Tag: Law and order

Report: Dallas cop arrested for shooting at another officer

DALLAS — A Dallas police officer was arrested on an aggravated assault charge Friday for allegedly shooting at another officer while the pair were off duty.

Officer Anthony Heims was being held in the Dallas County jail on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He has not been granted bond and jail records did not list an attorney who could speak for the 39-year-old.

The Dallas Police Department announced that Heims has been placed on administrative leave pending outcome of an internal affairs administrative investigation, but did not explain the charge further.

An arrest warrant obtained by the Dallas Morning News alleges that Heims and another officer were riding in a Uber Friday when he pointed a pistol at the other officer’s head. The Uber driver reportedly told investigators that the pair began struggling over the gun, which discharged into the car’s roof.

The second officer, who was reportedly intoxicated, is not named in the newspaper’s report. It’s unclear whether he’s identified in the affidavit.

A police spokesperson did not answer questions about what led to the charge against Heims and said the affidavit would have to be obtained from the county clerk’s office, which did not immediately respond to a request for the document.

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November 18, 2022
Plane hits vehicle on runway, catches fire at Lima’s airport

LIMA, Peru — A LATAM Airlines plane taking off from Lima’s international airport struck a firetruck on the runway and caught fire Friday. Authorities said the plane’s passengers and crew were all safe, but two firefighters in the truck were killed.

Lima Airport Partners, the company that operates Jorge Chávez airport, said in a tweet that operations at the facility had been suspended. There were 102 passengers and six crew members aboard the Airbus A320neo.

“Our teams are providing the necessary care to all passengers, who are in good condition,” the company said.

Luis Ponce La Jara, general commander of the fire department, said two firefighters were killed and one was injured when the truck they were in was struck by the plane. Both the plane and the firetruck were in motion when they collided.

Flight LA2213 was taking off from Lima’s main airport en route to the Peruvian city of Juliaca.

Videos on social media showed smoke coming from a large plane on the runway.

According to the fire department, the incident was registered at 3:25 p.m. and four rescue units were mobilized.

Fire department chief Mario Casaretto told local media that “we do not yet know technically what happened.”

The Prosecutor’s Office in Callao, where the airport is located, said an investigation into the cause of the accident had been opened.

Aviation authorities said operations at Jorge Chávez International Airport were suspended until 1 p.m. local time Saturday. Flights would be direct to other airports in the meantime.

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November 18, 2022
Hearing for Iowa teen who killed rapist moved to January

DES MOINES, Iowa — An judge on Friday set a hearing for January to consider whether to order prison for an 18-year-old sex-trafficking victim in Iowa who killed her rapist and pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury.

Pieper Lewis was sentenced Sept. 13 to probation for five years to be served at a Des Moines women’s shelter, but less than two months later she cut off the court-ordered GPS ankle monitor and walked away from Fresh Start Women’s Center. She was arrested five days later and put in jail, where she remains.

An Iowa Department of Corrections probation officer had asked the court to revoke the terms of her probation, and Judge David Porter set a hearing Friday to consider the matter. But after meeting briefly with lawyers, Porter scheduled a new hearing on Jan. 18.

Matthew Sheeley, a lawyer for Lewis, said they plan to contest the proposed revocation.

Assistant Polk County Attorney Meggan Guns said when a defendant challenges a proposed revocation, a judge typically sets a hearing where evidence can be presented, which is what occurred Friday.

Porter told Lewis at her sentencing hearing in September that he was giving her a second chance by allowing her to serve time at the women’s shelter and complete community service instead of prison. He said she wouldn’t get a third chance.

Lewis had faced a 20-year prison sentence in the June 2020 killing of Zachary Brooks, 37. Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment. She initially was charged with first-degree murder, but prosecutors agreed to a plea deal dropped that charge.

Lewis has said that she was trafficked against her will to Brooks for sex multiple times and stabbed him in a fit of rage after he raped her again.

The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sexual assault, but Lewis agreed to have her name used previously in stories about her case.

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November 18, 2022
Alabama fails to complete lethal injection for 3rd time

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s string of troubled lethal injections, which worsened late Thursday as prison workers aborted another execution because of a problem with intravenous lines, is unprecedented nationally, a group that tracks capital punishment said Friday.

The uncompleted execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith was the state’s second such instance of being unable to kill an inmate in the past two months and its third since 2018. The state completed an execution in July, but only after a three-hour delay caused at least partly by the same problem with starting an IV line.

A leader at the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-death penalty group with a large database on executions, said no state other than Alabama has had to halt an execution in progress since 2017, when Ohio halted Alva Campbell’s lethal injection because workers couldn’t find a vein.

According to Ngozi Ndulue, deputy director of the Washington-based group, the only other lethal injection stopped before an inmate died also was in Ohio, in 2009.

“So Alabama has more aborted lethal injections in the past few years than the rest of the country has overall,” she said.

Something has obviously gone wrong with the state’s execution procedure, Ndulue said.

“I think Alabama clearly has some explaining to do, but also some reflection to do about what is going wrong in its execution process,” she said. “The question is whether Alabama is going to take that seriously.”

Prison officials said they called off Smith’s execution for the night after they were unable to get the lethal injection underway within the 100-minute window between the courts clearing the way for it to begin and a midnight deadline when the death warrant expired for the day.

Smith’s lawyers filed an emergency motion Friday morning asking to meet with Smith at the prison where he is incarcerated and for a judge to order the state to preserve notes and other materials that might detail what happened in the failed execution. They said they believe Smith may have been strapped to a gurney for several hours, although the state commissioner said execution team members only spent about an hour searching for a vein.

“Mr. Smith no doubt has injuries from the attempted execution — and certainly physical and testimonial evidence that needs to be preserved — that can and should be photographed and/or filmed. It is Plaintiff’s counsel’s understanding that Mr. Smith was strapped to a gurney for approximately four hours last night,” lawyers for Smith wrote.

Smith, who was scheduled to be put to death for the murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife in 1988, was returned to death row at Holman Prison after surviving the attempt, a prison official said. His lawyers declined to comment Friday morning.

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Smith’s execution when at about 10:20 p.m. it lifted a stay issued earlier in the evening by the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. But the state decided about an hour later that the lethal injection would not happen that evening.

Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison staff tried for about an hour to get the two required intravenous lines connected to Smith, 57. Hamm said they established one line but were unsuccessful with a second line, which is required under the state’s protocol as a back-up for the first line, after trying several locations on Smith’s body.

Officials then tried a central line, which involves a catheter placed into a large vein. “We were not able to have time to complete that, so we called off the execution,” Hamm said.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey blamed Smith’s last minute appeals as the reason the execution was not carried out.

“Although that justice could not be carried out tonight because of last minute legal attempts to delay or cancel the execution, attempting it was the right thing to do,” Ivey said.

The initial postponement came after Smith’s final appeals focused on problems with intravenous lines at Alabama’s last two scheduled lethal injections. Because the death warrant expired at midnight, the state must go back to court to seek a new execution date.

Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. The slaying — and the revelations over who was behind it — rocked the small north Alabama community where it happened in Colbert County and inspired a song called “The Fireplace Poker,” by the Southern rock group Drive-By Truckers.

John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010.

Alabama has faced scrutiny over its problems at recent lethal injections. In ongoing litigation, lawyers for inmates are seeking information about the qualifications of the execution team members responsible for connecting the lines. In a Thursday hearing in Smith’s case, a federal judge asked the state how long was too long to try to establish a line, noting at least one state gives an hour limit.

The execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. in July took several hours to get underway because of problems establishing an IV line, leading Reprieve US Forensic Justice Initiative, an anti-death penalty group, to claim the execution was botched.

In September, the state called off the scheduled execution of Alan Miller because of difficulty accessing his veins. Miller said in a court filing that prison staff poked him with needles for more than an hour, and at one point left him hanging vertically on a gurney before announcing they were stopping. Prison officials have maintained the delays were the result of the state carefully following procedures.

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Reeves reported from Birmingham, Alabama.

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More of AP’s coverage of executions can be found at https://apnews.com/hub/executions

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November 18, 2022
Georgia asks court to immediately reinstate abortion ban

ATLANTA — Georgia officials asked a court on Friday to immediately block a judge’s ruling striking down the state’s abortion ban. The ruling allowed the procedure to again be performed beyond about six weeks of pregnancy.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney’s decision earlier this week was “remarkable” and relied on a “wholly unsupported theory that has no basis in law, precedent, or common sense,” the state attorney general’s office said in court documents filed with the Georgia Supreme Court.

It asked the high court for an order immediately putting McBurney’s decision on hold while the justices take more time to consider an appeal. Such an order would restore the state’s ban on abortion, which started roughly six weeks into pregnancy.

“This Court should stay the lower court’s decision now, without waiting to overrule it months down the line, while untold numbers of unborn children suffer the permanent consequences,” Georgia Solicitor General Stephen Petrany wrote.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, which represented doctors and advocacy groups that asked McBurney to throw out the law, said the judge’s ruling was correct and should stand. It also noted that abortion providers resumed performing the procedure past six weeks following his ruling.

“Appropriate reproductive health care has restarted in this state, and it should continue — with Georgia’s women and their partners being free to make private decisions about when and whether to have a family, without politicians,” ACLU of Georgia Executive Director Andrea Young said in a statement.

McBurney ruled Tuesday that the state’s abortion ban was invalid because when it was signed into law in 2019, U.S. Supreme Court precedent under Roe. v. Wade and another ruling allowed abortion well past six weeks. Legislatures exceed their authority when they enact laws that violate a constitutional right declared by the judicial branch, he wrote, adding that such laws are void when they are passed.

The decision immediately prohibited enforcement of the abortion ban statewide. It had been in effect since July and prohibited most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present.

Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart around six weeks into a pregnancy. That means most abortions in Georgia were effectively banned at a point before many people knew they were pregnant.

In his court filing, Petrany noted that Georgia’s ban went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned Roe v. Wade. When judicial precedents are overruled, they were never the law, he wrote.

“No other court has ever held that an overruled judicial opinion can, like a zombie rising from the grave, invalidate otherwise perfectly valid laws,” he claimed.

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November 18, 2022
EXPLAINER: Why are states having lethal injection problems?

OKLAHOMA CITY — A scheduled execution in Alabama that was called off Thursday after prison officials couldn’t find a suitable vein to inject the lethal drugs into is the latest in a long history of problems with lethal injections since Texas became the first state to use the execution method in 1982, including delays in finding usable veins.

Here’s a look at some of the issues states across the country are facing when it comes to lethal injections.

WHAT HAPPENED IN ALABAMA?

Alabama’s lethal injection protocol calls for two intravenous lines to be connected, with the second line to be used in case of a problem with the first. Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison staff were able to successfully establish one line on Thursday during its attempt to executed Kenneth Eugene Smith, but were unsuccessful with a second line, even after trying several locations on Smith’s body.

Officials then attempted to establish a central line, which involves a catheter placed into a large vein and occasionally the use of a scalpel to enlarge the insertion site, but ultimately decided to call off the execution after realizing they were not going to be able to complete that procedure before Smith’s death warrant expired at midnight.

It is the second execution since September the state has canceled because of difficulties with establishing an IV line with a deadline looming. In another Alabama execution earlier this year, prison officials poked Alan Eugene Miller with needles for more than an hour trying to find a vein, and at one point left him hanging vertically on a gurney before state officials made the decision to call off the execution.

On Friday, Smith’s lawyers filed an emergency motion asking to meet with Smith at the prison where he is incarcerated and for a judge to order the state to preserve notes and other materials that might detail what happened in the failed execution.

WHAT’S HAPPENED IN OTHER STATES?

Numerous other states that use lethal injection have encountered various problems with the execution method in the almost 40 years it’s been used, including difficulty finding usable veins, needles becoming disengaged or problems with the lethal chemicals.

In Oklahoma in 2014, condemned inmate Clayton Lockett writhed, clenched his teeth and attempted to lift himself up from the gurney after he had been declared unconscious when the state used a new drug, the sedative midazolam, in its three-drug method. Although prison officials attempted to halt the execution, Lockett was declared dead 43 minutes after the procedure began.

An investigation later revealed that a single IV line into Lockett’s groin, which was covered by a sheet, came loose and the lethal chemicals were injected into the tissue surrounding the injection site instead of directly into the bloodstream. The execution team didn’t realize the problem until they pulled back the sheet and noticed a swelling larger than a golf ball near the injection site.

In Ohio in 2006, Joseph Clark’s lethal injection was stalled while prison technicians located a suitable vein, which then collapsed and Clark’s arm began to swell. Clark raised his head and said: “It don’t work. It don’t work.” Technicians ultimately found another vein, but Clark wasn’t pronounced dead until nearly 90 minutes after the process started.

WHY ARE THERE PROBLEMS FINDING VEINS?

There are a number of different reasons why it can be difficult, even for experienced medical professionals, to set an IV into someone’s vein, said Dr. Ervin Yen, an Oklahoma City anesthesiologist who has witnessed several executions in Oklahoma as an expert hired by the state’s Attorney General’s Office.

Some people are just predisposed to having problematic veins, while other people’s veins have become difficult to use if they’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals with IVs or frequent blood draws, Yen said.

“Some inmates are going to be IV drug users who may have used up their veins that way,” Yen said.

Oftentimes, veins can be difficult to find if a person is dehydrated, he added.

WHAT STEPS ARE STATES TAKING TO ADDRESS THESE PROBLEMS?

In Oklahoma, after the botched execution of Lockett, state prison officials spent $71,000 renovating the death chamber, including $6,000 for an ultrasound machine to help members of the execution team locate veins. They also installed new lighting and new audio and video equipment so the condemned inmate can be more closely monitored.

Oklahoma also revamped its execution protocols to require more training for the execution team.

But it’s often difficult to know all the steps states are taking to update their execution protocols, because so many details are shielded from the public, said Ngozi Ndulue, the deputy director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

“States have tried to keep as much information about the conduct of executions secret,” Ndulue said.

Another problem many states face is a lack of medical professionals willing to take part in executions because of ethical concerns, she said.

“Requirements around training vary from state to state, and because a number of medical professionals are unwilling to be involved in executions, they’re usually very minimal in terms of training,” Ndulue said. “There are also protocols that are silent about what background the execution team must have.”

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November 18, 2022
Missouri summer camp operators sued over abuse settlement

A Tennessee man filed a lawsuit Friday claiming that operators of the Kanakuk Camps in Branson, Missouri, lied to him and his parents while persuading them to sign a settlement over sexual abuse by a camp counselor.

Logan Yandell, 27, of Hendersonville, Tennessee, and his parents reached a confidential settlement with Kanakuk in 2010 that included a non-disclosure agreement after Yandell was abused by Peter Newman, who is serving two life sentences for sexually abusing multiple children while working for the Christian summer camps.

The lawsuit names Kanakuk Ministries, Kanakuk CEO Joe White, Kanakuk Heritage Inc., Westchester Fire Insurance Company and a John Doe.

A statement from Kanakuk said the company just received the lawsuit on Friday and does not comment on pending litigation.

“We will respond further if or when appropriate,” the company said. “In the meantime, we continue to pray for all who have been affected by Pete Newman’s behavior.

Yandell was sexually abused while attending the summer camp and other activities between 2005 and 2008.

The lawsuit alleges that Kanakuk officials claimed they did not know about Newman’s sexual abuse of children prior to his arrest but the Yandell family later learned that wasn’t true.

In December 2021, the conservative online news outlet The Dispatch reported that Newman’s supervisor, Will Cunningham, recommended in 2003 that Newman be fired because of reports of child sexual abuse, including participating in several activities with children while nude, “counseling” them in a hot tub and sleeping alone with children.

The lawsuit filed Friday contains an affidavit from Cunningham confirming that he wanted Newman fired. Instead, White overruled the suggestion and promoted Newman to camp director, according to the lawsuit.

The family would not have signed the settlement and non-disclosure agreement if they had known that Kanakuk officials had lied to them, Brian Kent, one of the family’s attorneys, said Friday.

He said company officials took advantage of the family.

“Knowing that the Yandells were really trying to deal with making sure their child is OK and getting him better, this was a clear effort by Joe White and Kanakuk to advise them this is something they should do. And they lied to them in order to get them to sign.”

The lawsuit is not a class action but Kent said it’s possible more of Newman’s victims will file similar lawsuits because of the new information.

The Associated Press generally does not name victims of sexual abuse but Yandell is named in the lawsuit and has publicly discussed his case.

One of the reasons the family decided to file the lawsuit 12 years after signing the settlement was to allow Yandell to “get his voice back and have his voice heard,” Kent said.

Newman is serving two life sentences plus 30 years in state prison after his 2010 sentencing on seven felony counts of sexually abusing boys while he was a Kanakuk counselor. The number of victims is believed to be in the hundreds, according to the lawsuit.

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November 18, 2022
Chicago coder sentenced to 7 1/2 years for terrorism charge

CHICAGO — A former Chicago college student was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in federal prison for attempting to help the Islamic State group.

Thomas Osadzinski, 23, designed, used, and taught a computer program to disseminate violent propaganda online, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He was convicted last year of attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

The sentence handed down Thursday was less than the 15 years prosecutors had sought.

The former DePaul computer science student has been in custody since being arrested in Chicago in 2019 during an FBI sting.

Defense attorneys painted Osadzinski, who was born and raised in the Chicago suburb Northbrook, as a naive student who “got sucked in” to radical ideologies, the Chicago Tribune reported.

His attorney, Joshua Herman, told AP: “This sentence will allow Tommy to have a life, which is all he and his family asked for.” Herman added that the defense plans to appeal based on First Amendment issues.

Before Osadzinski was sentenced, he apologized to his parents in the courtroom and told the judge, “I completely reject ISIS.”

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who ordered that the prison term be followed by 10 years of court-supervised release, said there was a wide gulf between poor judgment and Osadzinski’s conduct, which included pledging fealty to a “hideous group” such as the Islamic State and “promoting and encouraging” its violent message around the globe.

“I think you understand now how serious this is,” Gettleman told Osadzinski. “You have shown remorse. Is it genuine? I hope so.”

The FBI said in a criminal complaint that Osadzinski boasted that he would use a gun and explosives to elude authorities if need be.

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November 18, 2022
Man who blamed Trump’s ‘orders’ for Jan. 6 riot sentenced

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Friday sentenced an Ohio man who claimed he was only “following presidential orders” from Donald Trump when he stormed the U.S. Capitol to 3 years in prison.

Dustin Byron Thompson was convicted in April by a jury that took less than three hours to reject his novel defense for obstructing Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

The jury also found Thompson guilty of all five of the other charges in his indictment, including stealing a coat rack from an office inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot.

Thompson apologized and said he was ashamed of his actions.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton told Thompson he could not understand how someone who had a college degree could “go down the rabbit hole” and believe “so much in a lie.” The judge said Thompson had to pay a price for a “serious crime” that undermined the “integrity and existence of this country.”

The maximum sentence for the obstruction count was 20 years imprisonment. The government had recommended a sentence of 70 months while the defense sought a year and a day in prison.

Thompson testified at trial that he joined the mob’s attack and stole the coat rack and a bottle of bourbon. He said he regretted his “disgraceful” behavior. But he also said he believed Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen and was trying to stand up for him.

Thompson was charged and convicted on six counts: obstructing Congress’ joint session to certify the Electoral College vote, theft of government property, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes arising from the riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Thompson was the fifth person to be tried on riot-related charges.

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November 18, 2022
Sweden: Traces of explosives found at Baltic Sea pipelines

HELSINKI — Investigators found traces of explosives at the Baltic Sea site where two natural pipelines were damaged in an act of “gross sabotage,” the prosecutor leading Sweden’s preliminary investigation said Friday.

Mats Ljungqvist of the Swedish Prosecution Authority said the investigators carefully documented the area where the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines ruptured in September, causing significant methane leaks. The parallel undersea pipelines run from Russia to Germany.

“Analysis carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found” at the site, Ljungqvist said in a statement.

The prosecution authority said the preliminary investigation was “very complex and comprehensive” and further scrutiny would show whether anyone could be charged “with suspicion of crime.”

Investigators in Sweden, Denmark and Germany are looking into what happened. Danish officials confirmed in October that there was extensive damage to the pipelines caused by “powerful explosions.”

The leaks, which stopped after several days, occurred in international waters but within the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden. Investigators have not given indications of whom they think might be responsible but reported earlier that the blasts were likely to have involved several hundred pounds of explosives.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday it was “very important to find those who are behind the explosion.”

Sweden’s findings of “a sabotage act or a terrorist act — you can call it whatever you like” confirm “the information that the Russian side has had,” Peskov said. Moscow needs to wait for a full damage assessment to decide whether to repair the pipelines, he said.

Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies at the end of August. Nord Stream 2 never entered service as Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

The governments of Denmark, Germany and Sweden have refrained from speculating over who may be behind the sabotage, saying only that there’s no sufficient proof yet to identify the perpetrator.

But some Nordic and other European media outlets have pointed a finger of blame on Moscow, hosting military experts suggesting that Russia has all the resources to carry out such a precise attack requiring careful advance planning.

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, said late September it was “very obvious” who was responsible of the pipeline sabotage, suggesting Russia’s involvement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of blowing up the pipelines and singled out the United States as profiting from attacks on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

Earlier this week, Germany marked the completion of port facilities for the first of five planned liquefied natural gas terminals it is scrambling to get running as it replaces the Russian pipeline gas that once accounted for more than half its supplies.

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November 18, 2022
Man who killed 6 in Christmas parade gets life, no release

A judge sentenced a man who killed six people and injured many others when he drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee to life in prison with no chance of release Wednesday, rejecting arguments from him and his family that mental illness drove him to do it.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow sentenced 40-year-old Darrell Brooks Jr. on 76 charges, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and 61 counts of reckless endangerment.

Each homicide count carried a mandatory life sentence, and the only uncertainty Wednesday was whether Dorow would allow Brooks to serve any portion of those sentences on extended supervision in the community, the state’s current version of parole. She did not. Wisconsin doesn’t have the death penalty.

The gallery applauded as Dorow announced the life sentences. Moments later she sentenced him to 762 years in prison on the endangerment counts.

“Frankly, Mr. Brooks, no one is safe from you,” Dorow said. “This community can only be safe if you are behind bars for the rest of your life. … You left a path of destruction, chaos, death, injury and panic as you drove seven or so blocks through the Christmas parade.”

Dorow had bailiffs move Brooks to another courtroom where he could participate via video after he became disruptive during her pre-sentencing remarks. He stood motionless in his jail garb and handcuffs as the judge announced the sentences.

Brooks’ victims demanded during a hearing Tuesday that Dorow give him the toughest sentence possible. Chris Owens, whose mother was among those killed, told Brooks: “All I ask is you rot, and you rot slow.”

Brooks drove his red Ford Escape through the parade in downtown Waukesha on Nov. 21, 2021, after getting into a fight with his ex-girlfriend. Six people were killed, including 8-year-old Jackson Sparks, who was marching with his baseball team, and three members of a group known as the Dancing Grannies. Scores of others were injured.

On Wednesday, before the judge handed down her sentence, Brooks told the court that he suffered from mental illness since he was young and didn’t plan to drive into the parade route. He also offered his first apology to the dozens of people who were hurt or lost loved ones during the incident.

Brooks, who represented himself at trial, told Dorow in remarks that rambled past two hours that he grew up fatherless, poor and hungry in apartment buildings infested with rats and bugs. Brooks said he has dealt with mental health issues for as long as he can remember and that he was physically abused, though he didn’t say by whom specifically. At times he took medication and did short stints in mental health facilities and life was better then, he said.

“People are going to, like I said, believe what they want, and that’s OK. This needs to be said: What happened on Nov. 21, 2021, was not, not, not an attack. It was not planned, plotted,” Brooks said, adding later: “This was not an intentional act. No matter how many times you say it over and over, it was not.”

Brooks also offered his first apology to the victims and their families.

“I want you to know that not only am I sorry for what happened, I’m sorry that you could not see what’s truly in my heart,” he said. “That you cannot see the remorse that I have.”

But Brooks didn’t explain his motive or offer any other insights into what he was thinking as he turned the SUV into the parade. When Dorow asked him what sentence he thought he should get, he didn’t answer directly but said: “I just want to be helped.”

Brooks’ mother and grandmother tried to persuade Dorow to place Brooks in a mental institution rather than prison. His grandmother, Mary Edwards, said Brooks has been bipolar since he was 12 and that disorder caused him to drive into the parade. His mother, Dawn Woods, pushed Dorow to ensure that Brooks receives treatment in prison.

“If they have to stay for the rest of their lives away from society at least they’re getting the help they need to become mentally well,” Woods said.

Brooks appeared to weep as his mother spoke.

Dorow said before she handed down the sentences that she doesn’t believe Brooks is mentally ill, pointing out that four psychologists who evaluated him earlier this year found that he suffers from an anti-social personality disorder but not a mental illness.

“It is my opinion that mental health issues did not cause him to do what he did on Nov. 21, 2021, and frankly didn’t play a role,” the judge said Wednesday. “It is very clear to me that he understands the difference between right and wrong and he simply chooses to ignore his conscience. He is fueled by anger and rage.”

Dorow spent most of Tuesday listening to dozens of victims demand Brooks get the maximum possible sentence. One by one they described frantically searching for their children in the immediate aftermath, the pain their children have endured as they still struggle to recover from their injuries and the emptiness they feel as they cope with the loss of their dead loved ones.

District Attorney Susan Opper asked Dorow on Tuesday to make the sentences consecutive so they stack up “just as he stacked victims up as he drove down the road,” with no chance of release on extended supervision.

Brooks chose to represent himself during his monthlong trial, which was punctuated by his erratic outbursts. He refused to answer to his own name, frequently interrupted Dorow and often refused to stop talking. Multiple times the judge had bailiffs move Brooks to another courtroom where he could participate via video but she could mute his microphone when he became disruptive, just as she did Wednesday.

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Richmond reported from Madison, Wisconsin.

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November 18, 2022
Prosecutors, defense win freedom for man in 1983 killing

NEW ORLEANS — A man who spent nearly four decades behind bars for a 1983 killing won his freedom Thursday after New Orleans prosecutors joined defense lawyers in asking to have his murder conviction overturned.

Attorneys on both sides said evidence of inconsistencies in the only eyewitness’s testimony was kept from the jury that convicted Raymond Flanks. Their joint motion to vacate his conviction was approved Thursday morning by a state judge.

Flanks, 59, was in orange prison coveralls during the hearing but he was unshackled in the courtroom before Judge Rhonda Goode-Douglas heard attorneys statements. A few hours later, he emerged from the doors of the courthouse wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the word “Justice” — arms raised in triumph as a band of supporters applauded.

“Even though it was delayed justice, it was justice,” Flanks, who is identified in court records as Raymond Flank, told reporters.

He was convicted in the December 1983 shooting death of Martin Carnesi during an armed robbery outside the home he Carnesi shared with his wife in eastern New Orleans.

Carnesi’s wife had identified Flanks as the killer. But her description of the suspect and the car he used differed at trial from her earlier statements to police and a grand jury.

The motion seeking to have the conviction thrown out said that Faye Carnesi, who is now deceased, had described the killer as having a white blotch on his cheek, that he was in his late 20s and that he drove an old car.

“Given that Mr. Flank was 20-years old, had no white blotches on his face, and drove a new car, these were important discrepancies,” the motion said. The information might have affected the jury’s decision, it said.

According to the motion, Flanks had been arrested for the armed robbery of a grocery store — he was later convicted and has not contested that verdict — when he was implicated in the Carnesi death.

Flanks was tried twice for the Carnesi killing. The first jury, in 1984, deadlocked even after being told the gun Flanks had when he was arrested for the grocery robbery was the murder weapon. That later turned out to be false, based on a 1985 examination of the weapon by a federal laboratory.

Prosecutors tried him again later in 1985, winning a first-degree murder conviction and life sentence.

“The parties agree that, in this case which relied on a single eyewitness, competent counsel armed with the favorable evidence would have been able to present a compelling case that Mrs. Carnesi was innocently mistaken when presented with the wrong suspect,” the motion said.

The Innocence Project New Orleans, which advocated for Flanks’ release, noted that the case involved “cross-racial identification” — the eyewitness was white, the suspect was Black — and said most wrongful convictions in New Orleans that involve withheld evidence involve Black defendants.

Relatives of the victim made clear they still believe Flanks is guilty.

“I’m still as angry as the day it happened,” daughter Debra Carnesi Gonzales said in a statement read via Zoom by her daughter, Casey Gonzales.

Debra Gonzales recalled seeing her father dying on the ground and said: “I don’t believe that my mother was mistaken.”

Outside the courthouse, Flanks expressed sympathy for Carnesi’s family and said he holds no ill will toward them.

Flanks’ case was the latest in a series of conviction reversals sought jointly by District Attorney Jason Williams, who ran on a reform platform before taking office in January 2021, and criminal justice advocates. Williams has touted his office’s efforts to review longstanding convictions that resulted from non-unanimous jury verdicts, which are now illegal in Louisiana, and other dubious convictions from decades ago.

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This story has been updated to indicate that the suspect, not the victim, was Black.

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November 18, 2022
Imprisoned Russian activist honored with human rights award

GENEVA — An imprisoned Russian opposition activist who was honored by a human rights advocacy group dedicated his award to the thousands of people who have been arrested or detained in Russia for protesting President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based organization that promotes human rights and tries to ensure that the United Nations does, too, gave Vladimir Kara-Murza its highest human rights award. The Morris Abram award commemorates the group’s founder — a civil rights advocate, diplomat and delegate to the United Nations.

Kara-Murza’s wife, Yevgeniya, accepted the award on his behalf during a ceremony late Thursday and read a letter from her husband that hailed the journalists, lawyers, artists, priests, politicians, military officers and others “who have refused to say silent in front of this atrocity, even at the cost of personal freedom.”

“Since February, over 19,000 people were detained by police across Russia for anti-war protests,” the letter said. “I want to dedicate this award to all of them.”

Kara-Murza, 41, cited recent figures from Memorial, a Russian human rights group that shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, that there are now some 500 political prisoners in Russia.

“In the time of my own imprisonment, I’ve had the opportunity to witness firsthand, just how incomplete this figure really is,” he wrote. “And the fastest-growing segment on Russia’s political prisoner list are opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine.”

Kara-Murza was an associate of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was slain near the Kremlin in 2015. He himself survived poisonings in 2015 and 2017 that he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian officials have denied responsibility for the poisonings.

He was jailed in April on a charge of spreading “false information” about the Russian military. Russia adopted a law criminalizing spreading “false information” about its military shortly after Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Authorities have used the law against dozens of people to stifle opposition.

Russian authorities recently added treason charges to other charges against Murza. The charges stem from speeches he gave in several Western countries that criticized the Kremlin’s rule, according to his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov.

Kara-Murza denies committing treason, his lawyer says. If convicted, he faces a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Last month, Kara-Murza was awarded the Council of Europe’s Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize as a Moscow court extended his detention until Dec. 12.

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November 18, 2022
Alabama calls off execution after difficulties inserting IV

ATMORE, Ala. — Alabama’s execution of a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife was called off Thursday just before the midnight deadline because state officials couldn’t find a suitable vein to inject the lethal drugs.

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison staff tried for about an hour to get the two required intravenous lines connected to Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57. Hamm said they established one line but were unsuccessful with a second line after trying several locations on Smith’s body. Officials then tried a central line, which involves a catheter placed into a large vein.

“We were not able to have time to complete that, so we called off the execution,” Hamm said.

It is the second execution since September the state has canceled because of difficulties with establishing an IV line with a deadline looming.

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Smith’s execution when at about 10:20 p.m. it lifted a stay issued earlier in the evening by the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals. But the state decided about an hour later that the lethal injection would not happen that evening.

The postponement came after Smith’s final appeals focused on problems with intravenous lines at Alabama’s last two scheduled lethal injections. Because the death warrant expired at midnight, the state must go back to court to seek a new execution date. Smith was returned to his regular cell on death row, a prison spokesperson said.

Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. The slaying, and the revelations over who was behind it, rocked the small north Alabama community

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey blamed Smith’s last-minute appeals for the execution not going forward as scheduled.

“Kenneth Eugene Smith chose $1,000 over the life of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, and he was guilty, no question about it. Some three decades ago, a promise was made to Elizabeth’s family that justice would be served through a lawfully imposed death sentence,” Ivey said. “Although that justice could not be carried out tonight because of last minute legal attempts to delay or cancel the execution, attempting it was the right thing to do.”

Alabama has faced scrutiny over its problems at recent lethal injections. In ongoing litigation, lawyers for inmates are seeking information about the qualifications of the execution team members responsible for connecting the lines. In a Thursday hearing in Smith’s case, a federal judge asked the state how long was too long to try to establish a line, noting at least one state gives an hour limit.

The execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. took several hours to get underway because of problems establishing an IV line, leading an anti-death penalty group to claim the execution was botched.

In September, the state called off the scheduled execution of Alan Miller because of difficulty accessing his veins. Miller said in a court filing that prison staff poked him with needles for more than an hour, and at one point they left him hanging vertically on a gurney before announcing they were stopping. Prison officials have maintained the delays were the result of the state carefully following procedures.

Sennett was found dead on March 18, 1988, in the home she shared with her husband on Coon Dog Cemetery Road in Alabama’s Colbert County. The coroner testified that the 45-year-old woman had been stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of the neck. Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., who was the pastor of the Westside Church of Christ, killed himself when the murder investigation focused on him as a suspect, according to court documents.

John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010. “I’m sorry. I don’t ever expect you to forgive me. I really am sorry,” Parker said to the victim’s sons before he was put to death.

According to appellate court documents, Smith told police in a statement that it was “agreed for John and I to do the murder” and that he took items from the house to make it look like a burglary. Smith’s defense at trial said he participated in the attack but he did not intend to kill her, according to court documents.

In the hours before the execution was scheduled to be carried out, the prison system said Smith visited with his attorney and family members, including his wife. He ate cheese curls and drank water, but declined the prison breakfast offered to him.

Smith was initially convicted in 1989, and a jury voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. His conviction was overturned on appeal in 1992. He was retried and convicted again in 1996. The jury recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode the recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.

In 2017, Alabama became the last state to abolish the practice of letting judges override a jury’s sentencing recommendation in death penalty cases, but the change was not retroactive and therefore did not affect death row prisoners like Smith. The Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that advocates for inmates, said Smith stands to become the first state prisoner sentenced by judicial override to be executed since the practice was abolished.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Smith’s request to review the constitutionality of his death sentence on those grounds.

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More of AP’s coverage of executions can be found at https://apnews.com/hub/executions

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November 17, 2022
Alabama cancels execution of inmate in 1988 murder because of trouble establishing venous access, time concerns

Alabama cancels execution of inmate in 1988 murder because of trouble establishing venous access, time concerns

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November 17, 2022
US moves to shield Saudi crown prince in journalist killing

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration declared Thursday that Saudi Arabia‘s crown prince should be considered immune from a lawsuit over his role in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist, a turnaround from Joe Biden’s passionate campaign trail denunciations of Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the brutal slaying.

The administration said the senior position of the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and recently named prime minister as well, should shield him against a suit brought by the fiancée of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and by the rights group Khashoggi founded, Democracy for the Arab World Now.

The request is non-binding and a judge will ultimately decide whether to grant immunity. But it is bound to anger human rights activists and many U.S. lawmakers, coming as Saudi Arabia has stepped up imprisonment and other retaliation against peaceful critics at home and abroad and has cut oil production, a move seen as undercutting efforts by the U.S. and its allies to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine.

The State Department on Thursday called the administration’s call to shield the Saudi crown prince from U.S. courts in Khashoggi’s killing “purely a legal determination.”

The State Department cited what it said was longstanding precedent. Despite its recommendation to the court, the State Department said in its filing late Thursday, it “takes no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi.”

Saudi officials killed Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. They are believed to have dismembered him, although his remains have never been found. The U.S. intelligence community concluded Saudi Arabia’s crown prince had approved the killing of the widely known and respected journalist, who had written critically of Prince Mohammed’s harsh ways of silencing of those he considered rivals or critics.

The Biden administration statement Thursday noted visa restrictions and other penalties that it had meted out to lower-ranking Saudi officials in the death.

“From the earliest days of this Administration, the United States Government has expressed its grave concerns regarding Saudi agents’ responsibility for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder,” the State Department said. Its statement did not mention the crown prince’s own alleged role.

Biden as a candidate vowed to make a “pariah” out of Saudi rulers over the 2018 killing of Khashoggi.

“I think it was a flat-out murder,” Biden said in a 2019 CNN town hall, as a candidate. “And I think we should have nailed it as that. I publicly said at the time we should treat it that way and there should be consequences relating to how we deal with those — that power.”

But Biden as president has sought to ease tensions with the kingdom, including bumping fists with Prince Mohammed on a July trip to the kingdom, as the U.S. works to persuade Saudi Arabia to undo a series of cuts in oil production.

Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and DAWN sued the crown prince, his top aides and others in Washington federal court over their alleged roles in Khashoggi’s killing. Saudi Arabia says the prince had no direct role in the slaying.

“It’s beyond ironic that President Biden has singlehandedly assured MBS can escape accountability when it was President Biden who promised the American people he would do everything to hold him accountable,” the head of DAWN, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in a statement, using the prince’s acronym.

Biden in February 2021 had ruled out the U.S. government imposing punishment on Prince Mohammed himself in the killing of Khashoggi, a resident of the Washington area. Biden, speaking after he authorized release of a declassified version of the intelligence community’s findings on Prince Mohammed’s role in the killing, argued at the time there was no precedent for the U.S. to move against the leader of a strategic partner.

The U.S. military long has safeguarded Saudi Arabia from external enemies, in exchange for Saudi Arabia keeping global oil markets afloat.

“It’s impossible to read the Biden administration’s move today as anything more than a capitulation to Saudi pressure tactics, including slashing oil output to twist our arms to recognize MBS’s fake immunity ploy,” Whitson said.

A federal judge in Washington had given the U.S. government until midnight Thursday to express an opinion on the claim by the crown prince’s lawyers that Prince Mohammed’s high official standing renders him legally immune in the case.

The Biden administration also had the option of not stating an opinion either way.

Sovereign immunity, a concept rooted in international law, holds that states and their officials are protected from some legal proceedings in other foreign states’ domestic courts.

Upholding the concept of “sovereign immunity” helps ensure that American leaders in turn don’t have to worry about being hauled into foreign courts to face lawsuits in other countries, the State Department said.

Human rights advocates had argued that the Biden administration would embolden Prince Mohammed and other authoritarian leaders around the world in more rights abuses if it supported the crown prince’s claim that his high office shielded him from prosecution.

Prince Mohammed serves as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in the stead of his aged father, King Salman. The Saudi king in September also temporarily transferred his title of prime minister — a title normally held by the Saudi monarch — to Prince Mohammed. Critics called it a bid to strengthen Mohammed’s immunity claim.

——

Eric Tucker and Aamer Madhani contributed.

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November 17, 2022
Today in History: November 18, deaths at Jonestown

Today in History

Today is Friday, Nov. 18, the 322nd day of 2022. There are 43 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 18, 1978, U.S. Rep. Leo J. Ryan of California and four others were killed on an airstrip in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide resulting in the deaths of more than 900 cult members.

On this date:

In 1883, the United States and Canada adopted a system of Standard Time zones.

In 1936, Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.

In 1963, the Bell System introduced the first commercial touch-tone telephone system in Carnegie and Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

In 1966, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays outside of Lent.

In 1976, Spain’s parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

In 1985, the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes,” created by Bill Watterson, was first published. (The strip ran for 10 years.)

In 1987, the congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore “ultimate responsibility” for wrongdoing by his aides. A fire at London King’s Cross railway station claimed 31 lives.

In 1991, Shiite (SHEE’-eyet) Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland, the American dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut.

In 1999, 12 people were killed when a bonfire under construction at Texas A-and-M University collapsed. A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted Shawn Allen Berry of murder for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., but spared him the death penalty.

In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-to-3 that the state constitution guaranteed gay couples the right to marry.

In 2005, eight months after Robert Blake was acquitted at a criminal trial of murdering his wife, a civil jury decided the actor was behind the slaying and ordered him to pay Bonny Lee Bakley’s children $30 million.

In 2020, President Donald Trump filed for a recount of Wisconsin’s two largest Democratic counties, paying the required $3 million cost and alleging that they were the sites of the “worst irregularities” although no evidence of illegal activity had been presented. (The recounts resulted in a slightly larger lead for Democrat Joe Biden.)

Ten years ago: In the deadliest single attack in Israel’s offensive against Islamic militants, 12 people were killed when an Israeli missile ripped through a two-story home in a residential area of Gaza City. Justin Bieber dominated the American Music Awards in Los Angeles, winning three trophies, including artist of the year.

Five years ago: Large crowds of demonstrators turned Zimbabwe’s capital into a carnival ground, showing disdain for President Robert Mugabe and urging him to quit immediately; Mugabe was now powerless and had been placed under house arrest by the military command. After heading Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein party for more than 30 years, Gerry Adams announced that he was stepping down.

One year ago: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation requiring private businesses in the state to let workers opt out of coronavirus vaccine mandates. More than half a century after the assassination of Malcolm X, two of his convicted killers were exonerated; a New York judge dismissed the convictions of Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, after prosecutors and the men’s lawyers said a renewed investigation had found new evidence that undermined the case against them. Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani was unanimously voted American League MVP for a hitting and pitching season not seen since Babe Ruth, and Bryce Harper earned the National League honor for the second time.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Brenda Vaccaro is 83. Author-poet Margaret Atwood is 83. Actor Linda Evans is 80. Actor Susan Sullivan is 80. Country singer Jacky Ward is 76. Actor Jameson Parker is 75. Actor-singer Andrea Marcovicci is 74. Rock musician Herman Rarebell is 73. Singer Graham Parker is 72. Actor Delroy Lindo is 70. Comedian Kevin Nealon is 69. Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon is 66. Actor Oscar Nunez is 64. Actor Elizabeth Perkins is 62. Singer Kim Wilde is 62. Actor Tim Guinee is 60. Rock musician Kirk Hammett (Metallica) is 60. Rock singer Tim DeLaughter (dee-LAW’-ter) is 57. Author and lecturer Brené Brown is 57. Actor Romany Malco is 54. Actor Owen Wilson is 54. Actor Dan Bakkedahl is 54. Singer Duncan Sheik is 53. Actor Mike Epps is 52. Actor Peta Wilson is 52. Actor Chloe Sevigny (SEH’-ven-ee) is 48. Country singer Jessi Alexander is 46. Actor Steven Pasquale is 46. Rapper Fabolous is 45. Actor-director Nate Parker is 43. Rapper Mike Jones is 42. Actor Mekia Cox is 41. Actor-comedian Nasim Pedrad (nah-SEEM’ peh-DRAHD’) is 41. Actor Allison Tolman is 41. Actor Christina Vidal is 41. Actor Damon Wayans Jr. is 40. Country singer TJ Osborne (Brothers Osborne) is 38. U.S. Olympic track star Allyson Felix is 37. Fashion designer Christian Siriano is 37. Actor Nathan Kress is 30.

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November 17, 2022
Prosecution rests case at Harvey Weinstein sex assault trial

LOS ANGELES — Prosecutors in Los Angeles rested their case Thursday in the trial of Harvey Weinstein, who they allege raped two women and sexually assaulted two others.

The move from Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson came after nearly four weeks of testimony from 44 witnesses.

Weinstein is charged with crimes against four of them: one a model, another a model and actor, a third a massage therapist.

The fourth, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker who was an actor at the time of her alleged rape and is now married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, provided the most dramatic moments at the trial so far with her emotional testimony.

Four other women who are not involved with the charges testified that Weinstein sexually assaulted them, as prosecutors sought to show he had a propensity for such acts.

Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench denied a motion from Weinstein’s lawyers to dismiss all of the counts against Weinstein, which they said prosecutors failed to prove.

“We are nearing the end of this case if you haven’t already picked up on that fact,” Lench told the jurors, who will get Thanksgiving week off and return for testimony by defense witnesses on Nov. 28.

She warned them not to consume any trial-related media singling out “any movie trailers that may be related to this case or movies that may be related to this case – well, not related to this case, but related to this issue.”

Without saying the name of the movie, she was clearly referring to the Friday release of “She Said,” a film about the New York Times reporting of the 2017 stories that put Weinstein at the center of the #MeToo movement.

Once the jury was excused, Weinstein’s lawyer entered a new not guilty plea for him to an amended indictment that drops four of the 11 previous counts against him. The move became necessary when prosecutors said earlier this week that the accuser known in court as Jane Doe #5 would not be appearing to testify and that the counts would no longer be pursued. They would not give a reason when asked.

Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer said in response to the dropped charges that “this witness could have felt uneasy about being scrutinized knowing the truth of the matter.”

Nor did prosecutors explain why Mel Gibson was missing. They never called the actor, director and one of the trial’s most anticipated witnesses to the stand. The judge had ruled at the start of trial that Gibson could testify about a conversation he had with the massage therapist Weinstein is charged with sexually assaulting.

In moving to have them dismissed, Weinstein attorney Alan Jackson went through the seven remaining counts against his client, and provided a likely preview of the defense’s closing arguments.

Jackson said the allegations that in 2013 Weinstein raped and sexually assaulted an Italian model known at the trial as Jane Doe 1 were especially unfounded, arguing that there is no convincing evidence that “the interlude occurred at all.”

Jackson said there was no evidence that there was “any restraint whatsoever,” as required for a count of sexual battery, in the part of the case involving model Lauren Young.

Young, the only Weinstein accuser to testify at his trials in both New York and Los Angeles, said she was paralyzed by fear when Weinstein blocked her from leaving the bathroom, masturbated in front of her and groped her breasts in a hotel in 2013.

Jackson said there was ample evidence, including emails the two exchanged in the ensuing years, that Siebel Newsom and Weinstein had a consensual sexual encounter that she later reframed as rape.

“The defendant’s motion is denied,” Lench responded. “I think there is enough evidence to send all these counts to the jury, and I will do so.”

Weinstein is two years into a 23-year sentence for his conviction in New York, and has been held in a Los Angeles jail throughout the trial.

The Associated Press typically does not publish the names of people alleging sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Young and Siebel Newsom have done through their lawyers.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

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For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein

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November 17, 2022
2 Hawaiian men guilty of hate crime in white man’s beating

HONOLULU — A jury on Thursday found two Native Hawaiian men guilty of a hate crime for the 2014 beating of a white man who was fixing up a house he purchased in their remote Maui neighborhood.

U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright ordered Kaulana Alo-Kaonohi and Levi Aki Jr. detained pending sentencing scheduled for March 2, and marshals moved to handcuff the two men after the verdict was announced in the afternoon.

Family members and supporters wept in the courtroom and called out to the men: “I love you,” and “Be good.” “God bless you daddy,” said Alo-Kaonohi’s son Kahue, 3.

In an unusual move, the U.S. Department of Justice sought to prosecute Alo-Kaonohi and Aki and secured a federal grand jury indictment in December 2020 charging each with a hate crime count punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors alleged during the trial in U.S. District Court in Honolulu that Alo-Kaonohi and Aki were motivated by Christopher Kunzelman’s race when they punched, kicked and used a shovel to beat him in Kahakuloa village. Kunzelman was left with injuries including a concussion, two broken ribs and head and abdominal trauma, prosecutors said.

Alo-Kaonohi previously pleaded no contest to felony assault in state court and was sentenced to probation, while Aki pleaded no contest to terroristic threatening and was sentenced to probation and nearly 200 days in jail. The federal trial was held separately, to determine if they were guilty of a hate crime. It’s unclear why it took so long for U.S. prosecutors to pursue hate crime charges.

Local attorneys say they’ve never heard of the federal government prosecuting Native Hawaiians for hate crimes before this case.

Lawyers for Alo-Kaonohi and Aki did not deny the assault but said it was not a hate crime. It was not race that sparked the attack, they said, but Kunzelman’s entitled and disrespectful attitude.

The men were upset that Kunzelman cut locks to village gates, their attorneys said. Kunzelman said he did so because residents were locking him in and out. He testified that he wanted to provide the village with better locks and distribute keys to residents.

Kunzelman testified that while Alo-Kaonohi and Aki beat him, they told him no white people would ever live in Kahakuloa village. However, he acknowledged that’s not heard in video recorded during the attack.

Kunzelman said he decided to take two pistols to Maui after hearing that a contractor he hired to do mold remediation had been assaulted when he showed up and after his realtor said the close-knit community of Native Hawaiians had a problem with white people.

He also installed cameras on his vehicle, which were on during the attack. The vehicle was parked under the house and recorded images of what was happening downstairs, including Aki pacing with a shovel on his shoulder. The video only captured audio from the assault, which took place upstairs.

Lawyers for Alo-Kaonohi an Aki told jurors the video shows that they didn’t use any racial slurs.

“Haole,” a Hawaiian word with meanings that include foreign and white person, was central to the case, highlighting multicultural Hawaii’s nuanced and complicated relationship with race.

At one point Aki is heard saying, “You’s a haole, eh,” using a Hawaiian word that can mean white person. Defense attorneys said he didn’t use the word in a derogatory way.

“It’s not a hate crime to assault somebody and in the course of it use the word ‘haole,’” court-appointed attorney Lynn Panagakos said during her opening statement. She noted that Aki is part-Hawaiian and part-haole.

“’Haole’ has multiple meanings depending on the context,” she said. “It’s an accepted word.”

Megan Kau, a Native Hawaiian attorney not involved in the case, said it depends on the tone and manner in which the word is used.

“These Native Hawaiians who live in a secluded, very traditional community who use the term ‘haole’ to describe people that are not from Hawaii — that’s the term that they use,” she said. “We all very often use the term ‘haole.’ It’s not derogatory unless you use it in a derogatory sense.”

Wiping away tears outside the courthouse following the verdict, Alo-Kaonohi’s father, Chico Kaonohi, said bias was not a motivation behind the attack and “’Haole’ is not a racial word.”

“Where we come from, we’re not racial people,” Chico Kaonohi, said. “It wasn’t about race.”

Attorneys for both defendants declined to comment Thursday. Prosecutors did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Kunzelman testified that he and his wife decided to move to Maui from Scottsdale, Arizona, after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He said his wife loved the island.

He said that a Hawaiian woman visited him in his dreams and told him to buy the dilapidated oceanfront house, which he and his wife purchased sight-unseen for $175,000 after coming across a listing for it online.

Kunzelman and his family never got to live in the home, he testified. They now reside in Puerto Rico.

He sat in the courtroom watching as the verdict was announced. He could not immediately be reached for comment afterward.

———

This story has been corrected to reflect that the defendant’s son is 3 years old, not 4.

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November 17, 2022
Elizabeth Holmes faces judgment day for her Theranos crimes

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A federal judge on Friday will decide whether disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes should serve a lengthy prison sentence for duping investors and endangering patients while peddling a bogus blood-testing technology.

Holmes’ sentencing in the same San Jose, California, courtroom where she was convicted on four counts of investor fraud and conspiracy in January marks a climactic moment in a saga that has been dissected in an HBO documentary and an award-winning Hulu TV series about her meteoric rise and mortifying downfall.

U.S. District Judge Edward Davila will take center stage as he weighs the federal government’s recommendation to send Holmes, 38, to federal prison for 15 years. That’s slightly less than the maximum sentence of 20 years she could face, but far longer than her legal team’s attempt to limit her incarceration to no more than 18 months, preferably served in home confinement.

Her lawyers have argued that Holmes deserves more lenient treatment as a well-meaning entrepreneur who is now a devoted mother with another child on the way. Their arguments were supported by more than 130 letters submitted by family, friends and former colleagues praising Holmes.

A probation report also submitted to Davila recommended a nine=year prison sentence for Holmes.

Prosecutors also want Holmes to pay $804 million in restitution. The amount covers most of the nearly $1 billion that Holmes raised from a list of sophisticated investors that included software magnate Larry Ellison, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the Walton family behind Walmart.

While wooing investors, Holmes leveraged a high-powered Theranos board that included former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, who testified against her during her trial, and two former U.S. Secretaries of State, Henry Kissinger and the late George Shultz, whose son submitted a statement blasting Holmes for concocting a scheme that played Shultz “for the fool.”

Davila’s judgment – and Holmes’ reporting date for a potential stint in prison — could be affected by the former entrepreneur’s second pregnancy in two years. After giving birth to a son shortly before her trial started last year, Holmes became pregnant at some point while free on bail this year.

Although her lawyers didn’t mention the pregnancy in a 82-page memo submitted to Davila last week, the pregnancy was confirmed in a letter from her current partner, William “Billy” Evans, that urged the judge to be merciful.

In that 12-page letter, which included pictures of Holmes doting on their 1-year-old son, Evans mentioned that Holmes participated in a Golden Gate Bridge swimming event earlier this year while pregnant. He also noted Holmes suffered through a case of COVID in August while pregnant. Evans didn’t disclose Holmes’ due date in his letter.

Duncan Levin, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense attorney, predicted that Davila’s sentencing decision won’t be swayed by the pregnancy, but expects the judge to allow her to remain free until after the baby is born.

“She will be no more of a flight risk after she is sentenced that she was while awaiting sentencing,” Levin said. “We have to temper our sentences with some measure of humanity.”

The pregnancy makes it more likely Davila will be criticized no matter what sentence he imposes, predicted Amanda Kramer, another former federal prosecutor.

“There is a pretty healthy debate about what kind of sentence is needed to effect general deterrence to send a message to others who are thinking of crossing that line from sharp salesmanship into material misrepresentation,” Kramer said.

Federal prosecutor Robert Leach emphatically declared Holmes deserves a severe punishment for engineering a scam that he described as one of the most egregious white-collar crimes ever committed in Silicon Valley. In a scathing 46-page memo, Leach told the judge he has an opportunity to send a message that curbs the hubris and hyperbole unleashed by the tech boom of the past decade.

Holmes “preyed on hopes of her investors that a young, dynamic entrepreneur had changed healthcare,” Leach wrote. “And through her deceit, she attained spectacular fame, adoration, and billions of dollars of wealth.”

Even though Holmes was acquitted by a jury on four counts of fraud and conspiracy tied to patients who took Theranos blood tests, Leach also asked Davila to factor in the health threats posed by Holmes’ conduct.

Holmes’ lawyer Kevin Downey painted her as a selfless visionary who spent 14 years of her life trying to revolutionize health care with a technology that was supposed to be able to scan for hundreds of diseases and other aliments with just a few drops of blood.

Although evidence submitted during her trial showed the tests produced wildly unreliable results that could have steered patients in the wrong direction, her lawyers asserted Holmes never stopped trying to perfect the technology until Theranos collapsed in 2018. They also pointed out that Holmes never sold any of her Theranos shares — a stake valued at $4.5 billion in 2014 when Holmes was being hailed as the next Steve Jobs on the covers of business magazines.

Defending herself against criminal charges has left Holmes with “substantial debt from which she is unlikely to recover,” Downey wrote, suggesting that she is unlikely ever to pay any restitution that Davila might order as part of her sentence.

“Holmes is not a danger to society,” Downey wrote.

Downey also asked Davila to consider the alleged sexual and emotional abuse Holmes suffered while she was romantically with Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who became a Theranos investor, top executive and eventually an accomplice in her crimes. Balwani, 57, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 7 after being convicted in a July trial on 12 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

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November 17, 2022