Court Digest

Vermont
Lawyer says man open to settling gun magazine, other cases
BENNINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A Bennington man charged with violating a 2018 Vermont law that restricts the size of large-capacity ammunition magazines for firearms is open to a settlement after the state Supreme Court denied his appeal, his lawyer said.

The higher court upheld the legality of the gun law last month in a case filed by Max Misch, who was charged in 2019 with the misdemeanor counts for allegedly buying two, 30-round rifle magazines in New Hampshire and then bringing them back to Vermont. He was the first person charged with violating the law.

Misch, 37, is also facing charges of violating conditions of release and disorderly conduct in other cases, the Bennington Banner reported.

Vermont Assistant Attorney General Ultan Doyle said at a Monday hearing that his office could send Misch a plea offer on the magazine and release violation charges, the newspaper reported.

In one disorderly conduct charge, the self-described white nationalist is accused of walking through the painting of a Black Lives Matter street mural in Bennington in August, smearing the artwork. He’s also charged with disorderly conduct as a hate crime accusing him of getting into a fight with a Black man and the man’s girlfriend in September. He’s pleaded not guilty.

Ohio
Defunct online charter school fights to appeal refund order
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A giant, now-defunct online charter school continued its yearslong fight against repaying Ohio tens of millions of dollars as the state Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over the process for appealing that refund order.

A lawyer for the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, which was once one of the country’s largest virtual charter schools, argued Ohio law allows ECOT to appeal the State Board of Education decision in county court.

The state’s lawyer disagreed, arguing that ECOT’s only route for appeal was filing a lawsuit directly with the Ohio Supreme Court. The school had done that, too, but the high court dismissed that case in 2017 without explaining why.

ECOT has unsuccessfully challenged how the state tallied student participation data to determine that about $80 million of ECOT’s public funding over two school years wasn’t justified and should be recouped.

The cash-strapped school closed in January 2018. It said it had more than 11,000 students at the time.

Oregon
Man who killed wife, tried to kill step-daughter sentenced
COQUILLE, Ore. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty to killing his wife in 2018 in North Bend was sentenced to a total of 26 years behind bars for that and other crimes Friday afternoon, Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier announced.

Judge Martin Stone sentenced Glen Frank Mason IV to 10 years in prison for first-degree manslaughter in the death of Leslie Mason.

In addition, Mason was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for the attempted murder of his step-daughter, Lindsay Pease.

Mason also was sentenced to over two years for unlawful use of a weapon for shooting at Jarod Pultz while Mason fled the scene and five years in prison for unlawful use of a weapon for shooting at Robert Marshall when Mason fled the scene. He also received 364 days in the Coos County Jail for recklessly endangering another person pertaining to one of the shots by Mason striking a nearby residence and passing through an occupied room.

Mason entered a guilty plea to the charges earlier this month.

Judge Stone ordered that all five sentences will be served consecutively, meaning the sentences total 26 years of incarceration without any form of early release

Florida
Federal judge refuses bond for doctor on child porn charges
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge called a South Florida pediatrician a “danger” to the community and ordered that he must remain in jail until his trial on possession of child pornography.

Michael Mizrachy, 49, was charged in federal court on Friday and could face up to 20 years in prison. He was originally arrested Jan. 12 on identical state charges and had been free on a $30,000 bond.

Prosecutors allege that Mizrachy used an email account to keep a video showing a naked 5 or 6-year-old girl getting abused by a man. Investigators using search warrants also found photographs of young children and teens in their underwear, taken without their knowledge, on the doctor’s iPhone and computer.

During a hearing on Monday, United States Magistrate Judge Alicia O. Valle refused to grant bond for Mizrachy. His arraignment is scheduled for March 12.

State Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, whose 4-year-old twins were former patients of Mizrachy, sent a letter to Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees, asking him to immediately suspend the pediatrician’s medical license.

Book noted that despite being charged with child porn in state court, Mizrachy has been able to hold himself out as a doctor. attempting to practice telemedicine and have virtual visits with children while his case is pending.

“Mizrachy’s deviant predilections and illegal actions pose a unique and targeted threat to the children of Broward County as well as children in 66 other counties of our state,” Book wrote. She is is founder and CEO of Lauren’s Kids, a nonprofit aimed at preventing child sexual abuse.

Investigators began looking at Mizrachy in June after the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a tip. The task force got a search warrant that let them search his Yahoo email account, where they found a video that showed a man raping a young girl, the original arrest report in January said.

The same allegations are in the federal complaint, which was unsealed on Monday.

Investigators searched Mizrachy’s home in Parkland on Oct. 20. He told investigators that his Yahoo account was his “hidden secret,” the report said.

During the Oct. 20 interview with detectives, Mizrachy “admitted to being sexually excited by the photographs and admitted to being sexually attracted to children as young as 13 years old,” Homeland Security Special Agent Eric Stowers wrote in the federal complaint.

Mizrachy is represented by Richard Merlino, who told news outlets last month that his client “has been and remains eager to defend himself against these charges.”

Iowa
Man convicted of killing ex-girlfriend in Madison County
WINTERSET, Iowa (AP) — A Norwalk man faces life in prison after being convicted of shooting his ex-girlfriend to death in Madison County.

Jerome Moyer III, 27, was convicted Friday of shooting Roseanna Otto, 23, at her Winterset home on May 27, 2019.

Otto was the mother of three when she was killed. Moyer was the father of two of her children, The Des Moines Register reported.

Her family said there were several instances of domestic violence during their relationship by Moyer was charged only once. He was given a deferred prosecution agreement in that 2014 case.

He was given a 10-year suspended sentence after he broke into another woman’s home and held a knife to her throat in 2015.

The family said Moyer shot Otto because he wanted to get back together but she refused.

Illinois
Man cleared of double murder sues over torture confession
CHICAGO (AP) — A man who received a certificate of innocence after spending 33 years in prison in the 1987 death of his mother-in-law and her mother has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Chicago, his lawyer said Monday.

Robert Smith, 72, alleges eight former Chicago police detectives working under former commander Jon Burge beat him into confessing the crime. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court also names the former Cook County prosecutor who took his statement.

Attorney Stuart Chanen says Smith, who was released from prison in October, is seeking up to $66 million in punitive and compensatory damages.

“No amount of money will constitute ‘justice’ for what the defendants did to Robert Smith (which the system then ignored and covered up for 33 years), but the City could at least help bend the arc of the moral universe in that direction by admitting what these defendants did and compensating Robert for the 33 years of his life that were lost,” attorney Stuart Chanen said in a statement.

A Law Department spokesman said the city hadn’t seen the lawsuit late Monday and could not comment.

Smith was convicted in the slayings of Edith Yeager and her mother, Willie Bell Alexander. Their throats were slashed with a butcher knife before their home was set ablaze.

According to court records, Smith was arrested after he arrived at the scene. The lawsuit alleges that during his 19 hours in police custody, Smith was repeatedly beaten.

Smith gave an oral admission to the crime, but refused to sign a typed version, according to court documents. He was later taken to the hospital, where he was treated for a broken rib and other injuries.

Smith’s attempts to get his confession thrown out failed and it was key to his conviction at trial in 1990

The Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission in 2013 found Smith’s allegations of torture were well-founded. A Cook County judge in October vacated the conviction and ordered Smith released.

Burge was fired in 1993 after it was determined he tortured a murder suspect. In 2010, he was convicted in federal court of perjury and obstruction of justice after jurors found he lied under oath in a deposition for a civil suit when he denied witnessing torture or abusing suspects. Burge spent 4½ years in prison and on home confinement before dying in 2018 at age 70.

Missouri
Lawyer wants ‘most serious charges’ against ex-Chiefs coach
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An attorney for the family of a 5-year-old girl critically injured in a crash involving former Kansas City Chiefs assistant coach Britt Reid says the girl suffered a devastating brain injury that has left her unable to speak or walk.

Ariel Young likely has permanent brain damage “that she will endure for the rest of her life,” attorney Tom Porto said in an interview  broadcast Tuesday with ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“We’re going to be advocating for the most serious charges and the most serious sentence that Britt could ever receive,” Porto said.

The girl has been hospitalized since the  crash Feb. 4, when police say Reid’s truck slammed into two vehicles on the side of a highway entrance ramp near Kansas City’s NFL training complex next to Arrowhead Stadium, injuring Ariel and another child inside one of the cars.

Reid is the son of Kansas City’s head coach Andy Reid and had been the team’s outside linebackers coach at the time of the crash. He was initially placed on administrative leave immediately following the crash, but is no longer employed by the team after his contract was not renewed in the days after the crash. He did not travel with the team to Tampa Bay for the Feb. 7 Super Bowl, which Kansas City lost to the Buccaneers.

Police have said Britt Reid admitted to investigators to having had “two or three drinks” along with prescribed Adderall before the crash.

Authorities have said they are still awaiting toxicology reports in the case, and no charges have been filed.
California
Ex-bicycle coach convicted of sexually assaulting 3 boys
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former Southern California bicycle motocross coach was convicted Monday of sexually assaulting three boys, some of them under the age of 10.
Mandak Kohn Griffin of Cypress was convicted by an Orange County judge of 13 felony charges, including possession of child pornography and committing lewd acts on a child, the Orange County Register reported.
He could face up to 85 years to life in prison when he is sentenced in April.
Prosecutors said Griffin, 40, befriended neighborhood boys, inviting them to hang out at his home and look at pornographic movies and magazines.
Griffin’s attorney, Cameron Talley, didn’t deny that his client had child pornography or had taken explicit photographs of at least one boy but Talley argued there wasn’t any evidence that Griffin had sex with the victims, the Register reported.