Washington
Settlement reached in lawsuit over fatal police shooting
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — The Vancouver City Council has approved a $725,000 settlement in the police shooting of a man who was experiencing a mental health crisis in April 2020.
Three Vancouver police officers fatally shot William Abbe, 50. The Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office deemed it was lawful and justified, the Columbian reported.
Kara Brandon, Abbe’s daughter, filed a federal lawsuit in 2021 against the city of Vancouver and the involved officers. It alleged wrongful death, negligence, assault and battery, and excessive force.
According to the lawsuit, Abbe had an altercation with another man in the street and police were called. The officers were talking with Abbe when he started walking toward a sergeant, who responded by leveling his handgun toward Abbe’s chest. Abbe stopped and was standing still when the sergeant fired a shot to his chest, the lawsuit said.
Abbe turned and fell to the ground, the sergeant shot him in the back, the lawsuit said. As he was on the ground, another officer fired two shots, the lawsuit said. The officers fired five rounds.
Lawyers for the officers said a witness said Abbe continued to yell at the officers, threw rocks at them and held two metal pipes when the shooting occurred.
The federal judge ordered the case dismissed on Tuesday after the two sides agreed to settle.
Tennessee
5 charged with defrauding pandemic relief programs
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Five current or former Internal Revenue Service workers have been charged with fraud for illegally getting money from federal COVID-19 relief programs and using a total of $1 million for luxury items and personal trips, prosecutors said.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said Tuesday that the five have been charged with wire fraud after they filed fake applications for the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, which were part of a federal stimulus package tied to the pandemic response.
The five defendants then individually used the funds to pay for a Mercedes-Benz car, manicures, massages, luxury clothing, jewelry, a Gucci bag and Gucci clothing, and trips to Las Vegas, prosecutors said.
Three of the IRS workers already have pleaded guilty to wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Four are from the Memphis area, and another lives in Olive Branch, Mississippi, prosecutors said.
Washington
Woman gets probation for massive Capital One hack
SEATTLE (AP) — A former Seattle tech worker convicted of several charges related to a massive hack of Capital One bank and other companies in 2019 was sentenced Tuesday to time served and five years of probation.
U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik said sentencing former Amazon software engineer Paige Thompson to time in prison would have been particularly difficult on her “because of her mental health and transgender status,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.
U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said his office was “very disappointed” with the sentencing decision, adding prosecutors had asked for Thompson to serve seven years in prison.
“This is not what justice looks like,” Brown said in the statement.
In June, a Seattle jury found her guilty of wire fraud, unauthorized access to a protected computer and damaging a protected computer. The jury acquitted her of other charges, including access device fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Thompson, 37, obtained the personal information of over 100 million people — a data breach that prompted Capital One to reach a $190 million settlement with affected customers.
The Treasury Department fined the company $80 million for failing to protect the data.
Thompson’s attorneys argued at trial that she struggled with mental health issues, never intended to profit from the data she obtained, and said in court papers “there is no credible or direct evidence that a single person’s identity was misused.”
Federal prosecutors said she didn’t just steal the data, but also planted software on servers she unlawfully accessed to steal computing power to mine cryptocurrency.
“Ms. Thompson’s hacking and theft of information of 100 million people did more than $250 million in damage to companies and individuals,” Brown said. “Her cybercrimes created anxiety for millions of people who are justifiably concerned about their private information. This conduct deserves a more significant sanction.”
Thompson was arrested in July 2019 and remained in Jail until November of that year, The Seattle Times reported. The amount of restitution Thompson will have to pay victims will be determined at a December hearing.
California
‘Rust’ cinematographer lawsuit settled, filming to resume
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The family of a cinematographer shot and killed by Alec Baldwin on the set of the film “Rust” has agreed to settle a lawsuit against the actor and the movie’s producers, and production will resume on the project in January.
“We have reached a settlement, subject to court approval, for our wrongful death case against the producers of Rust including Alec Baldwin,” Matthew Hutchins, widow of the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, said in a statement Wednesday. “As part of that settlement, our case will be dismissed. The filming of Rust, which I will now executive produce, will resume with all the original principal players on board, in January 2023.”
The agreement is a rare piece of positive news for Baldwin, who has had a turbulent year since the Oct. 21 shooting. The actor, who is also a producer on the film, was pointing a gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing her and wounding the director, Joel Souza. They had been inside a small church during setup for filming a scene.
Baldwin has said the gun went off accidentally and that he did not pull the trigger. But a recent FBI forensic report found the weapon could not have fired unless the trigger was pulled.
“I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin),” Matthew Hutchins, who was a plaintiff in the suit along with he and Halyna Hutchins’ 9-year-old son, said in a statement. “All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”
Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But in a statement to Deadline, which first reported the settlement agreement, he said, “Throughout this difficult process, everyone has maintained the specific desire to do what is best for Halyna’s son. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the resolution of this tragic and painful situation.”
North Dakota
Woman guilty of conspiring to kill husband
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota woman has been convicted in the death of her husband in what prosecutors said was the result of a love triangle and an attempt to collect insurance money.
Jurors on Tuesday returned guilty verdicts on three conspiracy charges, including murder, arson and evidence tampering, against Nikki Entzel.
It took about two hours for the jury to weigh evidence in the case against the 41-year-old defendant, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
The body of 42-year-old Chad Entzel was found Jan. 2, 2020 after a house fire northeast of Bismarck. Authorities said Entzel died of gunshot wounds to the head and the fire was set to cover up the slaying.
Entzel and Earl Howard, 43, were accused of plotting the victim’s death and starting two fires at the home. About a year ago, Howard pleaded guilty to charges in the case and was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison.
Evidence in the trial showed Nikki Entzel in the days after her husband’s death inquired with insurance companies about widow benefits and claims on renter and life insurance policies.
Prosecutors said Nikki Entzel purchased renter’s insurance just days before the slaying, using a bank account held jointly with Howard.
Burleigh County State’s Attorney Julie Lawyer said the evidence in the case was overwhelming.
In his closing argument, defense attorney Thomas Glass said the prosecution’s case was based on innuendo and speculation and questioned why jurors didn’t get to hear from Howard.
After the verdict, Glass said it was an “extraordinarily tough case to try.”
California
CEO of election software firm held on ID info theft charges
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The founder and CEO of a software company targeted by election deniers was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of stealing data on hundreds of Los Angeles County poll workers.
Konnech Corporation’s Eugene Yu, 51, was arrested in Meridian Township in Michigan and held on suspicion of theft of personal identifying information, while computer hard drives and other “digital evidence” were seized by investigators from the county district attorney’s office, according to the office.
Local prosecutors will seek his extradition to California.
“We are continuing to ascertain the details of what we believe to be Mr. Yu’s wrongful detention by LA County authorities,” Konnech said in a statement that ended: “Any LA County poll worker data that Konnech may have possessed was provided to it by LA County, and therefore could not have been ‘stolen’ as suggested.”
Konnech is a small company based in East Lansing, Michigan. In 2020, it won a five-year, $2.9 million contract with LA County for software to track election worker schedules, training, payroll,and communications, according to the county registrar-recorder/county clerk, Dean C. Logan.
Konnech was required to keep the data in the United States and only provide access to citizens and permanent residents but instead stored it on servers in the People’s Republic of China, the DA’s office said.
The DA’s office didn’t specify what specific information allegedly was taken. But officials said it only involved poll workers, not voting machines or vote counts and didn’t alter election results.
“But security in all aspects of any election is essential so that we all have full faith in the integrity of the election process,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement.
“With the mid-term General Election 35 days away, our focus remains on ensuring the administration of this election is not disrupted,” said a statement from Dean C. Logan, the LA County registrar-recorder/county clerk.
There wasn’t any evidence that any election worker was bribed or extorted and an investigation was pending into whether any of the data went into inappropriate hands, the DA’s office said.
Konnech previously said that all the data for its American customers were stored on servers in the United States, the New York Times reported Monday.
The paper reported that Konnech and Yu, who was born in China, became the target of claims by election conspiracy theorists that the company had secret ties to the Chinese Communist Party and had supplied information on 2 million poll workers.
There wasn’t any evidence to support those claims, but Yu received threats and went into hiding, the paper said.
Konnech also has contracts with Allen County, Indiana, and DeKalb County in Georgia, the Times said.
On its website, Konnech said it currently has 32 clients in North America.
