New York
Man found guilty in 2019 robbery that led to officer’s death
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury on Monday convicted a man of murder in connection to a 2019 store robbery that led to the death of a New York City police officer hit by crossfire from other officers’ guns.
Jagger Freeman, 28, faces 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on June 30, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Prosecutors said he and Christopher Ransom, 30, set off a chain of events that led to New York Police Department Detective Brian Simonsen being killed in February 2019 after officers responded to a Queens store that was being robbed by the two men.
Authorities said officers fired after they thought a real gun was being pointed at them by Ransom, with Simonsen ending up fatally shot and another officer wounded.
Freeman’s lawyer declined to comment.
Ransom pleaded guilty in October to aggravated manslaughter and robbery and was sentenced to 33 years in prison.
West Virginia
Jury convicts man in police officer’s fatal shooting
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A man was found guilty Monday in the fatal shooting of a West Virginia police officer who had responded to a parking complaint.
A Kanawha County jury announced the verdict on a second-degree murder charge following three days of deliberations in the trial of Joshua Phillips. He originally was charged with first-degree murder. The jury also found Phillips guilty of simple possession of a controlled substance, news outlets reported.
Charleston Police Officer Cassie Johnson, 28, died after being shot in the neck in December 2020. According to a police complaint, a resident had said that Phillips, of Charleston, parked his sport utility vehicle on her property.
Prosecutors said Johnson was worried about her safety because Phillips had pulled a gun, prevented Johnson from getting to her service revolver and struggled with her before shots were fired. According to testimony at the trial, Phillips fired six shots.
No sentencing date was immediately set. Phillips faces up to 40 years in prison.
“This is not the verdict we wanted. However, the jury made their decision and we must have faith in our justice system,” Charleston Police Chief Tyke Hunt said in a statement. “While there’s nothing we can do to bring back a fallen sister, her death will not be in vain. The officers of the Charleston Police Department will work to uphold her memory in the job she so dearly loved.”
West Virginia
Ex-school counselor pleads to porn charge
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former elementary school counselor in West Virginia pleaded guilty Monday to attempted production of child pornography and attempted enticement of a minor.
Todd C. Roatsey admitted in federal court to posing as an 18-year-old boy on social media to communicate with several juvenile females, according to court records. Prosecutors said that beginning in January 2020, Roatsey persuaded two girls to record and send him numerous sexually explicit videos and he reciprocated.
Roatsey, 43, of Elkview, also used his Snapchat account to communicate with girls he knew through his position as a Pinch Elementary School counselor in Kanawha County and received numerous videos of girls performing dance routines wearing only sports bras and shorts.
Roatsey also admitted to possessing and distributing child pornography through a variety of media, prosecutors said.
Within hours of Homeland Security investigators executing a search warrant at his residence and seizing numerous electronic devices in October 2021, Roatsey deleted his Snapchat account, making various records inaccessible to law enforcement, prosecutors said.
“The crimes to which the defendant pleaded guilty today are truly horrific,” U.S. Attorney Will Thompson said in a statement. “They are made even worse because the defendant was a school counselor at a grade school. Schools are often the only constant for so many of our children, and are often seen for some children as their only safe place.”
Roatsey faces up to 35 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 14.
Texas
Judge again delays ex-cop’s murder trial
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A Texas judge on Monday again delayed the murder trial of an ex-police officer who fatally shot a Black woman through a window of her own Fort Worth home in 2019.
State administrative Judge George Gallagher delayed Aaron Dean’s trial during a Monday hearing until another judge decides on a defense motion to recuse state District Judge David Hagerman.
Hagerman has declined to recuse himself as judge presiding over the trial, which had been scheduled to start next week.
Dean is charged in the death of Atatiana Jefferson, whom he shot and killed in her home while responding to an October 2019 report about open doors. In court submissions, his attorneys have argued that Hagerman “has grown increasingly hostile, overbearing and rude” to them.
At a June 3 hearing, defense attorneys had sought a delay because lead attorney Jim Lane, who had been ill, and a key defense witness would be unavailable. Hagerman revised to follow courthouse rules and ordered the trial to proceed, defense co-counsels Miles Brissette and Bob Gill said in their motion for Gallagher to settle the scheduling conflict. At the Monday hearing, Gallagher said a hearing on the recusal motion would not be able to be held until at least the week after next, forcing the postponement of the trial from June 21.
At the June 3 hearing, Gill told Hagerman that he had submitted a vacation request letter for June 29 months before. Hagerman said he would not consider that issue. He and prosecutors pointed out they had canceled their vacations to be ready for the Dean trial.
“You’re not going to dictate the schedule to this court, Mr. Gill,” Hagerman said.
Hagerman has issued a gag order has been issued that prevents prosecutors and defense attorneys from speaking publicly about the case.
Jefferson was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew when a neighbor called a non-emergency police line to report that a door to Jefferson’s home was ajar. Police have said Dean opened fire from outside through a window after “perceiving a threat.”
The killing and ensuing delays have frayed relations between the Fort Worth Police Department and the city’s Black community.
Dean’s trial has been delayed for years as the COVID-19 pandemic ground courts across the country to a standstill. Hagerman denied a defense motion on May 4 to move the trial, then scheduled for May 16, to another county, arguing that media coverage of the case would make choosing an impartial jury impossible. Hagerman granted the one-month postponement to June 21 because of Lane’s poor health.
Oregon
Life for ‘How to Murder Your Husband’ author in spouse death
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A self-published romance novelist who once wrote an online essay called “How to Murder Your Husband” was sentenced Monday to life in prison with the possibility of parole for murdering her husband at his workplace in Portland four years ago.
Nancy Crampton Brophy, 71, was convicted of second-degree murder on May 25 following a seven-week trial. Her sentence Monday includes the possibility of parole after 25 years in custody, KGW-TV reported Monday.
Prosecutors said Crampton Brophy fatally shot Dan Brophy, 63, inside the now-closed Oregon Culinary Institute where he worked in 2018 because she stood to gain financially from his life insurance payout. The case drew national attention because of the essay that Crampton Brophy had penned years earlier, but the piece was not permitted as evidence at trial.
The prosecution told jurors the couple had been facing financial difficulties at the time of the murder and contended that she had researched and purchased a “ghost gun” kit online and then later bought a Glock 17 handgun at a gun show.
Crampton Brophy’s attorney argued the state’s evidence was circumstantial, disputed the claims of financial trouble and brought in witnesses who testified about the couple’s strong and loving relationship. Crampton Brophy also took the stand and said she and her husband had both purchased life insurance policies as part of their retirement planning and had a plan to reduce their debt.
She also said her research into ghost guns was in preparation for a future novel.
Arizona
Man is convicted of stealing Social Security checks
PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — A Chino Valley man has been convicted of stealing Social Security checks from his daughter and putting the money in his own bank account.
Prosecutors said a Yavapai County Superior Court jury found 58-year-old David Lawrence Schuck guilty of one count each of theft and fraudulent schemes.
Schuck’s daughter reported to authorities in May 2019 that her estranged father had taken several Social Security checks issued to her without her knowledge or permission.
Schuck was accused of signed his daughter’s name to the checks and deposited them into his bank account.
He also allegedly took additional checks issued to his daughter by electronically depositing them into his own account.
Prosecutors said Schuck is facing a minimum of three years in prison when he’s sentenced on July 11.
New Jersey
Court nixes lawsuit from woman injured while rescuing dog
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A woman who says she suffered serious injuries while trying to save her neighbors’ dog from a canal can’t sue the pooch’s owners, New Jersey’s Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
The court unanimously rejected Ann Samolyk’s claims that laws allowing legal action for injuries suffered while rescuing a person who put themselves in peril should allow her to sue for damages.
But the justices acknowledged that the law could apply to property in some cases where protecting human life also is the ultimate aim.
In her lawsuit, Samolyk alleged she suffered neurological and cognitive damage after jumping into the canal in Lacey Township at the New Jersey shore in 2017 to save the dog after she heard someone call for help. The dog was unharmed.
The court wrote Monday that there could be circumstances in which trying to save property could qualify under the so-called rescue doctrine — for example, if a homeowner is injured trying to put out a fire in a nearby house on a reasonable belief that inhabitants might be in danger — but ruled those circumstances didn’t exist in Samolyk’s case.
“Notwithstanding the strong emotional attachment people may have to dogs, cats, and other domesticated animals, or the great significance some may attribute to family heirlooms, or works of art generally considered as irreplaceable parts of our cultural history, sound public policy cannot sanction expanding the rescue doctrine to imbue property with the same status and dignity uniquely conferred upon a human life,” Judge Jose Fuentes wrote.
Samolyk’s attorney, William Wright, said they are disappointed in the outcome but “happy that the Court considered our arguments and decided to expand the rescue doctrine which will encourage behavior intended to protect human life.”
