National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Man arrested for spray-painting flag gets $55K in suit
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pennsylvania man arrested for painting the letters “AIM” on an American flag that he flew upside-down on his house has settled his civil rights lawsuit against the township for more than $55,000.

The Altoona Mirror reports Friday that supervisors in Allegheny Township, Blair County, have approved letting their insurance company pay the money to Joshuaa Brubaker.

He’s part Native American and says “AIM” stands for the American Indian Movement. He says he flew the flag on his porch in May 2014 to protest plans to route the proposed Keystone Pipeline through the site of the Wounded Knee confrontation in South Dakota.

The charges against Brubaker were later dismissed by a judge. The township has advised its police to no longer enforce the state’s flag desecration laws.

Pennsylvania
Judge says blood evidence wasn’t disclosed in case
EBENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A judge says a Pennsylvania man serving life for his ex-wife’s 1991 murder deserves a new trial because blood evidence that might have helped him wasn’t disclosed by a prosecutor.

An out-of-county judge issued the ruling last week favoring 60-year-old Kevin Siehl. He was convicted of stabbing his ex in Johnstown, then putting her body in a bathtub and running water to destroy evidence.

The judge hearing Siehl’s appeal says then-prosecutor David Tulowitzki didn’t disclose last-minute test results that showed blood on Siehl’s shoe was his and not the victim’s.
Tulowitzki is now a Cambria County judge. Tulowitzki’s secretary says he can’t comment because the case is pending.

The appeal also faults Siehl’s attorney for not challenging other evidence. That attorney is also now a Cambria County judge.

New Hampshire
Jail sentence for ex-sports editor in child porn case
BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — The former sports editor of a New Hampshire newspaper has been sentenced to less than a year in jail on child pornography possession charges.

The Portsmouth Herald reports Frank Coppola of Nottingham was sentenced Thursday in Brentwood to a year with eight months suspended after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors. Felony charges were dismissed through the plea agreement.

The former sports editor of The Portsmouth Herald was indicted last June on charges he possessed images that show child sexual abuse.

Coppola’s attorney had asked for leniency, saying his client had no prior contact with law enforcement and has engaged in counseling for more than a year.

Coppola apologized in court.

Georgia
FBI asked for financial records related to judge
JASPER, Ga. (AP) — A lawyer who had been jailed along with his client in an open records dispute says federal investigators asked him for court financial records he had obtained.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that lawyer Russell Stookey said the FBI asked him and his client, Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason, for records they had gotten.

The two were indicted June 24 on identity theft and attempt to commit identity theft charges stemming from subpoenas they issued. The indictment also accused Thomason of making a false statement in an Open Records Act request. A judge dismissed the charges last week.

The case stems from a legal battle with a court reporter and the payment of the reporter’s legal bills from a judge’s operating account.

The Fannin County attorney told WSB-TV she was asked to provide copies of county checks to the FBI.

Montana
Coroner updates causes of death to avoid court action
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Lewis and Clark County coroner has met a mid-July deadline to complete 51 death certificates whose cause of death were initially registered as “pending.”

The state Department of Health and Human Services reached an agreement with Mickey Nelson on May 31, giving him 45 days to update the cause of death or face a court order compelling him to do the work.

The Independent Record reports a DPHHS attorney notified the county on July 14 that Nelson had completed the work.

Officials say the lack of a final death certificate left some families unable to settle estates and claim life insurance benefits. Two of the certificates dated back to 2011.
The county plans to monitor its death certificates to ensure any that are filed with the cause of death listed as “pending” are updated within six months.

Nebraska
Man challenges law barring him from having knife
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court that challenges the constitutionality of a Nebraska law that prohibits some criminals from possessing deadly weapons.

Wa’il Muhannad, 54, filed the complaint last week. He had a halal meatpacking business in Dodge County for about five years until he discovered he couldn’t legally have a knife with a blade longer than 3.5 inches because he’s a felon.

Travis Penn, Muhannad’s attorney, said his client started Muhannad Halal Meats, slaughtering and packing animals in the manner permitted by Islamic dietary law, in 2006.

Muhannad is a felon stemming from convictions on providing false information to federal officials and a gun charge in the 1980s. He went to jail around 2011 and later prison on false imprisonment charges. He was released in January.

The Lincoln Journal Star (http://bit.ly/29Yp8SF ) reports that current state law prevents convicted felons, anyone with an arrest warrant, anyone who has violated a protection order or anyone who has been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor within the past seven years from carrying deadly weapons.

Muhannad says that the law is too broad and violates his Second Amendment right to bear arms. He also argues that the law is a burden on his religious exercise.

Penn said the law doesn’t take into account legitimate uses for knives and that people aren’t really sure what they can and can’t do under the rule.

The lawyer has asked a federal judge to stop Nebraska from enforcing the statue and to order state Attorney General Doug Peterson to ensure the statute’s effects are eliminated.

Nebraska Criminal Defense Attorneys Association lobbyist Spike Eickholt said that the group has already been discussing asking a state senator to introduce a bill to alter the statutes in response to a Supreme Court ruling May 6 that defined all knives more than 3.5 inches as deadly weapons.