Indiana
Ex-officer gets 1 year in federal prison for repeatedly punching handcuffed man
HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — A former northern Indiana police officer who was caught on video repeatedly punching a handcuffed man in 2018 was sentenced Thursday to just over a year in federal prison.
A U.S. District Court judge in Hammond sentenced Joshua Titus to 12 months and one day in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. The former Elkhart police officer had pleaded guilty in March to a federal charge of deprivation of civil rights and aiding and abetting.
Surveillance video showed Titus and another Elkhart officer, Cory Newland, punching a handcuffed suspect in January 2018 after the man spit on one of them at the Elkhart police station in the city about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Chicago.
A federal grand jury indicted both officers in March 2019 on a charge of depriving the suspect, Mario Ledesma, of his rights through excessive force. Both later resigned from the Elkhart Police Department after being placed on unpaid administrative leave.
Newland was sentenced in December to 15 months in prison after he, like Titus, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of deprivation of civil rights and aiding and abetting.
Missouri
An upset father shoots a youth football coach over his son’s playing time, police say
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A youth football coach in St. Louis has been hospitalized in critical but stable condition after being shot at practice, allegedly by a father who was upset about his son’s playing time, authorities said.
Shaquille Latimore, 30, was shot multiple times Tuesday evening at Sherman Park. Daryl Clemmons, 43, later turned himself in, police said. He was charged Wednesday with first-degree assault and armed criminal action.
Clemmons does not yet have an attorney who could speak on his behalf, according to Missouri’s online court-reporting system. A call to a phone number listed for him went unanswered. He remains jailed without bond.
Relatives told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Shaquille Latimore has undergone surgery and is in good spirits.
Shaquille Latimore coaches a little league football team made up primarily of 7- and 8-year-olds, his mother, SeMiko Latimore, told the newspaper.
Shaquille Latimore told police that Clemmons was “upset with him for not starting his son,” according to a probable cause statement provided Thursday by the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office.
SeMiko Latimore called the shooting “senseless.”
“We’re supposed to be bringing these kids off the streets and teaching them what to do, what not to do. We’ve got all these kids traumatized because their coach was shot in front of them,” she said. “He could have easily hit one of those children.”
The Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis is partnering with the city to offer counseling to the players and others who witnessed the shooting.
Florida
17 sheriff’s deputies accused of stealing about $500,000 in pandemic relief funds
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Seventeen Florida sheriff’s deputies appeared in court Thursday on charges that they stole about half a million dollars in pandemic relief funds.
The Broward County deputies, who are charged separately, are accused of a range of crimes, according to court records. Most are charged with wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, though one deputy is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which has a maximum sentence of five years.
The eight law enforcement deputies and nine detention deputies have been suspended, Sheriff Gregory Tony said during a news conference. He said his office is going through the legal process of firing them.
“At the end of the day, they will be gone,” Tony said.
The deputies collectively defrauded the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program out of about $500,000, said Markenzy Lapointe, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida.
“No matter the amount, we will not allow limited federal tax dollars, which were intended to provide a lifeline to small businesses as they struggled to stay afloat during the economically devastating pandemic lockdown, to be swindled by those who were employed in a position of trust and cast aside their duty to uphold and abide by the law,” Lapointe said.
Tony said his office began investigating the agency’s 5,600 employees in late 2021 after learning that pandemic relief fraud was an emerging trend within public service agencies and receiving a tip that some of his employees might have participated in fraud. Broward Sheriff’s Office investigators found about 100 employees who had applied for COVID-19 relief loans and eventually turned the investigation over to the U.S. attorney’s office and the Federal Reserve Board.
“For five years, I’ve maintained an organization committed to transparency and accountability,” Tony said. “I will continue to expect integrity and commitment to excellence from every BSO employee.”
Lapointe said his office continues to investigate possible fraud.
The Paycheck Protection Program involves billions of dollars in forgivable small-business loans for Americans struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The money must be used to pay employees, mortgage interest, rent and utilities. It is part of the coronavirus relief package that became federal law in 2020. The Economic Injury Disaster Loan program is designed to provide economic relief to small businesses that are experiencing a temporary loss of revenue.
South Carolina
Man pleads guilty to ambush that killed 2 officers and wounded 5
AIKEN, S.C. (AP) — A 79-year-old South Carolina man avoided a possible death sentence Thursday by agreeing to plead guilty to ambushing police officers coming to his home, killing two of the officers and wounding five others.
Frederick Hopkins court appearance was unannounced and reporters following the widely publicized case were not in the courtroom in Aiken County, some 120 miles (169 kilometers) from where the October 2018 attack took place.
Hopkins was charged with two counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder.
Hopkins will be sentenced later, but his attorney Boyd Young told media outlets after the hearing that prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table. Hopkins would face 30 years to life in prison for murder.
Three Florence County deputies told Hopkins they were coming to his home in an upscale subdivision to execute a search warrant against his son for possible sexual abuse charges.
Hopkins, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, armed himself in a upstairs window and fired at the deputies as they got out of their car. He kept shooting as more officers rushed to the scene to save their comrades.
So many rounds were fired with such powerful weapons that it took up to 30 minutes to get an armored vehicle close enough to rescue the wounded officers. He used three firearms in the ambush, and more than 100 guns were found in his home.
Florence Police Sgt. Terrence Carraway died the day of the shooting and Florence County Sheriff’s deputy Farrah Turner died nearly three weeks later from her wounds.
The son, 33-year-old Seth Hopkins, pleaded guilty in 2019 to second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and is serving 20 years in prison.
Frederick Hopkins’ lawyers, prosecutors and the judge have kept much of the case away from reporters. In June, they all agreed to close the courtroom from the media and the public during pre-trial hearings and kept all motions and records off South Carolina’s public court records site.
When cameras have been at Hopkins hearings, his behavior has been erratic. A disbarred attorney, Hopkins called prosecutor Ed Clements “Fat Eddie” several times during a hearing where the prosecution announced they would seek the death penalty and Hopkins did not have a lawyer present.
In a later hearing, Hopkins was in a wheelchair and had a device to help him hear the proceedings.
Georgia
Deputies recapture prisoner after parents jailed for helping him flee hospital
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — A prisoner who ran away from a southwest Georgia hospital has been recaptured, and his mother and stepfather were charged with helping him get away.
Dougherty County sheriff’s deputies said they caught Carlton Bradford Gillis, 37, on Thursday. He’s accused of escaping from an Albany hospital after overpowering a guard on Saturday.
Gillis’ mother, 63-year-old Trudy Sellars, and his stepfather, 47-year-old Randy Williams, turned themselves into police on charges that they aided Gillis’ escape. All three are jailed with no bail set as of Thursday. None of the three have a lawyer listed in Dougherty County court records. Gillis didn’t immediately respond to an electronic message sent to a Facebook account.
Sellars told police she and Williams went to pick up Gillis after he called to say he had been released from the hospital, and didn’t know he was escaping custody. Sellars said Gillis kept her in the car against her will, refusing to stop and let her get out.
An Albany police officer said a bystander near the hospital told him Saturday that he saw a man get into a green car. The officer found a green car with the driver alternating between his left and right turn signals, and then pulling onto the shoulder of Albany’s freeway bypass as the officer came up behind the car. The officer said in a police report that Williams was the driver and Gillis was in the back seat.
The officer said when he commanded Gillis to raise his hands, Gillis instead climbed into the driver’s seat and kept Williams from turning off the engine.
Gillis drove a short distance and Williams got out after the car stopped. Gillis then took off with police pursuing. They gave up the chase after Gillis exited the freeway and drove into oncoming traffic at speeds up to 80 mph (130 kph), according to police. Officers said they later found the car with Sellars still inside. She told officers Gillis had run into the woods.
Police added charges of kidnapping, forcible robbery, fleeing a police officer, reckless driving and driving with a suspended license against Gillis. He was already awaiting trial in Dougherty County on other charges including burglary, felony interference with government property and felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer. Gillis faces additional charges in neighboring Terrell County.
