Maryland
Lawyer convicted in money-laundering conspiracy case
BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal jury convicted a prominent Maryland lawyer Tuesday in a money-laundering conspiracy case, but acquitted his co-defendants.
Kenneth Ravenell, 61, of Monkton, was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering, but acquitted of racketeering-conspiracy and narcotics-conspiracy charges, news outlets reported.
Ravenell faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing May 14. Under the Maryland rules, his conviction will suspend his law license.
The jury found attorney Joshua Treem, 73, of Columbia and investigator Sean Gordon, 45, of Crownsville not guilty of falsifying documents, obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to commit crimes against the federal government.
Treem, a former federal prosecutor, was an attorney for Lee Boyd Malvo, the teen convicted in the Washington-area sniper attacks. He began representing Ravenell in 2016 in connection with a federal grand jury investigation into Ravenell’s work.
The charges were part of an investigation tied to a multistate marijuana operation. Ravenell was indicted in 2019 and accused of helping his drug trafficker client launder money. Prosecutors alleged that Ravenell used his firm’s accounts to hide hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds and pay lawyers retained by other members of the conspiracy.
Last year, an indictment alleged that Ravenell, Treem and Gordon worked together to impede an investigation.
Alabama
Attorneys praise judge’s order to boost state prison staff
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Attorneys for inmates praised a sweeping ruling issued Monday by a federal judge that will require Alabama’s prison system to make changes in inmate mental health care.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued a sometimes scathing 600-page opinion that often focused on the prison system’s lack of progress in meeting an earlier directive to boost staffing and also on the number of suicides that have occurred behind bars. The Monday order spelled out corrective measures and comes after Thompson in 2017 ruled that Alabama’s “horrendously inadequate” care of mentally ill inmates violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The ruling came after a two-month trial in which attorneys for inmates argued the state continued to fail to provide adequate care.
“Judge Thompson’s decision requires ADOC to finally remedy the unconstitutional mental health care identified more than four years ago. This will ensure that the individuals held by ADOC will receive the mental health care they need – and are entitled to – as protected by the Eighth Amendment,” Ashley Austin, an attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.
Austin said if the prison system is unable to “operate adequately with the current staff and funds allotted to it by the state, population reduction must be the consideration – not denial of adequate services.”
Thompson sharply criticized the state’s lack of progress in meeting a 2022 deadline. He said staffing has barely increased in three years, and the system has filled less than half of the positions necessary to meet the requirement of 3,826 full-time-equivalent officers. The judge had previously directed the state to meet staffing targets by Feb. 20, 2022, but wrote Monday that it’s become clear that is “out of reach.”
Thompson extended the deadline to July 1, 2025 for the state to fill all mandatory and essential posts, but he also ordered the creation of yearly benchmarks to measure progress.
“As Judge Thompson reminds all Alabamians, once our state chooses to put a person in prison the state must provide a safe environment and adequate mental health care. Here, the state has failed to do so. Too many individuals have died because of the state’s failures,” James Tucker, director of the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, said in a statement.
The two organizations filed a lawsuit against the prison system in 2014 on behalf of incarcerated inmates.
Thompson ordered the state to make numerous other changes to mental health care including ensuring that inmates get some time out of their cells, that security checks are regularly conducted, that assessments are properly done, that inmates who require hospital-level care receive it within a reasonable period of time and that staff conduct regular drills on how to respond to suicide attempts.
Thompson also ordered that before being discharged from suicide watch, an inmate must receive a confidential, out-of-cell evaluation by a mental health professional and then follow-up examinations for three days.
In the four years since his initial ruling, Thompson said at least 27 more prisoners have died by suicide, and he described some of the incidents.
Thompson said the state has a “mixed” track record in making other improvements in the care of mentally ill inmates. He noted the state had made improvements in the number of mental health workers.
A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections said the department could not immediately respond.
California
Business manager to Kardashians killed, boyfriend charged
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles business manager whose clients had included Nicki Minaj and the Kardashians was killed, and her boyfriend was charged with murder and torture, authorities said Wednesday.
Police found Angela Kukawski, 55, dead in her car in Simi Valley northwest of Los Angeles on Dec. 23, a day after she was reported missing, police said in a statement.
Her 49-year-old boyfriend, Jason Barker, was arrested Tuesday and charged with counts of murder and torture, authorities and public records said.
Kukawski died from sharp and blunt force injuries to the head and neck and strangulation, the Ventura County coroner said.
A criminal complaint from Los Angeles County prosecutors alleges Barker also tortured her with a knife before her death.
Detectives believe Barker killed Kukawski inside their home in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles, put her inside her car, drove it to Simi Valley, parked it and left her inside, authorities said.
Barker was being held in jail on more than $3 million bail. He has not entered a plea or responded to the charges. It is not clear whether he has hired an attorney who could comment.
Kukawski worked for the firm Boulevard Management and handled several high-profile clients during her career, including Minaj, Kim Kardashian, Offset and the estate of Tupac Shakur, according to entertainment trade papers Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
“We are saddened and heartbroken by the loss of our colleague, Angie Kukawski,” Todd Bozick of Boulevard Management said in a statement. “Angie was a kind, wonderful person, and she will be greatly missed by all who knew her.”
