Court Digest

Massachusetts
Feds get more time to weigh Boston Marathon bomber appeal
BOSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has agreed to give prosecutors another month to decide their next step after the court tossed Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s death sentence.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week said prosecutors can have until Sept. 14 to file a petition asking the full court to rehear the case. The government’s petition was initially due on Friday.

Prosecutors asked for more time to decide whether to ask the court to reconsider the case, saying the process “in a case of this magnitude” requires input “from various components within the Department of Justice.” Prosecutors could also appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court last month threw out Tsarnaev’s death sentence in the 2013 bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. The appeals court said the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases and ordered a new penalty-phase trial on whether the 27-year-old should be executed.

Tsarnaev was convicted in 2015 on 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction. The 1st Circuit upheld all but a few of the convictions.

New Jersey
Ex-military couple faces 3rd sentencing in child abuse case
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A convicted former Army major and his wife who prosecutors said routinely beat their young foster children and denied them food and water will be sentenced for a third time, after a federal appeals court ruled the trial judge again failed to adequately address the seriousness of their crimes.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling last month sent the case back to the same federal judge in New Jersey who sentenced John and Carolyn Jackson twice previously, in 2015 and 2018. Both have now been struck down at the appellate level.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers have through mid-November to file pre-sentencing briefs, under an order issued this week by U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden.

The 2015 trial produced testimony that the Jacksons’ three foster children suffered broken bones and were severely underweight and had other health problems when they were removed from the home in 2010. The couple’s biological son testified the couple forced the children to eat hot pepper flakes and drink hot sauce as punishment.

One of the children suffered injuries including a fractured skull, a broken arm and a fractured spine.

A fourth foster child in their care died, but the Jacksons weren’t charged with his death. At trial, the Jacksons’ lawyers argued that the children had pre-existing health problems, and said the couple’s child-rearing methods were unconventional but not criminal.

John Jackson received probation and Carolyn Jackson was sentenced to two years at the first sentencing, stunning prosecutors who had sought prison terms of 15 years or longer. At the second sentencing, Hayden extended John Jackson’s sentence to three years of probation and Carolyn Jackson’s to more than three years. Both received credit for time served.

Sentencing was complicated by the fact that the trial took place in federal court since the Jacksons lived at Picatinny Arsenal, a New Jersey military facility, during the time of the alleged abuse. Because child endangerment is not a federal crime, state endangerment charges were merged into the federal indictment to go along with a conspiracy count and two assault counts.

The Jacksons were acquitted of the assault counts, but prosecutors argued Hayden should sentence them under federal assault guidelines anyway because the nature of the child endangerment counts made them “sufficiently analogous” to assault.

Lawyers for the couple argued prosecutors didn’t connect specific acts by the Jacksons to injuries the children suffered.

The appeals court disagreed, writing last month that Hayden’s decision to give more weight to expert testimony supporting the Jacksons “turned the preponderance of the evidence standard on its head.”

“On review, we have concluded that the government adequately proved that several of the children’s serious injuries were in fact caused by the Jacksons,” the court wrote.

The U.S. attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case, declined comment Tuesday, as did an attorney representing Carolyn Jackson. A message was left with an attorney representing John Jackson.

Wisconsin
1 of 2 girls convicted in Slender Man stabbing loses appeal
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — One of two Wisconsin girls who repeatedly stabbed a classmate because she believed a fictional horror character named Slender Man would attack her family if she didn’t kill the girl lost an appeal Wednesday.

Morgan Geyser was 12 at the time of the 2014 attack, which Payton Leutner survived. Geyser’s attorney Matthew Pinix had argued that she should have been charged with attempted second-degree intentional homicide, which would have placed the case in juvenile court. Instead, she was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, which put the case in adult court.

But Wisconsin’s 2nd District Court of Appeals found that the Waukesha County Circuit Court correctly kept the case in adult court, saying it found probable cause that she had committed attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

Pinix said he planned to appeal Wednesday’s ruling to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

“Morgan’s fight is not over,” Pinix said. “The court of appeals dodged serious issues in the case and admittedly struggled with some of the areas of law.”

Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper, who prosecuted the case, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in a deal with prosecutors to avoid prison. She was found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

Geyser and co-defendant Anissa Weier lured Payton Leutner from a sleepover to a nearby wooded park in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times, as Weier encouraged her, leaving the girl for dead. All three girls were 12 at the time.

Leutner recalled in a 2019 interview  with ABC News how, before the stabbing, Weier told her to lay down on the ground and cover herself with sticks and leaves, as part of what Leutner believed to be a game of hide-and-seek. After the stabbing, Leutner said she eventually got up, grabbed trees for support, and made her way to a road where a bicyclist found her and called for help.

Geyser was ordered to spend 40 years in a mental health institution because she was the mastermind and did the stabbing, prosecutors said. Weier was committed to a mental health facility for 25 years.

Geyser’s attorney argued on appeal that Geyser couldn’t really understand what rights she gave up when she agreed to speak alone with a detective while she was in custody and confessed to the stabbing.

The appeals court said it didn’t need to rule on whether the lower court made a mistake in allowing the comments to police.

Even if the lower court was wrong, “such error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt due to the additional, unchallenged and overwhelming evidence in this case,” the appeals court said.

The case drew widespread attention in part because of the girls’ fascination with the Slender Man character. Slender Man was created online by Eric Knudson in 2009 as a mysterious specter photo-edited into everyday images of children at play. He’s typically depicted as a slim, spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face. He has grown into a popular boogeyman and has appeared in video games, online stories and  a 2018 movie.

Arkansas
Judge denies early release for woman in child food fraud
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge in Little Rock has rejected a compassionate release request by an eastern Arkansas woman who is serving more than 12 years in prison for defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. denied the request by Jacqueline Mills, 45, of Helena-West Helena on Monday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Mills said she is susceptible to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, at the federal prison in Minnesota where she is serving her sentence. Her medical conditions include high blood pressure, chronic kidney and heart disease. Mills also said her mother has congestive heart failure and is incapable of caring for Mills’ 6-year-old daughter.

Moody wrote that Mills’ medical issues are common, that she “has provided no argument or evidence that her health conditions are not controlled with medication,” and that medical records do not show her mother is incapacitated.

Mills was convicted and sentenced in 2017 to 150 months in prison for her role in what prosecutors said was a scheme involving more than a dozen people to steal more than $10.5 million in federal funds intended to feed disadvantaged children. She denied wrongdoing and has served about 30 months of the sentence.

Mills’ noted that Attorney General William Barr issued orders in March and April to increase the use of home confinement and expedite the release of eligible high-risk inmates and wrote that she has asked the federal prison where she’s held for compassionate relief.

California
Appeals court tosses antitrust ruling against Qualcomm
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court has overturned an antitrust ruling against Qualcomm, dismissing arguments that it unlawfully squeezed out cellphone chip rivals and charged excessive royalties to manufacturers such as Apple.

The 3-judge panel unanimously sided with the San Diego chipmaker in tossing out a district court’s earlier ruling on a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

It’s a victory for Qualcomm, since the earlier ruling could have undercut its business by threatening its ability to extract big royalties from phone makers.

“Anticompetitive behavior is illegal under federal antitrust law. Hypercompetitive behavior is not,” said the opinion Tuesday from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which described the earlier ruling as going beyond the scope of antitrust law.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, ruled in May 2019 that Qualcomm must renegotiate licensing deals with customers. Her ruling would have required Qualcomm to license its patents to rival chipmakers at fair prices and refrain from signing exclusive agreements that block competitors from also selling chips to smartphone makers. Qualcomm would have had to submit to FTC monitoring for seven years.

The case pitted the U.S. government against itself. While the FTC pursued its charges in court, the Justice Department told the appellate court that Koh’s decision would endanger national security by diminishing Qualcomm’s competitiveness.

Qualcomm said in a statement Tuesday that the appeals court ruling “validates our business model and patent licensing program and underscores the tremendous contributions that Qualcomm has made to the industry.”


New York
Egg producer gouged prices when pandemic hit, lawsuit says
NEW YORK (AP) — One of the country’s largest egg producers illegally inflated prices when the pandemic hit New York, taking in $4 million as it charged up to four times more per carton, state Attorney General Letitia James charged in a lawsuit Tuesday.

James claims that in March and April, Hillandale Farms price gouged more than 4 million cartons of eggs sold to grocery store chains, U.S. military facilities and wholesale food distributors. The lawsuit seeks restitution for consumers.

“As this pandemic ravaged our country, Hillandale exploited hardworking New Yorkers to line its own pockets,” James said in a prepared release.

Hillandale said in a statement that it is prepared to defend against the allegations in court. The company said the pandemic “caused a massive disruption in every sector of the economy, including the egg industry.”

Hillandale said eggs have historically been subject to volatile pricing. “But our approach to pricing has been consistent for decades, and without complaint, whether that has led to profits or losses, and the last several months have been no exception.”

The suit filed in state court in New York City alleges that Hillandale raised prices on eggs sold to Stop & Shop, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Associated Supermarkets and the commissary stores at the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, Fort Hamilton and Fort Drum. In one case, per-dozen prices for large, white eggs charged to Western Beef supermarkets went from 59 cents to $1.10 in January to $2.93 by the end of March.

The lawsuit alleges that prices did not reflect increased costs, but higher consumer demand during the pandemic. James’ office said it had received complaints from retail customers who found the jacked-up prices “ridiculous” and “disgraceful.”

The lawsuit brings claims against Hillandale Farms Corp., Hillandale Farms East, Inc., Hillandale Farms of PA, Inc., Hillandale Farms Conn, LLC, Hillandale Farms of Delaware, Inc. and Hillandale-Gettysburg, L.P.