New York
Musk must still have his tweets approved by Tesla lawyer, court rules
NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk cannot back out of a settlement with securities regulators that was reached after his 2018 tweets claiming he had secured funding to take Tesla private caused the electric vehicle maker’s share price to jump and led to a temporary halt in trading, an appeals court ruled Monday.
The summary order by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan was released just days after a three-judge panel heard lawyers’ arguments in the case.
Musk had challenged a lower court judge’s ruling last year requiring him to abide by the deal on the grounds that circumstances have changed and because the decree contains a “prior restraint” that Musk contends violates the First Amendment.
The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission required that his tweets be approved first by a Tesla attorney. It also called for Musk and Tesla to pay civil fines over the tweets in which Musk said he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 per share.
The funding wasn’t secured and Tesla remains public.
In its ruling, the 2nd Circuit said it saw “no evidence to support Musk’s contention that the SEC has used the consent decree to conduct bad-faith, harassing investigations of his protected speech.”
Instead, it said, the SEC had opened “just three inquiries into Musk’s tweets since 2018” and each challenged tweet “plausibly violated the terms of the consent decree.”
The appeals court also rejected Musk’s prior restraint argument, saying parties entering consent decrees may voluntarily waive their First Amendment and other rights.
Lawyers in the case did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The SEC was investigating whether the Tesla CEO’s November 2021 tweets asking Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock violated an October 2018 settlement that Musk signed after the SEC brought an enforcement action against him alleging that his tweets about going private violated antifraud provisions of securities laws.
In a written ruling in April 2022, Judge Lewis Limon said Musk sent the tweets without getting pre-approval.
Musk’s deal with the SEC called for Musk and Tesla to each pay $20 million in fines over Musk’s tweets about having secured funding to take Tesla private. The funding was not secured but Tesla’s stock price jumped in response to the tweets and trading in the shares was subsequently halted.
Minnesota
Man pleads guilty in organic crops fraud scheme that netted millions
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man pleaded guilty to selling conventionally grown crops as certified organic produce in a scheme the federal prosecutors said brought in $19 million in profits.
James Clayton Wolf, 65, of Cottonwood County pleaded guilty Friday to one count of wire fraud after admitting that he sold the improperly labeled crops to a buyer in Pennsylvania.
As part of the plea deal, Wolf will be required to pay $19 million in restitution.
Federal prosecutors initially charged Wolf and a co-defendant, Adam Clifford Olson, with three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy. They alleged the men, both certified organic farmers, ran the scheme between 2014 and 2021, and it netted $46 million.
Certified organic crops generally bring in higher prices because they are raised without chemical applications, such as herbicides.
Olson’s case is continuing in the court system.
Ohio
Man charged in 2019 murder of woman walking dog in park
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) — A man has been charged in the death of a woman gunned down while walking her dog in a city park on the west side of Cleveland more than four years ago.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors last week announced a grand jury indictment of 22-year-old DaJuan Evans in the January 2019 murder of 58-year-old Sheila Wallace in McGowan Park. He is charged with aggravated murder and two counts each of murder and felonious assault.
“Sheila Wallace was not and will not be forgotten,” Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a statement. “Her horrendous murder shook the Bellaire-Puritas community to the core and my thoughts and prayers remain with the victim’s family.”
Prosecutors said video evidence shows a man they identified as Evans, who was 18 at the time, and another male crossing paths with the victim. Then, prosecutors alleged, “Evans stopped, turned around, and fired four shots,” striking her in the head and chest. The two males then fled.
Prosecutors said DNA evidence, a ballistics link to another shooting, witness testimony and video evidence linked Evans to the slaying of Wallace, who worked as a medical administrative assistant at the Cleveland Clinic.
Court documents indicate that Evans is being held in lieu of $1 million bond. Messages seeking comment were sent Sunday to his defense attorneys.
Cleveland.com reported that Evans is serving a five-year sentence in an unrelated robbery case and is scheduled for release in June 2024. A judge earlier this year denied Evans’ request for release two years early.
His public defender said in the motion for release that his client had gotten a high school diploma and planned to enroll in college after he was freed, and he was also looking forward to reuniting with his son and the child’s mother.
“Having now experienced the difficulties of prison life and the devastation caused by his absence from his mother and son, Mr. Evans is ready and motivated to reintegrate into society as a law-abiding and productive member of his community,” the motion said.
Colorado
Man once charged in missing wife’s presumed death denies involvement
DENVER (AP) — A man once charged with murder in the presumed death of his missing wife denied having anything to do with her disappearance in an interview broadcast on Monday.
In the interview with “Good Morning America,” Barry Morphew said authorities in Colorado have been wrong to focus on him as the person responsible for the death of Suzanne Morphew, who disappeared three years ago on Mother’s Day.
“They’ve got tunnel vision and they looked at one person, and they’ve got too much pride to say they’re wrong and look somewhere else,” he said, sitting between his adult daughters, who have defended him.
Prosecutors dropped charges against Morphew last year just as he was about to go on trial after a judge barred them from calling most of their key witnesses for repeatedly failing to follow rules for turning over evidence in his favor. That included DNA evidence linked to sexual assault cases in other states that raised the possibility of a different person being involved.
At the time, prosecutors said they wanted more time to find Suzanne Morphew’s body. They have said he is still a suspect as recently as last month, when Morphew’s lawyers announced they had filed a complaint asking that the prosecutors be disciplined for allegedly intentionally withholding evidence in effort to convict him.
This month, Morphew filed a $15 million lawsuit against prosecutors and investigators, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights.
District Attorney Linda Stanley did not immediately return a phone call or email seeking comment.
The charges against Morphew were dismissed without prejudice, so prosecutors can still decide to bring charges against him again. Morphew said he realizes that’s a possibility, since he said he was innocent the first time he was arrested.
“But I don’t have anything to worry about. I’ve done nothing wrong,” Morphew said.
Ohio
Priest convicted of sex trafficking for abusing 3 victims as minors
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest was convicted of five sex-trafficking charges in the molestation of three boys who prosecutors say he met at a Toledo preschool and coerced to continue sexual activity as adults.
Rev. Michael Zacharias was convicted by a federal jury on Friday of sexual trafficking of a minor, two counts of sexual trafficking of a minor by force, fraud, or coercion, and two counts of sexual trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion.
Prosecutors said Zacharias “paid the victims to engage in sex acts with him using the victims’ fear of serious harm to compel their compliance.” They also said the three victims were developing serious drug addictions and the priest “waited to propose commercial sex” until they were heavily involved in drug abuse.
The Toledo Blade reports that Zacharias, 56, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and taken to the Lucas County jail to await sentencing. Defense attorneys had denied any sexual contact when the three were minors and maintained that any contact after they became adults was consensual.
The mother of two of the victims said after the verdicts that she was “thankful that the judicial system has removed an evil monster that preys on children, and he won’t be able to hurt another child or young adult.”
“He’s an evil man, and I will not let him ruin my faith in God,” she said.
The Roman Catholic diocese of Toledo, which placed Zacharias on administrative leave after his August 2020 arrest, said it was “now free to address this matter” according to canon or church law and the case will be presented to the Holy See, which will make the final judgment on his status as a priest.
“The Church cannot and will not tolerate any such behavior and takes any sexual abuse or misconduct on the part of a cleric with the utmost seriousness,” Bishop Daniel Thomas said in a statement Friday. “Our society and church together must bring evil into the light, wherever it is found.”
Alabama
Ex-director of career program pleads guilty to financial crimes
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The former executive director of a career education program in Alabama faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to embezzling money and failing to send employees’ payroll taxes to the IRS.
Federal prosecutors announced Friday that Doris Gilmore, 61, entered the plea the previous day in Montgomery. Sentencing is set for Aug. 10.
Under an agreement with prosecutors, Gilmore admitted to embezzling funds from the Association for Career and Technical Education in 2020 and failing to send payroll taxes withheld during the first quarter of 2022, AL.com reported.
Gilmore’s crimes resulted in a nearly $3 million loss for the program, said Sandra J. Stewart, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, which includes Montgomery.
Between 2020 and 2022, the career education program received federal grant money through various Alabama agencies.
