Massachusetts
Sheriff charged with pressuring cannabis company to sell him stock
BOSTON (AP) — A sheriff in one of Massachusetts’ largest counties was charged Friday with allegedly pressuring a Boston-based cannabis firm to sell him stock in the company.
Sheriff Steven Tompkins, 67, who oversees about 1,000 employees in the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, is facing two counts of extortion. He was taken into custody in Florida and had his first appearance there. He will appear in Boston federal court later.
“Elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law abiding — not self-serving,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement. “His alleged actions are an affront to the voters and taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. The people of Suffolk County deserve better.”
No one from the sheriff’s department could be reached for comment and an attorney for Tompkins did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the court documents, Tompkins first pressured the unnamed company for stock as it was considering launching an initial public offering in 2020. The company,
according to the documents, feared Tomkins could undermine the company’s partnership with a sheriff department program that referred released inmates to work there. It feared that could put the company’s operating license risk as well as the timing of its initial public offering.
In November, 2020, Tompkins allegedly wired $50,000 from his retirement account to an account controlled by the company to purchase the stock. After the initial public offering, the stock value increased significantly.
But when it began to fall a year later, Tompkins alleged demanded his money back and, despite, the decline in the stock’s value, the company gave him a full refund. Among the evidence in the court document was five checks written to Tompkins, with a note they were for a loan repayment.
Tompkins has run afoul of the law before. In 2023, Tompkins paid a fine of $12,300 for violating conflict of interest laws after he created a position in his department for his niece and for asking his subordinates to run personal errands for him.
If found guilty on the extortion charges, Tompkins could face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison on each count, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
Oregon
Portland to pay $3.75M to estate of unarmed man fatally shot by police
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The city of Portland, Oregon, is set to pay $3.75 million to the estate of an unarmed man who was shot and killed by police in 2022 after being mistaken for an armed robbery suspect.
The city settled with Immanueal Clark’s estate, which had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit last year, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. An officer mistook the 30-year-old as someone involved in an armed robbery earlier in the evening and shot him in the back as he fled from a police stop in November 2022.
The news outlet, citing a database maintained by the advocacy group Portland Copwatch, reported it was the largest settlement on record paid by the city to an individual plaintiff.
City councilors unanimously approved the settlement on Thursday after a meeting in which they questioned disagreement within the police department over whether the shooting was proper. An internal affairs investigator had found the officer who shot Clark violated bureau policy; the city’s Police Review Board, which includes four members from the police department, two community members and an independent city staffer, voted 4-3 that the shooting was within policy, OPB reported.
Police Chief Bob Day told councilors that while he was angered by Clark’s death, it was his final decision to deem the shooting appropriate as he believed Officer Chris Sathoff acted reasonably according to the facts available at the time, OPB reported.
A grand jury cleared Sathoff of criminal wrongdoing in 2023.
The night of the shooting, a 911 caller told dispatchers he had been robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant by men who were “definitely white.” Officers mistook Clark’s sedan as being involved in the robbery, and when they approached it in a church parking lot, Clark, who was Black, fled on foot.
In grand jury testimony, Sathoff said Clark had been “digging his pockets” as he ran away and that he thought Clark may have a gun. He fired three bullets from an AR-15 rifle.
Councilor Loretta Smith said the shooting highlighted discrepancies in how Black and white Portlanders are treated by police.
“We did know the description of the robbers — and the robbers were white. And Manny is clearly Black,” Smith said.
Day said the police department had made changes since the shooting, including how it trains officers to use rifles, OPB reported.
Maine
State can’t enforce foreign election interference law appeals court calls unconstitutional
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine can’t enforce a voter-approved foreign election interference law that a federal appeals court said likely violates the Constitution by limiting political donations.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a ban on foreign governments and companies with 5% or more foreign government ownership from donating to state referendum races. The law is one of a handful around the country that attempt to limit foreign influence on U.S. elections.
The law has been on hold pending federal lawsuits from utilities companies and media organizations that raise constitutional challenges about it. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said in court papers in July that it affirmed a lower-court ruling that the law likely violates the First Amendment.
“The prohibition is overly broad, silencing U.S. corporations based on the mere possibility that foreign shareholders might try to influence its decisions on political speech, even where those foreign shareholders may be passive owners that exercise no influence or control over the corporation’s political spending,” wrote Judge Lara Montecalvo.
The matter was sent back to the lower court, where it will proceed, and there has been no substantive movement on it in recent weeks, said Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the Maine attorney general’s office, on Monday. The law is on the state’s books, but the state cannot enforce it while legal challenges are still pending, Hayes said.
Voters approved the law in 2023 by a margin of 86% to 14%. It followed a multimillion-dollar effort by a Canadian-owned utility to influence a project in Maine in which it’s a partner.
The law reflects the will of Maine residents to ensure clean elections, said Rick Bennett, chair of Protect Maine Elections, the committee formed to support the 2023 ballot initiative. He said the fight to save the law was still ongoing.
“Mainers spoke with one voice: our elections should belong to us, not to corporations owned or influenced by foreign governments whose interests may not align with our own,” Bennett said in a statement.
Tennessee
Business spat between Hall and Oates resolved in arbitration, attorneys say
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Daryl Hall and John Oates have resolved their dispute over a Hall & Oates business partnership through arbitration, reaching a private ending after details of their rift went public in court documents filed in a 2023 lawsuit by Hall against Oates, according to a court filing Monday.
In Monday’s status report, attorneys for Hall noted the case received a final judgment in arbitration and they filed a proposed order for the judge, Nashville Chancellor Russell Perkins, to dismiss the case. In mid-July, Perkins ordered Hall’s attorneys to offer an update in the case, which had last seen a public filing in December 2023.
It’s unclear when the arbitration process was finalized. And details were not revealed about the arbitration outcome between the duo who made music together for more than a half century, including hits in the 1970s and ‘80s such as “Maneater,” “Rich Girl” “Kiss on My List” and “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).”
Robb Harvey, an attorney for Hall, declined to comment. Representatives for Oates did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.
In 2023 filings in the case, Hall accused Oates of blindsiding and betraying him, saying their relationship and his trust in Oates have deteriorated. Oates replied that he was “deeply hurt” that Hall was making “inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate statements” about him.
The judge had paused the sale of Oates’ stake in Whole Oats Enterprises LLP to Primary Wave IP Investment Management LLC. Whole Oats includes valuable Hall & Oates materials such as trademarks, personal name and likeness rights, record royalty income and website and social media assets, a court declaration says.
The dispute went public in November 2023, when Hall filed the lawsuit asking the judge to stop the sale by Oates so private arbitration could begin.
Hall gave a scathing account of their relationship in early November 2023 during arbitration, and it was made public later in the month in the lawsuit. It alleges that Oates and his team engaged in the “ultimate partnership betrayal” by pushing to sell his share while telling Hall’s associates that he wanted to maintain his ownership.
In his own declaration, Oates expressed disappointment with his longtime partner’s words, saying Hall’s accusations that Oates went behind his back and breached their agreement aren’t true. Oates declined to go into specifics, saying he’s obligated to keep details private, even if Hall didn’t.
Last year, Oates told The Associated Press that he’s had “no communication” with Hall and declined to discuss the legal proceedings. He did not see a Hall & Oates reunion in his future.
“I personally don’t see it happening. It’s not in my plans at all. You can ask Daryl Hall what he thinks. But for me personally, no,” he says.
The Times asked Hall in February if the ship had sailed on mending the pair’s relationship.
“That ship has gone to the bottom of the ocean,” Hall told the news outlet. “I’ve had a lot of surprises in my life, disappointments, betrayals, so I’m kind of used to it.”
New York
Man admits trying to smuggle 850 protected turtles valued at $1.4M to Hong Kong
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York resident has admitted he tried to smuggle protected turtles worth more than $1 million from the United States to Hong Kong by shipping them in boxes labeled “plastic animal toys.”
Wei Qiang Lin, a Chinese national who lives in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to attempting to export more than 220 parcels containing around 850 eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The turtles, with an estimated market value of $1.4 million, were intercepted by law enforcement at a border inspection, prosecutors said. Officers saw them bound and taped inside knotted socks within the shipping boxes.
Eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles feature colorful markings and are a “prized feature” in the domestic and foreign pet market, particularly in China and Hong Kong, prosecutors said. The reptiles are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Lin also shipped 11 other parcels filled with reptiles, including venomous snakes, prosecutors said. He faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced Dec. 23.
Sheriff charged with pressuring cannabis company to sell him stock
BOSTON (AP) — A sheriff in one of Massachusetts’ largest counties was charged Friday with allegedly pressuring a Boston-based cannabis firm to sell him stock in the company.
Sheriff Steven Tompkins, 67, who oversees about 1,000 employees in the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, is facing two counts of extortion. He was taken into custody in Florida and had his first appearance there. He will appear in Boston federal court later.
“Elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law abiding — not self-serving,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a statement. “His alleged actions are an affront to the voters and taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. The people of Suffolk County deserve better.”
No one from the sheriff’s department could be reached for comment and an attorney for Tompkins did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the court documents, Tompkins first pressured the unnamed company for stock as it was considering launching an initial public offering in 2020. The company,
according to the documents, feared Tomkins could undermine the company’s partnership with a sheriff department program that referred released inmates to work there. It feared that could put the company’s operating license risk as well as the timing of its initial public offering.
In November, 2020, Tompkins allegedly wired $50,000 from his retirement account to an account controlled by the company to purchase the stock. After the initial public offering, the stock value increased significantly.
But when it began to fall a year later, Tompkins alleged demanded his money back and, despite, the decline in the stock’s value, the company gave him a full refund. Among the evidence in the court document was five checks written to Tompkins, with a note they were for a loan repayment.
Tompkins has run afoul of the law before. In 2023, Tompkins paid a fine of $12,300 for violating conflict of interest laws after he created a position in his department for his niece and for asking his subordinates to run personal errands for him.
If found guilty on the extortion charges, Tompkins could face a sentence of up to 20 years in prison on each count, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.
Oregon
Portland to pay $3.75M to estate of unarmed man fatally shot by police
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The city of Portland, Oregon, is set to pay $3.75 million to the estate of an unarmed man who was shot and killed by police in 2022 after being mistaken for an armed robbery suspect.
The city settled with Immanueal Clark’s estate, which had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit last year, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. An officer mistook the 30-year-old as someone involved in an armed robbery earlier in the evening and shot him in the back as he fled from a police stop in November 2022.
The news outlet, citing a database maintained by the advocacy group Portland Copwatch, reported it was the largest settlement on record paid by the city to an individual plaintiff.
City councilors unanimously approved the settlement on Thursday after a meeting in which they questioned disagreement within the police department over whether the shooting was proper. An internal affairs investigator had found the officer who shot Clark violated bureau policy; the city’s Police Review Board, which includes four members from the police department, two community members and an independent city staffer, voted 4-3 that the shooting was within policy, OPB reported.
Police Chief Bob Day told councilors that while he was angered by Clark’s death, it was his final decision to deem the shooting appropriate as he believed Officer Chris Sathoff acted reasonably according to the facts available at the time, OPB reported.
A grand jury cleared Sathoff of criminal wrongdoing in 2023.
The night of the shooting, a 911 caller told dispatchers he had been robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant by men who were “definitely white.” Officers mistook Clark’s sedan as being involved in the robbery, and when they approached it in a church parking lot, Clark, who was Black, fled on foot.
In grand jury testimony, Sathoff said Clark had been “digging his pockets” as he ran away and that he thought Clark may have a gun. He fired three bullets from an AR-15 rifle.
Councilor Loretta Smith said the shooting highlighted discrepancies in how Black and white Portlanders are treated by police.
“We did know the description of the robbers — and the robbers were white. And Manny is clearly Black,” Smith said.
Day said the police department had made changes since the shooting, including how it trains officers to use rifles, OPB reported.
Maine
State can’t enforce foreign election interference law appeals court calls unconstitutional
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine can’t enforce a voter-approved foreign election interference law that a federal appeals court said likely violates the Constitution by limiting political donations.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a ban on foreign governments and companies with 5% or more foreign government ownership from donating to state referendum races. The law is one of a handful around the country that attempt to limit foreign influence on U.S. elections.
The law has been on hold pending federal lawsuits from utilities companies and media organizations that raise constitutional challenges about it. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston said in court papers in July that it affirmed a lower-court ruling that the law likely violates the First Amendment.
“The prohibition is overly broad, silencing U.S. corporations based on the mere possibility that foreign shareholders might try to influence its decisions on political speech, even where those foreign shareholders may be passive owners that exercise no influence or control over the corporation’s political spending,” wrote Judge Lara Montecalvo.
The matter was sent back to the lower court, where it will proceed, and there has been no substantive movement on it in recent weeks, said Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the Maine attorney general’s office, on Monday. The law is on the state’s books, but the state cannot enforce it while legal challenges are still pending, Hayes said.
Voters approved the law in 2023 by a margin of 86% to 14%. It followed a multimillion-dollar effort by a Canadian-owned utility to influence a project in Maine in which it’s a partner.
The law reflects the will of Maine residents to ensure clean elections, said Rick Bennett, chair of Protect Maine Elections, the committee formed to support the 2023 ballot initiative. He said the fight to save the law was still ongoing.
“Mainers spoke with one voice: our elections should belong to us, not to corporations owned or influenced by foreign governments whose interests may not align with our own,” Bennett said in a statement.
Tennessee
Business spat between Hall and Oates resolved in arbitration, attorneys say
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Daryl Hall and John Oates have resolved their dispute over a Hall & Oates business partnership through arbitration, reaching a private ending after details of their rift went public in court documents filed in a 2023 lawsuit by Hall against Oates, according to a court filing Monday.
In Monday’s status report, attorneys for Hall noted the case received a final judgment in arbitration and they filed a proposed order for the judge, Nashville Chancellor Russell Perkins, to dismiss the case. In mid-July, Perkins ordered Hall’s attorneys to offer an update in the case, which had last seen a public filing in December 2023.
It’s unclear when the arbitration process was finalized. And details were not revealed about the arbitration outcome between the duo who made music together for more than a half century, including hits in the 1970s and ‘80s such as “Maneater,” “Rich Girl” “Kiss on My List” and “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).”
Robb Harvey, an attorney for Hall, declined to comment. Representatives for Oates did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.
In 2023 filings in the case, Hall accused Oates of blindsiding and betraying him, saying their relationship and his trust in Oates have deteriorated. Oates replied that he was “deeply hurt” that Hall was making “inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate statements” about him.
The judge had paused the sale of Oates’ stake in Whole Oats Enterprises LLP to Primary Wave IP Investment Management LLC. Whole Oats includes valuable Hall & Oates materials such as trademarks, personal name and likeness rights, record royalty income and website and social media assets, a court declaration says.
The dispute went public in November 2023, when Hall filed the lawsuit asking the judge to stop the sale by Oates so private arbitration could begin.
Hall gave a scathing account of their relationship in early November 2023 during arbitration, and it was made public later in the month in the lawsuit. It alleges that Oates and his team engaged in the “ultimate partnership betrayal” by pushing to sell his share while telling Hall’s associates that he wanted to maintain his ownership.
In his own declaration, Oates expressed disappointment with his longtime partner’s words, saying Hall’s accusations that Oates went behind his back and breached their agreement aren’t true. Oates declined to go into specifics, saying he’s obligated to keep details private, even if Hall didn’t.
Last year, Oates told The Associated Press that he’s had “no communication” with Hall and declined to discuss the legal proceedings. He did not see a Hall & Oates reunion in his future.
“I personally don’t see it happening. It’s not in my plans at all. You can ask Daryl Hall what he thinks. But for me personally, no,” he says.
The Times asked Hall in February if the ship had sailed on mending the pair’s relationship.
“That ship has gone to the bottom of the ocean,” Hall told the news outlet. “I’ve had a lot of surprises in my life, disappointments, betrayals, so I’m kind of used to it.”
New York
Man admits trying to smuggle 850 protected turtles valued at $1.4M to Hong Kong
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York resident has admitted he tried to smuggle protected turtles worth more than $1 million from the United States to Hong Kong by shipping them in boxes labeled “plastic animal toys.”
Wei Qiang Lin, a Chinese national who lives in Brooklyn, pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in New York to attempting to export more than 220 parcels containing around 850 eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
The turtles, with an estimated market value of $1.4 million, were intercepted by law enforcement at a border inspection, prosecutors said. Officers saw them bound and taped inside knotted socks within the shipping boxes.
Eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles feature colorful markings and are a “prized feature” in the domestic and foreign pet market, particularly in China and Hong Kong, prosecutors said. The reptiles are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Lin also shipped 11 other parcels filled with reptiles, including venomous snakes, prosecutors said. He faces up to five years in prison when he’s sentenced Dec. 23.
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