California
Brother of ex-LA councilman to plead guilty in federal probe
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The brother of former Los Angeles City Council member José Huizar agreed Wednesday to plead guilty in a federal case involving Huizar, who’s charged with taking more than $1.5 million in bribes.
Salvador Huizar, 57, acknowledged in a plea agreement filed in court that at least 20 times between 2013 and 2018, he took envelopes of cash from Huizar and then returned the money by writing checks or making electronic payments in the same amount directly to his brother or to cover his brother’s expenses, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
According to the plea agreement, whenever Salvador Huizar asked his brother about the money, he was told it was better that he didn’t know the source.
Huizar also acknowledged that he lied to federal investigators about the cash, “including to a federal grand jury and most recently two weeks ago during an interview with FBI agents and federal prosecutors,” the statement said.
Huizar will plead guilty in the coming weeks to making a false statement to a federal agency, and could face up to five years in federal prison.
Prosecutors allege José Huizar is charged with masterminding a $1.5 million pay-to-play scheme tied to the approval of downtown developments while he chaired the city’s powerful Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
He and former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan are scheduled to face trial on Feb, 21 on federal charges that include racketeering conspiracy and bribery. They have pleaded not guilty.
They’re among several people who were charged in a sweeping City Hall corruption probe.
In June, a real estate developer and his company were found guilty of bribery for giving $500,000 in cash to José Huizar and his special assistant in exchange for favors.
The assistant, George Esparza, and a Huizar fundraiser, Justin Kim, had pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2020.
Another developer, Wei Huang, also is charged with bribing the former councilman in connection with another project. His trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 25, although he remains a fugitive, federal prosecutors said.
In another case, former City Council member Mitchell Englander pleaded guilty in 2020 to obstructing an FBI investigation into his acceptance of tens of thousands of dollars in cash, escort services and other perks from a businessman involved in major developments. He was sentenced last year to 14 months in federal prison.
Maryland
Appeals court refuses to intervene in ‘Serial’ ruling
BALTIMORE (AP) — A Maryland appeals court refused on Wednesday to intervene in a lower court’s decision to free a man who served over 20 years in prison for the killing of a high school student, a case chronicled by the groundbreaking “Serial” podcast.
The state Court of Special Appeals issued its order a day after prosecutors dropped charges against Adnan Syed in the 1999 killing of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee.
Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn ruled last month that the state had violated its legal obligation to share evidence that could have bolstered Syed’s defense. Phinn ordered Syed’s release from prison and gave prosecutors 30 days to decide whether to retry him or drop the charges.
Lee’s family asked the Court of Special Appeals — Maryland’s intermediate appellate court — to halt the case and suspend the deadline that Phinn set for prosecutors to decide whether to drop the charges. They argued that they didn’t get adequate notice of the hearing at which Phinn ruled. A lawyer for Lee’s family said they wanted the judge to hold another hearing that they could attend in person and address the court.
But a three-judge panel from the appeals court rejected the family’s request in a two-page order. The panel gave Lee’s family 15 days to argue why their appeal isn’t moot given that the case against Syed has been dropped.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office announced on Tuesday that additional DNA testing excluded Syed as a suspect in Lee’s killing. Syed was released from prison on home detention with GPS location monitoring, but those restrictions were lifted on Tuesday.
Syed was convicted of strangling Lee, whose body was found buried in a Baltimore park. Syed and Lee were students at a Baltimore County high school. Syed has always maintained his innocence.
The first season of the popular “Serial” podcast focused on the 18-year-old woman’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used to secure Syed’s conviction. The podcast attracted millions of listeners.
Missouri
Retired priest admits possessing child pornography
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A retired St. Louis priest faces sentencing in January after admitting that he possessed thousands of images containing child pornography.
James T. Beighlie, 72, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to two counts of possession of child pornography.
Federal prosecutors say that in May 2021, colleagues of Beighlie found images on a church printer. He was working at the time for Congregation of the Mission in St. Louis. Church leaders launched an investigation that included a review of computers and a smartphone used by Beighlie.
The U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis said that when an IT support company found what appeared to be videos of minors engaging in sex acts, the FBI was contacted.
One computer alone contained about 3,000 images of child pornography and 2,992 images of child erotica, according to the plea. Another computer had 236 images and 40 videos containing child sexual abuse material.
A Congregation of the Mission spokesman told the Post-Dispatch that there were no other known allegations of sexual abuse of a minor involving Beighlie.
Ohio
Prosecutor: Fisherman caught cheating at tournament charged
CLEVELAND (AP) — Two anglers accused of stuffing fish with lead weights and fillets in an attempt to win thousands of dollars in an Ohio fishing tournament were indicted Wednesday on charges of attempted grand theft and other counts.
Jacob Runyan, 42, of Broadview Heights, Ohio, and Chase Cominski, 35, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, were indicted in Cleveland on felony charges of cheating, attempted grand theft, possessing criminal tools and misdemeanor charges of unlawfully owning wild animals. They’re due to be arraigned Oct. 26.
Neither man immediately responded to voicemails seeking comment.
The cheating allegations surfaced Sept. 30 when Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament director Jason Fischer became suspicious because Runyan and Cominski’s fish were significantly heavier than walleye of that length typically are. A crowd of people at Gordon Park in Cleveland watched Fischer cut the walleye open and announce that there were weights and walleye fillets stuffed inside.
An officer from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources confiscated the fish as evidence.
Fischer also did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
Runyan and Cominski would have received $28,760 in prizes for winning the tournament.
According to search warrant affidavits, the five walleye contained a total of eight 12-ounce (.34 kilogram) lead weights and two 8-ounce (.23 kilogram) weights, as well as the fish fillets. Officers from ODNR, the Hermitage Police Department and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission seized a boat, trailer and fishing gear belonging to Cominski on Tuesday in Pennsylvania. The anglers had used the boat during last month’s tournament, the affidavits said.
One of the affidavits disclosed that Runyan and Cominski were investigated by Rossford police in northwest Ohio in April after being accused of cheating in a different walleye tournament. According to a Rossford police report, an assistant Wood County prosecutor concluded that although the men may have cheated, there was not enough evidence to charge them.
California
LA schools to pay $52M in suit over coach sex assaults
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lawyers for children who were sexually assaulted by a high school wrestling coach have settled a lawsuit with the Los Angeles Unified School District for $52 million, they announced Wednesday.
Attorneys for more than a dozen children and their families announced that the money has been paid and the suit dismissed.
The negligence and sexual battery suit — actually a consolidation of several suits — was filed against the nation’s second-largest school district over sexual assaults committed by Terry Gillard, who in 2020 was sentenced to 71 years in state prison after being convicted of molesting nine boys and girls.
Gillard coached at John H. Francisco Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley and at a Boys and Girls Club. Prosecutors said that between 1991 and 2017, he sexually abused some of his wrestlers, ranging in age from 11 to 17 years old.
At his trial, jurors were told that Gillard once made an 11-year-old boy have sex with a woman in his car while he watched, then sexually abused the boy. Prosecutors also showed a video of Gillard sexually assaulting two girl wrestlers.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of victims ranging in age from 13 to 17, who allegedly were assaulted between 2012 and 2017.
The suit contended that the district and the Boys and Girls Club were negligent in hiring, supervision, training and education. Gillard was sued for sexual harassment and sexual battery.
The district agreed to settle the case without acknowledge wrongdoing. It did not immediately comment on the settlement Wednesday.
“The size of this settlement highlights the tremendous harm done to our clients by Terry Gillard and the abject failure of LAUSD to protect the students at Francis Polytechnic High School from this truly deranged predator,” Morgan Stewart, one of the attorneys for the victims, said in a statement.
The school district had a Student Safety Investigation Team that was tasked with investigating sexual abuse allegations against employees.
The suit alleged that in 2016, following complaints, Gillard had denied sexual misconduct to a school district investigator.
The investigator believed he was lying but, the suit alleged, he wasn’t permitted to relay that information to administrators who were deciding whether Gillard should be allowed to return to the high school. He was allowed back on campus where he continued to molest children, according to the suit.
Texas
Death penalty sought for killer of pregnant woman
NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP) — Prosecutors asked a Texas jury Wednesday to sentence a woman to death for killing a pregnant woman and stealing her unborn daughter from her womb.
The appeal came as the penalty phase of Taylor Parker’s capital murder trial began for the October 2020 murder of Reagan Simmons-Hancock and theft of her unborn baby. The Bowie County jury previously found Parker guilty of capital murder.
Prosecutor Kelley Crisp told jurors that the evidence would show Parker, 29, faked a pregnancy and repeatedly lied before killing Simmons-Hancock, 21, at the woman’s New Boston home on Oct. 9, 2020, to get the infant she claimed to have been carrying. The baby also died.
Parker’s attorneys hope to persuade the jury to spare Parker’s life and let her serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Defense attorney Jeff Harrelson said they would show that Parker was mentally ill.
