Mississippi
Worker admits dumping raw waste into water system
JACKSON, Miss (AP) — An employee of a Mississippi wastewater hauling company pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday for his part in illegally discharging industrial waste into the capital city’s sewer system.
William Roberts, an employee of Partridge-Sibley Industrial Services, admitted to supervising the improper disposal of industrial waste at a commercial entity in Jackson. As a result of Roberts’s negligence, the waste was trucked and hauled to a facility that was not a legal discharge point designated to receive the waste, federal prosecutors said.
“The defendant’s negligent conduct contributed to the discharge of millions of gallons of untreated industrial waste into the Jackson water system,” said Chuck Carfagno, a special agent for the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal investigations division.
Jackson’s water and sewer system has been beset by troubles dating back years. The water system was recently engulfed in a crisis that forced people in the city of 150,000 to go days without running water in late August and early September.
In addition to the EPA and local law enforcement officials, the case was also investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
An attorney for Roberts did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He will be sentenced on December 14, 2022.
California
Grand jury: New indictment in dive boat tragedy
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal grant jury issued a new indictment Tuesday against a dive boat captain, alleging that he acted with gross negligence when a 2019 fire aboard his vessel led to the deaths of 34 people off the Southern California coast.
The new indictment comes more than a month after a judge threw out the original case because it failed to specify that Captain Jerry Boylan acted with gross negligence aboard the Conception during one of the deadliest maritime disasters in recent U.S. history.
Boylan, 68, is again charged with a single count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, a pre-Civil War statute colloquially known as “seaman’s manslaughter” that was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters. He faces 10 years in prison and is expected to be arraigned in the coming weeks. His federal public defenders did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
Families of 11 victims praised the new charge against Boylan.
“This tragedy was totally preventable and due to his negligence and inaction 34 lives were lost and our lives changed forever,” the families said in a statement.
The Conception went down in flames on Sept. 2, 2019, near an island off the coast of Santa Barbara. All 33 passengers and a crew member who were trapped in a bunk room below deck died. Boylan and four other crew members escaped.
Tuesday’s indictment alleges that Boylan “acted with a wanton or reckless disregard for human life by engaging in misconduct, gross negligence and inattention to his duties.” He is accused of failing to train his crew, conduct fire drills and post a roving night watchman on the boat when the fire ignited.
Although federal safety investigators never found the cause of the fire, officials blamed the owners of the vessel, Truth Aquatics Inc., for a lack of oversight, though they were not charged with a crime.
Truth Aquatics sued in federal court under a provision in maritime law to avoid payouts to the families of the victims. Family members of the dead have filed claims against boat owners Glen and Dana Fritzler and the company, and have sued the U.S. Coast Guard.
Boylan originally was indicted on 34 counts of misconduct or neglect of ship officer — which the initial indictment called seaman’s manslaughter — in 2020, with each carrying a possible prison term of 10 years if he was convicted. Defense lawyers sought to dismiss those charges because they argued the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes.
Before that issue could be argued in court, prosecutors got a superseding indictment this summer charging Boylan with only one count alleging his negligence caused all 34 deaths. If convicted, he would have faced a maximum of 10 years in prison.
But in September, on the third anniversary of the tragedy, U.S. District Judge George Wu said that indictment did not mention gross negligence, which he said was a required element to prove the crime of seaman’s manslaughter.
Florida
Former prosecutor sentenced for bribery, extortion, fraud
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A former state attorney in north Florida has been sentenced to three years and four months in federal prison for participating in a bribery and extortion scheme.
Jeffrey Siegmeister, 54, of Live Oak, was sentenced Monday in Jacksonville federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to use a facility of commerce for bribery and extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, wire fraud and filing a false tax return. Siegmeister must also forfeit $518,803.30, which are proceeds of the wire fraud offense.
From 2013 through 2019, Siegmeister was the elected state attorney for the 3rd Judicial Circuit of Florida, covering the counties of Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee and Taylor.
According to court documents, Siegmeister conspired with defense attorney Marion Michael O’Steen, who represented clients being prosecuted by Siegmeister’s office, federal prosecutors said. Between November 2017 to May 2019, Siegmeister solicited bribes from O’Steen in exchange for the favorable disposition of charges filed against his clients, officials said.
In one case, Siegmeister helped O’Steen extort $60,000 from a client by withholding a pre-trial intervention agreement, investigators said. O’Steen was sentenced Monday to three years and eight months in federal prison for extorting a client and for failing to file a form with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
In a separate case, Siegmeister told defense attorney Ernest Maloney Page IV in September 2017 that he would dismiss two DUI charges for one of Page’s clients in exchange for a $20,000 discount on a tractor Siegmeister wanted to buy from the client’s dealership, officials said. Siegmeister later bought the discounted tractor and allowed the client to plead guilty to reckless driving with alcohol and refusal to submit to a blood alcohol test, prosecutors said. Page received six months in prison in September after pleading guilty in 2020 to conspiring to commit bribery.
Additionally, from approximately January 2010 through April 2016, Siegmeister engaged in a scheme to defraud an elderly person under his legal guardianship, prosecutors said. Siegmeister transferred the victim’s assets to himself and created a will for the victim that designated Siegmeister’s relative as the sole beneficiary of the victim’s estate, officials said.
