Pennsylvania
Court orders contested ballots counted in Senate primary
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A state court agreed Thursday night in a ballot-counting lawsuit with the campaign of David McCormick, who is in a neck-and-neck Republican primary contest for the U.S. Senate against celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.
In the decision, Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer ordered counties to count the ballots in question, although her decision could be reversed, depending on what the U.S. Supreme Court does in the coming days on a separate case.
Because of the high court’s involvement, Jubelirer ordered counties to keep the undated ballots separate from other ballots and to count them separately.
The ballots in question are roughly 880 mail-in ballots that lack a handwritten date on the envelope.
Jubelirer’s decision comes as the race between McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO, and Oz is in the midst of a statewide recount.
Roughly 900 votes separate McCormick and Oz in the May 17 primary, out of more than 1.3 million ballots cast.
Even if the ballots are counted, many Republicans believe McCormick would be unable to make up the gap with Oz in a recount.
Oz’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party have opposed McCormick in court.
State law requires a voter to write a date next to their signature on the outside of their mail-in ballot return envelopes. A handwritten date on a ballot envelope plays no role in determining whether a voter is eligible or whether a ballot is cast on time.
McCormick sued in state court to force counties to count the ballots, after the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled two weeks ago in a case from a local judicial last year that throwing out an undated ballot violates a voter’s civil rights.
In an emergency appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked the counting of the ballots.
The Supreme Court’s action — called an administrative stay — freezes the matter until the court can give the case further consideration. There’s no timeline on the high court’s undertaking, and the clock for McCormick is ticking down to next Wednesday, when the recount ends.
Washington
Group fined for meritless voter fraud lawsuit
SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington state Supreme Court has fined a nonprofit group and its lawyer more than $28,000 for making legally meritless claims alleging widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The Washington Election Integrity Coalition United was ordered to pay nearly $9,600, and its Sequim, Washington-based attorney, Virginia Shogren, was ordered to pay nearly $18,800 for suing Gov. Jay Inslee, The Seattle Times reported.
The fines were imposed last month and announced Wednesday by Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office, which defended Inslee in the case. Ferguson said his office also intends to file a complaint against Shogren with the Washington State Bar Association.
The sanctions were the latest defeat for the “Stop the Steal” movement stoked by former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Those claims have been rejected in dozens of lawsuits and audits throughout the country as no widespread fraud has been found.
The coalition had petitioned the state Supreme Court in October, seeking a ruling that Inslee violated his constitutional duties by allegedly allowing or encouraging the state Department of Licensing to register noncitizens to vote. The court dismissed the case.
In its motion for sanctions, Ferguson’s office wrote that the petition was “so devoid of legal merit that there was no reasonable possibility that it would have been successful.” The motion noted the petition had been based largely on unsworn statements by a retired Department of Licensing employee who made “dubious” assumptions about citizenship status of people based on ethnicity.
Inslee in a statement said people who “intentionally spread lies and undermine our elections must be held accountable.” The governor proposed legislation this year that would have criminalized some lies about elections, but it did not advance.
Neither Shogren nor the coalition responded to requests for comment from the newspaper. In a website post, the coalition said the sanctions show courts are “intent on discouraging any case that will shine a bright light on one of the ways our electoral system is fatally flawed.”
The coalition is led by Tamborine Borrelli, who has filed to run for Secretary of State this year.
Her group also has filed lawsuits against county elections officials, seeking audits of the 2020 election, with similar claims of a widespread conspiracy. Republican congressional candidates Joe Kent and Doug Basler also have signed on as plaintiffs.
Six of those lawsuits remain pending in U.S. District Court for Western Washington — and could result in additional sanctions.
Georgia
Ex-court clerk gets 12 years for stealing fines
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A former Georgia court clerk accused of stealing money from fines and fees his office collected was sentenced Thursday to more than 12 years in federal prison.
A U.S. District Court judge in Columbus imposed the sentence for 64-year-old Willie Demps of neighboring Phenix City, Alabama. Demps pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax evasion charges in the case earlier this year.
Federal prosecutors said Demps committed fraud that cost Muscogee County millions of dollars when he served as deputy court clerk. Demps was responsible for fines, fees and other payments the office collected — often in cash that was kept in an office safe. Investigators found the office took in $5.5 million during a decade-long period spanning 2010 to 2019, but only $210 was deposited into official accounts.
During that same period, prosecutors said, Demps wrote 330 separate checks from the clerk’s office totaling $1.3 million to several accomplices, who cashed the checks and received a cut after giving the money to Demps.
Judge Clay Land ordered Demps to pay $1.3 million in restitution to the clerk’s office and nearly $360,000 in uncollected taxes to the IRS, with payments coming from garnishment of Demps’ retirement benefits.
Five other defendants were also sentenced for crimes related to the fraud case.
Massachusetts
Contractor accused of bilking dozens of clients in 5 states
PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A contractor who according to authorities bilked dozens of customers in five states — including a church and two volunteer fire departments — out of a total of more than $400,000, has been indicted on 48 charges, prosecutors said.
Fred Senter, 40, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, who owned Northern Steel Building and Structure LLC, took down payments for more than 40 projects to build steel structures, yet never completed the work and eventually stopped communicating with his clients, according to a statement Thursday from the Berkshire district attorney’s office.
Senter cheated customers from February 2020 through September in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania and even continued to collect deposits for months after he dissolved the business, prosecutors said.
He was held on $25,000 bail at his arraignment Thursday in Berkshire Superior Court.
“My client maintains his innocence,” Senter’s attorney, Joanna Arkema, said in a statement Friday. “Since it is very early in the case, we are going to refrain from commenting further at this time.”
Most of his customers were private citizens, but he also defrauded the volunteer fire department in Richmond, Massachusetts, authorities said.
“These indictments demonstrate my office and law enforcement’s commitment to holding those who take advantage of others accountable,” District Attorney Andrea Harrington said in a statement.
He signed a contract with the department in February 2020 and accepted nearly $53,000 for a new steel building, provided the blueprints and trusses for the project, but never completed the work and never refunded the deposit, prosecutors said.
The charges include multiple larceny counts as well as being a common and notorious thief.
Some of Senter’s clients told investigators that he blamed delays on material and labor shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, before cutting off communications entirely.
North Carolina
Ex-trooper sentenced for selling firearms
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man convicted of selling firearms while he was an N.C. State Highway Patrol trooper has been sentenced to three years in prison, federal officials said.
Timothy Jay Norman, 47, of Browns Summit, was sentenced on Thursday, U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston said in a news release. Norman pleaded guilty in March, the news release said. Norman also was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine and will face three years of supervised release after his prison sentence.
Court documents said that beginning in January 2021, the FBI learned that Norman was selling firearms while he was a trooper. Prosecutors said he sold one weapon to a convicted felon.
In May 2021, law enforcement used a confidential source to buy a decommissioned semi-automatic pistol with the patrol’s badge engraved on it. The next month, another confidential source bought multiple items, including a 12-gauge shotgun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle from Norman’s home.
Later in June 2021, law enforcement says Norman sold a semi-automatic pistol from his patrol car to a source. In July, investigators using a search warrant at Norman’s home seized thousands of rounds of ammunition and over 50 firearms, as well as two guns inside his patrol car.
Oregon
Man found guilty of murder sentenced to life in prison
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A Eugene man accused of murder and a bias crime for shooting a Black man in east Salem following a road rage incident has been sentenced to life in prison.
Marion County Judge Courtland Geyer this week sentenced Manuel North, 48, to life in prison with a minimum of 25 years, the Statesman Journal reported.
A Marion County jury last week found North guilty of murdering Herman Leslie Graham III, 48. The jury found North not guilty of a bias crime charge.
Salem police officers responded on Oct. 26, 2020, to reports of a shooting and found Graham dead from gunshot wounds.
North was detained and told police, “It was self-defense. The guy pulled a gun on me.”
According to court records, one woman of three who had been riding in the car with Graham said she noticed North’s car as they turned onto Mission Street SE from Interstate 5 and suspected Graham cut off North’s vehicle.
North honked, yelled at Graham, repeatedly pulled up next to him and veered toward him as if he were trying to run him off the road, she told police. Another said she heard North using the N-word and saying, “the KKK is gonna come to get you,” according to court records.
The woman said North shot Graham after Graham pulled over and got out of the car.
North declined to speak at his sentencing.
