Claudia Hoerig is charged with the 2007 killing her husband

Staff report

AKRON

A federal judge dismissed a petition by Claudia Hoerig to have charges dropped against her in connection with the murder of her husband in their Newton Falls home.

She claimed the state of Ohio violated her right to a speedy trial. In his opinion issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Adams said Hoerig has not exhausted appeals available at state and appellate court levels and therefore has no basis for an appeal at the federal court level, denying her attempt to be set free.

Hoerig, 54, is charged with killing her husband, Air Force Major Karl Hoerig, who was found shot to death at the couple’s Newton Falls home on March 15, 2007.

She was brought back to Ohio and Trumbull County earlier this year from Brazil to face trial after a decade of effort by federal, state and local officials.

Last month, according to court records, Hoerig filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus claiming that her arrest is unconstitutional because she had been denied her right to a speedy trial.

Hoerig argued that she should be released because her 2016 arrest in Brazil was based on a “fabricated” affidavit and that the “speedy trial clock” has been running since that arrest, including 22 months in a Brazilian prison.

Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Andrew Logan has already rejected similar arguments from Hoerig, who remains in the Trumbull County jail on $10 million bond. Her trial is set for January.