Florida
DeSantis suspends top prosecutor in Orlando, says she neglected duties
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday suspended the top prosecutor in Orlando, saying she had neglected her duty to prosecute criminals.
“It is my duty as Governor to ensure that the laws enacted by our duly elected Legislature are followed,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Tallahassee announcing the suspension of State Attorney Monique Worrell of the 9th Judicial Circuit, which serves Orange and Osceola counties.
This is the second elected state attorney DeSantis has suspended in the past year. Last August he removed Andrew Warren, the Tampa area state attorney, from office, accusing him of neglect of duty and incompetence. Warren, who like Worrell is a Democrat, joined other prosecutors across the country in signing statements opposing criminal charges against abortion providers or women seeking abortions. He also said he wouldn’t prosecute people for providing gender-affirming health care, and his office’s policies didn’t charge people with some minor crimes.
The governor appointed Andrew Bain, an Orange County judge, to replace Worrell. Bain previously served as assistant state attorney in Orlando.
“The people of Central Florida deserve to have a State Attorney who will seek justice in accordance with the law instead of allowing violent criminals to roam the streets and find new victims,” DeSantis said.
Pennsylvania
Motorcycle club member convicted in death of man whose body was left in crypt
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A member of an outlaw motorcycle club accused of killing an associate member and leaving his body in a crypt at a Philadelphia cemetery has been convicted of murder and other charges.
Michael DiMauro, 51, who represented himself at trial, faces a potential term of life without parole when sentenced this month.
DiMauro shot David Rossillo Jr., 33, four times in Mount Moriah Cemetery in December 2017, prosecutors said, then tied a rope around his neck, dragged him across the property with a car, and left him in an underground crypt.
Rossillo was missing for nearly three years before his body was found in April 2020, as authorities searched for another Warlocks motorcycle associate who had disappeared. The body of the other missing man was also found in the crypt, authorities said, and it’s still not clear why either man was killed.
Rhode Island
Shipping company ordered to pay $2.25M after discharging oily bilge into ocean
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The owner of a Greek oil tanker has been ordered by a U.S. judge to pay $2.25 million in fines and penalties after discharging oily bilge water into the ocean during a trans-Atlantic voyage and admitting to other environmental violations by its captain and chief engineer.
Zeus Lines Management S.A. was fined over $1.68 million at a formal sentencing Tuesday and will pay an additional $562,500 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund projects that benefit marine and coastal natural resources in Rhode Island, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney in the state.
The company and the two crew members had agreed to the penalties in May.
The Galissas, owned by Zeus, was transporting a cargo of diesel from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to Rhode Island in February 2022 when it discharged nearly 10,000 gallons (about 37,000 liters) of bilge water, and also failed to report a hazardous condition in the cargo tanks to the U.S. Coast Guard, prosecutors said.
The Galissas’ captain, Master Jose Ervin Mahinge Porquez, previously admitted to violating the Ports and Waterways Safety Act for failing to report to the Coast Guard, prior to entering Rhode Island waters, that the system ensuring safe oxygen levels within cargo tanks was inoperable.
When the Coast Guard was informed, it found that oxygen levels registered more than double the allowable limit and ordered the vessel to move farther offshore so it did not endanger the community of Newport.
Chief Engineer Roberto Cayabyab Penaflor admitted to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for knowingly discharging untreated oily bilge water directly from the tanker into the sea, federal prosecutors said.
The bilge water was not processed through required pollution prevention equipment, and the illegal discharges were not recorded in the vessel’s oil record book, as required by law, prosecutors said.
Porquez and Penaflor are residents of the Philippines.
The defendants will also serve a four-year term of probation, during which time all vessels operated by the company calling on U.S. ports will be required to adhere to a strict environmental compliance plan.
Idaho
Man charged with shooting rifle at two hydroelectric power stations
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho man has been charged with two counts of destruction of an energy facility after federal prosecutors said he shot a rifle at two hydroelectric power stations and caused damage to both.
Randy Scott Vail, 58, of Meridian, allegedly used the firearm to shoot at the Hells Canyon Dam station and the Brownlee Dam station on June 8 and June 9, according to charging documents.
Owned by Idaho Power Company, the dams produce, transmit, store and distribute electricity to Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. The shooting caused over $100,000 in damage, according to an indictment.
Authorities arrested Vail on June 9, following a high-speed chase near Cambridge, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of Boise, KTVB reported. Riding on a white sport motorcycle, Vail allegedly went 80 mph in a 25-mph zone as officers pursued him.
After Vail pulled to a stop, a Washington County deputy wrote in a probable cause affidavit, officers found he had a case holding two rifles, bolt cutters and two tire-repair cans “full of what smelled like gasoline.”
Court records did not list an attorney who might speak on Vail’s behalf.
If convicted, Vail could a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Idaho.
Illinois
Prosecutors drop charges against ex-Chicago officer who struggled with Black woman on beach
CHICAGO (AP) — Prosecutors dropped charges Tuesday against a white former Chicago police officer captured on video struggling with a Black woman who was walking her dog along a Lake Michigan beach.
Bruce Dyker, 53, had been charged with official misconduct and aggravated battery. He had pleaded not guilty.
“After consultation with the victim and her attorney, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office will not be proceeding with the criminal charges against former CPD Officer Bruce Dyker,” a spokesperson for the office told the Chicago Tribune.
Dyker resigned from the Chicago Police Department in May 2022 before any formal disciplinary action was announced against him. He had been a Chicago officer since 1998.
His attorney, Tim Grace, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Dyker had been placed in a “very difficult situation,” making sure people don’t go on beach after posted hours where harm could happen to them.
“I think the state’s attorney’s office never should have charged Officer Dyker in this case but I give them credit for doing the correct thing in the end,” Grace said.
Videos showed Dyker grabbing Nikkita Brown shortly after midnight on Aug. 28, 2021, as she walked her French bulldog at North Avenue Beach.
Minnesota
Last defendant sentenced to 37 years in mass shooting at bar that left one dead
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A St. Paul man was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 37 years for his role in a mass shooting at a bar that left one person dead and 14 others injured.
Jurors found Terry Lorenzo Brown Jr., 35, guilty in June of second-degree intentional murder, four counts of attempted murder and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Ramsey County Judge Carolina Lamas sentenced him to 36 years and nine months on the murder conviction, with lesser sentences on the other counts. The sentences will run concurrently.
The Star Tribune reported that Lamas handed down the sentence in a courtroom packed with family and friends of Marquisha “Kiki” Wiley, the 27-year-old veterinary technician killed by a bullet fired from Brown’s gun during the melee inside a crowded bar called the Seventh Street Truck Park in 2021.
Brown is the second person sentenced in the gunbattle. Devondre Trevon Phillips, 31, of Las Vegas, was sentenced to 29 years in June for firing the first shots. Phillips and Brown exchanged gunfire, striking each other and a dozen bystanders. Prosecutors have said Phillips and Brown were in a dispute over domestic abuse allegations involving Brown and the woman he was dating, whom Phillips, a former St. Paul resident, described as a cousin of his.
Defense attorney Stephen Grigsby said Phillips was responsible for causing the carnage and Brown simply responded to being shot.
The judge said it was undisputed that Phillips fired first but Brown acted unreasonably by spraying bullets in the crowded bar in response.
Brown apologized to Wiley’s family and all others affected by the shooting. But he maintained that, as Phillips shot him and continued firing while Brown was down on the ground, he did what “I believe anyone would’ve done in the same situation and scenario.”
Minnesota inmates generally serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and the rest on parole.
Tennessee
Former Memphis officer gets 1 year in prison for fatal 2021 car crash
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A former police officer must serve one year in prison in a car crash that killed two people while he was off duty in Memphis, Tennessee, court records showed Tuesday.
Antonio Marshall, 29, pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in the 2021 crash that killed Travis Parham, 19, and Wallace Morris, 42.
Marshall was sentenced to five years in prison, with four years of the term suspended, court documents showed. He also must serve four years of probation.
The Memphis Police Department had said Marshall was off-duty and driving his Dodge Charger 99 mph when he hit the Pontiac Bonneville with Parham and Morris inside.
The collision split the Bonneville in half.
Five seconds before the crash, Marshall was going 114 mph on a street where the speed limit was 45 mph, police said.
A judge had ordered a mental evaluation for Marshall. At the time, Marshall’s lawyer said he was “crushed and devastated for the families of the victims.”
