California
Judge denies dismissal of homeless suit
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) — A judge has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by five homeless residents and a nonprofit organization against the central California city of San Luis Obispo.
The plaintiffs, including Hope’s Village of SLO, contend unhoused individuals are being treated unlawfully for living outdoors or in their vehicles.
The city has issued dozens of fines and repeatedly conducted sweeps that have removed homeless individuals from camping spots in public areas.
Attorneys for the city sought a dismissal in December, contending the city has a right to enforce health, safety and environmental protection ordinances. They denied that the city has criminalized homelessness, as alleged in the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney ruled last week that the case can proceed to trial, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported,
The city said in a statement that it hoped a dismissal would allow it to be “fully dedicated to delivering solutions, rather than defending our community against legal action.
Massachusetts
Man gets 5 years for trying to burn Jewish living facility
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A man convicted of using a homemade bomb to try to burn a Jewish-sponsored assisted living home in Massachusetts has been sentenced to five years in prison.
In addition to his prison term, John Rathbun, 37, of East Longmeadow, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Springfield to three years of probation and ordered to stay away from the home.
Rathbun assembled, placed and lit a 5-gallon (19-liter) canister of gasoline — with pages from a Christian pamphlet as the wick — outside an entrance of a building at Jewish Geriatric Services Lifecare Inc. in Longmeadow on April 2, 2020, according to prosecutors.
The facility is a Jewish-sponsored assisted living center for seniors of all faiths, according to its website.
No one was injured.
Rathbun’s DNA was found on the canister and the pamphlet, prosecutors said.
He was convicted by a jury in June of two federal charges related to the bombing attempt. He was also convicted by a separate jury in November 2020 of lying to FBI investigators about his whereabouts on the day the device was found.
“There is no way to undo the damage John Rathbun did to the elderly residents of this Jewish assisted living facility, and to the entire community, with his hateful, repulsive, and violent behavior. But today’s sentence does hold him accountable for placing a lit firebomb in their path and for lying to us about it,” Joseph Bonavolonta, head of the FBI’s Boston office, said in a statement.
Rathbun’s public defender said her client was not driven by antisemitism, but rather was struggling with severe drug addiction at the time.
Illinois
Ticket broker gets prison time in White Sox tickets scheme
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago ticket broker convicted of fraudulently selling tickets to White Sox games was sentenced to prison Tuesday after a federal judge rejected his argument that he had actually helped the team by putting more concession-buying fans in the seats.
During a hearing, the judge sentenced Bruce Lee, 35, to 1 1/2 years in federal prison, after a jury in October found him guilty of fraud. U.S. District Judge James Kennelly also ordered Lee to pay $74,650 in restitution to the White Sox with his co-defendants and to personally forfeit about $450,000 in ill-gotten gains, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The judge made it clear that he wasn’t convinced by the argument made by Lee’s attorney in the sentencing memo seeking probation for Lee. The defense argued that the baseball team benefited at the concession stands from the scheme and that the team didn’t place any value on the tickets anyway.
Kennelly called the suggestion that nobody was harmed “delusional,” and said it was important to make the point to others who might want to embark on a similar scheme that getting caught might cost them their freedom.
“The math needs to include the possibility that, if I get caught paying these people under the table, I’m going to lose my liberty,” Kennelly said. “Without that, it’s just dollars and cents.”
Lee, the owner of a Chicago-based ticket brokerage, Great Tickets, and two White Sox employees, James Costello and William O’Neil, were arrested in 2020 and accused of taking part in a sophisticated scheme that involved selling thousands of fraudulently created tickets to Sox games.
The scheme generated close to $1 million for the three men, federal prosecutors said at the time.
Costello, 67, and O’Neill, 52, have both pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme. They cooperated with the investigation and are awaiting sentencing.
Texas
Woman pleads guilty in deaths of pair buried on beach
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — One of two Utah residents charged with capital murder for killing a New Hampshire couple found buried on a South Texas beach in 2019 pleaded guilty Tuesday to a lesser murder charge.
Amanda Noverr, 34, of Logan, Utah, was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple felonies, including murder, under a plea agreement with prosecutors, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported. Noverr, who remained in the Kleberg County Jail in Kingsville, entered her plea during a sentencing videoconference with state District Judge Jack Pulcher.
The plea came three months after co-defendant Adam C. Williams, 35, of Logan, Utah, was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole after pleading guilty to capital murder in a deal with prosecutors. The plea was in return for prosecutors sparing him the death penalty.
Prosecutors had previously said they would seek the death penalty for both for the killings of James Butler, 48, and Michelle Butler, 46.
The Butlers were traveling through Texas on their way to Florida, where they planned to sell Christmas trees. Family members reported them missing on Oct. 16, and their bodies were found in a shallow grave on Oct. 27 on Padre Island, near Corpus Christi.
Williams and Noverr were arrested in the Mexican state of Jalisco after a surveillance photo showed the pair crossing the border into Mexico in a car belonging to the Butlers.
Indiana
Man guilty in 2019 death of woman at church
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A man has been convicted of murder in the death of woman who was found strangled and stabbed inside an Indianapolis church, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Robert Burks was found guilty after a one-day trial in the slaying of Julie Morey.
Julie Morey, 58, was found dead on Nov. 3, 2019, at St. Patrick Catholic Church.
Church leaders have said she Morey, who was homeless, wasn’t a member of St. Patrick Catholic Church but had been visiting the church for at least two years.
“This case was solved through a true community effort,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said in a news release. “Witnesses and nearby businesses played a crucial role throughout the investigation and prosecution, which ultimately led to justice for Ms. Morey and her family.”
During the investigation, detectives learned that Morey had filed a police report alleging that Burks punched her in the face, causing her to have black eyes, prosecutors said.
A forensics report found that Burks’ DNA was on the victim’s hands, face, neck, and underneath her fingernails, they said.
A sentencing hearing has been set for March 10.
Kansas
Ex-Leavenworth prison officers admit to smuggling contraband
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Two former corrections officers at the Leavenworth Detention Center admitted Tuesday that they smuggled drugs and other contraband into the prison for inmates, federal prosecutors said.
Jacqueline Sifuentes, 26, of Laredo, Texas, admitted smuggling contraband including methamphetamine, marijuana and tobacco into the prison in exchange for bribes from an inmate.
And Cheyonte Harris, 29, of Raytown, Missouri, pleaded guilty to smuggling contraband into the prison in exchange for bribes from inmates and their associates, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
The two women were correctional officers at Leavenworth Detention Center, a privately-run maximum-security federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.
They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to accept bribes and provide contraband to inmates of a federal prison. They are scheduled to be sentenced May 17.
New Jersey
Murder conviction tossed over playing of interrogation video
PATERSON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man’s murder conviction has been tossed after an appeals court ruled some evidence shouldn’t have been shown at his trial.
A jury convicted Charles Grant of the 2015 murder of Isaac “Blaze” Tucker on a Paterson street, and he is serving a life sentence. No one witnessed the slaying, and at Grant’s trial prosecutors relied on surveillance videos and the testimony of an acquaintance of Grant’s who said Grant admitted killing Tucker.
They also showed jurors a video of an interrogation of Grant in which a detective accused him of lying and stated that surveillance video clearly showed he had a gun.
The appeals court ruled Tuesday that those portions of the video shouldn’t have been shown during the trial because they offered opinions about the evidence, a task for the jury undertake.
“Although police may use psychological methods such as trickery and deception in attempting to obtain a confession, to be admissible at trial, statements by an interrogating detective must still comply with the rules of evidence and not deny the defendant a right to a fair trial,” the court wrote.
The Passaic County prosecutor’s office, which tried the case, was reviewing the ruling and considering its options, a spokesperson said Tuesday.
Massachusetts
Suspect in fatal shooting at mall captured
BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) — The suspect in a fatal shooting at a Massachusetts shopping mall last month has been captured and faces arraignment Wednesday, prosecutors said.
Julius Hammond-Desir, 19, faces a murder charge in the Jan. 22 shooting of Dijoun Beasley at the South Shore Plaza in Braintree.
Hammond-Desir, who authorities have said lives in Maynard, was caught in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, Braintree police and the Norfolk district attorney’s office said in a statement Wednesday.
Beasley, 26, of Boston, was shopping inside a store at the mall when he was targeted by another man with a handgun, authorities said. He died at a hospital.
A 27-year-old woman faces an accessory charge in connection with the shooting.
Hammond-Desir is scheduled to be arraigned in Quincy District Court. It could not be determined if he has an attorney.
Building owner Simon Property Group has promised to strengthen security at the mall, which has been the site of several violent incidents in recent years.
Gang members exchanged gunfire inside a department store at the mall in 2017, and in 2020, a 15-year-old girl described as an innocent bystander was hit twice during a shooting.
