Minnesota
Bus driver sentenced to 41 months for hit-and-run death
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A school bus driver convicted of striking and killing a pedestrian in a Minneapolis suburb and then fleeing the scene was sentenced Monday to more than three years in prison.
Jason Rynders, 35, of Maple Grove, pleaded guilty in November to criminal vehicular homicide in the March 2020 death of 45-year-old Devon Lizbeth Doherty, of Brooklyn Park.
Prosecutors said a man who was driving to work that day saw a school bus parked on the right side of the road and then felt his car hit something. He got out and saw that he had hit a woman. Rynders was outside of the bus and the man yelled at him to call 911. Instead, Rynders got back on the bus and drove away.
A video camera on the bus confirmed that Rynders had hit the victim and a smart doorbell video confirmed other evidence, prosecutors said. Rynders had said he was not aware of the collision or the driver’s pleas to call 911.
The bus was headed toward Friendship Academy, a Minneapolis charter elementary school. No children aboard were hurt.
Judge William H. Koch sentenced Rynders to 41 months in prison.
Montana
Man sentenced to state hospital for mother’s murder
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A Montana judge sentenced a Billings man to 75 years custody of the state health department for the murder of his mother and other crimes.
Judge Michael Moses sentenced Beau Daniel Papin, 21, in state district court on Friday, after declaring that the defendant who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia was in no condition to realize the severity of his crimes, The Billings Gazette reported.
Papin was charged with deliberate homicide in the Jan 11, 2021 killing of his 41-year-old mother, Jessica. In August, he entered a plea acknowledging there was enough evidence to convict him but not admitting guilt.
Papin also received five years to be served concurrently on charges of robbery and criminal endangerment, under a plea agreement between prosecutors and the defense. Nine other charges were dismissed.
He will serve his sentence at the State Hospital in Warm Springs, Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito said.
The victim’s father, Robert Papin, said during Friday’s sentencing hearing that he and his wife had adopted the defendant when he was 8 years old.
Robert Papin blamed his daughter’s death on “the demons that (Beau Papin) has had in his head since he was aged 14” and said they had forgiven him.
Wisconsin
Pharmacy agrees to $2 million payment but denies allegations
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Federal authorities said Monday that a Milwaukee pharmacy has agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle allegations it submitted false claims to Medicare and Medicaid for prescription drugs, a charge the company denies.
Hayat Pharmacy operates 23 centers in the greater Milwaukee area. Prosecutors said the company switched Medicare and Medicaid patients to lower-cost medications on two drugs without medical need or without valid prescriptions.
Hayat Pharmacy said in a statement that it “vigorously disputes” the allegations and settled in order to move forward with its mission to help “underserved populations in our community obtain proper health care.”
In addition to the financial settlement, the pharmacy agreed to conduct annual training concerning waste, fraud and abuse, and compliance with rules concerning medication switches, according to prosecutors.
The government’s investigation resulted from a whistleblower complaint filed under certain provisions of the False Claims Act. The whistleblower will receive a share of the settlement.
“Medicare and Medicaid only pay for prescription medications that are needed by patients, not prescriptions dispensed by pharmacies simply to increase their profits,” said U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling of the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
Arizona
Woman pleads guilty to voting dead mom’s ballot
PHOENIX (AP) — A Scottsdale woman who was charged with illegal voting for casting her dead mother’s mail ballot in the November 2020 election is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty.
Tracey Kay McKee entered the plea to a reduced felony charge of attempted illegal voting in Maricopa County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Under a plea agreement, the Arizona Attorney General’s office dropped an additional perjury charge and stipulated that the 64-year-old McKee will be sentenced to probation with the possibility of up to 90 days in jail.
She’ll also be required to pay about $1,800 in fines and fees and must perform 100 hours of community service. McKee will be sentenced in March.
McKee will also lose her right to vote until she completes probation and a court restores her rights.
McKee’s mother died days before the county mailed early ballots in early October 2020. McKee filled out her mother’s ballot, forged her signature on the ballot affidavit and mailed it in, authorities said.
Her attorney, Tom Henze, declined to comment.
Former President Donald Trump and his backers have claimed without evidence that the Republican lost in Arizona because of massive voter fraud.
But an extensive review by The Associated Press found just 230 cases of potential fraud, including 151 in Pima County where prosecutors found no criminal charges were merited.
McKee is one of 10 people charged so far with voter fraud across Arizona from the 2020 general election. President Joe Biden won Arizona by just under 10,500 votes.
Kansas
2 ex-Leavenworth prison guards plead guilty to smuggling
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Two former correctional officers at the Leavenworth Detention Center have pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the privately run federal prison.
The Kansas City Star reports that 28-year-old Willie Golden, of Overland Park, and 36-year-old Janna Grier, of Horton, entered the pleas last week.
Prosecutors said prisoners used an online app to pay bribes to corrections officers to smuggle in tobacco, marijuana and cell phones to prisoners from April through November 2020.
During his time as a correctional officer, Golden allegedly received $7,370 for smuggling contraband, according to court documents.
In a plea agreement, Grier admitted to smuggling tobacco and what she later learned was synthetic cannabinoids into the detention center.
Golden is scheduled to be sentenced on May 17 and Grier on April 28. Both face up to five years in prison.
In a separate criminal indictment, two other former corrections officers — 29-year-old Cheyonte Harris, of Raytown, and 25-year-old Jacqueline Sifuentes, of Laredo, Texas — were charged with smuggling contraband into the prison.
The prison has recently come under scrutiny for the violence that has unfolded inside.
Pennsylvania
Cosby asks U.S. Supreme Court not to revive sexual assault case
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A lawyer for Bill Cosby asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to reject a bid by prosecutors to revive his criminal sex assault case.
The 84-year-old actor and comedian has been free since June, when a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned his conviction and released him from prison after nearly three years.
The state’s highest court found that Cosby believed he had a nonprosecution agreement with a former district attorney when he gave damaging testimony in the accuser’s 2005 lawsuit. That testimony later led to his arrest in 2015.
Cosby lawyer Jennifer Bonjean says the case rests on a narrow set of facts that should not interest the Supreme Court.
“Notwithstanding the commonwealth’s warning of imminent catastrophic consequences, the Cosby holding will likely be confined to its own ‘rare, if not entirely unique’ set of circumstances, making review by this court particularly unjustified,” she wrote in the 15-page response filed Monday.
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney Kevin Steele’s attempt to revive the case is a long shot. The U.S. Supreme Court accepts fewer than 1% of the petitions it receives. At least four justices on the nine-member court would have to agree to hear the case.
The only written evidence of a nonprosecution promise is a 2005 news release from Bruce Castor, the district attorney at the time, who said he did not have enough evidence to arrest Cosby. Steele does not believe that amounts to an immunity agreement.
Cosby became the first celebrity convicted of sexual assault in the #MeToo era when the jury at his 2018 retrial found him guilty of drugging and molesting college sports administrator Andrea Constand in 2004.
Legal scholars and victim advocates will be watching closely to see whether the Supreme Court takes an interest in the case. Two justices on the court, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, were accused of sexual misconduct during their bitterly fought confirmation hearings.
Cosby, a groundbreaking Black actor and comedian, created the top-ranked “Cosby Show” in the 1980s. A barrage of sexual assault allegations later destroyed his image as “America’s Dad” and led to multimillion-dollar court settlements with at least eight women. But Constand’s case was the only one to lead to criminal charges.
The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault unless they speak publicly, as Constand has done.
Massachusetts
Ex-tribal chairman’s casino bribery trial set for April
BOSTON (AP) — A former chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe will have his day in court to face bribery, extortion and other charges related to the tribe’s planned casino project.
Cedric Cromwell’s criminal trial opens April 19 in Boston federal court after being delayed for months by the coronavirus pandemic. He’ll be on trial with co-defendant David DeQuattro, the owner of an architecture firm in Providence, Rhode Island.
Federal prosecutors say Cromwell used his position to extort tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and engaged in a conspiracy to commit bribery with DeQuattro.
They say DeQuattro provided Cromwell with payments and other benefits valued at nearly $60,000 in exchange for nearly $5 million in contracts. Prosecutors allege Cromwell then spent the payments on personal expenses.
Cromwell’s lawyer, Tim Flaherty, said Monday his client denies the charges and looks forward to his trial, adding that Cromwell was a “transformational leader” who helped improve the future of the tribe, which traces its ancestry to the Native Americans whom the Pilgrims encountered centuries ago.
DeQuattro’s lawyer Martin Weinberg similarly denied the charges, saying his client simply donated to Cromwell’s political campaign. “They were not bribes,” he said.
The Cape Cod-based tribe’s casino plan has faced years of legal setbacks, but last month received a boost when President Joe Biden’s administration affirmed the tribe’s sovereign reservation.
