Court Digest

Pennsylvania
Police: DNA may link man accused of slashing people on hiking trail to cold-case killing
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Authorities say a man accused of slashing people with a large knife while riding a bicycle on a trail in Philadelphia in recent weeks is now a person of interest in the cold-case slaying of a medical student that occurred among a series of high-profile sexual assaults in a large city park two decades ago.

Elias Diaz, 46, is charged with aggravated assault and other counts in the attacks or attempted attacks in late November and early December, where police say he used a machete-type knife against people on the Pennypack Park Trail in northeast Philadelphia.

Interim Police Commissioner John Stanford Jr. said Diaz’s DNA appeared to connect him to the 2003 strangulation killing of a medical student in the city’s sprawling Fairmount Park and perhaps to several other sexual attacks there. Stanford said Diaz is now a person of interest and charges were pending final confirmation of the DNA link.
Rebecca Park, 30, a fourth-year student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine from Olney, Maryland, vanished after going running in the park in July 2003. Her body was found buried under wood and leaves in a steep hillside in the park, about 200 feet (60 meters) off the road, authorities said.

Police said that crime was linked to the April 2003 rape of a 21-year-old jogger in the park, and in October of that year a 37-year-old woman managed to fight off a man who tried to rape her. In 2007, a 29-year-old woman walking on a path in Pennypack Park was sexually assaulted and robbed, police said.

In 2021, a DNA analysis helped create a series of composite sketches of the man believed responsible for the assaults, and genealogy databases yielded a link to a man named Elias Diaz but he couldn’t be found. Officials said the suspect just arrested had previous contact with police but authorities didn’t have his DNA until his arrest in the recent assaults.

The Defender Association of Philadelphia, which is listed in court documents as representing Diaz in the recent cases, declined comment before the news conference on those charges and any potential new ones.

Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore, chief of homicide in the Philadelphia district attorney’s office, said she expected final DNA results before the end of the day and “fully” anticipated charging Elias Diaz with murder and related offenses in Park’s death.

Stanford said the Fairmount Park assault cases and Park’s slaying had “haunted” the community and the department, pointing to the presence of retired Capt. John Darby, who had just assumed command of the special victims unit when the assaults began.

“This was important enough for him today to come back,” he said. “These are the type of cases that haunt you until you’re able to bring some closure to it.”

Darby echoed his words, saying “Investigators will tell you, they go home, the last thing they think about before they go to bed at night, the first thing they think about when they wake up in the morning, is cases like these.”


Missouri
Man who helped bilk woman out of $1.2M sentenced to prison, ordered to repay money
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Texas man who was part of a romance scam that bilked a Missouri woman out of $1.2 million was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in federal prison and ordered to repay the money.

Rotimi Oladimeji, 38, of Richardson, Texas, was sentenced one year after he pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s office in St. Louis said in a news release.

Oladimeji and two others spotted the victim on the “Silver Singles” online dating site, prosecutors said. Posing as a Belgian national who was a veterinarian and animal behaviorist living in St. Louis, they made plans to meet with her but never followed through.

The scammers claimed the man needed money because he was not being allowed to leave the United Arab Emirates, where he had gone for a business deal. Federal prosecutors said the victim lost nearly $1.2 million. Oladimeji had received about 20% of the money but is responsible for fully reimbursing the victim unless his two co-defendants pay back some of it, said U.S. Attorney’s office spokesperson Robert Patrick.

Oladimeji was born in Nigeria and could be deported after his release from prison, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

Olumide Akrinmade and Adewale Adesanya also have pleaded guilty to federal charges. Akrinmade was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to repay $46,500.
Adesanya was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to repay $1.5 million for various fraud schemes.

West Virginia
White supremacist sentenced for threatening jury and witnesses at synagogue shooter’s trial
WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) — A self-proclaimed white supremacist was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison Wednesday for making online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, of Follansbee, West Virginia, was sentenced in federal court in northern West Virginia for his September guilty plea to obstruction of the due administration of justice.

Lloyd admitted that the actual or perceived Jewish faith of the government witnesses and victims in the trial of Robert Bowers prompted him to target the jury and witnesses.

The U.S. Justice Department described Lloyd as a self-proclaimed leader of a white supremacy movement. Prosecutors said Lloyd, who was arrested on Aug. 10, sent threatening social media posts and emails along with comments on websites during Bowers’ trial.

Bowers was sentenced to death in August in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history after a jury determined that capital punishment was appropriate.

In May 2022, the Texas Department of Public Safety offered a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to Lloyd’s arrest after he allegedly posted a series of comments online threatening to carry a firearm onto the Texas Capitol grounds and challenge any police officer who tried to “take enforcement actions” against him. A statement from the department said Lloyd was a convicted felon.

Alabama
Mayor resigns, pleads guilty to using employees and inmates as private labor
CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) — The mayor of a small city in Alabama has resigned and pleaded guilty to 15 misdemeanor counts of using city employees and inmates to perform private work for him while they were working or in custody.

Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail, 60, on Tuesday entered the plea to use of office for personal gain, agreed to resign and publicly apologized.

“I am truly sorry for the harm and inconvenience brought about by this,” Nail wrote in his apology. “I never wanted to bring any negativity to Hanceville. I love Hance­ville and the people of Hanceville. I would never do anything to intentionally harm the city. Again, I am truly sorry.”

Since 2008, Nail has served as mayor in the city which lies between the cities of Birmingham and Huntsville and has a population of about 3,200.

Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker announced the multi-count indictment against Nail last month. The initial charges were felony crimes but reduced to misdemeanors in the plea deal.

The crimes happened between Sept. 30, 2019, and Sept. 29, 2023, court records show.

According to the indictment, Nail routinely solicited former Police Chief Bob Long to perform work at Nail’s home while the chief was on duty, and he had another employee, Joshua Howell, drive to Georgia in a city vehicle while on duty to perform work on a trailer owned by Nail and his wife.

Nail also used three former jail inmates to do work at his home while they were in custody, the indictment alleges.

As part of the plea, Crocker said Nail was ordered to pay $4,000 in restitution, a $2,500 fine, perform 120 hours of community service and will be on probation for 15 years, which prohibits working for any public or governmental entity during probation, al.com reported.

“The trust between the people and their government must remain strong. Mr. Nail pleaded guilty, admitted to his misconduct, and also apologized to the citizens of Hanceville for his actions,’’ Crocker said. “I believe this swift resolution is balanced and shows both consideration for admitting guilt and that elected officials who violate the public trust will be held accountable.”

Nail was represented by attorneys Michael Whisonant and Richard Jaffe, who said they were pleased with the resolution of the case.

Arkansas
Judge threatens to dismiss lawsuit from AG in prisons dispute
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas judge on Tuesday threatened to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general against the Corrections Board that he would normally represent, the latest in a widening legal fight between the panel and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders over prisons.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox on Tuesday criticized Attorney General Tim Griffin for filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Board of Corrections without arranging for a special counsel to represent the panel in the case. The judge said he’ll dismiss the lawsuit in 30 days if Griffin doesn’t reach an agreement with the board on a special counsel.

Griffin has accused the panel of violating the law when it hired an outside attorney in its dispute with Sanders over who runs the state prison system.

“The case, at this juncture, from a procedural standpoint, is that the attorney general has sued his own clients, in violation of his duties and responsibilities mandated to him by the Arkansas General Assembly,” Fox wrote.

Griffin said he was certain he and his office complied with all ethical obligations and planned to appeal to the state Supreme Court.

“The court’s order states that the Board of Corrections is clearly ‘entitled to legal counsel,’” Griffin said in a statement. “There is no dispute about that here. The dispute is whether the board has followed the legal requirements to obtain outside counsel.”

Abtin Mehdizadegan, the board’s attorney, said the panel believed Fox’s ruling “recognizes the extreme conflicts of interest presented by the attorney general’s retaliatory lawsuit against the board.”

“I expect that the issue of the attorney general’s ethics will continue to be the subject of close scrutiny,” he said in a statement.

The board last week suspended state Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri and sued the state over a new law that took away the panel’s authority over Profiri and two other top officials. A judge on Friday issued a temporary order blocking the law and set a hearing for next week in the case. Griffin has asked the court to reconsider its order.

The dispute stems from the Sanders administration moving forward with opening temporary prison beds that the board has not approved. Members of the board have said opening the temporary beds would jeopardize the safety of inmates and staff.

The board said the blocked law, which would have taken its hiring and firing power over the corrections secretary and given it to the governor, violates Arkansas’ constitution. The blocked law also would have given the corrections secretary, not the board, hiring and firing authority over the correction and community correction division directors.