Court Digest

Montana
High court cancels condition on stolen valor case
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A former judge improperly punished two men who lied about their military service in court, the Montana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

Former Montana Eighth District Court Judge Greg Pinski had forced Ryan Patrick Morris and Troy Allan Nelson in 2019 to conduct a series of acts of apology in order to be eligible for parole.

In order for both to be eligible for parole, Pinski had mandated that every year during the three-year suspended sentences both men received, the two had to stand at the Montana Veterans Memorial for eight hours on each Memorial and Veterans Day wearing a sign that reads, "I am a liar. I am not a veteran. I stole valor. I have dishonored all veterans."

The state high court struck down the sentencing condition on Wednesday.

Morris had received 10 years in prison for violating the terms of his probation for felony burglary, while Nelson got five years for a drug possession conviction.

Pinski also ruled that both men would have to write, by hand, the names of all 6,756 Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan; write out the obituaries of the 40 Montana residents killed in the two wars and send hand-written letters of apology to several veterans groups in which they would have to identify themselves as having lied about their military service to receive help and possibly a lesser sentence through a Veterans Court.

Once paroled, the judge ordered that both men serve 441 hours of community service, an hour for each of the Montana residents that have been killed in combat since the Korean War.

The two men appealed the conditions last year. American Civil Liberties Union of Montana had called the conditions degrading and unconstitutional.

Neither of the men had been officially charged with stolen valor.

Morris had claimed in 2016 he did seven combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, had PTSD and had his hip replaced after he was wounded by an IED. Nelson successfully enrolled himself into the Veterans Treatment Court before officials determined he had not actually served in the military.

"At long last, Mr. Morris and Mr. Nelson were able to tell their side of the story," said Morris and Nelson's appellate defense attorney James Reavis. "The media covered the sensationalism of the district court's actions, but largely did not stop to ask whether the court's actions were legal or constitutional. Our brief successfully argued that the district court acted without statutory authority and violated the Montana & U.S. Constitutions."

Montana
Judge strikes down initial approval for stalled mine
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A U.S. judge on Wednesday struck down the government's approval of the first phase of a long-stalled copper and silver mine that would be constructed beneath a northwestern Montana wilderness.

The decision against the Rock Creek Mine near Noxon is the latest in series of legal setbacks for a project first proposed in the late 1980s.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy sided with opponents who said an environmental review by federal officials was insufficient because it considered only exploration work and not full-scale mining.

Rock Creek is one of two mines proposed by Idaho-based Hecla Mining Company that would tunnel beneath the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, an area rich with wildlife including trout, grizzly bears and wolverines.

Sporadic mining has occurred in the area since the early 1800s, according to the U.S. Forest Service. But there are worries the large-scale projects proposed by Hecla could drain groundwater supplies, damaging the habitat of federally-protected bull trout.
The Cabinet Mountains Wilderness is protected under federal law, but mining is allowed on existing mining claims.

Kootenai National Forest officials in 2019 approved plans for Hecla to begin exploration work after conducting a review in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The company did not immediately proceed because of court challenges.
Hecla Vice President Luke Russell said the company was reviewing Molly's ruling and has not decided if it will appeal.

"We were disappointed and surprised," Russell said. "We thought the agencies had done the right thing here."

A representative of one of the groups that sued over the project said the government's decision to limit the scope of its environmental review to exploration work only "was a pretty clear attempt to downplay the impacts on grizzly bears and bull trout."
"This approach of piecemealing a project has been rejected by courts multiple times in the past," said Andrea Zaccardi, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The Rock Creek mine would employ about 300 people and cover almost 500 acres (202 hectares).

A spokesperson for the Department of Interior, which oversees the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the agency was not commenting on the ruling.

A final decision is pending on Hecla's second mine in the Cabinet Mountains, known as the Montanore Mine.

Louisiana
Inmate found guilty in drug conspiracy case
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A 42-year-old man serving time in Louisiana's maximum security prison has been found guilty in a drug conspiracy case, federal authorities said Wednesday.

Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said a federal jury found Damione Brock guilty Tuesday of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

In 2018, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration were investigating drug trafficking activities in the towns of Plain Dealing and Springhill. That probe led them to get wiretaps with which they were able to intercept phone calls and text messages between Brock and a co-defendant. The communications discussed having methamphetamine delivered to Brock at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where he is serving a lengthy sentence for possession of cocaine, Hook's office said in a news release.

Hook's office said Brock was using a contraband cell phone to communicate with his co-defendant. Brock had arranged for the drugs to be brought to the prison using two couriers, including a female guard.

Federal agents monitored the transportation of the methamphetamine, which was hidden in fake soda cans and driven from Bossier City to Alexandria by one of the alleged couriers. The package was then put into the guard's vehicle, who took the drugs to the prison. Agents stopped the guard at the prison's gates and searched her vehicle, seizing the drugs before she entered the facility, Hook's office said.

Brock faces 10 years to life in prison and up to a $10 million fine. U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter set sentencing for Aug. 18.

Wisconsin
Ziegler replaces Roggensack as Supreme Court chief justice
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin's Supreme Court justices on Wednesday picked Annette Ziegler to replace Patience Roggensack as chief justice.

The court announced the change in a news release. It did not break down how the justices voted. Court spokesman Tom Sheehan didn't respond to messages.

Ziegler, 57, was first elected to the Supreme Court in 2007 and was re-elected in 2017. Court terms are 10 years.

She has served as a circuit judge in Washington County and holds a law degree from Marquette University.

Roggensack, 80, was elected to the Supreme Court in 2003 and again in 2013. The justices selected her to replace Shirley Abrahamson as chief justice in 2015 after voters approved a constitutional amendment giving justices the power to pick their chief. Before the amendment the longest-serving justice was automatically the chief.

The chief justice's term runs two years. The news release said Roggensack didn't want another term in the position but will stay on the court. Both she and Ziegler are part of the court's four-justice conservative majority.


Ohio
Judge and his wife sentenced to 2-year terms in hit-run crash
MARION, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio county judge and his wife have both been sentenced to two-year prison terms on convictions of leaving the scene of a crash that injured a 19-year-old man last year.

Jason Warner, who serves as a Marion County Common Pleas judge, and Julia Warner were convicted last month of complicity to leaving the scene of an accident, a fourth-degree felony, and complicity to evidence-tampering, a third-degree felony. Julia Warner, the driver, was also convicted of misdemeanor negligent assault.

The charges stemmed from a crash in Marion last June. Authorities have said Julia Warner failed to yield while turning and collided with another vehicle, which then hit a utility pole. The couple fled the scene in their vehicle moments later, and Julia Warner reported the crash about nine hours later, authorities said.

The Marion Star reports that visiting Judge Patricia Cosgrove cited as a major factor in her sentence Wednesday evidence that their actions removed evidence from the crime scene and prevented blood alcohol tests, and that their car was hidden in their garage and authorities weren't contacted for hours.

Both defendants gave apologetic statements to the court, Julia Warner saying tearfully that she didn't know what to do and "I panicked and I left and should not have done that and I know that." Jason Warner said he feels horrible and continues to lose sleep over his actions, which he said stemmed from his wife's mental state.

As a convicted felon, Jason Warner will no longer be eligible to serve as a judge. He was elected in November 2018 but has been on a leave of absence. Defense attorneys said they would appeal. Sam Shamansky, Jason Warner's defense attorney, said the prosecution failed to provide evidence that his client was guilty of either crime.

South Carolina
Private schools who want public money sue state
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A group of private schools is suing South Carolina, saying the racist past of a state constitutional amendment prohibiting spending public money on religious or private schools means it should be overturned.

The Liberty Justice Center filed its lawsuit Wednesday in federal court on behalf of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston and a group called the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities made up of 20 mostly religious or historically Black colleges and universities.

The lawsuit came after the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled against Gov. Henry McMaster, who wanted to send federal COVID-19 relief money to private schools.

The justices cited an article of South Carolina's 1895 constitution. Lawyers suing the state said that provision was placed in the constitution because the writers were bigots biased against Catholics.

Other provisions in the same constitution required Blacks to pass a test to vote and other racist measures to prevent African Americans from voting.

The lawsuit asks the federal court to confront the racist reasoning behind the constitutional provision and decide "whether that prejudice is a permissible basis for a continuing policy whereby the state bars private schools and universities from participation in neutral grant programs when the state constitutional provision prohibiting private school participation is based on longstanding and pervasive religious and racial bigotry."

A decision to provide private schools with public money might also make them have to meet the same standards as public schools.


Kansas
Ex-police chief convicted in stalking case
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A jury has convicted a former central Kansas police chief of several felony counts brought against him in a domestic stalking case.

A Reno County jury found Brian Treaster guilty Wednesday of stalking and criminal threat, as well as misdemeanor counts of violation of a protection order and battery, the Hutchinson News reported. Treaster was acquitted of two counts each of phone harassment and disorderly conduct and a second count of violating a protection order.

The stalking and protection order violation charges stemmed from an April 2019 incident in which Treaster confronted his ex-wife at her workplace while he was still the Bushton police chief. The criminal threat and battery charges were filed after Treaster confronted and shoved the woman's boyfriend in June 2019, while he was on administrative leave, then threatened the woman and her boyfriend later that day in a phone call.