BEAT BYTE: Auto accident photos add to pedestrian death mystery

BEAT BYTES: News Briefs from the Columbia Heartbeat
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1) Auto accident photos add to pedestrian death mystery
2) Jacque Cowherd named Fulton School Superintendent
3) City Hall watchdog demands "open records" on History Museum Mess
4) Tribune error sparks 6th Ward brouhaha
5) Housing News from Bank of Missouri's Tom Stone
6) Announcements
7) Later today: The final part of our candidate survey

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1) Auto accident photos add to pedestrian death mystery

COLUMBIA, 4/2/09 (Beat Byte) -- We normally don't write about private citizens unless they enter public office or become criminals (often one and the same). But an explosion of hypothetical allegations and finger-pointing in the blogosphere prompts this story, about a couple of odd twists in the mysterious March 28 pedestrian death that involved a Columbia police officer.

The twists include three apparently recent pictures of fractured glass windshields on the public MySpace page of Jeremy Setzer's widow, Crystal Lyn (Hill) Setzer; and the tragically-timed death of her father, Clarence David Hill, who died in 2005 just ten days after being cleared on a murder charge and freed from death row, where he had been incarcerated for 16 years.

The photos of a fractured car windshield appear on Crystal Setzer's Myspace page

Just a few days ago, a friend posted about the apparent accident. "What the hell happend here?" Stacey Weisinger asks.

Crystal Setzer answered on March 27, 2009: THAT BUSTED WINDSHIELD WOULD BE .... MY HUSBANDS FIST. LOL. HE WAS DRUNK.

Jeremy Setzer was due in court this month on domestic assault charges, according to court documents on file with Casenet. He had two previous convictions for misdemeanor theft.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Crystal Setzer's father, Clarence Hill was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1989 slaying of his landlord, Dale Edmundson, and was sentenced to death the next year. In 2005, Mohave County Superior Court Judge Richard Weiss overturned the conviction and death sentence when presented DNA evidence that was not available at trial.

Crystal (Hill) Setzer had earlier blogged about her father's untimely death.

More information about the twists and turns in Clarence Hill's overturned murder conviction is online at the links below:

http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special32/articles/0904Hill-ON.html
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Oct-14-Fri-2005/news/3830908.html
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Oct-26-Wed-2005/news/3998160.html
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/fromcomments/71355.php

RELATED:

Crystal Lyn Hill Setzer's Myspace page

Jeremy Setzer's Myspace page

Missourian article

2) Jacque Cowherd named Fulton School Superintendent

COLUMBIA, 4/2/09 (Beat Byte) -- Once under consideration for the top job at Columbia Public schools, Jacque Cowherd is the next superintendent of Fulton Public Schools.

“In naming Dr. Cowherd, the Fulton Board of Education is selecting a superintendent who is not only an educator and advocate for kids, but also has proven experience in school finance and business operations,” said a press release. “We believe that Dr. Cowherd is the right person to lead us going forward.”

Read the rest of this story in the Fulton Sun

"Phooey on Columbia," Cowherd said. "And Phyllis Chase, too!" (Belated April Fools -- he didn't really say that!)

3) City Hall watchdog demands "open records" on History Museum Mess

COLUMBIA, 4/2/09 (Beat Byte) -- Politely but firmly demanding "all communication (emails, memorandums, agendas, meeting minutes and the like) between the University of Missouri/State Historical Society of Missouri and the City of Columbia (this includes but is not limited to: the Mayor, City Council, Office of the City Manager, the Office of Public Works, and Board Members of the State Historical Society of Missouri)" Traci Wilson-Kleekamp, a well-known fixture on numerous city boards and commissions, filed an official "Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)" request this week with the above-named parties and MU chancellor Brady Deaton.

She is seeking to resolve the myriad mysteries surrounding the proposed use of eminent domain to acquire private property for a new State Historical Society of Missouri (SHSM) headquarters and museum.

"I have many questions -- and am very confused by the process that has unfolded & concluded relative to the site selection process and the use of eminent domain," Wilson-Kleekamp wrote Deaton. "As a member of the State Historical Society, I frequent the facility to conduct research. I am admirer of Gary Kremer and the awesome staff at the SHSM and the Western Historical Manuscript Collection. I also understand the City's interest in helping the SHSM find an appropriate site that allows them to stay in Columbia. The information I have requested seeks to make me and other interested Columbia residents more informed voters and participatory constituents."

4) Tribune error sparks 6th Ward brouhaha

COLUMBIA, 4/2/09 (Beat Byte) -- In a story yesterday about a voting record debate between 6th ward incumbent councilperson Barb Hoppe and challenger Rod Robison, Columbia Daily Tribune reporter Sara Semelka wrote that CrossCreek development critic and Shepard Boulevard neighborhood association president Jim Muench was Hoppe's campaign manager.

Trib bloggers cried foul and jumped on the potential conflict of interest. But the report is erroneous -- Muench isn't Hoppe's campaign manager; the councilwoman is handling that job herself. Coming so soon after Trib publisher Hank Waters' Hoppe endorsement, which many readers considered backhanded and begrudging, the snafu has prompted charges of media bias.

In a letter to Waters and managing editor Jim Robertston, Hoppe supporter Nancy Harter called Waters' endorsement "beyond bizarre by tearing apart Barbara, praising her opponent, and then endorsing Barbara." Harter also wrote that when Semelka was "asked why she did not use the information Barbara gave her, Sara said that she put the information in the article" only to have it subsequently edited out.

"I have received press releases from Jim Muench and I thought he had introduced himself at a campaign event as the campaign manager," Semelka blogged "However, I was contacted today by Barbara Hoppe, who said that he just works on her campaign. There will be a correction in tomorrow's paper to correct this error."

-- Mike Martin for the Columbia Heart Beat

(Links are in bold type)