New York
Prosecutors: R. Kelly should get at least 25 years in prison
NEW YORK (AP) — R. Kelly, the R&B superstar known for his anthem “I Believe I Can Fly,” deserves at least 25 years behind bars for sexually abusing women and girls, prosecutors said in a memo filed Wednesday in advance of his sentencing later this month.
A New York City jury found Kelly guilty of racketeering and multiple other counts last year at a sex-trafficking trial that was seen as a signature moment in the #MeToo movement. Prosecutors alleged that the entourage of managers and aides who helped Kelly meet girls — and keep them obedient — amounted to a criminal enterprise.
Several accusers testified in lurid detail during the trial, alleging that Kelly subjected his victims to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.
Kelly used his “fame, money and popularity” to systematically “prey upon children and young women for his own sexual gratification,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
“He continued his crimes and avoided punishment for them for almost 30 years and must now be held to account,” prosecutors wrote.
Kelly’s lawyers have argued that he deserves only a maximum of about 17 years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
Among multiple sordid allegations, jurors heard testimony about a fraudulent marriage scheme hatched to protect Kelly after he feared he had impregnated R&B phenom Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15. Witnesses said they were married in matching jogging suits using a license falsely listing her age as 18; he was 27 at the time.
Aaliyah worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number.” She died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.
The competing defense memo suggested prosecutors’ arguments for a higher sentence overreached by falsely claiming Kelly participated in the bribery of “a public aid officer to produce an identification card” that allowed the sham marriage to go forward.
Kelly’s lawyers also said it was wrong to assert he should get more time because he sexually abused one of his victims — referred to in court as “Jane” — after her parents innocently entrusted him to help her with her musical career.
“The record shows that Jane’s parents directed Jane to lie to the defendant about her age and then encouraged her to seduce him,” the papers say.
Kelly, 55, is set to be sentenced on June 29.
New Hampshire
Former juvenile parole officer to plead guilty to child porn
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A longtime juvenile parole officer plans to plead guilty Thursday to possessing child pornography and trying to send a sexually explicit photo to a child, according to court documents.
A plea agreement filed in federal court calls for Jason Ellis, of Derry, to be sentenced to 11 years in prison on the two charges, with prosecutors dropping a third charge of distributing child pornography. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Ellis was fired from his juvenile parole job in February, a week after his arrest and 2½ years after being placed on suspension. He also had worked at New Hampshire’s state-run youth detention center, where he has been accused in a lawsuit of abusing a teenage boy.
According to an FBI affidavit, Ellis sent online messages in 2020 and 2021 to undercover investigators posing as a 13-year-old girl and her father. Investigators say he expressed interest in having sex with the girl and sent her an explicit photo in February 2021.
According to the plea agreement, Ellis also appeared to have chatted online with children as young as age 14, frequently sending explicit photos and sometimes soliciting nude images.
Ellis began his state employment in 2003 as a counselor at the Youth Development Center in Manchester. In 2005, he became a juvenile probation and parole officer, while also working part time at the youth center from 2011-2012.
In 2017, he was fired over allegations that he used his state computer for personal email and spent “an inordinate amount of time on the internet for personal reasons,” according to the state personnel appeals board. He was reinstated after an appeal.
The timing of Ellis’ suspension coincides with the launching of a broad criminal investigation into the Youth Development Center, now called the Sununu Youth Services Center.
Eleven former workers were arrested last year, and nearly 450 former residents have sued the state based on allegations involving more than 150 staffers from 1963 to 2018.
Most of the lawsuits are nearly identical and include few specifics other than the timeframe of the alleged abuse and the names of those accused. One of them accuses Ellis and another former employee of unspecified abuse involving a teenage boy between 2003 and 2006. They are not formal defendants in the case, however, but rather are identified within the lawsuit.
Kansas
Ex-officer found not guilty in 2017 fatal shooting
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A second jury has found a former Kansas police officer not guilty in the 2017 shooting death of a man inside his vehicle while responding to a report of a domestic dispute at a home.
Matthew Harrington was acquitted Wednesday of involuntary manslaughter in the death of 47-year-old Antonio Garcia Jr., the Kansas City Star reported. The decision came after a mistrial was declared in Harrington’s first trial in April when that jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Mike Nichols, an attorney for Harrington, said the jury made the right decision during the second trial. In a text message, Nichols said: “there’s no question that everyone involved wishes that day had turned out differently.”
The shooting occurred when Harrington — then a Leavenworth police officer — responded to a domestic dispute July 11, 2017, involving Garcia. Garcia left the home, but later returned and was sitting in his vehicle when Harrington approached.
Prosecutors said Garcia had a knife but didn’t threaten Harrington, who fired several times into the vehicle after the two men struggled, according to video from Harrington’s body camera.
Harrington was fired from the department in 2018 after an internal investigation found he had violated policies on use of deadly force. Later that year, he was indicted by a grand jury.
District Attorney Todd Thompson said Wednesday that prosecutors presented what they believed was a solid case.
“All we can do is put the best case forward and let the jury decide,” Thompson said.
A Leavenworth County judge ruled in June 2020 that Harrington could not claim legal immunity in the shooting, sending the case to trial.
In 2019, the city of Leavenworth reached a $1 million settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Garcia’s family.
Connecticut
8th person gets prison time for shooting outside courthouse
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut man was sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison Wednesday for his role in violent gang activity in Bridgeport, including a brazen midday shooting in front of a state courthouse that wounded four people in 2020, federal prosecutors said.
Authorities said Asante Gaines, 25, was the eighth and final person convicted in the case to be sentenced. Like Gaines, the seven others all pleaded guilty in connection with the courthouse shooting and other gang activities and are serving prison sentences ranging from eight to 40 years.
Their arrests were the result of an investigation by local, state and federal authorities into Bridgeport gang violence, Connecticut U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery’s office said in a statement.
The January 2020 shooting outside a state courthouse in Bridgeport wounded four people who were sitting in a car. One of the victims was left paralyzed. Police said 23 bullets struck the car.
Prosecutors said Gaines was a member of the Greene Homes Boyz, which teamed up with another gang in the plot to kill East End gang members and associates in front of the courthouse.
Gaines pleaded guilty last year in federal court in New Haven to racketeering-related charges, including attempted murder and aiding and abetting.
Gaines’ lawyer, Jeffrey Kestenband, said in court documents that Gaines did participate in the shooting. He said Gaines is remorseful and has been working to better himself in prison, including getting his GED certificate and completing several self-improvement programs.
Pennsylvania
Plea ends case over 1995 blaze that killed 3 firefighters
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A man accused of having set a Pittsburgh blaze that killed three firefighters more than a quarter of a century ago has entered a plea that carries a conviction but spares him further jail time while allowing him to continue to maintain his innocence.
Forty-four-year-old Gregory Brown Jr., who served 20 years of a life sentence before winning a new trial in the 1995 Valentine’s Day blaze, appeared in federal court Wednesday to enter an Alford plea, which allows a defendant to plead guilty while maintaining innocence, acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that U.S. District Judge David Cercone, who had presided over the state court trial 25 years ago, said it was a “just and reasonable” end to the case, which he said “deserves closure.” He told the packed courtroom that “It’s time to move on.”
Brown was originally convicted in Allegheny County and sentenced to life but won a new trial after arguing that prosecutors and a federal agent failed to turn over evidence that witnesses were offered money in exchange for their testimonies. The case was later turned over to federal prosecutors, who obtained an indictment on a charge of malicious destruction of property by fire resulting in death, a charge that could result in a life term.
Prosecutors had accused Brown, then 17, of pouring a half-gallon of gasoline on some clothes in the basement of the four-story home and starting the blaze in hopes of collecting $20,000 in insurance money for a down payment on a new home. Pittsburgh fire Capt. Thomas Brooks, 42, and firefighters Marc Kolenda, 27, and Patricia Conroy, 43, suffocated when their air tanks ran out as they tried to escape from the rapidly burning home, authorities said.
Brown was originally convicted of three counts of second-degree murder, arson and related charges and sentenced to three life terms. His mother was convicted of insurance fraud and was placed on probation.
Defense attorney Michael Novara argued that his client had been wrongly convicted in the original trial but chose to enter the plea rather than go to trial and risk a life term.
“After spending 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and having finally won his freedom, Mr. Brown is unwilling to take the chance that he might again be wrongfully convicted and sent back to prison for the rest of his life,” he said.
After the hearing, Brown expressed anger over the 20 years he had spent in prison “for nothing. For lies.”
“The whole case was a lie,” Brown said. “They destroyed my whole family.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney told the court that the evidence of the defendant’s guilt was “as strong today as it was in 1997” but cited the time Brown had spent behind bars in concluding that the plea would “satisfy the interests of justice.”
