Court Digest

Rhode Island
Man gets 18 years for selling deadly dose of fentanyl

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who was the first person charged under a Rhode Island law that provides for stiff punishments for people who sell illicit drugs that result in death will spend 18 years in prison, prosecutors said Monday.
Cary Pacheco, 57, of Westport, Massachusetts, was sentenced last week after pleading no contest to selling the fentanyl that resulted in the death of Andrew Paiva in Newport in 2018, according to a statement from the office of Attorney General Peter Neronha.
Pacheco was sentenced to 35 years in prison with 18 to serve and the balance suspended with probation.
Pacheco, who had a history of drug offenses and arrests, on Sept. 10, 2018 sold fentanyl to a third party who then delivered the fentanyl to Paiva, which resulted in his overdose death, authorities said.
Pacheco was charged under Kristen’s Law, a 2018 law that establishes a penalty of up to life in prison for anyone who delivers a controlled substance that results in death. The law is named after Kristen Coutu, a Cranston woman who died in 2014 after taking fentanyl.
The attorney general’s office said in 2018 that Pacheco was the first person charged under the law.


Kentucky
Judge won’t revisit order upholding vaccine mandate

COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A federal judge in Kentucky who upheld St. Elizabeth Healthcare’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate has rejected a request to reconsider his decision, the Kentucky Enquirer reported.
The order was filed in district court in Covington on Thursday, a day before the deadline for employees to be vaccinated or receive a medical or religious exemption. U.S. District Judge David Bunning wrote that the claims raised by employees who have fought the mandate “clearly did not merit injunctive relief.”
The suit was filed in early September by 40 employees at St. Elizabeth’s, which has a staff of around 11,200 associates and physicians, according to its website. The lawsuit followed announcements by most of Kentucky’s major hospital systems, including St. Elizabeth’s, that they would require all workers without a medical or religious exemption to be vaccinated.
In his Thursday ruling, Bunning pointed to a 1905 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which upheld a Massachusetts law requiring residents to be vaccinated against smallpox.
Bunning also addressed an accusation that referring to COVID-19 as an “unprecedented global pandemic” was political.
“Whether called an unprecedented global pandemic or a less ominous description, the COVID-19 situation has been, by any objective measure, something that everyone, including the hospital and its employees, has been dealing with for more than 18 months,” Bunning said. “Calling it unprecedented isn’t political, at all. Rather, it is merely a recognition of its extraordinary nature.”
Public health officials repeatedly have declared the vaccines as safe and highly effective at preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19.
Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, has described the COVID-19 vaccines as a “miracle of modern science.”


Vermont
Man convicted of rare killing in state capital appeals verdict

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — A man found guilty of what police say was the first murder in Montpelier, Vermont, in almost a century is appealing his conviction to the Vermont Supreme Court.
Jayveon Caballero was found guilty by a jury in November 2019 of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Markus Austin, 33, in January 2017.
At the time, police said it was the first murder in Montpelier since the 1920s.
Caballero is now serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Because Caballero was sentenced to up to life in prison, the conviction was automatically appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court.
The Times Argus reports  that in his appeal, Caballero’s attorney Dawn Seibert said the trial court judge didn’t allow the jury to hear about a call Caballero made to a family member hours after the shooting.
She also argues the jury saw graphic photos of Austin they weren’t supposed to see and the state failed to provide prove that Caballero knew the shot he fired could fatally strike Austin.
 “The court skewed the trial toward the prosecution by making critical evidentiary errors in both directions — preventing admissible defense evidence from going to the jury and at the same time permitting the prosecution to show to the jury photos that had been excluded,” the appeal said. “The aggregate impact of these errors was to deny Mr. Caballero a fair trial.”
Prosecutors have until Oct. 15 to respond. After all the filings have been made a hearing will be scheduled.
Police have said Caballero and Austin were involved in an altercation outside a bar in the nearby city of Barre, and Caballero later confronted Austin outside his apartment and shot him.
During the trial, defense attorney Daniel Sedon argued that the killing was accidental, saying the bullet fired by Caballero ricocheted off Austin’s car windshield and hit him as he was standing near the vehicle.
After the shooting Caballero fled to Florida. He was captured in May 2017 and later returned to Vermont for trial.
Montpelier has about 7,500 residents and is the nation’s smallest capital city. The last known murder, in the 1920s, was when a woman shot her husband.


Alabama
Man charged in slaying of 13-month-old girl

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — An east Alabama man charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of a 13-month-old girl also is being charged with marijuana possession, police said.
Police were called to an apartment complex on Saturday afternoon and found the child suffering from a gunshot wound to the upper torso, authorities said. The girl was rushed to a hospital emergency room but died less than an hour later, the coroner said.
Michael A. Thomas, 33, was arrested on a manslaughter charge, police said. He also was charged with possession of marijuana, controlled substances and drug paraphernalia.
Authorities have not released details about the shooting, and it’s unclear whether the man had any relation to the child, whose name was released immediately.
Court records weren’t available Monday to show whether Thomas had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. He was held at the Lee County Jail with bail set at $33,500.


Massachusetts
Ex-Boston police union boss pleads guilty in OT fraud case

BOSTON (AP) — A former Boston police union boss has pleaded guilty to collecting more than $16,000 in fraudulent overtime pay while working at the department's evidence warehouse, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Thomas Nee, 64, of Quincy, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft concerning programs receiving federal funds and embezzlement from an agency receiving federal funds. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Nee submitted false and fraudulent overtime slips from at least January 2015 through February 2019 and personally collected about $16,642 for overtime hours he did not work, prosecutors said.
He's the 15th former or current officer charged in connection with the investigation into overtime abuse at the police department's evidence warehouse.
Nine officers have so far pleaded guilty. Federal officials say more than $250,000 was embezzled.
Nee was a long-time president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association who served until 2014.
The embezzlement charge carries a sentence of up to ten years in prison; the conspiracy charge up to five years.


Washington
Court rejects DC residents’ bid for voting representation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday affirmed a lower court ruling that said District of Columbia residents are not entitled to voting representation in the House of Representatives.
Residents had asked the high court to hear the issue. The court’s four-sentence order cited a case from 2000 in which the justices said the same thing.
Eleanor Holmes Norton is the District of Columbia’s nonvoting member of Congress.


New Mexico
Las Cruces settles suit claiming ‘rough ride’ after arrest

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — The Las Cruces Police Department has settled a lawsuit by a man who claimed he was seriously injured during an arrest by a former officer.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reported Monday that records show the City of Las Cruces quietly settled with Warren McCowan for $180,000 in March but admitted no wrong doing.
In turn, McCowan filed a motion to dismiss the suit with prejudice.
In the suit, McCowan said Officer Mark Morales arrested him in August 2015 for driving while intoxicated. En route to the jail, Morales allegedly placed McCowan in the back seat but did not secure him with a seatbelt. The officer then deliberately drove at a high speed and jerked his vehicle so that McCowan would bounce around.
According to McCowan, he was slammed around “like a ping pong ball.” He also said he suffered a torn shoulder when officers yanked him up from the floor. The shoulder injury later required surgery.
McCowan’s attorney says Morales had no body camera and cameras at the jail weren’t working that day.
Morales resigned from the police department in August 2019. He had been on administrative leave for an unrelated matter.


Washington
High court rejects lawsuit over cancelled Pentagon contract

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday said it would not get involved in a lawsuit over a disputed Pentagon cloud computing contract, a decision that follows the contract’s cancellation earlier this year.
The case was one of hundreds the high court said it wouldn’t hear Monday.
The Pentagon in July announced it was canceling its contract with Microsoft for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure Cloud computing project. At the time it said it would instead pursue a deal with both Microsoft and Amazon and possibly other cloud service providers.
The Biden administration had told the high court that the case was moot.


Pennsylvania
Powerful Philadelphia union boss, council member go on trial

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Powerful Philadelphia labor leader Johnny “Doc” Dougherty went on trial Monday in a City Hall corruption case that accuses him of keeping a City Council member on the union payroll to push his agenda.
Dougherty, 61, who has steered more than $30 million in union funds to political candidates, faces a later extortion trial over other union activities. He expressed confidence that he would clear his name as he arrived for jury selection Monday at the federal courthouse, The Philadelphia Inquirer  reported.
“I have had zero crimes,” Dougherty said outside the courthouse, making a zero with his hand for emphasis. “So this is a relief. I can’t wait to get in and get this done.”
Dougherty had been in the FBI’s sights for years before the 2019 indictment charged him with more than 100 crimes, including keeping City Council member Bobby Henon in a $70,000-a-year union job while he worked full time in the $140,000-a-year City Council post.
Dougherty has held a tight grip on construction jobs in the Philadelphia region during more than two decades at the helm of Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which has nearly 5,000 members. He also leads the city’s Buildings Trades Council, an umbrella group of local unions with 70,000 members.
As an example, according to the indictment, Dougherty pressed Comcast Corp. to steer $2 million worth of electrical work to a friend as the media giant negotiated the renewal of the city’s 15-year cable lease; pressured Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to have union workers install MRI machines; and had Henon investigate a towing company that seized Dougherty’s car.
The union mostly backs Democratic candidates, but has also supported Republicans at times.
Henon, a Democrat and former union electrician, has remained on the City Council since the 2019 indictment. Both he and Dougherty face 13 counts, including conspiracy and honest services fraud, and a maximum 20-year sentence on the most serious charge. Both have pleaded not guilty and remain free on bond.
Federal prosecutors say Dougherty “put his own self-interests over that of the membership.”
However, defense lawyer Henry E. Hockeimer, in a 2019 statement, said Dougherty has put all of his energy into the union and called it “preposterous” to say he tried to defraud it.