Pennsylvania
Judge rejects a defense request to exhume the body of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s father
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday rejected a request by lawyers for the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman to exhume the body of the defendant’s father to prove paternity.
Robert Bowers’ lawyers had wanted the body disinterred for a DNA test after prosecutors raised questions about paternity during Bowers’ trial for the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue. Bowers, a 50-year-old truck driver from suburban Baldwin, faces a possible death sentence after being convicted in June of killing 11 people who had gathered for Sabbath worship and study.
Trying to persuade jurors to spare his life, the defense said Bowers has a family history of mental illness and has introduced evidence that his father, Randall Bowers, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The defense asserts that Robert Bowers also has schizophrenia and opened fire at the synagogue out of a delusional belief that Jews were helping to commit a genocide against white people.
Randall Bowers died by suicide in 1979 on the eve of his own rape trial. At trial last week, prosecutors sought to cast doubt on whether he was Robert Bowers’ biological father. The defense asked the judge on Tuesday to clear up the matter by ordering the exhumation of Randall Bowers’ body.
U.S. District Judge Robert Colville agreed with prosecutors that the defense waited too long to make its motion for exhumation, noting Bowers’ own mother questioned whether Randall Bowers was the biological father when a defense expert spoke to her in November 2022. The defense should have anticipated that federal prosecutors would seek to rebut paternity, Colville said in the ruling. The judge also said he probably lacks legal authority to order a disinterment.
Mental health experts hired by the defense told jurors that they diagnosed Robert Bowers with schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder whose symptoms include delusions and hallucinations. A neurologist testifying for the prosecution disputed that Bowers has schizophrenia and said mental illness did not appear to play a role in the attack.
Colorado
Businessman gets over 5 years in prison for ‘We Build The Wall’ fundraiser fraud
NEW YORK (AP) — A Colorado businessman convicted of fraudulently siphoning hundreds of thousands of dollars from an online fundraiser that raised $25 million to build a wall along the U.S. southern border was sentenced Tuesday to five years and three months in prison.
Timothy Shea was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Analisa Torres, who presided over an October trial that ended with his conviction on charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice. A trial earlier in 2022 had ended when a jury deadlocked on charges.
Shea, 52, of Castle Rock, Colorado, also was ordered to forfeit $1.8 million and to pay restitution of an equal amount.
Shea was charged three years ago along with three others, including Steve Bannon, the former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump. Trump pardoned Bannon in early 2021 while two others pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison. Bannon, who is now being prosecuted in New York state court, has pleaded not guilty.
Torres said Shea and the others not only cheated donors but also “hurt us all” by damaging faith in the country’s political system by capitalizing on those who believed that building a wall would help secure the nation’s borders.
She noted that donors who testified at trial included a longtime Army veteran and a teacher whose deceased husband had worked as a border agent.
Before the sentence was announced, Shea told the judge that he regretted “all of the ‘We Build The Wall’ stuff.”
He asked for leniency, saying his wife and teenage children needed him at home.
Prosecutors said Shea pocketed $180,000 in a fundraiser that promised donors that 100% of the money raised would go toward building the wall.
Shea owns an energy drink company, Winning Energy, whose cans have featured a cartoon superhero image of Trump and claim to contain “12 oz. of liberal tears.”
In a release, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Shea abused the trust of donors when he “stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to line his own pockets, and attempted to obstruct the federal investigation of his criminal conduct.”
The scheme began after late 2018, when hundreds of thousands of donors began pouring millions into the campaign to build a wall.
Earlier this year, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato were sentenced after pleading guilty to charges in the case. Kolfage, 41, of Miramar Beach, Florida, received four years and three months in prison while Andrew Badolato, 58, of Cocoa, Florida, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Virginia
Judge vacates desertion conviction for former U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday vacated the military conviction of Bowe Bergdahl, a former U.S. Army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post and was captured in Afghanistan and tortured by the Taliban.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton in Washington says that military judge Jeffrey Nance, who presided over the court-martial, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive branch for a job as an immigration judge, creating a potential conflict of interest.
Walton noted that former President Donald Trump had strongly criticized Bergdahl during the 2016 presidential campaign. Bergdahl’s lawyers argued that Trump’s comments placed undue command influence on Nance.
Walton rejected the specific argument surrounding undue command influence, but he said a reasonable person could question the judge’s impartiality under the circumstances.
Bergdahl was charged with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after the then-23-year-old from Hailey, Idaho, left his post in Afghanistan in 2009. He said he was trying to get outside his post so he could report what he saw as poor leadership within his unit, but he was abducted by the Taliban and held captive for nearly five years.
During that time, Bergdahl was repeatedly tortured and beaten with copper wires, rubber hoses and rifle butts. After several escape attempts, he was imprisoned in a small cage for four years, according to court documents.
Several U.S. servicemembers were wounded searching for Bergdahl. In 2014, he was returned to the U.S. in a prisoner swap for five Taliban leaders who were being held at Guantanamo Bay.
The swap faced criticism from Trump, then-Sen. John McCain and others. Both Trump and McCain called for Bergdahl to face severe punishment.
In 2017, he pleaded guilty to both charges. Prosecutors at his court-martial sought 14 years in prison, but he was given no time after he submitted evidence of the torture he suffered while in Taliban custody. He was dishonorably discharged and ordered to forfeit $10,000 in pay.
His conviction and sentence had been narrowly upheld by military appeals courts before his lawyers took the case to U.S. District Court, resulting in Tuesday’s ruling.
The Justice Department declined comment on the ruling Tuesday.
Eugene Fidell, one of Bergdahl’s lawyers, said he was gratified by the ruling and said Walton’s 63-page opinion shows how meticulous he was in rendering the ruling.
Calls and emails to the immigration court in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Nance now serves as an immigration judge, were not returned Tuesday evening.
Georgia
A hung jury means a man jailed for 10 years must wait longer for a verdict on murder charges
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — A man who has been jailed in Georgia for 10 years while awaiting trial for a 2013 drive-by shooting that killed two people and injured others will have to keep waiting for a verdict.
A Dougherty County jury was dismissed Monday after being unable to reach a verdict in Maurice Jimmerson’s long-delayed trial, WANF-TV reported.
The hung jury, after a two-week trial, meant that Jimmerson went back to jail in Albany, the city in southwestern Georgia where the shooting took place. Dougherty County District Attorney Gregory Edwards has said he will try the case again.
Jimmerson is being held on $400,000 bail on charges including felony murder, aggravated assault, possessing a gun during a felony and street gang activity, according to his lawyer, Andrew Fleischman of Atlanta. Jimmerson is also being held without bail on a separate charge of destroying a toilet in the Dougherty County jail.
Superior Court Judge Victoria Darrisaw has set a Aug. 8 hearing to consider setting a lower bail that might allow Jimmerson to get out of jail, Fleischman said.
The lawyer has also asked the judge to throw out the charges entirely, citing U.S. Supreme Court rulings that say cases can be dismissed if the state waits too long to try them. One such decision from 1990 found an eight-and-a-half-year delay, for a defendant who was not in jail, was too long and violated the constitutional right to a speedy trial.
“I’m old fashioned,” Fleischman said. “I think people should be convicted of a crime before they’re punished. This is an unprecedented case. This is about a core constitutional right, the right to a speedy trial. The right to due process. And, when you see people denied that right, the public needs to know about it.”
Fleischman said Tuesday that no ruling on his motion to dismiss is likely for months. He took the case pro bono earlier this year after WANF-TV profiled Jimmerson’s situation.
Edwards said the pandemic and a flood in the courthouse were among the reasons for the delay.
“The bulk of the delay was beyond the control of anybody,” he said. “We’ve been making every effort to bring him to trial.”
Fleischman argues there’s not enough evidence for a conviction, noting that a jailhouse witness who came forward three years after the shooting has admitted he lied about seeing Jimmerson participate in it.
Jimmerson’s co-defendant, Condell Benyard, was jailed for seven years while awaiting trial. He was found not guilty of all 26 charges brought against him.
