Washington
Naturopathic doctor sentenced for selling misbranded drugs
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A former Port Angeles naturopathic physician was sentenced to eight months in prison and one year supervised release after being found guilty of selling products he claimed could prevent numerous serious diseases, including COVID-19.
Richard Marschall, 69, was convicted in 2021, after a four-day trial, of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce, his third conviction, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. The jury found that his marketing was false or misleading and because his products were not listed with the FDA.
At the sentencing hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle said, “It is extremely dangerous during the COVID epidemic for people to be engaged in conduct that would lead other people to defer and wait to receive medical care.”
Marschall was convicted previously and sentenced in federal court for distributing misbranded drugs, both in 2011 and again in 2017.
“Mr. Marschall has a history of lying to patients about their health and his proposed treatments. His lies in this case are particularly troubling because he employed them when advising others about a deadly pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. “As people became fearful and searched for answers, Marschall touted an unproven treatment as a miracle cure for the deadly disease.”
Washington
Man jailed after police find woman bludgeoned to death
SHORELINE, Wash. (AP) — A 40-year-old Shoreline man who called 911 on Sunday to report he had killed a woman inside his apartment was arrested after police confirmed her violent death, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.
On Monday, a judge ordered the man held on investigation of homicide and set bail at $5 million, said Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for Prosecutor Dan Satterberg. The judge said high bail amount was justified because of the extreme violence and cruelty inflicted on the victim and because the killing was intentionally planned, he said.
The Seattle Times did not name the man because he had not yet been criminally charged.
The man called 911 at 7:21 a.m. Sunday and met officers in the parking lot of the Linden Highlands apartments, according to the probable-cause statement outlining the sheriff’s case against the man. Officers saw blood on him and located the woman’s body in the man’s apartment.
The woman appeared to have suffered a severe head injury and detectives found an ax and large bolt cutter in the apartment, both covered in blood, the statement says.
Capt. Tim Meyer, a sheriff’s spokesman, said the victim was 32 years old but he did not know what her relationship was to the suspect.
Minnesota
Feds: Man stole guns, ammo from shipping facility
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A man is accused of stealing numerous boxes of guns and ammunition while working at a national shipping company in Minnesota, prosecutors said Monday.
Jason Cikotte, of Isanti, Minnesota, is charged in federal court with possession of stolen firearms. Authorities said the thefts occurred over the course of almost a year at the XPO Logistics facility in Fridley, north of Minneapolis.
Cikotte, 31, appeared in court last week and was released on his promise to appear at future proceedings. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Friday.
An affidavit said that Cikotte worked overnight as a weight inspector and had “little to no” supervision while at work, according to the company’s security manager. He would also have no reason to open the pallets of firearms as part of his job, the manager said.
The manager provided investigators with video evidence allegedly showing Cikotte removing boxes of firearms from shrink-wrapped pallets, removing the firearms from the boxes and carrying the firearms to his vehicle.
A search of Cikotte’s house turned up about 40 guns, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition and firearm parts and accessories, authorities said.
An email sent to Kirk Anderson, Cikotte’s attorney, came back with an out-of-office reply noting that he would not be available until Thursday. A phone number for Cikotte could not be found.
North Dakota
Man found not guilty in shooting death outside bar
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A man accused in the shooting death of another man outside a Fargo bar last summer was found not guilty Monday following about nine hours of jury deliberation over two days.
Raymond Gunn, 40, was charged with murder in the July 24 shooting of 41-year-old Eric Hayes after an altercation in an alley between the Bison Turf bar and a convenience store on the North Dakota State University campus.
Defense attorneys argued that Gunn acted in survival and self-defense, noting that Hayes was armed with a knife. Prosecutors blamed Gunn for being the aggressor and starting the fight. Officials say Gunn and Hayes didn’t know each other before the incident and it’s still unclear what lead to their argument, KVLY-TV reported.
The case went to the jury on Friday and no deliberations were held over the weekend.
“Shock. Happiness,” defense attorney Nicole Bredahl said outside the courtroom Monday, describing her client’s reaction. “This has been a long eight months, a long weekend waiting for a verdict. A lot of happiness. Just a lot of relief after a long wait for him.”
The state’s medical examiner had said Hayes had a small amount of methamphetamine in his system at the time he died, as well as a blood alcohol level almost two times the legal limit for driving.
Police and a witness testified that Gunn and a friend that Gunn played pool with at the bar stayed around after the shooting and were calm and cooperative with authorities. Gunn’s attorneys said it showed that he was not a murderer.
Gunn faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Nevada
Man to face judge in suspected abduction of woman
FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) — A prosecutor said Monday that a Fallon man was expected to face a judge this week on a first-degree kidnapping charge in the disappearance of an 18-year-old Fernley woman last seen in her car in the parking lot of a Walmart store more than two weeks ago.
Lyon County District Attorney Steven Rye said he didn’t immediately know if Troy Driver, 41, had a lawyer appointed to his defense following his arrest last Friday in the alleged abduction of Naomi Christine Irion, who has not been seen in more than two weeks.
Irion was last seen about 5:25 a.m. on March 12, when security video showed a masked man wearing a hooded sweatshirt approach her car outside a Walmart store in rural Fernley, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of Reno.
Iron’s older brother, Casey Valley, said she was in the parking lot to meet an employee bus for a ride to work at a Panasonic facility. He said the man approached Irion’s car from behind and did or said something to make Irion move over from the driver’s seat before he got into her car and drove away.
Lyon County Sheriff Frank Hunewill has said Irion’s car was found a short distance away and that evidence suggested a dark pickup truck was linked to the case.
Driver was being held at the Lyon County Jail on $750,000 bail. Patrick Mansfield, an attorney in Dayton, said Monday his law firm had not been hired by Driver or appointed as his public defender.
Rye said he expected Driver will make his initial court appearance Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Lyon County sheriff’s office released a photo of Driver and said investigators impounded a pickup truck as evidence in Irion’s disappearance.
Investigators did not say what evidence was provided to a judge to obtain a warrant to arrest Driver and seize the vehicle.
Sheriff’s Detective Erik Kusmerz has said deputies and the FBI haven’t found Irion’s cellphone or detected a signal it since shortly after they believe she was abducted.
Kentucky
Woman sentenced in truck warranty fraud scheme
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A Kentucky woman was sentenced Monday to one year and three months in federal prison for her role in a truck warranty fraud scheme.
Tammy Newsome, 55, of Ashland, Kentucky, also was ordered to pay $4.3 million in restitution for her 2020 guilty plea to mail fraud, U.S. Attorney Will Thompson announced in a news release.
Newsome was an administrative assistant for a Kentucky used car dealership that bought trucks at wholesale prices at auction. The dealership obtained hundreds of copies of Kentucky and West Virginia driver’s licenses and fraudulently titled the trucks in the name of those residents, according to court records.
Prosecutors said that as part of a scheme to misuse Toyota Motor Corp.’s warranty extension program, Newsome helped induce the automaker to rebuy hundreds of fraudulently titled trucks at 150% of value between 2013 and 2015.
Newsome admitted making false representations to the Department of Motor Vehicles to obtain false vehicle titles in the names of false owners, including forged signatures. Toyota issued checks that were deposited into the car dealership’s bank account, court records showed.
Three other people, including Big Blue Motor Sales owner James Pinson of Wayne County, were sentenced to prison earlier this year for their roles in the scheme and were required to pay restitution.
New Hampshire
Officer denied immunity over truck driver’s detention
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire police officer has been denied qualified immunity in a lawsuit accusing him of an unreasonable seizure and use of excessive force.
A federal judge found on Monday that the Ossipee officer wasn’t entitled to qualified immunity, which protects government employees from lawsuits as long as their actions don’t violate clearly established law or constitutional rights they should have known about.
The truck driver’s lawsuit alleges that the officer’s detention of him as he was vacuuming his vehicle at a car wash at night in 2019 was an unreasonable seizure, from the time he was handcuffed until he was released from custody. It also alleges that the officer used excessive force, slamming him against a police cruiser.
The judge wrote that there was no indication that the man had engaged in or intended to engage in an activity that threatened public safety. The presence of a baseball bat on the ground, which the man had taken out of his truck with his other things before the officer arrived, was not enough to raise alarm.
“Without more, a reasonable officer would not have believed that he needed to handcuff and frisk” the man, the judge wrote.
The officer also argued that he had probable cause to believe the man was intoxicated, but the complaint doesn’t admit that he was either intoxicated or appeared to be so, the judge said.
The judge concluded that the man had committed no crime and showed no attempt to resist or flee when the officer used “significant force” to subdue him.
