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Trumbull prosecutor says he won’t cooperate with Brazil’s attempt to prosecute Claudia Hoerig in Brazil
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins calls it “surprising and confusing” that the U.S. Department of Justice has asked him to help the Brazilian government prosecute Claudia Hoerig in Brazil for the 2007 murder of her husband, Karl, in their home in Newton Falls.
Watkins’ Dec. 10 letter says Justice Department attorney Kyle Latimer’s Oct. 16 letter requests that Watkins “give copies of all documents contained in my case file to Brazilian authorities in order for Brazilian authorities to have evidence ‘to prosecute Ms. Hoerig in Brazil for the murder of Mr. Hoerig.’”
But Oct. 16 is also the same day that Bruce Friedman of the U.S. State Department wrote to Paul Hoerig, brother of Karl Hoerig, and “reiterated the continuing United States Government effort to obtain extradition of Claudia Hoerig” to the United States to stand trial in Trumbull County, Watkins wrote.
A Trumbull County grand jury indicted Claudia Hoerig in the murder of Karl Hoerig in 2007, but by then Claudia Hoerig, a Brazilian native, had fled back to Brazil. Karl Hoerig was a 44-year-old major in the Air Force Reserve who flew 200 combat missions and also was a commercial pilot.
The Brazilian government refused to extradite Claudia Hoerig back to the United States, despite her renouncing her Brazilian citizenship and becoming an American citizen.
In July 2013, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice stripped her of her Brazilian nationality, but further legal action filed by Claudia Hoerig halted any action to return her to the United States.
Brazilian officials say it’s hard to tell how long it may take to resolve the legal issues that prevent Claudia Hoerig from being extradited, according to documents.
“After discussing this matter with Karl Hoerig’s family, all agree that any Brazilian prosecution of this case at any time is unacceptable and inappropriate,” Watkins wrote in the letter to the Justice Department.
Watkins noted that Brazil’s position on not extraditing people of Brazilian heritage to other countries where they are accused of criminal conduct has allowed many individuals to escape prosecution, including providing safe haven to “an Italian-national terrorist who killed several persons in Italy and fled to Brazil.”
Watkins said his office “will never willingly give its case file and evidence to Brazil for the purpose of Brazilian prosecutors prosecuting an Ohio criminal matter involving a domestic crime between two citizens of Ohio and the United States in Brazil.”