National Roundup

Rhode Island
Supreme Court upholds stripping parental rights for murderer
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The Rhode Island Supreme Court has again concluded a lower court was correct when it stripped parental rights from a convicted murderer serving two consecutive life sentences.

The court rejected 32-year-old Tony Gonzalez’s appeal of a Family Court decree terminating his parental rights to his 11-year-old daughter. The Providence Journal reports Gonzalez is in prison for gunning down 23-year-old Carl Cunningham Jr. while attempting to kill a romantic rival.

Gonzalez was twice convicted for the crime, most recently during an October retrial after the state Supreme Court vacated his previous conviction.

Gonzalez had argued his child’s therapist was not a valid expert witness for Family Court, but the Supreme Court rejected his argument.

New York
Ex-family doctor sentenced for having huge child porn trove
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A former western New York pediatrician who admitted photographing young patients and his daughter’s friends has been sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison for possessing thousands of images of children being sexually abused and molested.

A federal judge in Rochester called 70-year-old David Blasczak a “monster” and “every parent’s and every civilized person’s worst nightmare” during sentencing Thursday.

Blasczak, who had a longtime family practice in Wayne County, admitted in August to receiving child pornography. He said he had more than 2,500 images and nearly 80 videos.

Court papers say he also admitted he took explicit photos of young patients at his office in Clyde, and acknowledged touching and photographing his daughter’s friends during sleepovers.

Blasczak surrendered his medical license after his arrest in January.

Minnesota
Court: Man put clothes, ID on stand-in corpse in $2M scheme
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man accused of faking his own death seven years ago to collect a $2 million life insurance policy arranged for a stand-in corpse to be dressed in his clothes in Moldova, according to a judge’s detention order.

Igor Vorotinov, 54, also planted his identification on the body before placing the corpse along a road in the Eastern European country, a U.S. judge said in rejecting Vorotinov’s request to be freed pending trial.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine M. Menendez ruled Wednesday that Vorotinov posed too great a flight risk. In her ruling, Menendez said Vorotinov showed “substantial resourcefulness and cunning.”

Vorotinov was indicted in 2015 on one count of mail fraud. He was arrested this month and returned to the U.S.

Prosecutors allege in court documents that Vorotinov took out the life insurance policy in spring 2010 and designated then-wife Irina Vorotinov as the primary beneficiary. The couple divorced later that year.

In 2011, Irina Vorotinov, 51, identified a corpse in Moldova as her husband’s, prosecutors allege. She then returned to the U.S. with a death certificate and cremated remains and received the life insurance payment. Money was then transferred to her son, and to accounts in Switzerland and Moldova.

She has pleaded guilty to her role and is serving a three-year sentence. Alkon Vorotinov, 28, pleaded guilty to one count and was sentenced to probation.

After the insurance payout was made, prosecutors spoke by phone in May 2016 with Igor Vorotinov in hopes of persuading him to return to the U.S. But he told investigators he would rather live with his new love interest on an apple farm, according to the judge’s filing.

The identity of the corpse is still unclear, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The scheme also included a 2011 funeral service at a Minneapolis cemetery, where an urn was placed in a niche. Tests later determined the remains were not Vorotinov’s.

Vorotinov pleaded not guilty Tuesday. He was returned to jail and awaits trial, tentatively planned for January.

Montana
Judge rejects new trial for man convicted in ­murder
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge has denied a new trial for a man convicted of murdering a woman on Montana’s Crow Indian Reservation and rejected accusations that the government withheld evidence in the case.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters said in a ruling last week that prosecutors properly disclosed the existence of a cellphone with a calendar entry referencing the death of victim Roylynn Rides Horse once they found out about it.

The judge said even if the calendar entry had been submitted during Dimarzio Swade Sanchez’s trial, other evidence in the case was sufficient to support his conviction.

Rides Horse died two months after being strangled, doused with gasoline and lit on fire in June 2016.

The calendar entry described someone beating and kicking Rides Horse and expressing remorse for not telling the truth.

Sanchez’s attorneys had claimed the entry contradicted testimony from several witnesses who implicated him, including two co-defendants who pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

The phone allegedly was bought and sold by several different individuals before a woman saw the message regarding Rides Horse and notified authorities. Federal agents testified it was unknown when the calendar entry was created or who owned the phone at the time.

It was brought to the attention of federal agents on Dec. 8, 2017 — the day after Sanchez was found guilty following a four-day jury trial.

“The government did nothing wrong in the handling of the evidence in the case,” said Clair Johnson Howard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Billings.

Attorneys for Sanchez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Watters set sentencing in the case for Dec. 21. Sanchez is facing life in prison.

Two accomplices previously admitted their involvement in Rides Horse’s death. Sanchez’s brother, Frank, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and Angelica Jo Whiteman pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting first-degree murder.