Court Digest

North Carolina
Prosecutor: Deputies’ fatal shooting of Black man justified
ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina district attorney says the shooting of a Black man killed by deputies was justified. District Attorney Andrew Womble made the announcement Tuesday after reviewing the results of a State Bureau of Investigation probe of the fatal shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. in April.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — The district attorney who will decide whether to file criminal charges in the fatal shooting of a Black man by North Carolina deputies will discuss on Tuesday the findings of the state’s investigation into what happened.

District Attorney Andrew Womble scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. to talk about what the State Bureau of Investigation found in its probe of the death of Andrew Brown Jr.

Womble didn’t respond to an email Monday asking if he would announce a decision about filing criminal charges against the deputies. Womble has resisted calls from the state’s Democratic governor and Brown’s family to let an independent prosecutor take over. Under state law, Womble would have to agree to step aside.

A spokeswoman for the State Bureau of Investigation didn’t respond to an email Monday asking for confirmation that the investigation is complete.

Deputies attempting to serve drug-related search and arrest warrants shot and killed Brown outside his Elizabeth City home on April 21. Three deputies involved in the shooting remain on leave, while four others who were at the scene were reinstated after the sheriff said they didn’t fire their weapons.

An independent autopsy released by the family found that Brown was hit by bullets five times, including once in the back of the head. Lawyers for Brown’s family who watched body camera footage say that it shows Brown was not armed and that he didn’t drive toward deputies or pose a threat to them. Womble has previously disagreed in court, saying that Brown struck deputies twice with his car before any shots were fired.

The sheriff has said his deputies weren’t injured.

The shooting sparked protests over multiple weeks by demonstrators calling for the public release of body camera footage. While authorities have shown footage to Brown’s family, a judge refused to release the video publicly pending the state investigation.

Separately, the FBI has launched a civil rights probe of the shooting.

North Dakota
Man cuts own throat, dies after verdict in federal courtroom
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Federal authorities say a man on trial in Fargo, North Dakota, slashed his own throat in the courtroom Monday and died.

North Dakota U.S. Marshal Dallas Carlson said the incident happened after a jury returned a partial guilty verdict against the man, who had faced terrorizing-related charges. Carlson said the man had a sharp instrument that might have been made of plastic.

Carlson said the jury had left the courtroom, but U.S. District Judge Peter Welte, courtroom staff and others witnessed the incident. Court security officers and deputy marshals attempted live-saving measures in the courtroom.

FBI spokesman Kevin Smith said the man had been acquitted on one charge and found guilty on the other charge, and was about to be taken into custody.

“He did the self-harm after he heard the verdict and after the jury had left the courtroom,” Smith said.

He did not know of which charge the man had been convicted.

Court documents show that in the last week Welte had been presiding over a jury trial for a North Dakota man who was charged with reckless endangerment and assault for allegedly running someone over with a Jeep. He also faced a terrorizing charge on accusations he brandished a weapon.

Welte on Monday filed a court document approving meals for the jury during deliberations.

Welte did not return a message left Thursday in his chambers.

Smith said the FBI has opened an investigation.

“We need to officially document what happened in that federal courtroom today,” he said.

“All the questions you have, we have. What was the sharp object, how did it get into the courtroom, those questions, what did people see him do.”

Tennessee
Man admits hate crime in attack on Muslim girls
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who harassed two teenage Muslim girls and then swung a knife and attacked their father has pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime.

Christopher Beckham, 35, of Nashville, appeared in court last week to enter the plea, the Justice Department said Monday in a statement. Beckham pleaded guilty to violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the statement said.

Beckham admitted that he confronted two sisters in hijabs after they got off a school bus in 2017, saying “Allahu Akbar!” and “Go back to your country!” the statement said. When their father arrived to pick them up, Beckham injured him by swinging a knife and punching at him, and when their mother arrived with another child in a car, Beckham, his knife still drawn, chased after them as well, the Justice Department said.

After police took Beckham into custody, he called the family “terrorists” and vowed to kill them when he got out of jail, the agency added.

Beckham agreed to plead guilty after his federal trial in September 2019 ended with a hung jury. Now his sentencing is set for Oct. 7.

“The cowardly and unprovoked attack and display of hate-filled aggression by this defendant toward two innocent young girls and their father is despicable,” Acting U.S. Attorney Mary Jane Stewart said. “An attack upon the free exercise of any person’s religious beliefs is an attack on that person’s civil rights. The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute such violent acts motivated by hate.”

Kansas
Former Emporia Tyson employee pleads guilty in fraud scheme
EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) — A former Tyson Foods employee faces sentencing in July after admitting that he defrauded the company out of more than $416,000 while working at its Emporia plant.

David John Ranger was plant maintenance manager at the Emporia plant when he used company cards and created a fictitious company in order to divert Tyson payments to pay for his personal expenses, according to federal prosecutors.

Ranger pleaded guilty to wire fraud on April 28. His sentencing is scheduled for July 28, The Emporia Gazette reported.

The scheme ran from December 2012 to April 2019, while Ranger was responsible for buying equipment, goods and services for plant maintenance.

On Dec. 27, 2012, Ranger established a Square, Inc. account in the name of a non-existent company called “Electric Motor Repair Service.”

Beginning in September of 2013, he used the Tyson cards for personal expenses. He also designated his personal accounts to receive Square Inc. deposits for Electric Motor Repair Services work that he claimed the company was providing for Tyson.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a forfeiture charge and recommend a sentence at the low end of the applicable sentencing guidelines.

Maine
Father charged after 2-year-old found, fired gun
WEST BATH, Maine (AP) — A Maine man was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after his 2-year-old son discovered a loaded handgun and fired a single shot, hitting his parents and injuring himself in the process.

Ian Carr, 25, of West Bath, was arrested Monday and and released on bail, the Times Record reported. It was unclear if Carr had an attorney, and he didn’t immediately return an emailed request for comment.

Police said Carr’s son fired one round from a 9mm semiautomatic handgun that struck both parents while they were sleeping. The recoil of the weapon injured the child. All three went to the hospital on May 12.

“The seriousness of this incident must be underscored,” Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry wrote in a statement Monday. “This situation could easily have been fatal. The carelessness is astounding.”

The loaded handgun was left on a nightstand where the boy found it, Merry said. The boy’s mother was shot in the leg and bullet fragments hit Carr in the back of the head, the newspaper reported.

The boy and a 3-week-old sibling who was in the room are currently in the custody of family members.

Rhode Island
Man pleads guilty to seeking fake PPP loans
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who faked suicide to avoid prosecution for fraudulently seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans intended for businesses struggling during the coronavirus pandemic has pleaded guilty, federal prosecutors said.

David Staveley, 54, of Andover, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring to commit bank fraud and failure to appear in court, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Rhode Island.

Staveley and another man, David Butziger, 53, of Warwick, filed four fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan applications with a Rhode Island bank, falsely claiming they owned businesses with large monthly payrolls when, in fact, they did not own the businesses, prosecutors said.

Together they applied for more than $500,000 in loans.

They were the first people in the nation charged with making phony applications for the loans, authorities said.

Butziger previously pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing on June 23.

They were originally charged in May 2020, but Staveley faked suicide and fled, before being caught in Georgia last July. He faces sentencing on Aug. 2.