National Roundup

Alabama
7 sentenced in conspiracy to distribute meth 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced seven people for conspiring to traffic methamphetamine across northwest Alabama, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. District Court Judge R. David Proctor sentence 34-year-old Gladys Ivette Rodriguez-Valle to nine years in prison Monday. She had pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in December, saying she had led the operation by sending couriers to Atlanta to buy multiple kilograms of methamphetamine between January 2015 and June 2016 for her and her co-defendants to distribute.

On Monday and on Wednesday, Proctor gave six other defendants — 29-year-old Jeffrey Douglas Dunaway, 35-year-old Gregory Keith King, 35-year-old Allen M. Morgan, 44-year-old Connie Hallmark Batchelor, 39-year-old Evan Andrew Norris and 44-year-old Kevin Wayne Blackburn — prison sentences ranging from five years and three months to 14 years.

An eighth defendant, 37-year-old Bruce Alan Roberts, will be sentenced July 18.

Florida
Man sentenced to prison for trafficking teen
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man has been sentenced to more than a dozen years in prison for sexually trafficking a 15-year-old girl.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard on Thursday handed down the sentence to 22-year-old Antwan Harper in a federal courtroom in Jacksonville.

Harper also was ordered to serve five years of supervision after his release.

He pleaded guilty in November to charges.

Prosecutors say Harper met a 15-year-old girl and advertised her for prostitution online.

Prosecutors also say his associates and fellow gang members paid Harper to have sex with the teen.

Alaska
Prosecutors: Dentist pulled tooth while on hoverboard
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Prosecutors say an Alaska dentist charged with Medicaid fraud pulled a sedated patient’s tooth while riding a hoverboard.

Seth Lookhart was charged with 17 counts of Medicaid fraud after prosecutors say he billed Medicaid $1.8 million last year for IV sedation used in procedures that didn’t call for it.

Prosecutors say in an indictment that investigators found a video on Lookhart’s phone of him riding a hoverboard while extracting a sedated patient’s tooth. They say he texted the video to his office manager and joked that it was a “new standard of care.” Prosecutors say investigators contacted the patient and she told them she was unaware that Lookhart was riding the hoverboard while operating on her.

Lookhart’s attorney, Michael Moberly, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lookhart’s office manager is also charged in the case.

Alaska
Judge rejects plea deal in murder case
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Anchorage judge has rejected a plea deal for a man suspected of strangling his 19-year-old girlfriend.

Anchorage television station KTUU reports Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby rejected a guilty plea and proposed sentence for 30-year-old David Thomas, who is charged with killing Linda Bower in September 2014.

Saxby said Thomas’ prospects of rehabilitation are dim. The judge said Saxby said Thomas needed to be in prison until he was in his 50s.

Thomas had agreed to plead guilty for a sentence of 75 years with 25 suspended and 50 to serve. He would have been eligible for parole in about 14 years.

Bower’s body was found in the back seat of Thomas’ sedan after he had called police to surrender.

Bower’s parents pleaded for a longer sentence.

Illinois
Court denies Blagojevich request for 3rd sentencing
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal court took just three days to reject the appeal of imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, dashing one of the Democrat’s last hopes of getting out of prison before he has served his full 14-year sentence for corruption.

The unanimous ruling Friday by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago dismissed arguments that the trial judge should have reduced the 60-year-old’s prison term at an August resentencing because of his good behavior during five years behind bars.

During the original 2011 sentencing, Judge James Zagel berated Blagojevich, saying he had “torn and disfigured” Illinois, including by seeking to trade an appointment to former President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat for campaign cash. The 14-year sentence Zagel imposed was the longest in Illinois history for public corruption.

The 7th Circuit did toss five of 18 Blagojevich convictions in 2015 and ordered Zagel to resentence Blagojevich, though the appellate court left the decision up to the lower-court judge to cut time off the sentence. At the second sentencing in August, Zagel imposed the same 14-year sentence. That led to the now-rejected appeal.

Posting rulings so soon after oral arguments is rare, likely reflecting that the panel saw the decision as straightforward and that there was little disagreement among them. The one-time contestant on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice” could appeal, but the ex-governor’s own attorneys said earlier this week that this was likely the end of the legal road.

In their written opinion, the three-judge panel rejected arguments made Tuesday that Zagel should have put greater weight on 100 letters from fellow inmates who described how Blagojevich taught history and served as a life coach to prisoners. The six-page ruling said that more relevant to his sentence was what Blagojevich did as governor before his 2008 arrest.

“Blagojevich’s treatment of fellow inmates may show that outside of office he is an admirable person, but the court was entitled to impose punishment that reflects how Blagojevich behaved when he had a different menu of opportunities and to deter those who hold office today,” the ruling says.

A prosecutor underlined to the court Tuesday that Blagojevich has never admitted serious wrongdoing.

“There’s nothing anywhere where the defendant says, ‘I apologize for putting my own personal interests ahead of the interests of the public I was charged with serving,’” Debra Bonamici said.