Court Digest

Montana
Ex-police chief pleads guilty to child porn charge
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) — A former Montana police chief pleaded guilty Tuesday to distributing child pornography via social media, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana said.

William Daly Harrington, 43, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Brian Morris, who scheduled sentencing for April 13. A plea agreement calls for three other charges to be dismissed.

Harrington spent about 12 years with the East Helena Police Department and was promoted to chief in April 2019.

After pleading guilty, Harrington was released pending sentencing. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said.

According to the criminal complaint, an FBI agent received a tip from Facebook in September 2020 that an account that was later determined to belong to Harrington shared a sexually explicit image involving a girl who was about 10 years old.

Further investigation found Harrington shared several images of pornography with another Facebook account, determined to belong to Harrington’s girlfriend, between November 2019 and August 2020. More than a dozen of the images appeared to be photos of minors in their early teens, according to court records.

Additional images were found on Harrington’s cellphone.

He was placed on leave in February after the city learned of a sexual assault allegation against him. Harrington resigned on March 5.

Missouri
Former police chief gets probation in civil rights case
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former Missouri police chief who attacked a man who had tried to drown his infant daughter was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation.

A federal judge sentenced Greg Hallgrimson, 52, who pleaded guilty in August to violating the civil rights of Jonathon Zicarelli after he walked into the Greenwood Police Department in December 2018 and said he had just drowned his daughter in a retention pond.

Hallgrimson and another officer rushed to the pond and pulled the unconscious child out of the water. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was treated for severe hypothermia.

A former attorney for Zicarelli, Susan Dill, previously told The Kansas City Star that a video showed Hallgrimson grabbing Zicarelli by the throat, throwing him to the floor and punching him in the face after the officers returned to the station.

Hallgrimson was placed on administrative leave shortly after he was accused of assault and he resigned in May 2019. Greenwood is about 20 miles southeast of Kansas City.

Hallgrimson’s attorney, Robin Fowler, had asked that he be sentenced to one year of probation, noting Hallgrimson’s past career as a police officer and that the risk of further criminal activity was low.

Zicarelli, 31, pleaded guilty in August to felony child abuse and was sentenced to 15 years in state prison.

Zicarelli told investigators he tried to kill his daughter because he wanted to make things easier for his wife and because he was stressed by the holidays and by trying to provide for his family.

Oregon
Man pleads not guilty to murder in shooting near nightclub
BEND, Ore. (AP) — A white man has pleaded not guilty to charges including murder in the shooting death of a Black man outside a nightclub in Bend.

Ian Cranston of Redmond pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges Tuesday in a Deschutes County courtroom, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

Barry Washington Jr. was killed by a gunshot in downtown Bend after midnight on Sept. 19. Police who responded to the scene arrested 27-year-old Cranston, who is white.

The men did not appear to know each other before the incident on the sidewalk outside The Capitol nightclub, prosecutors said.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel has said the conflict began after Washington approached Cranston’s girlfriend.

Hummel said later there was some pushing and some punches thrown, but that things had calmed down before Washington was shot.

Washington was taken to a hospital and later died of his injury, police said.

Cranston pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, first and second-degree manslaughter, fourth-degree assault and two counts of unlawful use of a deadly weapon.

Cranston’s attorney Kevin Sali said that “before Ian Cranston ever drew his weapon, Barry Washington had assaulted him without provocation,” according to an Oct. 1 email statement from Sali.

Washington
Family of man who died in police struggle to get $1.75M
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — Snohomish County will pay $1.75 million to the spouse of a Tulalip tribal member who died while struggling with police.

The payment settles a lawsuit over allegations that officers used excessive force on Cecil Lacy Jr. when they held him down, even as he told them he couldn’t breathe, The Seattle Times reported.

The lawsuit had been summarily dismissed by a state judge and then unanimously reinstated last year by the Washington Court of Appeals.

The lawsuit questioned the independence of an investigation into Lacy’s death done by the Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team and alleged the detectives, the county medical examiner and prosecutors conspired with a union-appointed attorney to leave Lacy’s last words — “I can’t breathe” — out of investigative documents.

The Lacy family’s attorney, Gabe Galanda, had requested an independent investigation but Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson declined, saying the death happened before the passage of Initiative 940.

The measure, passed in 2019, reformed laws surrounding police use of deadly force. Gov. Jay Inslee has since said he will encourage a review of the deaths of Lacy and Stonechild Chiefstick by a new agency established by the Legislature to investigate and review all deaths by members of law enforcement.

“This is a big victory for our family,” Sara Lacy said on Tuesday. “We have been fighting for six years, in and out of court, to obtain justice.”

She and Cecil had three children and each had a child from a previous marriage, Sara Lacy said. He had worked as a commercial fisherman and drove a school bust for the Tulalip Tribal youth services.

Sara Lacy is a member of the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability. She lobbied at the Washington Legislature last year to pass police reform measures including House Bill 1267, which established the agency in the governor’s office that will review police-related deaths.

A three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals Division I unanimously concluded that Sara Lacy could pursue a civil battery claim against the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and Deputy Tyler Pendergrass, who confronted the 46-year-old Lacy on Sept. 18, 2015, as he walked along Marine Drive on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

Lacy appeared intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, and Pendergrass called for backup with the intent of taking Lacy home or to the hospital, according to reports and court documents.

With officers from the Tulalip tribal police, Pendergrass said he tried to calm Lacy, and eventually one officer offered Lacy a ride home. They agreed to handcuff Lacy with his hands in front but after he got into the car, he became agitated and fled.

Pendergrass and two other officers wrestled him to the ground and pinned him facedown. At some point, Lacy quit struggling. However, the officers remained on top of him until additional officers arrived.

Other officers at the scene acknowledged to detectives Lacy said words to the effect of “I’m freaking out … I can’t breathe” just before he died, according to reports. Those words weren’t included in the task force report.

Florida
Confusion ensues after juror recants manslaughter conviction
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A jury in South Florida delivered a manslaughter verdict, only to have their decision rescinded moments later when a juror recanted her vote.

The Broward County jury was ordered to return to the jury room on Wednesday to try to agree on the fate of Dayonte Resiles, who is accused of killing Jill Halliburton Su in 2014.

Jurors deliberated for four full days after the three-week trial, and sent questions to Broward Circuit Judge John J. Murphy on Monday and Tuesday before signaling they had reached a verdict, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.

They were trying to decide between manslaughter — which could carry a maximum sentence of 30 years — or first-degree murder, which in the case of Resiles, 27, could result in the death penalty.

Prosecutors said Su interrupted Resiles as he was burglarizing her home near Fort Lauderdale on Sept. 8, 2014. Evidence showed the 59-year-old woman was bound at the hands and feet, forced into a bathtub and stabbed about 25 times, according to court testimony.

Resiles pleaded not guilty. While DNA evidence placed Resiles at the scene, defense lawyers questioned whether the evidence was contaminated.

As is typical in a trial, the jurors were polled to say whether they agreed with the decision that was reached in the jury room. When the first juror was asked that question on Tuesday, she answered with a firm “No,” the SunSentinel reported.

The judge then ordered the jury to continue deliberating. The victim’s husband, Nan Yao Su, and her family and friends were left in shock as the jury quickly declared itself deadlocked. The judge then instructed them to try to reach an agreement, the newspaper reported.

They will return Wednesday to do just that, but if they can’t reach an agreement, Murphy will have to declare a mistrial.

Resiles also faces criminal charges from a 2016 escape attempt. Resiles unlocked his shackles and fled from a hearing at the courthouse, resulting in a six-day manhunt. After he was recaptured, he wrote the court insisting he fled because he is innocent, the newspaper reported.

Louisiana
5-year sentence for bribe case involving military contracts
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Georgia businessman has been sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay more than $2.3 million in restitution in connection with a bribery case involving military transportation contracts.

Darrel Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty in January. Prosecutors said that in 2019 he agreed to pay kickbacks totaling $250,000 to a civilian employee of the United States Marines Corps Marine Forces Reserves Distribution Management Office in New Orleans.

Prosecutors said the bribery scheme resulted in contracts being corruptly awarded to businesses associated with Fitzpatrick.

Court documents filed this week in federal court in New Orleans show that Fitzpatrick was ordered to pay just over $2 million in restitution to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. He was also ordered to pay over $300,000 in restitution to a charter bus company. Documents show a five-year prison sentence was handed down in September.

The former civilian employee pleaded guilty earlier in the year and was sentenced to 45 months in prison.

Fitzpatrick, who according to court records was born in 1990 and also went by the name Patrick Fields, is to report to prison in January.