National Roundup

Washington
Judge rules Dominion case can proceed
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday for a defamation case by Dominion Voting Systems to proceed against Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, allies of former President Donald Trump who had all falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols ruled that there was no blanket protection on political speech and denied an argument from two of the defendants that the federal court in Washington wasn’t the proper venue for the case.

“As an initial matter, there is no blanket immunity for statements that are ‘political’ in nature,” the judge wrote in the 44-page ruling.

While courts have recognized there are some hyperbolic statements in political discourse, “it is simply not the law that provably false statements cannot be actionable if made in the context of an election,” Nichols wrote.

The judge also rejected Powell and Lindell’s arguments that Dominion had failed to meet a legal burden that their statements were made with “actual malice.”

He outlined several instances where the trio made outlandish and blatantly false claims, including when Powell stated that the company was created in Venezuela to rig elections for the late leader Hugo Chavez and that it can switch votes.

In allowing the lawsuit to go forward, Nichols said Dominion had adequately proved that Powell made statements that could lead to a lawsuit “because a reasonable juror could conclude that they were either statements of fact or statements of opinion that implied or relied upon facts that are provably false.” Dominion has sought $1.3 billion in damages from the trio.

The judge used similar language against Lindell, the founder and CEO of MyPillow, saying Dominion proved Lindell had “made his claims knowing that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.”

Powell and Giuliani, both lawyers who filed election challenges on Trump’s behalf, and Lindell, who was one of Trump’s most ardent public supporters, made various unproven claims about the voting machine company. Many of those statements came at news conferences, during election rallies and on social media and television.

There was no widespread fraud in the election, which a range of election officials across the country, including Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states.

Nearly all the legal challenges from Trump and his allies were dismissed by judges, including two tossed by the Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-nominated justices.

The judge’s ruling came just a day after the vote-counting machine maker filed defamation lawsuits against right-wing broadcasters Newsmax Media Inc. and One America News Network, as well as Patrick Byrne, a prominent Trump ally and former chief executive of Overstock.com.


Georgia
Court upholds conviction in inmate strangling
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the murder conviction of a former inmate at Augusta State Medical Prison accused of strangling his cellmate.

Thomas Tiraboschi was fairly tried and convicted in the 2013 death of 48-year-old Chris Lowery, the court ruled Tuesday, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

A Richmond County jury convicted the 43-year-old Tiraboschi in 2015, and a judge sentenced him to life without parole.

Tiraboschi told guards he had killed his cellmate, according to the Chronicle. His attorneys said the judge should not have allowed prosecutors to introduce evidence about Tiraboschi’s previous conviction for vehicular homicide and theft.

The Supreme Court said any error was harmless in part because of overwhelming evidence of Tiraboschi’s guilt, according to the Chronicle.

Indiana
Man gets 45 years in teen’s attempted robbery death
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A northern Indiana man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for an attempted robbery in which a 16-year-old boy who was his accomplice was fatally shot by their intended victim.

A St. Joseph County judge sentenced Makyi Toliver, 20, of South Bend on Wednesday after a jury convicted him in July of felony murder and attempted robbery. The murder charge stemmed from the fatal shooting of Curtis Frazier Jr., who was a Riley High School student.

“I think the public doesn’t understand that a co-perpetrator can be killed by the intended victim and the co-perpetrator is responsible for that murder. But the legislature hasn’t changed it,” St. Joseph Superior Court Judge John Marnocha said before sentencing Toliver.

Prosecutors said Facebook messages between Toliver and Frazier showed Toliver “instigated” a plan to steal a handgun from a man Toliver was staying with and beat him up afterward, the South Bend Tribune reported.

During the September 2019 robbery, police responded to a shooting after that man shot both Toliver and Frazier, killing him, during the attempted robbery. Toliver was shot at least eight times, his attorney said.


Massachusetts
Boston police auto mechanic pleads guilty to fraud charges
BOSTON (AP) — A former Boston Police Department auto mechanic has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $260,000 by purchasing parts, tools and other supplies for the department that he then sold on the side to others, federal prosecutors said.

Bahram Gharony, 36, who worked in the department’s Fleet Management Division, pleaded guilty Wednesday to wire fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston.

Gharony used his position to order parts and supplies that he said were for police, but were instead sold to others. To conceal the deception, Gharony submitted fraudulent and altered invoices to the department, prosecutors said.

He also told those he sold the parts to that he had lawfully purchased them by using a police department discount, prosecutors said.

He ran his scheme from June 2017 until last September, authorities said.

Sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 14. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each of two counts of wire fraud.