Farmington Hills
Youth hockey doctor faces more sex abuse charges
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) — A suburban Detroit doctor already jailed on criminal sexual conduct charges connected to his work with youth hockey organizations has been charged in two additional cases.
Zvi Levran, 66, is accused of sexually assaulting a 30-year-old man in 2020 in Levran’s Farmington Hills home and a 14-year-old boy in 2018 in nearby Farmington, the Oakland County prosecutor’s office said Wednesday.
Levran’s initial contact with both was through youth hockey, prosecutors added.
Levran, who Farmington Hills police said provided medical assistance to youth hockey teams in Michigan and Minnesota for two decades, first was arrested in October. He was arraigned in November on multiple criminal sexual conduct charges involving several patients who told police their examinations were in some way connected to youth hockey.
A few days later, Levran was charged with 10 more counts of criminal sexual conduct after police received 33 additional tips about the urologist from other Detroit-area communities and California, Georgia, North Carolina, Minnesota, Arizona and Canada.
Levran’s attorney, Joe Lavigne, said Thursday that he is “looking forward to defending the case.” Lavigne has entered not-guilty pleas on Levran’s behalf in the previous cases.
Levran is jailed on bonds totaling more than $2 million.
The role of sports doctors and their interactions with athletes have come under scrutiny in recent years.
Former Michigan State University sports doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced in 2018 to 40 to 175 years in prison after admitting to molesting some of the nation’s top gymnasts for years under the guise of medical treatment. He was accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of women and girls.
Former University of Michigan athletes, students and others have said they were molested by University of Michigan sports doctor Robert Anderson. Anderson was director of the campus health service and a physician for multiple sports teams, including football. He died in 2008 after working at the university for nearly 40 years.
Kentucky
Hospital to pay $4M for claims of faulty opioid recordkeeping
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky hospital system will pay a $4.4 million civil penalty for faulty recordkeeping that enabled a pharmacy technician to divert 60,000 doses of opioids, federal prosecutors announced.
Pikeville Medical Center self-reported the diversion, cooperated with a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation and has taken “substantial steps” to address its problems ahead of the settlement, which does not determine any liability, according to a statement Wednesday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lexington.
“The size of this fine shows how serious this situation is,” said agent Todd Scott, who leads the DEA’s Louisville division. “Hopefully, Pikeville Medical Center will do a better job in the future with their record keeping and the resulting harm inflicted on the community can be reversed.”
Prosecutors said a failure to maintain accurate and complete inventories and dispensing records enabled Kayla Nicole White Perry, then a pharmacy technician at the hospital, to divert more than 60,000 doses of oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone from the hospital system’s narcotics vault and Pyxis MedStations from January 2016 through early September 2018.
She and her husband William Chad Perry pleaded guilty in 2020 to a conspiracy to distribute the drugs. She was sentenced to 41 months in prison, while he was sentenced to 38 months.
The hospital system told the Lexington Herald Leader that no patients there were deprived of medication or harmed because of the diversion.
A three-year memorandum of agreement between the hospital and the DEA includes inspection, reporting and training requirements.
“We have taken multiple steps and invested in new technology to better detect and prevent medication diversion in our facility,” a hospital statement said. “Pikeville Medical Center and our current leadership is committed to being the provider and employer of choice for healthcare in the southeastern Kentucky community by providing quality care to our patients.”
Flint
Man pleads guilty in 1997 slaying of woman, 88
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — A man arrested last year in the 1997 killing of an 88-year-old Michigan woman has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and other charges in the long unsolved case.
Michael Adam Bur, 42, was scheduled to stand trial in early 2023 on charges of felony murder, kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Mary Prieur’s slaying.
But he appeared Monday before a Genesee County Circuit Court judge and pleaded guilty to an amended charge of second-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the kidnapping charge.
Bur’s plea agreement calls for a sentence of 10 to 20 years in prison and lifetime monitoring as a sex offender. His sentencing is set for Jan. 24.
Prieur’s body was found in February 1997 in a wooded area near her residence in the Genesee County village of Lennon. Prieur, who had been beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted, had emigrated from Czechoslovakia as a child and later operated a candy business in Flint.
Bur was 17 and had lived near Prieur’s house at the time of her killing,
A DNA sample taken from Bur in the months after the crime remained in storage until 2021, when a Michigan State Police Crime Lab used more advanced techniques than what existed in 1997 to link him to samples taken from the murder scene.
Florida
‘Don’t Say Gay’ lawmaker indicted on fraud charges
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida lawmaker who sponsored the controversial law critics call “Don’t Say Gay” has been indicted on charges of defrauding a federal coronavirus loan program for small businesses, officials said Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors said Rep. Joe Harding, 35, illegally obtained or tried to obtain more than $150,000 from the Small Business Administration in pandemic aid loans. He is being charged with two counts of wire fraud, two counts of money laundering and two counts of making false statements.
Harding, a Republican, became nationally known this year over his sponsorship of a law that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as well as material that is not deemed age-appropriate.
“I want the public and my constituents to know that I fully repaid the loan and cooperated with investigators as requested,” Harding said in a written statement.
The Republican speaker of the Florida House of Representatives has temporarily removed Harding from his committee assignments in the Legislature.
A trial is scheduled for Jan. 11.
California
Death row inmate dies of natural causes at 69
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. (AP) — A prison inmate who spent more than 30 years on California’s death row for beating to death a woman and her 2-year-old daughter during a burglary died early Wednesday of natural causes, state corrections officials said.
Richard Gonzales Samayoa, 69, was found unresponsive in his cell in the infirmary at San Quentin State Prison and was pronounced dead at 1:13 a.m., according to a statement from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The Marin County coroner will determine the exact cause of his death.
Samayoa was sentenced to death in San Diego County in mid-1988 for the December 1985 killings of Nelia Silva, 33, and her 2-year-old daughter, Katherine.
Prosecutors said Samayoa, a convicted felon who lived across the street from the victims, beat them to death with a wrench when they caught him burglarizing their home.
There are 675 people on death row in California. The state last carried out an execution in 2006.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has imposed a moratorium on executions while he is governor, and is moving to dismantle the United States’ largest death row by moving all condemned inmates to other prisons.
Detroit
Judge gets new job while ex-Gov. Snyder awaits key decision
DETROIT (AP) — A judge who was expected to make a major decision in a Flint water case against former Gov. Rick Snyder has been promoted to federal court, leaving him and his defense team to wonder what’s next.
Genesee County Judge F. Kay Behm was approved Tuesday by the U.S. Senate to become a federal judge in eastern Michigan.
Snyder’s lawyers had asked Behm to dismiss misdemeanor charges against him, after the Michigan Supreme Court unanimously said indictments by a one-person grand jury were invalid.
Behm heard arguments six weeks ago, on Oct. 26, but hadn’t released a decision while her nomination as federal judge was pending. State prosecutors want to simply restart the process by having Snyder’s indictment sent back to District Court and turned into a common criminal complaint.
Another judge overseeing Flint water felony charges against seven people thoroughly rejected that approach and dismissed their cases on Oct. 4.
Behm’s staff said she signed orders in many cases this week.
“I don’t know if that’s one of them. I’m going as fast as I can,” administrative secretary Denise Churchill said Thursday.
Flint’s water became tainted with lead after city managers appointed by Snyder began using the Flint River in 2014 to save money while a new pipeline to Lake Huron was built. The water wasn’t treated to reduce its corrosive qualities, causing lead to break off from old pipes and contaminate the system for more than a year.
California
Father charged after baby daughter is found dead in LA River
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — An Inglewood man was charged Wednesday with killing his 1-year-old daughter, who was found in the Los Angeles River, authorities said.
Jayveyon Burley, 22, was charged with one count each of murder and assault on a child causing death. He appeared in court Wednesday but his arraignment was continued to January, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said in a statement.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Burley had an attorney to speak on his behalf.
On Sunday, Burley picked up his 3-year-old son and his 1-year-old daughter, Leilani Burley, from their mother’s home in Long Beach, prosecutors said.
The girl’s grandmother called police that evening when her son, who lives with her, returned home with only the boy, authorities said.
Police began a search for the missing girl. Her body was found Monday in the Los Angeles River at the river’s southern end in Long Beach, authorities said.
Police didn’t immediately release the specific cause of her death.
“The murder of a child is absolutely horrific. Babies are helpless and rely on their parents for everything. Children should never lose their life at the hands of their father,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “While we know there is nothing we can do to heal this extraordinary trauma, we will hold this person accountable for his callous actions.”
