Court Digest

Missouri
Man gets prison for throwing man from pickup truck
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for intentionally swerving on Interstate 435 and fatally throwing a man from the back of his pickup truck in 2019.

Skylar Waddell, 22, was sentenced Tuesday after earlier pleading guilty to manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crash, the Kansas City Star reported. Waddell was sentenced to 12 years on the manslaughter conviction and three more years for the traffic violation.

Authorities said the incident happened in November 2019, when Steve Norris, 48, returned to his disabled truck on the side of I-435 and found Waddell stealing items from the truck. Norris jumped on the back of Waddell’s truck as Waddell sped away, police said, and Waddell reacted by violently swerving and crashing, sending Norris flying into the southbound lanes of the interstate.

Kansas
Ex-school officer gets life in prison for child sex abuse
NORTON, Kan. (AP) — A former school resource officer in Kansas City, Kansas, has been sentenced to life in prison for repeatedly raping and abusing a child younger than 14.

Mark Scheetz, 32, of Norton, was sentenced Tuesday in Norton County District Court, the Kansas Attorney General’s Office said in a news release. In April, a jury found him guilty of two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy with a child younger than 14, two counts of rape, sexual exploitation of a child and intimidating a witness.

The conviction came two years after he was arrested by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which said he had engaged in sex acts with a minor, sent lewd photos to minors and used electronic devices to solicit sex with minors from 2013 through 2015.

Scheetz’s was sentenced under Jessica’s Law, which calls for harsh sentences for people convicted of sex crimes involving young children. He must serve 50 years before he’s eligible for parole.

Virginia
Settlement OK’d in suit over slow benefit claims
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has approved a settlement in a lawsuit focused on a beleaguered part of Virginia’s unemployment system in an effort to speed up benefits for people who are out of work.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson approved the settlement Tuesday in a suit  filed last month on behalf of five women who alleged “gross failures” to provide needed help as required by law amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Virginia has done well in quickly processing simple unemployment benefits for eligible individuals as applications surged amid the pandemic, but the state has recently been dead last for timely processing of certain claims that require additional adjudication, data show.

The judge’s order directs the Virginia Employment Commission to increase the number of unemployment insurance claims adjudicated each week. It also says that the agency shall “substantially resolve” at least 95% of unpaid claims awaiting adjudication by Labor Day.

It also directs the commission to improve communication with applicants and recipients and begin planning for a process to automatically provide information to each claimant about how to apply for other government assistance programs.

“I was cut off benefits, without information or a chance to fight for them, nine months ago. It’s beyond frustrating not to know what’s going on – and my daughter and I lost our apartment in the process. It’s time for Virginia to fix this,” Amber Dimmerling, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

The commission said in a statement that the settlement is a reflection of its ongoing efforts “to speed up the processing of claims in adjudication, which represent just 4% of all claims.”

The agency said that in addition to hiring hundreds of staff and contractors, it also recently hired a private sector partner with 300 additional staff to expand adjudication.

Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam issued an order last month directing the agency to commence with many of the same initiatives outlined in the settlement.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the judge’s order approving the settlement pauses the litigation while the agency works to implement the terms.

Washington
Lawsuit: Zeeks Pizza chain underpaid delivery drivers
SEATTLE (AP) — A proposed class-action lawsuit claims popular Western Washington chain restaurant Zeeks Pizza withheld wages, tips and other money owed to delivery drivers.

Seattle attorney Toby Marshall filed the suit on behalf of Zeeks driver Chance White in King County Superior Court, The Seattle Times reported.

According to the suit, Zeeks and two franchisees “engaged in a systematic scheme of wage and hour abuses against its pizza drivers.” Among the claims is that Zeeks failed to pay drivers for all hours worked; failed to pay drivers an automatic delivery charge assessed on customers; and failed to pay drivers all their tips and gratuities and reimburse them for mileage.

Total monetary damages are to be determined at trial, according to the suit.

Attempts by the newspaper to reach Zeeks owners, corporate offices or franchise owners for comment weren’t successful.

The suit is filed on behalf of a proposed class of over 100 people that includes delivery drivers at any Zeeks Pizza restaurant in Washington from May 24, 2018 through the date of final disposition of this action, according to the suit.

One of the biggest issues for drivers has been the company’s failure to reimburse mileage or give drivers the customer delivery surcharge, said White. Drivers can easily cover 50 to 100 miles during a busy shift, which at a minimum should be reimbursed at the federal rate of 56 cents a mile, White said.

New York
In death threat case, court nixes penalty Rep. Omar urged
NEW YORK (AP) — A rural New York man convicted of threatening the life of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota won’t have to participate after all in a program in which he’d hear stories about Muslim refugees, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the unusual special condition in the sentence for Patrick Carlineo was too vague to be appropriate because it might give too much authority to Probation Department officials to enforce the sentence.

In early March, Carlineo was freed after completing a one-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in late 2019 in Rochester federal court to threatening to kill the Democrat and a weapons charge.

Prosecutors said Carlineo called Omar’s Washington office in March 2019, when a member of her staff recalled him calling her a terrorist and saying somebody “ought to put a bullet in her skull.” Authorities said Carlineo also threatened to do so.

His sentence required him to participate after his prison term in a program that would allow Carlineo “to listen to stories about Muslim refugees or people who suffered from violence (for) being Muslim.”
But the appeals panel said the special condition was vague and impermissibly delegated authority to probation authorities to dictate the terms of the sentence.

The resident of Rathbone, a rural Steuben County town 100 miles south of Rochester, received support prior to sentencing from Omar, a Somali refugee who is one of the first Muslim women to be elected to serve in Congress.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr., she had urged leniency and a restorative justice approach at sentencing, writing: “The answer to hate is not more hate; it is compassion.”

She said a lengthy prison term or a burdensome fine would “only increase his anger and resentment” while restorative justice would let him “make amends and seek redemption.”

Lawyers in the case did not return messages seeking comment.

Georgia
Judge rules against state in legal fight over Israel oath
ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a Georgia law requiring some people to sign an oath involving Israel is unconstitutional.

A documentary filmmaker who refused to sign the oath sued the state last year, saying the law is in violation of free speech rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Requiring people who want to do business with the state to pledge that they are not engaged in a boycott of Israel is “unconstitutional compelled speech,” U.S. District Court Judge Mark H. Cohen wrote in his recent ruling.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia Attorney General’s office, which represented the defendants, said it was unable to comment at this time, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Lawyers representing the state have said previously that Georgia’s law does not infringe on the First Amendment.

Georgia’s law, passed in 2016, requires some people to sign an oath pledging not to boycott Israel in order to do business with the state of Georgia.

In her federal lawsuit, Abby Martin says she refused to sign the oath, and her scheduled appearance at a Georgia Southern University media conference was then cancelled.

The law is similar to others passed in recent years in more than 20 states, including Texas, Arizona, Arkansas and Maryland.

Alabama
Judge: Man charged with bringing guns to DC had militia ties
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A Vietnam veteran charged with bringing 11 molotov cocktails and other weapons to Washington on the day of the U.S. Capitol riot had driven around the area a month prior, kept lists of officials and tried to find Republican Sen. Ted Cruz to discuss election fraud, a judge wrote in a court document.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Monday ordered that 71-year-old Lonnie Coffman of Falkville, Alabama, should remain jailed until his trial on firearms charges. The federal judge cited Coffman’s training at a Texas militia camp, his large stockpile of weaponry and actions, before and during the Jan. 6 insurrection, in the decision to deny him release.

“This evidence of lists of political officials and public figures, Mr. Coffman’s access to significant weaponry and his demonstrated ability to travel to Washington, D.C., raises serious concerns about Mr. Coffman’s intentions and the danger he presents to the community,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote.

The FBI in 2014 identified Coffman as a participant at Camp Lonestar, a reported gathering place for Texas militia groups and had information about two other militia groups, the judge wrote. Coffman had kept lists of officials at his home with disparaging descriptions such as “ex Dem. Senator, traitor” and “radical Dem. Senator.”

The court order said GPS from Coffman’s truck indicated he had visited Washington at the end of 2020 and driven around the Capitol and attempted to contact Cruz about his concerns over purported election fraud by both calling his office and looking for his home.

A Cruz staff member told police that Coffman did not seem threatening but had seemed “unbalanced” or “not 100% there,” according to the judge’s order.

Police on Jan. 6 found Coffman’s truck in Washington packed with eleven mason jars containing a flammable liquid, several loaded guns, a crossbow with bolts; several machetes; camouflage smoke devices; and a stun gun, according to the order.

Coffman was arrested the evening of Jan. 6 when law enforcement officers discovered the weapons in his truck after authorities swept the area following the discovery of pipe bombs near two buildings. Prosecutors said Coffman left his truck in the morning during that day of chaos and rioting and was arrested when he returned to the vehicle in the evening.

Coffman is an Army veteran who served two tours during the Vietnam War. According to family members, he dealt with depression and “often spoke about the difficulty he had dealing with the experiences from the war,” the court document said.

Alabama
Man sentenced to prison in theft from police memorial fund
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty to stealing from a memorial fund established to aid survivors of a slain Alabama police officer was sentenced to more than three years in prison Tuesday.

A federal judge sentenced Devonte Lemond Hammonds, 27, of Birmingham three months after he pleaded guilty to fraud in the theft of money from the Billy Clardy Memorial Fund, news outlets reported.

Clardy, a 48-year-old Huntsville police officer, was killed in the line of duty during a narcotics operation in 2019 and a memorial fund was set up to collect donations and assist his family.

Hammonds used the identity of another person to open a bank account and transfer money out of the fund for his own use, a plea agreement showed. The man used the money to make purchases and pay bills.

Clardy’s father also was a Huntsville police officer and died in the line of duty in a wreck more than four decades ago.