Court Digest

South Carolina
Electronic sentencing sheets stop SC prison sentence errors
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A new system to enter in sentences after people in one South Carolina county are convicted in court should reduce errors that prison officials said have led to longer or shorter sentences than judges intended, officials said.

Charleston County started using the electronic sentence sheets earlier this month, officials said in a news release.

Instead of filling out paper forms, judges enter sentencing information on a computer. That data can be shared with prison officials or anyone else to make sure offenders serve their exact sentence.

Before, data entry employees had to take handwritten sentencing sheets from across the state and enter the sentencing data into a computer, which caused mistakes.

A legislative committee reviewing the South Carolina Corrections Department said keeping people in prison longer than their sentence was one of their biggest concerns with the agency.

Charleston County Clerk of Court Julie Armstrong said she hopes the electronic sentencing sheets will serve as a foundation to computerize almost all court forms.

Massachusetts
Ex-mayor, aide, face January trial on corruption charges
BOSTON (AP) — The trial of a former Massachusetts mayor and his chief of staff facing corruption charges is scheduled to start early next year.

U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock at a hearing this week said he expects the trial of former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia II and Gen Andrade to start Jan. 13, The Herald News reported.

They are being tried together despite objections from their attorneys.

Correia and Andrade were supposed to go to trial in May but that was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Correia is facing a total 24 federal charges. Prosecutors allege he extorted $600,000 from marijuana vendors seeking to do business in the city, and bilked nearly $300,000 from investors in his smartphone app company.

Andrade is facing six counts for allegedly aiding Correia in the marijuana scheme and bribery regarding her position as chief of staff.

Both have repeatedly denied the allegations, saying they are politically motivated.

Andrade’s attorney, Charles Rankin, and Correia’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, asked for a delay given the continued risks of the coronavirus.

California
US judge mulls competency of Mexican man who shot American
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in San Francisco is mulling the competency to stand trial of a Mexican man who shot and killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle, a shooting that figured prominently in President Donald Trump’s run for the White House four years ago.

The case against Jose Ines Garcia Zarate on federal gun charges has been pending since U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria raised “serious concerns” about his mental capacities back in January, t he San Francisco Examiner reported Friday.

“I’m tired of waiting here,” Garcia Zarate told the court Friday through a Spanish interpreter, adding that he wanted to be sentenced to prison or deported back to Mexico.

Two doctors have diagnosed Garcia Zarate with schizophrenia and found him unfit to stand trial because he cannot follow the court proceedings. They said he believes electronics are broadcasting messages to him and other inmates and that he believes his attorney is accepting bribes from the police.

Garcia Zarate has also said he wants to plead guilty. The judge told him he would not be allowed to do so on Friday.

Garcia Zarate has been in detention since the July 1, 2015, shooting on a crowded San Francisco pier, setting off a political firestorm over immigration and crime.

A San Francisco Superior Court jury acquitted him of various charges including murder in late 2017. An appeals court later overturned the only conviction prosecutors obtained against him, that of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
His defense attorneys in the state case argued he picked up the gun not knowing what it was and fired it accidentally.


Kentucky
Federal appeals court upholds abortion law
A federal appeals court has upheld a decades-old Kentucky law requiring abortion clinics to have written agreements with a hospital and an ambulance service in case of medical emergencies.

The 2-1 decision by the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals reverses a federal judge’s ruling, who had said the 1998 Kentucky law violated constitutionally protected due process rights.

However, in Friday’s ruling, the appeals court rejected that argument and countered the “district court erred in concluding that Kentucky would be left without an abortion facility.”

In 2017, EMW Women’s Surgical Center — the state’s only clinic that provided abortions at the time — decided to challenge the state law after becoming embroiled in a licensing fight with then Gov. Matt Bevin. The Republican’s administration had claimed the clinic lacked proper transfer agreements and took steps to shut it down.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky later joined the suit, claiming Bevin’s administration had used the transfer agreements to block its request for a license to provide abortions in Louisville.

Critics of the law claimed such licensing requirements were designed to give the state a reason to ban abortions. Supporters said the law bolstered patient safety.

The two clinics have since been allowed to provide abortions after Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who supports abortion rights, took office in late 2019.

According to the 73-page ruling, the appeals court rejected the clinics’ argument their facilities were in jeopardy of closing because the Kentucky law allows clinics to apply for a 90-day waiver if they are denied a licensing agreement.

Facilities could theoretically reapply for the waiver every quarter and thus be allowed to continue to operate, the justices argued.

“(We) must presume that the Inspector General will consider waiver applications in good faith and will not act ‘simply to make it more difficult for (women) to obtain an abortion,’” the ruling stated.

“EMW and Planned Parenthood have failed to make a clear showing that both of their abortion facilities would close if (the laws) go into effect,” the justices continued.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which had represented the clinics in the case, said Friday’s ruling would result in health care providers being subject to “needless red tape.”

“Abortion providers should not have to jump through medically irrelevant hoops to keep their clinic doors open. We will continue to fight to make sure that people are able to get the care they need,” said Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

Meanwhile, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron praised the appeals court’s decision.

“The Sixth Circuit’s ruling keeps in place an important Kentucky law for protecting the health and safety of patients by finding that Planned Parenthood and EMW failed to prove that they could not comply with the statute and regulation,” Cameron said in a statement.

Kentucky is one of many Republican-dominated states seeking to enact restrictions on abortion as conservatives take aim at the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. That fight has become reenergized as the GOP-controlled Senate is poised to lock a 6-3 conservative court majority with the appointment of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.

New Jersey
Man arrested for allegedly threatening judge
A New Jersey man who has sued the United States for allowing “Socialists and Muslims” to hold jobs in federal government was charged with threatening a federal judge.

William Kaetz was arrested Sunday and charged with threatening to assault and kill a federal judge and using interstate communications to threaten to injure a person. He was scheduled to make an initial appearance by video-conference Monday afternoon.

Kaetz sent a letter to the judge’s house last month saying he wanted the judge to expedite a case Kaetz had pending, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Newark. A week later he allegedly left a voicemail at the judge’s office, and on Sunday allegedly sent an email to the judge’s personal email account calling the judge a traitor, which he said “has a death sentence.”

Kaetz also allegedly threatened to publicize the judge’s home address.

The 56-year-old Paramus resident’s arrest comes months after a disgruntled attorney shot and killed the son of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas’ home in New Jersey and wounded her husband in a targeted attack. Roy Den Hollander, who authorities identified as the shooter, later took his own life. The shooting spurred calls to restrict access to judges’ personal information.

In Kaetz’s case, the judge wasn’t identified by the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey, but court filings show that Kaetz has had at least three cases before U.S. District Judge Claire Cecchi in Newark.

A message seeking comment was left with Cecchi’s office.

In one filed in March 2019, Kaetz, acting as his own lawyer, sued the federal government for $20 million, claiming his Constitutional rights had been violated because federal officials were guilty of “allowing known enemies of plaintiff’s nation in plaintiff’s nation’s official offices.”

“It is well known fact that Socialists and Muslims will not assimilate to our constitutional republic form of government and all defendants have allowed demonstrations of advocacy to overthrow our constitutional form of government without prosecution,” Kaetz wrote, “therefore Socialists and Muslims and their supporters cannot be in any government job.”

Cecchi dismissed the case last October. Two weeks ago, Kaetz had filed a motion of reconsideration that demanded Cecchi be removed from the case.


Colorado
Three Catholic dioceses pay $6.68M to sex abuse survivors
DENVER (AP) — Colorado’s three Catholic dioceses paid $6.68 million to 73 survivors of sexual abuse by priests, a new report said.

The state’s Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program issued an update Friday of how much money each survivor should be given by the church, The Colorado Sun reported.

The program fielded claims from survivors and determined their credibility and compensation eligibility.

Eight claims were rejected by the program. Another eight claims are pending because the survivors are waiting to receive payments, have not received compensation offers or must first report abuse to law enforcement before the cases can move forward.

“Of the 81 eligible claimants, some were previously unknown abuse survivors, demonstrating success in reaching survivors previously unwilling or unable to come forward and receive help,” spokeswoman Amy Weiss said in a statement on behalf of an independent oversight committee overseeing reparations.

Survivors must have been abused when they were children to be eligible for compensation.

“I know that money cannot fully heal the wounds you suffered but hope that those of you who came forward felt heard, acknowledged — and that the reparations offer a measure of justice and access to resources,” Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila wrote in a letter to his archdiocese Friday.

None of the survivors alleged their abuse happened in the past two decades, Aquila said.

The reconciliation and reparations program was created as part of an agreement between the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the Catholic dioceses of Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo, which agreed to open their records.

An independent investigation found at least 166 children were abused by at least 43 priests in Colorado dating back to 1950.


Oklahoma
Man arrested after abused animals found at home
PORTER, Okla. (AP) — A northeastern Oklahoma man has been charged with 42 counts of animal cruelty after authorities found 36 malnourished dogs inside maggot infested cages and farm animals that had been restrained.
Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office said when deputies were dispatched to a home in Porter on Wednesday, they found three horses, one cow, one bull and a heifer bound to different fixed objects throughout the property, as well as 36 dogs packed into a small building in the back.
All of the animals had no access to food or water and appeared malnourished, according to the sheriff’s office.
The home’s owner, Kerry E. Yochum was arrested by deputies. Jail records did not list an attorney for Yochum.
Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott is thankful for the community members’ help.
“I was appalled at the conditions that these animals were living in. I am grateful that we have such wonderful citizens in Porter that met with deputies and agreed to care for these abused animals until they could be placed in a safe home,” said Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott.