Court Digest

Oregon
Man sentenced for breaking baby’s bones
BEND, Ore. (AP) — A former hospital worker during sentencing Tuesday in Deschutes County Circuit Court said he was stressed by the COVID-19 pandemic when hurt his infant son.

Charles Medley was sentenced to three years probation with conditions including attending parenting and aggression control classes, The Bulletin reported. Violating the conditions could result in a four-year prison sentence.

Medley pleaded guilty on Monday to three counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment. Medley had no prior criminal record, which attorneys said factored into the sentencing recommendation.
Defense attorney Clark Fry acknowledged his client went from “zero to 60 pretty fast.”

The case came to the attention of law enforcement April 23 when the then-15-week-old child arrived for a checkup at a hospital with injuries including skull and leg fractures and a brain bleed.

At the time, Medley worked the graveyard shift at St. Charles Bend emptying trash containers in the hospital. He told police he was getting less than four hours of sleep a night and was experiencing stress from the child’s birth and isolation related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A psychological exam of Medley found he showed remorse and sympathy for his son and was receptive to undergoing intensive treatment.

Medley was in custody in the Deschutes County jail for 216 days, from his arrest in April until his sentencing Tuesday.

The victim’s mother spoke briefly by phone, asking the judge for leniency. She said her child had fully healed and the Department of Health and Human Services recently closed its case on the incident.

Medley, who appeared by video from jail, said he was remorseful and that he knew there was no excuse for what he did.


Hawaii
Court ruling closes loophole for commercial aquarium fishing
KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (AP) — The state of Hawaii plans to comply with a court order to close a loophole allowing commercial aquarium fishing despite a previous ruling for the practice to be halted.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources said Monday it will stop issuing commercial marine licenses for aquarium fishing until the completion of an environmental review ordered by the Hawaii Supreme Court, West Hawaii Today reported.

Environmental groups and a individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in January alleging the land and natural resources department allowed commercial aquarium collection to continue despite the high court’s order — issuing or renewing at least 72 commercial marine licenses to commercial aquarium collectors.

Environmental Court Judge Jeffrey Crabtree ruled Friday that the department violated the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act by failing to complete the required environmental review process.

The court understands the ruling “will cause economic hardship to aquarium fishers, their families, employees, and vendors. That is truly unfortunate, especially during the hardships already occurring from the pandemic,” Crabtree wrote.

A group of 41 current license holders reporting aquarium fish catches will retain their licenses, state officials said in a statement. The one-year licenses remain valid because the court declined to issue an injunction stopping the practice.

The state Supreme Court halted aquarium fishing in September 2017 by ruling that fish collection without environmental review violates the Hawaii Environmental Policy Act.

The activity is opposed by some Native Hawaiians and marine conservation groups. Many reef advocates have urged more state scrutiny for decades.

“We are relieved that the court shut this illegal loophole so our reefs can finally rest while the agency examines the industry’s harmful effects,” plaintiff and Big Island resident Kaimi Kaupiko said.

Alabama
State sets Feb. execution date for man in 1991 killing
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama on Tuesday set a February execution date for a man convicting of the 1991 killing of a woman abducted near an automatic teller machine and later found shot in a cemetery.

The Alabama Supreme Court ordered that 51-year-old Willie B. Smith III be put to death on Feb. 11 for the shotgun slaying of Sharma Ruth Johnson.

Prosecutors said Smith abducted Johnson at gunpoint in October 1991 as she waited to use an ATM machine in Birmingham, forced her into the trunk of a car and withdrew $80 using her bank card. Prosecutors said he then took her to a cemetery where he shot her in the back of the head and later returned to set the car on fire.

A jury convicted Smith in 1992 in the death of Johnson, who was the sister of a Birmingham police detective.

Appellate courts rejected Smith’s claims on appeal, including that his lawyers provided ineffective assistance at trial and that he shouldn’t be executed because he is intellectually disabled. Court records indicate a defense team expert estimated his IQ at 64 while a prosecution expert pegged it at 72.

The Alabama attorney general’s office said Smith has exhausted his appeals.

“The murder of Ms. Johnson, which was committed during the course of a robbery and kidnapping, was as brutal as they come, and there is no doubt that Smith committed those offenses,” the attorney general’s office wrote in the motion seeking an execution date.

Alabama uses lethal injection to carry out most death sentences.

Attorneys for Smith have an ongoing lawsuit against the state prison system challenging the lethal injection procedure as unconstitutionally cruel. They also argued Smith’s intellectual disability prevented him from understanding what was at stake when the state gave inmates a short window to select hydrogen hypoxia as their preferred execution method.

Alabama lawmakers authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, but the prison system has not developed a protocol for carrying out execution’s that way.


Indiana
Man charged after cremated remains stolen from apartment
ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) — A 53-year-old man has been charged with burglary and theft after the cremated remains of his ex-girlfriend’s parents were stolen from her apartment in central Indiana.

Urns containing the remains were taken Oct. 9 after a man was seen forcing his way into the apartment in Anderson, northeast of Indianapolis, according to the Muncie Star Press.

Police had been called there earlier in the day when the 50-year-old woman reported the tires on her vehicle were slashed.

Following the theft of the urns, the woman said she received a text message threatening that the remains would be “flushed.” She also told police that while in a relationship with him, her former boyfriend had threatened to destroy the urns.

An arrest warrant for the man was issued Nov. 9.

New York
Rapper Casanova surrenders in federal racketeering case
NEW YORK (AP) — The rapper Casanova has surrendered to law enforcement following his indictment in a gang-related federal racketeering case, authorities said Thursday.

The New York City rapper, whose legal name is Caswell Senior, was charged in an indictment unsealed against 18 members of the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation gang, which authorities say operated in New York City and other parts of New York state.

The gang is charged with a litany of crimes, including the killing in September of a 15-year-old in Poughkeepsie and defrauding programs meant for people suffering economic hardship because of the pandemic.

Casanova, currently signed to Roc Nation, was charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and firearms possession. He is not charged with killing the child.

Emails were sent to Roc Nation and the rapper’s representative seeking comment.

Raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, Casanova is known for hits like “Don’t Run” and, more recently, “Set Trippin,” a song with lyrics like “Punch you in the face ... I knock ya teeth out.”

Washington
Ivanka Trump deposed as part of inauguration fund lawsuit
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ivanka Trump has been deposed by attorneys alleging that President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration committee misused donor funds, a new court filing reveals.

The document, first reported by CNN Wednesday, notes that Ivanka Trump, the president’s oldest daughter and a senior White House adviser, was interviewed Tuesday by attorneys from the Washington, D.C., attorney general’s office.

The office has filed a lawsuit alleging waste of the nonprofit’s funds, accusing the committee of making more than $1 million in improper payments to the president’s Washington, D.C., hotel during the week of the inauguration in 2017.

As part of the suit, they have subpoenaed records from Ivanka Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Thomas Barrack Jr., a close friend of the president who chaired the inaugural committee, and others. Barrack was also deposed last month.

Trump’s inaugural committee spent more than $1 million to book a ballroom at the Trump International Hotel in the nation’s capital as part of a scheme to “grossly overpay” for party space and enrich the president’s own family in the process, the District of Columbia’s attorney general, Karl Racine, alleges.

He has accused the committee of misusing nonprofit funds and coordinating with the hotel’s management and members of the Trump family to arrange the events.

“District law requires nonprofits to use their funds for their stated public purpose, not to benefit private individuals or companies,” Racine has said. “In this case, we are seeking to recover the nonprofit funds that were improperly funneled directly to the Trump family business.”

The committee raised an unprecedented $107 million to host events celebrating Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, but its spending has drawn continued scrutiny.

In a statement, Alan Garten with the Trump Organization said that “Ms. Trump’s only involvement was connecting the parties and instructing the hotel to charge a ‘fair market rate,’ which the hotel did.”

New York
Lawsuit: Village discriminates against Orthodox Jewish residents
AIRMONT, N.Y. (AP) — A federal lawsuit claims a village in suburban New York discriminates against Orthodox Jewish residents through land use restrictions that prevent worship services in private homes and the operation of a religious school.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday by Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss marks the third time since its 1991 incorporation that the Rockland County village has been sued by the federal government for religious discrimination. The previous lawsuits resulted in court judgments against the village.

“As a jury found over two decades ago, the village of Airmont was born out of a spirit of animus against a religious minority,” Strauss said in a statement.

Attorney Brian Sokoloff, who represents the village, said he hasn’t seen the lawsuit yet and can’t comment.

The last court-ordered consent decree against Airmont expired in 2015. Since then, the village has actively sought to prevent its Hasidic Jewish residents from operating home synagogues and a private religious school, according to the lawsuit filed in White Plains federal court.

The lawsuit alleges regulations imposed by the village 27 miles (43 kilometers) north of New York City violate the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.

Among other actions cited in the lawsuit, the village amended its zoning code in 2018 to strike “residential place of worship” as a recognized land use category, in violation of the terms of the judgment entered by the court in 1996.

The lawsuit says the village imposed a land-use moratorium designed to prevent the growing Hasidic community from developing property and targeted Hasidic residents with the threat of unfounded zoning violation fines.