Missouri
Appeals court tosses $491M jury award in funeral fraud case
ST. LOUIS (AP) - An appeals court on Thursday threw out a $491 million jury award involving prearranged funeral services fraud perpetrated by a suburban St. Louis company, declaring it was improperly decided by a jury.
The 8th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the five-week federal trial in 2015 shouldn't have been decided by jurors, noting that any claims should have been governed by trust law, not tort law, and only for damages allowed by trust law, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported .
The court said those damages it estimated to be about $66 million should be limited to claims in Missouri from 1998 to 2004, when Allegiant Bank was trustee. Allegiant resigned as trustee in 2004 after it was bought by National City Bank, and PNC acquired National City in 2009.
Thursday's ruling won't mean a new trial. The appellate court ruled that the presiding judge could use the existing trial record supplemented by any additional evidence he needs.
The jury assessed $355.5 million of compensatory damages and $35.5 million in punitive damages against PNC Bank and an additional $100 million against Forever Enterprises, a defunct holding company whose officials were accused of taking for their personal enrichment money from pre-arranged funeral contracts.
The damages were awarded to state life and health guarantee associations and a special receiver set up to wind down National Prearranged Services Inc., once based in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton.
NPS operated from 1992 to 2008, selling funeral plans in advance with the promise that the buyers' money would be kept safe until the time of the funeral. Customers typically paid a single sum of up to $10,000 to cover the cost of future funeral services and related expenses.
All told, customers paid more than $150 million to the company. Prosecutors said that money should have been held in trust and increased at least three-fold in value but was instead used to enrich the company's officers and others.
Liabilities began to exceed trust assets and NPS eventually could pay for funerals only by using money from new contracts.
Six officials from NPS were sentenced in 2015 to prison terms ranging from 18 months to 10 years for fraud. A judge found that the officers defrauded nearly 98,000 customers in several states, with the scheme also victimizing hundreds of funeral homes and many financial institutions.
Texas
Woman in ID thefts gets 10 years in Nigeria cars scam
DALLAS (AP) - A Texas woman is going to prison for a $1.2 million scheme that stole identities to get tax refunds to buy and ship used cars to Nigeria.
LaTonya Carson was sentenced Thursday to spend 10 years in a U.S. prison. The Dallas woman was convicted on several charges, including aggravated identity theft, money laundering and wire fraud.
Federal prosecutors in Dallas say some victims were in prison when their personal information was stolen.
Investigators say that starting in 2012, Carson and others involved in the scheme used bogus tax refunds to buy and export nearly 280 vehicles to Nigeria.
Another suspect, Smith Olsola Akin of Plano, Texas, was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The two other indicted suspects remain at large.
Missouri
January trial date in shooting death of Ferguson girl
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) - The man accused of fatally shooting a 9-year-old Ferguson, Missouri, girl two years ago will go to trial in January.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis County Circuit Judge Stanley Wallach has set a Jan. 22 trial date for 23-year-old De'Eris Brown. He is charged with second-degree murder and other crimes in the Aug. 18, 2015, death of Jamyla Bolden.
Police say Brown fired shots into Jamyla's home, killing her as she was doing homework on her mother's bed. Jamyla's mother, Kendrick Henderson, was wounded.
Police have said the mother and child were not the intended targets.
Brown has been jailed on $750,000 cash-only bail since he was charged less than two weeks after the shooting.
Rhode Island
Court sets deadlines for embattled judge to save his job
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A Rhode Island judge accused of sexual harassment and judicial misconduct has been granted more time to respond to a recommendation that he be removed from the bench.
The Rhode Island Supreme Court on Thursday gave District Court Judge Rafael Ovalles 20 days from Aug. 9 to file an objection to the recommendation and another 30 days to prepare legal arguments.
A court commission found on Aug. 9 that Ovalles committed 41 conduct violations and should be removed from the bench. The Providence Journal reports (http://bit.ly/2vOCgo5) the recommendation came after a hearing where witnesses testified Ovalles degraded women, mistreated court staff, lawyers and the public, and slept on the job.
Ovalles has denied the allegations.
The judge has been relieved from his duties with pay since December 2015.
Texas
Ex-deputy gets 15 months for game rooms extortion
MIDLAND, Texas (AP) - A former sheriff's deputy in West Texas must serve 15 months in prison for extorting money from illegal gambling operations and tipping the businesses off to investigations.
Prosecutors say former Ector County Sheriff's Deputy David Oscar Limon was sentenced Thursday in Midland. He was also fined $13,200.
Texas law bans casino-style gambling. Some private game rooms are set up with slot-like machines, but cash prizes are illegal.
Investigators say Limon extorted more than $13,000 from several game room operators in Odessa while he was a deputy from 2010 to mid-2016. Prosecutors say he promised information about pending law enforcement actions as part of protecting the game rooms.
Limon resigned shortly before his June 2016 arrest. Limon pleaded guilty in May to affecting commerce by extortion.
Published: Mon, Aug 21, 2017
