ST. PAUL, Minn. — A federal decide dismissed the fees Monday in opposition to a Minnesota man accused of hiding a stolen pair of ruby slippers that Judy Garland wore within the 1939 musical “The Wizard of Oz” after prosecutors knowledgeable the court docket that he died on Sunday.
Jerry Hal Saliterman, 77, of Crystal, who had been sick with lung illness and different illnesses, had been scheduled to change his plea to guilty in January however that listening to was postponed indefinitely after he was hospitalized.
Federal prosecutor Matthew Greenley notified the court docket in a one-page movement Monday that Saliterman died Sunday however didn’t say how or the place. U.S. District Choose Patrick Schiltz granted the request and dropped the fees.
Protection lawyer John Brink confirmed Monday that his consumer had died however declined to present particulars. A spokesman for the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Fargo, North Dakota, which is dealing with the case, didn’t instantly return a cellphone name looking for additional info.
Based on court docket filings, Saliterman was hospitalized in early January “for incapacity to stroll and sepsis,” an an infection that may be life-threatening. He attended his arraignment three days later through video from what appeared like a hospital room. In an replace to the court docket late final month, Brink advised the court docket that his consumer had been discharged to a hospice facility and that his prognosis was poor. An accompanying letter from his physician listed extreme power obstructive pulmonary illness requiring supplemental oxygen and Parkinson’s illness.
Saliterman was in a wheelchair and on oxygen final March when he made his first court docket look. He was charged then with theft of a significant art work and witness tampering for his function within the ruby slippers case.
The sequined pink slippers had been stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in her hometown of Grand Rapids. Their whereabouts remained a thriller for almost 13 years till the FBI recovered them in 2018. They fetched a record for movie memorabilia of $32.5 million in December, in keeping with Heritage Auctions. The slippers had been one in every of a number of pairs Garland wore in the course of the filming. Solely three other pairs stay.
Terry Jon Martin, now 78, of Grand Rapids, used a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and show case to steal them. Based on his lawyer, an outdated affiliate with connections to the mob advised him the sneakers needed to be adorned with actual jewels to justify their $1 million insured worth. However he removed the slippers when he realized they had been pretend, and so they ended up with Saliterman. Martin pleaded guilty in 2023 and was sentenced last January to time served due to his poor well being.
