National Roundup

Montana
35% fine on having dangerous drugs ruled unconstitutional
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A mandatory 35% fine that’s been on the books for certain drug cases since 1995 has been ruled unconstitutional by the Montana Supreme Court.

The Billings Gazette reports that the ruling last week came in a 2016 case out of Dawson County in which one person was fined $75,600 after pleading guilty to possession of dangerous drugs.

In the majority opinion signed by four justices, the court found the mandatory fine was unconstitutional in all cases because it doesn’t permit judges to consider whether the fine was excessive.

The court’s order said the mandatory fine, which was written into state law in 1995, stands “in stark contrast” to another state law that says a judge may not order a fine unless the defendant is able to pay it.

Washington
Ginsburg back on bench after stomach bug
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is back on the Supreme Court bench after missing time last week with what the court described as a stomach bug.

The 86-year-old Ginsburg climbed the three steps and took her seat for a brief court session Monday. She was absent when the justices last met in public, to hear arguments on Wednesday.

Ginsburg has been treated for cancer twice in the past year, including receiving radiation for a tumor on her pancreas over the summer. She missed court sessions in January during her recovery from lung cancer surgery.

Those were her first absences from court arguments in a quarter-century as a justice.

California
Kavanaugh accuser gets award from ACLU for speaking out
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — In a rare public appearance to pick up an award, the woman who accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault says she had a responsibility to come forward, NBC News reports.

Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, spoke Sunday after she accepted the Rodger Baldwin Courage Award from the ACLU of Southern California in Beverly Hills.

She said: “When I came forward last September, I did not feel courageous. I was simply doing my duty as a citizen. I understood that not everyone would welcome my information, and I was prepared for a variety of outcomes, including being dismissed.”

Blasey Ford testified in September 2018 during Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings that Kavanaugh assaulted her during a gathering of teenagers in suburban Maryland in 1982.

Kavanaugh has vehemently denied the allegation.

Louisiana
Sentence upheld for man who broke into home, raped woman
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — An appellate court has upheld the convictions of sentences of a man who broke into a Louisiana home and recorded himself raping a female at gunpoint.

The American Press reports part of the video was played for jurors at the 2017 trial of 23-year-old Javonta Jermel Harrison. He was convicted of aggravated rape, armed robbery with a firearm and aggravated burglary. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of life imprisonment, 104 years’ imprisonment and 30 years’ imprisonment.

After the attack, the then 18-year-old Harrison took the woman’s bank card, cellphone and the keys to her boyfriend’s car. During the trial, the victim said in a letter to the court that Harrison was “the devil himself” and had ruined her life.

Vermont
State supreme court wades into issue of forced medication
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont Supreme Court says a past finding of incompetence doesn’t mean a mentally ill man was still incompetent when he signed an advanced directive banning involuntary medication.

The Rutland Herald reports that the decision, released Friday, rejected a family court suggestion that the patient lacked capacity to make the decision “merely because he continued to have a mental illness.”

Justice Paul Reiber wrote there was insufficient evidence to support a decision to go against the 34-year-old man’s wishes.

The patient adopted the advanced directive in 2017 after complaining that medication used to treat schizophrenia altered his mood and thinking.

The family court approved an application for involuntary medication the following year after he was committed for treatment.

Illinois
Judge watches video confession on 1st day of murder trial
PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — A Peoria County judge watched Jose Ramirez say that he stabbed his parents in a videotaped confession played on the first day of the Princeville man’s murder trial.

The (Peoria) Journal-Star reports that the 22-year-old man told investigators, “I stabbed them twice” in the video played Friday. Ramirez faces first-degree murder charges in a bench trial before Judge Katherine Gorman in the deaths of his adoptive parents.

Susan Brill de Ramirez was a Bradley University professor and Antonio Ramirez Barron worked in the school’s technology department.

Prosecutors believe Ramirez stabbed his parents multiple times and beat them with a baseball bat early on Oct. 26, 2018. They claim he was aided by 21-year-old Matthew J. Roberts of Princeville. Roberts is scheduled to enter a plea deal this month.

Ohio
First trial connected to slayings delayed
WAVERLY, Ohio (AP) — A judge has delayed what was supposed to be the first trial connected to the investigation into the 2016 slayings of eight family members in Ohio.

Prosecutors said Monday that both sides agreed to postpone the trial for Rita Newcomb just as jury selection was to begin. Officials didn’t give a reason for the delay.

Newcomb isn’t charged with any of the Rhoden family killings. She is accused of forgery, obstructing justice and perjury charges related to the case.

The 66-year-old is the mother of one of the four suspects in the killings. Newcomb along with those charged in the killings has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities have said after the arrests were announced a year ago that a custody dispute between two families may have been the motive.