Judge denies bail for Desert Hot Springs man suspected of killing sex offender

1-26-2010 California:

A judge today denied bail for a self-avowed white supremacist accused of using California's Megan's Law registry to track down and kill a convicted sex offender.

Steven Banister, 28, of Desert Hot Springs, faces a first-degree murder charge in the Aug. 10 death of Edward Vaughn Keeley, whose body was found in his back yard in the 64000 block of 16th Avenue in North Palm Springs.

Banister also faces two special circumstance allegations of committing a murder during a robbery and a burglary, which make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek capital punishment for Banister.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Arjuna T. Saraydarian denied bail because of the special circumstance allegations, and ordered Banister to return to court on Feb. 18 for a felony settlement conference.

Banister had been free from prison less than one month before Keeley's death, according to a declaration in support of an arrest warrant.

Widow seeks damages in eldery inmate’s ‘brutal’ killing

See earlier reports: HERE

8-6-15 California:

A Santa Fe woman is suing the federal government over the beating death of her 72-year-old husband in a California prison after he was convicted on child pornography charges.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, says prison officials are to blame for putting retired Wall Street attorney Robert A. Warren in a communal cell at the Victorville, Calif., prison with another inmate whom they knew was a danger to him.

A judge in February 2011 sentenced Warren to five years in prison. The lawsuit, which also described him as a university instructor, philanthropist and author, says he was killed on Dec. 29, 2011.

In his plea agreement, Warren had admitted to receiving a video clip online of a man sexually assaulting a prepubescent female who was tied up with a rope and to having on his computer 2,621 images and 26 videos depicting child pornography.

Carol H. Warren says in her complaint that a forensic psychologist concluded that Warren was a good candidate for outpatient treatment because he was amendable to treatment, had no history of violence, sexual or otherwise, and was “lacking many of the historic behavior problems that are associated with re-offenders.”

Widow of sex offender killed in Maine State Prison awarded $100,000

5-8-2014 Maine:

As part of the settlement, Janet Weinstein, whose husband, Sheldon Weinstein, was beaten to death in 2009, agreed to drop a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections.

The widow of a convicted sex offender who was killed inside the Maine State Prison five years ago was paid $100,000 by the state to settle a wrongful death claim.

Janet Weinstein, whose husband, Sheldon Weinstein, was beaten to death by other inmates in April 2009, had filed a notice of intent to sue shortly after his death. In it, she claimed that “policymakers within the Maine Department of Corrections were deliberately indifferent to a culture of inmate violence in which jailhouse justice was meted out to inmates like Mr. Weinstein,” and initially asked for at least $1 million in damages.

The settlement agreement, however, now releases the state and its medical provider, Corizon Inc., from any liability in Weinstein’s death.