Court Digest

Massachusetts
Former Boston police sergeant pleads guilty in OT fraud case

BOSTON (AP) — A former Boston police sergeant has pleaded guilty to collecting more than $25,000 in fraudulent overtime pay while working at the department’s evidence locker, federal prosecutors said.

Gerard O’Brien, 62, of Braintree, pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and embezzlement from an agency receiving federal funds, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston.

O’Brien was one of nine current and retired officers charged in connection with the scheme in September. Four more have since been implicated. A total of more than $250,000 was embezzled, federal authorities have said.

O’Brien collected the fraudulent overtime pay from December 2016 until February 2019 when he left work shifts early, prosecutors said.

He faces up to 15 years in prison at sentencing scheduled for Oct. 28.

North Carolina
Judge frees death row inmate, citing withheld evidence

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man who was convicted 12 years ago in a woman’s stabbing death has been freed by a judge who cited the discovery of evidence that could have strengthened his defense but wasn’t shared with his attorneys.

Michael Wayne Sherrill, 65, convicted for the 1984 fatal stabbing and rape of Cynthia Dotson, left Central Prison in Raleigh on Wednesday, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Under an agreement between the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office and the defense team, the judge set aside Sherrill’s death sentence for the murder and rape of Dotson. Instead, Sherrill pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, second-degree rape and second-degree arson and received a 20-year sentence.

Among the problems cited in the consent order was a missing fingerprint taken from the scene and the fact that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police had destroyed a rape kit in 1985 with material collected from Dotson’s body, calling the handling of DNA evidence into question, according to court records.

Prosecutors with the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office on Thursday stressed that they still believe Sherrill killed Dotson, but they agreed to his release “in the interest of justice,” according to a written statement.

Georgia
State charges man in death after Alabama charges dropped

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — An Alabama man has been indicted on murder charges in Georgia less than three weeks after Alabama charges in the same killing were abruptly dismissed following a judge ruling DNA evidence was inadmissible.

Local news outlets report a Columbus grand jury indicted Stacey Gray on Wednesday for murder and other charged in Renee Eldridge’s July 2015 death. Muscogee County District Attorney Mark Jones said he would seek the death penalty against Gray if convicted.

Gray had been set for trial in Chambers County, Alabama, where Eldridge’s body was found. After the judge tossed out the DNA evidence because prosecutors failed to provide a sample to the defense for separate testing before trial, charges were dismissed on June 1. Gray was extradited to Columbus, where police had warrants accusing Gray of raping and imprisoning Eldridge in December 2014 at her Columbus home.

Gray pleaded not guilty to those charges. He’s jailed without bail in Columbus. The Wednesday indictment accuses him of murder, four counts of felony murder, kidnapping and rape.

Authorities allege Gray kidnapped Eldridge from her Columbus home in 2015 after her mother had dropped her off after 3:30 a.m. Using cell phone records, they say Gray took Eldridge first across the river to Russell County, Alabama, and then dumped her body in Chambers County.

Wisconsin
State high court strikes down incapacitated driver law

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A unanimous Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down a state law Friday that allowed for taking blood samples from suspected drunken drivers who are incapacitated, ruling that it is unconstitutional.

The court upheld a state appeals court ruling from last year saying that the law violates the Fourth Amendment protecting against unconstitutional search and seizure. The law in question says that incapacitated drivers — those who are unconscious due to drugs or alcohol — are presumed to have agreed to provide blood samples if there is probable cause they were impaired.

Numerous court rulings, both in Wisconsin and across the country, have addressed the issue of taking blood samples from drivers without consent. But until this case the courts had never directly addressed whether the incapacitated driver provision of Wisconsin’s law violates the Fourth Amendment.

The state Supreme Court, in its ruling written by Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, said the state law is clearly unconstitutional.

The case involved a 2014 car crash in a suburb of Madison between two vehicles that killed Janet M. Grady, who died at the scene. Fitchburg police took blood samples from the surviving driver, Dawn Prado, because the officer believed a warrant was not needed to take the sample.

Prado, who was intubated and unconscious at the hospital, did not respond when an officer asked her for consent to do a blood draw. The officer testified that he did not think he needed a warrant since she was incapacitated and ordered a nurse to draw the blood.

The Dane County circuit court sided with Prado and suppressed the blood draw test result and dismissed the case. A state appeals court said the officer acted in good faith even though taking such samples is unconstitutional, ruled that the blood test results should not have been suppressed but said the state law about incapacitated drivers is unconstitutional.

The appeals court threw out the lower court’s ruling dismissing Prado’s conviction.

The state Supreme Court on Friday agreed with that ruling, saying the officer acted in good faith based on an unconstitutional law. Justice Pat Roggensack and Chief Justice Annette Ziegler filed a separate concurring opinion, saying they agreed with the end result of the ruling but not the reasoning.

A criminal complaint said Prado had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.081%, just over the legal limit in Wisconsin, when a vehicle she was driving crossed the center line on a highway in Fitchburg and struck Grady’s car. Prado, 54, was also severely injured.

Because of three prior drunken driving convictions, Prado was allowed a 0.02% maximum blood alcohol concentration.

Wisconsin
Man charged with killing UW student in 2008 competent to stand trial

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man charged with killing a University of Wisconsin-Madison student in 2008 has been found competent to stand trial.

David Kahl appeared by video from the Oshkosh Correctional Institution Thursday and told a Dane County judge he agreed with the findings of a psychological exam that determined he was competent to assist in his defense.

The 54-year-old Kahl is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of 21-year-old Brittany Zimmermann, who investigators say was stabbed and strangled.

Prosecutors allege that Kahl was going to houses in Zimmermann’s Madison neighborhood on April 2, 2008 and asking for money. Kahl said he needed cash for a tire repair, but was actually planning to buy crack cocaine, authorities said.

The preliminary hearing for Kahl will be held on July 15 before Judge Juan Colas. Kahl’s bail remains at $1 million, the  State Journal reported.

Kahl is imprisoned in Oshkosh for a seventh drunken driving conviction. His sentence ends in November.

Arkansas
Judge: No classic car show trip for man arrested in Capitol riot

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday said he won’t allow an Arkansas man arrested after he was photographed sitting at a desk in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot to travel for a classic-car swap meet.

U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper rejected the request by Richard Barnett to loosen the restrictions on how far he can travel while he’s awaiting trial.

Barnett is allowed to travel only up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) from his residence while he is on home detention awaiting trial. Barnett’s attorney said the Gravette, Arkansas, man needed to be able to travel to make a living buying and selling classic cars.

Petit Jean Mountain, where the car show is being held, is 200 miles (320 kilometers) from Gravette.

“The Court is not persuaded that the defendant cannot pursue gainful employment within a 50-mile radius of his home as permitted by the current conditions,” Cooper’s order said.

Barnett, 61, was among supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol as lawmakers assembled to certify Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. Prosecutors say Barnett  was carrying a stun gun when he entered the building.

Federal prosecutors opposed Barnett’s request and said his conduct while awaiting trial — including an interview with Russian State Television — indicates more conditions, not fewer, were needed.

Iowa
Man accused of killing 10-year-old pleads not guilty

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man charged in the killing of a 10-year-old girl who was missing for nine months before her remains were found in a pond has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and kidnapping.

Henry Dinkins, 48, entered the pleas Wednesday in Scott County District Court. He’s accused of kidnapping Breasia Terrell from a Davenport apartment complex in July, fatally shooting her and hiding her body in rural eastern Iowa. Breasia was the half sister of Dinkins’ son, and investigators say both children were staying the night with him at the apartment where he was living with a girlfriend.

The girl’s disappearance prompted a monthslong search that ended in March when two people fishing near DeWitt discovered her remains.

Dinkins, a registered sex offender with a history of violent and reckless behavior, had been granted an early release  from prison less than four months before Breasia disappeared.

A trial date for Dinkins in the murder case was set for July 12, but that’s likely to be postponed as attorneys prepare for the case.

Mississippi
Sentencing delayed for former mayor and his wife

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — Sentencing has been delayed for a former Mississippi mayor and his wife.

Mario King is a Democrat who was elected mayor of Moss Point in 2017. He resigned in February of this year, after he and his wife, Natasha King, each pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors said the couple raised money for mental health programs in schools but spent it on themselves for expenses that included car payments and the purchase of a pet dog.

Sentencing was scheduled for Thursday. But, Mario King’s attorney, Calvin Taylor, said in court papers this week that a presentencing report shows the former mayor is accused of mortgage fraud in Texas and “has further engaged in behavior that amounts to obstruction of justice in the opinion of Probation and Parole.”

The U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release in February that Natasha King’s plea agreement included a recommended sentence of probation. Mario King faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Vermont
Ex-principal jailed for recording girls  permitted to  appeal sentence

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A former school principal serving a five-year prison sentence for secretly recording teenage girls in his home will be able to appeal his sentence, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The high court reversed a decision by a lower court that had dismissed the request by Dean Stearns, the former principal in South Royalton, to reconsider the sentence imposed in January 2020.

The Superior Court dismissed Stearns’ request to reconsider his sentence because it was filed last November, more than 90 days after he was sentenced.

But Stearns’ attorneys argued, and the high court agreed, that the 90 days should have been counted from when the court dismissed his request to appeal the conviction, which took place last August.

In December 2018, Stearns pleaded guilty to five counts of voyeurism and two counts of promoting a recording of sexual conduct. The charges stemmed from a period in 2016 and 2017 when prosecutors said Stearns used hidden cameras to film five teenage girls in his Sharon home.

The Superior Court will now consider Stearns’ motion for a reduced sentence on the merits.