After prison term, man wins appeal over arson conviction
SOUTHGATE, (AP) — The Michigan Court of Appeals has overturned the arson conviction of a man who insists he had no financial incentive to destroy his profitable pawn shop in suburban Detroit.
Judge Paul Cusick wouldn't allow defense witnesses to testify about Joshua Burger's insurance coverage and personal finances at the time of the fire in 2017.
It “deprived defendant of the ability to fully mount the defense that he had no financial motive to defraud the insurance company or set the building on fire,” the appeals court said in a 3-0 decision on Feb. 25.
Wayne County prosecutors are asking the court to reconsider the opinion.
Burger served 15 months in prison. His lawyer had argued that the fire at Pawn Max in Southgate probably was caused by an oily rag used to clean up a guitar.
Judge changes sentence of man in illegal fish case
CHARLEVOIX (AP) — A fish wholesaler in northern Michigan has been given a significant break after federal officials said they couldn't arrange his unusual jail sentence.
John Cross III of Charlevoix will serve four months of home detention without an electronic tether, according to a Feb. 18 order by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney. He can leave home to go to work.
Cross pleaded guilty to acquiring trout that were illegally caught in the Great Lakes.
The government said Cross and his business, Cross Fisheries, bought about 50,000 pounds of lake trout from a fisherman who was using so-called trap nets. Those fish should have been thrown back into the water.
Cross was sentenced last spring to a year in jail, a term to be served three to four months at a time outside the fishing season.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons, however, questioned the legality of an intermittent sentence.
Judge hits pause button on removal of slave auction block
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — A judge in Virginia has hit the pause button on a city’s plans to remove a 175-year-old slave auction block from a city’s downtown street corner.
The Free Lance-Star reports that Circuit Court Judge Sarah Deneke recently agreed to a 15-day stay of her order to remove the block in Fredericksburg.
Her order allows a business owner who is challenging the removal to ask the Virginia Supreme Court to take on the case.
E.D. Cole Building LLC owns a commercial building across the street from the auction block.
The firm and the owner of a nearby restaurant have argued that they’ll lose business from tourist traffic if the auction block is removed.
The judge already ruled that city officials have the authority to approve the removal the block.
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