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Criminal
Cases in the News
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LOCAL
PHYSICIAN CONVICTED
Sexual
predators come in all shapes and sizes, all ages and
economic classes, all levels of education. Recently the
defendant Henry William Albers, was a pediatric
orthopedic surgeon.
On Father’s
Day, 2010, the Sugarcreek Police Department received
information that Dr. Albers had sexually assaulted a 16
year old girl. After an investigation by the police,
Greene County Children Services and the Greene County
Prosecutor’s Office, Albers admitted in his own
handwriting that he had sexually molested the girl
several times over a four to six month period.
On July 6,
2011, Albers plead guilty to two counts of Sexual
Battery and one count of Gross Sexual Imposition. After
a pre-sentence investigation, the judge sentenced Albers
to two years in prison. Upon his release, Albers must
register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. |
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LOCAL
NURSING HOME CARE ATTENDANT CONVICTED
On July 16,
2011, Kevin L. Burns entered the room of a nursing home
patient in Yellow Springs, Greene County, Ohio and
proceeded to sexually assault the disabled victim in his
capacity as a care giver. In doing so, Mr. Burns
violated the law and the trust of both the nursing
facility as well as the victim in his care.
On September
13, 2011, the defendant was convicted of one count of
Rape and sentenced to nine years in prison as a result
of the violation of that trust. The conviction of Mr.
Burns brought a sense of closure to a community which
had its trust shattered as a result of this incident. |
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LAWRENCE
MOTEN CONVICTED OF XENIA HOTEL ROBBERY
A Greene
County Jury returned a guilty verdict in early June in
the case of State v. Lawrence Moten after 90 minutes of
deliberation. Defendant Moten robbed the Regency Inn
at gunpoint on December 11, 2009 and tied up the aged
and infirm clerk. He was convicted of Aggravated Robbery
and Kidnapping, both with three year gun specifications.
This case has been pending for a long time because of
multiple attorney appointments, the last of which was
the chief Trial Counsel for the Ohio Public Defender’s
Office in Columbus.
Congratulations to Docket Prosecutor David Hayes, Victim
Witness Director Teri LaJeunesse, Det. Holly Clay of the
Xenia Police Department, and the staff for the fine job
they did in investigating, preparing and handling this
very important case. The trial team stayed on task and
won a guilty verdict in a case involving gun violence in
our community. Sentencing will be within the next two
weeks. |
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Drug Dealer
Convicted and Sentenced to 19 Years in Prison
On March 2,
2011, after a two day trial, a Greene County jury
convicted Micah Cox of six crimes related to Trafficking
in Cocaine. The trial was the culmination of a lengthy
investigation conducted by the Greene County A.C.E. Task
Force, which is a multi-jurisdictional law enforcement
agency dedicated to ridding our streets of illegal
drugs. Assistant Prosecutor David H. Hayes tried the
case and was assisted by Victim Advocate Riki Karolyi.
On Monday,
March 7, 2011, Judge Stephen A. Wolaver sentenced Micah
Cox to 16 years in prison. At the time he committed
these crimes, Micah Cox was on parole for committing the
same crime in 2004. Judge Wolaver also imposed the
balance of Micah Cox’s remaining parole resulting in a
total prison sentence of over 19 years. |
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Greene County Hotel
Manager Convicted and Sentenced for
Sexually Assaulting
Employee
A single mother is
employed by a small hotel chain in Greene County and
works in housekeeping in order provide for her child and
herself. She has worked at the hotel for several
years. In 2009, the hotel has new owners and the young
woman has a new motel manager, Hitesh Patel. In
September of 2009, after a month with the new manager,
the single mother’s life would change.
On that day in 2009, the woman is busy with
her housekeeping duties, cleaning the guest rooms at the
motel. While she is cleaning a bathroom, on her knees
scrubbing a toilet, her back to the bathroom door,
Hitesh Patel enters the bathroom. Patel approaches from
behind and assaults the woman.
She tells Patel to stop but he doesn’t. He
continues to assault her as she struggles to get free
from his hold on her, and eventually does. Patel leaves
the bathroom. Once alone, the woman begins to cry but
knows she must get back to work. She gathers her
composure and starts to clean the next guest room at the
motel. It’s not until she finishes cleaning the next
guest room that she sees Hitesh Patel again. This time
he is bearing a gift, a pizza for her. As he tries to
hand her the pizza, she rejects it and Patel tosses the
pizza toward her and walks away.
The woman takes the pizza back to her supply
room, eats a portion of it and rips the delivery tag off
of the pizza box. She feels the delivery tag might be
important in the future.
In March of 2010, the husband of another
female employee calls the Fairborn Police Department to
report Hitesh Patel’s behavior toward his wife to the
authorities. As a result, an investigation begins, and
through the investigation, the police learn about the
young, single mother. She recounts the events of
September 2009 to the police and produces the pizza
delivery tag to the police officer.
Mr. Patel was arrested by the Fairborn
Police Department, was interviewed by the investigating
detective, at which time he made several admissions as
to what happened at the hotel under his management.
As a result of the investigation into Mr.
Patel’s activities at the hotel, a Greene County Grand
Jury indicted him for Rape, Gross Sexual Imposition,
Sexual Imposition, and Abduction. This past September
2010, a little over a year since the young mother was
assaulted by Hitesh Patel, a jury trial began in the
Greene County Court of Common Pleas. Greene County
Assistant Prosecutors Nicole Burke and Adolfo Tornichio
tried the case for the Greene County Prosecutor’s
Office.
The trial lasted a day and
a half and the jury deliberated for about a day. Thanks
to the courageous young mother’s testimony, and the
pizza delivery tag she kept from that night, Hitesh
Patel was convicted of Rape, Abduction, Gross Sexual
Imposition and Sexual Imposition and is currently
serving his sentence in prison.
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PROSECUTOR’S SEMINAR TRAINING PAYS OFF FOR TWO
GREENE COUNTY CHILDREN
Mom and Dad
are the divorced parents of two children; a boy and
girl.
Dad was
ordered to pay $559.18 per month, per child, for
current child support, and $249.56 per month toward
arrearages. In 2008, payments stopped.
The Child
Support Enforcement Agency referred this case to the
Greene County Prosecutor’s Office for enforcement.
The case was
reviewed by Assistant Prosecutor Chris Murray, Chief
of the Prosecutor’s Child Support Enforcement
Division.
In October of
2008, a Motion for Contempt was filed. The Court
set this case for hearing January of 2009. The
Court continued the hearing until February since Dad
was in jail on an unrelated matter. In February,
Dad showed for the hearing and requested a Public
Defender. As a result, the Court continued the case
until April of 2009.
Attendance at
a seminar by Assistant Prosecutor Murray in June of
2007 paid off several years later in relation to
this case. The seminar dealt with qualified
domestic relations orders and discussed collecting
child support from pension plans. Furthermore,
Murray learned that if the child was the alternate
payee of any withdrawal from a pension plan, the
withdrawal would be taxable to the obligor.
Using the
information learned at the seminar, in April 2009
Murray reviewed the parties' divorce decree to find
out the names of the retirement accounts Dad had.
After searching the internet and obtaining addresses
for the various retirement accounts, he issued
production subpoenas to the retirement accounts
requesting information about current balances and
distribution policies.
In May of
2009, Murray received a response from one of Dad’s
retirement account holders indicating Dad had more than
$38,000.00 in his Retirement Savings Plan. Furthermore,
Dad was eligible to make withdrawals from this account
in June of 2009.
Based on this
information, Murray drafted the documents that joined
retirement account holder as a party to the case and
that prevented the holder from giving Dad any of this
money until the Court held a hearing. In addition, he
drafted the restraining order that prevented Dad from
withdrawing or otherwise spending any money from his
Retirement Savings Plan.
In
December, Assistant Prosecutor Murray filed the
qualified domestic relations order that allowed the
Prosecutor’s Office to collect the child support
arrearage from Dad's Retirement Savings Plan.
In January of 2010, the Agency processed two
payments totaling $28,505.05 that eliminated the child
support arrearage. Assistant Prosecutor Murray’s
attendance at the seminar back in June of 2007 certainly
paid off for the children in this support case.
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CHI Q. DU GUILTY AS CHARGED!
A Greene County Jury returned
a guilty as charged verdict to the offense of
Attempted Aggravated Murder Thursday evening, March
18, 2010, at approximately 6:15 PM against Chi Q. Du. He
was charged with two counts of Attempted Aggravated
Murder and pled guilty to the one count involving his
girlfriend before the trial started on Monday, and the
jury considered the last charge against the male victim.
The Du case involved the
horrific stabbing and near homicide of two Wright State
students in October of 1997 outside of the WSU Library.
Du took off after the stabbings and hid out in Canada
for 11 years until he was captured in December of 2008.
A big congratulations for a
job well done by Assistant Prosecutors Cheri Stout and
David Hayes; Jeannette Adkins who served as Victim
Advocate on this case since 1997; VW Director Teri
LaJeunesse who provided additional assistance to the
team; Sgt. Rodney Myers of the Fairborn Police
Department who was one of the original detectives on the
case and the State’s representative; our Investigator
Mark Adkins for contacting America’s Most Wanted to help
find the Chi Q. Du and for locating trial witnesses; the
office support staff; Toronto, Canada Fugitive Detective
Jason Tomlinson and the government of Canada; and Wright
State officers who provided assistance recently and in
the past regarding this case.
The facts of this case were
compelling for the prosecution, but it was a huge
challenge to put the case together after all of these
years. We are proud of the effort that everyone put into
this case to obtain this guilty verdict. More
importantly, we are grateful that the two victims in
this case have been vindicated with the guilty verdict
and the earlier guilty plea. They deserve a great deal
of credit for the courage it took for them to face their
attacker and to tell the jury about the reprehensible
and evil attack that they both endured.
Thanks to all of you for your
dedication to the job and to victims of crime.
This case is proof that
tenacity and the truth will win out in the end.
Steve Haller
Greene County Prosecutor |
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