Georgia
Transgender deputy suing county goes to trial
MACON, Ga. (AP) — A sheriff’s deputy returned to court Monday for a civil trial seeking monetary damages from the Georgia county that employs her after a federal judge ruled her bosses illegally denied the deputy health coverage for gender-confirmation surgery.
Sgt. Anna Lange wants a jury to award her damages for emotional distress, attorney fees and repayment of more than $10,000 in out-of-pocket medical costs she incurred because Houston County excluded surgery for the transgender woman from its health insurance plan.
U.S. District Court Judge Marc Treadwell ruled in June that the county’s refusal to cover Lange’s prescribed gender-confirmation treatments amounted to illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Treadwell’s order cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision finding that a Michigan funeral home couldn’t fire an employee for being transgender. He also found it undisputed that Lange’s surgery was “medically necessary.”
However, the judge deemed there was insufficient evidence to decide as a matter of law whether the county intentionally discriminated against Lange and therefore owed her monetary damages. He ordered a civil trial so that a jury could decide the issue.
Treadwell wrote in his June order that Lange told the sheriff and other county officials in 2018 that she wanted to begin dressing as a woman at work, while inquiring about whether Houston County’s health plan would cover gender-confirmation surgery.
Sheriff Cullen Talton, first elected sheriff in 1972, told Lange he doesn’t “believe in sex changes” before ultimately granting permission her permission to dress as a woman, the judge wrote.
But the county health plan had excluded sex change surgery and drugs since 1998, and evidence showed Houston County officials opted to keep the exclusion even after their insurance company advised them in 2016 that the rule was discriminatory under the federal Affordable Care Act.
County officials argued they didn’t intentionally discriminate against Lange because she was transgender, but rather were trying to keep health insurance costs low.
Massachusetts
Biogen pays $900M to settle doctor kickback allegations
BOSTON (AP) — Biogen has agreed to pay $900 million to resolve allegations that it violated federal law by paying kickbacks to doctors to persuade them to prescribe its multiple sclerosis drugs, federal prosecutors said.
The agreement announced Monday settles a whistleblower lawsuit brought by former Biogen employee Michael Bawduniak, according to a statement from the office of U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, Rachael Rollins.
Under the terms of the settlement, Biogen will pay more than $843 million to the federal government and more than $56 million to 15 states for overbilling Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs. Bawduniak will receive a portion of the federal recovery.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company in a statement said it settled so it can focus on “our patients and strategic priorities” and said the settlement does not include an admission of liability.
“Biogen believes its intent and conduct was at all times lawful and appropriate and Biogen denies all allegations raised in this case,” the company’s statement said.
The lawsuit alleged that from January 2009 through March 2014, Biogen paid physicians speaking fees, consulting fees and bought them meals that were actually kickbacks, to get them to prescribe Avonex, Tysabri and Tecfidera in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute.
“We thank Mr. Bawduniak for uncovering this behavior and bringing it to light,” Rollins said. “This matter is an important example of the vital role that whistleblowers and their attorneys can play in protecting our nation’s public health care programs.”
Kansas
Man sentenced in ‘swatting’ case that led to death
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison for his role in a hoax phone call that led police to shoot and kill an innocent man in 2017.
Shane Gaskill was sentenced after pleading guilty in May to wire fraud, KSN reported. He was originally placed on probation but faced renewed prosecution after violating the terms of his probation.
Prosecutors said Gaskill got into an argument in December 2017 with Ohio gamer Casey Viner over a $1.50 bet. Using an old Wichita address Gaskill had given him, Viner persuaded Tyler Barris in Los Angeles to call Wichita police and say a kidnapping and shooting had happened at the address, prosecutors said.
It’s called “swatting,” a form of retaliation in which someone makes a false report to police to send first responders, including SWAT teams, to someone’s address.
Andrew Finch, 28, who lived at the address, was shot and killed by police after he opened the front door to see what was going on outside.
Barris was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to 51 counts of making fake emergency calls and threats around the country, including the one that led to Finch’s death.
Viner served 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
California
Man sentenced to 4 years for COVID-19 loan fraud
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California man was sentenced Monday to four years in federal prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $5 million in COVID-relief loans for three shell companies, prosecutors said.
Raghavender Reddy Budamala, who was arrested in February while trying to cross the border into Mexico, was also ordered to pay $5.15 million in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Budamala, 36, pleaded guilty in June to one count of bank fraud and one count of money laundering. As part of his plea agreement, the Irvine resident agreed to forfeit real estate in Orange and Los Angeles counties, as well as approximately $4.1 million in funds from bank and investment accounts and in cryptocurrency, the statement said..
Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Budamala submitted seven applications for pandemic-relief loans for three shell companies with no operations, prosecutors said. Budamala falsely represented that his companies employed dozens of individuals and earned millions of dollars in revenue, and that he needed the money for payroll and business expenses, according to court papers.
The addresses listed for the companies were bogus, nonexistent or residential, prosecutors said.
He used the money to buy three homes, including a $1.2 million home in Los Angeles and a property in Malibu worth nearly $600,000, court documents said.
Maine
Man sentenced for 1993 rape, murder of woman in Alaska
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A man convicted in a rape and murder at a University of Alaska Fairbanks dormitory that went unsolved for more than two decades was sentenced to 75 years in prison in Alaska.
Steven Downs, of Auburn, Maine, declined to address the courtroom before the judge imposed the sentence Monday.
The killing of 20-year-old Sophie Sergie in 1993 stymied investigators until a DNA match using genetic genealogy tracing led them to Downs, who was arrested in 2019 in Maine. Downs was a UAF freshman in 1993 and lived in the dorm where Sergie was found dead.
The defense contended any sentence greater than 20 years would be a life sentence because of Downs’ health. He exceeds 400 pounds (181 kilograms) and has high blood pressure, his attorney said.
Downs, 48, will be eligible for discretionary parole after 25 years, the Sun Journal newspaper reported.
Prosecutors said Downs showed no remorse. Sergie was sexually assaulted, shot in the head and stabbed multiple times, officials said.
Sergie was a former UAF student but was not enrolled when she went to stay with a friend who lived in the dorm. She was last seen when she left to smoke a cigarette and her friend suggested she smoke near exhaust vents in the women’s shower room to avoid the cold outside, the court papers said.
Janitors found Sergie’s body in a bathtub in the shower room on the afternoon of April 26, 1993.
Illinois
Boy pulled from lake after aunt allegedly pushed him dies
CHICAGO (AP) — A 3-year-old boy who was allegedly pushed into Lake Michigan in Chicago by his aunt last week has died, officials said.
Josiah Brown, who had been in grave condition and was not expected to survive since he was pulled from the lake last Monday, was pronounced dead shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.
The boy’s aunt was charged last week with attempted murder. In a statement, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said that prosecutors “anticipate that additional charges may be filed” but that the office would wait until the medical examiner’s office and the police department complete their investigations.
The 34-year-old Moreno, a resident of nearby Des Plaines, who was also charged with aggravated battery of a child under the age of 13 causing permanent disability, remains in Cook County Jail after a judge last week ordered that she be held without bond.
During last week’s bond hearing, prosecutors said that Moreno was at Navy Pier in Chicago when she allegedly pushed the boy into the lake, and then stood by as he sank. Divers found him at the lake bottom about a half hour later.
Oregon
Man retried for sex crime found guilty, gets longer sentence
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man retried on a sexual assault charge has been found guilty and was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison, about 45 years after he was acquitted of raping his then-wife in a trial that garnered national attention.
In 2017, John Rideout was found guilty of first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy by a Marion County jury and a judge sentenced him to over 16 years in prison.
Rideout, 65, was given a new trial Thursday because the sodomy verdict had been non-unanimous, the Statesman Journal reported. In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that such convictions were unconstitutional.
A jury last week deliberated less than an hour before unanimously finding Rideout guilty of sodomy. Judge Thomas Hart sentenced Rideout Monday to 25 years in prison. Rideout will not be eligible for early release or alternative programs.
Rideout in court argued legal points with the judge, accused the women of fabricating their assaults and dismissed the guilty verdict against him as a “stage production.”
Rideout was tried in 1978 for allegedly raping his wife at their Salem apartment in front of their young child. Rideout was acquitted. The Oregon Legislature had previously passed a law eliminating marital privilege as a rape defense.
The woman in the sodomy case testified again for the 2022 trial, saying at sentencing she hoped that by coming back she would prevent other women from being hurt.
Prosecutor Brendan Murphy argued for the lengthier sentence, saying Rideout showed a pattern of targeting and harming women going back to 1978 when he faced no legal repercussions for that alleged rape.
