Court Digest

New Jersey
Man receives 10 years for sex trafficking
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A New Jersey man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for engaging in sex trafficking, federal prosecutors in North Carolina said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Mark Daniel Benavidez, 40, of Elmwood Park, New Jersey, also was ordered on Wednesday to pay $32,800 in restitution to his victims. He pleaded guilty in March to transporting a victim across state lines for prostitution.

Court documents and information presented in court showed Benavidez was arrested in connection with an undercover prostitution sting at a Cary hotel in July 2017.

An investigation showed Benavidez began prostituting one of the victims in 2016 in New Jersey and then recruited a second woman. They traveled to North Carolina where a third victim was recruited, the news release said.

Benavidez abused one victim on a weekly basis, according to the news release, and exploited the drug addictions of the other two, using the promise of drugs to keep them prostituting for him. Bena­videz took all the money the victims earned, and the investigation led to storage units in North Carolina and New Jersey where investigators seized more than $34,000.

New Jersey
Man admits role in nearly $7M paycheck protection scheme
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A man admitted in federal court in New Jersey that he participated in a scheme to fraudulently try to obtain nearly $7 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans.

Gregory Blotnick, 34, pleaded guilty Wednesday to wire fraud and money laundering.

Blotnick, who lives in New York and Florida, submitted 21 fraudulent PPP loan applications to 13 lenders on behalf of nine purported businesses that Blotnick controlled from April 2020 through March 2021, according to court documents. The forgivable loans were created to help small businesses retain jobs and cover other expenses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Blotnick falsified employment and income records and managed to obtain $4.6 million in funds, prosecutors said. They said he transferred the money into brokerage accounts from which he placed more than approximately $3 million in losing stock trades.

The charge of wire fraud carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of the greater of $250,000, twice the gross profits or loss, whichever is greatest, prosecutors said. The charge of money laundering carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain to the defendant or gross loss to the victim, whichever is greatest.

His sentencing is scheduled for March 2022.

Indiana
Ex-mayor gets 21 months in prison for seeking bribe
HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — A former northwestern Indiana mayor who was found guilty of taking a $13,000 bribe from a trucking company and illegal tax evasion was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in prison.

A federal judge ordered the sentence against former Portage Mayor James Snyder after a jury convicted him in March of seeking the bribe in 2013 in return for steering about $1.1 million in city contracts to the company.

Snyder, a Republican, has maintained his innocence, testifying during his trial that the money was payment for consulting work that he declared on his income tax returns.

Snyder’s defense attorney sought probation or home confinement for him, calling the company’s payment a “gratuity” and arguing that even if Snyder was guilty the offense was “nonviolent and an example of aberrant behavior in an otherwise positive and law-abiding life.”

“A single transaction that involved a modest amount of money that is at worst a gratuity does not rise to the level of seriousness reflected in the scope and nature of (other corruption cases),” defense attorney Andrea Gambino wrote to the judge.

The prison time that Judge Matthew Kennelly ordered, along with one year of supervised release, was less than what is called for under federal sentencing guidelines. Kennelly said Snyder’s offense did appear to be an “aberration” but agreed with prosecutors that prison time was proper to help deter corruption by public officials.

Snyder, 43, won elections as mayor in 2011 and 2015. He was indicted on the bribery charges in 2016 and was removed from office in 2019 when he was first convicted in the case. A judge later threw out that verdict, ruling that aggressive tactics by prosecutors denied Snyder a fair trial.

A former owner of the Great Lakes Peterbilt trucking company testified during Snyder’s retrial that he felt pressured when Snyder showed up at the trucking company’s office asking for money.

Jurors also convicted Snyder of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service from collecting unpaid taxes owed by a private mortgage company he ran.

Federal prosecutors had recommended about four years in prison for Snyder. The judge gave Snyder until Jan. 5 to surrender for the start of his prison term.

Pennsylvania
U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear dispute over injection sites
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court decided Wednesday it will not review a nonprofit group’s effort to open a supervised injection site in Philadelphia to try to reduce overdose deaths. The high court’s decision in the widely watched test case is a setback for the two dozen U.S. states and cities that supported the petition.

A divided U.S. appeals court had rejected the Safehouse plan in January. Organizers of the Safehouse project say federal “crackhouse” laws enacted are not intended to criminalize medically supervised centers.

Safehouse vice president Ronda Goldfein tells The Philadelphia Inquirer the fight is not over. She hopes they can prevail on religious grounds by arguing that their faith compels them to try to save lives.

A trial judge had sided with Safehouse in the case, but the federal appeals court overturned the decision and sided with the Republican Justice Department in declaring the plan illegal.

The Justice Department under President Joe Biden has so far stayed neutral in the litigation.

The U.S. tallied more than 93,000 overdose deaths last year, according to CDC data.

Florida
2 sentenced in separate COVID relief scams
MIAMI (AP) — A Georgia man and a California woman have been sentenced to prison for fraudulently obtaining coronavirus relief funds through a program designed to help small businesses across the nation stay afloat.

Dennes Garcia, 28, of Atlanta, was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty July 6 in the Southern District of Florida to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said Garcia obtained the Paycheck Protection Program money for his company, Dhanda Corporation, based on false information about the company’s payroll and the number of employees, court documents said.
He was ordered to pay $285,742 in restitution and $285,742 in forfeiture, officials said.

Cindi Denton, 63, of Eastvale, California, was sentenced Oct. 8 to six months in prison and 12 months of home confinement after pleading guilty July 22 in Florida’s southern district to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the release said.

Denton admitted to obtaining a PPP loan of $491,310 for her own company, Emerald Jade Solutions Inc., based on false information about the company’s number of employees and average payroll, and based on false supporting tax documents, the release said.

She was also ordered to pay $377,883.91 in restitution and $377,883.91 in forfeiture.

Both Denton and Garcia said they paid alleged co-conspirator James Stote as a kickback for his assistance in preparing and submitting the fraudulent loan application, the release said. He was charged by complaint with wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in June 2020 and his case is pending, the release said.

It wasn’t immediately known whether Stote has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Utah
Charges filed in shooting death of football player
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A 22-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting University of Utah football player Aaron Lowe at a party was charged Wednesday with aggravated murder and other counts.

Lowe, 21, died at a late-September house party just hours after the team defeated Washington State University. The shooting happened after an argument involving Lowe and another group who would not move out of the way of his car so he could go home, charges state.

Buk M. Buk was charged with aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder, possession of a firearm by a restricted person and obstruction of justice. The first charges carry the possibility of the death penalty.

The shooting happened after uninvited guests, including Buk, arrived at the party and the host started asking people to leave, charges state. Neighbors had also called in noise complaints to 911.

A woman named Fuamoli Pomale, 20, had been trying to wind down the fight when Buk grabbed a gun from another man at the party and starting shooting, charges state.

Pomale was also shot in the chest and neck, damaging her spinal cord and other soft tissues, which have made her unable to speak, authorities said. She instead typed her answers to investigators’ questions or answered with non-verbal gestures, according to court records.

Lowe, a cornerback from Mesquite, Texas, died nine months after his friend and fellow Texas native, running back Ty Jordan, died in an accidental shooting on Christmas 2020.

It is unclear if Buk has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Washington
City pays $515,000 settlement in police shooting
SEATTLE (AP) — The city of Seattle has agreed to pay $515,000 to settle a civil-rights lawsuit filed by the estate of Iosia Faletogo, who was shot and killed by police after a foot chase across Aurora Avenue North on New Year’s Eve 2018.

Faletogo’s last words, caught on police body cameras — “Nope, not reaching!” — became a rallying cry for protesters against police racism and violence in the weeks after the killing, the Seattle Times reported.

The department’s civilian-run Office of Police Accountability found the officers’ actions justified. Graphic body-camera video appeared to show Faletogo had dropped a handgun in a struggle with officers and was unarmed just before the fatal shot was fired.

The video showed Faletogo on his hands and knees saying, “Nope, not reaching,” referring to the handgun that was on the ground.

The settlement approved Wednesday would divide the money between the estate’s attorneys and Faletogo’s two minor children.

Nate Bingham, a Seattle attorney representing Faletogo’s estate, said the family and Faletogo’s mother, Lisa Elisara, would not have any immediate comment.

A message sent Wednesday seeking comment from the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, which defended the city in the lawsuit, was not immediately returned.

California
Judge blocks vaccination mandate for state prisons
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday blocked an order due to take effect this week that required California prison employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Kern County Judge Bernard Barmann issued a temporary restraining order that prevents enforcement of the vaccination mandate for guards and peace officers represented by a powerful union while the court weighs a request for a preliminary injunction, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The public health mandate due to take effect Friday will still apply to other employees who work in prisons that have health care facilities.

It is aimed at heading off another coronavirus outbreak like one that killed 28 inmates and a correctional officer at San Quentin State Prison last year.

In total, the virus has killed 240 inmates and 39 prison employees since the start of the pandemic.

However, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association opposes mandates for its members. The group has a lot of influence with the state’s Democratic Party-controlled political structure. It contributed $1.75 million to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s successful fight against recall.

Newsom has a reputation as one of the strongest proponents of vaccine mandates among state governors. His administration had ordered all state employees, including those in prisons, to be vaccinated or have regular COVID-19 testing.

Yet Newsom was opposed when last month a federal judge ordered that all employees entering California prisons be vaccinated or have a religious or medical exemption. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar did away with an option for prison employees to avoid vaccination and instead undergo frequent COVID-19 testing.

Newsom filed a notice Tuesday that the state plans to appeal that ruling, leaving it in limbo.