National Roundup

Massachusetts
City agrees to $2M settlement in case of job discrimination
BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) — Brockton has agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle class-action racial discrimination claims by people who said they were denied jobs at the city’s Public Works Department.

The settlement includes $1.75 million to compensate 69 applicants, and $300,000 for improvements at the city’s human resources department, diversity training and anti-discrimination training practices, The Enterprise of Brockton reported Tuesday.

The class members are qualified, nonwhite applicants for positions at the Brockton Department of Public Works between October 2010 and December 2019.

The case stems from a multimillion-dollar lawsuit won in 2017 by Russell Lopes, a former applicant for a job at the department who said he was denied the position due to racially biased employment discrimination.

Philip Gordon, an attorney for Lopes, called the settlement “fair and reasonable.”

The city denied the discrimination claims, but Leonard Kestin, an attorney for the city, said the settlement is in the best interests of taxpayers.

The settlement requires approval from a judge, who said he was inclined to approve it.

Michigan
Dad pleads guilty in autistic son’s backyard pool drowning
HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (AP) — The father of a severely autistic 16-year-old Michigan boy who drowned in a family pool has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors accused Tim Koets of failing to supervise his son Sam whose hands were bound  while he stood in the pool in March 2019. Koets said he had left for work at a college and was assured that others were keeping an eye on his son at their home near Hudsonville.

Koets pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter and fourth-degree child abuse, WOOD-TV reported.

“It sends a strong signal to our community that all children matter, all children have worth, life is important,” Ottawa County assistant prosecutor Paul Kraus said.

Koets’ attorney has not returned a message left Wednesday seeking comment.

Koets has said he woke his wife before leaving for work that day so she could watch Sam. Michelle Koets, who had worked an overnight shift as a registered nurse, confirmed that he did alert her before heading out.

Tim Koets was aware that the teenager had walked into the icy pool based on text messages from a daughter, police said.

Authorities said the parents sometimes restrained the boy’s arms to prevent him from harming himself or others.

“I just can’t believe it. I mean, 16 years, we cared for that boy, and to have the prosecutor treat me this way is very, very hurtful to me,” Tim Koets told “Inside Edition” last January.

Koets is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 18.

Florida
Teen pleads guilty, will serve 45 years for killing mother
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida teenager has entered a guilty plea to charges of killing his mother during an argument about grades in 2018, and disposing of her body.

Gregory Ramos, now 17, agreed to the plea Wednesday in exchange for a 45-year prison sentence, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

Ramos was 15 when he was accused of strangling Gail Cleavenger, 46, in their home in DeBary on Nov. 2, 2018. He buried her body behind a church in DeBary, near their home.

Ramos’ defense attorney, Assistant Public Defender Matt Phillips, told the newspaper the agreement also calls for Ramos to be sentenced to lifetime probation, but he can seek early termination of that probation after 10 years.

But it will ultimately be up to a judge to decide.

“He is extremely remorseful and he regrets his actions everyday,” Phillips said. “He is looking forward to having a release date and proving he can be a productive citizen.”
As a state prisoner, Ramos can get 15% of his sentence reduced for good behavior by the Department of Corrections.

Ramos will be sentenced Jan. 22.

torney R.J. Larizza has previously said he believes that Ramos was the youngest person to be charged with murder as an adult in the circuit since he was elected state attorney in 2008.

Two of Ramos friends, were also charged as adults with accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. They weren’t present when Ramos killed his mother but they were accused of helping Ramos in his attempt to cover up the crime, according to records and investigators.

Investigators said it took Ramos about 30 minutes to strangle his mother with his bare hands. He then put her in a wheelbarrow, pushed it outside and loaded it in the family van, records show.

Ramos asked his friends to help stage a burglary at his home, investigators said.

Since he was a juvenile when arrested, he cannot be sentenced to mandatory life without any chance of release. Ramos would have faced at least 40 years in prison and up to life with a review of the sentence after serving 25 years if found guilty.

His friends each face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of accessory after the fact to premeditated first-degree murder.

Rhode Island
Woman gets home confinement for role in Medicaid fraud scam
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island woman has been sentenced to a year of home confinement and ordered to pay more than $84,000 in restitution to her former employer for her role in a Medicaid fraud scheme, prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday.

Giovanne Gomez, 32, of Providence, was sentenced last week after pleading no contest to obtaining money under false pretenses from the Rhode Island Medical Assistance Program, according to a statement from the office of Attorney General Peter Neronha.

The charges stem from her role in a scheme to divert Medicaid funds into bank accounts owned and controlled by her and several accomplices, including her husband.

As a manager at a Cranston health care provider to those in need of home-based services, Gomez had access to Medicaid recipients’ records, prosecutors said. Gomez used that information to create fraudulent timesheets in the names of Certified Nursing Assistants for services that were never provided, prosecutors said.

The fabricated timesheets were submitted for payment to Medicaid and were paid by direct deposit into accounts controlled by Gomez and her accomplices, authorities said.

She was sentenced to six years in prison, with a year in home confinement and the remainder suspended with probation.