New Hampshire
Domestic violence, assault convictions reversed for Woodburn
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a former state senator’s convictions on domestic violence and simple assault, saying the trial judge was wrong to deny his request to instruct the jury on a self-defense argument.
The court sent Jeff Woodburn’s case back for a new trial on the misdemeanors. Woodburn did not challenge criminal mischief convictions related to property damage.
Woodburn, of Whitefield, was convicted in Coos County in 2021, following a relationship he had with a woman from 2015-2018. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail. The domestic violence and assault charges alleged that he bit her hand as the two struggled over a cellphone.
Woodburn, who pleaded not guilty, remained out on bail pending his appeal.
At trial, his lawyer argued that the woman conspired with a mutual friend to develop a list of incidents Woodburn allegedly committed in a plot to scare him and prevent him from leaving her. A prosecutor said that wasn’t true.
“As I said from the beginning more than four years ago, that this process would and will continue to reveal the truth, underlying politics, and injustice,” Woodburn, who represented himself during his appeal, said in a statement. “I know what happened in this relationship, my mistakes and that I defended myself and never abused anyone.”
Woodburn argued whether the judge was wrong or violated his constitutional rights by failing to instruct the jury to consider the self-defense argument. The high court agreed.
The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence said it found it disappointing the domestic violence and assault convictions were overturned “on a legal technicality.”
“This decision should not in any way discourage victims of domestic violence from coming forward and reporting abuse,” spokesperson Amanda Grady Sexton said in a statement.
Woodburn, a Democrat, served three terms in the Senate. He lost reelection in 2018 to Republican David Starr, of Franconia.
Texas
Oil exec held for 5 years in Venezuela sues Citgo for $100M
HOUSTON (AP) — One of the Citgo oil executives who was held for nearly five years in Venezuela has sued his company for $100 million, alleging it conspired in his detention and then abandoned him and his family as he wasted away in horrific prison conditions for a crime he didn’t commit.
Tomeu Vadell was one of six executives who worked for Houston-based Citgo when they were lured to Venezuela right before Thanksgiving in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of the company’s parent, the Venezuelan-run-oil giant known as PDVSA. Once there, they were hauled from a Caracas conference room by masked security agents.
A Venezuelan judge later convicted the six executives of embezzlement and sentenced them to between eight years and 13 years in prison in a trial marred by delays and irregularities.
In his lawsuit, Vadell’s lawyers allege Citgo lured him and the other executives, who became known as the Citgo 6, as part of a scheme to be used as “political pawns.”
The lawsuit alleges that while Citgo is based in the U.S., it remains a fully controlled subsidiary of Venezuelan-owned PDVSA. It says this relationship spurred Citgo to work with the state-run oil giant to wrongfully arrest and imprison him in retaliation for U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and also so that the company could “curry favor” with the administration of Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president.
“We suffered a lot and continue to suffer,” Vadell said in a statement about himself and his family. Vadell retired from Citgo in December.
U.S. officials have accused Maduro of using the men as political bargaining chips to extract concessions from the United States.
One of the men was released in March 2022. The remaining five, including Vadell, were freed in October as part of a prisoner exchange with Venezuela.
“All while Citgo sat on the sidelines, merely observing the terrible consequences of its decision to sacrifice and abandon its loyal employee,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed in state district court in Houston.
In a statement, Citgo denied Vadell’s allegations and pushed back on his claims that the company is inextricably tied to Venezuelan-owned PDVSA, saying the lawsuit “irresponsibly equates Citgo, an American company based in Houston, with an authoritarian regime in Venezuela.”
“The Citgo 6 were our senior-most executives, and neither they nor Citgo, the company they led, are responsible for the arbitrary acts of Maduro’s repressive regime. Citgo’s leadership has supported Mr. Vadell and his family in significant financial and other ways,” the company said.
Five of the men, including Vadell, are dual Venezuelan-American nationals who had lived in the U.S. for many years, while one, former Citgo president Jose Pereira, is a permanent U.S. resident.
Vadell’s lawsuit alleges at one point he was held in an “overcrowded, windowless, basement dungeon cell with eight other men,” wasn’t allowed outside for months at a time and “wasted away, losing more than seventy pounds.”
Vadell accuses Citgo of refusing to pay his legal fees while he was tried and convicted in Venezuela and of not paying his salary while he was arrested and imprisoned, leaving his family in financial difficulty.
“We are grateful that the American government got Mr. Vadell out of this hell. It is time for Citgo to be held responsible for conspiring to wrongfully imprison this American citizen,” said Megan Moore, one of his attorneys.
California
Ex-women’s prison warden gets 6 years for inmate sex abuse
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The former warden of an abuse-plagued federal women’s prison in the San Francisco Bay Area was sentenced Wednesday to nearly six years in prison for sexually abusing incarcerated women.
A judge sentenced Ray J. Garcia to 70 months in prison for sexually abusing three female inmates and forcing them to pose naked for photos in their cells at the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland. His term will be followed by 15 years of supervised release, and he must also register as a sex offender with the state of California.
A jury in December found Garcia guilty of eight counts of sexual abuse and one count of lying to the FBI. He was among five workers charged with abusing inmates at the federal correctional institution and the first to go to trial.
Garcia, 55, retired from his post in 2021 after the FBI found nude photos of inmates on his government-issued phone. Garcia was charged with abusing three inmates between December 2019 and July 2021.
Two of the three women Garcia was convicted of abusing spoke about what they endured before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sentenced him, the East Bay Times reported.
One of them described her post-traumatic stress disorder from the abuse, the newspaper reported.
“I was not seen as a name or number by the federal government, but seen as a sexual play toy,” the woman said. “
Gonzalez Rogers chastised Garcia for his role in tormenting women at the federal facility.
“I sentence hundreds of people; I expect and they should be able to expect that when they go into federal custody, they won’t be abused,” Gonzalez Rogers said. “And you abused them. And there was no one watching you — you were the warden, and you were the associate warden.
“You were supposed to be the check. You were supposed to be the person making sure no one else did that.”
An Associated Press investigation last year revealed a culture of abuse and cover-ups that had persisted for years at the prison, about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland. That reporting led to increased scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the federal Bureau of Prisons that it would fix problems and change the culture at the prison.
The trial has called into question the Bureau of Prisons’ handling of sexual abuse complaints from inmates against staff and the vetting process for the people it chooses to run its prisons.
The four other charged Dublin employees are at various stages of their cases.
James Theodore Highhouse, the former prison chaplain who pleaded guilty to abusing an inmate in his chapel office and lying to authorities, was sentenced in August to seven years in prison. He is appealing the punishment, arguing it exceeded federal guidelines.
Enrique Chavez, a food service foreman, pleaded guilty and was sentenced last month to 20 months in prison. Ross Klinger, a recycling technician, has pleaded guilty but has not been sentenced. John Russell Bellhouse, a prison safety administrator, is scheduled to stand trial May 30.
Garcia was in charge of staff and inmate training on reporting abuse and complying with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act at the same time he was committing abuse, prosecutors say, and some inmates say they were sent to solitary confinement or other prisons for accusing employees of abuse.
“You entered a cesspool and then did nothing about it. You just went along with the ride and enjoyed the cesspool yourself,” Gonzalez Rogers said, the East Bay Times reported. “You should have done something about it.”
Before the judge issued her ruling, Garcia admitted fault for abusing women at the prison and expressed contrition and remorse. In the process, he also waived his right to appeal the verdict and sentence.
“Your honor, I stand before you today as a broken man,” Garcia said. “I could not be more ashamed. I can’t be more sorry.”
“I cannot imagine the pain, fear and shame they’ve gone through as a result of my actions,” he said of his victims.
The judge ordered Garcia to turn himself in and begin serving the sentence on May 19. The prison where he will serve his sentence has not been determined.
Massachusetts
Former police detective convicted of killing wife
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A former Massachusetts police detective has been convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death nearly five years ago of his wife, which was originally ruled a suicide.
Former Westfield Detective Brian Fanion was sentenced Wednesday in Hampden Superior Court to a mandatory term of life in prison after being found guilty by a jury of killing Amy Fanion, 51, in May 2018.
The prosecutor said Brian Fanion was having an affair and did not want to share his pension with his wife. Authorities said in court that the detective used his work computer to look up the effect of divorce on a pension, and also made internet searches about gunshot residue, which were not related to any investigations he was involved in.
“Mr. Fanion’s behavior was calculating and shockingly cruel,” Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said in a statement. “I commend the members of the jury who saw through his defense and held him accountable. This result illustrates that no matter your position or power, justice is blind.”
The defense argued in court that Amy Fanion took her own life during an argument about the couple’s retirement plans.
“Your honor, the jury got it wrong,” defense attorney Jeffrey Brown said after the verdict.
