A high-profile wrongful-conviction murder case that hinged on DNA evidence from a discarded cigarette butt is back in court, this time because of tax issues and an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit.
Clarence Elkins Sr. is suing the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in a case scheduled for trial in the Ohio Court of Claims on Aug. 3.
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Elkins, formerly of Carroll County and now a resident of Buckeye Lake, is seeking at least $160,000 from the state, accusing it of invading his privacy and violating federal patient privacy rules by releasing to the Internal Revenue Service hundreds of pages of medical documents about his physical- and mental-health care while he was in prison.
Elkins, now 53, was released from prison on Dec. 15, 2005, having served seven years of a life sentence after DNA evidence showed he did not murder his mother-in-law and rape his niece. Former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro and the Ohio Innocence Project assisted Elkins’ defense.
DNA evidence obtained from a cigarette butt pointed to Earl Mann, who was already incarcerated on other convictions. Mann later was convicted of murdering Judith Johnson, 58, and raping her 6-year-old granddaughter in Johnson’s Barberton home in June 1998 and is serving a life sentence.
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After Elkins was released, he was awarded wrongful-incarceration settlements of $1.075 million from the state and $5.25 million from the city of Barberton.
Things got complicated after that. Elkins and his wife, Melinda, who was instrumental in obtaining his release, were divorced. She had filed for bankruptcy during his incarceration. The IRS got involved, seeking money it said Melinda Elkins and her son owed in taxes from their share of $6.3 million in settlements. The agency is not seeking taxes from Elkins, who has since remarried.
But Elkins’ attorney, Gordon Woolbert, said the IRS sought medical records based on the legal presumption that a financial award for a physical injury is not taxable, but an award for a psychological injury or any other reason is taxable.
“It is our position that is not the right stand,” Woolbert said. “We claim imprisonment in a 6-by-8-foot prison cell is a physical injury.”
Woolbert said experts will testify that post-traumatic stress disorder, which Elkins has, is both a physical and psychological injury.
Ohio prison officials responded to an IRS subpoena by releasing 273 pages of medical records that Elkins contends were private, privileged and illegally released.
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Elkins said he suffers from nightmares and the state’s actions caused him “substantial harm,” for which he should be compensated.
The Ohio Court of Claims rejected Elkins’ case, but he appealed to the Franklin County Court of Appeals, which last year reversed the decision and sent the case back to the Court of Claims for reconsideration.
Dan Tierney, spokesman for Attorney General Mike DeWine, who represents the state in the case, declined to comment because the matter is in court.
However, a recent court filing in the case by Peter DeMarco, assistant attorney general, argued that Elkins is “exaggerating his injuries” and has refused on “multiple occasions … to provide complete and adequate responses” to requests for information.
Elkins filed a separate lawsuit against Community Services of Stark County, where he had obtained counseling. That agency also released Elkins’ records to the IRS without consulting him, he contends. That case is scheduled for trial early next year.
@ohioaj
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHY
