Idaho
Planned Parenthood sues state over ‘trigger’ abortion ban
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A regional Planned Parenthood organization is suing Idaho over its “trigger law” abortion ban, contending the ban violates Idaho residents’ rights under the state Constitution and that it is so vague that physicians will not know when they can legally help patients who are miscarrying or facing medical emergencies.
Dr. Caitlin Gustafson, an abortion provider, joined with Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky in the lawsuit filed in the Idaho Supreme Court on Monday. The Planned Parenthood organization operates two reproductive health care clinics in Idaho and is in the process of opening another just over the state line in Ontario, Oregon.
“It is abhorrent that we have now entered an era where the delivery of safe essential health care will be criminalized,” Gustafson said in a press release. “Physicians take an oath to provide the care patients need to keep them safe, so we cannot stand by while the government intrudes on this deeply personal and complex medical decision.”
The Idaho law, passed in 2020, makes it a felony punishable by up to five years in prison for anyone to perform or attempt to perform an abortion. The law says health care providers can attempt to defend themselves against criminal charges by saying that the abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant person, or that the pregnant person showed them a police report alleging rape or incest. The law also requires physicians to use the medical method that provides the “best opportunity for the unborn child to survive.”
Specifically, Idaho’s trigger law requires a judgement from the U.S. Supreme Court, which follows the court’s Friday opinion and allows time to allow requests for a potential rehearing. It’s not clear when the court will issue its judgement, but it’s expected fairly soon, starting the clock on Idaho’s trigger law.
Planned Parenthood is asking the state’s highest court to put the case on a fast track so that it can hear arguments and issue a decision before mid-August.
The Idaho Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden generally declines to comment on pending litigation.
Earlier this year Planned Parenthood and Gustafson filed a separate lawsuit over another Idaho anti-abortion law that allows potential relatives of the fetus or embryo to sue medical providers who perform an abortion. That law is on hold while the lawsuit works through the Idaho Supreme Court, and a hearing in the case is scheduled for August.
Nevada
Man sentenced for assault on Vegas-Seattle flight
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A 41-year-old Nevada man has been ordered to serve six months home confinement and pay more than $49,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to assault and interference with crew members during a 2019 flight from Seattle to Las Vegas.
David Parkhurst of Gardnerville was removed from the plane and arrested in Reno on Oct. 31, 2019 after his flight was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, prosecutors said.
He pleaded guilty in February to one count of interference with the flight crew members and attendants and one count of simple assault on an aircraft.
In addition to home confinement and restitution, U.S. District Judge Miranda Du sentenced him on Friday to five years’ probation.
Prosecutors say he touched a female passenger’s inner thigh without consent, then started to punch her multiple times after she “smacked his hand away.” Flight attendants and other passengers then intervened to stop him from punching her and restrain him before the plane landed, they said.
California
Prison guard charged with smuggling
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California prison guard was charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes to smuggle contraband, including a jeweled dental “grill” for an inmate, federal prosecutors said Monday.
In 2020 Benito Jamar Hugie, a corrections officer at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, allegedly smuggled the jeweled tooth covering to an inmate, Shawn Brown, who had custom ordered it from a Houston Texas jeweler using a smuggled cellphone, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
Brown and his two brothers are accused of helping provide more than $5,000 in bribes to Hugie.
It wasn’t immediately known if any of the men had attorneys who could speak for them.
A separate indictment charges Brown and six others with stealing nearly $700,000 in unemployment benefits intended to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The imprisoned Brown and the others were accused of using stolen identities to make phony claims with the state’s Employment Development Department and receiving money intended for people who were unable to pay for food and housing, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Virginia
Feds seize websites after probe of pirated Latin music
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Federal authorities have seized six websites that prosecutors say were illegally distributing copyrighted music to millions of users.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced the seizures Monday of the websites that primarily targeted Latin music.
According to an affidavit, agents began investigating the websites in April after a music industry consortium complained.
The websites — Corourbanos .com, Corourbano.com, Pautamp 3.com, SIMP3.com, flowactivo.co and Mp3Teca.ws — collectively reached about 6.6 million users per month.
According to the affidavit, the pirated music drew traffic that allowed the website operators to make money by selling ads on the website.
Nevada
Man pleads guilty to conspiracy, assault at U.S. Capitol
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A 32-year-old Las Vegas man faces up to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty Monday to conspiracy and assault charges in connection with the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors say Nathaniel DeGrave and two others arrested in connection with the uprising traveled together and attempted to prevent a joint session of Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.
DeGrave pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington Monday to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.
Prosecutors say DeGrave, Ronald Sandlin, 34 of Shelby County, Tennessee and Josiah Colt, 35 of Meridian, Idaho chatted on social media in December 2020 about shipping guns as part of a plan to interfere with the transition of presidential power.
They said DeGrave pushed against officers guarding the Capitol, forced open a door to let a mob inside and gained access to the Senate Gallery where he shouted “take laptops, paperwork, take everything.”
DeGrave was arrested Jan. 28, 2021. Colt pleaded guilty to obstruction last July and awaits sentencing. Sandlin has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
More than 300 of the 830 people charged with federal crimes related to the riot have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors punishable by no more than one year in prison.
Mississippi
Clinic challenges law banning most abortions
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi’s only abortion clinic filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to block a state law that will ban most abortions.
The lawsuit says the Mississippi Supreme Court issued a ruling in 1998 that recognized a right to abortion in the state constitution. A hearing on the new lawsuit was not immediately set.
A 2007 Mississippi law says if Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion will be legal only if the pregnant woman’s life is in danger or if a pregnancy was caused by a rape reported to law enforcement. The law takes effect 10 days after the state attorney general publishes a notice about Roe v. Wade being overturned.
The Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe in a case that originated in Mississippi. Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch published the notice Monday, so the law banning most abortions is set to take effect July 7.
Diane Derzis, who owns the Mississippi clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, had previously said she planned to close the clinic once the ban on most abortions becomes law.
The clinic continued to see patients Friday and Saturday. Monday was a regularly scheduled day off.
Mississippi legislative leaders, meanwhile, are creating committees to explore whether the state should update laws or policies after the Supreme Court ruling.
Rhode Island
Ringleader of check fraud scheme gets 5 years in prison
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The ringleader of a plot that defrauded multiple Rhode Island banks out of tens of thousands of dollars through a counterfeit check scheme has been sentenced to five years in prison, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Terrance Richardson, 30, of Providence, was also sentenced Friday to three years of probation after pleading guilty in March to a dozen counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and ordered to pay more than $80,000 in restitution, prosecutors said.
Richardson and several alleged accomplices created counterfeit checks using bank accounts from real businesses and people, prosecutors said. Those checks were then deposited into the accounts of people who agreed to participate in the conspiracy in exchange for a cash payment, often solicited through social media.
After the fake checks were deposited, the proceeds were quickly withdrawn, often before the banks could determine that the checks were fraudulent.
The scheme ran from about April 2020 until March 2021, authorities said.
South Dakota
Third person pleads not guilty to kidnap, carjacking in SD
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A third person accused of kidnapping an FBI employee and taking his car in South Dakota has pleaded not guilty to federal charges.
Lourdes Bonilla, 23, made her initial appearance before federal Magistrate Judge Daneta Wollmann last Friday when she entered the plea to kidnapping, carjacking and brandishing a firearm during a violent crime.
Twenty-four-year-old Juan Francisco Alvarez-Sorto and 27-year-old Deyvin Morales also pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this month. All three were indicted in May.
According to the indictment, the defendants kidnapped FBI victim specialist Curt Lauinger while he was working near Red Shirt on May 6. They are accused of taking the victim’s car by force and showing a rifle during the crime.
The indictment accuses the defendants of aiding and abetting each other in committing the alleged crimes.
A trial date of Aug. 16 has been set.
