Court Digest

Illinois
2 face fraud charges involving boat dealership
PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Two central Illinois residents have been indicted on a federal charges alleging that they defrauded a boat dealership and others out of more than $2 million.

Jeffrey D. Gibbs, 55, of Farmer City and Kara M. Wilkey, 45, of Maroa were both indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of wire, mail and bank fraud as well as aggravated identity theft, the Peoria Journal Star  reported.

Gibbs and Wilkey are former employees of Mid Illinois Boats, Inc., which does business as Clinton Marine II. Federal prosecutors allege that they defrauded that dealership, its customers and banks through a "multifaced fraud scheme."

The pair allegedly used that money for personal expenses, including spending it on automobiles, vacations, credit cards, utilities and shopping, prosecutors allege.

Clinton Marine II operated boat dealerships in both East Peoria and Weldon, Illinois. Gibbs and Wilkey allegedly used their positions at the company from 2014 to 2019 in the scheme prosecutors said included obtaining loans on "fictitious boats" and false transactions and "taking out loans using forged signatures."

Messages seeking comment on the allegations were left Tuesday for Gibbs' attorney.

Online court documents do not list an attorney for Wilkey.

West Virginia
Judge denies Blackjewel coal's request to liquidate assets
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A bankrupt coal operator's request to liquidate its assets has been denied by a federal judge in West Virginia.

Blackjewel filed for Chapter 11 reorganization bankruptcy in July 2019 and mostly halted operations.

The company had sought to convert to Chapter 7, which would allow it to liquidate its assets. The company said in court filings it didn't have the assets to continue reorganizing in a Chapter 11 proceeding.

Federal Judge Benjamin A. Kahn denied the request in an order on Monday, Ohio Valley Resource reported.

Blackjewel's mine shutdowns put about 600 employees in Wyoming and 1,100 in Appalachia out of work last year, and left hundreds of Kentucky and Virginia miners without pay. Some of them held a months-long protest on a set of railroad tracks in Harlan County, Kentucky.

Illinois
Prisoner rights groups blast state's COVID-19 rate in jails
Thousands of Illinois inmates and jail employees have become sickened with COVID-19, an increase u in recent months that has alarmed prisoner rights advocates.

At least 59 inmates have died from COVID-19 and nearly 10,000 inmates and staff members have become infected, according to The Chicago Tribune. Most infections are recent. From March to early August, there were fewer than 700 known infections.

"This is absolutely a failure by the state," said Jennifer Soble, head of the Illinois Prison Project. "There is no question that COVID was going to make it into the prisons. The tragedy is the number of people who have become sick and died. That tragedy was preventable."

Department of Corrections officials acknowledged the increase. Agency Director Rob Jeffreys said at a recent Senate committee hearing that more testing is partly the reason and the rise follows state and national trends.

Illinois began regularly testing prison employees earlier this month, a practice expected to be in place statewide next month.

Illinois expects about 234,000 doses of both vaccines this week, according to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's office. Medical workers and nursing home residents have priority.

The state has reported roughly 906,000 COVID-19 cases including about 15,300 deaths, according to the Department of Public Health.

Virginia
Man convicted under new law against leaving guns near kids
CHESTERFIELD, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man has been convicted of leaving a loaded firearm near his young son, who accidentally shot himself in the hand.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Monday that the case is one of the first to be prosecuted under a new Virginia law that boosts the penalty for "recklessly" leaving guns near children.

Radell J. Bolden, 36, of Chesterfield, was sentenced to a year in jail with all 12 months suspended. Bolden also got 24 hours of community service. He must forfeit his gun and complete a firearm safety class.

Bolden told authorities he was cleaning his firearm and left it on his dresser when he went to the bathroom, prosecutors said. Bolden said his son, 8, was not in the bedroom at the time. But a short time later, Bolden said he heard a gunshot and found his son suffering from a hand wound, prosecutors said.

Bolden is said to be one of the first people charged under a new state law that makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to leave a loaded, unsecured firearm around children under 14 in a manner that endangers their life or safety.

The old state law for the crime was a Class 3 misdemeanor that carried a fine of up to $250 but no jail time.

Pennsylvania
Kidnap suspect now charged with murder of young Amish woman
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — A man charged previously with having kidnapped a young Amish woman who disappeared in Pennsylvania last summer has now been charged with killing her.

Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams announced Monday that Justo Smoker, 34, of Paradise, was charged with criminal homicide in the case of Linda Stoltzfoos, 18, who has been missing since June 21.

Stoltzfus was last seen walking home from church in the Bird-in-Hand area, and no sign of her has been found since, Adams said. Friends and family said Stoltzfoos was happy with her life and had never expressed any desire to leave, and she had made plans to join others in a church youth group the day she disappeared, Adams said.

All of the evidence, including evidence developed since the suspect's arrest, has led investigators to "the tragic and inescapable conclusion that Linda is deceased," she said.

"Given the circumstances of Linda's disappearance — specifically, a forceful abduction by a stranger — we always feared the worst," Adams said. After careful consideration of the evidence and the law, authorities were "now in a position — legally — to charge Smoker with murder, despite not having recovered Linda's body."

Adams vowed that efforts to find the victim's body would continue "in order to try to provide some closure to her family who love her and miss her dearly."

Smoker was earlier charged with a felony kidnapping count and misdemeanor false imprisonment. Authorities said surveillance video enhanced by FBI forensic technicians depicted her abduction and showed a red sedan, the same kind of car owned by the defendant, was involved in the abduction.

In a rural location in Ronks where they believe the victim might have been taken and where the vehicle was seen parked June 23, authorities found items of Stoltzfoos' clothing buried in a wooded area, prosecutors said. A DNA profile "attributable to Smoker" was found on one of her buried stockings, Adams said Monday.

Chief Public Defender Christopher Tallarico, who is representing Smoker, told LNP newspaper that he was aware prosecutors were contemplating filing the homicide charge, but had no other comment.


Alabama
Illegal winery busted at town's sewage plant
RAINSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Sheriff's officials say they've busted an illegal winery that was operating at a municipal sewage plant in a small north Alabama town.

The DeKalb County Sheriff's Office said in a statement it received an anonymous tip about an alcohol operation at a municipal building in the town of Rainsville on Thursday. Investigators then uncovered what's described as a large illegal winery inside the Rainsville Waste Water Treatment Plant.

Photos released by investigators show glass containers, buckets, a fermenting rack and other equipment often used by people who make wine at home.

The agency says officers seized a lot of illegal alcohol and arrested Allen Maurice Stiefel, 62, of Fyffe. He faces a felony charge of use of official position for personal gain and a misdemeanor charge of unlawful possession of an illegally manufactured alcoholic beverage.

Rainsville Mayor Rodger Lingerfelt said Stiefel has been suspended without pay, according to WHNT-TV. Stiefel has been a city employee for 15 years, the mayor said.

"I want to thank the mayor for his cooperation and willingness to allow law enforcement to do our job and shut something like this down," Sheriff Nick Welden said in a statement. "This is definitely one of the biggest operations we've seen in our county and possibly our state."

The town of about 5,100 people is 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Birmingham.

It's legal to make limited amounts of wine at home in Alabama, but it's illegal to have more than 15 gallons of homemade wine or beer at a time. Police photos show multiple fermenting vessels filled with what appears to be more than 100 gallons of white and red liquid.