Woman Gets Second Trial With New Judge

A woman who was not allowed to use the battered-woman defense in her murder trial will get a second trial before a different judge.

Superior Court Judge Jo Anne Alumbaugh asked for Geraldine Hendrickson’s trial to be reassigned after the first trial ended in a hung jury.

Alumbaugh refused to allow the use of a battered-woman defense and told jurors they could not consider self-defense when deliberating, said Hendrickson’s attorney, Harish Bharti.

In addition, the judge and her court staff raised their eyebrows, laughed and made faces in front of the jury, he said.

Bharti asked the state Court of Appeals for an emergency ruling to keep Alumbaugh from hearing the new trial. The Commission on Judicial Conduct is investigating the judge’s actions, he said.

In a Sept. 10 letter to Presiding Judge Brian Gain, released Friday, Alumbaugh asked for the case to be reassigned to avoid unnecessary delays.

Hendrickson, 31, is charged with second-degree murder for fatally stabbing her boyfriend, Phillip Lang, last April.

At least one juror said she would have voted to acquit had the judge allowed her to consider self-defense.