Court Digest

Arizona
Federal judge settles lawsuit on harms to border environment
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A federal judge in Arizona on Monday settled a lawsuit filed against the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, saying the agencies failed to study potential harms to the environment from increased enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The decision springs from a 2017 lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat. It says federal officials failed to prepare an updated environmental impact statement for border enforcement.

Brian Segee, the center’s legal director for endangered species, calls the decision “a win for wildlife and communities along the border.”

He said the group was disappointed the court stopped short of ordering a new environmental impact statement, but hoped the Biden administration would take a closer look at what enforcement can do to borderlands flora and fauna.

Border enforcement during the administration of former President Donald Trump included off-road vehicle patrols, installation of high-intensity lighting, construction of base camps and checkpoints and wall construction.

Federal officials argued there had been no changes in border enforcement, but the judge said that the record was “replete with examples of expanding federal action.”

Washington
Woman accused of lying in unsolved slaying pleads guilty
SEATTLE (AP) — A woman who was sought by federal prosecutors for allegedly lying to a grand jury investigating the 2001 murder of Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Wales has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor obstruction charge.

The Seattle Times  reports U.S. District Judge James Robart sentenced Shawna Reid of Marysville, Washington, to time served — a total of nine days in custody since she was indicted in 2019 — with no additional supervised release, plus a $25 fine.

Robart took Reid’s plea at a Zoom court hearing announced just hours before it convened Monday morning.

The 2019 indictment of Reid on felony charges of lying to and obstructing a grand jury investigating Wales’ killing was seen as a potential break in the case, which remains unsolved. Wales was shot several times by someone who broke into his Seattle backyard on the night of Oct. 11, 2001.

But the government appears to have gotten little out of the prosecution.

Reid was indicted on charges of lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice. A conviction could have sent her to prison for up to five years.

Reid, who said she is a stay-at-home mother for her two young children and living with her fiancé in Marysville, said she was grateful to the court and its pretrial supervision, which has helped her through drug treatment and enabled her to stay sober for six months.

“I’m doing amazing and I want to keep it that way,” Reid, 36, told the judge. “I’m just happy to move forward with my life.”

The plea agreement alleges Reid “willfully” attempted to obstruct the court order that she testify truthfully to the grand jury in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

Her attorney said Reid never had anything more to offer the investigation.

South Carolina
Man who tried to swallow memory cards in porn case sentenced
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge handed down a 12-year prison sentence on Monday to a man convicted on child pornography charges after authorities say he tried to swallow memory cards containing pornographic images.

David Sierra Orozco, 31, a Mexican national, was sentenced on Monday, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported. Orozco was convicted in March of possessing child pornography. Orozco is resident of Georgia and an unlawful immigrant who will be deported at the end of his sentence, the newspaper said.

Court records say sheriff’s deputies in Harnett County stopped Orozco in July 2017 after they say he was driving erratically. During the traffic stop, deputies noticed a hidden compartment in the car and found more than $100,000 in cash.

Orozco was taken to the county jail for driving without a license. While being searched, officers found a folded $100 bill. When they unfolded it, memory cards fell to the floor.

Testimony at a preliminary hearing indicated Orozco grabbed the memory cards and tried to eat them. He swallowed one and chewed another that deputies were able to retrieve, an agent said. Three other cards were unscathed, and they contained multiple images and videos of child pornography.


Minnesota
Mosque bombing convict wants transgender identity recognized
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The militia leader convicted of master­minding the bombing of a Minnesota mosque is asking a judge to legally acknowledge her transgender identity.

Emily Claire Hari was previously known as Michael Hari, who was found guilty last year  of civil rights and hate crime charges related to the bombing of the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington in August 2017.

Hari, 50, of Clarence, Illinois, said gender dysphoria and right-wing misinformation fueled her “inner conflict” when she was convicted in the bombing, according to court documents.

“She strongly desired making a full transition but knew she would be ostracized from everyone and everything she knew,” Hari’s defense attorney, Shannon Elkins, wrote in the documents. “Thus, as she formed a ragtag group of freedom fighters or militia men and spoke of missions to Cuba and Venezuela, Ms. Hari secretly looked up ‘sex change,’ ‘transgender surgery,’ and ‘post-op transgender’ on the internet.”

Elkins said Hari bought military fatigues for her so-called missions but purchased female clothing for a planned trip to Thailand for male-to-female surgery, the Star Tribune reported. Hari was living a double life, Elkins said.

Elkins cited these as factors in asking U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank to give Hari no more than the minimum 30-year prison sentence, not the life term prosecutors have requested.

Hari also asked for an amended prison placement based on her transgender identity, but the details of the request are under seal.

Hari’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 13.

Two Illinois men also charged in the case pleaded guilty.

Arkansas
Josh Duggar attorneys seek dismissal of child porn charges
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Attorneys for former reality TV star Josh Duggar have filed motions seeking to dismiss child pornography charges against him.

The motions ask for the dismissal of the two charges and to suppress evidence in the case, including all statements Duggar made to investigators, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The documents, filed Friday, allege prosecutors failed to preserve potentially exculpatory evidence and that the two acting secretaries of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security at the time of the Duggar investigation weren’t properly appointed.

The motions to suppress evidence say investigators took Duggar’s cellphone before he could call his lawyer and questioned him without his lawyer present.

Duggar, who appeared in TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” was indicted in April on two counts of downloading and possessing child pornography, some of which prosecutors said depicted the sexual abuse of toddlers.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Duggar has been confined to the home of family friends who agreed to be his custodian during his release, and he is prohibited from using any Internet-accessible devices as he awaits trial.

“19 Kids and Counting” was canceled following revelations that Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. Duggar’s parents said he confessed to the fondling and apologized.

Duggar previously apologized for a pornography addiction and cheating on his wife.

Maryland
Police officer convicted of rape and assault
TOWSON, Md. (AP) — A Baltimore County police officer has been convicted of raping a woman and assaulting another, the county state’s attorney’s office said.

Anthony Westerman, 27, was found guilty of two counts of second-degree rape and other offenses from the 2017 incident, and second-degree assault from a 2019 incident on Friday. Prosecutors said he offered to get a woman an Uber from a bar in 2017, but instead took her to his house and raped her, news outlets report. Westerman is suspended without pay, police said.

Detectives began investigating Westerman in 2019 after being notified of at least three women who allegedly were assaulted, police said previously.

Westerman’s attorney Brian Thompson said Monday that he is “very disappointed” with the verdict. He said the department was pressured to bring charges against Westerman.

Thompson said the case has “procedural and evidentiary irregularities,” and that he intends to file a motion for a new trial and appeal.

Virginia
Man pleads guilty in stabbing of estranged husband
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — A Virginia Beach man has pleaded guilty to stabbing his estranged husband to death and hitting his mother-in-law with a car over two years ago.

Roel Delua, 36, will serve 30 years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to second-degree murder, wounding in the commission of a felony, malicious wounding and hit and run resulting in personal injury, The Virginian-Pilot reported. Under the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a charge of arson.

A preliminary hearing last year showed that in January 2019, John Kilgore and his mother went to his Virginia Beach home which he had shared with Delua to meet someone who came to buy a desk. The two had put up the home for sale shortly after their separation.

Shortly after the buyer left, Delua, who was inside the home, stabbed Kilgore 128 times, according to court documents. Delua then started a fire on the kitchen stove and, while fleeing the scene, hit Kilgore’s mother, Sharon Kilgore, with his car.

Court documents say Delua was arrested that day in a Virginia Beach Walmart bathroom, where Delua had tried to kill himself.


Florida
Mask debate split-screen: courtroom vs. classrooms
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The coronavirus is disrupting more classrooms in Florida while lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis argue against school mask mandates in a Tallahassee courtroom. Three more school districts announced hearings Tuesday to discuss stricter mask policies to avoid more disruptions as more staff and students are sent home due to COVID-19 infections and exposures.

School boards in Orange, Pinellas and Monroe counties could join at least eight other districts in defying the Republican governor, whose executive order gave parents the power to decide whether a child wears a mask to school. Together the three districts have more than 3,000 students who were abruptly told not to come back to their classrooms after positive tests or exposure.

The three-day hearing that started Monday before Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper pits pro-mask parents against the DeSantis administration and state education officials who contend that parents, not schools, should choose whether their children cover up in classrooms.

The highly contagious delta variant led to an acceleration in cases around Florida and record high hospitalizations just as schools prepared to reopen classrooms this month. By mid-August more than 21,000 new cases were being added per day, compared with about 8,500 a month earlier. The state said 16,820 people were hospitalized on Tuesday, down from a record of more than 17,000 last week.

Dr. Mona Mangat, a St. Petersburg physician who specializes in pediatric immunology, testified Tuesday on behalf of the lawsuit plaintiffs that face coverings remain essential in classrooms because children 12 and under aren’t yet eligible to get their shots.

Some districts, such as the one that covers Jacksonville area schools, began the semester with a parental opt out for masks. The board agreed late Monday to adopt a stricter, 90-day mask policy beginning Sept. 7. That’s in keeping with recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to wear masks at all times when indoors among groups of people.

State education officials have vowed to financially punish districts that don’t comply with the governor’s executive order, contending they are violating state law unless they allow parents to opt-out their children for any reason. A lawyer for the defendants — DeSantis, Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, the state school board and education department — said the order heeds the state constitution and the Parents Bill of Rights law that took effect in July.