National Roundup

Louisiana
High court to hear pastor’s case against virus charges

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it will hear arguments in a pastor’s fight against criminal charges he faces for violations of pandemic gathering limits that were in effect last year.

Tony Spell got national attention when he began to flout the state’s public health order in March 2020 at a time when much of the country was in lockdown due to the emergence of COVID-19. Louisiana was being hit especially hard at the time, but hundreds showed up to hear Spell claim that the virus, which has now killed more than 780,000 Americans, is nothing to be concerned about.

A state judge earlier this year had refused to throw out the charges against Spell, whose Life Tabernacle Church is in the Baton Rouge area.

An appeal court agreed. But the state Supreme Court accepted the case for arguments Tuesday. A hearing date hasn’t been set.

Gov. John Bel Edwards in March 2020 had issued a public health ban on gatherings of more than 50 people to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Spell has long argued that Edwards’ virus restrictions violated First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom. While fighting the criminal charges, Spell is also seeking damages over the restrictions in federal court.

Massachusetts
Wrongfully convicted man freed after 27 years

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man who spent over two decades in prison for what a court is calling a wrongful murder and armed robbery conviction has been released from prison.

WCVB-TV reports that James Lucien, 48, was serving a life sentence in connection to the 1994 fatal shooting of Ryan Edwards, 23.

“I feel good because I’m with my family now,” Lucien said Tuesday after Judge Robert Ullman cleared the convictions against him in Suffolk County Superior Court. “I’ve been waiting a whole 27 years for this, and now I have the opportunity to be free.”

Lucien’s defense attorney Dennis Toomey argued during a hearing that the murder and robbery convictions against his client should be tossed because of an improper police investigation.

“The heart of our appellate argument here is that the jury simply did not hear evidence they could have used to acquit Mr. Lucien, so he didn’t get due process,” Toomey said.

“Almost everywhere we look in this case, there are serious problems,” Special Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Jeanne Kemp­thorne said during the hearing.

According to the station, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said a former Boston police officer involved in Lucien’s case, Det. John Brazil, participated in a sprawling corruption scheme from 1990 to 1996 with other officers, in which they conspired to lie, rob and steal from drug dealers by submitting false warrant applications and then seize cash, representing drug trade proceeds, and kept it for themselves.

Brazil cooperated in a federal investigation and testified against Boston police detectives Kenneth Acerra and Walter Robinson, both of whom pled guilty, according to the DA’s office. Brazil was given immunity in exchange for his testimony and served no time. He is currently collecting a pension.

Edwards’s family members opposed Lucien’s release.

“I think it’s horrible,” said Dionne Richards, Edwards’ sister. “Now he’s free and there’s nobody to help our family, and my brother’s murder goes as another unsolved murder.”

Ullman urged Edwards’ family not to blame Lucien, but instead Brazil, who allegedly lied and tampered with evidence.

“It’s clear to me that justice may not have been done as to the murder and armed robbery charges,” the judge said.

Alabama
Judge who criticized death penalty system suspended 90 days

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A state disciplinary panel has ruled an Alabama judge violated judicial rules with her public criticism of how death penalty cases are handled and suspended her from the bench for 90 days.

The Alabama Court of the Judiciary ruled Friday that Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd had violated the canons of judicial ethics with her comments and actions in death penalty cases.

The court found Todd had made inappropriate statement that the court system in Alabama is corrupted by politics, abandoned the role of a neutral arbiter to become an advocate for defendants and for her own opinions and took inappropriate actions such as questioning an attorney about whether he gave a financial contribution to her opponent.

The court suspended Todd for 90 days without pay. However, because she had been suspended with pay while the ethics complaint was heard, she was eligible to return to the bench this week.

Todd made national news in 2016 when she ruled the state’s death penalty sentencing procedure was unconstitutional and barred prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against four men charged in three killings. Her ruling was later overturned.

The Court of the Judiciary said Todd violated judicial rules with some of her comments in 2016, suggesting that the Alabama judiciary is politically corrupt, that court-appointed attorney assignments are based on campaign contributions and that an appeal in death penalty cases, where a judge sentenced a person to death over a jury’s recommendation, is “ceremonial at best.”

A lawyer for Todd did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Washington
Insurance agent sentenced to 2 years in wire fraud case

SEATTLE (AP) — A Snohomish, Washington, insurance agent was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud in the theft of premium payments from clients.

Vicki Boser, owner of InsuranceTek, Inc., pleaded guilty in August. At her sentencing Tuesday, she was also ordered to pay $273,137 in restitution to eight companies or insurance brokers she defrauded.

Boser used the money to support her gambling habit at area casinos, federal prosecutors said in a press release. At the sentencing hearing U.S. District Judge James L. Robart likened the conduct to a Ponzi scheme saying, “The conduct is classic in terms of embezzling from clients.”

Boser’s company specialized in helping small businesses that work in high-risk fields secure insurance policies to cover their operations. Clients included private investigators, process servers and security guard companies.

She was required to collect premium payments from the clients and pay them to the insurance companies, but prosecutors said she pocketed some of the payments, created false insurance certificates and led her clients to believe they were insured.