National Roundup

Oregon
Woman charged with embezzling $4.4M from former employer
McMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) — A La Pine woman was arrested on charges accusing her of embezzling about $4.4 million from her former employer over six years.

The Oregon Pride Nursery filed a report in February involving suspected fraud, according to the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office. The business noted suspicious transactions and conducted an extensive audit, finding suspicious transactions dating back to 2013, KTVZ-TV reported.

It was determined that about $4.4 million had been embezzled by a former employee identified as Jeanna Buxton, the sheriff’s office said.

A Yamhill County grand jury returned an indictment charging 21 counts of first-degree aggravated theft, the agency said.

Members of the Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Response Team contacted Buxton on Monday at her La Pine home and took her into custody. She was initially booked into the Deschutes County Jail, before being transferred to the Yamhill County Jail in McMinnville.

New Hampshire
Man in shooting, lawyer attack cases denied bail request
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — A judge has denied a coronavirus-related bail release request for a man accused of shooting a New Hampshire church pastor and bride during a wedding and later attacking his own lawyer.

Dale Holloway said Wednesday he’s concerned for his health, WMUR-TV reported. He asked a judge to release him on bail pending his trial on the first-degree assault case involving the lawyer.

“I know this is a life-or-death situation with the coronavirus,” Holloway said. “I have asthma, which is a chronic disease. I’m vulnerable to this disease if I catch it. I’m likely to die.”

Holloway faces charges of attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault and being a convicted felon with a firearm stemming from the Oct. 12 shootings at a Pelham church. He’s pleaded not guilty.
A few days later, he was accused of striking his public defender in the face and head, causing the lawyer to suffer a hemorrhage. The two were meeting in a jail interview room in Manchester.

“To my knowledge, there are no weapons involved, and the alleged victim does not recall me being the attacker causing him any injuries,” Holloway said. “Therefore, there is no sufficient evidence to support the complaint for that very reason alone. It should warrant a dismissal of the indictments.”

Judge Diane Nicolosi said that while there are challenges being behind bars during a pandemic, Holloway should continue to be held without bail based on his record and the seriousness of the alleged crime.

In April, Holloway was denied a request to be released to house arrest due to coronavirus concerns.

New Hampshire
Lawsuit dropped against officer, city, in shooting
CLAREMONT, N.H. (AP) — The mother of a man who was fatally shot by a police officer in New Hampshire in 2016 has dropped a lawsuit against the former officer and the city where it happened.

“This case was taking a really serious emotional toll on the family,” Jared Bedrick, an attorney representing Cody LaFont’s mother, told the Valley News in an interview Wednesday.

Bedrick said the emotional strain of the case, coupled with the likelihood that it would not go in front of a jury for a long time due to COVID-19, were the main reasons for dropping the lawsuit.

LaFont’s mother, Tracy McEachern, said in her lawsuit that her son was suffering severe depression when he called police for help at his house in Claremont in 2016, and that Kibbe and his supervisor should have known that. The lawsuit accused Kibbe of excessive force.

Authorities said LaFont was holding a handgun and walking toward Kibbe, who fired three shots after LaFont ignored commands to drop the weapon.

Brian Cullen, an attorney representing Kibbe, called the shooting “tragic” in an email Wednesday. But he wrote that his client was put in an “untenable position” because LaFont did not drop the gun.

“Officer Kibbe is glad to have this matter finally closed, even though it will never truly be behind him,” Cullen wrote.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office initially ruled that Kibbe was “legally justified” in shooting LaFont but amended the finding in October after Kibbe’s credibility was called into question in an unrelated case, saying it could no longer could deem the shooting “legally justified” but also could not disprove Kibbe’s self-defense claim.

Kibbe had been sentenced to 90 days in jail in 2019 for performing an illegal search of a suspect’s room in the unrelated case. He’s no longer a police officer.

New York
U.S. deports man after push for indefinite detention stalls
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A man convicted of terrorism-related crimes, who served his sentence and was then detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has been deported after a legal battle to hold him indefinitely stalled.

Federal authorities held Adham Amin Hassoun at a federal detention facility in Batavia, New York, since his release from prison in 2018 in order to deport him. But until Tuesday, they could not find a destination, and argued in court that they had the authority to detain him indefinitely under the Patriot Act until they could.

Hassoun, 58, is a Palestinian man who was born in Lebanon. In 2007, he was convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people in a foreign country along with Jose Padilla, who is still imprisoned.

Authorities did not disclose Hassoun’s destination after he left the country on Tuesday, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

Earlier this summer, federal prosecutors had argued at a hearing that Hassoun remained a threat to national security, but ultimately withdrew testimony from another detainee at the Batavia detention facility, who claimed Hassoun told him about plans to commit crimes upon his release. Hassoun’s attorney said the claims were fabricated, the Observer Dispatch reported.

U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford ruled against the government and ordered Hassoun’s release. Prosecutors won an emergency stay upon appeal in July.

Hassoun’s deportation appears to end the legal battle over whether he posed a danger and could be held indefinitely.

Hassoun immigrated to the Florida in 1989, married and had three children, all of whom are American citizens. His family moved to Lebanon after his arrest, the Buffalo News reported.

One of Hassoun’s attorneys, Jonathan Manes, told the Democrat and Chronicle in an email: “After 18 years of imprisonment and nearly 1 1/2 years detained unlawfully under the Patriot Act, he is now a free man.”