Virginia: Prosecutors seek 57 mon ths in jail for ex-lobbyist
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Federal prosecutors recommended a prison term of nearly five years Monday for a former lobbyist who specialized in getting congressional appropriators to funnel money to his defense contractor clients.
In papers filed in U.S. District Court here, prosecutors said Paul Magliocchetti should serve 57 months behind bars because his criminal activities driven by greed caused significant injury to the image and integrity of the nation’s electoral process.
Magliocchetti, 64, pleaded guilty to illegally funneling more than $380,000 in campaign contributions to House members controlling the Pentagon’s budget.
In a separate court filing, Magliocchetti’s lawyer, Lindsey R. Vaala, recommended that her client be sentenced to probation and home confinement of 1 to 5 years, on grounds that the former lobbyist suffers from serious mental and physical illnesses which would irreversibly worsen if he is sent to prison.
Magliocchetti’s “relationship with his son remains strained, seemingly beyond repair,” she said, because the son, Mark Magliocchetti, cooperated with the government against his father. Mark Magliocchetti also pleaded guilty in the investigation.
The elder Magliocchetti founded and owned the now-defunct PMA lobbying group, which was a major player on Capitol Hill for nearly two decades.
Before becoming a lobbyist in the late 1980s, Magliocchetti served as a staffer on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, which for many years was chaired by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who died earlier this year.
Murtha collected $2.37 million in campaign contributions from Magliocchetti’s lobbying team and the companies it had represented over the years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political donations.
Mississippi: Sheriff: No laws violated in gay worker’s firing
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — The Forrest County Sheriff’s Department has denied allegations of wrongdoing made by a former employee who says he was fired because he was gay.
In documents filed in U.S. District Court, the law enforcement agency said no federal or state law exists in regard to firings over sexual orientation.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in October on behalf of Andre D. Cooley, a former corrections officer for juvenile detainees.
The suit claims Cooley’s civil rights were violated. The suit alleged Cooley was fired in June after his supervisors found out he was in a relationship with a man.
The suit named Sheriff Billy McGee and other department officials.
The sheriff’s department also argued in an answer to the lawsuit that Cooley was an at-will employee who worked “solely at the pleasure of the Forrest County Sheriff.”
Cooley’s suit seeks punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees and an injunction reinstating him as a corrections officer.
Bear Atwood, ACLU Mississippi legal director, said a significant body of case law exists that protects public workers.
“What it fails to do is give any legitimate reason why he would’ve been fired,” she said of the response filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg. “It basically says that it would have been OK to fire him because he’s gay.”
Defense attorney Jim K. Dukes Jr. told the Hattiesburg American that was not the case.
“We feel the answer speaks for itself, and we feel we had justified grounds for his termination that had nothing to do with his sexual orientation,” Dukes said.
Cooley was fired from his job following a domestic violence incident in June between him and his boyfriend. Forrest County deputies responded to the call and Cooley was listed in the Hattiesburg Police Department report as the victim.
“He got in a fight with his boyfriend and the police were called to his house for a domestic disturbance,” McGee said in an earlier interview with the Hattiesburg American.
“Those kinds of incidents don’t speak well for people in law enforcement.”
The department’s answer filed Friday requested a non-jury trial. It also argued the lawsuit was premature because Cooley failed to fully comply with administrative guidelines and procedures.
Maryland: Court hears ca se of birther who wouldn’t deploy
FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A military court was set to hear the case Tuesday of an Army doctor charged with refusing to deploy to Afghanistan because he says he doubts whether President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. and therefore questions his eligibility to be commander in chief.
Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, an 18-year-Army veteran, disobeyed orders to report earlier this year to Fort Campbell in Kentucky to prepare for deployment, saying he believed the orders were illegal.
In videos posted on YouTube, Lakin aligned himself with so-called “birthers” who question whether Obama is a natural-born citizen as the U.S. Constitution requires for presidents.
Lakin says in the videos that any reasonable person looking at available evidence would have questions about Obama’s eligibility to be president and that he had “no choice” but to disobey orders. Lakin, a native of Greeley, Colo., said he would “gladly deploy” if Obama’s original birth certificate were released and proved authentic.
Officials in Hawaii say they have seen and verified Obama’s original 1961 birth certificate, which is on record with that state. But birthers have not been satisfied with that assurance or the “Certification of Live Birth” Obama has released, a digital document that is a record of a person’s birth in the state but that does not list the name of the hospital where his mother gave birth or the physician who delivered him.
Hawaii law has long barred the release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest.
In September, a military judge ruled the president’s birth certificate is irrelevant in Lakin’s case. His lawyer will therefore not be able to raise the issue as a defense for why Lakin, a flight surgeon, did not report for what would have been a second tour of duty in Afghanistan.
As a result, his civilian defense attorney, Neal Puckett, says he is not optimistic about Lakin’s prospects of being acquitted. He is “probably going to be convicted of something,” Puckett said. If convicted of all the charges against him, Lakin faces dismissal from the Army and more than 3 1/2 years in prison.
Lakin’s trial and a sentencing phase are expected to last two or three days.
