CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — A judge has dismissed murder charges against two men in the fatal 1980 shooting of an off-duty Hammond police officer after prosecutors said they lacked sufficient evidence “to prove these charges beyond a reasonable doubt.”
A Lake County judge granted prosecutors’ motions Thursday to dismiss the charges 59-year-old James Hill and 67-year-old Pierre L. Catlett faced in Officer Lawrence Pucalik’s November 1980 killing.
The Times of Northwest Indiana reports Hill and Catlett were both released last year from custody after a judge set aside Hill’s murder conviction because prosecutors did not turn over some evidence to Hill’s defense before his trial.
