Detroit
Ex-UAW official pleads guilty to embezzling $2.2M from union
DETROIT (AP) — A former official at a suburban Detroit branch of the United Auto Workers has pleaded guilty to charges that he embezzled more than $2 million in union money.
Timothy Edmunds, 54, pleaded guilty Friday to one count each of embezzling union funds and money laundering during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Detroit, federal prosecutors said. He is the 17th defendant convicted in an ongoing criminal investigation into corruption within the UAW, prosecutors said.
From 2011 to 2021, Edmunds was secretary-treasurer of UAW Local 412, which represents about 2,600 people who work for Stellantis, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler, at factories in the Detroit area.
Edmunds “systematically drained” the local’s bank accounts of about $2.2 million by using the labor group’s credit cards for personal purchases, cashing local checks and transferring money into his accounts, according to the criminal case, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Prosecutors said he gambled with the money and spent more on guns, cars and child-support payments.
After Edmunds was charged in a November indictment, the UAW said in a statement that its auditors discovered his improper expenditures and turned their findings over to federal authorities.
Pennsylvania
Defense: Maybe AG’s office shouldn’t handle case against DA
SOMERSET, Pa. (AP) — The attorney representing a suspended western Pennsylvania prosecutor in a sexual assault case is questioning whether the state attorney general’s office should be handling the case.
Jeffrey Thomas, 36, Somerset County’s elected district attorney, is accused of having attacked a woman in her Windber home in September. He faces sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful restraint and strangulation charges.
Defense attorney Ryan Tutera suggested Friday after a pretrial hearing that potential jurors perhaps should be asked whether they have supported a former district attorney defeated by his client who now works in the attorney general’s office. He also questioned whether that office “is the appropriate body to handle this process.”
Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office said in a statement that his office’s track record demonstrates “no fear or favor when holding people who break the law accountable for the crimes they commit.”
The statement said the two offices had a good working relationship before the charges were filed, and Thomas referred eight cases to state prosecutors to handle. In addition, it said, the staffer cited by Tutera doesn’t handle active proceedings but works in the conviction integrity unit dealing with closed cases.
Tutera has said that Thomas maintains he is innocent of all of the charges. Motions in the case must be filed by April 20 with arguments on them slated April 29 and jury selection to begin June 7.
Ohio
3 sentenced to prison in slayings of man, teen girl
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — Two men have been sentenced to life in prison and a third to a shorter term in the grisly deaths of an Ohio man and his teenage daughter more than three years ago.
The bodies of 39-year-old Paul Bradley and 14-year-old Paris Bradley were found in October 2018 in a burning car in East Cleveland. Cuyahoga County prosecutors said three men had broken into family home, tied up and beat the man while demanding money, then kidnapped the pair for five hours, killing the girl and setting fire to the car.
The county medical examiner said the girl died of a gunshot to the head and the man from a combination of blunt force trauma and smoke inhalation from the fire. Assistant Prosecutor Gregory Paul called the slayings the result of “a barbarism that I cannot explain.”
Common Pleas Court Judge Kelly Ann Gallagher on Thursday sentenced Ronald Newberry and Kodii Gibson, who were each convicted of aggravated murder and other charges in separate trials, to life terms, Cleveland.com reported.
Gallagher ordered Newberry, 27, to spend 65 years behind bars until he is eligible for parole. Gibson, 25, must serve 50 years before being eligible for parole. Attorneys for both men vowed appeals.
Newberry declined to speak at the hearing. Gibson apologized to the Bradleys and to “the community,” saying he didn’t intend for anyone to die that night and wished he could have stopped that from happening.
“Like a tidal wave, my choices have rippled through the Bradley’s homes and my own,” he said, reading from a written statement. “For that, I’ll always be sorry.”
Demarcus Sheeley, who pleaded guilty last week to involuntary manslaughter, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped aggravated murder, kidnapping and other counts. Sheeley, 28, will be credited for nearly three years and will be eligible for parole after a dozen years in prison.
Paul Bradley’s relatives described him as a devoted father who was adored by his 14 children and was the backbone of the family. Paris, a high school freshman, was a joyful and outgoing honors student who ran track and had blossomed into a mature young woman, they said.
Prosecutors originally announced plans to seek the death penalty, but a jury rejected that in Gibson’s case and recommended a life term with parole possible after 30 years for each killing. Prosecutors then dismissed capital charges against the other two defendants.
Georgia
Man gets 15 years for selling heroin that killed student
ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta man has been sentenced to serve more than 15 years in prison for selling heroin that caused a college student’s overdose death, federal prosecutors said.
DeAngelo Copeland, 37, was sentenced on Tuesday to serve 15 years and eight months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. He had pleaded guilty in September to a charge of distributing heroin.
Atlanta police responded after someone called 911 on April 10, 2018, seeking medical attention for the 22-year-old student. The student ended up dying from an overdose that night. An investigation showed that the student had ordered heroin from Copeland by text message that afternoon, prosecutors said in a news release.
Investigators were able to identify Copeland as the person who sold the drugs by using the same phone number to set up undercover drug purchases. An undercover officer bought drugs from Copeland multiple times.
Prosecutors said Copeland has a history of drug trafficking and acknowledged that the heroin he sold caused the college student’s death.
“Copeland’s heroin distribution led to yet another drug overdose death in our community,” U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine said. “Opioid overdoses will be investigated and prosecuted as a federal priority and those who sell this poison will be held accountable for the death and suffering that it causes.”
Arizona
Prosecutors: $2M credit union embezzlement snagged by audit
PHOENIX (AP) — A routine audit of a Winslow credit union triggered an investigation that has resulted in a Gilbert woman being sentenced to 26 months in prison for embezzling over $2.2 million from the financial institution, federal prosecutors said.
The sentence imposed Thursday on Susan Irene Romero, 64, on her previous guilty plea to one count of embezzlement funds includes an order that she pay restitution of $2,360,000.
According to a statement released Friday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Romero worked for the Winslow Santa Fe Credit Union for more than 30 years, mostly in leadership roles, including as manager, president and CEO.
Romero in her plea agreement admitted stealing money through unauthorized cash withdrawals, checks issued with forged signatures of other employees and transfers to accounts of relatives.
“”She covered her tracks through false entries in the financial statements, such as falsifying the amount of cash stored in the vault and offsetting the stolen money with fictitious assets.” the office said.
West Virginia
Jury convicts woman in death of 5-year-old nephew
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) — A jury has convicted a third person charged in the death of a 5-year-old West Virginia boy.
Jurors in Harrison County deliberated for more than an hour before returning a guilty verdict for Chasity Wodzinski, who was charged with knowingly allowing child abuse that resulted in the death of her nephew, Keaton Boggs, news outlets reported.
After the verdict, a judge said he would consider a defense motion for a directed verdict of acquittal and said he would likely rule on the matter in May.
Two others charged in the boy’s death were also convicted. Wodzinski’s then-husband, Peter James Wodzinski Jr., and her mother, Michelle Boggs, were both sentenced to serve 15 years to life in prison in the boy’s death.
Boggs was the boy’s legal guardian but all three adults had been caring for him before he died in 2020 after being taken to a hospital in Morgantown suffering from head trauma, numerous bruises and a laceration on his genital region.
Defense attorneys said there was no evidence Chasity Wodzinski inflicted abuse or knowingly allowed it, though prosecutors argued she was aware of the abuse.
New York
Ex-college lacrosse player convicted of stabbing roommate
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City jury has convicted the former captain of the St. John’s University lacrosse team of stabbing and nearly disemboweling his roommate in a dispute over a loud party at their apartment in 2019. The roommate survived.
The Queens jury returned guilty verdicts on assault and weapons charges against Matthew Stockfeder, 23, who now faces up to 25 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for April 7. The convictions were handed down Thursday and announced Friday by Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
According to trial testimony, Stockfeder stabbed Justin Corpolongo in the abdomen in October 2019, after Corpolongo had complained about a loud party in the Queens apartment as he was trying to sleep. Stockfeder and others at the party agreed to go to another location, prosecutors said.
But the two men exchanged angry text messages and Corpolongo went to the new party site, where he was stabbed while confronting Stockfeder, prosecutors said.
Corpolongo survived after undergoing surgery to repair a laceration to his small intestine, officials said.
A message seeking comment was left for Stockfeder’s lawyer Saturday. Stockfeder was captain of the St. John’s lacrosse team at the time of the stabbing and was removed from the team.
Tennessee
Man gets 27 years for crash that killed officer
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for being legally drunk and speeding in a vehicle crash that killed an off-duty police officer.
Marquell Griffin, 53, was sentenced Friday for the March 2019 death of Memphis police Lt. Myron Fair, the Shelby County district attorney’s office said.
Griffin pleaded guilty in July to aggravated vehicular homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and possession of a controlled substance.
Fair had just left work and was waiting at a Memphis intersection when Griffin’s SUV struck Fair’s car from behind, causing it to flip and roll over.
Investigators found the SUV was traveling 117 miles per hour 5 seconds before the crash, and 94 miles per hour at impact, prosecutors said.
Griffin, who has prior DUI convictions, had a blood alcohol level above the legal limit in Tennessee.
Fair was a 25-year veteran of the police department and was approaching retirement, the district attorney’s office said.
