Message Board

[Admin]

JUDGE SAYS PROSECUTORS BOTCHED JOSEPH CASE
Lima News, The (OH)
December 29, 2004
Author: Greg Sowinski

Judge says prosecutors botched Joseph case

By GREG SOWINSKI

LIMA -- The federal judge who tossed the death sentence for Richard Joseph in the 1990 murder of Ryan Young ruled Allen County prosecutors erred in the charges filed and never corrected the problem.

U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells of the Northern District of Ohio said the
grand jury indictment accused Joseph of being the principal player in the
kidnapping of Young instead of identifying him as the principal player in the aggravated murder.

The error was more than just a technical or minor issue of law, rather a
problem by prosecutors with following proper procedure under Ohio law to obtain a death sentence, the judge said.

The flaw in the charge was never corrected and the case was improperly tried on that flaw. Furthermore, Joseph's attorney and the trial judge never caughtthe error, Wells said.

The judge's ruling does not overturn the conviction but drops the death
penalty and orders Joseph be brought back to Allen County to be resentenced for aggravated murder. The charge carries a life sentence with the eligibility for parole after serving 20 or 30 years.

Joseph was convicted of aggravated murder in the death of Young. At 19, Joseph was sentenced to Ohio's death row where he has been ever since. Joseph's co-defendant, Jose Bulerin, was convicted of aggravated murder and given a life sentence with eligibility for parole after 20 years.

Young, 16, was abducted June 26, 1990, after leaving his girlfriend's house. His body was found July 4, 1990, by police buried at an Auglaize County stone

quarry. Before the body was found, hundreds of residents and police searched for Young. Prosecutors said Joseph was angry that Young was dating his former girlfriend and killed him.

Joseph and Bulerin each declined to be interviewed Tuesday.

Allen County Prosecutor David Bowers said the case was properly handled and the indictment was valid. Bowers said a jury, the trial judge, a state appeals court and the majority of judges on the Ohio Supreme Court reviewed the death sentence and found it to be proper.

Bowers said the case was almost exclusively based on circumstantial evidence but that evidence overwhelmingly pointed to Joseph and Bulerin as the killers, he said.

Joseph, however, had the strongest motive, Bowers said.

"Who would have had the motive to kill Ryan Young? It wasn't Bulerin, it was the fellow who had lost his girlfriend to a sophomore when he was a senior,"Bowers said.

The real issue not to be lost in the ruling was that Joseph and Bulerin killed
Young, which Bowers said was proven.

Prosecutors have 30 days from the Dec. 22 ruling to appeal to the 6th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals. A decision on whether to appeal won't be made until the ruling is thoroughly reviewed and the Young family is consulted, Bowers said.

The appeal would be filed by the Ohio Attorney General's office which handles death penalty cases once the cases enter federal court.

Whether Bowers will be involved in the future remains to be told. Bowers isretiring as prosecutor after 28 years and his last day is Thursday.

JuergenWaldick takes office Monday and will handle the case, Bowers said.

Waldick, who was not with the prosecutor's office in 1990, said he does not
know Wells but his first thought was Wells may be an example of a liberal
judge imposing her moral beliefs on a ruling instead of following law.

"That was my first gut reaction," he said.

Waldick also said the decision by Wells goes against rulings by the numerous other courts that ruled the sentence was appropriate.

Wells, however, has not been the only judge to say there was a flaw in the

indictment and the way the case was handled. Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice

Thomas Moyer in a 1995 dissenting opinion brought up the same issues and said

Joseph should be sentenced to life in prison with eligibility for parole after
serving 20 years.