Court Digest

Wisconsin
Man gets 40 months for starting fire during Kenosha protest
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a Racine man to 40 months in prison for starting a fire that destroyed a furniture store during protests over a police shooting in Kenosha in 2020.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller sentenced 23-year-old Devon Vaughn on Thursday. Vaughn pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to commit arson. His attorney, Joshua Uller, said Vaughn acted “entirely out of his character.”

The judge noted the Aug. 24 fire at B&L Office Furniture caused nearly $2 million in damage and deeply frightened the family of Linda Carpenter, who started the business with her husband more than 40 years ago.

The protests began on Aug. 23 after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, during a domestic disturbance. Blake survived but was left paralyzed from the waist down.

On the third night of the protests, Aug. 25, Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men on the streets, killing two of them. A jury acquitted him of multiple charges in November after he argued he fired in self-defense.

Texas
Infowars bankruptcy tossed in deal with Sandy Hook parents
VICTORIA, Texas (AP) — A federal judge in Texas on Friday dismissed the bankruptcy protection case of Infowars and two other companies controlled by Alex Jones, the result of an agreement between lawyers for the conspiracy theorist and parents of some of the children slain in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez approved the deal after a brief court hearing. The judge’s action allows the parents’ defamation lawsuits against Jones to continue in Texas and Connecticut, where trials are pending on how much he should pay families after judges in both states found Jones and his companies liable for damages.

The families’ lawsuits say they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers because of the hoax conspiracy. Jones, based in Austin, Texas, has since said he believes the shooting did occur.

Relatives of eight of the 20 first graders and six educators killed in the massacre and an FBI agent who responded to the school in Newtown, Connecticut, are suing Jones and Free Speech Systems.

Infowars, Prison Planet TV and IW Health consented to dismissing the bankruptcy case last week after the families agreed to drop the three companies from their defamation lawsuits. Those lawsuits will continue against Jones himself and his largest moneymaking company, Free Speech Systems.

The families and the U.S. trustee’s office — a Justice Department agency that oversees bankruptcy cases — had questioned the legitimacy of the three companies’ bankruptcy filing and sought to throw out the case, saying it was only a tactic to delay the lawsuits. Jones’ lawyers denied the allegations.

Washington
Dad, son set to accept plea deals in Jan. 6 riot
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A father and son from southwest Washington are set to accept plea deals with federal prosecutors for entering the U.S. Capitol with a pro-Trump mob during the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.

Jeff and Jeremy Grace appeared in selfie photos inside and outside the Capitol Building during the insurrection, according to prosecutors.

Jeremy Grace pleaded guilty in April to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, KGW-TV reported. As part of the plea deal, federal prosecutors agreed to drop three additional charges.

He will likely receive a sentence in July ranging from zero to six months in prison, along with a fine from $500 to $9,500, according to court records. Court records show Jeremy Grace also agreed to allow federal agents to review his social media accounts around that time.

Grace’s father, Jeff, is scheduled for a plea hearing on June 17. He is facing similar charges.

KGW wasn’t able to reach Jeff or Jeremy Grace for comment.

The Justice Department has arrested and charged over 800 people for the violence that day, the biggest dragnet in its history.

The House committee investigating the attack went public with its findings starting Thursday night as lawmakers hope to show the American public how democracy came to the brink of disaster when the defeated president, Donald Trump, tried to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory.

Iowa
Man pleads guilty to Capitol insurrection charge
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City man who promised to behead President Joe Biden and predicted “blood in the streets” has pleaded guilty to a single charge and faces up to six months in prison for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Kenneth Rader, 54, entered the guilty plea last Tuesday to a federal judge in Washington by video conference. Rader was allowed to remain free on bond.

Rader initially pleaded not guilty to four counts. In an agreement with federal prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to demonstrating in the Capitol and prosecutors agreed to drop three charges, including disorderly conduct in a restricted building.

He was arrested Jan. 20 in Sioux City after the FBI received a tip from a relative that Rader was involved in the Capitol insurrection. The tipster referred to Rader as “my radicalized family member.”

Rader admitted in court documents that he drove to Washington from Iowa to protest Congress’ certification of Biden’s win.

In social media postings, he wrote about a pending civil war, that he had joined a militia and that those who went along with a Biden presidency were complicit in treason.

In late 2020, he wrote that the certification and inauguration of Biden would “spill blood in the streets” and that “there will be no peaceful transfer of power.” He made further statements that Biden would never be president and that “I’ll behead him like ISIS.”

Rader climbed scaffolding outside the Capitol and entered the building, remaining inside for three minutes after gathering glass shards from a broken window and plaster from the walls as souvenirs. Photos show him wearing a hooded sweatshirt with “Trump 2020” on the front.

Rader faces up to six months in prison, probation of up to five years and a fine of up to $5,000. He will be sentenced Sept. 9.

Georgia
Man charged with murder in death of mail carrier
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A northeast Georgia man is facing charges, including murder, in the shooting death of a rural mail carrier last August.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Larry Steven Grogan of Danielsville in the death of 59-year-old Asa “Junior” Wood. In addition to murder, Grogan, 50, is charged with assault on a federal employee using a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm resulting in death and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

“Asa Wood dedicated his life to serving his family and his community,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a news release Thursday. “His murder is tragic and heartbreaking.”

No attorney who could comment on the charges was listed for Grogan in online court records.

Wood, who had been a mail carrier for more than 20 years, was stopped near a mailbox on Aug. 7 when Grogan shot him in the left leg and drove away, prosecutors said. Wood died in his postal vehicle.

People who lived along the road where the shooting happened called 911 and provided information that helped authorities identify Grogan as the shooter, prosecutors said. Banks County sheriff’s deputies spotted his car later that day and tried to stop him. Grogan exited the vehicle and began firing at the deputies before he was taken into custody, authorities said.


Alabama
Man convicted of littering for decorating fiancee’s grave
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man was convicted of criminal littering and ordered to pay about $300 for repeatedly placing boxes full of flowers on the grave of his fiancee, whose father didn’t like the decorations or approve of their relationship.

The Opelika-Auburn News reported that Winston “Winchester” Hagans was convicted Thursday in Auburn city court on a warrant signed by the Rev. Tom Ford, the father of Hannah Ford, who died in a wreck in January 2021 about a month after becoming engaged to Hagans.

Evidence showed that Hagans repeatedly put small planter boxes with flowers on the woman’s grave, and her father repeatedly removed them. Under Alabama law, citizens can obtain arrest warrants in municipal court under certain circumstances.

Since May 2021, Ford testified, a total of 10 boxes have been placed on the grave, and he either discarded them or sent them back to Hagans.

“The first box, when I saw where it was, I picked it up and it fell apart,” Ford said. “It was a rotten piece of wood with some pictures on it, so I discarded it.”

Ford said he “certainly did not” approve of the relationship between his daughter and Hagans, which he heard about second- or thirdhand because the woman didn’t tell him about it.

The cemetery is owned by the city, and municipal prosecutor Justin Clark said regulations prohibit “benches, urns, boxes, shells, toys and other similar articles” on graves.

City employees Sari Card said she told Hagans that Ford didn’t want the boxes on the grave and planned legal action.

“He said he didn’t care, that every time a box is removed he would make another one to replace it,” she said.

While the defense argued that flower boxes aren’t litter, Judge Jim McLaughlin, who convicted Hagans in a non-jury trial, said the boxes were “a clear case of violation of this deed and violation of littering statute.”

“The box does not occur naturally in nature. It is a foreign substance. Whether it’s pretty or not is not a consideration for this court,” he said.

The defense said it would appeal the conviction to circuit court, where a jury can hear the case. Aside from a $50 fine and $251 in court costs, Hagans received a 30-day jail sentence that was suspended on the condition he doesn’t place additional flowers on the grave.

California
Man gets 5 years for money laundering

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge in Madison has sentenced a California man to five years in prison for his role in a money laundering scheme.

U.S. District Judge William Conley sentenced Sinval De Oliveira of Torrance on Wednesday.

According to prosecutors, De Oliveira was part of a group that persuaded businesses to turn over their cash-on-hand to fake money couriers. De Oliveira in 2020 flew to Milwaukee where he picked up nearly $243,000 in fraudulent proceeds and deposited them into a funnel account through multiple ATM deposits. The money was eventually transferred overseas.

Prosecutors said that Conley determined the Wisconsin transactions were part of De Oliveira’s larger pattern of nationwide money laundering activity, finding that he laundered more than $5.1 million in the five months surrounding the Wisconsin transactions.

De Oliveira pleaded guilty in March.