National Roundup

Mississippi
Aug. sentencing for couple who planned to join Islamic State
ABERDEEN, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge has scheduled sentencing next month for a Missis­sippi couple who pleaded guilty to planning to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State group.

Online court records show that sentencing is Aug. 11 for Jaelyn Young, who left her parents a note saying she had planned it all. Judge Sharion Aycock has scheduled sentencing Aug. 24 for Young’s fiance, Muhammad Dakhlalla.

Authorities say undercover agents got in touch with the couple after they sought online help traveling to Syria.

Young was 20-years-old and Dakhlalla was 22-years-old when they were arrested Aug. 8, 2015, in Columbus, Mississippi, where they were about to board a flight to Istanbul, with plans to go from there to Syria.

Each pleaded guilty in March to one count of aiding a terrorist organization. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime on supervised release, which could mean a return to prison if they violate any of its terms.

Both plea agreements state that prosecutors did not promise a specific sentence.

Young, the daughter of a school administrator and a police officer who served in the Navy reserve, was an honor student, cheerleader and homecoming maid at Vicksburg’s Warren Central High School.

Prosecutors have said Young converted to Islam while studying chemistry at Mississippi State University, led toward the Islamic State group in part by online videos. Like Young herself, prosecutors have said she’s the one who prodded Dakhlalla into the plan to join the terrorists.

In online conversations with the agents, prosecutors said, Young noted her math and chemistry skills and said she and Dakhlalla would like to be medics treating the wounded.

At one time, Young said she planned to camouflage her journey as a honeymoon, but later discarded the plan.

Dakhlalla is a 2011 psychology graduate of Mississippi State who grew up in Starkville, a son of a prominent figure in the college town’s Muslim community. He is the youngest of three sons and was preparing to start graduate school at the university.

Mississippi
Former bank ­officer gets 2 years, must repay $3.35M
GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A former vice president of Water Valley’s Mechanics Bank has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to repay $3.35 million.

William J. Pullen will report to prison Sept. 19 after he was sentenced earlier this month by U.S. District Judge Debra Brown. He pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud in February.

Pullen faced up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Prosecutors dismissed a theft and embezzlement count as part of the plea agreement.

Court papers show Pullen, acting as a loan officer, borrowed money in the names of unsuspecting bank customers between 2009 and 2014. Pullen would take some of the money for himself and use some of it to make payments on loans he had improperly made.

Ohio
Attorney cited for ­Black Lives ­Matter button
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — A municipal court judge in Ohio has cited an attorney for contempt of court and given her five days in jail after she refused to remove a Black Lives Matter button she was wearing.

The Vindicator newspaper in Youngstown reports Judge Robert Milich cited attorney Andrea Burton on Friday after briefly meeting with her in chambers.

A Vindicator reporter saw Burton handcuffed and taken to jail.

Milich said he issued the citation because a U.S. Supreme Court ruling bans political buttons in the courtroom.

Attorneys for the Youngstown NAACP branch asked the judge to stay the sentence but he refused.

The newspaper reports an appeals court later agreed to stay the citation and sentence pending Burton’s appeal. In the meantime, she’s promised not to wear the button in court.

Georgia
Appeals court says ‘upskirting’ not against law
ATLANTA (AP) — A man admitted he surreptitiously took cellphone video up a woman’s skirt while she shopped at a grocery store, but a Georgia court says he didn’t break the law.

The Georgia Court of Appeals this month tossed out the conviction of former grocery store employee Brandon Lee Gary, who recorded the videos.

The majority opinion says Gary’s behavior, known as “upskirting,” was reprehensible but doesn’t violate Georgia’s invasion of privacy law because it happened in a place that’s open to the public. That law prohibits recording a
person without consent “in any private place and out of public view.”

A dissenting opinion says the law should be interpreted to mean that a person’s covered private parts are in fact a private place.

Some lawmakers are considering a legislative fix.

Montana
Canadian teens detained for Pokemon Go ­border crossing
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — U.S. Border Patrol officials say two Canadian teenagers were briefly apprehended after they accidentally crossed the U.S. border into Montana while playing the game “Pokemon Go.”

Border Patrol Agent John South says the teens were engrossed and wandered into the United States.

South says agents detained them while contacting their mother, who was nearby on the Canadian side.

The agents then released the children to their mother.

South on Friday declined to release the teenagers’ names, ages or describe what sort of terrain they crossed.

He says they were detained Thursday near Sweet Grass, Montana, which borders the town of Coutts in Canada’s Alberta province.

Maryland
Coast Guard seeks hoax caller whose ‘maydays’ cost $500,000
BALTIMORE (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard says it’s looking for a man who has cost the service about $500,000 after responding to nearly 30 of his fake distress calls.

In a press release published Friday, the Coast Guard says the 28 calls have originated from around the area of Annapolis, Maryland.

Each call involved the same male voice and used an emergency radio channel. He’s been making the calls since July 2014. The two most recent calls were made on the night of July 21 and the early morning of July 22.

The Coast Guard also says hoax calls distract rescuers from real emergencies, putting both the public and the responding crews at risk.