Court Digest

New York
Former Fox execs denied in bid for separate trial
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has denied a motion by a pair of former 21st Century Fox Inc. executives to have a separate trial from a sports marketing group on charges related to the U.S government investigation of corruption in soccer.

Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez were charged on March 18 with money laundering conspiracy as part of an alleged scheme related to rights to the Copa Libertadores soccer tournament, South America’s club championship. The pair have pleaded not guilty and asked to be tried separately from Full Play Group SA.

Lopez was CEO of Fox International Channels, a 21st Century Fox subsidiary, and Martinez was president of Fox International Channels and an executive of Fox Latin American Channel Inc. They are accused of joining with Full Play to pay million of dollars in bribes to CONMEBOL executives in exchange for rights to the Copa Libertadores, South America’s annual club championship.

“Even though Lopez and Martinez are charged in only a subset of the counts in which Full Play is charged, the court is not convinced, based in part on recent, comparable experience in this case, that severance would meaningfully streamline either trial in such a way as to substantially reduce the risk of prejudice. Rather, the court is convinced that severing Lopez and Martinez’s trial from that of Full Play will result in the unwarranted, duplicative presentation of evidence at two trials,” U.S. District Judge Pamela K. Chen wrote in 16-page decision Sunday.

“To the extent that Lopez and Martinez would be prejudiced by the introduction of certain evidence, there are remedies short of severance that can mitigate or eliminate any potential prejudice, such as evidentiary limitations and curative instructions” Chen added.

Lopez’s lawyer, Matthew D. Umhofer, declined comment, Steven J. McCool, Martinez’s attorney, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Umhofer in the past has called it a “thin case” and McCool called the charges “stale fiction.”

Hawaii
3 lawsuits filed against Big Island geothermal plant
HILO, Hawaii (AP) — Environmentalists and Hawaii island residents have filed three lawsuits seeking further review of the state’s only geothermal power plant before the facility is allowed to produce electricity for consumer use.

The lawsuits were filed late last month in Hilo Circuit Court against Puna Geothermal Venture, The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported  Sunday.

The Hawaii Department of Health determined in September that Puna Geothermal did not require additional environmental review before Nevada-based parent company Ormat Technologies Inc. restarts the facility.

The 38-megawatt power plant’s geothermal wells were isolated or covered by lava in the massive Kilauea volcano eruption that began in May 2018. Puna Geothermal supplied 31% of the Big Island’s electricity before the shutdown.

The lawsuits name the state health department and Puna Geothermal as defendants and claim that the plant’s environmental impact statement is inadequate and outdated. The project was originally completed in 1987.

Two of the lawsuits were filed Oct. 21. The first case is on behalf of the nonprofit environmental group Puna Pono Alliance and residents living near the plant who claim the plant adversely affects health and property.

The second lawsuit claiming the state and Puna Geothermal violated environmental regulations was filed on behalf of an environmental activist and two residents.

Puna Pono Alliance and others have for years fought the company over emissions of hydrogen sulfide gas in incidents including a well blowout in 1991 and a smaller leak in 2014.

The third lawsuit filed Oct. 23 accuses Puna Geothermal of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” and claims fluid injection into geothermal wells during the 2018 eruption caused explosions that ejected lava under the plant out through a fissure.

Mike Kaleikini, Puna Geothermal senior director of Hawaii Affairs, denied the fracking claim in 2019.

Kaleikini did not comment on the lawsuits, but said in an email he hopes the power plant will be back online sometime next week.

Alabama
Former judge pleads guilty to ethics charges
ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — A one-time north Alabama judge accused of stealing from a courthouse fund and a conservatorship account has pleaded guilty to theft and ethics charges.

Former Limestone County District Judge Douglas Patterson entered the plea Friday ahead of his trial scheduled for later this month, the Decatur Daily reported.

Patterson, 38, resigned in July after being indicted last year on charges of financial exploitation, theft and using his position for personal gain. He was was accused of taking more than $47,000 from a juvenile court fund as judge and stealing from the conservatorship account of a disabled person while working as a private attorney.

Patterson agreed to pay $73,000 in restitution and could face additional fines and jail time at his sentencing on Dec. 8.

Former Gov. Robert Bentley appointed Patterson to the judgeship in March 2016, and he later ran unopposed and won a six-year term.

South Dakota
AG: Shooting of man justified
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The South Dakota Attorney General’s Office says a Lake County sheriff’s deputy was justified in shooting and wounding an armed Madison man.

Benjamin Hernandez, 34, refused to put down his loaded shotgun after being ordered to do so by police and a sheriff’s deputy, authorities said.

The incident happened Sept. 30 when police and deputies responded to a report of a suicidal man armed with a shotgun in a vehicle at a convenience store in Madison.

The man, later identified as Hernandez, made numerous threats to kill himself and shoot officers, the attorney general said.

At one point, Hernandez pointed his shotgun toward officers with his finger on the trigger, according to the summary.

An unidentified Lake County sheriff’s deputy fired a single round that struck Hernandez in the chest. Hernandez dropped his gun out of the window and was given first aid by officers, the Argus Leader reported.

Hernandez was flown to Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls with non-life-threatening injuries.

North Dakota
Judge dismisses defamation claim by protester
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit by a New York City woman who was severely injured in an explosion while protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline in North Dakota four years ago.

In a 54-page ruling issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor dismissed claims of defamation against law enforcement officials who made public statements blaming the woman for her own injury.

Sophia Wilansky, who was 21 at the time, suffered an arm injury in a violent November 2016 clash between protesters and police during the unsuccessful months-long protest in southern North Dakota against the pipeline.

Protesters allege the blast was caused by a concussion grenade thrown by officers, but law enforcement said it was caused by a propane canister that protesters rigged to explode.

Wilansky’s lawsuit filed two years ago  also seeks millions of dollars for alleged excessive force, assault, negligence and emotional distress. Those parts of the lawsuit are still pending.

Traynor, who is based in Bismarck, sided with government attorneys who argued statements about news events released to the public by law officers as part of their official duties are entitled to immunity.

Government lawyers also argued that Wilansky’s father, Wayne, had given interviews to the news media giving her side of the story.

Attorneys for Sophia Wilansky did not immediately return telephone calls Monday.

Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners built the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline to move oil from the Dakotas through Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois, which it began doing in June 2017.

Thousands of opponents gathered in southern North Dakota in 2016 and early 2017, camping on federal land and often clashing with police. Hundreds were arrested over six months.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposed the pipeline over fears it would harm cultural sites and the tribe’s Missouri River water supply — claims rejected by the company and the state.

Tennessee
Two doctors agree to pay $340K in Medicare fraud
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Two Tennessee doctors and their associated clinics have agreed to pay $341,690 to resolve claims that they defrauded Medicare, according to a Friday news release from the U.S. Justice Department.

In a federal lawsuit filed in Memphis, the United States accused Dr. Shoaib Qureshi, Dr. Imran Mirza and their clinics of billing Medicare for services rendered by nurse practitioners at the higher reimbursement rate for physician services. At times when the billing occurred, the physicians were out of the office or even out of the country, the lawsuit alleged. It claimed the improper billing took place from 2015-2018.

The settlement resolves allegations filed in a lawsuit by Michael Grace under a provision of the False Claims Act that permits private individuals to sue on behalf of the government and to share in any recovery. As part of this settlement, Grace will receive $58,087.

Washingotn
Gunman in mass shooting could be released one day
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A man sentenced to life in prison without parole for his role as a 16-year-old in Pierce County’s worst mass shooting might one day be released after he was resentenced due to a change in the law about mandatory life sentences for juveniles.

The News Tribune reports that John Phet, now 39, was one of the gunmen in the 1998 Trang Dai Cafe massacre in Tacoma, in which five people were killed and five others were injured.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Stanley Rumbaugh sentenced Phet to 25 years to life, which means the state’s Indeterminate Sentence Review Board will decide when or if he’ll be released.

Phet was convicted of five counts of aggravated first-degree murder and five counts of first-degree assault in 2002, and at the time the only sentence available was life without parole. Phet, one of six charged and convicted, was the youngest participant.

The law about such sentences for youths has since changed. The U.S. Supreme Court in Miller v. Alabama said mandatory sentences of life without parole for juveniles amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The state’s response in 2014 was to change Washington law to allow such defendants to be re-sentenced, with hearings that take their youth into account.

If a judge at re-sentencing finds life without parole isn’t appropriate for someone who was 16 or 17 at the time of their crime, the minimum sentence that judge can give is 25 years to life, with the state review board determining the end date.

Phet and another man were told to shoot anyone who came out the back door, which is how 21-year-old waitress Tuyen Vo was killed.

“Mr. Phet is alive today,” deputy prosecutor Jim Schacht told the court Friday. “She is not. ... This is the worst mass shooting that Pierce County has had, and that part of this case needs to be taken into account.”

Schacht also acknowledged that Phet has been a “model prisoner.”

By video, Jeremiah Bourgeois told the court he’s known Phet for about 10 years, and that they met while Bourgeois was serving life without parole. He was in prison for more than 27 years, he said, starting at the age of 14.

Bourgeois said he was recently released and today is studying law at Gonzaga University, “in large part due to” Phet’s positive influence.

Phet himself said: “I understand and I take full responsibility” for the crimes.

He talked about the impact of others who supported him behind bars and encouraged him to get an education.

He said he knows he can’t “erase the pain of the families.”

“I’m sorry,” Phet said.

Kansas
Man who killed toddler in 1995 granted parole
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man sentenced to life in prison for the beating death of a 2-year-old Topeka boy in 1995 has been granted parole.

Glenn Allen Heath Jr., 46, was serving a life sentence after being convicted for first-degree murder in the death of his then-fiancee’s stepson, Cain Baker, at the couple’s home in Topeka,

An autopsy determined the boy died from abdominal punctures.

Heath will be released from Lansing Correctional Facility on or after Dec. 1 if an approved plan is in place, Carol Pitts, spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Corrections, said Monday.

The Kansas Prison Review Board had rejected Heath’s previous parole applications in 2010, 2015 and 2018.

Supporters of Heath told the board at past public hearings that he has no prison disciplinary violations, completed five prison programs, has a strong support system and a job offer, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.