VERMONT
Judge dismisses “happy cow” lawsuit against Ben & Jerry’s
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Ben & Jerry’s that alleged that the ice cream maker and its parent company misled consumers by saying the milk and cream in its products comes from “happy cows.”
In a complaint filed Oct. 29, 2019, in Burlington, Vermont, where Ben & Jerry’s was founded, environmental advocate James Ehlers said that many of the farms that produce the milk and cream are factory-style, mass production dairy operations and only some are part of the company’s “Caring Dairy” program.
U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss on Thursday threw out the lawsuit, saying Ben & Jerry’s, owned by the multinational firm Unilever, did not claim that all its milk comes from farms enrolled in Caring Dairy, Vermont Public Radio reported.
She also noted that Ben & Jerry’s no longer uses the “happy” cow label on its ice cream cartons.
“As a result, any possibility of future deception of plaintiff in a similar way to the harm alleged ... is non-existent,” she wrote.
Ehlers said he’s considering amending his lawsuit. Ben & Jerry’s spokeswoman Laura Peterson said in a written statement that the court was right to dismiss the “meritless” claims.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Man on death row in bikini top killing to get new sentence
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A judge has ordered a new sentencing hearing for a man on South Carolina’s death row for strangling a Clemson University student with her bikini top 14 years ago.
Jerry Buck Inman should have been sentenced by a jury instead of by a judge when the death sentence for killing and raping 20-year-old Tiffany Souers was handed down in 2009, a lower court judge has ruled.
The order cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from four years ago that a jury, and not a judge, must agree to the facts to sentence someone to death, The Greenville News reported.
The state Attorney General’s Office can appeal the decision to the South Carolina Supreme Court.
Inman broke into Souers’ off-campus apartment in May 2006, tying her up and raping her before killing her, according to his own confession. He was a convicted sex offender from Tennessee.
The state Supreme Court upheld Inman’s death sentence in a different appeal in 2011. The latest appeal came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling significantly changed the law in Inman’s case.
Unless the state Supreme Court overturns the new sentencing, a jury will decide if Inman faces the death penalty again or life in prison without parole.
Inman asked for death at his trial, while his lawyer Jim Bannister asked for a life sentence.
“I see this as a vindication of the issues that we raised back when we tried this case,” Bannister told the newspaper. “At the time, we made the argument that life without parole is in a lot of ways a worse sentence than to be executed.”
TEXAS
Ted Cruz writing book on Supreme Court cases
NEW YORK (AP) — Sen. Ted Cruz is working on a book, to be published in October, about the Supreme Court.
Regnery Publishing announced Monday that the book was called “One Vote Away” and would draw upon the Texas Republican’s long legal background to provide an inside look at key court decisions.
“With the perspective only a veteran government leader and seasoned Supreme Court advocate can bring, Cruz will outline these crucial Court battles as a powerful wakeup call to Americans to the exceptional power of a single Supreme Court vote against the backdrop of the 2020 election and in the decades to come,” according to a statement from Regnery, a conservative publisher.
Cruz previously wrote the memoir “A Time for Truth.”
Before first being elected to the U.S. Senate, in 2012, Cruz served as Texas solicitor general from 2003-2008 and also spent several years in private practice. Notable cases he argued before the Supreme Court included Medellin v. Texas, in which he differed with then-President George W. Bush, a fellow Texas Republican. Cruz contended that Bush overreached in supporting the claim of Jose Medellin, a Mexican national convicted and sentenced to death in Texas for his part in the rape and murder of two teenage girls, that his rights had been violated under international law, the Vienna Convention.
In 2008, the court ruled 6-3 in favor of Texas.
NEW JERSEY
Repeat offender sentenced in medical billing scheme
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man who sent thousands of fraudulent billing invoices to hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices throughout the country has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison.
Robert S. Armstrong, 49, of Turnersville, defrauded his victims out of more than $200,000, federal prosecutors said. He had pleaded guilty in January to mail fraud.
Armstrong received a 41-month sentence Friday for the scheme. And since he was convicted in 2015 of running a similar scheme that targeted schools, he got an additional two-year prison term for violating his probation on those charges.
He also will have to serve three years of supervised release once he’s freed and must pay full restitution.
A message seeking comment was left Monday with his lawyer.
In the most recent scheme, which operated under the company name of Pinnacle Medical Supplies, Armstrong sent out invoices that billed hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices for medical supplies such as diabetic test strips and sanitizing wipes that they never ordered nor received.
Armstrong also contracted with a legitimate bulk mailing company to mail more than 10,000 invoices to medical providers across the United States.
Each invoice included a payment envelope pre-addressed to Pinnacle Medical Supply at mail boxes Armstrong had set up with commercial mail receiving agents in Florida and Texas.
At least 943 medical providers sent $214,495 overall to Pinnacle Medical Supply, prosecutors said. Armstrong deposited many of the checks into a bank account he opened in the company’s name.
