Court Digest

Indiana
1st Hispanic judge named for Southern District of Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The first judge of Hispanic heritage has been named to serve in the federal Southern District of Indiana.

Mario Garcia will fill a new magistrate judgeship created for the district by the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Chief Judge Jane E. Magnus-Stinson of the Southern District announced Garcia’s selection Friday.

A judicial merit selection committee reviewed 31 applications and recommended five candidates. The district judges interviewed the five candidates and selected Garcia.

Born in Bloomington, Garcia studied law at Indiana University School of Law–Indianapolis, where he graduated in 1999.

U.S. magistrate judges are appointed by the judges of the U.S. District Court for a term of eight years and are eligible for reappointment to successive terms.

Garcia’s appointment will be effective no earlier than April 1 following background investigations.

Texas
Nearly 30 found in smuggling operation, 1 man arrested
HOUSTON (AP) — An Honduran man was charged on Friday with harboring more than two dozen people who authorities say were being held in a Houston home as part of a human smuggling operation, according to a federal prosecutor.

The smuggling operation was discovered Thursday evening after one of the men who was being kept inside the home escaped and was seen running down a residential street in his underwear, yelling that he had been kidnapped, Houston police said.

Authorities determined that 28 men and one woman who had illegally immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Cuba were being kept in the home, according to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick. The immigrants were only wearing undergarments when they were found.

The home had boarded-up windows and deadbolt locks on the inside doors.

After their discovery, the immigrants were taken to a school gymnasium to get out of the cold, police said.

At the home, authorities also found 36-year-old Mauro Dominguez-Maldonado, who prosecutors allege was in charge of watching the immigrants and performing other duties as part of the smuggling operation.

Dominguez-Maldonado, who authorities say was living illegally in Houston, was arrested and later charged with harboring. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a possible fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.

Dominguez-Maldonado was set to appear before a magistrate judge on Monday. Court records did not list an attorney for him.

Hawaii
Council removes prosecuting attorney from office over claims of violence
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — The Maui County Council voted to remove the county’s prosecuting attorney over claims of violence and threats in the workplace.

The unanimous vote Friday to remove Prosecuting Attorney Don Guzman approved a resolution submitted by Mayor Michael Victorino in October, The Maui News reported.

Guzman, who has been on administrative leave since September, said Friday he has hired an employment law attorney and will contest the decision. In an email, he characterized the accusations as “slander and defamation.”

Guzman also said he was denied due process during an investigation and the ensuing proceedings.

The council’s Governance, Ethics and Transparency Committee heard testimony Nov. 5 from five Department of the Prosecuting Attorney employees recounting examples of what they said were Guzman exhibiting rage, yelling, swearing, making demeaning comments and threats and taking physical action.

Those testifying said there were six events this year and another in 2015.

Other employees wrote and spoke in support of Guzman.

The council contracted an independent investigation by an outside attorney following a complaint filed by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Leslee Matthews over an email exchange and angry confrontation with Guzman regarding a coronavirus-related safety plan.

Guzman “engaged in threats of intimidation to inflict mental harm or injury,” the investigation report said.

“I could have handled the situation differently, in a more calm manner, but in my view her insubordination required a strong statement at that time,” Guzman wrote in response to the report.

Guzman has since taken sensitivity training sessions and addressed personal medical issues, he said.

Guzman held the council’s Kahului seat from 2013 to 2018 and was appointed by Victorino to head the prosecuting attorney’s office in March 2019 after an unsuccessful 2018 bid for mayor.


Indiana
Ex-magistrate banned from judicial service after meth case
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s high court has permanently banned a former magistrate from holding judicial office following his guilty plea in a drug possession case where he bit an officer’s hand after buying methamphetamine.

The Indiana Supreme Court’s order, issued Friday, also suspends former Hamilton County Magistrate Judge William P. Greenaway’s law license for a 90-day period beginning Jan. 1.

Greenaway was sentenced to a year of probation after pleading guilty in September to misdemeanor charges of possession of methamphetamine and obstruction of justice. He was arrested in March 2019 following an Indiana State Police sting operation where authorities said Greenaway purchased 2.5 grams of meth from an undercover informant.

As police surrounded his car following that purchase in a Noblesville parking lot, Greenaway put the bag of meth in his mouth and bit an officer’s hand as the officer tried to pry his mouth open, according to court documents.

Greenaway was a magistrate in central Indiana’s Hamilton County for eight years before he was fired following the incident. A magistrate has similar duties to a judge but is not elected to the position.

Friday’s unanimous order from the state Supreme Court approved a statement of circumstances and conditional agreement for discipline between Greenaway and the Judicial Qualifications Commission.

The order states that Greenaway violated several rules of Indiana’s Code of Judicial Conduct, including failing to respect and comply with the law.

Mississippi
Fair, retired from appeals court, dies at 74
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — Retired Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Eugene Love Fair Jr. of Hattiesburg died Wednesday, the administrative office of state courts said. He was 74.

Fair served seven years on the Court of Appeals before retiring in December 2018. He previously served five years as a chancery court judge for Forrest, Lamar, Marion, Pearl River and Perry counties.

“He is respected and loved by all of us,” Court of Appeals Chief Judge Donna Barnes of Tupelo said in the court statement. “Judge Fair’s experience on the chancery court bench was invaluable to the Court of Appeals. He was an excellent judge and a better human being. ... He brought cheer with him wherever he went.”

Justice James D. Maxwell II of Oxford called Fair “a great judge and an even better man.”

“I can just see him now walking into our chambers holding that coffee cup,” Maxwell said. “He loved to tell stories, had tremendous pride in his children, and had an unmatched knowledge of his hometown of Louisville, Mississippi.”

Fair earned his law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1968, then served four years on active duty with the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General Corps during the Vietnam War, earning the rank of lieutenant commander. He spent two years as chief legal officer at the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi, Texas, and was a reservist in the Jackson Naval J.A.G. Reserve Unit for five years.

Fair was in private law practice in Hattiesburg for 34 years. During some of that time, he served by appointment as a special master in chancery court and as a guardian representing the interests of children in youth court. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Neville Patterson appointed Fair to the Mississippi Ethics Commission in 1984, and Fair served 20 years.

“He was not only learned but compassionate,” Chancellor Deborah Gambrell Chambers of Hattiesburg said. “He believed in family and his faith.”

Fair is survived by his wife, Dr. Estella Galloway Fair of Hattiesburg; daughters, Dr. Melissa Fair Wellons of Nashville and Julia Fair Myrick of Bainbridge Island, Washington; brother, George Fair of Jackson; and four grandchildren.


Georgia
Agent: Missing wallet led to killings of women
ROME, Ga. (AP) — Georgia authorities believe they know why two sisters were killed, shoved into a car trunk and dumped off a bridge in a case that has led to charges against nine people: One of the suspects was missing his wallet and accused the women of taking it, an investigator said.

A bridge inspection crew found the bodies of Vanita Nicole Richardson, 19, and her sister Truvenia Clarece Campbell 31, under a bridge in Rome on May 13.

Desmond Brown, Devin Watts and Christopher Pullen were arrested on charges including two counts of felony murder. After hearing from an investigator, Floyd County Superior Court Judge John Niedrach ruled Thursday that there is probable cause to advance the case to a grand jury to consider indictments.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Ghee Wilson testified that Brown realized he was missing his wallet after leaving a birthday party and accused the two women of stealing it. Brown, Watts and Pullen then lured the women into a car and confronted them while on the way back to Rome after driving to Alabama, The Rome News-Tribune reported.

Wilson testified that Brown ordered the women out on the side of the road to search them at gunpoint, and shot Campbell when she resisted; she was then shot two more times. Her younger sister, a high school student, tried to comply but was shot twice.

The men put their bodies in the trunk and kept driving, eventually throwing their bodies off the bridge.

Watts’ lawyer, Stephen Miller, asked Wilson about statements his client had made to investigators.

“Has anybody admitted to the homicide?” Miller asked.

“No, sir,” Wilson replied. He testified that two of the men accused the others, instead: Watts blamed Brown and Pullen for the shootings, while Pullen blamed Brown and Watts.

The next morning, Wilson said, Brown, Watts, Pullen and four fellow gang members drove from Rome to Atlanta, with Watts driving a car belonging to one of the women, when Brown’s mother called: She’d found his missing wallet behind the television in the living room.

Pullen, who was riding with Brown, told investigators that Brown got erratic and pulled out of a drive-through line, cursing.

“He said ‘I just got two bodies for nothing,’” Wilson testified.

Wilson said the men took the victim’s Toyota to a wooded area in Union City and burned it. He said Watts ultimately led police to the car, and that the women’s DNA was found in the trunk of the car where their bodies were placed.


California
1st openly gay justice sworn in to state high court
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s Supreme Court has its first openly gay justice.

Martin Jenkins was sworn in on Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom in a virtual rather than in-person ceremony because of coronavirus safety restrictions.

“In swearing in Justice Jenkins today, our state once again makes history, and we elevate an extraordinary Californian to the bench,” Newsom said in a statement. “The people of our state could not ask for a finer jurist or better person to serve them in this capacity.”

Newsom nominated Jenkins to replace Justice Ming Chin, who retired on Aug. 31. The Commission on Judicial Appointments unanimously confirmed Jenkins in November, praising him for his “brilliant intellect, first-class temperament, and boundless humanity.”

During a news conference in October, Jenkins said his identity as a gay man has been “perhaps the greatest challenge of my life.”

Jenkins also is the third Black justice to serve on the court. He joins a diverse bench that includes another Black justice, Leondra Kruger; Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, who is Latino; two Asian Americans, Chief Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Goodwin Liu; and white justices Joshua Groban and Carol Corrigan.

Jenkins grew up in San Francisco. His father was a clerk and janitor at the city’s iconic Coit Tower. He was a prosecutor in Alameda County and a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Reagan administration.

He was appointed as a federal judge in 1998 joined the state Courts of Appeal in 2008. He retired last year and joined Newsom’s administration as the judicial appointment secretary, helping Newsom vet potential appointments for judgeships.