Georgia
Man arrested for gun possession on Capitol grounds
WASHINGTON (AP) — Police at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday arrested a Georgia man who they say had several guns in his van and claimed to be in Washington to deliver documents to the Supreme Court.
Tony H. Payne, 80, of Tunnel Hill, Georgia, was arrested on charges of possessing an unregistered firearm, possessing unregistered ammunition, and carrying a pistol without a license. His arrest came after police surrounded his van — which officials said was illegally parked — and shut down several streets around the Capitol and Supreme Court for hours.
Police said Payne’s van came to their attention shortly before 4 p.m. as a “suspicious vehicle” that was illegally parked on Capitol grounds.
Police initially detained Payne and two other people when Payne admitted to having guns in the white van. The other two people were released without charges.
Inside the van, police found two handguns and a shotgun, authorities said.
The people detained by police told investigators they “were here to deliver documents to the U.S. Supreme Court,” police said. Investigators conducted an extensive search of the van after they found “a pipe and containers” inside, but the vehicle was eventually cleared.
Nevada
County defends vote hand-count after ACLU lawsuit
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Officials in a rural Nevada county will allow members of the public to view the hand-counting of mail-in ballots before Election Day if they sign a waiver promising not to release voting information early, the county said Wednesday in its response to a lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court to halt the county’s plan.
Nye County’s 20-page statement filed in the Nevada Supreme Court came in response to an emergency petition by the ACLU’s Nevada chapter asking the court to bar the county’s controversial hand-counting process.
The planned hand-count will take place alongside machine tabulators. The plan, which has the full support of the county commission, was put in place in response to false claims about Dominion voting machines that have spread throughout the county twice the size of New Hampshire.
Nye County is one of the first jurisdictions nationwide to act on election conspiracies related to mistrust in voting machines. Nevada’s least populous county, Esmeralda, used hand-counting to certify June’s primary results, when officials spent more than seven hours counting 317 ballots cast. On Wednesday, Elko County’s board of commissioners discussed their support for hand-counting and paper ballots, though they will likely have no hand-count this cycle as it’s too close to when polls open.
Nye County alleged that the ACLU’s argument rests on “speculation and a distorted view” of their process.
The ACLU argued Nye County’s plan to start counting mail-in ballots two weeks before Election Day risks the public release of early voting results. It alleges that county officials’ method of using a touch-screen tabulator for people with “special needs” illegally allows election workers to ask about a voter’s disability or turn away otherwise eligible voters based on “arbitrary decision making,” and that Nye County’s wording of “special needs” is ambiguous.
The organization also argues that the county’s “stringent signature verification,” which allows the clerk to require an ID card if a voter’s signature fails, violates state statute.
In response, Nye County said that streams of the hand-count process will not be released until after polls close and that in-person poll observers will need to sign a form if they observe the hand-count before Election Day to not release any information. The county referenced Nye County interim Clerk Mark Kampf’s comments at a recent county commission meeting where he said he would not turn anyone away who claims that they need to use the touch-screen tabulator.
“Even if this bullet-point was suggestive of some nefarious plot, this court needs more than just speculation and the possibility of a future act to provide legal relief,” the county argued in response to the claim that the “stringent signature verification” violates Nevada statute. The county also defended asking for voter ID as a verification option if a voter’s signature does not match.
“We are eager to respond to Nye County and to have our concerns considered on the merits,” said Wes Juhl, ACLU of Nevada’s director of communications and outreach. “We’re two days away from the start of early voting, and we’re not going to back down from protecting access to the polls and the freedom to vote in this case but also throughout Nevada into Election Day and beyond.”
Louisiana
Former senator disbarred after fraud plea
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Louisiana Supreme Court has disbarred former state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, who is awaiting to hear whether she will be sentenced to prison for defrauding campaign contributors and the Louisiana Democratic Party, which she used to lead.
Peterson, who resigned her Senate seat in April citing depression and a gambling addiction, pleaded guilty in August to one count of wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance will sentence her on Dec. 7. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years but it is uncertain how harsh her sentence will be after she signed a plea agreement and cooperated with prosecutors.
The disbarment, announced Tuesday, is not permanent, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported.
“The court will give her the chance to demonstrate, five years from now, whether she has the requisite fitness to again practice law,” Dane Ciolino, a Loyola University law professor who specializes in legal ethics, told the newspaper. “The court has exhibited some leniency by not disbarring her permanently. It’s kind of a new trend by the court.”
The court order noted only that the disbarment had been agreed to by Peterson and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting her. Six of the seven justices voted in favor of Peterson’s disbarment. Justice Piper Griffin, who represents New Orleans, recused herself.
Court documents outlined a scheme in which Peterson diverted more than $94,000 in campaign funds for personal use, including for casino gambling. Prosecutors said she also arranged for another $53,000 in state Democratic Party funds to be kicked back to her by associates she arranged to be hired by the party. None of those people have been charged.
Her attorney, Brian Capitelli, has said that she has paid back all of the fraudulently obtained money.
Peterson, 52, was elected to the state House in 1999 and to the state Senate in 2010. She served as chair of the state Democratic Party from 2012 to 2020 and twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress, including a failed campaign last year for the U.S. House seat won by another New Orleans Democrat, Troy Carter.
Two Democratic state representatives from New Orleans – Mandie Landry and Royce Duplessis – are campaigning to replace Peterson in the state Senate. The election is Nov. 8.
