National Roundup

Washington
Man gets prison sentence for poaching game
PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) — A western Washington man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for hunting violations in one of the largest poaching cases in state history.

Jason Hutt, 29, of Sequim was sentenced last week in Clallam County Superior Court after entering an Alford plea to five counts of unlawful hunting of big game and single counts of waste of wildlife, unlawful hunting of wild birds, hunting of wild animals, bail jumping and possession of methamphetamine.

An Alford plea means Hutt does not admit guilt but admits there is enough evidence to support a conviction.

“What I did was wrong,” Hutt told Superior Court Judge Brian Coughenour. “I’m here to deal with it.”

State Department of Fish and Wildlife investigators said Hutt and an accomplice — Wyatt Beck — illegally killed several bears, deer and elk in Clallam and Jefferson counties in the summer of 2018.

Matthew Roberson, Clallam County deputy prosecuting attorney, said Hutt is the first person in the state to go to prison on a first-degree unlawful hunting of big game conviction since the charge became a ranked felony.

“This is the first poaching case that I’m aware of where there’s prison involved, and I think in this case it is merited,” Roberson said.

Beck, 24, also of Sequim, pleaded guilty in Clallam County Superior Court Jan. 30 to four counts of unlawful hunting of big game with accomplice liability.

He was sentenced to 240 hours of community service and 30 days on electronic home monitoring.

State game officers, working with Clallam County sheriff’s deputies and the Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team, discovered illegally-hunted or illegally-possessed river otter pelt, bobcat pelt and a harlequin duck carcass while serving a search warrant at Hutt’s residence last Aug. 30, court papers said.

Fish and Wildlife Officer Bryan Davidson said Hutt collected elk and deer heads as trophies. Roberson said Hutt had more than 40 antlers and animal skulls at his residence.

Beck and Hutt were also ordered to split $8,000 fines.

Ohio
Prison worker tests positive; inmate sues for early release
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio prison employee tested positive for the coronavirus, the state reported Sunday night, marking the first such occurrence in Ohio at a time of growing national fears about the impact of the virus in crowded jails and prisons.

The employee at Marion Correctional Institution in north-central Ohio last worked March 24, began showing symptoms March 25 and reported the positive test Sunday, the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said. The person is at home recovering.

The employee is part of the prison’s “custody staff,” spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said Monday, a category that can include guards and supervisors such as lieutenants and captains. The prison is prohibiting inmate and employee transfers out of the facility and is restricting movement inside, the agency said.

Systemwide, the prisons department is now allowing alcohol-based hand sanitizer and limiting prison access to employees and necessary contractors who undergo health screens, said agency Director Annette Chambers-Smith

“We have worked for several weeks implementing changes within our operations to address the challenges presented by COVID-19,” Chambers-Smith said.

The announcement came as the Ohio Supreme Court considered a lawsuit filed by an inmate seeking release from Belmont Correctional Facility over fears of the virus.

The prisoner, Derek Lichtenwalter, is serving a two-year sentence out of Guernsey County on a “failure to comply” charge. There is no way to carry out proper social distancing, the inmate said in a March 19 complaint filed with the court.

The prison’s “bed areas are so crowded that I am within three feet of at least twelve people and those twelve are in the same position this means that there are 126 people in my ‘dorm’ that are within 3-4 feet of each other,” the complaint says. “The Common areas are overcrowded and what this means is once it gets to the prison it will be spread quickly through the population.”

The state asked the court Monday to dismiss the lawsuit, saying Lichtenwalter doesn’t have “a clear legal right to be released from prison due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” a move that would require a court order.

“There are no laws or legislative decisions ordering the release of incarcerated individuals in the wake of a pandemic,” Jared Lee and Michael Walton, assistant attorneys general, said in the state’s filing.

New Mexico
Office probes claims sheriff showed up at standoff drunk
RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office is reviewing a case involving a sheriff who police said showed up drunk to a SWAT standoff and tried to order officers away.

Attorney General spokesman Matt Baca told The Associated Press late Friday a complaint naming Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan has been referred to the office and the prosecutors are reviewing it.

A criminal complaint filed Thursday said Lujan, in plain clothes, attempted to take over the scene involving a barricaded subject in Española, New Mexico, on Saturday.

Española Police Chief Richard Jimenez wrote that officers reported Lujan smalled of alcohol and ignored commands to leave the “kill zone” in front of the house of the barricaded subject.

Lujan told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the accusations in the criminal complaint are false.

South Carolina
Jailed white nationalist seeks bond over virus
YORK, S.C. (AP) — A white nationalist jailed in South Carolina is seeking bail because of concerns about the coronavirus while behind bars.

Augustus Sol Invictus, 36, ran for the U.S. Senate in Florida and was a featured speaker during the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Now facing a domestic violence charge and a gun charge in Rock Hill, South Carolina, his legal team argued Friday that Invictus has not been convicted of a crime and deserves a bond, The Herald reported.

Invictus was arrested in December 2019. He’s accused of choking his wife and holding a gun to her head, forcing her to drive from South Carolina to Florida , 6th Circuit Solicitor Jenny Desch said.

South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Dan Hall had ordered that Invictus be held without bond, saying he’s a flight risk and a threat to public safety. Hall said he would issue a written order this week.

Court hearings over the past few weeks in York County, South Carolina, have revolved around inmates’ concerns about the coronavirus. County officials have reported no cases at the jail, the Herald reported.