a Little Rock doctor and two hospital employees were given a year’s probation and fines for snooping into Pressly’s hospital records.

The three also got a tongue lashing from the parents of the 26-year-old television personality, who never regained consciousness after the attack and died five days later at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock.

Pressly’s parents, Guy and Patti Cannady, chastised the three for prying into the private details of their daughter’s attack for “their own selfish and deviant, morbid sense of curiosity,” being privy to more information than the parents themselves know even now, a year later.

The Cannadys said they learned of the intrusions as their daughter remained unconscious but holding on to life.

“The thought of people trolling through her medical records was almost more than we could bear,” Guy Cannady told U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry L. Jones as he stood at a lectern with his wife at his side and a courtroom filled to capacity behind him.

Singling out Dr. Jay Holland in particular, Guy Cannady complained that he “has shown no remorse for his callous behavior” and said he was “deserving of the highest sentence possible.”

Holland, 56, and the two former hospital employees - Sarah Elizabeth Miller, 28, of England and Candida Griffin, 34, of Little Rock - each faced up to six months in prison and fines ranging from $250 to $5,000 for their admitted misdemeanor violations of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act of 1996, known as HIPAA.

Jones sentenced Holland to a year’s probation, gave him the maximum fine of $5,000, and ordered him to perform 50 hours of community-service work, to consist of making speeches to educate other professionals about the privacy act.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Hoey said in July, when all three defendants pleaded guilty, that Holland told FBI agents he logged in to the hospital’s computer to confirm that Pressly was still alive after hearing reports that she had died. Records show he accessed the news anchor’s records two times, four minutes apart.

Jones sentenced Miller to a year’s probation and imposed a $2,500 fine. He sentenced Griffin to a year’s probation and imposed a $1,500 fine.

Hoey said in July that Miller,who checked patients in and out and processed patient billing records from the hospital’s Sherwood location, accessed Pressly’s records 12 times on Oct. 20 and 21 “because she was curious.” Hoey said there were numerous log-ons because Miller would quickly log off when a customer approached, then would log on again “when the coast was clear.”

Griffin, who had secretarial duties in the emergency room, peeked at Pressly’s records three times out of curiosity, Hoey said.

At the advice of their attorneys, neither Holland nor Griffin made any comments to the judge before he imposed their sentences. Attorneys Ralph Cloar Jr. of Little Rock, representing Holland, and Justin T. Eisele of Benton, representing Griffin, both cited a lawsuit the Cannadys filed Oct. 16 over the privacy breaches.

Miller, however, leaned into the courtroom microphone and said, “Judge, I do apologize for what I did. It was a mistake, and I do apologize to her family.”

Defense attorney Timothy Blair of Cabot stood at her side.

Before the sentencings, Guy Cannady told the judge that he was particularly incensed about Holland’s “failure to speak” to the Cannadys in the courthouse Monday.He complained that Holland “treats patients’ privacy with casual disregard.”

Patti Cannady said she was “outraged” that St. Vincent’s had no policy in place to protect Pressly’s privacy.

The hospital’s president said earlier that he discovered the breaches by monitoring Pressly’s records closely because of her celebrity status.

The judge noted that he had received several letters in support of Holland from some of his patients and from other doctors. About 20 patients and friends of Holland’s sat in the courtroom Monday to show support for him.

Hoey said she wasn’t seeking prison time for any of the three offenders, and she was leaving any fines or other punishment up to the court’s discretion. She asked the judge, however, to consider that Congress enacted the privacy law as a way to protect confidential patient records after legislators mandated that health-care files be kept electronically.

She noted that while Holland continues to practice medicine at his clinic inside the hospital, Miller and Griffin were fired immediately and “will likely never work in health care again.”

Holland operates a clinic in the Hillcrest neighborhood and is medical director of Select Specialty Hospital on St. Vincent’s sixth floor. U.S. Attorney Jane Duke has said that after Holland accessed Pressly’s medical records from his home computer, the hospital suspended Holland’s privileges for two weeks and required him to complete online training about the privacy law.

In the lawsuit filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court shortly before a one-year statute of limitations on privacy matters expired, Patti Cannady seeks unspecified monetary damages for mental anguish and punitive damages to discourage future misconduct.

Meanwhile, Curtis Lavelle Vance of Marianna, who is charged with capital murder in the case, is scheduled for a Nov. 2 jury trial in Pulaski County Circuit Court. Police say they linked him to the crime through DNA recovered from hair found in Pressly’s home in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood. He also is charged with raping a woman during a burglary in Marianna.

This article was published today at 4:39 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/27/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Trial in Pressly case starts today
Prosecutors seek execution

LITTLE ROCK — For just more than a year, the fatal beating of TV news anchor Anne Pressly has held the attention of Little Rock and much of the state of Arkansas. This week, the public finally gets answers as prosecutors lay out their case against the Marianna man who has been linked to Pressly’s killing through both his own words and his DNA.

Trial begins today for Curtis Lavelle Vance, 29, with his life in the balance as prosecutors seek his execution on charges of capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft. Vance’s death-penalty trial is the first in Pulaski County in five years, since Billy Thessing, 40, was sentenced to die for beating and stabbing a 67-year-old woman to death in 2003.

Jury selection begins today in Vance’s trial, which could last two weeks, including sentencing, if Vance is convicted. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza has called 100 potential jurors, about twice the usual panel, saying he hopes that testimony can begin on Wednesday. Jurors will be interviewed jointly five at a time by prosecutors and defense attorneys before the judge, questioned about their views on the death penalty and how much they already know about the case, among other things. Piazza, acknowledging the intense media coverage of Pressly’s slaying, has said eligible jurors don’t have to be uninformed about her killing, they just need to be unbiased about the case and be able to consider the evidence impartially.

Vance’s defense attorneys have said they’ll argue Vance was duped by police into incriminating himself. They claim Vance likely has mild mental retardation, at least in part from a severe childhood beating inflicted by his mother. The judge said he’ll allow those arguments, but Piazza said he’ll limit testimony that challenges the credibility of witnesses or evidence, saying those decisions are up to jurors.

Defense witnesses include a psychiatrist, a neuropsychologist, a DNA expert and a Colorado psychologist who specializes in diagnosing extreme gullibility.

Prosecutors are expected to call between 30 and 68 witnesses, and jurors can expect to hear testimony from Pressly’s mother, Patti Cannady, who found her severely beaten daughter after Pressly, a morning news anchor at KATV, Channel 7, didn’t answer a wake-up phone call.

The jury will also hear from a former Marianna teacher that Vance is accused of raping. Kristen Edwards, who now lives out of state, will testify about the April 2008 attack at her home as part of prosecutors’ efforts to show Vance’s motive. Edwards was never able to identify her attacker, but DNA from the case matched DNA, in the form of hair, collected from the attack on Pressly.

Marianna police suggested three possible suspects, but Vance was the first to be interviewed simply because he lived closer to the Marianna Police Department. He denied being in Little Rock around the time Pressly was attacked and said he hadn’t had sex with anyone but his girlfriend, but agreed to give a DNA sample, which matched the evidence and led to his Nov. 26 arrest. He is also charged in Lee County with aggravated robbery and rape in the attack on Edwards.

Jurors will hear from Vance, regardless of whether he decides to testify. He submitted to four interviews with police, three of them recorded including the interview he gave detectives before his arrest.

Vance has given conflicting statements about Pressly’s killing, telling police he beat her after finding her asleep during a burglary. But he changed that story, telling police that he was outside her home when two of his friends beat her during a burglary, then saying he’d just found her bloody purse and computer in MacArthur Park after seeing someone drop them out of a car. At one point, he said he’d found her beaten bloody in bed while burglarizing her Heights neighborhood home. Among his denials, jurors will hear Vance tell investigators that whoever killed Pressly deserves to die.

But it is Vance’s final statement to police, during a 4 1 /2-hour video-recorded meeting with detectives J.C. White and Kevin Simpson, that authorities believe is his most honest account of the attack. Vance told the detectives he’d parked in the neighborhood to sleep because he had nowhere else to go in Little Rock. He was rummaging around homes looking for fuel when he saw Pressly’s back door was open.

Vance said he flew into a rage when he saw the sleeping woman, which led to him beating her with a piece of wood he found behind her home.

“I guess I lost it. I don’t know,” he told detectives, on the recording that was played in court last month. “It was like I was tired of just living this life, stealing, breaking into people’s houses and getting away with it. God gave me a bad break ... and I’m committing all types of sins and I wanted out. I took it out on her, for what reason I don’t know.”

Vance blamed his “sick mental disease” for the attack, telling the detectives that he believed he has mental problems, saying “I committed a sick crime.”

As detectives pressed Vance for details, Vance told the detectives he didn’t know Pressly and had not seen her on TV. But he said he’d been in the neighborhood for a previous burglary and sometimes he slept in the area because he thought it was safe.

Pressly’s door was “wide open,” he told detectives. He said he rummaged through Pressly’s refrigerator and that he picked up the wood after hearing her stirring “to protect myself.” He said he used her bathroom, went back into her bedroom and “the situation got out of hand.”

He repeatedly denied raping her, but said he’d molested her with his hand. Vance told the detectives that when Pressly tried to get up from bed, “I put my weight against her weight.” He said he groped her as she struggled, but he wasn’t able to have sex with her.

“I didn’t feel a solid moment down there,” he said.

Pressly struggled against him until he hit her with the stick, Vance told the detectives, but didn’t appear to be afraid of him.

“I lose control, she loses control,” Vance said, describing how he hit her in the arm and head. “I’m sure she probably was [scared] but she didn’t show it.”

This article was published today at 4:56 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 11/02/2009

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Trial Update: Prospective Jurors Knew of Pressly

Little Rock - Of the 100 or so prospective jurors summoned for a capital murder trial, only one told a judge that she had never heard of Anne Pressly and her grisly death a year ago.

Curtis Lavelle Vance went on trial Monday in Pressly's death and could be executed if convicted. Circuit Judge Chris Piazza said he expects testimony to begin sometime Wednesday, after he and lawyers select jurors and alternates.

Witnesses expected to testify were brought into court Monday and potential jurors were asked to identify any connections to them. Casual acquaintances were allowed to stay in the pool, but those with close ties were excused.

Pressly, a KATV morning anchor, was found brutally beaten in her bed in October 2008. She died five days later without regaining consciousness. Prosecutors say they will use DNA evidence and taped confessions from Vance.

Vance has pleaded not guilty. Piazza said the trial could take two weeks.

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/1109/674277.html

[lorettalockhorn]

First Day of Vance Trial in Pressly Slaying

The long-awaited capital murder trial of a Marianna man accused in the beating death of a Little Rock TV anchorwoman gets underway today in Little Rock.

Curtis Vance was arrested just more than a month after Anne Pressly's October 2008 death. Police say she was also sexually assaulted.

A little over a week ago, Vance was in court after his attorneys filed several motions, one claiming he was "mentally unfit" to stand trial.

But Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Chris Piazza ruled that based on Vance's previous testimony, his demeanor in court and his police interviews, he does not appear mentally handicapped.

In past hearings, prosecutors have played taped video and audio confessions from Vance, but Vance has always maintained his innocence when speaking to reporters.

Judge Piazza hopes opening arguments can get underway by Wednesday. Piazza has said in the past that he wants the trial to wrap up in a week, but others close to the case have said they think it will last much longer.

KARK 4 reporter Pete Thompson has been following this story from the beginning, and he will be providing updates from the courthouse throughout the day.

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/n...xt/?cid=267522

[lorettalockhorn]

Angles about Pressly put off-limits in trial

LITTLE ROCK — The Pulaski County Circuit judge presiding over the death-penalty trial of the man accused of killing Little Rock news anchor Anne Pressly barred prosecutors and witnesses on Monday from discussing the 26-year-old victim’s sexual experience or how much pain she might have suffered when she was attacked.

Judge Chris Piazza issued the rulings at the request of defense attorneys for 29-year-old Curtis Lavelle Vance as jury selection began Monday. Eight jurors - five men and three women - were selected during the 11-hour hearing, and the judge said he was hopeful that attorneys will agree on the requisite 12 jurors plus two alternates by 11 a.m. Wednesday, when Piazza plans to begin opening arguments. Jury selection resumes at 9:30 a.m. today.

“We’re making good progress,” Piazza said.

Vance, charged with capital murder, rape, residential burglary and theft, was linked to Pressly’s October 2008 slaying about a month after she died, reportedly through DNA from hair that was found in her Heights home. He was arrested after telling police he hadn’t been in Little Rock at the time Pressly was attacked. He’s since given police several accounts implicating himself in her slaying before ultimately admitting to attacking her in her bedroom. His defenders are arguing that he was duped by police into incriminating himself.

Monday’s proceedings began shortly after 9 a.m. with defense attorney Katherine Streett’s motion to bar testimony about whether Pressly was a virgin, telling the judge her sexual experience wasn’t relevant to the trial and that no witness has firsthand testimony about her sexual status. Streett said she was concerned about the subject being raised by Pressly’s mother, Patti Cannady, who has spoken of her daughter’s “innocence being taken.”

Streett also argued that potential testimony about any pain Pressly might have felt should also be prohibited because any statement about her suffering would be a guess.

“They can describe what they saw, but not to the level of pain,” she told the judge.

Piazza summoned about 120 potential jurors, whittling that number down during the first two hours of Monday’s hearing to about 100 by excusing jurors who couldn’t commit to the potential two-week trial or who could provide a good reason. Prospective jurors were also introduced to about 30 prosecution and defense witnesses, including Cannady; the detectives who investigated the slaying; and Police Chief Stuart Thomas, who was subpoenaed by the defense.

When the prospective jurors were asked who had not heard about Pressly’s slaying before Monday, only one woman raised her hand. Potential jurors were individually questioned by the attorneys about their knowledge of the case from publicity.

“You know, it’s important to come in here with an open mind,” Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley told the first woman. She said she could give the case a fair hearing but said that what she’d already heard made her think Vance was guilty.

“If I had to convict right now, I would,” she said.

The woman said she didn’t know Pressly or her mother personally, but Piazza excused her from jury service after she said that she and Pressly had mutual friends who’d told her about the case, and that she and Pressly’s mother went to the same hairdresser, who had talked with her about the case.

“The concern is that the publicity doesn’t affect what goes on within the four walls of the courtroom,” he told another prospective juror. “All that you’ve seen and heard outside doesn’t count.”

Jegley asked potential jurors to consider whether they could cast aside what they’d heard before coming to court to reach a verdict based only on the evidence.

“You may hear things here that are totally at odds with what you’ve heard in the news media,” he said. “Sometimes, they get it wrong.”

Streett, the defense attorney, probed deeper into how much prospective jurors had followed the case in the news and whether they’d watched KATV, Channel 7, where Pressly had been a morning news anchor. She asked jurors to recall when they’d first heard about the attack on Pressly and got them to recount what they’d heard about how she was killed.

Streett pressed jurors for details of their TV news watching and how often they read the newspaper.

She asked jurors whether they’d discussed Pressly with friends, co-workers and family, and questioned whether they’d drawn any conclusions about guilt or punishment. The attorney also probed their Internet habits, whether they followed blogs and news sites about the case, and whether they’d ever drawn any conclusions themselves about how Pressly’s killer should be punished.

“It’s one thing to keep something out of your mind,” she said. “It’s another thing to be able to do it.”

The only guarantee that jurors will be fair is their own honesty, Streett said, asking them to give careful consideration as to whether they’ve already reached a decision based on news reports.

“We’re not like computers,” she said. “We don’t have a delete button.”

The attorneys questioned the prospects in groups of five or six over their understanding of how jurors reach a verdict and whether each juror would be able to impose execution. Jegley encouraged the prospects to answer honestly.

“There are no wrong answers,” he said. “All we need is the truth. We need your honest down-in-the-belly answers.”

This article was published today at 5:23 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 11/03/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

...VELEZ-MITCHELL: In the "Spotlight" tonight, this was day one in the trial of a man accused of brutally raping and murdering a beautiful Arkansas TV anchor woman, was almost exactly one year ago that we started talking about this horrific case.

It is the ultimate example of an unprovoked attack and, really, what started what we here on ISSUES began calling the war on women. This is where it all began: 26-year-old Anne Pressly was asleep in her bed when prosecutors say Curtis Vance broke into her home, raped her and beat her so severely her own mother could not recognize her. She spoke about that on "The Today Show."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATTI CANNADY, MOTHER OF ANNE PRESSLY: I found my daughter beyond recognition with every bone in her face broken. Her nose broken. Her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Prosecutors plan to use DNA evidence and taped confessions from Vance, but his lawyers claim he was coerced into giving the DNA sample. Vance has pleaded not guilty.

You know, we have been talking about this case from the very beginning, and once again, I have to say that this case is what inspired us to begin a recurring series here on ISSUES called "The War on Women," because this attack was completely 100 percent unprovoked. This woman was in her own home. I`m talking about Anne Pressly, a very well-loved, popular anchorwoman. She was inside her own home and simply living her life when somebody broke into her house, raped her and beat her to the point where she was not identifiable to her own mother.

And what strikes me, and I felt very -- a very strong connection to this case, because I`m an anchorwoman, and I`ve been a reporter out there in the field. And I`ve worked in these small towns, and I know what it`s like to go out there and to go home by yourself and not know if anybody that you covered has followed you home. So I had a personal connection to this young lady, because I related to her, identified with her predicament.

And that`s why we started "The War on Women," to make sure something like this doesn`t happen again.

Dana Bradley, you`re a reporter with KARN News Radio. You`ve been covering this from the very start. What happened in court today, Dana?

DANA BRADLEY, KARN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as we know, Curtis Vance was in court in Little Rock today, a little over -- it was actually the beginning of jury selection, and a little over 100 jurors, they were seated. They were questioned. They went through the same thing that they go through to try to eliminate some people. And at last, as it was over with, about two jurors were actually seated, but numerous of them were actually let go because they weren`t -- they were not able to sit on the jury.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: You know, this is a relatively small community. I mean, we`re here in New York City, the big city, but how has this case impacted your community where you work, where you live? I understand that all the news media kind of knew each other.

BRADLEY: Right.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What`s the fallout of this case?

BRADLEY: Well, you know, when it first happened, it kind of put all of us, as far as women in the media, kind of at a scare. We`re wondering who is this guy, who did this, who would do such a thing to our friend, our co-worker and just our loved one like that, and speaking of Anne Pressly. So we kind of go down a time frame, we were all worried as a community. We were all a little scared.

Then, when they apprehended an alleged suspect, we kind of -- we all wanted to know answers. We wanted questions. We all want answers. And like you were saying here in Little Rock, the media here, we are all very close. Sure, we might be rivals in television and radio, but we all work very closely together. So...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Dana, I hope you come back and update us as this case progresses. We`re not going to forget about it. We`re going to stay on top of the war on women...

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP...2/ijvm.01.html

[lorettalockhorn]

Video: Curtis Vance's Trial Begins

http://cfc.katv.com/videoondemand.cfm?id=51948

Video: Defense to Challenge DNA Evidence, Confessions

http://cfc.katv.com/videoondemand.cfm?id=51920

[lorettalockhorn]

3 men added to Vance jury
Full jury, opening remarks likely today, judge indicates

LITTLE ROCK — Defense attorneys questioned prospective jurors about how much they know about the neighborhood of slain Little Rock TV personality Anne Pressly and whether they had ever visited her former home, as jury selection continued Tuesday in the capital-murder case against the man accused of killing her.

Three men were selected for the jury Tuesday. Pulaski County Circuit Judge ChrisPiazza was confident that prosecutors and the defense can fill the three remaining positions today so that opening statements can begin this morning in what appears likely to be a lengthy trial.

Piazza needs one more juror and two alternates to begin the death-penalty trial of 29-year-old Curtis Lavelle Vance of Marianna. Jury selection began Monday with the attorneys selecting five men and three women, and will resume at 9:30 a.m.

to-day with 19 candidates left in the jury pool. The three men selected Tuesday were chosen from a pool of 14.

Vance, also charged with rape, residential burglary and theft, is accused of raping and fatally beating the 26-year-old KATV, Channel 7, newscaster during an October 2008 break-in at her home in the Heights neighborhood in Little Rock. He was arrested about a month afterward when police reported linking him to her death through DNA evidence.

Vance has since given several descriptions of attacking Pressly, saying in differing accounts that he beat her with a metal tool or a stick during a burglary. He has also blamed friends for her slaying and has said he doesn’t know who killed her. Defense attorneys maintain that Vance was duped into confessing and have retained an expert to challenge the DNA evidence.

Both sides have been questioning prospective jurors this week about their understanding of the level of evidence required for a conviction in the case, their feelings about the death penalty and how pretrial publicity might have affected them. Defense attorneys have done the bulk of the questioning.

Defense attorney Lott Rolfe IV questioned several candidates about whether they would have any qualms about delivering an unpopular verdict.

“Would you feel comfortable giving a not-guilty verdict if you knew your friends and family wouldn’t agree?” he asked.

Jurors don’t have to be uninformed about the case, but they do have to agree to consider the evidence with an open mind, Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley said. Jegley quizzed potential jurors about how well they understood the level of proof required for a conviction. He asked jurors not to judge the evidence based on what they have seen in the movies or on television.

“It’s not proof beyond a shadow of a doubt. It’s not beyond any doubt. It’s not beyond all doubt,” Jegley told the prospective jurors. “The burden of proof is ‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’ The key word is reasonable. What would satisfy a reasonable person? Just because you can imagine something, conjure up something, it doesn’t mean it’s reasonable to believe.”

Jegley has also asked jury candidates to consider what kind of person they would want sitting in judgment of them, urging them to look deep within themselves to determine if they could approve execution.

“Would you want someone like yourself [on the jury] if the situation was reversed?” he asked.

Defense attorney Katherine Streett asked jury candidates to consider under what conditions they would vote for the death penalty. Most of them said the murder of a child would merit execution.

“I’m asking about your gut, your beliefs, who you are,” she said. “Do any of you ascribe toan eye for an eye? Can you in your wildest imagination come up with a scenario ... in which you would be willing to consider the death penalty - not impose it - but consider it?”

She told jurors that a death sentence requires a unanimous decision among jurors.

“If even one juror votes for life, the sentence is life,” she said.

Streett has also asked potential jurors about their familiarity with the Heights neighborhood and the adjoining Hillcrest neighborhood and Cammack Village, as well as their specific knowledge about the street Pressly lived on, its intersection with Van Buren and Kavanaugh streets and whether they have been by her former home since she was killed.

Streett questioned them about their educations and expertise in the fields of criminal justice, health care, psychology, social work, mathematics, statistics, biology and the law. Streett has inquired about the prospects’ connections, whether social or professional, with law enforcement and whetherthey have ever been involved with inmate rehabilitation efforts or victims-rights campaigns. The defense also asked potential jurors about their feelings about criminals and if they feel that criminals are treated too harshly, too lightly or just right.

Streett also addressed what prosecutors say is their strongest evidence against Vance - his DNA, extracted from hair found at Pressly’s home, and about six hours of recorded interviews he gave to detectives during the investigation. Streett has asked whether jury candidates can set aside any preconceived notions about the reliability of DNA and if they can consider the circumstances under which an interview was given, not just what was said.

Streett also broached what she described as a “sensitive” topic - race - questioning whether her client would be treated fairly in court.

“Do you believe a black defendant, particularly with a white victim, can get a fair trial in Pulaski County?” she asked.

All of the jury candidatesquestioned said they believed that Vance would be tried fairly, although when pressed further they acknowledged that racial bias exists. Each prospect promised to reject any racial bias that might crop up during deliberations.

Attorneys are preparing for what could be a two-week trial. As an apparent nod to the length of the trial, Piazza excused one prospective juror because she had scheduled a Nov. 12 flight and an elderly candidate out of concern that he might not be physically up to a lengthy trial.

So far, Piazza has excused six jury candidates because they said in selection interviews that they had already decided that Vance is guilty, could not bring themselves to impose the death penalty or couldn’t consider a life sentence as an alternativeto execution. Prosecutors, who are allowed to reject 10 jurors without giving a reason, have used six of their strikes, while the defense, which is allowed 12 exclusionary strikes, has used 11. Each will get a single strike when selecting two alternate jurors.

This article was published today at 4:51 a.m.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/04/2009

[lorettalockhorn]

Photo gallery:

http://focus.arkansasonline.com/phot...php?id=2451103

[TJEddie]

Wednesday, November 04, 2009 - 17:52:48

Vance Trial: UPDATE

There are horrors in this world, and one of them was sitting in a clean, well-lit courtroom, listening to a veteran emergency room doctor and a sexual assault examination nurse describe the injuries of KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly.

WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS TO FOLLOW

Earlier, Anne's mother, Patti Cannady, had described how she found her daughter in her rented house on Club Road in the early morning hours of October 20, 2008, lying in a fetal position on a bed soaked with her own blood. Cannady teared up at least once as she told how she tried to stop her only daughter's bleeding with towels retrieved from the bathroom -- how, when she looked up to pray as EMT's worked to save Anne's life, she saw that the attack had been so brutal that it left flecks of blood on the ceiling.

St. Vincent Infirmary ER doctor Theresa McBride and Carla Jackson, a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, took the description of Pressly's injuries where a mother's mind would not allow itself to tread, and their account was -- in a word -- horrific.

Jackson, who examined Pressly for signs of rape as doctors worked to stabilize her, testified that Pressly's face and scalp bore signs of "massive trauma." Jackson said that there was a half-centimeter tear to the skin between Pressly's vagina and anus, which she said can be indicitive that a forcible rape has occurred.

McBride, an emergency room physician who has taught emergency medicine at UAMS, said that she was surprised that Pressly even made it to the hospital. When she first saw her, McBride said, Pressly was, "laying in a pool of blood on the gurney... She did not have a recognizable human face."

McBride testified that when she tried to put a tube down Pressly's throat to help her breathe, she found that the bones in Pressly's face were so shattered that they moved under the skin. Pressly's hair was matted with blood to the point that McBride said she first took her to be a redhead. Her nose was crushed beyond recognition. What McBride first took to be a laceration to Pressly's neck was actually her dislocated jaw, which had collapsed down onto her throat.

Given the chance to cross-examine McBride and Jackson, defense attorneys for defendant Curtis Vance gave the impression of grasping at straws, with attorney Stephanie Streett seizing on the fact that McBride is a Doctor of Osteopathy, not an M.D., and questioning Jackson over the fact that she couldn't remember if she'd used one swab or two to collect evidence from Pressly's body. McBride countered that the D.O. and the M.D. degrees are recognized by medical licensing bodies as "equivalent degrees."

Testimony resumes tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.
Posted by David Koon | Permalink | Comments [ 2 ]

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/

[lorettalockhorn]

Pressly’s mom takes stand as case unfolds
Jurors asked to pay close attention

LITTLE ROCK — Testimony began Wednesday in the capital-murder trial of the man accused of killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly, with jurors hearing from Pressly’s mother and the emergency-room doctor who treated her after she was brutally attacked in her Little Rock home last year.

“She was beyond recognition,” her mother, Patti Cannady, told jurors. “Her hair was matted with blood.”

Cannady said she discovered Pressly, wearing only a T-shirt, in bed at Pressly’shome in the Heights neighborhood on Oct. 20, 2008.

Curtis Lavelle Vance, a Marianna man accused of raping and beating Pressly during a break-in at her home, is also charged with rape, residential burglary and theft in the case.

Pressly, who worked at Little Rock’s KATV, Channel 7, never regained consciousness and died five days later.

Vance was arrested about a month after the attack, linked to the slaying by DNA evidence and by incriminating statements he reportedly made to police. Prosecutorsare seeking the death penalty, but defense attorney Lott Rolfe IV told the six men and six women on the jury that Vance is an innocent victim of police officers who were pressured into making an arrest in the high-profile murder.

“Curtis Vance is wrongfully accused,” Rolfe said. He described Pressly’s death as “tragic and terrible” but said authorities rushed “to judgment” against his client. “They knew the evidence was inadequate and incomplete to charge Curtis Vance.”

He urged jurors to pay close attention and not to lose focus, warning that prosecutors would try to “sway” jurors with questionable DNA evidence and statements Vance gave without the advice of his attorneys.

“Consider this case like a very good movie. I know you wouldn’t walk out in the middle of a good movie,” said Rolfe, addressing jurors for about seven minutes. “Wait and hear both sides before you make up your mind. A man’s life is in the balance.”

Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley also asked jurors to pay close attention, saying that “DNA evidence puts this man in Anne’s bedroom.” Jurors will also hear Vance confess to the attack “in his own words,” the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors plan to also show jurors DNA evidence that reportedly ties Pressly’s slaying to the April 2008 rape of a woman in Marianna, a link that led investigators to Vance, Jegley said during a 38-minute opening statement.

Previewing the recorded statements that will be played for jurors, Jegley said that Vance has given multiple accounts of the attack on Pressly, even blaming friends. Vance tried to mislead detectives with different stories, he told jurors. But even when he is blaming others for the attack, the prosecutor said, Vance displays a lot of knowledge of the layout of Pressly’s home.

“He’s trying to send [detectives] every which way but Sunday,” the prosecutor said. “In each statement, you’re going to hear detail after detail after detail that ties Curtis Vance - and Curtis Vance alone - to the murder of Anne Pressly. He admits it. He doesn’t admit to all of the details, but he admits to plenty.”

In foreshadowing testimony about Pressly’s autopsy, Jegley said the woman had been struck at least 13 times and had injuries that suggest rape and sodomy. State medical examiners found “classic defensive wounds” on her left hand and arm, Jegley said, and she ultimately died of head injuries. His description of Pressly’s wounds brought at least one whimper from the audience. Several in attendance wore cherry-red silicone wristbands in memory of Pressly.

Cannady, dressed in a dark suit, a white blouse with a high ruffled collar and wearing one of the red bracelets, told jurors that she’d come fromher South Carolina home to be with her daughter at the October 2008 Little Rock premiere of the movie W, which featured Pressly in a bit part as an Ann Coulter-like conservative commentator. Questioned by chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson, Cannady said she last saw her daughter in good health pulling out of the driveway of the home where Cannady was staying.

“I had the sense to run after the car,” Cannady testified, her voice breaking. “She rolleddown the window, and I kissed her and told her I loved her. She said, ‘I love you too.’”

Her first indication that something might be wrong with Pressly came about 5 1 /2 hours later, Cannady said, when her husband called from South Carolina to say no one was answering Pressly’s phone. Cannady said she and Pressly’s stepfather called the TV reporter regularly at 3 a.m. to wake her up for her “dream job” as morning news anchor at KATV.

She drove to her daughter’s home, arriving about 4:30 a.m., but no one answered her knocks and calls, Cannady said. She described how she went to the back and entered through the open back door and ran to her daughter’s bedroom.

“I was calling her name the entire time, ‘Anne, Anne,Anne, Anne, Anne,’” she said, “Anne was lying on her left side in what I say was almost the fetal position. It was horrific. I could not imagine what I was seeing.”

Cannady said she thought her daughter’s throat had been cut and that Pressly was struggling to breathe.

“I said, ‘Anne, Mama’s here. Mama’s here,’” Cannady testified. “I didn’t know what to do. I ran screaming for help.”

No one responded to her cries, Cannady said, and she couldn’t rouse anyone at a neighboring home. She called 911, and the operator told her to put towels on her daughter’s wounds, she said, adding that the only response she ever got from her daughter was when she gingerly touched a towel on Pressly’s neck. Her daughter groaned and raised her left hand as if to push her away, Cannady said, mimicking the sound and her daughter’s movements for the jury. Cannady said she looked up in prayer and could see blood on the ceiling.

Cannady spent about 22 minutes on the witness stand, with the defense briefly questioning her about the towels she used on Pressly and asking if Pressly had a boyfriend.

“She never had a boyfriend,” Cannady responded, saying her daughter would have confided that to her.

The nurse who performed a rape exam on Pressly at the hospital told jurors that she was surprised that Pressly was still alive when she reached the hospital.

“The first thing I saw was massive, massive trauma, head trauma,” said Carla Jackson, who is now the trauma coordinator for the state’s trauma system.

Pressly’s condition was so precarious, Jackson said, that Jackson wasn’t allowed to move her for a full rape exam.

“My first thought was I couldn’t believe this person was alive,” she testified.

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