Court Roundup

Wisconsin
30-year sentence given for fatal stabbing of retired captain
OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) — A man who pleaded no contest to fatally stabbing a retired police captain in Oshkosh has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Ian Suzuki, 29, was also given ten years of extended supervision during sentencing Monday in Winnebago County.

Suzuki apologized before he was sentenced, WLUK-TV reported.

“I just wish Jay’s family were here for me to say this, but I just wanted to say to them that I really am sorry for everything that I put them through. Jay was a good man and he should be here instead of me. I just wish there was more that I could do to make up for what I did,” Suzuki said.

The incident happened at Suzuki’s mother’s home in February 2020 during an argument about the conditions for him to live at the residence, police said. Suzuki stabbed Puestohl, a friend of the woman.

As part of a plea deal, Suzuki pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of first-degree reckless homicide. Prosecutors originally charged Suzuki with first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a life sentence, and battery. The battery charge was dismissed.

Texas
Records show officer was under investigation in 2017 killing
DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas police officer who was recently charged in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme was under investigation for longer than authorities have previously acknowledged, sharpening questions about why he continued to patrol the city as his colleagues looked into whether he was involved in a 2017 killing.

After Bryan Riser was arrested Thursday, former Dallas police Chief U. Reneé Hall said he was “first identified as a person of interest in 2019” and was kept on the job to avoid tipping him off to the investigation. But in 2017, a Dallas police detective testified in court that Riser was the “subject” of an investigation into the killing of 31-year-old Liza Saenz, according to a transcript of the proceeding.

Riser was charged last week with two counts of capital murder in the killings of Saenz and 61-year-old Albert Douglas. The 36-year-old is being held on a $5 million bond and his attorney, Toby Shook, says he’s innocent.

During the September 2017 court hearing, the detective also said that Saenz lived with Riser’s father and that before her death she had been a witness in another murder case. The testimony, which was first reported by the Dallas Morning News, came during a detention hearing in a federal drug case against Riser’s father, Byron Riser. Shook previously said Saenz lived with Byron Riser at one point.

The elder Riser pleaded guilty in 2018 to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and was sentenced to five years in prison. He’s currently at a residential re-entry center in Texas on community supervision, Shook said.

Mississippi
Ex-director of veterans cemetery charged with embezzlement
NEWTON, Miss. (AP) — The former director of the Mississippi Veterans Memorial Cemetery was arrested and accused of embezzling money from the office, authorities said.

Henry Gruno was arrested Monday by the Office of the State Auditor and presented with a $29,818 demand letter, news outlets reported. The amount includes interest and investigative expenses.

The auditor’s office said Gruno embezzled about $14,000 in public money from Mississippi Veterans Affairs between January 2016 and January 2019.

State Auditor Shad White said Gruno was accused of using a credit card and a fuel card to embezzle the funds. Gruno used the credit card to buy items such as barbecue supplies, toys and luggage, White said.

Gruno’s also accused of using the fuel card far from the cemetery and on days when grounds equipment were not operated, the auditors said.

If convicted, Gruno faces up to 10 years in prison and $5,000 in fines. It’s unclear whether he had an attorney who would comment on his behalf.

Alabama
Teen accused of killing sheriff denied youth-offender status
HAYNEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A 19-year-old charged with capital murder in the slaying of an Alabama sheriff was denied youthful-offender status Monday, which would have limited any prison time if convicted to a maximum of three years.

William Chase Johnson appeared before retired Circuit Judge Bert Rice Monday where he also pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, The Montgomery Advertiser reported. Rice was given the case when local judges recused themselves.

Details on the mental disease or defect weren’t immediately released.

Youthful-offender status is available to suspects who were 18 to 21 years old when charged with a crime. Usually it is reserved for non-violent offenders. With the status denial, Johnson faces the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted.

Johnson’s the son of a sheriff’s deputy in a county next to where the slaying took place. He was 18 when he was accused of fatally shooting Lowndes County Sheriff John Williams Sr. in the face as the sheriff was attempting to disperse loiterers at a Hayneville gas station in November 2019. An arrest warrant alleged Johnson was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the shooting.

Johnson’s defense attorneys have argued that the teen did not know Williams was a sheriff, though witnesses said Williams announced himself as such when he asked the crowd to disperse. Lt. Shawn Loughridge of the State Bureau of Investigation has testified that the sheriff was in an unmarked county truck and did not have his blue lights running. He was wearing a baseball cap, jacket and tan pants at the time of the shooting.

Williams was sometimes known as “Big John” for his towering frame. The 62-year-old sheriff was elected in 2010 after decades of working in law enforcement in his home county.

Johnson has been held in the Elmore County Jail without bond since the night of his arrest.

A gag order was issued in the case, meaning attorneys cannot comment outside of court proceedings or in court documents.

California
Judge rules in favor of Vanessa Bryant in crash photos suit
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge in California has ruled that Kobe Bryant’s widow, Vanessa Bryant, can obtain the names of four Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who allegedly shared graphic photos from the site of the helicopter crash that killed her husband, their daughter Gianna and seven others.

An effort by Los Angeles County lawyers to keep the deputies’ names under seal was rejected Monday by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The ruling means the names and details from an internal affairs investigation of the deputies could be added to Vanessa Bryant’s lawsuit against the county and the Sheriff’s Department. The county, however, can appeal the decision.

Kobe Bryant and the others were killed Jan. 26, 2020, when the helicopter they were aboard crashed west of Los Angeles in the hills of Calabasas.

The Times later reported that an investigation found deputies shared photos of victims’ remains. Vanessa Bryant sued, seeking damages for negligence and invasion of privacy.

County lawyers argued that the deputies’ names should remain under seal because releasing them would make it easy for hackers to locate their personal information and addresses.

The judge wrote that Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s “promise to publicly release the (internal affairs bureau) report after the conclusion of the investigation undermines Defendants’ purported concern in the disclosure of the limited excerpts at issue here.”

The judge also wrote that the public has a vested interest in assessing the truthfulness of allegations of police misconduct.


Washington
Massage therapist who sexually assaulted women gets 11 years
BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) — A Bremerton massage therapist who sexually assaulted women has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

A Kitsap County Superior Court on Monday sentenced Joshua Jenkins after he pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and three counts of indecent liberties, the Kitsap Sun reported.

Bremerton police began investigating Jenkins last June when a woman said Jenkins inappropriately touched her at an appointment at Manette Day Spa, court documents said. The woman told a detective that during the assault she felt frozen and that she wanted to come forward “because she was worried this may not be the first time Jenkins has done this to someone, and she didn’t want anyone else to be hurt by him,” investigators wrote.

Jenkins told investigators he initiated “consensual” sexual contact with 20 to 22 clients by making overtures during massages, which is a violation of basic medical ethics. He claimed Monday he did not understand the destructive effect it had on clients.

A woman sexually assaulted by him said she was changed by the betrayal of the trust she had placed in him. The woman wrote in a letter to the Kitsap County Superior Court judge that following the assault, she has attempted suicide, fears leaving her house and even after three years of therapy still struggles.

“I am sorry for the hurt that I have caused,” Jenkins said at Monday, adding that he hoped his victims could overcome the betrayal and learn to trust again.

A state Department of Corrections interviewer wrote that Jenkins had been fired from four Kitsap County massage clinics in the past decade after client complaints about his behavior. When Bremerton police first started investigating Jenkins they found he had been investigated before for sexual misconduct with clients, but charges were declined.


Illinois
Court rules in Madigan’s favor in dirty tricks allegation
CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Monday in a case involving former Illinois House speaker Michael Madigan that it doesn’t have the authority to penalize a politician for unethical actions voters tolerate.

Jason Gonzales contended in a lawsuit that Madigan planted sham candidates on the ballot to ensure he would defeat Gonzales’ challenge in the 2016 Democratic primary.

The Chicago Tribune reports Madigan received 65% of the vote in the primary, and Gonzales received 27%. Two other candidates, whose nominating petitions were taken to Springfield by a Madigan ally, received 6% and 2%.

In a written opinion for the three-judge panel, Judge Frank Easterbrook said Gonzales suspected trickery by Madigan from the start and made it known, and the electorate voted for Madigan anyhow.

“The effort was hardly necessary, since if every non-Madigan vote had gone to Gonzales, (Madigan) still would have won in a landslide,” Easterbrook noted. “Nonetheless, Gonzales contends, the appearance of two candidates who served only as distractors violated the Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Easterbrook wrote the case law Gonzales relied on depended on voters being “hoodwinked,” but Gonzales himself highlighted the allegations of sham candidates in speeches and campaign ads.

“Voters rather than judges must decide when one side has gone overboard,” the judge wrote. “The Constitution does not authorize the judiciary to upset that outcome or to penalize a politician for employing a shady strategy that voters tolerate.”

Plaintiff’s attorney Tony Peraica said he’s disappointed in the appellate ruling because putting up the alleged fake candidates tainted the ballot. Peraica said he is inclined to appeal the decision but will review whether to seek a rehearing.

The appellate court decision is similar to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly. He dismissed Gonzales’ lawsuit, though he said it was undisputed some members of Madigan’s political organization worked to put the two additional candidates on the ballot.

Madigan has denied he had anything to do with putting the additional candidates on the 2016 ballot. Madigan spokeswoman Eileen Boyce did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Madigan, the longest-serving statehouse speaker in the nation’s history, failed to win another term in January under the burden of a lingering sexual harassment scandal in his office and a federal investigation into a years-long Commonwealth Edison bribery scheme involving his allies.

Madigan has denied wrong doing, but gave up the state Democratic Party chairmanship and his House seat earlier this year.