Florida
Parkland shooter prosecutors call for probe of juror threat
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors in the case of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are calling for an investigation after a juror said she felt threatened by another member of the jury during deliberations that ended Thursday with a life sentence for Cruz’s murder of 17 people.
The motion calls for law enforcement to interview the unnamed juror after she told the state attorney’s office “she perceived to be a threat from a fellow juror while in the jury room.” No further details were given. A hearing is set for Friday afternoon.
A divided jury spared Cruz the death penalty and instead decided to send him to prison for the rest of his life in a decision that left many families of the victims angered, baffled and in tears. Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and three staff members, and wounding 17 others, at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.
Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count. The seven-man, five-woman jury unanimously agreed there were aggravating factors to warrant a possible death sentence, such as agreeing that the murders were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.”
But one or more jurors also found mitigating factors, such as untreated childhood issues. In the end, the jury could not agree that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating ones, so Cruz will get life without parole. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally issue the life sentences Nov. 1. Relatives, along with the students and teachers Cruz wounded, will be given the opportunity to speak.
The jurors pledged during the selection process that they could vote for a death sentence, but some victims’ parents, some of whom attended the trial almost daily, wondered whether all of them were being honest.
Juror Denise Cunha sent a short handwritten note to the judge Thursday defending her vote for a life sentence and denying she intended to vote that way before the trial began.
“The deliberations were very tense and some jurors became extremely unhappy once I mentioned that I would vote for life,” Cunha wrote. She did not explain her vote and it is unknown if she is the juror who complained to the state attorney’s office.
Jury foreman Benjamin Thomas told local reporters that three jurors voted for life on the final ballot. Two were willing to reconsider, but one was a “hard no” for the death penalty.
“It really came down to a specific (juror) that he (Cruz) was mentally ill,” Thomas said. He did not say whether that person was Cunha.
Washington
Ex-cop convicted of rape while on duty gets 14 years to life
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A fired Spokane, Washington, police officer convicted of raping two women while on duty has been sentenced to 14 years to life in prison.
Nathan Nash, 38, was sentenced Thursday, KREM-TV reported.
In August, Nash was found guilty of third-degree rape and second-degree rape in separate cases.
He was first charged in 2019 when a woman accused him of rape while investigating her case.
Nash was one of the responding officers when she reported an assault by her boyfriend. She told law enforcement officers that Nash raped her when he returned to her home to follow up on the case, prosecutors said.
In August 2021, another woman told police about a similar experience. He was fired by the police department.
Nash in court Thursday again denied he committed the crimes and said he plans to appeal the sentence.
He also faces an official misconduct charge and a hearing to address that is scheduled for December.
One of the women has filed a $1 million claim against the city, alleging the police department ignored “red flags” in Nash’s behavior, allowing him to use his uniform to prey on women.
Massachusetts
Monk, attorney charged with $3.5M pandemic relief fraud
BOSTON (AP) — A man who presents himself as an Orthodox Christian monk and an attorney he lived with fraudulently obtained $3.5 million in federal pandemic relief funds for nonprofit religious organizations and related businesses they controlled, and spent some of it to fund a “lavish lifestyle,” federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Brian Andrew Bushell, 47, and Tracey M.A. Stockton, 64, are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions, the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston said in a statement.
Both were released with conditions after an initial court appearance.
The defendants’ attorneys didn’t immediately reply to emails seeking comment.
Bushell, who referred to himself as “father” or “reverend father,” controlled several organizations based in the coastal town of Marblehead, including an Orthodox Christian charitable foundation, a monastic house, a brewery and a salt maker, prosecutors said.
Investigators have not been able to confirm whether Bushell is an Orthodox monk who trained in Greece, as he says, according to an FBI affidavit in the case.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America said Bushell is not a priest or monk in the church. Bushell is not affiliated with the Orthodox Church in America, said the V. Rev. John Kreta of the New England Diocese.
Stockton served as the general counsel and authorized representative of those organizations, and the two lived in the same Marblehead residence, authorities said.
Shortly after the federal government made coronavirus pandemic relief funds available in April 2020, Bushell, with Stockton’s assistance, submitted numerous applications to receive Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
They overstated the organizations’ operational expenses and revenues backed up by false documents to obtain $3.5 million in funds, prosecutors allege.
They also submitted numerous applications for Paycheck Protection Program funds, allegedly inflating the number of employees they had and their payroll expenses to obtain nearly $150,000 in additional funds, prosecutors said.
They spent more than $1 million of the money on extensive renovations to two Marblehead properties, $42,000 for membership to a New York social club, $40,000 for a Swiss watch, nearly $7,000 for a designer handbag, and other goods, prosecutors said.
“Pandemic relief funds are not ‘free money’ — they are a lifeline designed to help business owners and nonprofit leaders experiencing real economic hardship,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said. “Our government should not and will not foot the bill for fancy designer handbags and lavish lifestyles.”
Connecticut
Former Yale med school official gets 9 years for $40M fraud
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A former official at Yale University’s medical school was sentenced Thursday to more than nine years in prison for carrying out a $40 million scam involving computers and other electronics.
Jamie Petrone was arrested last year and pleaded guilty in March to wire fraud and filing a false tax return.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, beginning in at least 2013 Petrone used her position as director of finance and administration for the school’s department of emergency medicine to order millions of dollars of computer and electronic hardware for the school but shipped the goods to a company that paid her and resold them.
Petrone, 43, of Lithia Springs, Georgia, made individual orders of under $10,000 that ensured she wasn’t required to seek additional approval, according to prosecutors. She used the proceeds for luxury cars, real estate and travel.
Petrone also filed false federal tax returns from 2013 to 2016 and didn’t file any returns from 2017 to 2020, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, causing a total loss to the government of more than $6.4 million.
In addition to her 109-month sentence, Petrone was ordered to pay full restitution and forfeit $560,000 seized from her company’s bank account in addition to six vehicles, including two Cadillac Escalades.
“Today in court, Ms. Petrone profoundly apologized to Yale University for her inexcusable actions,” her attorney, Frank Riccio, said in an email. “She continues to accept responsibility and intends on continuing with making restitution.”
Rhode Island
Leader of fake U.S. military clothing scheme gets prison time
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A New York City man who ran a scheme that sold $20 million worth of substandard counterfeit Chinese-made clothing and gear to the U.S. military — potentially putting active-duty service members in danger — has been sentenced to more than three years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Ramin Kohanbash, 52, was one of three people who played a role in the scam in which samples of genuine military apparel, including labels that depicted trademarks of 15 companies that make products for the U.S. military, were provided to manufacturers in China, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Providence.
The Chinese manufacturers counterfeited the clothes, which were shipped to Kohanbash for distribution to suppliers that sold them to the U.S. government as American-made, authorities said. U.S. law requires that uniforms and gear sold to the Defense Department be produced in the United States or certain other designated countries. China is not among them.
“American servicemen and women risk their lives every day in defense of the nation,” said U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island Zachary Cunha. “But the risks they face should never come from the uniforms they wear, and the equipment they carry. In this case, defendants’ actions did exactly that, substituting substandard, foreign-made knockoffs for American products.”
Some gear lacked crucial safety features or failed to meet safety specifications, prosecutors said. That included more than 13,000 counterfeit jackets that were supposed to be made of a fabric that made them difficult to detect with night vision goggles, but were not; and more than 18,000 hoods falsely labeled as being flame resistant, authorities said.
“Supplying counterfeit products to the DoD endangers the lives of American service members and betrays the public’s trust,” said Patrick J. Hegarty, Special Agent in Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service’s Northeast Field Office.
Kohanbash pleaded guilty in 2019 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and trafficking in counterfeit goods.
Kohanbash, of Brooklyn, in addition to a prison term of three years and four months, was also ordered in U.S. District Court in Providence on Wednesday to pay restitution to U.S. companies, including a Rhode Island company that reported a loss of more than $639,000 in profits.
Two other men involved in the scheme have also pleaded guilty. Bernard Klein, 41, of Brooklyn, was sentenced in April 2021 to 18 months in prison. Terry Roe, 49, of Burlington, North Dakota, pleaded guilty in February and faces sentencing this month.
