State Crime and Court Roundup: Oak Creek shooting victim appears at a fundraiser

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OAK CREEK - One of the wounded heroes of the Oak Creek temple massacre appeared a fund-raiser yesterday for the victims of the attack.

Police lieutenant Brian Murphy was helping one of the shooting victims when he was shot 15 times by gunman Wade Michael Page. Murphy was one of four people wounded in the August fifth shooting spree at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. Six worshippers were killed. Yesterday’s fund-raiser was held in the parking lot of a bowling center across the street from the temple. Murphy could hardly speak more than a whisper. But using a microphone, he said he wanted everyone to know how appreciative he and his family have been for people’s kindness, prayers, and support. Murphy turned 52 yesterday – and he joked that he did not mind getting older.

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Investigators are trying to determine if a pre-paid funeral plan violated state securities’ laws. About 500 funeral homes in the Wisconsin Funeral Directors Association offered the pre-paid plans to their local residents – and their money was then invested in a single trust account. On Friday, a judge in Madison ordered a receiver to take control of the account, after it was found to have a 21-million-dollar shortfall. The receiver is a Milwaukee lawyer who will protect the more than 10-thousand customers of the pre-paid funerals. Officials said the fund was supposed to have around 70-million dollars in it – and the state Justice Department is helping the Financial Institutions agency determine where the money went. The agencies filed court records which said neither the customers nor the funeral homes had any input over the way the funds were invested. The officials compared the trust to a Ponzi scheme, which endangered the ability of current investors to get their original funds back, much less the returns they were promised. A group called Fiduciary Partners held the money. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel said two brothers – Michael and Patrick Hull – were advisers to the fund since it began. Michael Hull said Friday that he and his brother broke no laws. But on Saturday, Hull declined further comment and said a New York law firm was working with him.

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