Court Digest

New York
Appeals court: Inmates don’t have a right to pornography
A federal appeals court has ruled that Connecticut prison inmates do not have a right to possess or view pornography in prison.

The ruling Thursday from a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2012 policy from the state Department of Correction banning porn from prisons with the stated goal of eliminating a hostile work environment for guards.

Judge Joseph Bianco, writing for the court, said the state ban “is reasonably related to legitimate penological objectives — namely, promoting a non-hostile work environment for DOC staff, enhancing the safety and security of DOC facilities, and facilitating the rehabilitation of sex offender inmates — and passes constitutional muster.”

The state argued that inmates would use the pornography to pleasure themselves, often in front of female correction officers. The ban on pornography was introduced in 2011 and phased in over a year. It made exceptions for scientific and artistic materials.

During 2012, correctional staff issued 494 public indecency tickets to inmates, according to the ruling. That number dropped to 79 in 2018, after the ban was instituted, Bianco wrote.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called the court’s decision an important win for safe working conditions in the prisons.

“Sexually explicit images are not allowed in any state workplace, and the prohibition against pornography was a lawful measure to protect the safety and rights of inmates and workers alike,” he said in a statement.

Attorney Joseph Scully, whose firm was appointed on a pro bono basis to represent the inmates, declined to comment Friday.

He had argued before the court that inmates have a First Amendment right to pornography, which he argued was not properly weighed against the interests asserted by the state.
But Bianco said there was evidence at trial that the pornography ban not only helped maintain a safe working environment for guards, but also helped keep the material away from convicted sex offenders, helping in their rehabilitation.

The case was originally brought by former death row inmate Richard Reynolds, who is serving a life sentence for the killing of a Waterbury police officer in 1992. He complained that he had never been accused of any sexual wrongdoing by guards but was forced to throw away about 60 magazines and 150 photographs. He said was later disciplined for keeping a lingerie catalog in his cell.

His complaint was later merged with those of six other inmates who challenged the policy.

Nebraska
Fortenberry’s attorney: He was confused, not lying to FBI
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Attorneys for Rep. Jeff Fortenberry argue in court filings that the Nebraska Republican was confused, rather than lying, when he spoke to FBI agents investigating an illegal donation to his campaign.

In pretrial briefs filed Friday, Fortenberry’s attorneys asked that the nine-term congressman’s full statement to the FBI be played for jurors at his trial. They argue that would show the repetitive questioning of the agents and that Fortenberry was confused, The Omaha World-Herald reported.

His attorneys also want to call an expert on memory to testify at the trial, and questioned the political leanings of the lead prosecutor.

Fortenberry has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging that he lied to federal authorities investigating the campaign contribution from a foreign national.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday in Los Angeles.

In response to the filings, prosecutors said Fortenberry’s expert would not offer new insight into memory, and being required to play Fortenberry’s entire statement limits prosecutors’ right to present the case as they see fit.

Prosecutors also said the defense’s suggestions that lead prosecutor Mack Jenkins has political reasons to prosecute Fortenberry is nonsense. They said Fortenberry is an obscure congressman from Nebraska, and the campaign donor under investigation donated to Democrats and Republicans.

Georgia
Men get prison on drug, dog fighting charges
MACON, Ga. (AP) — Two Georgia men have been sentenced to federal prison after they were arrested as part of an investigation into a multi-state dog fighting and cocaine trafficking ring.
Authorities investigated a criminal organization involved in cocaine distribution and dog fighting based in Roberta, Georgia, and stretching into north Georgia, Florida and Alabama. The investigation lasted from May 2019 until February 2020, when law enforcement agents carried out search warrants at 15 homes and seized more than 150 dogs that were being used for fighting, prosecutors said in a news release.

Jarvis Lockett, 41, of Warner Robins was sentenced Tuesday to serve 10 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Christopher Raines, 51, of Talbotton was sentenced to serve 11 years and three months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release and was ordered to pay a fine of $10,000.

“Dog-fighting is closely associated with other serious crimes, and today’s sentences show that those who engage in this cruel and inhumane practice face significant prison time,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim, with the U.S. Justice Department’s environmental and natural resources division, said in the release.

The investigation began with Lockett, U.S. Attorney Peter Leary of the Middle District of Georgia said in the release.

“Federal, state and local law enforcement meticulously followed every lead, and their unwavering commitment to justice has put an end to a complex and deadly dog-fighting and drug distribution network,” Leary said. “Violent dog-fighting circles are proven breeding grounds for a wide-range of criminal activities that harm the well-being of our communities and will not be tolerated in the Middle District of Georgia.”

During the time of the investigation, Lockett was involved in dog fights in several places in Georgia, including Taylor County, Eastman and Shiloh. Text messages on his phone included communications about killing an unaggressive dog, planning a dog fight, soliciting a female dog for fighting and discussions of purchasing large amounts of cocaine, the release says. A confidential informant bought cocaine from Lockett at a home in Roberta in July and September 2019.

On Feb. 26, 2020, officers searched the Roberta home and found cash, cocaine and evidence of dog fighting, prosecutors said. They found 14 dogs there with scars consistent with fighting. The same day, while executing a search warrant at a Warner Robins home Lockett owned, they found more evidence of dog fighting and a pit bull with injuries that were stapled shut. The dog died two days later from his injuries.

Raines’ illegal drug and dog fighting activities were discovered during the investigation, prosecutors said. While executing a search warrant on Feb. 26, 2020, at a property owned by Raines in Talbotton, authorities recovered 41 dogs used in dog fighting. They were malnourished and had scars, hair loss and spliced ears. Raines admitted he was a manager or supervisor in the criminal organization and was involved in selling cocaine, prosecutors said.

Lockett had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to participate in an animal fighting venture and cocaine distribution. Raines had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to participate in an animal fighting venture and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base.

Illinois
Couple charged in $2.1M retail theft from warehouse
CAROL STREAM, Ill. (AP) — A Chicago couple has been charged in the theft of merchandise valued at more than $2 million from a retail distribution company.

German Ramirez-Mendoza, 31, and Sara Garcia del Valle, 35, were arrested Thursday and appeared Friday at a bond hearing, the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office said in a release. They’re each charged with felony theft.

Authorities allege that merchandise was stolen from the distribution company’s warehouse in suburban Chicago’s Carol Stream where Ramirez-Mendoza worked. It is believed that items were removed from delivery trucks and placed in a personal vehicle, authorities said.

Nearly $9,000 worth of fragrances from the warehouse were found in September in a vehicle driven by Ramirez-Mendoza, according to the state’s attorney’s office.

Authorities later found more than $2.1 million in merchandise from Victoria’s Secret, American Eagle, Michael Kors, Sephora, Foot Locker and other retailers in the couple’s home and in rented storage units, prosecutors said. More than $20,000 in cash was allegedly found in their home.

Ramirez-Mendoza and Garcia del Valle face arraignment Feb. 22.

It wasn’t immediately clear Friday night if they have attorneys.

California
Man gets life for slayings with meat cleaver
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California man who killed two women with a meat cleaver after a New Year’s Eve party while his wife and son waited in a car outside was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Christopher Ken Ireland, 42, of Huntington Beach was sentenced in Orange County Superior Court by a judge who called the killings vicious and callous. He was convicted of murder in November.

Ireland testified that he killed Yolanda Holtrey, 59, and Michelle Luke, 49, on Jan. 1, 2017, and then returned to set fire to Holtrey’s home, which prosecutors said was an attempt to destroy evidence.

Ireland said the killings occurred after Holtrey caught him having sex with Luke while Ireland’s wife and 11-year-old son were in a car parked outside, waiting for Ireland to leave. He said he was defending himself after Holtrey attacked him with the cleaver and later Luke attacked him with a kettlebell.

However the prosecutor, Mark Birney, said it was “absurd” that Ireland, an army veteran with hand-to-hand combat training, could have been afraid of the older, smaller women, the Orange County Register reported.

After killing Holtrey, Ireland testified that he walked out of the home but then returned and killed Luke. He returned a third time hours later to set fire to the home, authorities said.
A man who was renting a room in the home woke up to smoke and called 911.

Illinois
Drew Peterson asks judge to vacate murder conviction
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A judge was scheduled Monday to consider former Chicago-area police Sgt. Drew Peterson’s motion to vacate his 2012 conviction in the murder of his third wife.

Officials have said Peterson will not attend the hearing and it is not known if Will County Judge Edward Burmila will make an immediate decision on the motion. The judge has appointed an attorney and an investigator to assist Peterson and experts have said that such an investigation could take months to complete.

Peterson was convicted of first-degree murder in the 2004 killing of Kathleen Savio and sentenced to 38 years in prison. He has since filed multiple appeals that have been rejected. He filed his latest motion last fall and Burmila determined that the former Bolingbrook police officer had presented a “gist of a constitutional” claim and scheduled a hearing.

In his six-page handwritten motion, Peterson argued that his lead attorney, Joel Brodsky, did not provide effective counsel and that Brodsky would not allow him to testify in his defense. He also alleged prosecutorial misconduct and witness intimidation by Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow and contended that some witnesses should not have been allowed to testify about conversations they had with Savio or Peterson’s fourth wife, Stacy, before she disappeared.

Peterson is also a suspect — though he has never been charged — in the 2007 disappearance of Stacy Peterson, who is presumed dead.

In 2016, he was sentenced to an additional 40 years in prison  for trying to hire someone to kill Glasgow.

Florida
Gaetz friend asks for sentencing delay as he works with feds
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to a federal probe into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz wants a judge to delay his sentencing scheduled for next month for yet another time as he continues to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

Joel Greenberg’s attorney on Friday asked a federal judge in Orlando, Florida, to allow him to file a motion seeking a delay in the sentencing hearing currently scheduled for March 29. U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell previously granted two delays.

In court papers, Greenberg’s attorney said his client had been cooperating with federal prosecutors in Orlando and Washington in active investigations.

Attorney Fritz Scheller said he intended to file a motion outlining the reasons for the extension but that it contained “sensitive” information about the investigations, as well as Greenberg’s cooperation. Because of the confidential nature of that information, that request and any subsequent hearing should be sealed and kept out of the public eye, Scheller said in the court papers.

The judge later on Friday granted the request to seal the motion asking for a delay.

Greenberg is facing up to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty last May to six federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a child, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official.

Greenberg’s plea agreement with prosecutors requires continued cooperation with an ongoing probe into sex trafficking. His cooperation could play a role in an ongoing investigation into Gaetz, a Republican friend of his who represents much of the Florida Panhandle. Gaetz was accused of paying a 17-year-old girl for sex. He has denied the allegations and previously said they were part of an extortion plot.

Minnesota
Man who passed out on tracks convicted on gun charge
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A man found passed out on light-rail train tracks in St. Paul last fall has pleaded guilty to a federal gun charge.

Federal prosecutors announced Friday that 34-year-old Deandre Lenier Neal-Hill pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a firearm as a felon, the Pioneer Press reported.

Metro Transit police officers found Neal-Hill sitting in the driver's seat of a car parked on the Green Line commuter tracks in October. The car's engine was still running, had a flat tire and was stuck on the tracks. Neal-Hill was unresponsive.

As officers removed him from the car they noticed a pistol on the driver's side floor. Neal-Hill has several felony convictions, including drive-by shooting, assault and drug sales, making it illegal for him to possess a gun and ammunition.