Ryan gets involved in Newton Falls case

The suspect's former husband says not to expect a surrender.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-17th, has become involved in an attempt to return a murder suspect from Brazil to stand trial in her husband's death.
Claudia Hoerig, 42, was indicted Tuesday by a Trumbull County grand jury on a charge of aggravated murder with a gun specification.
She is accused of shooting her husband, 44-year-old Karl D. Hoerig, at their Newton Falls home.
Claudia Hoerig, according to Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor, has fled to her native Brazil. She has dual U.S. and Brazilian citizenship.
Watkins has said that though Brazil has an extradition treaty with this country, its policy is not to extradite.
It is this contradiction that has gotten Ryan involved.
Quotable
"I don't believe the suspect in this case should be allowed to get away with murder by hiding behind international law," Ryan, of Niles, said Tuesday.
Ryan has offered assistance to county authorities and police officials, said a Ryan spokesman.
The spokesman said Ryan is urging the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. State Department to pressure Brazil to release Claudia Hoerig.
Ryan has personally relayed his attempt to get Claudia Hoerig back to the U.S. to the family of Karl Hoerig, who held the rank of major in the Air Force Reserves, flying C-130s out of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station.
"This is just absolutely unacceptable," the spokesman said of Brazil's not allowing her extradition. He noted Ryan has instructed his office to put pressure where it can to return her to this country.
A federal warrant has been issued charging her with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Dr. Thomas J. Bolte of Long Beach, N.Y., Claudia Hoerig's former husband, said he doesn't give much hope of his former wife's returning to the U.S.
"It's a tragedy and I hope she'll surrender, but I don't expect her to," Bolte said during a telephone interview last week.
"She's had too many chances [to surrender] already," he added, noting he has told Trumbull County authorities he will cooperate with them.
Although Bolte has been divorced from Claudia Hoerig since 1999, he expressed surprise that she would get involved in murder.
This is despite an affidavit filed in the case, in which Bolte told investigators that Claudia Hoerig was abusive both physically and mentally to him during their marriage and that the marriage dissolved due primarily to her "dishonesty pertaining to the couple's finances."
Allegation
She is accused of shooting Hoerig, a commercial pilot and a highly decorated reserve combat pilot, twice in the back and once in the head March 12 inside their Ninth Street home.
The two were married in June 2005 in Las Vegas.
According to the affidavit, Hoerig told another Southwest pilot that he had marital problems from the beginning of their marriage and he feared his wife's reaction when he told her he was leaving.
The document said she bought a revolver used in the slaying two days before her husband's death. It was found in a bedroom closet.
The search for Claudia Hoerig is on "America's Most Wanted" Web site.
yovich@vindy.com