National Roundup

Ohio
Court: Not paying child support can block parent’s adoption protest

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A parent loses the ability to protest a child’s adoption by failing to support the child as required by law or judges orders, a divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in the case of a biological father who only paid $200 in a year toward his child’s support.

At issue was the refusal of the father to allow his ex-wife’s new husband to adopt their child. The couple married in Indiana but the woman moved to Ohio after the divorce and the father returned to his native Kosovo, according to the Supreme Court decision.

The father stayed in contact with the child but paid only $200 in the year preceding the adoption request, the court said. Records show an Indiana judge required the man to pay $85 a week and he owed more than $17,000 at the time of the hearing.

The ex-wife’s new husband said the father’s failure to meet his child support obligations cost him his ability to protest the adoption, according to Ohio law.

Justice Pat DeWine, writing for the majority, agreed, saying the father’s consent wasn’t required because he didn’t make the payments as ordered and lacked “justifiable cause” for his failure.

Dissenting Justice Sharon Kennedy said that because the father made a payment during the year before the hearing, he retained his right to withhold consent to the adoption.

Massachusetts
Man sentenced for sending white powder to feds

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who sent threatening packages containing white powder to federal officials, including one that had a death threat against President Donald Trump, has avoided additional time behind bars.

Kevin Johnson, 48, of South­wick, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Springfield to time served, the 15 months he has spent in jail since his arrest in November 2018. He was also sentenced to three years of probation.

Johnson pleaded guilty in November to conveying false information and hoaxes.

In July 2018, Johnson threw an envelope at the front door of the FBI’s Springfield office that included a handwritten note that said “Death to Trump,” prosecutors said.

He also sent packages containing white powder to the Springfield offices of the FBI and the Social Security Administration, authorities said. The powder turned out to be nonhazardous.

The packages contained a piece of white-lined paper with a hand-drawn logo that appeared to combine the anarchist symbol — a capital A inside a circle — and the symbol for the Islamic State group, prosecutors said.

Johnson’s public defender said in a sentencing memo that her client’s conduct was nonviolent and he has longstanding mental health issues, which imprisonment would likely make worse.

Alabama
Longtime judge convicted on ethics charges after retirement

CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) — A longtime Alabama judge who retired after being accused of wrongly sending court work to his son has been convicted on multiple judicial ethics charges.

Records show the Alabama Court of the Judiciary returned the judgment Monday against former Cullman County District Judge Kim Chaney, who had five terms in office and was reportedly the state’s longest-serving district judge.

Chaney retired recently as investigators accused him of wrongly sending $105,000 in court-appointed legal work to his attorney son, Alex Chaney, from 2015 through 2017. Chaney also was accused of wrongly ruling in cases involving his son.

Chaney, who did not contest the allegations, was ordered to pay about $3,700 in court costs. He was convicted on three judicial ethics charges involving six different rules, including a prohibition against nepotism.

Chaney served nearly 30 years in the position before retiring and being found guilty, and the Cullman Bar Association unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday praising Chaney’s record and ethics despite the conviction, The Cullman Times reported. The resolution said Chaney became Alabama’s longest-tenured district judge in 2018.

 “We had about 20 people at the meeting, and of those, everyone in attendance was in favor of doing this resolution in support of Judge Chaney,” said Annette Parker, president of the organization.
Chaney worked as a deputy and county prosecutor before becoming a judge.

New Hampshire
Not asleep on the job? Lawyer’s sleep apnea claim rejected

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A lawyer who blamed his professional misconduct on a sleep disorder was appropriately punished for lying to a client and charging her for work he never did, the state Supreme Court ruled.

Attorney Joshua Mesmer appealed to the high court after an attorney disciplinary committee recommended that he be suspended for three years. According to the committee, Mesmer represented the owner of a tire company in a dispute over money it owed another company, but repeatedly lied to her about filing paperwork on her behalf.

“Throughout this period, the client sent the respondent near-daily messages seeking updates on the case, and stating that the case was causing her significant stress and anxiety,” the court wrote in its Feb. 21 ruling. “The respondent often did not reply to those messages. When he did, he never told the client the truth: that he had filed no pleadings , and thus nothing was pending before the court.”

Mesmer argued that his severe sleep apnea rendered him incapable of “knowingly” committing the violations, and that the illness — which is marked by interrupted breathing during sleep — should have been considered a significant mitigating factor in determining his punishment. But the court agreed with the professional conduct committee, which found that he acted knowingly, and at times, intentionally.

The court said given that Mesmer violated duties to his client, the public, the legal system and the legal profession, disbarment was an appropriate baseline sanction. Lowering that to a three-year suspension was appropriate, it said, because he had no prior disciplinary record and cooperated with the investigation. It considered his sleep apnea a mitigating “personal problem” but not a disability, in part because Mesmer’s expert witness called the disorder mild, not severe.

“Sleep apnea did not cause the respondent’s most serious misconduct: his dishonesty to his client and the court,” the justices wrote.

Mesmer’s attorney declined to comment on the ruling Wednesday.