National Roundup

Texas
Substitute teacher fired for filming porn video in classroom
EL CAMPO, Texas (AP) — A Texas school district has fired a substitute teacher after receiving a tip that she made pornographic videos that included footage recorded in a classroom.

The Victoria Advocate reports investigators believe the videos were recorded last month at El Campo High School, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) southwest of Houston. The El Campo School District says the teacher had worked in the district for three months and was fired last week.

Police say no students or other staff members were involved in the videos, portions of which were filmed in a classroom and workroom and were apparently intended for the internet. El Campo Police Chief Terry Stanphill says the woman “closed the door and had clothes on” in the school footage and that no criminal charges are expected.

Pennsylvania
Lawsuit: Photo of nursing home resident shared
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A lawsuit claims employees of a Pennsylvania nursing home shared a nude photo of a resident on social media.

According to the lawsuit, the photo taken on New Year’s Eve at Paramount Senior Living at Seven Fields showed the 83-year-old woman, who suffers from dementia, naked below the waist and sitting in a shower chair.
The suit claims the photo was posted on Snapchat and shared with other staff members by Facebook Messenger.

An anonymous tip about the photo was made to the Butler County Area of Aging.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Paramount regional operations director Chase Darmstadter said in a statement that an employee was immediately suspended and terminated as soon as officials were made aware of the incident. Darmstadter said the company was “sickened” by the actions.

South Dakota
Defendant in fish farm fraud has bond revoked
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A former executive accused of defrauding investors in a scheme to build an $11 million fish farm in South Dakota is back in jail.

A federal judge has revoked bond for Tobias Ritesman. He has been free on bond pending his sentencing next month after pleading guilty to 18 felonies in connection with the Global Aquaponics project.

The Argus Leader says investors who put a minimum of $25,000 each in the project lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because the fish farm never materialized. Authorities say Ritesman and co-defendant Timothy Burns spent the money as quickly as it came in.

Authorities say Ritesman violated terms of his bond by contacting one of the victims and borrowing more money. A jury found Burns guilty of five counts of wire fraud.

Oklahoma
Supreme Court denies appeal of death sentence
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a man sentenced to death for a fatal stabbing during an Oklahoma City robbery nearly 20 years ago.

Attorneys for 39-year-old Tremane Wood argued in the appeal that he received ineffective legal assistance during his trial over the 2001 killing of Ronald Wimpf. Attorneys for Wood, whose first name is spelled Termane in state court documents, claimed a court-appointed lawyer was “struggling with substance abuse” at the time.

The high court denied Wood’s appeal Monday. In January it declined to review his sentence when lawyers argued people of color in Oklahoma are more likely to receive death sentences when victims are white.

Oklahoma hasn’t executed anyone since 2015 following mishaps including a botched lethal injection that left a man writhing on the gurney.

Washington
State asks court to halt new Trump abortion rules
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state’s attorney general is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a ruling that allows new Trump administration hurdles for women seeking abortions to take effect.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a motion Tuesday asking for the full appeals court in San Francisco to block those hurdles. A three-judge panel from the court said last week the new rules could take effect while the government appeals decisions that blocked them.

Courts in Washington, Oregon and California had blocked the rules from taking effect.

The rules ban taxpayer-funded clinics from making abortion referrals and prohibit clinics that receive federal money from sharing office space with abortion providers — a rule critics said would force many to find new locations, undergo expensive remodels or shut down.

California
Supreme Court limits ‘kill zone’ prosecutions
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Supreme Court has limited “kill zone” prosecutions, where defendants are charged with the attempted murder of people near a crime scene regardless of whether they were targeted or injured.

The justices unanimously decided Monday to overturn kill zone convictions against a gunman and an accomplice in an attack in San Bernardino, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Both defendants were convicted in 2008 of one count of murder and the attempted murders of a rival gang member and a man who was attending a party where the shooting occurred.

The court did not throw out the convictions involving the murder or the attempted murder of the rival but said in its decision the evidence did not support the conviction involving the bystander.

The justices also cautioned trial judges to allow the “kill zone” theory sparingly in the future.

The theory should be used only when there is evidence that a defendant had a specific intent to kill the target and “everyone within the zone of fatal harm,” Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye wrote for the court.

The deputy attorney general who argued the case could not be reached for comment.

One of the defense lawyers in the appeal estimated that hundreds of defendants in California have been convicted under the kill zone theory since it was adopted in 2002.

Deciding whether a defendant can face such a prosecution will depend on the circumstances of the attack, including the type and extent of force used, and the location of the person who was not the primary target, the court said.

“Trial courts must be extremely careful in determining when to permit the jury to rely upon the kill zone theory,” the court cautioned.