National Roundup

Texas
Ex-’60 Minutes’ reporter sues  magazine
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Former “60 Minutes” correspondent Lara Logan, whose 2013 report about the Benghazi attacks was retracted by CBS News over inaccuracies, is suing New York magazine over an article about the fallout that she claims tarnished her career.

Logan, who lives in Texas, is seeking $25 million in the lawsuit filed last week in a federal court in Austin.

Lauren Starke, a spokeswoman for New York magazine, said Wednesday that the “article was thoroughly vetted and fact-checked, and we stand by our reporting.”

CBS News admitted it was misled  in Logan’s report by a source who claimed he was on the scene of a 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, but whose account was later discredited. Logan later appeared on CBS’ “This Morning” and apologized to viewers, saying it was wrong to include in the report Dylan Davies, a security contractor who claimed he took part in fighting at the mission.

Logan claims that a 2014 article in New York magazine about the report contained defamatory statements that hurt her reputation and led to a diminished role at CBS.

Logan’s last “60 Minutes” piece aired in 2018 and her contract was not renewed, according to the lawsuit.

A new documentary series hosted by Logan is set to air on Fox Nation, Fox News’ streaming service, in January.

North Carolina
Man sentenced in radioactive poison scheme
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man convicted of trying to purchase radioactive material to put into his roommate’s food to kill him will spend just over six years in prison.

A federal judge in Charlotte sentenced 28-year-old Bryant Budi to 78 months in prison, according to a Justice Department statement. Budi and his roommate had been at odds for more than a year before he went online to hire a hit man in spring 2018, court documents obtained by news outlets revealed.

Budi alleged he wanted to kill his roommate, a friend who had become homeless and moved in with him, because the man threatened to kill Budi’s family if he didn’t give him money, an affidavit from Christopher Nasca of the Department of Homeland Security showed. Budi offered $4,000 to an undercover investigator posing as a hit man, prosecutors said.

“My enemy that I am trying to get has been making my life a living hell and extorting me for a year now,” Budi said in an April 2018 email to the agent. “Basically make it look like robbery went wrong,” he added.

Budi later returned to the illegal online marketplace to shop for radioactive material himself, prosecutors said. Another undercover FBI employee posing as a seller shipped him a placebo powder. Budi also admitted in emails he tried to poison the roommate before but the man had thrown it up.

In June 2018, federal agents arrested Budi. He pleaded guilty to attempted possession of radioactive material with intent to cause death or serious bodily injury to another person, the first case of its kind in the federal courts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte told news outlets. The maximum sentence was life in prison.

Hawaii
Man gets 15 years for trying to blackmail teen girl for sex
HONOLULU (AP) — A federal judge sentenced a Honolulu man to 15 years in prison for trying to blackmail a teen girl into having sex with him using topless photos.

A federal judge also sentenced 33-year-old Dustin Miyakawa to 20 years of supervised release following his prison term.

Miyakawa pleaded guilty to attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and faced 10 years to life in prison. The prosecution recommended a 14-year term but the judge chose to hand down a longer sentence.

“This 15-year sentence reflects the seriousness of Miyakawa’s criminal conduct and sends a powerful message to child sex predators in our community about the consequences of their criminal behavior,” U.S. Attorney Kenji Price said.

Miyakawa met a 15-year-old girl on social media in 2018 and offered to take photographs to help start her modeling career. He told the girl he was a Honolulu Magazine photographer, asked her age and pressured her into posing for topless photographs, federal investigators said.

He offered the girl money in exchange for sex and when she refused Miyakawa threatened to publicly share the topless photos, authorities said.

Two other girls with similar stories were identified during the investigation, authorities said.

Miyakawa was on probation at the time of his May 2018 arrest for convictions in Washington state in 2006 for offering money to an 11-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl to kiss him, authorities said.

Oregon
Woman sentenced to 25 years to life for killing husband
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A southwestern Oregon woman will serve 25 years to life in prison for shooting her estranged husband in the head.

The Mail Tribune reports on Friday, a jury found 74-year-old Louise Richards guilty of second-degree murder in the Aug. 28, 2017, shooting death of her husband, 70-year-old Terry Richards, at the home they shared in Central Point.

She was sentenced by Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Tim Barnack.

Louise and Terry Richards lived in the same house despite divorce proceedings going back roughly a year, according to court documents.

The day of the shooting, Louise Richards worked a shift at the school bus yard, paid a $1,400 divorce-related legal bill, made herself lunch and drank “one to three glasses of wine,” according to deputy district attorney Ben Lull.

The couple then argued about terms of a divorce settlement previously negotiated through a mediation process. The victim told the defendant he wanted to seek more than the current settlement would have given him, Lull wrote.

Prosecutors said Louise Richards retreated to her bedroom, emerged later with a handgun and shot Terry Richards while he was sitting in a recliner. She called a friend and then called 911, prosecutors said.