Louisiana
Exxon Mobil sued as 5 nooses displayed at Baton Rouge facility
Exxon Mobil Corp. violated federal law for failing to take sufficient action as five hangman’s nooses were displayed at its facility in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the U.S. government said in a lawsuit.
According to the government, in January 2020, a Black employee found a hangman’s noose at his worksite at the Baton Rouge complex run by Exxon Mobil Corp. and reported it. At the time, the company knew of three other nooses that had been found at the complex, but it failed to investigate all the complaints and take action to prevent such harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in its lawsuit filed Thursday.
Then, in December 2020, a fifth noose was found at the complex, which includes a chemical plant and nearby refinery. Exxon Mobil’s lack of action created a racially hostile work environment, the EEOC said.
Todd Spitler, a spokesperson for Exxon Mobil, said in a statement Sunday that the company disagrees with the EEOC’s allegations and that it “encourage(s) employees to report claims like this, and we thoroughly investigated.”
“The symbols of hate are unacceptable, offensive, and in violation of our corporate policies,” Spitler said. “We have a zero tolerance policy of any form of harassment or discrimination in the workplace by or towards employees, contractors, suppliers or customers.”
Employers who become aware of racially offensive or threatening conduct in the workplace are legally obligated to take “prompt, remedial action aimed at stopping it,” Rudy Sustaita, an attorney at the EEOC’s Houston district office, said in a statement.
Elizabeth Owen, a senior trial attorney in the EEOC’s New Orleans field office, said in a statement that the displays of nooses required swift action.
“A noose is a longstanding symbol of violence associated with the lynching of African Americans,” she said. “Such symbols are inherently threatening and significantly alter the workplace environment for Black Americans.”
In 2021, eight nooses were found at an Amazon warehouse construction site in Connecticut. Amazon had briefly closed the site after the seventh one appeared.
Washington
Manafort, US government settle civil case for $3.15 million
WASHINGTON (AP) — Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle a civil case filed by the Justice Department over undeclared foreign bank accounts.
When the civil case was filed in April 2022, prosecutors alleged that Manafort had failed to disclose more than 20 offshore bank accounts he ordered opened in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The government sought an order for Manafort to pay fines, penalties and interest, alleging he had failed to file federal tax documents detailing the accounts and failed to disclose the money on his income tax returns. The government said false tax returns were filed from 2006-2015 and that the Treasury Department had notified Manafort of the fines and assessment in July 2020.
The settlement was detailed in court documents filed Feb. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Manafort faced criminal charges as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation into Trump’s associates. A jury convicted him in 2018 of eight financial crimes, including several related to his political consulting work in Ukraine, but the judge hearing the case declared a mistrial on 10 other counts when jurors could not reach a verdict.
Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Trump pardoned his former campaign chairman in the final weeks of his presidency.
Manafort’s ties to Ukraine led to his ouster from Trump’s campaign in August 2016, less than a month after Trump accepted the Republican nomination.
Pennsylvania
Woman gets 12 to 24 years in crash that killed firefighter
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A New Jersey woman has been sentenced to 12 to 24 years in prison in the death of a firefighter struck along with two other firefighters and a state trooper as they were responding to a crash on Interstate 76 in suburban Philadelphia more than a year and a half ago.
Jacquelyn Walker, 64, of Little Egg Harbor wept as the sentence was imposed Thursday in Montgomery County in the July 2021 death of 48-year-old Thomas Royds, a longtime member of the Belmont Hills Fire Department, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Walker pleaded guilty in October to third-degree murder, aggravated assault by vehicle and reckless endangerment. Authorities said she drove onto the shoulder and swerved into Royds, two other firefighters and a state police trooper who were responding to a 3 a.m. crash on the side of the highway.
Judge William Carpenter said Walker showed little remorse for what he called the “malicious conduct” of driving her 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee in severe disrepair with faulty brakes.
Walker tearfully apologized to friends and relatives of the victim, saying she never intended to hurt anyone.
“I’m not trying to make this devastating accident any softer; my only wish is to have Tom Royds’ family not hate me any longer,” she said. “I’m truly sorry.”
Authorities said Walker told investigators she left home hours before heading for a Quakertown mall but got lost trying to get home and had been pulled over three times by police from different departments. She said she drove onto the shoulder to try to avoid firetrucks she said she noticed only “at the last second.”
Pennsylvania
Trump supporters spared more jail time in 2020 weapons case
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two supporters of President Donald Trump arrested after driving a Hummer with guns and ammunition to a Philadelphia vote-counting site in November 2020 have been spared additional jail time.
Joshua Macias, 44, and Antonio Lamotta, 63, were each sentenced Wednesday to 11-1/2 to 23 months but placed on immediate parole followed by at least two years of probation, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Prosecutors had sought sentences of at least three years.
The pair were arrested on Nov. 5, 2020, after the FBI in Virginia relayed a tip about their plans to Philadelphia police. Officers stopped the men, who had driven up from Virginia Beach, about a block from the vehicle. Each man had a handgun on him, while an AR-style rifle and ammunition were found inside the vehicle, which sported an American flag and a window sticker for the right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon.
The two were convicted last fall of weapons counts but acquitted of election interference. Prosecutors argued that Macias, co-founder of Vets for Trump, and LaMotta planned a mass shooting as the presidential election remained uncertain, but a judge convicted them only of bringing weapons to the city without a permit. Defense attorneys argued that although the two may have lacked proper permits to carry their firearms in the city, they were licensed Virginia gun owners who threatened no one and made no attempt to interfere with the counting of votes. They alleged a political motivation in the prosecution of their clients.
Lamotta’s attorney, Lauren Wimmer, said he had made an “error of law” in the belief that his Virginia license would be recognized in Pennsylvania, but prosecutors seized on that “to punish him for his political views.”
Attorney William Brennan, representing Macias called the prosecution “stenched up with politics,” and co-counsel Alan Tauber said prosecutors were “getting a sugar high” from publicly denouncing two Republican supporters in an overwhelmingly Democratic city. Macias’ attorneys also played video testimonials from more than a dozen friends or relatives citing the defendant’s service to veterans, his church, and his family.
Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Palmer denied that politics had played a role in how the office handled the case.
New York
Bankman-Fried might use flip phone under stricter bail plan
Prosecutors and attorneys for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried are requesting the disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur be allowed a flip-phone or another device that’s not a smartphone while on bail.
The proposal, submitted in a letter Friday, comes as the judge in the case is deciding how to toughen Bankman-Fried’s bail requirements amid concerns the former billionaire might be communicating on electronic devices in ways that can’t be traced.
Prosecutors alleged last month Bankman-Fried used a virtual private network that blocks third parties from seeing online activity, known as VPN, to access the internet twice. They also said he sent an encrypted message over the Signal texting app in January to the general counsel of FTX US, a move they argued might indicate witness tampering.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits at FTX, his cryptocurrency platform.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, has raised the possibility that Bankman-Fried might have to be jailed if his communications can’t be monitored to ensure the integrity of the trial. The former FTX head was released on a $250 million bond in December and is confined to his parent’s home in Palo Alto, California.
Under the proposal, Bankman-Fried’s phone functions would be limited to SMS text messages and voice calls. He would also be given a new laptop with limited use, which will be “configured so that he is only able to log on to the internet through the use of specified VPNs,” that will only permit access to websites that have been whitelisted. They include sites he can use to prepare for his defense, such as Ftx.com, and those for personal news, like The New York Times and Netflix.
In the letter, the two sides said Bankman-Fried would also be allowed access to several applications to prepare for his defense, including Zoom, Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat. The parties also proposed a monitoring software be installed on the device to track any activity, and have Bankman-Fried’s parents submit sworn affidavits that they “will not bring additional devices into the home” or permit access to their own password-protected devices.
Kaplan still has to decide whether to approve to proposal.
Wisconsin
Substance center owes $2M in case of Medicaid fraud
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that a now-shuttered Wisconsin substance abuse center and its CEO owe the state and federal government more than $2 million in a Medicaid fraud case.
Online court records show U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller ruled Tuesday that Brookfield-based The Healing Center LLC and its CEO and lone practitioner, Dr. Siamak Arassi, are liable for $2.3 million.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the center and Arassi in 2019. The lawsuit alleged Arassi ordered prescriptions for Vivitrol, an anti-addiction drug, in the names of former patients and billed Medicaid for reimbursements, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Friday. He stockpiled the medicine and sold it to patients for more than $1,000 a month, the newspaper reported.
Arassi said in a statement posted on his website that he closed the clinic because he was tried of being harassed by “vindictive” regulators, including the Justice Department and the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board.
