National Roundup

Georgia
Ex-housekeeper, Waffle House chair settle sex tape lawsuit

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — A settlement has been reached in a seven-year long dispute between Waffle House Chairman Joseph Rogers Jr. and his former housekeeper, who secretly recorded them having sex.

The confidential deal was announced moments after Rogers’ attorney gave his opening statement in a civil trial Tuesday in a Georgia courtroom. News outlets report the terms weren’t disclosed and both sides declined to comment.

Rogers accused his former housekeeper Mye Brindle in a lawsuit filed in 2012 of recording their sexual encounters in an attempt to extort him. Rogers also sued Brindle’s attorneys for allegedly conspiring with her.

Brindle says she recorded the acts as proof of Rogers’ repeated sexual harassment.

Brindle and her attorneys were indicted on unlawful surveillance charges but were all cleared last year.

Tennessee
Ex-football player files suit over school’s handling of rape claim

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A former University of Memphis football player is suing the school over its handling of a rape allegation.

The federal lawsuit filed Monday by Ernest Suttles says the school branded him as a rapist and cost him a possible NFL career. Court records say the state dismissed the charge last month after finding it couldn’t “carry its burden of proofs.”

Suttles was accused of raping a long-term girlfriend in 2017 just before the team was set to play the Liberty Bowl. The defensive lineman was kicked off the team and suspended from campus.

The lawsuit says the school didn’t interview a potential witness or close a related complaint, which prevented him from appealing the suspension and getting his financial aid restored.
Suttles wants a jury trial and all records of the complaint destroyed.

Missouri
Man sentenced for shooting 4 in stranded car

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 27-year-old Missouri man was sentenced to 26 years in prison for shooting into a stranded car with four women who had just a wedding.

The shooting in November 2016 killed one woman and severely injured the other three.

Deandre Jackson was sentenced Tuesday. He pleaded guilty in June to 10 crimes, including second-degree murder.

The Kansas City Star reports 25-year-old MarYanna Pennington died. Her sister was paralyzed from the chest down, a third woman lost the use of an arm and the fourth suffered back and abdominal injuries.

The women’s car broke down near a Kansas City cemetery after they left a wedding. Investigators say the shooting occurred after Jackson’s girlfriend and Pennington were involved in an earlier altercation.

More than 30 shell casings were found at the scene.

Pennsylvania
Man charged with selling guns stolen from feds

A Pennsylvania man has been charged with selling machine guns and other firearms and ammunition stolen from a federal storage facility in West Virginia.

Richard Adam Schreiber, 38, of Everett, was indicted Tuesday after federal agents seized about 100 guns, more than 1,300 gun components and nearly 124,000 rounds of ammunition.

Prosecutors said Schreiber plotted with a security guard who pilfered the weapons and ammunition from a gun-disposal facility in Martinsburg, West Virginia, operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The guard, Christopher Lee Yates, told authorities he’d get to work early and make off with guns, gun parts and ammo that had been seized during criminal investigations or were retired by federal agencies.

Prosecutors said Schreiber bought some of the stolen weapons from Yates and then sold them over the internet. According to court documents in Yates’ case, Scheiber admitted that Yates sold him at least 15 rifles, at least 80 handguns — most of which were retired ATF duty weapons — and four fully automatic machine guns. Prosecutors said at least three of the stolen machine guns were recovered from the people to whom Schreiber had sold them.

The scheme began unraveling in February 2019 after Philadelphia police recovered a gun with a slide whose serial number indicated it had already been destroyed at the ATF’s Martinsburg facility.

Schreiber faces an Aug. 27 arraignment on eight federal charges. A message was left with his lawyer seeking comment Tuesday.

Yates, who worked for a federal contractor at the site, has pleaded guilty in the case and is due to be sentenced in late August. Yates’ plea agreement calls for a prison sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine.


Montana
Prosecutor: Man body-slammed boy after national anthem snub

SUPERIOR, Mont. (AP) — A man is facing an assault charge after Montana authorities say he threw a 13-year-old boy to the ground at a rodeo because the teenager didn’t remove his hat when the national anthem was played.

The boy was taken to a hospital in Spokane, Washington, but details about his condition were not released. Court documents filed by Mineral County Attorney Ellen Donohue said the boy was flown to the hospital for a possible concussion and fractured skull.

Curt James Brockway, 39, told a sheriff’s deputy that he asked the boy to remove his hat out of respect for the national anthem playing before the start of the county rodeo on Saturday, Donohue wrote in the document describing the alleged attack.

The boy cursed at Brockway in response, and the man grabbed him by the throat, “lifted him into the air and slammed the boy into the ground,” Donohue wrote.

A witness, Taylor Hennick, told the Missoulian she was at the rodeo on Saturday when she heard a “pop” and saw the boy on the ground, bleeding from his ears. The assailant justified his actions by saying the boy “was disrespecting the national anthem so he had every right to do that,” Hennick said.

Donohue wrote in her description that a witness she did not name agreed with most of Brockway’s description of what happened, but did not hear Brockway ask the boy to take off his hat.
Brockway, of Superior, Montana, made an initial court appearance Monday on a charge of assault on a minor. Prosecutors recommended his bail be set at $100,000.

 Brockway is a registered violent offender after being convicted of a 2010 charge of assault with a weapon. District Judge John Larson gave him a 10-year suspended sentence. Brockway is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 14, when he’ll be asked to enter a plea.