Court Digest

Maine
Funeral home worker charged with taking ring from deceased
ALFRED, Maine (AP) — A funeral home worker in Maine has been charged with stealing a wedding ring from the body of a 102-year-old woman after she died in a nursing home.

Stuart Weston, 51, of Sanford, stole the ring from Laura Wood, who died at Seal Rock Healthcare in Saco on Jan. 21, police said. Weston, who worked at Autumn Green Funeral Home in Alfred, was arrested on Feb. 23.
The arrest came after police obtained video evidence that he sold the ring to Maine Gold & Silver in South Portland, the Portland Press Herald reported.

The wedding ring has been recovered and family members have expressed relief, but are also appalled that it was stolen in the first place, the Press Herald reported. Wood’s granddaughter, Emily Coyne of Cape Elizabeth, called the ordeal “an awful distraction to our ability to grieve her.”

Weston is scheduled to appear in court in June. The funeral home said in a statement it was “upset and incredibly disappointed to learn of the recent allegations.”

A phone listing for Weston in Sanford was disconnected. It was unclear if he has retained a lawyer.

Texas
AG sues utility over customers’ high energy bills
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ attorney general said Monday he’s suing electricity provider Griddy for passing along massive bills to its customers during last month’s winter storm.

The lawsuit comes days after Texas’ power grid manager effectively shut down Griddy by revoking its access to the state’s electricity market.

Griddy charges $10 a month to give people a way to pay wholesale prices for electricity instead of a fixed rate. But when temperatures plummeted well below freezing last month, wholesale prices spiked and Griddy customers were left with sky-high electricity bills.

“Griddy misled Texans and signed them up for services which, in a time of crisis, resulted in individual Texans each losing thousands of dollars,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “As Texans struggled to survive this winter storm, Griddy made the suffering even worse as it debited outrageous amounts each day.”

The lawsuit accused Griddy of violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and seeks refunds for customers. The unusually heavy winter storm blanketed much of Texas with snow, knocking out electricity  to 4 million customers and leaving many struggling to find clean water.

Meanwhile, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, shifted about 10,000 Griddy customers to other utilities on Friday.

Griddy said in a statement that ERCOT “took our members and have effectively shut down Griddy.”

“We have always been transparent and customer-centric at every step. We wanted to continue the fight for our members to get relief and that hasn’t changed,” the statement said.

Arizona
Trial date set for family of boy starved to death
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A trial date has been set for the parents and grandmother of a 6-year-old Flagstaff boy who died after being locked in a closet and denied food.

Elizabeth Archibeque and Anthony Martinez, the boy’s parents, and Ann Martinez, his grandmother, have pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child abuse.

Anthony Martinez also is charged with two counts of aggravated assault.

The defendants are scheduled to go on trial in August 2022. Coconino County Superior Court Judge Ted Reed set the date during a hearing in the case Friday.

Michael Tunink will prosecute the case after Deputy County Attorney Stacy Krueger was appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey to fill a judicial vacancy at the court.

A medical examiner determined Deshaun Martinez died last March of starvation, weighing just 18 pounds (8.1 kilograms) — well below average for his age.

His parents initially attributed their son’s malnourished state to a medical condition and to ingesting diet or caffeine pills. Eventually, they told police they kept Deshaun and his older brother in a closet for 16 hours a day and gave them little to eat.

Police said the boys’ confinement was punishment for stealing food while the parents slept.

Washington
Justice Dept. to appeal judge’s order on eviction moratorium
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Saturday it will appeal a judge’s ruling that found the federal government’s eviction moratorium was unconstitutional.

Prosecutors filed a notice in the case on Saturday evening, saying the government was appealing the matter the to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The appeal comes days after U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevented had overstepped its authority and that the moratorium was unlawful.

“Although the COVID-19 pandemic persists, so does the Constitution,” the judge wrote in the decision on Thursday.

In a statement, Brian Boynton, the acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s civil division, said prosecutors respectfully disagreed with the judge’s ruling and noted it only applied to parties in the case, not broadly to others.

“The CDC’s eviction moratorium, which Congress extended last December, protects many renters who cannot make their monthly payments due to job loss or health care expenses,” he said. “By preventing people from becoming homeless or having to move into more-crowded housing, the moratorium helps to slow the spread of COVID-19.”

The CDC eviction moratorium was signed in September by President Donald Trump and extended by President Joe Biden until March 31.

Barker, who was nominated by Trump in 2018 to serve in the Eastern District of Texas, stopped short of issuing an injunction in the case. Several property owners had brought the litigation arguing that the federal government didn’t have the legal authority to stop evictions.

“The federal government cannot say that it has ever before invoked its power over interstate commerce to impose a residential eviction moratorium,” Barker wrote. “It did not do so during the deadly Spanish Flu pandemic.
Nor did it invoke such a power during the exigencies of the Great Depression. The federal government has not claimed such a power at any point during our Nation’s history until last year.”

State and local governments had approved eviction moratoriums early in the pandemic for many renters, but many of those protections have already expired.

To be eligible for protection, renters must have an income of $198,000 or less for couples filing jointly, or $99,000 for single filers; demonstrate they’ve sought government help to pay rent; declare that they can’t pay because of COVID-19 hardships; and affirm that they are likely to become homeless if evicted.


Missouri
Judge: Autistic man must stay in Missouri welfare custody
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A young man with severe autism must stay in the custody of Missouri’s child welfare agency, despite soon turning 21, a judge ruled Friday.

Jackson County Judge Kea Bird-Riley also ordered that he remain in his current placement in a group home with the services he now receives, the Kansas City Star reported.

The young man, who is not identified in court documents, turns 21 on Sunday and can’t feed or care for himself.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking an injunction to keep the state from dropping the young man from services. In that suit, the ACLU said the young man was in imminent danger and could die if he were released from care and ended up on the streets.

The lawsuit says that for the past four years, he has been living in a group home in Independence, licensed by the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Advocates say he is doing well there.

His mother lives in a homeless shelter in Kansas City and is unable to care for him. The mother, who lost custody of him after allegations of abuse or neglect, was present for Friday’s virtual hearing in family court.

Oregon
Portland lawsuit filed against doctor known for dance videos
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal lawsuit alleges an Oregon Health & Science University doctor known for dancing in his scrubs on social media sexually harassed a coworker at Portland’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

The Oregonian reports the suit, filed late Friday in Portland, alleges Jason Campbell harassed a female social worker last year, including unwanted touching and sending sexually charged text messages.

The suit contends the woman complained to OHSU about the alleged conduct. The Oregonian reports an OHSU investigation found Campbell, then a second-year resident, violated harassment policy and recommended “appropriate” discipline.

Campbell and his attorney, Kristin L. Olson, didn’t return phone, text and email messages from The Oregonian seeking comment. The suit says Campbell currently lives and works in Florida.

The suit, which doesn’t identify the social worker, claims OHSU medical personnel didn’t formally report her harassment complaints. It seeks $4.5 million in damages against Campbell and OHSU.

OHSU spokeswoman Tamara Hargens-Bradley said the university couldn’t comment on litigation but that it does not condone behavior described in the lawsuit.

Campbell’s dance videos on social media have generated millions of views.

Florida
Former prosecutor faces bribery, extortion, fraud charges
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A former state attorney in north Florida is facing multiple federal charges related to allegations of bribery, extortion and fraud, officials announced Friday.

 Jeffrey Siegmeister, 52, of Live Oak, was arrested in Arizona on Friday and charged with conspiracy to use a facility of commerce for unlawful activity, conspiracy to commit extortion aiding and abetting extortion, conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, federal program bribery, wire fraud and filing false tax returns, according to court records.

The case will be prosecuted in Jacksonville federal court, authorities said. They did not elaborate on where in Arizona he was taken into custody.

From 2013 through 2109, Siegmeister was the elected state attorney for the 3rd Judicial Circuit of Florida, covering the counties of Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor.

According to the indictment, Siegmeister conspired with defense attorney Michael O’Steen, 41, of Old Town, who represented clients being prosecuted by Siegmeister’s office, federal prosecutors said. From November 2017 to May 2019, Siegmeister solicited bribes from O’Steen in exchange for the favorable disposition of charges filed against his clients, officials said.

In one case, Siegmeister helped O’Steen extort $60,000 from a client by withholding a pre-trial intervention agreement, investigators said. O’Steen has been charged with conspiracy to use a facility of commerce for unlawful activity, conspiracy to commit extortion, aiding and abetting extortion and failure to file a form in connection with the receipt of currency.

In a separate case, Siegmeister told defense attorney Ernest Maloney Page IV in September 2017 that he would dismiss two DUI charges for one of Page’s clients in exchange for a $20,000 discount on a tractor Siegmeister wanted to buy from the client’s dealership, officials said. They added that Siegmeister later bought the discounted tractor and allowed the client to plead guilty to reckless driving with alcohol and refusal to submit to a blood alcohol test. Page pleaded guilty last August to conspiracy to commit federal program bribery.

From approximately January 2010 through April 2016, Siegmeister engaged in a scheme to defraud an elderly person under his legal guardianship, prosecutors said. Siegmeister transferred the victim’s assets to himself and created a will for the victim that designated Siegmeister’s relative as the sole beneficiary of the victim’s estate, officials said.

Court records didn’t list attorneys for Siegmeister or O’Steen.