Nevada
Ex-fire chief drug charges involve steroids, no gangs
RENO, Nev. (AP) — The felony drug charges facing Sparks’ ex-fire chief involve steroids and none carry potential gang enhancement penalties, the state attorney general’s office said this week.
The criminal complaint the Nevada Attorney General’s office filed Dec. 9 in Sparks Justice Court accuses Mark Lawson of four felony counts — including a conspiracy charge and possession with intent to sell a controlled substance.
The court initially entered the filing with an inaccurate subsection of the state criminal code relating to gang involvement, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office said. The court file information was corrected on Monday.
“The related drug charges are actually for steroids and there is no gang enhancement to any of the charges,” Alcinia Whiters, deputy communications director, said in an email late Monday to The Associated Press.
A conspiracy count dates to October 2020, with the most recent references to illegal possession of the steroids in August 2021, court records show.
Court records list a co-defendant, Lance Forrester of Washoe County. No lawyer is listed for Lawson or Forrester so it’s not clear if either has one or will be appointed a public defender at a Jan. 31 arraignment scheduled in justice court before Judge Chris Wilson.
Lawson had been on the job for about a week before resigning last week. A Sparks spokesperson said the city would have no further comment about the former fire chief.
The Gazette Journal first reported Monday that the alleged drug crimes involved steroids and no drug enhancement.
The Sparks City Council approved Lawson’s hiring Nov. 28 to the $200,000-per-year job. But on Dec. 5, Sparks City Manager Neil Krutz said he informed fire department staff that serious criminal charges were about to be filed against the new chief.
“I met with Chief Lawson and asked for his resignation and he granted it,” Krutz told the newspaper earlier. “He’s no longer employed by the city of Sparks.”
Alaska
Lawmaker takes stand in case over Oath Keepers ties
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska lawmaker took the stand Wednesday in a case alleging his ties to the far-right group Oath Keepers disqualifies him from holding office.
Republican Rep. David Eastman said he believed he remained a member of the group, saying he had not heard anything from the Oath Keepers about his membership in some time. Eastman was asked if he had made any public statements that he was resigning or renouncing his membership, to which he replied: “I have not made such a statement.”
Eastman was questioned by attorney Goriune Dudukgian, who is representing Randall Kowalke. Kowalke was among the individuals who earlier this year filed challenges to Eastman’s candidacy for the state House with the Alaska Division of Elections. The division determined that Eastman was eligible to run for reelection, but Kowalke’s attorneys have argued the division failed to investigate Eastman’s eligibility under the so-called disloyalty clause of the state constitution.
The lawsuit points to a provision of the constitution that states that no one who “advocates, or who aids or belongs to any party or organization or association which advocates, the overthrow by force or violence of the government of the United States or of the State shall be qualified to hold” public office.
Nationally, a founder of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and a Florida chapter leader have been convicted of seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. A trial against four other Oath Keepers is underway.
Eastman has said he was in Washington, D.C., that day for a speech by then-President Donald Trump but did not take part in the riot. Eastman has not been accused of any crimes.
A post by Eastman on his website in September said that Oath Keepers “has never encouraged me to engage in violence. What they have asked is that everyone who has taken an oath to the Constitution consciously live up to that promise. I do. Some want to see that as evidence of my disloyalty to the Constitution.”
A bench trial in the case began this week. Eastman won reelection last month but the judge overseeing the case, Superior Court Judge Jack McKenna, previously ordered that certification of the race be delayed pending trial and further order from the court.
Ohio
Full court won’t rehear appeals over Ohio State sex abuse
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An appeals court panel’s decision that revived unsettled federal lawsuits against Ohio State University over decades-old sexual abuse by a team doctor won’t be reconsidered by the full court.
That decision Wednesday by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals marks another step forward for plaintiffs who have argued that their unsettled cases should proceed.
A judge had dismissed most of those unsettled cases, saying it’s clear that the late Richard Strauss abused hundreds of young men but that the legal time limit for claims had long passed. Some of those survivors argued that the clock on the claims didn’t start until allegations became public in 2018 because they didn’t have reason before then to believe the university had enabled or covered up his behavior.
A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit agreed and reversed the judge’s decision in September. The school then asked the full court to rehear the matter, and several other universities echoed that request.
When the court denied it on Wednesday, a few of the Sixth Circuit judges dissented. An opinion written by one of them, Judge Chad Readler, raised concern that the decision would wrongly broaden the scope of Title IX and give plaintiffs more time to file lawsuits for violations under that 50-year-old law, which was meant to ensure gender equity in education.
A school spokesman said OSU was reviewing the decision and had no other comment.
The university has reached over $60 million in settlements with at least 296 survivors and has issued public apologies for anyone Strauss harmed.
He worked for Ohio State between 1978 and 1998, and died in 2005. No one has publicly defended him.
Wisconsin
10-year-old accused of killing mom makes court appearance
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A judge has refused to lower the $50,000 bail imposed on a 10-year-old Milwaukee boy accused of intentionally killing his mother because she would not buy him a virtual reality headset.
The boy’s attorney argued during his initial court appearance Wednesday that the bail should be lowered from $50,000 to $100 because he has no source of income, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jane Carroll refused to lower the bail amount and also imposed travel restrictions on the boy, should bail be posted.
The boy initially told police that the Nov. 21 shooting was an accident, according to the criminal complaint. But later he said he intentionally aimed at his 44-year-old mom before shooting her because he was upset that she woke him early and did not buy him something he wanted, according to the complaint.
The boy was charged as an adult last month with alternate counts of first-degree intentional homicide or first-degree reckless homicide.
Wisconsin law requires children as young as 10 to be charged as adults for certain serious crimes, though the boy’s attorneys can seek to move the case to juvenile court. The boy, who family members said has mental health issues, is being held in juvenile detention.
The prosecutor in the case, Paul Dedinsky, asked the judge to require the boy to be released into the custody of a family member should he post bail. The judge did not impose that restriction.
The boy’s attorney, Angela Cunningham, argued that it would be “unheard of” to require a defendant in adult court to stay in the custody of a family member on pretrial release.
Carroll appeared to side with Cunningham on Wednesday, saying that if he is released, he should be placed on GPS monitoring.
The boy mostly kept his head down during the hearing. Carroll ordered that he not be placed in shackles or any other kind of restraints and forbade the media from publishing any personal information about him, including his image and address.
Massachusetts
Music student from China charged with stalking over flyer
BOSTON (AP) — A Berklee College of Music student who is a citizen of China was arrested Wednesday for allegedly threatening and harassing an individual who posted a flyer in support of democracy in China, according to federal investigators.
Xiaolei Wu, 25, was charged with one count of stalking.
According to Department of Justice investigators, an individual posted a flyer on Oct. 22 near the Berklee College of Music campus in Boston which said, “Stand with Chinese People,” as well as, “We Want Freedom,” “We Want Democracy,” and “We Want Food on Our Tables.”
Investigators said that over the next few days, Wu made a series of communications via WeChat, email and Instagram directed at the individual who posted the flyer. Authorities said Wu threatened to “chop” the individual’s hands off if the person posted more flyers and pledged to inform the public security agency in China about the individual’s actions.
The individual is a permanent U.S. resident originally from China with family members who still live there.
Wu has been assigned a public defender, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
The charge of stalking carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge.
Tennessee
Judge cuts man’s ‘excessive’ 162-year sentence
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who has served 25 years of a 162-year prison term for theft and forgery convictions will be released from prison after a judge and a district attorney found the sentence excessive.
Courtney Anderson was sentenced in 2000 to the long prison term after Anderson was found to be a repeat offender, the Shelby County district attorney’s office said Wednesday. The judge gave Anderson the maximum amount of time on each conviction and required the sentences to be served one after the other.
Appeals were denied. But in April, Anderson filed a motion in criminal court to “correct an illegal sentence,” the DA’s office said.
Judge Paula Skahan, who did not give Anderson the long sentence, asked the DA to investigate, and legal ground for reopening the case was found. Skahan cut Anderson’s total sentence to 15 years on Tuesday.
“This was clearly an excessive sentence, the kind of overreaction that sows distrust in our system and doesn’t make us safer,” Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy said in a statement.
Anderson, 54, told the judge that he committed the crimes because of a past cocaine addiction. Anderson plans to live in Virginia with his sister.
