National Roundup

Washington
Lawyer involved in Trump's call to official resigns
MILWAUKEE (AP) — An attorney with a Milwaukee-based law firm has resigned days after participating in a call in which President Donald Trump pressured Georgia's state secretary to "find" enough votes to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state's presidential election.

Cleta Mitchell, a senior partner with Foley & Lardner, has resigned effective immediately, the law firm said in a statement.

"Ms. Mitchell concluded that her departure was in the firm's best interests, as well as in her own personal best interests," the statement said.

Mitchell participated in Saturday's call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that also included Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and other attorneys. The Republican president has refused to accept his loss to Biden, repeatedly arguing that Raffensperger could change the certified results.

Foley & Lardner made a decision in November not to take on any clients involved in any matters related to the presidential election, the Journal Sentinel reported.

Mitchell, a Washington-based partner at Foley & Lardner for nearly 20 years, said in a recent podcast with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins that she was "a volunteer with the Trump campaign and the legal team in Georgia," the Daily Beast reported.

Tennessee
Inmate's execution paused again due to COVID-19
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court on Tuesday hit pause again on a death row inmate's scheduled execution because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an order, the justices wrote that Oscar Smith's execution, which was slated to happen Feb. 4, will be stayed pending the court's further order "because of the multiple issues caused by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic."

Smith, 70, initially had been scheduled to die last June for the 1989 slayings of his estranged wife, Judy Lynn Smith, and her two sons from a previous marriage, Chad and Jason Burnett, in Nashville. The Supreme Court had ordered a delay until February because of the new coronavirus.

Smith's lead attorney, Amy Harwell, requested the additional reprieve last month after contracting COVID-19 during a trip to see a federal prisoner she is representing in Texas. Attorneys for Smith have also noted that Tennessee in recent weeks has seen one of the biggest per capita surges in new reported cases in the country.

Last month, the court likewise indefinitely postponed the execution of death row inmate Byron Black, who had first been scheduled to die last October, then was rescheduled to be executed in April.

Kelley Henry, Black's lead attorney, traveled with Harwell to see the federal prisoner in Texas and also contracted COVID-19.

State Attorney General Herbert Slatery had opposed the request to delay Black's execution as premature. Slatery's office did not file anything in response to Smith's more recent request to pause his execution.

Tennessee executed  Nicholas Sutton in the electric chair last February, extending into 2020 what had been a quick pace of executions. Then COVID-19 hit, delaying every scheduled execution in the state since.

In November, Republican Gov. Bill Lee granted a reprieve  from execution to Pervis Payne from Dec. 3 until April 9 "due to the challenges and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic." Lee granted another reprieve  in July to Harold Nichols.

Wyoming
Utah man pleads guilty in Yellowstone dig seeking treasure
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A Utah man has pleaded guilty after authorities said he was caught digging in a Yellowstone National Park cemetery in search of hidden treasure.

Rodrick Dow Craythorn, 52, of Syracuse, Utah, entered the plea Monday in U.S. District Court in Casper to illegally excavating or trafficking in archaeological resources and to damaging federal property.

He could face up to 12 years in prison and $270,000 in fines when sentenced March 17.

Craythorn was searching for a treasure chest containing coins, gold and other valuables left in the backcountry a decade ago by Santa Fe, New Mexico, art and antiquities dealer Forrest Fenn, who published a book with a poem containing clues to where the treasure could be found.

Craythorn caused more than $1,000 in damage by digging in the Fort Yellowstone Cemetery between Oct. 1, 2019, and May 24, 2020, prosecutors alleged.

"The hunt for the Forrest Fenn treasure was often viewed as a harmless diversion, but in this case it led to substantial damage to important public resources," Wyoming U.S. Attorney Mark Klaassen said Tuesday.

Craythorn's attorney, Christopher Humphrey of Cheyenne, didn't immediately return a phone message Tuesday seeking comment.

Fenn died at age 90 in September, three months after announcing the treasure had been found. A grandson of Fenn confirmed in December the finder was Jonathan "Jack" Stuef, 32, a medical student from Michigan.

Fenn said before his death the treasure was in Wyoming but neither Stuef nor Fenn's relatives have said where specifically.

Fenn for years hinted the treasure, estimated to be worth at least $1 million, was north of Santa Fe in the Rocky Mountains of either New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming or Montana. Several people seeking the treasure had to be rescued from precarious situations and as many as six died.

Florida
Man sentenced for threatening, sending dead rat to ex-wife
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — An Indiana man has been sentenced to four years and 10 months in federal prison for threatening his ex-wife over several years and mailing a dead rat to her Florida home.

Romney Christopher Ellis, 57, of Indianapolis, Indiana, was sentenced Tuesday in Tampa federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in April to making interstate threats and mailing injurious articles.

According to a criminal complaint, Ellis had engaged in a four-year-long campaign of harassment against his ex-wife, who lives in Tampa, through text messages, photographs, videos and mailings. He threatened to decapitate and set her on fire, investigators said. He routinely made racially and sexually charged statements in the text messages, including sending sexually explicit images of himself.
Ellis sent text messages stating that he had traveled from Indiana to Florida to see his ex-wife. On one occasion, Ellis mailed a package to the victim's home containing a dead rat and black rose.

Postal inspectors executed a search warrant at Ellis's Indianapolis home in February. Prosecutors said they recovered a handwritten note containing the names and addresses of his ex-wife, as well as her family and friends.