Nevada
Lawyer granted release in $460M ‘slip-and-fall’ Ponzi scheme
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas lawyer accused of orchestrating a $460 million “slip-and-fall” Ponzi scheme across the U.S. West was granted release Friday after spending more than a year in federal custody.
U.S. District Judge Cam Ferenbach said he was persuaded by Matthew Beasley’s “strong family support” to give the personal injury lawyer a chance at leading a “productive life” as he awaits trial on charges of money laundering and wire fraud.
While out of custody, Ferenbach said, Beasley is required to maintain employment and barred from contacting any of the alleged victims in the case or possessing a weapon.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Schiess told the judge the federal government would appeal the decision and ask for a court order keeping Beasley in custody pending the outcome of the appeal.
Beasley was indicted last week in connection with the alleged scheme but has been in custody since March 2022, when he was shot and wounded by FBI agents who arrived at his $1.1 million home in Las Vegas to question him.
Prosecutors have said Beasley answered the door that day with a gun aimed at his own head. A four-hour standoff ensued that ended after SWAT officers entered the home.
He was charged with assault on a federal officer, leading to his yearlong detainment, but that charge was dismissed last week following his indictment in connection with the alleged Ponzi scheme.
Friday’s hearing was at times contentious as Schiess argued for Beasley’s continued detainment, citing the standoff as evidence he poses a danger to the community and to himself.
Jackie Tirinnanzi, a lawyer for Beasley, told the judge her client has a renewed outlook on life as he awaits the birth of his grandchild. She said Beasley also wants to reconnect with his children and help take care of his mother, a breast cancer survivor who has trouble walking.
In a statement afterward, Beasley’s attorneys applauded the ruling.
“Mr. Beasley has languished in Nevada Southern Detention Center for 13 months after he was shot by two FBI agents, without a warrant, in his own home,” they said.
According to the indictment, the defendant enlisted hundreds of investors starting in 2017 for a company that claimed to offer short-term loans with high interest rates to clients awaiting payment after settling personal injury “slip-and-fall” cases. Investors were allegedly promised a return of up to 13% within 90 days.
But there were no clients, according to prosecutors. Instead, Beasley is alleged to have used the incoming money to pay earlier investors.
Schiess said the scheme funded Beasley’s “luxurious” lifestyle, including luxury homes and cars, a private jet and recreational vehicles.
Beasley has pleaded not guilty, but prosecutors say that during last year’s standoff, he confessed “over and over and over again” to his involvement in the investment scheme while on the phone with a negotiator.
His trial is set to begin in June.
The Nevada Supreme Court suspended Beasley from practicing law in the state and barred him from handling client funds shortly after his arrest.
Missouri
78-year-old bank heist suspect: ‘I didn’t mean to scare you’
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) — A 78-year-old woman with two past bank robbery convictions faces new charges after authorities allege she handed a teller a note that said “I didn’t mean to scare you” during a recent Missouri heist.
Bonnie Gooch is jailed on $25,000 bond after she was charged with one count of stealing or attempting to steal from a financial institution in the holdup Wednesday in Pleasant Hill, The Kansas City Star reports. No attorney is listed for her in online court records.
She also was convicted of robbing a California bank in 1977 and one in the Kansas City suburb of Lee’s Summit in 2020. Her probation in the second heist ended in November 2021.
Court documents filed in Cass County in the latest case said the robbery note demanded “13,000 small bills,” adding “thank you sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.” Surveillance video also captured her banging on the counter, asking the teller to hurry, Cass County prosecutors said.
She smelled strongly of alcohol when officers stopped her less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away, with cash scattered on the car’s floorboard, prosecutors added.
“It’s just sad,” Pleasant Hill Police Chief Tommy Wright said, adding that the suspect had no diagnosed ailments.
Minnesota
Man gets 2 years in prison for laser strike on jet
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge in Wisconsin sentenced a Minnesota man on Friday to two years in prison for aiming a laser at a Delta Air Lines jet in 2021, an act that prosecutors said disrupted the pilots’ efforts to land and putting passengers in “incredible danger.”
James Link, 43, of Rochester, Minnesota, pleaded guilty in January.
Laser strikes on planes and helicopters hit a record in the U.S. in 2021. Pilots reported 9,723 incidents, a 41% jump over the year before, according to Federal Aviation Administration figures. The FAA said it handed out $120,000 in fines in 2021. Violators like Link can also face up to five years in prison.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office in Madison, the pilots of the Delta flight from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, to Minneapolis on Oct. 29, 2021, reported that their cockpit was lit up three times by a bright blue laser while they were at an altitude of 9,000 feet (2,700 meters) just west of River Falls, Wisconsin. At the time, air traffic control had just instructed them to change runways, which required them to plot a new course to the Minneapolis airport.
“The laser strikes caused a major distraction in the cockpit as they were not able to look at their iPads to brief the new approach,” prosecutors said in a statement.
The pilots were eventually able to chart the new path and land safely, the statement said.
“The first officer did not suffer any disruption to his vision, but the captain said that vision in his right eye was affected for several hours after this event,” prosecutors said.
Air traffic control called a Minnesota State Patrol aircraft, which flew to River Falls. The State Patrol aircraft was also struck by a blue laser. The pilots spotted the suspect and worked with River Falls police, who found Link with a blue laser on his person.
At sentencing, U.S. District Judge William Conley remarked on Link’s extensive criminal record, which included numerous domestic assaults. He also said the behavior was similar to a 2017 arrest when Link shined a flashlight in the eyes of the arresting officer.
“Judge Conley called aiming a laser at an aircraft incredibly dangerous and reckless, and in this case forced the Delta pilots to focus on their temporary blindness which put everyone on the aircraft in incredible danger,” the statement said.
Kentucky
Man convicted in pregnant Indiana girlfriend’s 2015 killing
A Kentucky man has been convicted in the killing of his pregnant girlfriend, who vanished in northwestern Indiana in 2015 and whose body has never been found.
A Lake County jury convicted Derron Fuller, 27, on Thursday of two counts of murder and one count of obstruction of justice in the death of Rochelle Stubblefield, 20. His sentencing is set for May 25.
The Merrillville, Indiana, woman was eight months pregnant when she disappeared in November 2015 after attending a basketball game in nearby Hammond. Stubblefield’s body has never been found.
Prosecutors argued that Fuller, a former Gary, Indiana, resident, was the only person with the motive to kill her because he didn’t want to be the father of her child. Before she vanished, Stubblefield texted her mother saying she was going to meet Fuller about the baby, according to court documents.
Two witnesses, including one of Fuller’s cousins, told police Fuller admitted killing Stubblefield. The cousin said Fuller told him he killed Stubblefield because he didn’t want to pay child support, court documents state.
When police traveled in 2020 to Kentucky’s Fort Knox, where Fuller was stationed in the U.S. Army, to arrest him, he passed out.
Prosecutors said that was the sign of a guilty man, while Fuller’s attorney called that ridiculous and said the only evidence prosecutors had was the testimony of two people.
Alabama
Secretary sentenced for stealing $90K from church
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama woman has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after authorities say she stole nearly $90,000 from a now-closed church where she worked as secretary, using some of the money for trips to casinos.
Carmen Ramer Davis, 59, of Opp, was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty in November to eight counts of wire fraud, court records show.
Brooklyn Congregational Methodist Church in Coffee County closed because of financial hardship soon after the fraud was discovered in August 2019, and it has not reopened, according to a news release Friday by Middle District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Sandra Stewart.
“The crimes committed by Ms. Davis victimized an entire faith community,” Stewart said. “The harm will continue to be felt for quite some time.”
As part of the sentencing Friday, U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. ordered Davis to serve one year of supervised release after she leaves prison.
The church appointed Davis as its secretary in 2006 and she had access to its bank account to pay the congregation’s bills, according to court records and testimony.
Prosecutors said Davis obtained a debit card for the church account without the knowledge of church leaders, and she used it to make fraudulent cash withdrawals and purchase items for herself. She also wrote checks from the church account to herself or made them out to cash, without permission.
An investigation showed Davis used some of the church’s money for trips to casinos in Mississippi and Alabama.
The fraudulent activity was discovered when a church leader received a bank letter about insufficient funds to cover a $75 check from the church account.
During Friday’s sentencing hearing, Huffaker determined that from July 2008 until July 2019, Davis defrauded the church of $89,440. The judge ordered her to pay restitution to the church in that amount.
Maine
Man pleads guilty to charge in alleged mosque attack plot
BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A 19-year-old accused of making homemade explosives and plotting to attack a mosque in the Chicago area pleaded guilty Friday to providing material support to terrorists.
Xavier Pelkey appeared in federal court to enter the plea under an agreement in which prosecutors dropped a second charge. He faces up to 15 years in prison when he’s sentenced at a later date.
Pelkey, of Waterville, was 18 when he was arrested last year by FBI agents who found three homemade explosives in his residence, along with a handwritten document that appeared to be a draft statement about the planned mosque attack. In the statement, Pelkey claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group and an IS flag was painted on his bedroom wall, investigators said.
He had been communicating with two juveniles in Canada and in Illinois about conducting a mass shooting at a Shiite mosque in the Chicago area, law enforcement officials said.
All three believed in a radical form of Sunni Islam that views the Shiite branch of Islam as nonbelievers, officials said. Pelkey planned to contribute firearms, ammunition and explosives to be used in the attack, officials said.
