National Roundup

Connecticut
Report: Feds could have done more to deport convicted killer
NORWICH, Conn. (AP) — A Department of Homeland Security report says federal immigration officials could have done more to deport a Haitian national convicted of killing a Connecticut woman.

The report released Monday by the department’s inspector general details the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s unsuccessful efforts to deport 41-year-old Jean Jacques. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison for the June 2015 killing of 25-year-old Casey Chadwick.

Haitian officials wouldn’t take Jacques back after he served prison time for a 1997 attempted murder conviction.

The report says immigration officials could have prevailed upon the U.S. State Department to pressure Haiti by suspending visas for those traveling to the U.S. But the report says immigration officials believed the department would have acted only if Jacques committed acts of terror or human rights violations.

Louisiana
Court meeting could result in compromise on Orleans jail
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A compromise announced Tuesday in federal court in New Orleans will keep the local sheriff in charge of the city’s long-troubled jail.

However, the sheriff has agreed to appoint a new compliance director — from nominees made by inmate advocates, the city of New Orleans and the Justice Department — who will have broad powers over the jail’s management and budget.

In April, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department and inmate advocates asked U.S. District Judge Lance Africk to appoint a federal “receiver” to run the lockup. They cited Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s slow progress in implementing reforms required in a 2012 lawsuit settlement. Gusman blamed the problems on a lack of funding from the city.

Gusman has likened the attempt to strip him of his authority to run the jail to an illegal coup and a move to thwart the will of voters.

Hearings on the motion to have the jail placed in “receivership” began late last month with testimony from a court-appointed monitor and others who described jail violence and conditions that contributed to a March suicide.

Gusman was expected to testify at some point, but hearings have been repeatedly postponed since early June. Two people with knowledge of the case confirmed that the parties have been in negotiations.

Inmates were moved from the old, decaying jail into a new building last September, something the sheriff touted as a factor in improving conditions. But monitors say violence endangering inmates and staffers continues at the new facility.

Ohio
Man wanted in food stamp case arrested in Israel
CLEVELAND (AP) — Federal authorities say a man who fled the United States after pleading guilty in 1994 in a $3.2 million food stamp fraud case has been arrested in Israel and returned to northeast Ohio.

U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott says 54-year-old Najeh Ottallah was arrested last month in Jerusalem. A hearing is scheduled in federal court in Cleveland on Wednesday.

Cleveland.com reports the former Lakewood man has been wanted on an arrest warrant since 1995, when he fled before his federal court sentencing on three food stamp fraud-related charges.

Ottallah attorney’s, Kent Minshall, says “nobody ran him down.” Minshall says Otallah is like others who want to return to the United States where they can get better health care as they get older, even if they have to serve prison time.

New York
More women reporting sex crimes on New York City subways
NEW YORK (AP) — Reports of sexual offenses in New York City’s subway system are way up.

Authorities say reports are up more than 50 percent from last year due to more women reporting the crimes.

The Wall Street Journal says the offenses include unwanted touching, public lewdness and unlawful taking of inappropriate video or photos.

Police say crimes that would previously go unreported because victims were intimated or didn’t believe their case would be taken seriously are now being documented and investigated.

Maine
Judge dismisses defamation suit targeting activist
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A federal judge on Monday dismissed a defamation suit against a Maine activist who publicized sexual abuse accusations against a Haiti orphanage founder.

The latest twist in the complicated case comes nearly a year after a federal jury concluded that Paul Kendrick defamed Michael Geilenfeld, founder of St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in Port-au-Prince, and awarded more than $14 million in damages.

The jury had ruled against Kendrick even though seven accusers testified that they were sexually abused by Geilenfeld in Haiti.

Geilenfeld said Kendrick made unsubstantiated accusations that were “vicious, vile lies.” He also blamed Kendrick’s campaign for him being imprisoned for 237 days and for costing the Hearts with Haiti charity several million dollars in donations.

The Portland Press Herald reported Monday that even though Kendrick lost in U.S. District Court in Portland last summer, an appellate court ruling in Boston questioned whether the case ever belonged in federal court.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock Jr. ruled Monday that Geilenfeld wasn’t living in the U.S. when he filed his claim against Kendrick and the case had no grounds to be heard in a U.S. court.

Kendrick’s attorney, F. David Walker IV, said that Woodcock’s ruling “essentially nullifies the jury verdict.”

He said Geilenfeld and Hearts with Haiti could appeal Woodcock’s dismissal of the case.

South Carolina
Lawyer: Woman was insane when she killed her kids
PICKENS, S.C. (AP) — A woman who shot her daughter and son as they slept belongs in a mental hospital, not prison, her lawyer said, asserting that she suffered from bipolar disorder and paranoia so intense that she had been hospitalized for delusions before the killings.

Suzanna Brown Simpson also shot her husband, who came to the murder trial in a wheelchair, and tried to kill herself by smashing her truck into a tree.

The Greenville News is covering her jury trial in Pickens County, South Carolina. It reports that a deputy was nearly in tears as he testified Monday about finding the children slain in their beds.

Prosecutors are not pursuing the death penalty. They’re aiming for a 30-year sentence in the jury trial.