Kansas
State high court: Man accused in child rape must be freed
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - A divided Kansas Supreme Court says a man accused of rape and aggravated sodomy against a 3-year-old relative cannot be tried a second time and must be released from prison.
A Saline County judge declared a mistrial in the March 2018 trial of Rictor Bowman because the then-4-year-old girl wouldn't take the oath to be sworn in as a witness. The judge ruled the state couldn't prove its case without the girl's testimony.
The Kansas City Star reports that in a 4-3 split decision announced Friday, the Supreme Court ruled the trial judge should not have declared a mistrial. The justices said putting Bowman on trial a second time would violate his constitutional right against double jeopardy.
Montana
Mexican citizen gets prison in meth bust
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A U.S. judge has sentenced a Mexican citizen to almost five years in federal prison after prosecutors say he brought 34 pounds (15.4 kilograms) of methamphetamine from Arizona to Montana.
U.S. District Judge Susan Watters sentenced 35-year-old Jorge Luis Mendez-Sanchez to 57 months during a court appearance in Billings. He pleaded guilty in January to possession of meth with intent to distribute the drug.
Montana law enforcement has struggled to contain a surge in violent crime over the past several years that officials say is being driven largely by methamphetamine trafficking and abuse.
Officials said earlier this month that a year-long crackdown has managed to slow but not reverse the increase in crime.
Thirty-four pounds of the drug is equivalent to more than 123,000 individual doses with an estimated street value of $1.5 million, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors say Mendez-Sanchez and alleged accomplice Aldo Pardini drove the drugs from Arizona to sell to a customer in Billings last July. They were arrested by authorities who had been alerted to the scheme through a confidential informant, according to court documents.
A conspiracy charge against Mendez-Sanchez was dismissed under a plea deal. Upon completion of his sentence, he will be turned over to immigration officials and is likely to be deported, according to court documents and defense attorney Lance Lundvall.
Mendez-Sanchez faced a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine. He requested a lesser sentence in part because of his minimal criminal history, which consisted of a single driving intoxicated charge from more than a decade ago, according to Lundvall.
Pardini and a third defendant, Jose Jesus Islava-Lopez, are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to related charges.
Kentucky
New drug trial ordered after prosecutor's religion questions
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A federal appellate panel has ordered a new trial and reversed a couple's drug convictions partly because a prosecutor cited their beliefs in a religious figure regarded as the patron saint of drug dealers and as the angel of the poor.
According to the Courier Journal , an opinion this week by a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel said the attacks regarding beliefs in "Jesús Malverde" were "utterly irrelevant to the question of guilt."
The opinion says Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West likely used Luis Morales-Montanez's beliefs to paint him as someone steeped in drug culture. Morales-Montanez and Jessica Acosta were convicted in Eastern Kentucky federal court of distributing $20,000 worth of methamphetamine.
West and a U.S. attorney's office spokesman didn't respond to the newspaper's requests for comment.
Illinois
Ex-escort convicted of $5.8M fraud with boyfriend
CHICAGO (AP) - A woman who worked as an escort has been convicted in a Chicago federal court of fraud after accumulating millions of dollars in charges on her boyfriend's corporate credit card.
Crystal Lundberg and Scott Kennedy charged $5.8 million to Kennedy's employer, France-based drug delivery firm Nemera.
Prosecutors said the couple spent much of the money after Lundberg moved in 2016 with her children and pets to San Diego. Nemera unwittingly footed her $12,000-a-month rent for a 7,000-square-foot mansion. Lundberg also spent about $585,000 on a failed medical spa, cars, jewelry and trips.
The 45-year-old Kennedy, who was fired from his job as manager for Nemera's Buffalo Grove plant, pleaded guilty to wire fraud last year and agreed to cooperate with the government. In exchange, prosecutors said they would recommend a 3 ½-year sentence for Kennedy.
U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo on Friday set an Aug. 9 sentencing date for Lundberg.
Mississippi
Jury awards $3M to black strippers for discrimination
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi jury has awarded a total of more than $3 million to five African American strippers after a federal judge found the women worked under worse conditions than their white colleagues.
U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate ruled in the discrimination case last year. After a trial that lasted nearly a week on the question of damages, jurors decided Wednesday that the women would split $3.3 million for back pay and past and future suffering.
The attorney for Danny's Downtown Cabaret, Bill Walter, said Friday he will ask Wingate to reduce the award. If Wingate disagrees, Walter said he will appeal.
"Obviously, the client is disappointed in the verdict," Walter said.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Danny's years ago, saying the Jackson club limited when black women could work and fined them $25 if they didn't show up for a shift. The commission said white strippers had flexible schedules at the club and were not subjected to fines for missing work.
It also said a Danny's manager used racial slurs against a black dancer, and Danny's owners forced black women to work at another Jackson club they owned called Black Diamonds, where conditions and security were worse and dancers were paid less.
Marsha Rucker, the EEOC's regional attorney in Birmingham, Alabama, said in a statement that the commission "will protect employees in any industry who are subjected to such blatant and repeated discrimination."
"This case shows the EEOC will sue any employer, operating any type of business, who violates federal anti-discrimination laws, especially those who will not stop discriminating even after being given repeated chances to do so," Rucker said. "The jury ... sent a powerful message to Danny's and any employer who thinks they are above the law."
Published: Tue, May 21, 2019
