Court Digest

New Hampshire
Attorney guilty of taking over $2.4M from clients
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — An attorney pleaded guilty in New Hampshire federal court to defrauding his clients of over $2.4 million that was given to him to hold in escrow for private lending, real estate transactions and business deals.

Prosecutors said John Allen, 63, of Bedford, told his clients he would hold the funds in an account, but transferred the funds into another bank without the authority to do so and used them for personal expenses.

In one case, prosecutors said, Allen had a client invest more than $1.5 million in fraudulent promissory notes that Allen created using other people’s identities. He did not invest the money and kept it for himself.

Prosecutors said to hide the sources of the funds he stole from his clients, Allen comingled fraud proceeds and legitimate funds.

Allen, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering, lost his license to practice law last year. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2021.

Alaska
Voters retain targeted Supreme Court justice
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska voters have retained state Supreme Court Justice Susan Carney, following a push for her ouster by conservative groups unhappy with court opinions on issues like abortion.

Carney, who was appointed to the court in 2016, faced a retention vote for a 10-year term. The Alaska Judicial Council, in its performance review of Carney, said she met or exceeded performance standards for criteria such as integrity, legal ability and impartiality or fairness. The council recommended she be retained.

Seven former state attorneys general, dating to the 1970s and who served under governors from the Republican, Democratic and Alaskan Independence parties, wrote an opinion piece supporting Carney and saying the criticism against her “grossly misstates” what happened in each case.

Opponents focused on cases that involved abortion, the state’s sex offender registry and the annual oil check paid to residents from Alaska’s oil wealth fund. An opposition group called Alaskans for Judicial Reform received financial backing in part from FRC Action, which is affiliated with the Family Research Council, and the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony List. The anti-Carney group on its website said Carney “has disqualified herself from sitting on the bench.”

In the abortion case, the court struck down as unconstitutional a state law and regulation seeking to restrict abortions that could be performed for women who qualify for Medicaid. In the sex offender case, a divided court ruled sex offender registration requirements can be applied to those who were convicted of offenses out of state. But the court said the sex offender registry law was “overbroad” because it didn’t provide an opportunity for those convicted to show they do not pose a risk requiring registration.

On the oil wealth check, the court found the dividend is no different than other state programs that must compete for funding. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, and some lawmakers have argued a decades-old formula for calculating the checks should be followed until it is changed. The formula was last used in 2015. The state has grappled with a budget deficit.

The retention vote appeared on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. State election officials on Tuesday, a week after the election, began counting a large volume of absentee and other ballots.


Florida
Man gets 20 years for plot to kill judge, prosecutor
MIAMI (AP) — A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for plotting to kill a federal judge and prosecutor in Miami who handled a 2018 case in which he was found guilty of murder-for-hire.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom sentenced Matthew Alexander King on Friday on charges of retaliation against a federal judge and solicitation to commit murder, according to a news release from the U.S. State Attorney’s Office.

King pleaded guilty to the charges on Feb. 10.

An assistant prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida handled the 2018 case in which King was accused of hiring a hit man to kill several family members of his estranged wife.

King was convicted and a federal judge sentenced him to 97 months in federal prison.

Court records show King then attempted to hire another hit man to kill the judge, the prosecutor, and six others, including an FBI agent who had investigated his case, a witness who had cooperated with authorities, his defense counsel, and the same three family members of his estranged wife whom he initially tried to have killed.

But King didn’t know that the person he attempted to hire was actually an FBI undercover agent posing as a hit man, the news release said. King shared his plans with the agent while being secretly recorded on video.

Bloom ordered King’s sentence to run consecutive to the 97-month sentence that he is currently serving.

New York
Excessive force lawsuit against police settled
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York town has settled a lawsuit filed by a man who alleged that Niskayuna police used excessive force and injured him during an arrest.

Attorney Kevin Luibrand said Thursday that the town of Niskayuna will pay $192,500 to resolve the lawsuit brought by his client, Erick Rosenberg, the Daily Gazette reported.

Luibrand said Thursday that the settlement was reached in October, before the case was set to go to trial.

"It was a proper settlement under the circumstances," he said.

Rosenberg alleged that on May 30, 2016, in the course of an arrest officers broke his left arm. Rosenberg suffered from a physical disability that impaired the use of his left arm and hand.

"After these events, his arm usage is substantially limited," Luibrand said.

Rosenberg faced several charges after his arrest, however only pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and was sentenced to six months in jail.

Niskayuna Town Supervisor Yasmine Syed and the town attorney did not respond to requests to comment from The Gazette.