Oregon
Man accused of threatening to ‘shoot up’ elementary school
A man is facing a federal charge stemming from what FBI agents said were his emailed messages to federal law enforcement about his desire to kill children at an elementary school in Sherwood, Oregon.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports a federal grand jury has indicted Braeden Richard Riess, 26, of Tigard, Oregon, on one count of interstate communication of threats.
He appeared in federal court Friday afternoon, about a month after he was charged in Washington County Circuit Court with multiple counts of disorderly conduct in the same case. His court-appointed federal public defender entered a not guilty plea to the single federal charge on his behalf.
Riess is accused of sending multiple emails May 15 to the FBI’s website threatening to “shoot up’’ Middleton Elementary School because of the agency’s failure to stop “hackers,” according to a federal affidavit and Sherwood police.
The FBI had received earlier emails from Riess, but those didn’t name a specific target or school, the affidavit said, though they did threaten that Riess would walk into a school and kill innocent children. He sent those emails between May 5 and May 13, according the affidavit.
FBI agents arrested Riess at his Tigard apartment on May 16.
He has pleaded not guilty to six counts of first-degree disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, in Washington County Circuit Court.
Missouri
Campaign mailer photo draws ire of state Supreme Court
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court said Friday that judges were “disappointed” that a mailer sent in support of Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s U.S. Senate campaign used a photo of Schmitt and three judges.
The mailer was not from Schmitt’s campaign but from a group supporting his bid for the Republican nomination in the August primary. A Schmitt campaign spokesman said the mailer “was an independent expenditure not authorized by Attorney General Eric Schmitt or his U.S. Senate campaign.”
The Supreme Court said the photo was taken by a member of the attorney general’s staff during a public event in August celebrating the state’s bicentennial.
The Missouri Constitution prohibits Supreme Court judges from engaging in political activity “and this photograph should not be taken as such an endorsement despite the implication created by the mailer,” a news release from the court stated.
The release said the incident will be reported, but it wasn’t clear to whom.
“The judges are disappointed that this photo was used, without their knowledge or consent, for such a blatant political purpose,” the release stated.
Pennsylvania
Man convicted in kidnap, slaying after bones found in yard
STROUDSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man has been convicted in the kidnap and slaying almost a decade ago of a co-worker whose bones were found buried in his eastern Pennsylvania yard.
A Monroe County judge on Friday convicted Michael Horvath, 55, of criminal homicide, kidnapping, evidence-tampering and abuse of a corpse in the 2013 killing of Holly Grim. The judge acquitted him of a charge of obstruction in the nonjury trial.
Grim, 41, was last seen in Lehigh County’s Lower Macungie Township in November 2013. She and Horvath had worked together at a company that makes church organs, authorities said.
Police said bone fragments unearthed at Horvath’s Ross Township property were consistent with a gunshot wound to the chest, and say Horvath owned DVDs dealing with murder, sexually deviant behavior and “hunting humans.”
Defense attorney Janet Jackson argued that the case was circumstantial and suggested another suspect. Jackson conceded that the defendant could be described as a “weirdo” or “oddball,” but said he had never behaved inappropriately and wasn’t prone to anger, let alone violence.
“This is what we were hoping for,” Zachary Grim, Holly’s son, said outside the courtroom after the verdict was read, The (Allentown) Morning Call reported. “This was a long time coming.”
“We are just so happy that they found him guilty so he can rot in jail the rest of his life, and that’s what he deserves,” said Nancy Godowski, who was with Grim the night before she went missing.
Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 8. Prosecutor Michael Mancuso said he will seek consecutive sentences on for the murder and kidnapping convictions and also hopes to find out where the rest of the victim’s remains are.
Georgia
Prisoner sentenced to die in guard killings
EATONTON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia prisoner convicted of killing two guards during an escape from a prison transport bus five years ago has been sentenced to die.
A jury on Thursday agreed unanimously on a death sentence for Ricky Dubose in the June 2017 shooting deaths of Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue, news outlets reported. The jury on Monday had found him guilty of charges including murder.
A second prisoner charged in the killings, Donnie Rowe, was convicted of murder in September. A judge sentenced him to serve life in prison without parole after jurors couldn’t agree whether he should be sentenced to death.
Dubose and Rowe escaped together from the bus in Putnam County, southeast of Atlanta, on June 13, 2017, and were arrested in Tennessee days later.
Dubose was accused of firing the gun that killed the officers after he and Rowe slipped out of handcuffs and burst through an unlocked gate at the front of the bus. Prosecutors say Dubose grabbed one of the officers’ weapons and shot Monica, the guard, and then Billue, the driver, both in the head. Security cameras on the bus recorded the violent escape and roughly 30 other prisoners witnessed the killings.
An attorney for Dubose had acknowledged in her opening statement that Dubose was guilty, but she said the jury should find him guilty and intellectually disabled or guilty but mentally ill. That would have made him ineligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors rejected the defense arguments, saying Dubose was an intelligent and calculated killer.
Dubose, 29, was already serving a 20-year sentence for a 2015 armed robbery and assault in Elbert County when he escaped. He had been in prison earlier, as well.
Kentucky
State Supreme Court to review monument removal decision
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky Supreme Court has agreed to consider a lawsuit that seeks to re-erect a statue of a Louisville civic and military leader who fought for the Confederacy before later renouncing it.
The statue of John B. Castleman was vandalized several times over a few years before it was removed in June 2020 from its pedestal near Louisville’s Cherokee Park, 107 years after is was erected, The Courier Journal reported. That followed a 2019 decision from Louisville’s landmarks commission that the monument could be taken down. It is currently in storage.
The monument depicts Castleman riding a horse and wearing a suit and tie, not a military uniform.
A group called Friends of Louisville Public Art filed a lawsuit challenging the landmarks commission ruling that allowed the statue to be removed. They argue the statue is a local landmark and claim several commission members should not have been allowed to vote because they have a conflict of interest.
While the group acknowledges Castleman’s Confederate ties, they argue that he later renounced his allegiance to the Confederacy. Castleman later served as a brigadier general in the U.S. Army. He was partially responsible for establishing Louisville’s park system and fought to keep the city’s parks and playgrounds open to Black residents.
Kentucky’s Court of Appeals upheld a Jefferson Circuit Court judge’s ruling dismissing the lawsuit. The appeals court ruled that there were “no facts to support the conflict of interests claim.”
In an order earlier this month, the state Supreme Court said it will review that ruling, a decision that has encouraged Friends of Louisville Public Art.
“We’re very optimistic,” Steve Wiser, who serves on the group’s executive committee, said in an email to the paper.
Sarah Martin, the director of the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office Civil Division, told The Courier Journal in an email the office will file a brief in support of the statue’s removal.
Ohio
School reaches settlement in principal’s lawsuit over discrimination
ROVEPORT, Ohio (AP) — A Black assistant principal who lost his job after complaining that his Ohio school’s dress code enforcement discriminated against African-American students would get $200,000 in back pay and damages under a proposed settlement with the district, which denies discriminating or retaliating against him.
In a complaint filed in federal court, former Groveport Madison High School assistant principal Amon-Ra Dobbins said he raised racial bias concerns about school officials enforcing a prohibition on students arriving to school wearing durags on their heads while other dress code violations were ignored. He alleged that he was subsequently disciplined and then not employed by the Groveport Madison Local School District in central Ohio for the following school year because of retaliation.
An investigation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission concluded Dobbins was “terminated for his race and for protesting what he perceived as ... discriminatory treatment,” according to the complaint.
The school board disputes Dobbins’ allegations and denies any unlawful conduct. It said in an emailed statement Friday that settling the case allows it to avoid protracted litigation and focus on educating students.
If approved in federal court, a separate, related consent decree announced this week would require the school district to submit its complaint investigation procedures and policies about discrimination and retaliation for approval, and to train employees on those policies, according the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Per the terms of his settlement, Dobbins is not commenting beyond what’s in the court filings, said his attorney, Chanda Brown.
Kansas
Teen sentenced to life in prison in death of 12-year-old boy
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas teenager has been sentenced to life in prison in the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy during a botched gun deal.
WDAF-TV reports that a jury convicted 18-year-old Jaylen LaRon Johnson of Kansas City, Kansas, of first-degree murder last month. Sentencing was Friday.
Prosecutors say Johnson and two other men drove to Leavenworth to purchase a gun on April 14, 2021. The sellers allegedly sold a BB gun to one of Johnson’s friends. Authorities say Johnson began shooting when he realized it wasn’t the gun they wanted.
Eleven bullets struck the seller’s car. Twelve-year-old Brian Henderson Jr. was in the backseat and died in the shooting.
