National Roundup

Texas
Law limits medication abortions as near-ban remains
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday lauded another new abortion law that tightens limits on abortion-inducing medications, creating an additional layer of restrictions after a near-total ban on abortion in the state began this month.

The new restrictions, which take effect in December, shrinks the window when doctors and clinics in Texas can give abortion-inducing medication from 10 weeks to seven weeks and prohibits the pills from being delivered by mail.

It comes as nearly all abortions are currently banned in Texas under another law, known as Senate Bill 8, which abortion providers say has realized their worst fears in a matter of weeks.

Abortion clinics this week went back to the U.S. Supreme Court and asked them to again block Senate Bill 8. A separate lawsuit filed by the Justice Department is scheduled to be heard by a federal judge in Austin next week.

At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration — under federal court order — eased restrictions on abortion pills so they could be sent by mail.

During a ceremonial signing of Texas’ latest abortion restriction at an Austin church, Abbott said the new measure was necessary in case those relaxed federal rules become permanent.

Medication abortion accounts for about 40% of all abortions in the U.S., and Texas is one of several Republican-led states that have moved to limit access to the pills.

Kansas
Massage therapist gets 25 years to life for sex crimes
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A judge has sentenced a massage therapist to three prison terms of 25 years to life for several sex crimes against five people, including a child and three female soccer players at the University of Kansas.

Douglas County Judge Sally Pokorny sentenced Lawrence massage therapist Shawn P. O’Brien, 50, on Friday after jurors in August found him guilty on eight counts.

Three of the charges accuse O’Brien of indecent liberties with a child under the age of 14 for fondling a girl who was either 9 or 10 on three occasions between 2013 and 2015.

All three resulted in “hard 25” sentences, meaning he will have to serve at least 25 years before being eligible for parole. Pokorny said the three life sentences would be served concurrently, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.

The other five charges accuse him of sexual battery for fondling four women while giving them a massage to treat sports-related issues between 2016 and 2019.

Three of the women played for the University of Kansas soccer team. The fourth woman was a university student who was a client at his office.

O’Brien had a contract with the university to provide massage treatments to many athletes on campus. That contract was terminated after initial charges were filed.

Deputy District Attorney Joshua Seiden told jurors during closing arguments that O’Brien used his credentials as a professional massage therapist as a guise to fondle the victims when he was giving them massages.

Seiden also pointed to the testimony from the soccer players who said that O’Brien fondled them while he was providing massage therapy for the team. He said O’Brien claimed to not remember any of the incidents with the athletes.

Defense attorney Philip Sedgwick argued that the case came down to a “he said, she said” situation and suggested the prosecutors did not present enough evidence to convict O’Brien. He said athletes did not complain about his methods or let him know that what he was doing made them uncomfortable.

Oregon
Police: DNA helps solve 1977 slaying of Oregon teens
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say DNA technology has allowed them to solve the 1977 slayings of two teens in Oregon.

The culprit, the Lane County Sheriff’s office said Thursday, was a man who killed himself in Arizona earlier this year.

KOIN reports that North Eugene High School students Lliana Gay Adank and Eric Shawn Goldstrand went to a picnic grounds on June 9, 1977. Their parents called the Lane County Sheriff’s Office when they didn’t come home.

Adank, who was 16, was sexually assaulted and shot to death in a secluded area. Goldstrand’s body was found in nearby brush. Police say the 17-year-old had also been shot to death.

Police searched the area and put up roadblocks at the time but the teens’ killer wasn’t found. Fingerprints and latent DNA samples from the crime scene were collected, but there were no matches at the time.

The suspect’s DNA was sent back for analysis in July of 2020 using modernized genealogical technology — and a match was made.

The DNA results identified former area resident Ronald Albert Shroy. Shroy was 23 years old at the time of the murders. Investigators said he moved out of Oregon in the early 1980s and had been living in Mesa, Arizona since 2008.

Authorities were preparing to arrest Shroy and present the case to a grand jury when Shroy was reportedly involved in an unrelated domestic violence incident and took his own life on Feb. 24, 2021.

Virginia
Doctor pleads guilty to nearly $2M fraud scheme
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia doctor pleaded guilty Friday to a nearly $2 million health care fraud scheme that involved medically unnecessary pain and scar creams.

Leonard Rosen, 72, of Fairfax Station, has been a practicing obstetrician in the area since 1980.

He admitted at a plea hearing in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that he struck a deal with a pharmacist to prescribe expensive compounded pain and scar creams and to direct those prescriptions to his pharmacies. Rosen received a kickback on the prescriptions.

The scheme cost insurers $1.8 million.

The pharmacist, Mohamed Abdalla, 48, of Allendale, New Jersey, was sentenced earlier this year to four years in prison.

Rosen is scheduled to be sentenced in December.