Pennsylvania
Suit seeks to have mail-in votes lacking dates counted
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Several Pennsylvania groups represented by the American Civil Liberties Union have filed suit in federal court seeking to have votes from mail-in or absentee ballots counted even if they lack proper dates on their return envelopes.
The suit filed Friday night in western Pennsylvania by state chapters of the NAACP, League of Women Voters, and Common Cause and other groups follows a state Supreme Court ruling last week that barred officials from counting ballots that lack accurate, handwritten dates on their return envelopes as required by state law.
The groups said refusing to count such ballots “because of a trivial paperwork error” could disenfranchise thousands of voters and would violate provisions of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to prevent voting.
“Refusing to count votes based on immaterial paperwork errors has a suppressive effect ... by erecting yet another roadblock preventing them from voting and having their votes counted,” the lawsuit said.
The groups —- which also included Philadelphians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild, the Black Political Empowerment Project and Make the Road Pennsylvania — also said they would have to divert resources from voter mobilization and education to track down voters who omitted the date on the return envelopes of their ballots.
They are asking the court to bar election officials from rejecting otherwise valid ballots with missing or incorrect dates on the return envelope and to bar state and county governments from certifying any election in which such ballots are not counted.
The state Supreme Court had unanimously barred officials from counting such votes, directing county boards of elections to “segregate and preserve” those ballots, but the justices split 3-3 on whether making the envelope dates mandatory under state law would violate provisions of federal civil rights law.
The high court issued a supplemental order Saturday clarifying that the incorrectly dated ballot envelopes referred to in addition to undated ballots meant mail-in ballot envelopes with dates outside the range of Sept. 19 through Nov. 8 and absentee ballot envelopes dated outside the range of Aug. 30 through Nov. 8.
State and national Republican Party organizations sought immediate review by the high court once it became clear some county officials planned to throw out ballots without the proper dates and others were expected to count them.
The status of ballots without properly dated envelopes has been repeatedly litigated since the use of mail-in voting was greatly expanded in Pennsylvania under a state law passed in 2019.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that the dates are not mandatory, but recently the U.S. Supreme Court deemed that decision moot, leading to the current litigation.
Alabama
Man charged in church shooting fighting mental test
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A man facing a potential death penalty in the killing of three people who were shot at an Alabama church dinner in June is fighting a court-ordered mental evaluation requested by prosecutors.
Robert Findlay Smith, 70, hasn’t told a court he plans to use a defense of insanity or mental illness and shouldn’t have to undergo psychological testing at a state facility unless he does so, the defense argued in a brief objection filed Friday.
Circuit Judge Teresa Pulliam, who approved prosecutors’ request for an outpatient mental evaluation the day before, hadn’t ruled on Smith’s motion on Monday. Pulliam’s order said she had received information indicating the man may not be able to help with his defense.
A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Smith on capital murder charges in the shootings of Walter “Bart” Rainey, 84, of Irondale; Sarah Yeager, 75, of Pelham; and Jane Pounds, 84, of Hoover. They were killed during a potluck dinner at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills on June 16.
After sitting by himself at the event, Smith pulled out a gun and started shooting without explanation, authorities have said. A longtime church member intervened by hitting the shooter with a chair and restraining him until police arrived, police said.
The district attorney’s office sought mental testing for Smith, citing the fact that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and what they called Smith’s “bizarre behavior” of shooting “innocent persons who had not harmed him in any way.” State law allows reviews in such instances, prosecutors said in asking for the evaluation.
While Smith filed court papers last month indicating he would use an insanity defense, his attorney later said the document was submitted by mistake, prosecutors argued. The defense has said it is compiling a cost estimate for a private mental evaluation of Smith, who is being held without bond, records show.
Indiana
Man gets 45 years for role in 1998 triple killing
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after admitting that he helped another man kill one of three people found bludgeoned to death in 1998 in a northwestern Indiana home.
A Lake County judge sentenced David L. Copley Jr., 47, on Friday after the Franklin, Indiana, man pleaded guilty last year to one count of murder in the death of Jerod Hodge, 18, of Chicago.
In exchange for Copley’s testimony against his co-defendant, James H. Higgason III of Whiting, Indiana, prosecutors agreed to a 45-year sentence for Copley.
Prosecutors alleged that Higgason, 53, and Copley used pieces of wood or metal pipes to beat Hodge, Elva Tamez, 36, and Timothy Ross, 16, of Calumet City, Illinois, to death in January 1998, at Tamez’s Hammond, Indiana, home, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.
Authorities said Copley and Higgason were trying to get drugs and cash from the victims.
Higgason, 53, was convicted in May of murdering Hodge, Tamez and Ross and was sentenced in June to 180 years in prison.
In his plea agreement, Copley said Higgason instructed him to hit Hodge, so he struck him in the head with a board while Hodge slept, and that Higgason also struck Hodge, court records state.
Copley said he ran out of the house as Higgason then bludgeoned Ross and Tamez.
Virginia
Suspect in women’s killings to get mental health evaluation
HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) — A Virginia judge has granted a motion for a mental health evaluation for a man police have dubbed the “shopping cart killer” after he was charged in two slayings and authorities linked him to several others.
A Rockingham County judge on Friday approved defense attorney Louis Nagy’s request that his client, Anthony Eugene Robinson of Washington, D.C., undergo a sanity evaluation, the Daily News-Record and area TV stations reported.
In a motion, Nagy wrote that the allegations against Robinson, 36, are “so egregious such that there is reason to believe that the Defendant’s behavior was not rational at the time of the offense,” according to the newspaper.
Nagy also wrote that medical documents indicate Robinson, who remains in custody and appeared at the hearing by video, has a history of mental illness dating back to at least 2014.
Robinson is accused of killing Beth Redmon, 54, of Harrisonburg and Tonita Smith, 39, of Charlottesville last year. He was arrested in Harrisonburg in November 2021. Evidence uncovered after his arrest led police to search part of Fairfax County, where they found the remains of two other women.
During the search, detectives noticed a shopping cart and recalled that a cart had been used to transport the bodies in the Harrisonburg cases, Fairfax County police said at the time.
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis dubbed Robinson the “shopping cart killer” and said officers were working to determine if there are other victims.
Police have also publicly connected Robinson to a woman’s killing in Washington. But Robinson has not been charged in the latter three cases, the newspaper reported.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Christopher Bean did not object to Nagy’s motion in the Rockingham County case, the newspaper reported. A forensic psychologist is expected to conduct the evaluation.
Colorado
Dog walker’s killer sentenced to life in prison, no parole
DENVER (AP) — A man convicted of using an AK-47 to kill a woman and wound her boyfriend as they walked their dog has been sentenced to life in prison.
A judge sentenced Michael Close on Friday to a life term without the possibility of parole in the death of Isabella Thallas, 21, and added an additional 48-year sentence for the attempted murder of Darian Simon.
Prosecutors alleged Close got into a “verbal exchange” with the couple over a command they used to get their dog to relieve itself outside Close’s apartment near Coors Field on June 10, 2020.
Close yelled out the window at the couple as they urged the dog to “go potty” before getting the AK-47, which he had taken from a friend who was a Denver police sergeant, The Denver Post reported. Prosecutors said he fired 24 times.
Close had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity but jurors convicted him in September of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault.
Close’s public defender, Sonja Prins, said then that Close had suffered a mental break, and that an abusive childhood, a string of job losses, a breakup and the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to his poor mental health at the time of the shooting.
Massachusetts
4 men facing child sex trafficking charges
BOSTON (AP) — Four Massachusetts men who authorities say tried to arrange sexual encounters with underage girls have been arrested, federal prosecutors said Monday.
All four men are charged with attempted sex trafficking of a child, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston.
Sadeq Ali Quraishi, 45; Dmitri McKenzie, 27; and David Cannon, 59, were being held pending detention hearings scheduled for Tuesday. Misael Fabian Medina, 37, agreed to voluntary detention during a hearing on Friday.
Quraishi is an anesthesiologist who was fired by Tufts Medical Center on Friday, the hospital said.
“Dr. Quraishi firmly denies the allegations that have been made against him,” his attorney Dan Gaudet said in a statement. “He looks forward to contesting these claims in court where he is confident that he will be exonerated.”
Emails seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the other three men.
According to court documents, the suspects responded to an advertisement on a website often used to advertise commercial sex acts, then traveled to meet with undercover agents who said they were offering 12- and 14-year-old girls for sex acts in exchange for cash payments.
“These arrests show that the sex trafficking of children is happening every day,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said. “There is a huge demand for this abusive, repugnant and criminal behavior. We need to dispel the myths about who actually commits this horrific crime. The perpetrators can be white collar professionals who live in nice suburban neighborhoods. Many are married. All put their own sexual gratification over the trauma and harm inflicted on vulnerable, innocent child victims.”
If convicted, the suspects face mandatory minimum sentences of 10 to 15 years behind bars.
