National Roundup

New York
Judge finalizes jury instructions at Maxwell sex abuse trial
NEW YORK (AP) — British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell appeared in court on Saturday for a rare weekend hearing where attorneys made arguments about how the judge should instruct a jury on the law in Maxwell’s sex abuse trial.

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan scheduled the hearing — held in an otherwise closed courthouse and with jurors absent — in an effort to keep Maxwell’s trial on a fast track that will have her case reach a jury early next week. Closing arguments and Nathan’s reading of about 80 pages of instructions are set for Monday.

Prosecutors and Maxwell’s attorneys spent the morning in federal court in Manhattan sparring over the exact wording the judge will use to describe to jurors the legal elements that must be proven to convict Maxwell on six criminal counts, including sex trafficking of a minor. One of the requests by Maxwell’s lawyers that was approved: the judge should refer to her as “Ms. Maxwell” instead of “the defendant.”

An attentive Maxwell sat at the defense table, sometimes taking notes. Her brother and sister, ever present at the trial these past three weeks, were among the spectators.

Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges that prosecutors say show that she and financier Jeffrey Epstein were involved in a scheme to groom teenagers to have sexual encounters with him. The defense has countered by claiming she’s being made a scapegoat for 66-year-old Epstein, who killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 as he awaited his own sex trafficking trial.

The defense rested its case on Friday after Maxwell told the judge she wouldn’t testify.

“Your Honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt so there is no reason for me to testify,” Maxwell said.

North Carolina
Court: New trial for man accused of threatening prosecutor
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The state Supreme Court agreed on Friday it was appropriate to overturn the conviction of a man who strongly criticized a western North Carolina local prosecutor, citing First Amendment protections.

Still, justices ordered a new trial be initiated for David Warren Taylor, saying a “reasonable jury” presented with evidence and proper instructions could conclude that his social media posts warranted a guilty verdict.

Taylor was convicted in 2018 of threatening to kill Macon County District Attorney Ashley Welch. He posted several comments to his personal Facebook page in 2016 that he deleted after a couple of hours. He was upset that Welch, who serves several western counties, was not prosecuting some parents in the death of a toddler, according to court documents.

A Macon sheriff’s detective took screenshots of posts before they were deleted. One that read if “our head prosecutor won’t do anything then the death to her as well” served as the primary basis for the charge against Taylor.

“Yea I said it. Now raid my house for communicating threats and see what they meet,” the post continued, according to the opinion. The 2018 jury convicted Taylor, who received a suspended prison sentence and a $1,000 fine.

Taylor appealed, and a three-judge panel on the Court of Appeals last year vacated the conviction and directed that Taylor be acquitted. The Court of Appeals opinion stated that his posts didn’t meet the definition of a “true threat” as required by the U.S. Constitution, according to a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court decision. Attorneys for the state appealed that decision.

Associate Justice Mike Morgan, writing Friday’s majority opinion, upheld the decision of Superior Court Judge Gary Gavenus denying Taylor’s motion during the 2018 trial to dismiss the case.

But as jurors had failed to receive proper jury instructions related to the First Amendment, Morgan wrote, a jury should still make the call about whether Taylor’s words were just political hyperbole or spilled over to a true threat.

“Because ... the facts presented by the state could have allowed a reasonable jury to conclude defendant uttered a true threat, a properly instructed jury must be allowed to consider this question,” Morgan wrote in reversing the acquittal directive.

Writing her own opinion Friday, Associate Justice Anita Earls said the Supreme Court’s majority got it wrong for believing there was enough evidence to justify rejecting Taylor’s motion to dismiss the case.

“Absent substantial evidence of Taylor’s intent to threaten District Attorney Welch, the majority disserves the First Amendment principles it purports to uphold by speculatively reaching for a conclusion the evidence does not reasonably support,” she wrote.

Georgia
Man who organized online child porn groups gets prison time
ATLANTA (AP) — A Texas man has been sentenced in Atlanta to serve more than 12 years in federal prison for organizing online groups to share child pornography where users were encouraged to “share pictures and videos of all things taboo.”

Michael Stephen Autry, of Brownwood, Texas, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Atlanta to serve 12 1/2 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release. Autry, 42, had pleaded guilty in June to distribution of child pornography.

Autry created a group called “Taboo Train 2.0” on the Kik messaging app in June 2017. Federal prosecutors said in a news release that he wrote that the group was meant for members to “share pics and videos of all things taboo. ... incest, young, your own family members, etc. to discuss taboo fantasies and real life stories.”

An undercover FBI agent was invited to join the group and was able to record communications and postings and identify the group’s members. The group had more than 50 people, many living outside the U.S., but most didn’t post photos or videos, prosecutors said.

Within a few weeks, prosecutors said, the group’s members showed more sexual interest in boys than girls, so Autry created a new group called “The Common Interest.” The undercover FBI agent was also invited to join that group. Again in an introductory message, Autry said the group was meant for taboo images, “specifically incest, teens, and taboo relationships (young/old, teacher/student, etc.)” That group had more than 60 members.

In November and December of 2017, Autry was added to two other groups on Kik where members shared photos and videos of children being sexually abused. He invited the undercover FBI agent to join both groups.

“It shocks the conscience when someone finds pleasure in looking at photos and videos showing children being sexually abused,” U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine said in the release. “It is even more disturbing when someone like Autry gathers men together in online groups for the purpose of sharing these horrific images.”

Eleven other people have been charged with child pornography offenses for their membership in these Kik groups, prosecutors said.