Judge Dana Fortinberry

Slain socialite had Nebraska ties

WASHINGTON - A socialite 91 years and acclaimed author with strong ties of Nebraska was killed last week at his home in Georgetown, and her older husband is accused of murder.

Albrecht Muth, 47, was ordered held without bail on a charge of second degree murder in the death of Viola Herms Drath. The court documents say Drath died of strangulation and violence of the shock trauma.

Muth has denied wrongdoing and has written an obituary of his wife who said she died of a head injury from a fall. But police said the injuries were inconsistent with a fall, and the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.

Muth made outlandish claims of working for the Iraqi army, although police said he had no formal employment and was supported by his wife, receiving a stipend of $ 2,000 a month.

Drath, a widow for several years before marrying Muth, was familiar to several prominent leaders of Nebraska administrators and elected to his alma mater, the University of Nebraska, especially the College of Mass Communications and Journalism at Lincoln .

When Drath was inducted into the Hall of Fame journalism in Nebraska in 2006, Norton, then-dean of the College of Journalism, describes it as "one of the most distinguished graduates of the university."

Drath is new to kill Norton and other mourning for a fascinating, soft-spoken German native who has dedicated his life to promote better understanding and dialogue between Europe and the United States.

"This is a great loss," said Norton The World-Herald on Thursday.

Norton, now at the University of Mississippi, said he sent an email Drath just a few weeks ago, saying they should have lunch next time he was in Washington.

Drath used his connections and money to sponsor an internship at the Washington Times for a University of Nebraska-Lincoln students, although the program fell apart a couple of years because of cutbacks at the newspaper.

Charlyne Berens, associate dean at the School of Journalism, worked with Drath the internship program.

"Visiting with her was like ... a mini-course in international relations, "she said."She had seen both what was happening in the world and at the national level, too."

It was the first husband Drath, Colonel Francis Drath, who brought her to Nebraska from Germany. The pair met and fell in love during the 1940s, when he served as military governor of Bavaria. They then moved to the United States. The United States Army colonel has become director of Selective Service in his home state of Nebraska, and the couple moved to Lincoln.

Mich. Judge Who Removed Opponent's Signs: I Did Nothing Wrong ...

A Michigan judge who admittedly removed her opponent's campaign signs from a seemingly public area, while leaving her own adjacent campaign signs in place, says she did nothing wrong.

But Judge Dana Fortinberry appears to be incorrect when she says the signs were on private property that only she had permission to use for posting signs, reports the Detroit Free Press .

Instead, the newspaper says, it appears that both Fortinberry—who was caught on camera by a volunteer for her opponent, Joseph Fabrizio, removing the signs—and Fabrizio, as well as several other candidates, are violating an Independence Township ordinance that prohibits political signs in the public right-of-way.

Meanwhile, regardless of the property ownership issue, this may not have been the best way to handle the situation:

"Judges should not be pulling up signs," says attorney Michael Schwartz, a former Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission prosecutor. "It sets a very bad example for the general public. Judges are held to a higher standard."

Fortinberry told a reporter that she left the undamaged signs nearby, so her opponent's campaign volunteers could pick them up and reuse them.

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