Court Digest

Virginia
Man sentenced to 32 years in sexual battery case
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) — A Virginia man has been sentenced to more than 32 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated sexual battery in connection with an assault on a teenage girl, officials said.

Michael X. Whitted, 35, who has been in prison for most of the past 16 years, was about a week from being released in October 2020 when he was indicted by a Stafford grand jury on charges stemming from incidents in 2004 and 2005, The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg reported.

At the time of the 2004 and 2005 attacks, Whitted was dating his teen victim’s older sister and was living with her according to court records. The 14-year-old victim told police that she stopped resisting the attacks because she had seen Whitted beat her sister and feared that he would do the same thing to her

The teen gave birth to Whitted’s baby in 2006 in a bathroom in Stafford. The infant was later found dead in an abandoned car.

The victim in the Whitted case was tried as an adult and convicted of manslaughter and felony child neglect. She was sentenced in January 2007 to five years in prison.

Maryland
Mayor charged with posting revenge porn on Reddit
CAMBRIDGE, Md. (AP) — A Maryland mayor has been arrested and charged with distributing revenge porn online, prosecutors announced Monday.

Andrew Bradshaw, the 32-year-old mayor of Cambridge on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, is accused of posting nude photos of a woman he was no longer in a romantic relationship with.

Bradshaw posted the photos using multiple Reddit accounts he created using variations of the woman’s name and birthdate, according to a news release from the Office of the State Prosecutor. The photos were captioned with racial slurs and sexually explicit language and were posted in April and May, authorities said.

Bradshaw was arrested Monday and charged with 50 counts of distributing revenge porn and released on his own recognizance, according to online court records. Bradshaw could not be reached for comment and online court documents don’t list an attorney.

The woman contacted authorities in May after learning that the photos were posted on Reddit. She told authorities that she had sent the photos only to Bradshaw while they were in an intimate relationship and she didn’t give him permission to redistribute them, the document states. She said they were no longer in a relationship.

The accounts that posted the photos were linked to an IP address that provided internet service to a Cambridge home owned by Bradshaw, the document states.

The charging document alleges that Bradshaw disseminated the images without the woman’s knowledge or consent and with the intent to harm her. Maryland law prohibits the nonconsensual distribution of a private visual representation of another which exposes their intimate body parts or displays them engaged in sexual activity, with the intent to harm, harass, intimidate, threaten or coerce the person depicted.

If convicted, Bradshaw could face a maximum penalty of two years’ incarceration and a $5,000 fine for each count.

A biography on the website of the city of about 13,000 notes that Bradshaw, who grew up in the Cambridge area, was the youngest mayor in the city’s history when he took office in January.

City officials declined to comment on the charges, but a statement on the city’s website said they’re “aware of the matter involving the Mayor” and would cooperate with authorities. The statement notes that the city’s business isn’t affected since the city manager serves as the city’s chief executive and administrative branch head.

“It’s appalling behavior for anyone, especially someone vested with public responsibility,” State Prosecutor Charlton Howard III said by telephone. Even if the acts don’t fall within official duties it contributes to the public’s lack of faith in our leaders and institutions, he said.

“People in romantic relationships exchange private confidences, messages and private images and they do it under an assumption, sometimes stated or understood, that they will be retained privately,” Howard said. “Distribution can be exceptionally devastating. ... The pervasive depth and breath of the internet makes these cases exceptionally egregious.”

South Dakota
Contempt charges dropped for 3 Marshals Service supervisors
ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) — Contempt charges have been dismissed for three supervisors in the U.S. Marshals Service for a series of events that began with a deputy marshal refusing to disclose her vaccination status while serving in federal court in Aberdeen.

A mid-December trial in Sioux Falls has been canceled.

Federal Judge Charles Kornmann filed the charges against John Kilgallon, chief of staff, Daniel Mosteller, U.S. marshal in South Dakota and Stephen Houghtaling, chief deputy U.S. marshal.

Kornmann had issued a directive earlier this year that anybody in his courtroom needed to be vaccinated for COVID-19. The Marshals Service argued that no deputy marshals should be required to disclose their vaccination status.

When a deputy marshal refused to disclose her status during a proceeding last May, she was directed to leave the courtroom in Aberdeen. Upon the direction of her supervisors, she took the defendants who were awaiting hearings before Kornmann out of the courthouse and the proceedings were held virtually.

Civil contempt charges were initially pursued, but later converted to criminal contempt charges after a hearing before Kornmann, the  Argus Leader reported.

After those charges were filed, however, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota and the U.S. Department of Justice both recused themselves from criminally prosecuting the case and a special prosecutor was assigned.

Kornmann also recused himself, leading to the appointment of a federal judge in Nebraska who dismissed the charges last week.

Pennsylvania
Man faces 2 life terms without parole in campground slayings
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two men at a Philadelphia-area campground two years ago.

Jurors in Bucks County deliberated for about seven hours before convicting Miles Jones on Monday in the October 2019 deaths at Homestead Family Campgrounds in West Rockhill Township.

Jones, 42, was also convicted of weapons counts and more than a dozen counts of recklessly endangering another person, one for each other person present at the annual gathering of friends and relatives at the campground.

Although Jones initially faced the possibility of the death penalty, Deputy District Attorney Edward Louka said Monday he had decided against pursuing that after talking to the victims’ families. Jones now faces two mandatory life terms without possibility of parole when he is sentenced Thursday.

Prosecutors said an early morning argument began between Jones and his girlfriend, and he was persuaded to leave to calm down but returned with a 9mm handgun and shot Eric Braxton and Arthur Hill. Braxton, 41, was a teacher at a Philadelphia charter school and Hill, 46, worked with troubled juveniles in Norristown.

Jones took the stand Wednesday and said he was assaulted and then forced into a car, where he grabbed a gun he had for protection against bears. He said he then tried to leave but was hobbled by a foot injury and when the crowd approached again he used the gun to prevent another assault.

Defense attorney Kenneth Hone, who declined comment after the verdict, had asked jurors Friday for an acquittal, saying Jones feared for his life and acted in self-defense.

“In a matter of moments, alone, injured, and outnumbered, Miles Jones had to do something he never wanted to do,” Hone said, adding that his client had no “malice in his heart” and never intended to kill anyone.

Prosecutors, however, have characterized Jones as the aggressor, and Deputy District Attorney Edward Louka called his version of events a “self-serving lie.” Prosecutors said Hill and his two sons tried to calm Jones, but he violently pushed Hill and one of the sons punched Jones, who then threatened them, saying “nobody’s safe.”

“He killed their family members then taunted them while they were hiding in the woods,” Louka said.

Ohio
Doctor accused of drugging, assaulting woman gets 20 years
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A plastic surgeon accused of drugging a woman and recording himself sexually assaulting her was sentenced Monday to nearly 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors said in federal court in Toledo that investigators reviewed 60 videos that they said showed Manish Gupta, of Sylvania, sexually assaulting at least 20 different women. But, prosecutors said, only one woman was willing to come forward and accuse him publicly.

Gupta, who ran clinics in Ohio and Michigan before giving up his license last year, pleaded guilty in April to the assault of a woman in 2016. A message seeking comment was left with his attorney.

Gupta, prosecutors said, would travel around the U.S. to medical conferences and hire high-end escorts. Prosecutors alleged that he would drug the women and then sexually assault them.

He pleaded guilty in April to sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and illegally distributing a controlled substance.

Prosecutors said Gupta shipped medical supplies to a hotel in California and then drugged, raped and recorded a sexual encounter with a woman while he was in Los Angeles for a conference.

North Carolina
Developer sentenced to prison in Ponzi scheme
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina real estate developer has pleaded guilty to his role in a scheme that defrauded investors of more than $1.5 million. federal prosecutors said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina says in a news release that Joshua Matthew Houchins, 36, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Monday for wire fraud and possession of firearm by a felon. He was also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and to pay restitution of $1.7 million to his victims.

According to court documents, Houchins solicited funds by telling victims that their money would be applied to a specific property and secured by deeds of trust. Instead, prosecutors said, Houchins regularly used investor funds on other properties or on personal expenses.

An indictment also alleges that after Houchins diverted investor money away from the property, he didn’t develop and sell the properties. In some instances, the indictment said, he didn’t own the property.

The court also saw photos of Houchins dressed in a tactical vest and mask with gun magazines strapped to his chest that he sent to his wife. When he was arrested, Houchins had a Ruger AR-15 despite being a convicted felon.