Washington
Man sentenced to 7 years for selling fentanyl
SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle man was sentenced to seven years in prison for repeatedly selling large amounts of fentanyl while out on bail on a drug charge.
Ricky Chavez Hernandez must also serve three years of supervision after serving his prison term under the sentencing imposed Wednesday by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, prosecutors said.
Hernandez sold a quarter pound of powder fentanyl for $8,500 to someone working with law enforcement in April 2021, U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in a press release. An analysis of the fentanyl he sold found animal tranquilizer, Brown said. He sold two more times before his arrest, Brown said.
Hernandez was out on bail for charges related to drug trafficking crimes from King County Superior Court at the time of the sales.
Prosecutors said fentanyl is deadly, not only for drug users but for others who can be inadvertently exposed. Hernandez “was mixing pure powdered fentanyl with various other substances at his house where his mother, girlfriend, and infant daughter lived.
Mixing drugs with the lethality of fentanyl, which can kill through air exposure alone, is dangerous enough. Doing so with an infant in the house indicates exceptional recklessness regarding the health risks to others,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo.
Nation
Groups that want to electrify USPS fleet file lawsuits
Groups that want the U.S. Postal Service to buy more electric delivery vehicles are suing to halt purchases of thousands of gas-powered trucks as the agency modernizes its mail delivery fleet.
Two lawsuits, filed Thursday in New York and California, ask judges to order a more thorough environmental review before the Postal Service moves forward with the next-generation delivery vehicle program.
Plaintiffs contend that purchases of fossil fuel-powered delivery vehicles will cause environmental harm for decades to come.
One lawsuit was filed by Earthjustice, Center for Biological Diversity, CleanAirNow KC and Sierra Club in San Francisco. Another was filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and United Auto Workers in New York.
Both target the environmental review underpinning the planned purchase of up to 165,000 next-generation delivery vehicles over the next decade.
The Postal Service defended its actions.
“The Postal Service conducted a robust and thorough review and fully complied with all of our obligations under (the National Environmental Policy Act),” spokesperson Kim Frum said Thursday in an email.
The Postal Service contract calls for 10% of the new vehicles to be electric but the Postal Service contends more electric vehicles can be purchased based on financial outlook and strategic considerations.
The percentage of battery-electric vehicles was doubled — to 20% — in the initial $2.98 billion order for 50,000 vehicles.
Environmental advocates contend the Postal Service’s environmental review was inadequate and flawed, and that the contract represented a missed opportunity to electrify the fleet and reduce emissions.
The review process “was so rickety and riddled with error that it failed to meet the basic standards of the National Environmental Policy Act,” said Adrian Martinez, senior attorney on Earthjustice’s Right to Zero campaign.
The Postal Service is in the process of replacing the ubiquitous delivery trucks that went into service between 1987 and 1994.
The new gasoline-powered vehicles would get 14.7 miles per gallon (23.7 kilometers per gallon) without air conditioning, compared to 8.4 mpg (13.5 kpg) for the older vehicles, the Postal Service said.
All told, the Postal Service’s fleet includes 190,000 local delivery vehicles. More than 141,000 of those are the old models that lack safety features like air bags, anti-lock brakes and backup cameras.
The new vehicles are taller to make it easier for postal carriers to grab packages and parcels that make up a greater share of volume. They also have improved ergonomics and climate control.
Virginia
Three men indicted for stealing trees from federal land
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — Three men have been indicted after federal prosecutors accused them of stealing walnut trees from federally protected land, officials said.
William Riley Stump, 52, of Narrows, Virginia, and Derrick Anthony Thompson, 48, of Princeton, West Virginia, were arraigned this week in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia.
The indictment was returned last May and was unsealed earlier this month following the arrest of two of the defendants. A third defendant remains at-large, and his identity remains sealed.
According to court documents, Stump, Thompson and another indicted co-defendant conspired to cut and remove black walnut trees located in the Bluestone Project in Giles County, Virginia, and take them to Lindside, West Virginia, to sell.
The Bluestone Project is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Flood Damage Reduction program designed to inhibit flood-level water flow along both the New River and Bluestone River. The project’s federally-protected area involves 21,000 acres of land that is a fertile habitat for growth of certain trees and plants, including the highly valuable black walnut trees, which are among the largest and longest living hardwood trees in the United States.
Indiana
Ex-trooper cleared in slayings wins $4.6M settlement
NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) — A former Indiana state trooper cleared of killing his wife and their two children at a third trial after spending 13 years in prison will receive $4.6 million from the state to settle a federal lawsuit, his attorneys said Wednesday.
David Camm’s settlement was reached in January, entered into court in February and confirmed Wednesday by his attorneys.
Camm, 58, was convicted by two different juries in the shooting deaths of his wife, Kim, 35, and his children, Brad, 7, and Jill, 5, on Sept. 28, 2000, in the garage at their Georgetown, Indiana, home in Floyd County. Both times he won appeals that sent his case back for retrial. The jury at his third trial in 2013 acquitted him.
Camm has always maintained he was playing basketball at a church during the slayings. At least 11 witnesses corroborate his story, but prosecutors said Camm raced home, committed the crimes and returned.
The federal lawsuit alleged several investigators falsified evidence and relied on the opinion of unqualified experts. It named as defendants the lead Indiana State Police investigator in the case and two blood stain pattern analysis expert witnesses.
According to the lawsuit, a state police photographer who had never been to a fresh blood scene determined that the splatter on Camm’s shirt meant he was present when the shots were fired.
As part of the federal settlement, Camm agreed not to bring any further legal action against the defendants, the state, the Indiana State Police, and the estate of Stan Faith, the original prosecutor.
Camm was awarded $450,000 in a settlement with Floyd County in 2016. He also has received an undisclosed amount from insurance carriers for expert witnesses who testified against him, Adams said.
Another man — Charles Boney — was arrested in 2005 and convicted of murder and conspiracy after DNA evidence linked him to the crime scene. Prosecutors maintained that Boney helped with the killings, but that Camm actually pulled the trigger.
Before his arrest in the slayings, Boney had a lengthy criminal record, including attacks on women, and had been represented by Faith in previous cases.
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office, which represented the state, did not respond to a request for comment.
Camm left the Indiana State Police about four months before the slayings.
Washington
Justices limit discrimination claims for emotional distress
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a discrimination lawsuit filed by a deaf, legally blind woman against a physical therapy business that wouldn't provide an American Sign Language interpreter for her appointments.
In a 6-3 ruling with conservatives in the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that businesses that receive federal health care money can't be sued for discrimination under the Affordable Care Act when the harm alleged is emotional, not financial.
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in dissent that people who suffer discrimination often feel humiliation or embarrassment. "It is difficult to square the Court's holding with the basic purposes that antidiscrimination laws seek to serve. One such purpose, as I have said, is to vindicate 'human dignity and not mere economics,'" Breyer wrote, citing an opinion from his onetime boss, Justice Arthur Goldberg, in a key Civil Rights-era case.
Breyer noted in his opinion that some anti-bias laws, including against workplace discrimination, allow for damages for emotional distress.
The current case began when the woman, Jane Cummings, asked for an ASL interpreter for physical therapy appointments to treat chronic back pain with Premier Rehab Keller, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Cummings communicates primarily in ASL. But Premier Rehab said Cummings could "communicate with the therapist using written notes, lip reading, or gesturing," Roberts wrote.
She went elsewhere, but then sued the business, asking for a court order against Premier Rehab and damages for emotional distress. Lower courts dismissed the lawsuit.
North Carolina
Two men plead guilty to roles in Ponzi scheme
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Two people have entered guilty pleas after federal prosecutors accused them of orchestrating a $4 million Ponzi scheme through a fake hedge fund, according to a news release.
Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said in a news release that Austin Delano Page, 26, of Grover, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to wire fraud on Wednesday. Brandon Alexander Teague, 26, of Belmont, North Carolina, pleaded guilty to securities fraud on Wednesday, King said.
According to plea documents and the plea hearings, from October 2020 to December 2021, Page and Teague were involved in an investment scheme that defrauded hundreds of investors of more than $4 million. Some of the investors were either at or near retirement age, documents showed.
The defendants falsely represented to victims that Page and Teague were running a hedge fund in Kings Mountain that invested in various securities, including stock of well-known companies.
There was no hedge fund, and it didn't hold any securities licenses or registrations, according to prosecutors. Also, Page and Teague were not licensed to sell securities and did not have a background. In fact, prosecutors said, the men sold campers.
