Louisiana
Judge indicted on tax charges tied to wedding fees
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a New Orleans judge on tax fraud charges.
New Orleans 2nd City Court Judge Ernestine Anderson-Trahan was indicted Friday on four federal tax fraud charges for allegedly failing to report income for legal work and officiating weddings, news outlets reported.
The indictment said she allegedly charged higher officiant fees for marriages conducted outside normal business hours, outside the Algiers courthouse, and on Valentine’s Day. The judge did not report all the money she made from those cash payments for the 2013 to 2016 tax years, according to the indictment.
As a 2nd City Court judge, Trahan-Anderson oversees small claims disputes and evictions in Algiers.
Trahan-Anderson is set to be arraigned Jan. 24. She could not immediately be reached for comment and it was unknown if she has an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
If convicted, she faces up to 12 years in prison.
Wisconsin
Man who bought gun for Kyle Rittenhouse pleads no contest
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The man who bought an AR-15-style rifle for Kyle Rittenhouse pleaded no contest Monday to a reduced charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in a deal with prosecutors that allows him to avoid prison.
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder accepted Dominick Black’s plea during a six-minute hearing. Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger dropped two felony counts of intent to deliver a dangerous weapon to a minor as part of the deal.
Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in jail, but Binger reduced the charge to a non-criminal county ordinance violation. Under the deal, Black will pay a $2,000 fine. Each felony count would have been punishable by up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Rittenhouse used the rifle to shoot three people, killing two, during a tumultuous night of protests in Kenosha in 2020 over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer. A jury acquitted Rittenhouse of homicide and other charges in November.
Binger told Schroeder that he didn’t believe he could move forward with the felony counts against Black, who testified against Rittenhouse. Binger noted, among other things, that during Rittenhouse’s trial, Schroeder sided with defense attorneys who argued that Wisconsin law prohibits minors from possessing short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns but allows them to possess long guns.
“In these circumstances, to go forward with these felony charges against Mr. Black, given the court’s legal ruling as well as Mr. Black’s cooperation and the jury’s decision in the Rittenhouse case, does not seem appropriate,” Binger said.
Black’s attorney, Tony Cotton, said nothing except to confirm the deal.
Black was 18 and dating Rittenhouse’s sister when he purchased an AR-15-style rifle for Rittenhouse in May 2020. Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, was 17. Black testified during Rittenhouse’s that he bought the rifle so he and Rittenhouse could target shoot and hunt on a friend’s property in northern Wisconsin.
Three months later, in August 2020, Rittenhouse used the rifle to shoot Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz. Rosenbaum and Huber died of their wounds. Rittenhouse is white, as were all of the people he shot.
Rittenhouse argued that he fired in self-defense after the men attacked him. On the last day of his trial, Schroeder dismissed a charge of being a minor in possession of a firearm.
Binger told Schroeder on Monday that he anticipated the judge would have dismissed the felony counts against Black based on that decision. He also told Schroeder that he didn’t agree with his interpretation of state law and suggested the district attorney’s office might appeal that ruling.
District Attorney Michael Graveley didn’t immediately respond to a message about that.
The rifle was tagged as evidence in Rittenhouse’s trial, but it’s unclear what will become of it. Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, said Rittenhouse wants it to be destroyed. Graveley also didn’t respond to a message inquiring about what will be done with it.
North Dakota
State Supreme Court overturns child abuse conviction
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Supreme Court has ruled that a Minot man should not have been convicted of child abuse for allegedly assaulting a woman in front of a young girl.
Brent Castleman, 54, was found guilty last year of a Class B felony after the jury watched a recording of the assault and the girl crying after witnessing the attack. Castleman was sentenced in January 2021 to five years in prison.
The Supreme Court said in an opinion released last week that the incident does not qualify as child abuse under state law because prosecutors did not prove that there was any lasting effect to the girl’s psychological, emotional, or mental health.
Castleman will be released from the James River Correctional Facility in Jamestown, the Minot Daily News reported.
Justices Lisa Fair McEvers and Gerald VandeWalle noted in a concurring opinion that if the legislature wants to protect children from domestic violence, perhaps it should include exposure of the child to domestic violence as part of the definition of child abuse.
Indiana
Several accused in school fraud want suit dismissed
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Several people and companies linked with two now-closed Indiana online charter schools have asked a judge to dismiss claims against them in a lawsuit alleging a fraud scheme that cost the state more than $150 million.
The lawsuit filed by the state attorney general’s office in July accused Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy of padding their student enrollments and inappropriately paying money to a web of related businesses before they were shut down in 2019.
The defendants argued before a Hamilton County judge this past week that the lawsuit was not specific enough about how they violated state law and that they should not be personally liable, WFYI-FM of Indianapolis reported. Two defendants also asked the court to delay the lawsuit because they say they may be under an ongoing federal criminal investigation.
A ruling from the judge isn’t expected for at least a few weeks.
The schools were shut down amid a state investigation that found they improperly claimed about 14,000 students as enrolled even though they had no online course activity. A state audit linked much of the misspending to Thomas Stoughton, who headed the schools until 2017.
B.J. Brinkerhoff, an attorney for Stoughton and other defendants, said the state’s lawsuit fails to describe illegal actions.
“Nowhere in the complaint does the state allege what law was broken,” Brinkerhoff said.
The FBI and federal prosecutors have declined to comment on the status of any investigation.
