Minnesota
Court: City doesn’t have to meet police minimum
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals has overturned a lower-court ruling that Minneapolis violated its city charter by failing to keep police staffing levels above a minimum.
The appellate court Monday said that the city charter clearly imposes a duty on the City Council to fund a minimum number of officers, but it doesn’t require the mayor to continously employ them, the Star Tribune reported.
The ruling reverses a court victory last year in a lawsuit brought by several north Minneapolis residents who said the city was failing in its obligation to provide sufficient policing.
Attorney Douglas Seaton, whose Upper Midwest Law Center represents the group that sued, said the citizens would appear to the state Supreme Court. He called it “absurd” to say that a minimum number of police officers must be funded but they don’t have to be employed.
The citizens’ lawsuit came as crime spiked in Minneapolis citywide, especially during the pandemic and in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police, and as the number of officers simultaneously fell sharply.
The appellate court said Mayor Jacob Frey’s duty to maintain police staffing levels is “discretionary.”
The Star Tribune reports that Frey has held three police academies and recalled laid-off community service officers as he works to rebuild the department.
Massachusetts
Former police clerk gets 3 months for OT fraud
BOSTON (AP) — A former Boston Police Department clerk who according to prosecutors sometimes forged her supervisor’s signature to inflate her overtime pay by nearly $30,000 over two years has been sentenced to three months in prison.
Marilyn Golisano, 68, was also sentenced Monday to three years of probation following her time behind bars, the first three months of which must be spent in home confinement, and was ordered to pay full restitution to the city, federal prosecutors said.
Golisano, who handled the overtime paperwork for a detective unit, submitted dozens of fraudulent overtime claims in 2017 and 2018, some of which included the forged signature of her supervisor, prosecutors said.
Although her work was done primarily on the computer, she never logged into the department’s computer system during many of the overtime shifts she claimed to have worked, and phone records sometimes showed she was miles away when she was supposed to be in Boston, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston.
She pleaded guilty in September to embezzlement from an agency receiving federal funds and wire fraud.
Wisconsin
Man who killed parents wants to skip court sentencing
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Attorneys for man convicted of killing and dismembering his parents have asked a judge to allow their client to skip his own sentencing hearing in Dane County.
Chandler Halderson is to be sentencing Thursday for killing of his parents, 50-year-old Bart Halderson and 53-year-old Krista Halderson. He doesn’t want to be present in court when a judge hands down his sentence.
The prosecution objects in a letter to Judge John Hyland requesting that the motion be denied. Deputy District Attorney William Brown says Halderson doesn’t want to face what he has done, WISC-TV reports.
“The defendant has no right to simply skip court hearings that might be uncomfortable or to avoid finally being held responsible for his behavior,” Brown wrote.
Halderson was convicted on two counts each of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse, hiding a corpse and falsifying information about a missing person. A first-degree intentional homicide conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.
Halderson would also have the opportunity to speak at his sentencing hearing — something he hasn’t done to this point. The judge has not yet ruled on the motion.
Investigators said Halderson killed his parents after his father discovered he had been lying about attending Madison Area Technical College. It was one in a web of lies he told about work, school and being on a police scuba dive team, according to prosecutors.
California
Man gets prison for stealing forest user fees
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A California man has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for burglarizing user fee collections sites on the Coronado National Forest in southern Arizona.
Federal prosecutors said 51-year-old Brian Lisanti pleaded guilty to destroying government property by breaking the lock on a fee envelope collection tube on the Coronado National Forest near Safford.
Lisanti, of Weimar, also pleaded guilty to stealing more than $1,400 from a fee envelope collection tube on the Coronado National Forest near Green Valley in 2020.
Prosecutors said that between July and November of 2020, Lisanti committed at least 42 burglaries and took money at fee collection sites on national recreation lands in Arizona, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah.
Oregon
Man pleads guilty to importing live scorpions
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man has pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally importing and exporting hundreds of live scorpions.
Darren Drake, 39, of Eugene, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring with others to commit Lacey Act violations, a federal misdemeanor, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Lacey Act makes it illegal to trade wildlife and plants that have been illegally stolen or sold.
According to court documents, from September 2017 into March 2018, Drake imported and exported dozens of live scorpions from and to contacts in Germany without obtaining an import-export license from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
On one parcel intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Drake falsely labeled the package contents as chocolates, prosecutors said.
Drake also mailed or received several hundred live scorpions from other U.S. states, including Michigan and Texas, in violation of federal mailing laws, according to prosecutors.
Drake faces up to one year in prison, three years’ supervised release and a $100,000 fine when he’s sentenced later this year.
Delaware
Former officer charged with sexual solicitation of minor
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A former Delaware police officer is facing a felony charge of trying to solicit sex from an underage girl.
A New Castle County grand jury on Monday indicted Brandon Cooper, 30, on a charge of sexual solicitation of a child, along with misdemeanor charges of lewdness and official misconduct.
If convicted on all charges, he could face more than 26 years in prison.
Prosecutors allege that the former Wilmington police officer began exchanging text messages late last year with a 17-year-old he had met in early 2020 while on assignment at a local community center.
The victim was listed in Cooper’s phone as “Yougn” (sic) because of her age, according to the indictment.
In one text, according to investigators, Cooper wrote, “aint f--- wit no younngn in a lonnngg tiem (sic).”
The text exchanges with the girl, who turns 18 next month, included nude photos of the victim and Cooper encouraging sexual acts, authorities said. On Dec. 2, while in uniform, Cooper sent the victim a video message in which he said “look,” then aimed the camera at his exposed genitalia, prosecutors allege.
According to the indictment, Cooper acknowledged that he was working in his official capacity when he sent the video.
The next day, the Division of Family Services was called to the girl’s home after she reported a sexual abuse incident that did not involve Cooper, according to authorities. But after Cooper was dispatched to assist DFS, the girl said the abuse incident did not occur. She later told her social worker that she recanted her previous statement because Cooper had sent her the video the day before, officials say.
The social worked then contacted the police department.
Wilmington Police Department spokesman David Karas said Monday that Cooper’s last day with the department was Feb. 22. He refused to say whether Cooper was fired or allowed to resign, citing “employment regulations and state law.”
Attorney General Kathy Jennings described the facts of the case as “grave and disturbing.”
“The defendant in this case swore an oath to protect our community from this kind of misconduct. His actions broke that trust,” Jennings said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether Cooper has an attorney.
Washington
Man found guilty of murder tackled after verdict
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — The defendant in a Pierce County murder trial Monday threw an object toward prosecutors as the judge confirmed the man’s guilty verdict, prompting deputies to tackle and use a stun gun on him.
Andrew Pointer was convicted by a jury in Superior Court of first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm in the Aug. 4, 2019, shooting of Lawrence Jeffries, 38, The News Tribune reported.
Judge James Orlando was polling the jury for verdict confirmation when Pointer grabbed and hurled the object. County deputies used a stun gun on the man as about eight of them detained and removed him from the courtroom.
During the five-week trial, Pointer argued he shot Jeffries in self defense.
Prosecutors said the shooting stemmed from a “long-time disagreement” over how Pointer should treat his girlfriend, whom Jeffries used to date and with whom he had a 16-year-old daughter, according to charging documents.
Pointer and Jeffries fought at a Lake Tapps gathering and the next day Pointer shot Jeffries and fled in a car, prosecutors said.
Pointer said he got control of Jeffries’ firearm during a scuffle and fired one shot at Jeffries.
Pointer is set to be sentenced in April.
California
Ex-officer who stomped on man’s head found guilty of assault
ELK GROVE, Calif. (AP) — A jury on Monday found a former Northern California police officer who stomped on the head of a man suspected of shoplifting guilty of battery and assault, authorities said.
Bryan Schmidt was one of several officers with the Elk Grove Police Department who on June 5, 2019, responded to a report of two people stealing from a clothing store. By the time he arrived, the man was already on the ground and wasn’t complying with orders to extend his arms “like an airplane,” the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
“With his gun drawn, Schmidt approached the suspect and told him if he didn’t put his arms out like an airplane it was ‘going to be a bad day’ for him. Seconds later, Schmidt stomped on the suspect’s head, knocking him unconscious,” the office said.
The man developed subdural hematomas, or brain bleeds, that required several brain surgeries, prosecutors said.
Schmidt was fired from the department in 2020 after an investigation into the incident revealed that neither the officer nor his supervisor had reported the use of force incident.
Schmidt faces a maximum sentence of 4 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 8.
