3 Jul 2024

Woman, 81, sentenced to life in prison in cold case love triangle murder in western Wisconsin

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A judge sentenced an 81-year-old woman Tuesday to life in prison for a western Wisconsin cold case murder.

Mary Josephine Bailey is eligible for parole after 20 years, which was the law in 1985 when the offense was committed, but it doesn’t mean she’ll be released, said Polk County Attorney Jeffrey Kemp.

A jury recently found Bailey guilty of first-degree intentional murder in Polk County Circuit Court for the killing of 45-year-old Yvonne Carol Menke, who was shot outside her St. Croix Falls apartment before work on Dec. 12, 1985.

Yvonne Menke (Courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office)

Bailey was considered a suspect in the early days of the investigation, as several people told law enforcement that Jack Owen, Menke and Bailey, whose last name then was Lunsmann, had been “involved in somewhat of a ‘love triangle,’” the criminal complaint said.

That aspect of the case became stronger during the eight-day trial, said Holly Wood Webster, Polk County assistant district attorney.

“We learned information from one of Ms. Bailey’s friends back then about her having been outside of Yvonne’s apartment when Jack was there, had been kind of pointing up at the window where Jack and Yvonne were” and she was jealous, Wood Webster said.

Another witness saw Bailey parked outside of Menke’s apartment one night after midnight. The evidence showed Bailey “had been essentially stalking Jack and Yvonne,” Wood Webster said.

Victim’s children talked about their loss

Bailey did not speak during the sentencing hearing, according to Kemp. Bailey’s attorneys did not return calls seeking comment.

Menke’s children talked in court Tuesday about “how this wasn’t just killing their mom, but it had an impact on their whole family of not having their mom there,” Wood Webster said. Menke’s youngest child was 16 when his mom lost her life.

Another child discussed the guilt she’s carried “from feeling like she had given the murderer information to complete this crime,” Wood Webster said. In a phone call the day before Menke was killed, a person asked about Menke’s morning routine. One of Menke’s daughters thought the caller was a friend of her mother’s, “just wondering when she’d be available to talk,” never knowing it was “someone intending to kill her mom the next morning,” the prosecutor said.

The crime also ruined Christmas for the family, Kemp said. “Every December that rolls around they’re just reminded of their loss,” he added.

Cold case solved

Prosecuting a cold case was difficult because there were witnesses who had died and some people’s memories had faded, Kemp said.

Mary Josephine Bailey (Courtesy of the Maricopa County Jail)

Menke was shot three times in her head and neck in a stairwell of her apartment complex just before 6:30 a.m. Investigators found a boot print in snow near Menke’s body, with the word “Arctic” visible in the area where the front of the heel would be, and the same boot prints about a block away.

That was “the strongest piece of physical evidence” in the case, Wood Webster said. It was an Arctic Cat brand boot, women’s size 5. There were about 1,000 of that style and size of boots sold worldwide between 1973 and 1985.

“That’s a small number of boots,” Kemp said.

Bailey’s boots, a pair of size 5 Arctic Cat snowmobile boots, were submitted to the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory for comparison to the boot prints found at the murder scene. The lab concluded her boots were consistent with the sulfur casts taken by officers at the scene in terms of tread pattern, size and wear pattern, according to the criminal complaint.

“The rest of it is all part of a puzzle — you put together all the pieces,” Wood Webster said. “Some of them were known back then and some of them weren’t learned until more recently. … But when you put all those pieces of that puzzle back together, it really only pointed at (Bailey).”

Polk County investigators worked the case again in late 2021 and into the winter of 2022, re-interviewing witnesses and others who had knowledge of Owen, Bailey and Menke. Owen died in October 2021, while living in Montana with his wife.

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3 Jul 2024

By Next Century, Hundreds of Critical NYC Buildings Risk Frequent Flooding: Study

by | posted in: Adventure | 0

A report that projects the impact of sea level rise on the U.S coastline ranked New York as the ninth state with the most critical infrastructure at risk of flooding in 2050, and the sixth in 2100.

Adi Talwar

A person paddle boarding on the Hudson River.

Sea level rise driven by global warming is on track to put critical New York buildings —like public housing complexes, hospitals, schools and power plants—at risk of frequent inundation, a recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found.

Rising sea levels bring on high tides and amp up the intensity and frequency of coastal storms, both of which lead to flooding.

The report, which looked at nearly 1,100 assets along the U.S. coastline, ranked New York as the ninth state with the most critical infrastructure at risk of flooding in 2050, and the sixth in 2100. For the mid-century mark, Louisiana came in first place and New Jersey in second. 

In New York, 55 crucial sites could be at risk of flooding, on average, twice annually by 2050. Of those, 39 would be at risk of flooding once a month and 34 could flood once every other week, the report says.

By the end of the century, the number of critical locations at risk of flooding twice a year could jump to 374. Of those, 281 would be at risk of flooding once a month and 253 once every other week.

These projections aren’t even based on a worst case scenario. They assume a medium rate of climate-driven sea level rise, based on the estimate that the oceans will rise at a global average of 3.2 feet by 2100.

Juan Declet-Barreto, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists who helped author the report, says the looming deadline should be a call to action.

“Policymakers and governments need to be using the latest and best science on sea level rise impacts to plan for coastal resilience and create policy that will lead to good adaptation and that won’t ignore the problem,” he said.

 Local officials have been racing to protect New York City’s 520-mile shoreline from the rising sea. “Since 1900, sea level in our city has risen 12 inches and is projected to continue to increase by as much as 6.25 feet by 2100,” a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) spokesperson said in an email.

To tackle the issue, the city has added over 13,000 green infrastructure assets, like rain gardens and storage tanks, that collect water when flooding occurs to keep sewers from overflowing. Starting in 2026, all city-owned infrastructure and public facilities will be required to meet a stringent set of design criteria to better withstand extreme weather.

There are also attempts to raise entire plots of land that are vulnerable to flooding. The East Side Coastal Resiliency project, for instance, seeks to elevate lower Manhattan’s East River Park by approximately eight feet and install “flood protection in the new space beneath it,” according to the DEP. 

This resiliency effort is one of at least 10 city-led projects that aim to use floodwalls, land elevation and floodgates to keep water out. But of these 10, the DEP says only three have started construction.

Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice

A map of planned coastal resiliency projects.

Meanwhile, federal plans led by the Army Corps of Engineers to barricade the city from coastal storms with over 82 miles of floodwalls, levees and deployable gates are yet to leave the drawing board. And environmentalists claim the plan has major pitfalls.

“The Army Corps project to date has not incorporated sea level rise as one of the problems that they are trying to solve,” said Kate Boicourt, director for the Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds team at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). 

These barriers, Boicourt says, are designed to close the city off when a storm hits and won’t prevent impacts from sea level rise that are progressive and long term. Failing to address that could put the lives of New Yorkers at risk, environmentalists warn.

“It can mean losing access to power and losing things that electricity provides to people like food, heating and cooling. It means people might be pushed out of their homes without having anywhere to go,” said Victoria Sanders, the climate and health programs manager at the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA).

“It can mean all sorts of really devastating consequences for a lot of New Yorkers, but especially for those who are most vulnerable,” she added.

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Mariana@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

3 Jul 2024

St. Paul man charged with killing girlfriend’s estranged husband, who allegedly shot him last year

by | posted in: Society | 0

A 32-year-old who was allegedly shot and wounded by his girlfriend’s estranged husband last summer is now accused of fatally shooting the man in St. Paul this week.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office charged James Edward Hagen, of St. Paul, on Wednesday with murder in the Monday night shooting of Jonathan Diaz, 35, in the Payne-Phalen area.

James Edward Hagen (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

A woman told police that she and Diaz were still married, but had been separated for four years and she’d been dating Hagen for three years.

Last Aug. 29 at 2:30 p.m., officers were sent to Hagen’s residence on York Avenue off Arcade Street. Hagen had gunshot wounds to both his legs. He told police he was outside working on a vehicle when someone came up and shot him, but he said he didn’t know who the shooter was or why anyone would shoot him.

Hagen’s girlfriend told police that her estranged husband, Diaz, shot Hagen out of jealousy, but she and Hagen wouldn’t speak further to an investigator, according to the complaint.

Police arrested Diaz the next day. Officers didn’t find a gun on him or in his car, and neighbors and other witnesses were too far away to identify the shooter.

“Charges were not brought against (Diaz) with regards to the shooting because the case could not be proved against him beyond a reasonable doubt due to the spousal privilege and a lack of cooperation from Hagen,” Wednesday’s complaint said.

Monday night homicide

On Monday at 8:25 p.m., police were called again to Hagen’s address about a shooting. Officers found Diaz’s estranged wife giving Diaz CPR near a detached garage. St. Paul Fire medics pronounced him dead at the scene.

Witnesses told police Hagen was the shooter and he left on a small bicycle before abandoning it and running away, the complaint said.

A friend of Diaz’s told police they drove past Hagen’s home earlier in the day and Diaz greeted his son who was outside. Diaz later returned to the home, with his friend dropping him off. She heard gunshots as she drove away and tried to call Diaz to see if he was OK.

Police spoke to Diaz’s estranged wife’s 13-year-old daughter, who said she saw the incident but didn’t want to get her mother in trouble. She said it sounded like her mother was “switching it up” when talking to police and saying she didn’t know who shot Diaz, according to the complaint.

The teen said she knew Diaz and Hagen didn’t get along, and Hagen had said he’d kill Diaz the next time he saw him. But she “didn’t think Hagen would actually do it,” the complaint said.

She and her mother were in the kitchen when they heard more than 10 loud bangs and ran outside. Her mother ran toward Diaz and Hagen yelled, “I told you I was going to kill him!,” the complaint said of what the girl told police. Her mother yelled at Hagen, “Are you serious right now?” and he responded, “Dead serious, (expletive)!,” the complaint said.

Diaz’s estranged wife told investigators that Diaz would drive by the York Avenue address to see his child. Hagen found out he’d driven by earlier Monday, and she and Hagen argued about it, the complaint said. She said Hagen left.

After hearing the bangs and finding Diaz on the ground, the woman told police she hadn’t seen Hagen there.

Police arrested Hagen on Tuesday and he declined to speak with investigators. He is being held in the Ramsey County jail. An attorney for Hagen wasn’t listed in the court file as of Wednesday.

An autopsy found Diaz had been shot six times.

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3 Jul 2024

Defense for Bob Menendez rests without New Jersey senator testifying

by | posted in: Politics | 0

By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — The defense for Sen. Bob Menendez rested Wednesday without the New Jersey Democrat testifying at his New York bribery trial.

Lawyers for Menendez called several witnesses over two days in an effort to counter seven weeks of testimony and hundreds of exhibits and communications introduced by Manhattan federal prosecutors.

Menendez, 70, maintains he is not guilty of charges that he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold and cash from 2018 through 2022 in exchange for using his clout in the Senate to deliver favors to the benefit of three New Jersey businessmen.

Two of the businessmen — Fred Daibes and Wael Hana — are on trial with him. A third, Jose Uribe, pleaded guilty to charges and testified against the trio during the trial.

Daibes and Hana also have pleaded not guilty and were given an opportunity to present a defense, though Judge Sidney H. Stein told jurors that the burden is on prosecutors and a defense was not required. Lawyers for Daibes rested at the same time as Menendez without presenting a defense. Hana’s lawyers were to start presenting their case.

Prosecutors took seven weeks to present their case before resting last Friday. They offered evidence to show that Menendez’s wife, Nadine Menendez, served as a go-between most times to connect the senator and the businessmen.

Nadine Menendez, 57, who began dating the senator in 2018, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges, but her trial has been postponed as she recovers from breast cancer surgery.

Lawyers for Bob Menendez have argued that his wife hid her financial troubles from him, including an inability to afford mortgage payments on her Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, home, along with many of her dealings with the businessmen. They’ve also said she inherited gold found in her bedroom during a 2022 FBI raid on their home.

An FBI agent testified earlier in the trial that he directed that more than $486,000 in cash and over $100,000 in gold bars be seized in the raid because he suspected that a crime may have occurred.

Among witnesses called by Menendez’s lawyers was his sister, Caridad Gonzalez, 80, who told the jury that members of her family routinely stored large amounts of cash at their homes after Menendez’s parents fled Cuba in 1951 with only the money they had hidden in the secret compartment of a grandfather clock.

“It’s normal. It’s a Cuban thing,” she said.

Bob Menendez was born after the family arrived in Manhattan.

Menendez has pleaded not guilty to bribery, fraud, extortion, obstruction of justice and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. After the charges were announced in September, he was forced out of his powerful post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He has resisted calls to resign from the Senate and a month ago filed papers to run for reelection as an independent.

Prosecutors allege that Daibes delivered gold bars and cash to Menendez and his wife to get the senator’s help with a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, prompting Menendez to act in ways favorable to Qatar’s government.

They also say Menendez did things benefiting Egyptian officials in exchange for bribes from Hana as the businessman secured a valuable deal with the Egyptian government to certify that imported meat met Islamic dietary requirements.

A previous corruption prosecution of Menendez on unrelated charges ended with a deadlocked jury in 2017.