New York
April trial date set for woman’s claim that Trump raped her
NEW YORK (AP) — An April trial date was set Wednesday by a federal judge for a civil trial arising from a former columnist’s claim that Donald Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan scheduled an April 17 trial after he rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers to delay the trial until the end of the year.
Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll said in a book published in 2019 that Trump raped her, causing the then U.S. president to say it never happened. He has repeatedly insisted that Carroll has made up the claim that he had attacked her in a dressing room after they met each other at an upscale Manhattan store by chance and engaged in playful banter.
She initially filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump, but she recently updated it to a rape allegation after the November enactment of a New York State law that temporarily allows sexual assault victims to sue their abusers for crimes that occurred decades ago.
Kaplan has said the updated lawsuit did not require extensive collection of additional evidence for the trial because whether the rape occurred was also central to the merits of the defamation lawsuit.
The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault in stories unless they agree to tell their stories publicly, as Carroll has done.
South Carolina
Murdaugh accomplice seeks retrial after fraud conviction
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The banker recently convicted on six counts of wire and bank fraud — including helping since- disbarred attorney Alex Murdaugh in taking of money from clients’ legal settlements — wants a retrial, The State reported Wednesday.
Former Palmetto State Bank CEO Russell Laffitte filed a motion Tuesday seeking a hearing over “jury issues” related to his November trial, according to The State. It was the first trial related to the sprawling Murdaugh legal drama that has captivated true-crime audiences worldwide.
Laffitte was allowed to remain free on bail as he awaits sentencing at a later date. Each of the six charges he was convicted of in federal court carry a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison. He also faces 21 counts of financial crimes in state court.
Laffitte’s conviction came after U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel replaced two of the original jurors with alternates, The State reported. While those new jurors had been present for the trial, they had missed previous deliberations. Attorneys said in the filing that they want to admit two affidavits from the dismissed jurors describing any “improper influences” on jury deliberations and the circumstances surrounding her removal, The State reported.
Like Murdaugh, the convictions marked a fall from grace for Laffitte. The man named 2019 banker of the year by the Independent Banks of South Carolina was fired last year as head of the bank his family built.
Grand Rapids
7-year sentence ordered in $1.4M COVID-19 relief fraud
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for his role in fraudulently obtaining more than in $1.4 million in federal COVID-19 relief money.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the sentence against 47-year-old Jemar Mason of Grand Rapids, who pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Mason was among four people, including a former Georgia police officer, in a group that prepared fraudulent applications for federal Paycheck Protection Program loans in 2020 for companies that did not have legitimate customers or employees, according to prosecutors.
Western Michigan U.S. Attorney Mark Totten said in a statement that Mason saw the COVID-19 pandemic “as an opportunity to get rich quick” with money intended to keep people from losing their jobs.
The four other people indicted with Mason in the scheme have been convicted on federal charges. That includes former Clayton County, Georgia, police officer Andre Jackson, who is scheduled to be sentenced in February.
Alabama
Judge suspended for anonymous letters to media
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge has been suspended from the bench after a panel said he violated judicial ethics in 2020 when he mailed an anonymous letter to news outlets and others regarding the behavior of several local officials.
The mailed packages included a recording of a county commissioner using a racial slur.
Blount County Circuit Judge Steven D. King was suspended Tuesday after the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission filed the complaint accusing King of violating the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics. The matter now goes before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, which hears ethics complaints against judges and has the power to sanction judges or remove them from the bench if it determines they violated judicial standards.
However, King, who has served since 2007, is already scheduled to leave office in January.
The letters questioned the fitness for office of a police officer and two county commissioners, according to the filed complaint. The packages included civil case filings and an audio recording of a conversation between the officer and Commissioner Dean Calvert in which Calvert can be heard using a racial slur. The recording was part of a divorce case.
Calvert later apologized in a public video, al.com reported.
The complaint says King had an attorney mail the packages to news outlets and elected officials, including himself. King later called for Calvert to resign based on the contents of the anonymous package, the complaint alleged.
King’s relationship with the commission had been tense at the time of the mailings because of disputes over funding and other issues, according to the complaint.
“Although the conversation and comments captured in the recordings are reprehensible and offensive, Judge King’s conduct of authorizing the anonymous letter, compiling the pleadings … constitutes impropriety, or creates the appearance thereof, and is inappropriate for one that holds judicial office,” the complaint said.
Detroit
Prosecutors lose again in bid to revive Flint water charges
DETROIT (AP) — Prosecutors again lost a key decision Wednesday in another effort to revive charges against Michigan’s former health chief who was accused of negligence in certain deaths linked to the Flint water crisis.
The state appeals court said a Flint-area judge followed an “explicit directive” from the Michigan Supreme Court to dismiss an indictment against Nick Lyon.
“This court is unable to grant any relief,” a three-judge panel said in a terse order.
The Supreme Court in June said indictments returned by a one-judge grand jury in Genesee County were invalid. Nine people were charged, including former Gov. Rick Snyder, who was facing two misdemeanor counts of willful neglect of duty.
“Mr. Lyon and his family are heartened by the dismissal of the prosecution’s appeal, as it demonstrates how our system of justice is to work,” defense attorney Chip Chamberlain said.
State-appointed managers switched Flint’s water source to the Flint River in 2014, but the water wasn’t treated to reduce its disastrous impact on old pipes. As a result, lead contaminated the system for 18 months.
Lyon, who was head of the state health department, had no role in the water switch. But the river was blamed for an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, which is typically caused by bacteria spreading through cooling systems.
Lyon and former chief medical executive Eden Wells were charged with involuntary manslaughter in nine deaths. They were accused of failing to timely warn the Flint area about the outbreak.
There was no immediate comment from the attorney general’s office about the latest decision in Lyon’s case.
Snyder’s charges were dismissed two weeks ago by a Genesee County judge.
Iowa
Suspect charged nearly 7 years after Iowa architect’s death
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Nearly seven years after the death of a prominent Des Moines architect, police have arrested a suspect.
Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said investigators uncovered enough evidence to charge Zachary Allen Gaskill on Wednesday with second-degree murder in the January 2016 death of Kirk Blunck. The 62-year-old was found severely injured in the stairwell of a building he had renovated where he had an office. He died later.
The Polk County Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death as blunt force trauma due to a fall from height.
Parizek didn’t say what evidence led to the arrest, but he said Gaskill was identified as one of the people in surveillance photos taken near where Blunk had died.
But in 2018, a judge ordered Gaskill to pay Blunck’s family $6.25 million after they alleged in a wrongful death lawsuit that Gaskill attacked Blunck and caused his death.
Online court records do not list an attorney for Gaskill, who is being held without bail in the Polk County Jail.
The Blunck family’s attorney Grant Woodard praised investigators’ “determination and efforts.”
“The Blunck family is very pleased that the process of justice for Kirk continues,” Woodard said.
In his career, Blunck specialized in renovating historic buildings and led efforts to revitalize the East Village and Sherman Hill neighborhoods of Des Moines.
Illinois
Judge weighing challenge to law ending cash bail
KANKAKEE, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois judge said he planned to rule by the end of this month on a lawsuit challenging the state’s landmark SAFE-T Act criminal justice overhaul that includes eliminating the setting of cash bail for those accused of crimes to be released from jail.
A Kankakee County judge heard arguments Tuesday in lawsuits brought by several prosecutors and sheriffs around the state against the measure pushed by Democrats who control the Illinois General Assembly. The elimination of cash bail is set to take effect Jan. 1, which would end a practice that critics say penalizes the poor.
Kankakee County State’s Attorney James Rowe argued the law was too broad to meet so-called “single subject rule “of the Illinois Constitution. He said it also violated a constitutional provision that says “all persons shall be bailable by sufficient sureties,” insisting that Illinois judges should be allowed to set cash bail.
“The legislature, again, has put their hands on your gavel,” Rowe told Judge Thomas Cunnington.
Darren Kinkead of the Illinois attorney general’s office argued that the “sufficient sureties” passage bestows a right on criminal defendants, not sheriffs and prosecutors.
“The real dispute here is a policy dispute, not a legal dispute,” Kinkead said.
