New York
Lt Gov Benjamin arrested in campaign donation scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin, whose seven months in that role has been overshadowed by probes into a previous campaign, was arrested Tuesday in a federal corruption investigation.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said Benjamin was arrested on charges of bribery, honest services wire fraud and falsification of records.
Benjamin, formerly a state senator from Harlem, had joined the administration of Gov. Kathy Hochul in September, chosen by her to fill her former job a couple of weeks after she stepped into the governorship following the resignation of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo over sexual harassment allegations.
But just over two months later, a real estate developer who steered campaign contributions toward Benjamin’s failed bid for New York City comptroller was indicted.
Federal authorities accused Gerald Migdol of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in illegally giving donations to Benjamin’s campaign.
Prosecutors had previously not made any accusations against Benjamin, and his campaign said at the time of Migdol’s arrest that it had forfeited any improper donations as soon as they were discovered.
More recently, reports came out saying subpoenas had been issued to Benjamin regarding the financial issues even before Hochul picked him as lieutenant governor.
Despite her saying she didn’t know of the subpoenas at the time, Hochul proclaimed her support for Benjamin, and he said he had told state police as they went though the process of vetting him.
“I have utmost confidence in my lieutenant governor,” Hochul said during a Thursday press conference. “This is an independent investigation related to other people and he’s fully cooperating. He is my running mate.”
Benjamin was the state’s second Black lieutenant governor. During his state Legislature career, the Democrat emphasized criminal justice reform and affordable housing. His district included most of central Harlem, where he was born and raised by Caribbean immigrant parents.
He has a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Brown University and a master’s of business administration from Harvard Business School, and worked as a developer of affordable housing.
Tennessee
State court rejects DNA evidence petition by inmate
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee court on Monday declined to reopen the case of an inmate set to be executed later this month for the 1989 killings of his estranged wife and her two sons.
Inmate Oscar Smith had filed the motion to reopen last week, saying DNA from an unknown person was detected on one of the murder weapons. But Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton wrote in an order that the evidence of Smith’s guilt was overwhelming and the DNA evidence does not tip the scales in his favor.
Smith, 71, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection April 21. He was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting Judith Smith, and her sons Jason and Chad Burnett, 13 and 16, at their Nashville home on Oct. 1, 1989. He was sentenced to death by a Davidson County jury in July 1990. Smith has maintained that he is innocent.
Smith’s attorney states that newly available touch DNA technology allowed the previously impossible analysis of evidence left on an awl — a leatherworking tool similar to an icepick — that was found at the crime scene. The victims were also shot and stabbed with a knife, although those weapons were never recovered. In January, the courts released the awl to Smith’s DNA experts upon agreement between Smith and the state. The analysis found DNA from an unknown person.
Evidence presented at trial included that Smith previously made threats against the victims and was physically violent towards them. A neighbor saw Smith’s car at the house on the night of the killings. Two of Smith’s co-workers testified that he had solicited them to kill his wife. Smith had taken out insurance policies on all three victims. And one of the child victims could be heard yelling, “Frank, no!” in the background of a 911 call on the night of the murder. Frank is Smith’s middle name and one he used regularly.
Taking all the evidence together, Dalton concluded, “there is not a reasonable probability that the recently-discovered DNA evidence would have prevented Mr. Smith’s prosecution or conviction.”
Smith previously sought to prove that fingerprint evidence used against him was unreliable. Crime scene investigators testified they found a bloody palm print on the sheet next to Judith Smith’s body that was missing two fingers — the same two fingers that Oscar Smith is missing on his left hand. A fingerprint expert hired by Smith later opined that the investigator made numerous errors and could not have definitively identified the print.
In one example, the investigator’s own fingerprint was found on the awl, demonstrating “incompetence and lack of professionalism,” according to Smith’s filing. A panel of the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeal last month upheld a lower court’s ruling rejecting Smith’s fingerprint analysis claims. Smith has appealed.
Missouri
Trio gets jail for roles in Capitol insurrection
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Monday sentenced two men and a woman from Missouri to several weeks in jail for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg sentenced Emily Hernandez, of Sullivan, to 30 days in jail. He also sentenced her uncle, William Merry, and another suburban St. Louis man, Paul Scott Westover, to 45 days in jail each, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
All three also were ordered to pay $500 for damaging the Capitol.
The trio entered the Capitol through a smashed door. A government sentencing memo says Merry goaded Hernandez into picking up a broken piece of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s sign. It also says Hernandez shot a video of herself stealing two other signs.
Westover pleaded guilty Dec. 6 to one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol. Merry pleaded guilty on Jan. 5 to one count of theft of government property. Hernandez pleaded guilty on Jan. 10 to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building.
In an unrelated Missouri case, Hernandez faces two driving while intoxicated charges for a fatal wrong-way crash on Interstate 44 in January.
