Louisiana
Rapper Mystikal to be arraigned on rape, other charges
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Grammy-nominated hip-hop performer Mystikal is scheduled for arraignment on charges accusing him of raping and choking a woman, and illegally possessing drugs at his Louisiana home.
Charges the performer will face during his arraignment Monday will include first-degree rape, which carries an automatic life sentence if Tyler is convicted.
“My client is innocent of all charges,” attorney Joel Pearce said in a text message Thursday. He said the rapper, whose given name is Michael Tyler, had a court order to protect him from the woman, and he is “the true victim.”
Pearce said he hopes he will be allowed to present evidence supporting bond for Tyler, who has been held without bond since the end of July. A judge denied bond on Aug. 4, but Pearce, who did not then represent the performer, said it was not a full bond hearing that would take evidence in Tyler’s favor.
Tyler was arrested July 31 on charges accusing him of choking and raping the woman at his home in Prairieville, an Ascension Parish community of about 33,000 near Baton Rouge.
A news release Wednesday from the district attorney’s office said Tyler was indicted last week on 10 counts including rape, domestic abuse battery by strangulation and false imprisonment. Investigators who searched his home found “evidence to corroborate the victim’s account of the rape along with a variety of illegal narcotics,” the statement said.
An Ascension Parish grand jury brought the charges in two indictments handed up Sept. 6, The Advocate reported.
District Attorney Ricky Babin said in an email that because they are part of an ongoing criminal matter, the indictments are not public records under state law.
Pearce represented Tyler on rape and kidnapping charges that prosecutors in northwest Louisiana dropped in December 2020. Those charges, brought in 2017, had kept him jailed nearly 18 months before he was released on $3 million bond.
Mystikal told The Associated Press in April 2021 that he now is proud of lyrics he can imagine rapping to God.
His 2000 hit “Shake (It Fast) earned a 2001 Grammy nomination for best rap solo. In 2003, his “Tarantula” was nominated for best rap album and the single “Bouncin’ Back” for best male rap solo.
He pleaded guilty to sexual battery later in 2003. He served six years in prison.
Mississippi
4-year sentence, $2.9M payback in sorority theft
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $3 million in restitution for embezzling money from a Mississippi State University sorority.
The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports that Betty Jane Cadle, 75, of Oxford, pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud in April. U.S. District Judge Glen Davidson sentenced her to 45 months in prison Friday and ordered her to pay $2.9 million restitution to the Kappa Delta chapter at MSU.
Cadle was the treasurer for the corporation that oversaw the Starkville sorority.
Prosecutors said she would order things for the sorority and then reimburse herself.
As the children’s clothing store she ran in Oxford started having cash flow issues, she added some to the reimbursement, she told the judge.
“When I would get the reimbursements, I started adding a little extra to them. I thought I was taking out a loan and would pay them back,” she said.
U.S. Attorney Parker King said Cadle never tried to pay the money back in a fraud that lasted eight years. She stole an average of $375,000 a year, even as the sorority chapter was struggling financially.
“She was purposely unclear. Whenever anyone asked a question, she would condescendingly shut them down,” said Kaylie Watts, the KD chapter president 2019-2020.
In 2019, after Cadle’s sudden resignation, a new treasurer found financial records in shambles.
Kentucky
Court suspends prosecutor who asked for nude photographs
MOREHEAD, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has suspended an Eastern Kentucky prosecutor who promised to help a defendant in exchange for nude photos.
Ronnie Goldy is the commonwealth’s attorney for Bath, Menifee, Montgomery and Rowan counties. Although the court temporarily suspended him, it said in its Friday order that only the General Assembly can remove Goldy from office through impeachment, the Courier Journal reported.
The newspaper previously reported that Goldy exchanged 230 pages of Facebook messages with a female defendant. Goldy testified at a Sept. 8 hearing that he didn’t remember sending the messages but did not deny having done so. The woman has testified that in exchange for photos, Goldy withdrew warrants and had cases continued. She also said that she had sex with the prosecutor.
In addition to the suspension, Goldy also faces possible disbarment. He did not immediately respond to a message from the paper.
Oklahoma
Court rules for officer in teen’s death lawsuit
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An appeals court ruling could mean the end of a federal lawsuit filed by the parents of a Black teenager who was naked and unarmed when he was shot and killed by suburban Oklahoma City police in 2019.
Police said 17-year-old Isaiah Lewis was naked when he broke into an Edmond home in April 2019 and attacked two officers. He was fatally shot after a stun gun didn’t stop him, Edmond police said.
Attorneys for Lewis’ parents said the teenager was experiencing a mental breakdown when the officers “unjustifiably” shot him.
But a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Friday ruled in favor of Officer Denton Scherman, who fired the fatal shots, saying he was entitled to qualified immunity for his actions, the Oklahoman reported on Saturday.
Attorneys for Lewis’ parents could ask the full appeals court to reconsider the ruling.
An autopsy found Lewis sustained gunshot wounds to his face, thighs and groin. Toxicology tests showed he had detectable amounts of a common antihistamine called diphenhydramine and THC, the active ingredient of marijuana, in his system.
New Mexico
U.S. District judge remembered for work ethic, energy
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. District Court Judge James A. Parker, who served in New Mexico for more than three decades and a had a courtroom named after him, has died.
Parker died Friday at the age of 85, according to a statement from the U.S. District Court in New Mexico. A cause of death wasn’t given.
Colleagues and friends remembered Parker for his work ethic, leadership, inspirational guidance and his ability to maintain a heavy case load.
“We were privileged to work with and know this exemplary man,” said the court’s chief judge, William Johnson.
Parker worked for an Albuquerque law firm for 25 years before former President Ronald Reagan nominated him to serve as a U.S. District Court judge in 1987.
Parker remained on the federal bench for 35 years, one of the longest tenures of any federal judge in New Mexico, the statement read. A courtroom on the 6th floor of the federal courthouse in downtown Albuquerque was renamed in January to honor Parker.
Parker was born and raised in Houston. He had a mechanical engineering degree from Rice University and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law where he graduated first in his class.
As a federal judge, Parker advocated for resolving disputes outside the courtroom. He also served on national boards and committees.
Carolyn Wolf, president of the State Bar of New Mexico, called Parker a “brilliant jurist” who was courteous to everyone who appeared before him.
Oregon
High court declines appeal in $1B timber suit
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from 13 counties in a long-running $1 billion lawsuit over timber revenue and what constitutes “the greatest permanent value” when it comes to forest management.
The denial ends a six-year legal battle over logging practices on 700,000 acres and is a victory for the state Department of Forestry and environmental groups. The decision leaves in place a lower court ruling saying that Oregon can manage forests for a range of values that include recreation, water quality and wildlife habitat — not just logging revenue.
“It’s the end of the road for what has been a false narrative for far too long … that it’s the public forestland’s obligation to provide the bulk of the revenues for local communities,” Ralph Bloemers, who represented fishing and conservation groups in the case, told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
The counties gave forestland to the state decades ago and Oregon manages the land and funnels timber revenue to the counties.
But 13 counties took Oregon to court, alleging the state was not maximizing logging on the forests. A Linn County jury found in the counties’ favor in 2019 and awarded more than $1 billion in damages, but an appeals court struck down the verdict earlier this year.
A representative for the counties called the high court’s inaction “disappointing.”
“The underlying issue of forest practices on public lands is left unresolved,” Linn County Commissioner Roger Nyquist said in a statement.
Linn is one of several Oregon counties and special taxing districts that receive a cut of logging profits from forestland they gave to the state in the 1930s and 1940s. Oregon agreed to manage those lands, which were mostly burned and logged over at the time of donation, “so as to secure the greatest permanent value of those lands to the state.”
Oregon has sent millions of dollars to the counties over the years, bolstering local budgets. But 13 counties took the state to court, saying “greatest permanent value” meant managing forests for maximum timber revenue.
The Oregon Department of Justice, which represented the state government in the case, issued a written statement Friday calling the Supreme Court’s decision a “victory for Oregon’s environment and for sound forest management in general.”
“Our forests serve a range of environmental, recreational, and economic purposes,” the statement reads. “By allowing what we argued was the correct decision of the Court of Appeals to stand, we have a swifter resolution and finality after a 6-year dispute.”
