Court Digest

Florida
Man sentenced to 5 years in lottery scheme
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Jamaican man has been sentenced to five years and six months in federal prison in the U.S. for running a lottery scheme in Florida and his home country.

A federal judge in Jacksonville sentenced Darryl Cleon Forbes, 27, earlier this week, according to court records. The court also ordered Forbes to forfeit $2.4 million and pay $1.1 million in restitution.

He pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

From 2015 to 2017, Forbes and others operated a fraudulent sweepstakes scheme, prosecutors said. Forbes and his co-conspirators, posing as FBI and Department of Treasury officials, falsely informed victims in the U.S. that they had won a prize in a sweepstakes and had to pay various fees and taxes to retrieve their prize. The group often targeted the elderly.

No victim of the conspiracy ever received a promised prize, investigators said. Forbes and his co-conspirators kept all the money.

Florida
Mayor, city attorney charged in $5M hurricane debris removal scheme
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — The mayor and city attorney of a Florida Panhandle city are the latest to be charged in the theft of $5 million in Hurricane Michael debris removal funds, prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Lynn Haven Mayor Margo Anderson and City Attorney Adam Albritton are the subjects of a 64-count indictment returned Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Panama City, according to court records. They were both arrested Wednesday morning. Lynn Haven is located just north of Panama City.

After Hurricane Michael Hit the Florida Panhandle in October 2018, prosecutors said Albritton and Anderson indefinitely extended a debris removal contract with a private company for the city. Both then had work done by the company at their homes, as well as the homes of friends and relatives, and charged it to the city, according to the indictment. Prosecutors said Anderson and Albritton also received kickbacks from projects that they approved.

Among other charges, the two have been accused of theft concerning federal programs and conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud.

“This case is an example of what happens when public servants becomes complicit in corrupt behavior rather than standing up to it,” Rachel L. Rojas, the special agent in charge of the FBI Jacksonville Division, said in a news release. “Anyone who puts personal greed above their responsibility to protect the public should be held accountable, and that is why rooting out corrupt public officials remains the FBI’s number one criminal investigative priority.”

Five others who previously pleaded guilty in the case are former City Manager Michael White, former Community Services Director David Horton, Erosion Control Specialist owner David White, ECS bookkeeper Shannon Rodriguez and Greenleaf Lawn Care of Bay County owner Joshua Anderson. They’re scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 29 in Tallahassee.

Court records didn’t list attorneys for Margo Anderson or Albritton who could comment.

Lynn Haven officials held an emergency meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss the new arrests. The Florida governor has the authority to suspend local elected officials charged with serious crimes, and a spokesman said his office was reviewing the mayor’s case. The city attorney wasn’t elected by voters and isn’t under the governor’s authority.

Kansas
‘Satanist’ ex-soldier sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison in bomb plot
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An ex-soldier described by prosecutors as a Satanist and linked to a neo-Nazi group was sentenced Wednesday to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for distributing information through social media about building a bomb and making napalm.

A federal judge rejected a request from Jarrett William Smith’s attorney for a lenient sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised probation. Federal law called for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, but sentencing guidelines said the presumed punishment for a first-time offender like Smith was 2 1/2 years to a little over three years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree also ordered the three years of supervised probation for Smith after his release from prison. The judge said he was surprised that federal sentencing guidelines called for such a “low” prison sentence for “troubling and serious” criminal behavior, adding that Smith wanted to start a race war and shared on social media “multistep plans to create chaos.” Crabtree

“His planned actions, if executed, would have endangered countless members of the public,” Crabtree said from the bench.

In seeking the lighter sentence, Smith’s attorney said that because of a cleft lip and palate, Smith had endured a lifetime of victimization, isolation and trauma, which led him to become involved with online extremist groups. The Anti-Defamation League has said Smith was associated with the neo-Nazi Feuerkrieg Division, which it says advocates for a race war and promotes some of the most extreme views of the white supremacist movement.
Smith, 24, was a private first class stationed at Fort Riley when he was arrested last year.

Federal public defender Rich Federico said Smith lacked the basic knowledge to actually build explosive devices and was often “just regurgitating” what he’d seen online.

“He’s not far removed from adolescence,” Federico told the judge. “He is particularly vulnerable to extremists online.”

Prosecutors argued that Smith admitted to providing information about making explosives to an FBI undercover agent in September 2019 and that FBI bomb technicians determined that his recipes were viable. He pleaded guilty in February to two felony charges of distributing explosives information and admitted that he intended for it to be used.

Prosecutors said that Smith planned to overthrow the government, with attacking a news organization as a first step. They said he told an FBI agent that he distributed explosives information “for the glory of his Satanist religion,” though they provided few other details, other than saying that Smith liked “black metal” music designed to attract people to Satan.

Federal investigators have said Smith had encrypted communications with a Missouri man who this year planned to bomb a Kansas City-area hospital because he was distressed by the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. That man killed himself in March during a firefight with FBI agents as they served an arrest warrant, according to the FBI.

Smith admitted in his plea agreement that he spoke to others about his desire to travel to Ukraine to fight with “a violent, far-right paramilitary group.”

Smith previously was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. He was discharged from the military after pleading guilty to the two charges.

Federico said in a court filing that Smith endured a near-daily barrage of bullying as a child and had repeated, painful reconstructive surgeries.

In 2010, when he was a freshman in high school, Smith learned he had been on a classmate’s “hit list” as the intended target of a school shooting and bomb plot. The attempt was thwarted.

“That has a huge impact on who you are,” Federico told Crabtree on Wednesday.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Mattivi countered that Smith wasn’t examined for or diagnosed with a mental illness.

“What the defendant experienced is sad, and I have sympathy for him,” Mattivi told the judge. “But it has to be balanced against what he did.”

North Carolina
Billionaire gets 7 years in prison for bribery scheme
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A major political donor convicted of attempting to bribe a North Carolina elected official to secure preferential regulatory treatment for his insurance business was sentenced Wednesday to more than seven years in prison.

Billionaire businessman Greg E. Lindberg was handed his sentence by U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn just hours after Cogburn gave probation to former U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes for lying to FBI agents during the government’s investigation.

Hayes and Lindberg were among four people indicted in early 2019, accused of trying to give over $1.5 million to help state Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey’s 2020 campaign, in exchange for Causey removing an official in his department. Causey, who wasn’t accused of wrongdoing, alerted authorities and recorded conversations for them. Causey is running for reelection this fall.

Hayes, who was state Republican Party chairman at the time of the crime, accepted a plea agreement last fall and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

But the other three went to trial, and in March jurors convicted  Lindberg, who founded Eli Global LLC, and company consultant John Gray of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud as well as bribery. The third person was acquitted.

Cogburn sentenced Lindberg to 87 months in prison for each of his two counts, with the sentences running concurrently. He also must pay a $35,000 fine. The judge late Wednesday also sentenced Gray to 2 1/2 years in prison.

The sentencing capped a dramatic descent for Lindberg, who made a splash with donations to political parties and committees in recent years.

A wealthy insurance and investment firm founder from Durham, the 50-year-old Lindberg had been among the state’s top political donors. He had given more than $5 million to state and federal candidates and committees since 2016, favoring Republicans but also giving to Democrats.

Prosecutors had asked for Lindberg to serve 14 years in prison and Gray 10 years, saying long sentences were necessary in part to deter similar criminal activity by others.

“The defendants’ sentences should reflect the seriousness of their conduct, which was as dangerous as it was brazen,” the U.S. attorneys wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

“Lindberg attempted to buy his regulator, plain and simple,” the memo continued, adding he remained “brazenly unrepentant.”

Lindberg’s attorneys had sought a 1- to- 2-year sentence, saying his culpability was overstated and pointed out the government’s recommendation was out of line with sentences for other recent honest-services fraud defendants. Gray also sought a much lower sentence.

Lindberg’s lawyers pointed out the needs of Lindberg’s children, which include a 1-year-old of which he is the sole parent, according to their memorandum.

Lindberg attorney Brandon McCarthy said after sentencing that it was “deeply disappointing” to see his client “penalized as a result of unfounded allegations.” He also cited Lindberg’s accomplishments as a father, civic leader and someone who helped the less fortunate through his business. Lindberg plans to appeal the conviction.

“No matter how you slice it, a political contribution is not a crime,” McCarthy said in a news release. “Seeking fair regulation is not a crime.”

The government’s sentencing recommendation for Hayes said he had agreed to help funnel money going to the state GOP to Causey’s campaign. But it recommended probation for Hayes, 75, because they said he admitted his crime, accepted responsibility and agreed to cooperate. Cogburn ordered Hayes to pay a $9,500 fine in addition to completing one year of probation.

According to prosecutors, transcripts of the recordings Causey helped make show Lindberg supporting the establishment of two independent expenditure committees funded with $1.5 million to support Causey’s campaign.
Lindberg’s companies included Global Bankers Insurance Group. It was Global Bankers that prosecutors said would have benefited by Lindberg’s actions in seeking a new regulator in Causey’s office. Eli Global is now known as Global Growth.

Hayes represented the 8th Congressional District from 1999 through 2008. He served as GOP chairman from 2011 to 2013, and then from 2016 to 2019. He also was a 1996 gubernatorial candidate.

Texas
Judge: Policy that suspended student over dreadlocks unfair
MONT BELVIEU, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge has ruled a school district’s hair policy is discriminatory after two Black students were suspended for their dreadlocks.

The decision from the judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas came late Monday, nearly a month after the school district board voted not to change its hair code policy, according to KTRK-TV.

The policy was at the center of controversy after a senior at Barbers Hill High School was suspended in January. District officials said it wasn’t about race or that dreadlocks weren’t allowed, just that his in particular were too long.

DeAndre Arnold, was not allowed to return to school or attend his graduation ceremony unless he cut his hair, his family said.

Arnold said where his family is from in Trinidad, men often grow their dreadlocks below their waist. His dreadlocks are a part of his identity and culture.

Arnold’s cousin, Kaden Bradford, was also suspended when his school revised their dress and grooming policy to prohibit male students from wearing long hair.

Shortly after, both students filed grievances on Jan. 27, followed by a lawsuit.

Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) who filed the request on Bradford’s behalf, said Monday night’s ruling means Bradford “no longer has to endure an unjust and educationally-damaging in-school suspension simply for having uncut locs, which are an immutable part of his Black identity and cultural heritage.”