Prosecutors say the man accused of hiding ruby ​​slippers stolen from he is dead

By Steve Karnowski

Sf. Paul, Minn. (AP) – A federal judge on Monday rejected the accusations against a minnesota man, accused of hiding a stolen pair of ruby ​​slippers that Judy Garland wore in the 1939 music “Wizard of Oz”, after prosecutors informed the court that he had died on Sunday.

Jerry Hal Saliterman, 77 years old, from Crystal, who had been in poor health with lung disease and other conditions, had been scheduled Change its plea for guilt In January but that hearing was postponed endlessly After he was hospitalized.

Federal prosecutor Matthew Greenley notified the court in a one-page motion that Saliterman died on Sunday, but did not say how or where. The judge of the US district Patrick Schiltz granted the request and gave up the charges.

Defense lawyer John Brink confirmed on Monday that his client was dead, but refused to give details. A spokesman for the American prosecutor’s office in Fargo, North Dakota, who deals with the case, did not immediately return a phone call requesting additional information.

According to the judgments, Saliterman was hospitalized in early January “for the inability to go and sepsis”, an infection that can endanger life. He participated in his notification three days later through videos of what he looked like a hospital room. In an update of the court at the end of last month, Brink told the court that his client was discharged into a hospice unit and that his prognosis was weak. An accompanying letter from his doctor has listed a severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that requires additional oxygen and Parkinson’s disease.

Saliterman was in a wheelchair and oxygen last March, when he made his first appearance in court. He was loaded then with the theft of a major art work and witnesses who are manipulated for its role in the case of Ruby slippers.