Court Digest

Indiana
2 men charged in 1998 killings of woman, 2 teens

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — Two men have been charged in the killings of a woman and two teenage boys found bludgeoned to death in 1998 in a house in northwest Indiana.

Hammond police announced Wednesday that an analysis of DNA evidence helped authorities secure murder charges against James H. Higgason III, 51, and David L. Copley Jr., 46, in the January 1998 killings.

They are accused in the bludgeoning deaths of Elva Tamez, 36; Jerod Hodge, 18; and Timothy Ross, 16. The victims’ bodies were found in Tamez’s Hammond home.

Hammond police Lt. Steve Kellogg said Higgason was arrested in Hammond and Copley was arrested in the central Indiana city of Franklin with the cooperation of the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Police said in a news release that charges had been presented against Higgason and Copley following the slayings, but they were not charged due to limited evidence.

Both men were charged Monday in the killings after the Lake County Prosecutor’s Office reviewed all the evidence in the case, including DNA evidence recently uncovered thanks to modern technology, police said.

Court records show a magistrate entered not guilty pleas on behalf of both men during initial hearings Wednesday, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported. A public defender was appointed for Copley, but Higgason told the magistrate he intended to hire a private attorney.

Pennsylvania
Fed. prosecutor  resigns as Trump departs

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Philadelphia said Thursday he will step down next week when President Donald Trump leaves office.

U.S. Attorney William McSwain, a Trump appointee, plans to return to private practice.

McSwain sparred frequently during his tenure with Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, an advocate of criminal justice reform.

McSwain pursued federal charges against Black Lives Matters activists who clashed with police during summer protests, blamed Krasner’s progressive policies for an uptick in gun violence, and fought plans for a nonprofit group to open a medically supervised drug injection site.

And he rarely minced words.

When a federal appeals court ruled this week that the proposed drug injection clinic, aimed at reducing the city’s grim rate of overdose deaths, would run afoul of federal drug laws, McSwain cheered that Philadelphia would not become “the birthplace of heroin injection sites.”

McSwain has led the office since April 2018. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams will step into the job until President-elect Joe Biden names a replacement.

Washington
Court halts Seattle efforts to create heroin injection sites

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle received a setback in its effort to create a supervised heroin consumption site after a federal appeals court denied a similar effort in Philadelphia to create locations for heroin users to inject the drug with a nurse present.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Tuesday that a heroin consumption site in Pennsylvania could not open because it would violate federal drug laws, KOMO-TV reported.

Judge Stephanos Bibas called the motives by Safehouse, the organization trying to open the site, “admirable” but said “Congress has made it a crime to open a property to others to use drugs.”

Seattle was waiting to see how the appeals court would rule before deciding whether to move forward.

The Seattle & King County Public Health Department previously approved supervised injection sites, known as Community Health Engagement Locations three years ago. But an effort to find a fixed location failed and further efforts to create mobile sites were stalled.

The Seattle City Council approved more than $1 million in November to facilitate existing locations that provide services to drug users with the staffing to be a consumption site.

“We were anticipating this could happen,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said Tuesday in response to the ruling. “This is another wrinkle we are going to have to deal with.”

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes called the ruling disappointing at a time where cities are struggling to respond to overdoses wrought by the opioid epidemic.

“The Court’s decision re-affirms that ‘safe’ injection sites are a violation of federal law,” Acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said on Wednesday. “The Department supports efforts to curb the opioid crisis ravaging this country, but injection sites are not the solution.”

Illinois
Chicago-area man gets 16 years in postal worker’s shooting

CHICAGO (AP) — A suburban Chicago man who pleaded guilty in the New Year’s Eve 2018 shooting of a U.S. Postal Service worker has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison.

A federal judge in Chicago sentenced Cameron Ruebusch, 25, last week for the shooting in Elk Grove Village that wounded a 36-year-old postal worker, leaving him hospitalized for nine days.

Federal prosecutors announced Ruebusch’s sentencing on Wednesday. The Elk Grove Village man had pleaded guilty last year to one count of attempted second-degree murder of a federal employee and one count of knowingly discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

Investigators said that on Dec. 31, 2018, the postal worker who had just gotten into his unmarked USPS vehicle when Ruebusch tapped on his passenger window while holding a handgun. The postal worker was shot in his right shoulder as he drove away.

The judge who sentenced Ruebusch on Jan. 8 found that he had obstructed justice after the shooting by disposing of the gun, discarding the clothing he had been wearing, and instructing friends to lie to law enforcement about his whereabouts.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Chester Choi wrote in the government’s sentencing memorandum that Ruebusch “nearly killed a USPS mail carrier who was merely carrying out his official duties in delivering mail on New Year’s Eve.” Choi called Ruebush’s actions “brazen, callous, and cowardly.”

Pennsylvania
Woman gets prison for seducing teen

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia woman is going to prison after authorities said she pretended online to be her daughter in order to seduce a Florida boy and then convinced him to try to kill himself.

A federal judge sentenced Linda Paolini, 45, to 35 years in prison and ordered her to pay more than $15,000 in fines.

Paolini pleaded guilty in October 2019 to manufacturing child pornography and online enticement of a minor.

Paolini sent the 16-year-old images of her own daughter to coerce him to produce and send her sexual videos of himself, prosecutors said. They also said she faked a suicide attempt to induce the boy to try to kill himself.

Prosecutors called her conduct heinous and cold-hearted.

“She maliciously manipulated a child into making and sending her pornography of himself. But that was not enough for this defendant. She then manipulated the vulnerable child into attempting suicide,” said first assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams.

Authorities said she also admitted to similar online communications with at least two other boys.

New York
NY attorney general sues NYPD over Floyd protest response

NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s attorney general sued the New York Police Department on Thursday, calling the rough treatment of protesters against racial injustice last spring part of a longstanding pattern of abuse that stemmed from inadequate training, supervision and discipline.

Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit includes dozens of examples of alleged misconduct during the spring demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd’s police killing, including the use of pepper spray and batons on protesters, trapping demonstrators with a technique called kettling and arresting medics and legal observers.

“We found a pattern of deeply concerning and unlawful practices that the NYPD utilized in response to these largely peaceful protests,” James said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.

James, a Democrat, was tasked by Gov. Andrew Cuomo with investigating whether NYPD officers used excessive force to quell unrest and enforce Mayor Bill de Blasio’s nightly curfew. She issued a preliminary report in July that cited a “clear breakdown of trust between police and the public.”

She is seeking reforms including the appointment of a monitor to oversee the NYPD’s policing tactics at future protests and a court order declaring that the policies and practices the department used during the protests were unlawful.

The NYPD did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

James’ lawsuit is the second major legal action to stem from the NYPD’s handling of the protests.

In October, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society sued the city on behalf of protesters who say they were assaulted and abused by police.

A civil rights organization and a city watchdog agency have also criticized the department’s actions.

Human Rights Watch issued a report in November citing evidence that police planned an aggressive crackdown on protesters on June 4 in the Bronx.

In December, the city’s inspector general found that the NYPD was caught off guard by the size of the protests and resorted to aggressive disorder control methods that stoked tensions and stifled free speech.

North Dakota
Judge won’t lower bond for man charged with killing wife

MINOT, N.D. (AP) — A North Central District Court judge has denied a defense request to lower bond for a Minot man charged with fatally shooting his wife.

Erik Rod’s attorney, Patrick Waters, told Judge Gary Lee during Wednesday’s court proceeding that the shooting was an accident and it was not “premeditated” or “done in cold blood,” the Minot Daily News  reported. The prosecution has argued that the shooting was not accidental.

The incident was originally investigated by Minot police May 21 as the accidental discharge of a firearm. Connie Rod died five days later at the hospital. Erik Rod was arrested in August and charged with felony murder and felony reckless endangerment in his wife’s death.

Rod is being held on $250,000 bond at the Ward County Jail. Waters had asked the judge to lower the bond to either $100,000 cash or 10% of $250,000 with GPS monitoring, Waters said Erik Rod is a military veteran with no prior criminal record and has lived in Minot for 10 years.

Lee said he believes the current bond is already on the low end.

Connie Rod’s obituary indicated she was a licensed family therapist and chemical dependency counselor and had worked most recently at the Dakota Boys and Girls Ranch.

New Jersey
Prosecutors: Man admits carjacking, injuring woman

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A man has admitted that he carjacked a postal worker last year and held a box cutter against her neck, leaving the woman slightly injured.

Wallace Johnson, 32, of Newark, pleaded guilty Wednesday to carjacking and assaulting a federal employee, according to federal prosecutors. He faces up to 35 years in prison when he’s sentenced May 18.

The June 6 carjacking occurred as the woman was sitting in a parked postal vehicle in Newark. Johnson approached the woman and held the box cutter against her neck while ordering her out of the car.

Johnson then got in the vehicle and drove away at a high rate of speed, authorities said. Police soon spotted the speeding car and tried to stop it, unaware that the vehicle had just been stolen.

Johnson crashed the car a few minutes later and ran off, but officers soon found him hiding behind a parked car in a nearby neighborhood. He was captured after a foot chase and had the postal worker’s phone and the box cutter in his possession, authorities said.

The postal worker suffered a small laceration on her neck.