New York
Prosecutors seek prison time for ex-Senate leader
NEW YORK (AP) - A judge should sentence a former state Senate leader for his extortion conviction to about 12 to 15 years in prison, federal prosecutors said in pre-sentencing submissions filed Monday.
Prosecutors said Republican ex-senator Dean Skelos and his son, Adam Skelos, should each face prison terms approaching or within federal sentencing guidelines, about 10 to 12 years for the son.
"At a time when the public's trust in their government is at an all-time low, Dean and Adam Skelos - through their conduct and their words - have managed to lower the bar even further," prosecutors said. "Judges have routinely relied on precisely this kind of public harm analysis in imposing substantial prison terms in similar cases."
Skelos and his son are scheduled to be sentenced April 28. They were convicted in December after a jury agreed with prosecutors that Skelos had strong-armed three companies with a stake in state legislation into giving work to his son. The government said the businesses provided the son with about $300,000 and other benefits.
Besides the prison term, prosecutors asked that Skelos' sentence include a "stiff and substantial fine" of more than $334,000.
"Through their crimes, Dean and Adam Skelos have fed the public's worst fears and suspicions about their government: that our elected officials are not looking out for the public good, but instead looking out only for ways to turn the immense power entrusted in them into personal profit," prosecutors said.
Skelos and his son, in their own submission last month, asked that they be spared from prison terms and instead be sentenced to probation.
Minnesota
Ex-US tax court judge, husband indicted in tax evasion case
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A former U.S. Tax Court judge and her husband have been indicted on charges in Minnesota that they conspired to evade at least $400,000 in federal taxes, the U.S. Attorney's office said Monday.
Diane Kroupa, 60, and her 62-year-old husband, Robert Fackler, are charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, tax evasion, making and subscribing false tax returns and obstruction of an IRS audit, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announced.
"The allegations in this indictment are deeply disturbing," Luger said in a statement.
Tax laws apply to everyone, "and those of us appointed to federal positions must hold ourselves to an even higher standard," he said.
Kroupa was appointed to a 15-year term as a tax court judge by then-President George W. Bush in 2003 and retired in 2014. According to the charges, between 2004 and 2010, the Minnetonka couple understated their taxable income by about $1 million and the amount they owed in taxes by at least $400,000.
A working telephone number for Kroupa and Fackler could not be found, and it was unclear if the couple has attorneys who could comment on their behalf. They are expected in court later this week.
Federal prosecutors accuse Kroupa and Fackler of fraudulently deducting at least $500,000 of personal expenses they listed as expenses at Fackler's consulting firm, and another $450,000 in purported business costs for which clients had reimbursed Fackler, the Star Tribune reported.
The charges allege expenses labeled as business costs for Fackler's Grassroots Consulting instead went toward Pilates classes, wine club fees, Chinese tutoring and airline flights. Kroupa also failed to report about $44,520 that she received from a 2010 land sale in South Dakota, instead claiming it was part of an unrelated inheritance, court documents allege.
Richard Weber, chief of IRS Criminal Investigation, said the allegations were "particularly troubling" because as a tax court judge, Kroupa dealt regularly with tax cheats.
"Reporting personal expenses as business expenses on your tax returns is not tolerated, regardless of your job or position," Weber said in the statement.
Alabama
Parents sought help for daughter shot by officers
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) - Parents of an Alabama woman shot and killed by police are lambasting the officers for opening fire on their daughter after they called 911 for help to get her to a mental hospital.
"Instead the police ended up putting a bullet in her," the parents of 36-year-old Melissa Boarts said in a statement provided by their attorney.
Boarts, of Montgomery, was killed Sunday afternoon by Auburn police officers after her parents called to report she was driving an SUV on Interstate 85 and threatening to kill herself. Police later said the driver pulled over and got out of her vehicle "armed with a weapon and charged the officers in a threatening manner." The officers shot and killed her.
Julian McPhillips, an attorney hired by Boarts' family, said the woman was armed with a pocket knife.
Her father told news outlets Monday his daughter's slaying by police was "outrageous and asinine."
"There was absolutely no justification for it and we are all in deep mourning," said Michael Boarts, a former officer for the Alabama Department of Corrections.
Auburn police Chief Paul Register said video from the officers' dash and body cameras has been turned over to the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting. He said he believes the evidence will show the shooting was justified.
"This was obviously a tragic situation for the family, as well as the officers and their families," Register said. "We're confident that once the facts are presented to a grand jury, the community will understand the actions of the officers."
The police chief said his officers had undergone training in the last month on dealing with people experiencing mental problems. He said his command staff had met with Boarts' family and offered their sympathies.
Boarts' mother, Terry Boarts, said she called 911 Sunday after her daughter left home and headed east toward Auburn on Interstate 85. She said her daughter had been diagnosed a bipolar manic depressive and was threatening to cut her wrists with a knife.
Police followed Boarts for several miles as she left the interstate and eventually pulled over on a road in Macon County, where she was killed. Macon County Coroner Hal Bentley said Boarts died from a single gunshot wound.
The incident comes amid a national debate and increased scrutiny over police treatment of black people and several deaths that have made international headlines. Boarts was white. The officers involved in the shooting have not been identified, and their races were not immediately known.
McPhillips, the Boarts family's attorney, said they plan to pursue legal action. He said he's requested copies of the dash and body camera videos, which had not been shared with the family.
"We just think it was so unnecessary," McPhillips said. "They didn't need to shoot her."
Published: Wed, Apr 06, 2016
