Court Digest

California
Man sentenced for assaulting flight attendants
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A California man has been sentenced to six months in prison for assaulting two flight attendants while traveling from San Diego to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The office of the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico announced the sentencing Wednesday of 43-year-old Alton James Johnson of Yuba City, California. James pleaded guilty to the assault on Jan. 12.
Prosecutors said in a plea agreement that Johnson repeatedly touched a female flight attendant on her legs during a December 2019 flight. She asked him to stop and he then grabbed her by the buttocks.

Prosecutors say a second flight attendant stepped in to help and he grabbed that attendant by the arm.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Johnson admitted in the plea agreement to having been under the influence of alcohol but in control of his actions.

Iowa
Woman convicted of killing husband sentenced to life
MANCHESTER, Iowa (AP) — A northeastern Iowa woman convicted of killing her husband a decade ago has been sentenced to life in prison — a significant increase from the previous 40 years she had been handed before her appeal in the case.

Revette Sauser, 52, of Ryan, was sentenced this week in Delaware County District Court after a Clayton County jury found her guilty last month of first-degree murder in the 2011 shooting death of 59-year-old Terry Sauser in their home in Ryan, the Telegraph Herald reported.

In 2012, Revette Sauser pleaded guilty to reduced charges of kidnapping, voluntary manslaughter and going armed with intent in a deal with prosecutors, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
She had served nine of those years when the Iowa Supreme Court sided with her on appeal and sent her case back to the trial court, saying there was no basis for the kidnapping charge. However, the state’s high court ruled that the original charge of first-degree murder must be reinstated if the kidnapping charge couldn’t be justified.

In last month’s trial, prosecutors argued that Revette Sauser planned her husband’s killing out of anger and jealousy. Her defense attorney insisted she accidentally shot her husband.


Missouri
Man sentenced to prison for killing brother in 2015
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Berkeley man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing his brother nearly six years ago during an argument in the home they shared.

Robert Moses was sentenced Tuesday after a jury found him guilty last month of second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the shooting death of 51-year-old Kenneth Moses on Aug. 11, 2015, television station KMOV reported.

Robert Moses was on parole for assault at the time of the killing. Authorities had said the brothers were involved in an argument, and that Robert Moses shot his brother in the chest. Kenneth Moses died the next day at a hospital.


Wisconsin
Man given nearly 5 years in prison for COVID-19 relief fraud
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Pewaukee businessman has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison for fraudulently obtaining more than $1 million in federal coronavirus relief funding meant for struggling businesses.

According to prosecutors, Thomas Smith, 47, involved seven other people, including his brother, in a scheme to get federal funding for phantom companies.

U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig told Smith Wednesday that he hopes a 57-month prison sentence and two years of supervision would let him get back on track as a contributing member of society, the  Journal Sentinel reported.

Ludwig also ordered Smith to repay the money he obtained through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which offered businesses forgivable loans if used for payroll, rent, utilities and other specific expenses.

“You took advantage of our nation’s generosity,” Ludwig said, and undercut public trust in government.

All the PPP applications, their proceeds and kickbacks to Smith ran through his bank, which got suspicious last summer and froze several accounts.

“The federal government should be able to provide emergency funds like PPP loans to the deserving public without having to feel constrained by possible fraudsters who seek to profit from the national disaster,” federal fraud prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

All eight defendants were charged last year and entered guilty pleas to either bank fraud or making false statements. The remaining defendants are scheduled for sentencing in the coming days and weeks.

 Washington
Judge who made racist comments on hot mic intends to retire
A Washington state judge who made racist comments about a young Black man killed by police says he plans to retire.

Clark County District Court Judge Darvin Zimmerman made his remarks in March about Kevin Peterson Jr., a 21-year-old Camas man shot by deputies after he ran from a drug sting with a gun.

Zimmerman didn’t realize his conversation in an empty courtroom was being broadcast on Youtube, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. He called Peterson “dumb” and “the Black guy they are trying to make an angel out of.”

He also suggested that the next day Peterson’s father woke up “with dollar signs in his eyes and George Floyd’s attorneys,” referring to the Black man whose murder by Minneapolis police last year prompted a national reckoning about racial justice and policing.

Last Friday the judge wrote Clark County Chair Eileen Quiring O’Brien to say he is retiring, though he didn’t give a date or a specific reason, the newspaper reported.

In mid-March, after his comments were made public, Zimmerman apologized and said he would take time off from the $190,116-a-year post to reflect on his behavior. He also said he self-reported his comments to the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct.


Louisiana
Judge won’t throw out charges in death of witness
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge in New Orleans has refused to throw out a longstanding indictment against five men charged in the 2012 death of a witness in a health care fraud case.

Wednesday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Barry Ashe means the men remain on track for trial next year in the death of Milton Womack, who was 60 when he was shot to death in 2012.

Louis Age Jr., who was convicted and imprisoned in the $17 million fraud case, is a defendant in the Womack case, along with his son Louis Age III, and three others. They have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges including conspiracy to commit murder for hire.

The defendants had argued that Black people were underrepresented among possible candidates for grand jury and trial jury seats when the men were indicted in the New Orleans-based federal court district that covers much of southeast Louisiana.

“There is no evidence of a statute or other identifiable rule or selection procedure that specifically excludes African Americans or places obstacles in their path to jury service,” Ashe wrote.

The ruling acknowledged a nearly 12 percentage point difference between the Black population in the district and the percentage of Blacks people among jury lists drawn randomly from voter registration lists. But, he said that could be attributed to “external forces” such as people failing to return jury questionnaires.

Womack was a former employee of Age Jr.’s in a health care business implicated in a $17 million fraud scheme. He was shot to death in New Orleans in July 2012.

Despite the witness death, Age Jr. was convicted months later. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2013. The indictments alleging that Womack was murdered were handed up on 2017.


Kansas
State to pay $826K to man’s estate over wrongful conviction
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday ordered Kansas to pay more than $826,000 to the estate of a man who died in February following his release from prison after serving more than 12 years over a wrongful murder conviction.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced the resolution of a lawsuit filed in November by Olin “Pete” Coones only days after a Wyandotte County judge threw out his 2009 conviction for first-degree murder. The order to pay Coones’ estate came from Shawnee County District Judge Teresa Watson, but Gov. Laura Kelly and legislative leaders must review it.

Coones was sentenced to life in prison in connection with the 2008 death of his late father’s caregiver, Kathleen Schroll. Coones’ defense argued that she framed him for murder when she killed herself and her husband in a “Machiavellian plot”  because of investigations into how how she handled money for Coones’ father.

Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree called Coones’ conviction “a failure of our system” and declined to retry the case.

Coones’ case is the fifth to be resolved under a 2018 law that calls for the state to give people who were wrongfully convicted $65,000 for every year spent in prison. Coones’ award also covers attorneys’ fees.


California
State to pay $2M church legal fees over virus closures
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The state of California has agreed not to impose greater coronavirus restrictions on church gatherings than it does on retail establishments in a pair of settlements that provide more than $2 million in fees to lawyers who challenged the rules as a violation of religious freedom.

A deal approved Tuesday by a federal judge comes after lawyers for a San Diego-area Pentecostal church took their challenge against the state to the U.S. Supreme Court three times and won.

The settlement includes a permanent injunction in line with Supreme Court rulings that found restrictions on houses of worship cannot exceed those on retail businesses, attorney Paul Jonna said.

“If they’re gonna restrict Costco to 50%, then they can do the same thing to churches,” Jonna said. “But what they were doing before, as you may remember, is they were keeping those places open and they were shutting down churches — at least in California — completely.”

The settlement has little practical impact after a Supreme Court ruling led the state in April to lift limits on indoor worship. As the state’s case rate of COVID-19 has plummeted since a deadly winter surge and vaccination rates rise, Gov. Gavin Newsom is poised to lift all restrictions on June 15.

Newsom’s office issued a statement saying he put the health of Californians first when he imposed closure orders. It said the settlements provide clarity on how public health standards can be applied to churches.

Newsom was the first governor to issue a statewide stay-home order at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. His various closure orders and modifications that allowed certain businesses to open at different capacities were challenged in state and federal courts.

The public health orders were generally upheld until religious groups won a string of victories after a change in the Supreme Court makeup last year when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and was replaced by conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

While the settlements only apply to restrictions issued for the COVID-19 pandemic, Jonna said he does not believe the state would impose harsher restrictions on churches in the future because of the Supreme Court rulings.

The settlements involve a federal lawsuits brought by South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista and Father Trevor Burfitt, a Catholic priest in Bakersfield, who sued in Kern County Superior Court.

Lawyers for the Thomas More Society, a conservative public interest law firm, will receive $1.6 million in legal fees in the South Bay case and $550,000 in the Burfitt case.


Missouri
Supreme Court: $3 fee for sheriffs unconstitutional
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that a $3 court fee used to pay for sheriffs’ retirement is unconstitutional.

Judges in a 6-0 decision issued Tuesday ruled that the sheriffs’ retirement fund is not related to the administration of justice, meaning collecting fees for that purpose is not allowed.

The case went before the Supreme Court after two Kansas City drivers who received speeding tickets in 2017 challenged the fees.

A Jackson County circuit court judge had dismissed their case, arguing that the fees don’t violate the Constitution. The circuit court also ruled that municipal clerks, who are responsible for collecting the fees, needed to join the lawsuit in order for it to move forward.

The Supreme Court disagreed and sent the case back to circuit court for further proceedings.

Attorneys for the men are trying to expand the lawsuit to cover anyone in the state who paid the $3 fee.