Court Digest

Oregon
Ex-prison nurse convicted of sexually assaulting women in custody gets 30 years
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A former nurse convicted of sexually abusing women in custody at an Oregon prison has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.

Tony Klein’s sentence handed down Tuesday also includes five years of supervised release after prison, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office — District of Oregon. He had faced a possible life sentence.

A federal jury in July convicted Klein on 17 counts related to sexual assault and four counts of lying under oath involving nine women. Jurors found he deprived the women of their constitutional right to not face cruel and unusual punishment while they served time at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility south of Portland in Wilsonville.

He worked as a nurse at the facility from 2010 until 2018, interacting with women in custody who either sought medical treatment or worked in the prison’s medical unit. Prosecutors said Klein sexually assaulted many women entrusted to his care, making it clear to them that he was in a position of power and that their reports about it wouldn’t be believed.

Klein resigned as Oregon State Police was investigating the assault allegations.

Klein, 39, denies sexually assaulting anyone and his lawyers have said Klein plans to appeal the sentence. He didn’t testify at trial.

His attorneys, Amanda Alvarez Thibeault and Matthew McHenry, suggested during the trial that Klein was the victim of a plot by women in custody to get financial settlements from the state.

The jury reached a unanimous verdict “after careful consideration,” jury foreman Patrick O’Halloran said in July.

Prosecutors said Klein abused his position and abused women, violating the public’s trust, while doing everything he could to avoid getting caught.

“Holding Tony Klein accountable for his crimes would not have been possible without the courage and resolve of the women he abused and the dedication of our partners at the FBI and Civil Rights Division,” Natalie Wight, U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, said in a statement.

Numerous women since 2019 have sued the state Department of Corrections and Klein alleging sexual abuse. The state has settled at least 11 of them and paid out a total of $1.87 million while admitting no wrongdoing.

West Virginia
Towboat owner pleads guilty to pollution charge in oil spill along state border
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — The owner of a towboat that sank and spilled oil into a river along the West Virginia-Kentucky border pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal pollution charge.

David K. Smith, 55, of Paducah, Kentucky, entered the plea in federal court in Huntington to discharge of refuse into navigable waters.

Smith owned River Marine Enterprises LLC and Western River Assets LLC. His towboat, the Gate City, sank while docked in the Big Sandy River in January 2018, discharging oil and other substances. The city of Kenova, West Virginia, closed its municipal drinking water intake for three days while regulatory agencies responded to the spill, according to court records.

A November 2017 Coast Guard inspection of the vessel had determined it could harm public health and the environment due to the threat of an oil discharge. Officials said at the time the vessel had the potential to spill 5,000 gallons (18,927 litres).

An administrative order required Smith to remove all oil and hazardous materials from the Gate City before Jan. 31, 2018, but Smith admitted he had not complied at the time of the spill, prosecutors said. Smith also said a contractor that was supposed to remove oil from the vessel before it sank could not access it safely due to site conditions.

Smith faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. His companies each face fines up to $200,000. Sentencing was set for Feb. 26, 2024.

Maryland
Corrupt ex-police officer asks for compassionate prison release
BALTIMORE (AP) — A former Baltimore police officer convicted in 2018 as part of the department’s Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal is asking a federal judge for compassionate release from prison, saying he’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Daniel Hersl, the oldest member of the deeply corrupt and now-disbanded Baltimore police unit, was sentenced to 18 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of racketeering and robbery.

In a court filing Tuesday, the 53-year-old ex-detective said he was recently diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes, liver, lungs and more. He said a prison doctor concluded he has less than 18 months to live and asked for home detention.

A ruling has not yet been issued on his request.

Hersl was one of eight indicted members of the once-lauded Gun Trace Task Force, which was created to get illegal guns off the streets of a city plagued by violent crime. But instead, members robbed drug dealers, planted narcotics and firearms on innocent people and assaulted random civilians. More than a dozen officers have been convicted in the scandal since 2017. Hundreds of cases that hinged on their testimony were later dropped.

Prosecutors said Hersl “devalued” people he dealt with as an officer and “abused his power to prey on them.” They said he also ripped off taxpayers by committing rampant overtime fraud, including an entire month that he spent refurbishing his house while on the clock.

City leaders have since undertaken significant efforts to reform the Baltimore Police Department, which remains under a federal consent decree because Justice Department investigators found a pattern of unconstitutional and discriminatory policing practices, especially against Black residents.

Arizona
Judge dismisses Kari Lake’s lawsuit over electronic voting machines
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal appeals court tossed out a lawsuit brought by former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake that was previously dismissed, challenging use of electronic voting machines and sought to ban them in last year’s midterm elections.

Lake and failed Arizona Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem, both Republicans, filed a lawsuit in April 2022 that alleged the ballot tabulation machines were not trustworthy.

The former Phoenix TV anchor wound up losing her race by more than 17,000 votes while Finchem lost by over 120,000 votes.

In the ruling Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said their claims didn’t show “a plausible inference that their individual votes in future elections will be adversely affected by the use of electronic tabulation, particularly given the robust safeguards in Arizona law, the use of paper ballots, and the post-tabulation retention of those ballots.”

The challenge focused on problems with ballot printers at some polling places in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and where more than 60% of the state’s voters live. The defective printers produced ballots with text that was too light or too small for the paper and therefore couldn’t be read by the on-site tabulators at polling places.

Amid the confusion, lines were backed up in some areas. But the Arizona Court of Appeals concluded that no evidence was presented that voters whose ballots were unreadable by tabulators at polling places were ultimately unable to vote.

Still pending is a ruling in another lawsuit that Lake filed this year over Maricopa County’s ballot signature-verification process. She has demanded that Arizona’s most populous county release 1.3 million ballot envelopes signed by voters.

Lake is among the most vocal of last year’s Republican candidates promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign.

While most other election deniers around the country conceded after losing their races in November, Lake did not. She is regarded as a contender to be Trump’s running mate in his 2024 campaign.

Wisconsin
Jury convicts 2 employees in fatal corn mill explosion
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal jury has convicted two senior employees at a Wisconsin corn plant of falsifying records and obstructing an investigation into a fatal corn dust explosion in 2017, Justice Department officials announced on Tuesday.

Corn dust is explosive, and high concentrations are dangerous. Federal regulations require grain mill operators to perform regular cleanings to reduce dust accumulations that could fuel a blast.

Jurors found Derrick Clark, vice president of operations at Didion Milling, and Shawn Mesner, a former food safety superintendent at the company, guilty of multiple safety, environmental and fraud charges on Friday. The two men are the latest in a growing list of Didion employees found guilty in association with the 2017 explosion that killed five people at the company’s Cambria corn mill.

Attorneys listed for both men did not immediately respond to voicemails seeking comment on Tuesday.

Didion Milling pleaded guilty in September to charges that its employees falsified environmental and safety compliance records for years leading up to the explosion. The company agreed to pay a $1 million fine and $10.25 million to the estates of the five workers who were killed.

Clark was convicted on Friday of making false Clean Air Act compliance certifications and lying to investigators during a deposition. Mesner was found guilty of conspiring to mislead Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators by lying on sanitation records that tracked cleanings meant to remove corn dust from the mill.

“Derrick Clark and Shawn Mesner chose to intentionally mislead OSHA investigators and made false statements about their knowledge of working conditions at the plant to protect themselves and cover their mistakes,” OSHA Regional Administrator Bill Donovan said in a statement.

Sentencing hearings have not yet been scheduled for either of the men. At least five other Didion employees have pleaded guilty or been convicted of charges including concealing environmental violations, lying to investigators and falsifying cleaning logs.

New Mexico
Man who, in his teens, shot and killed mail carrier receives sentence
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Albuquerque man convicted in the 2019 shooting death of a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

The office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico said Xavier Zamora received the sentence more than a year after pleading guilty to second-degree murder of a federal employee.

He also pleaded guilty to using a firearm during a crime of violence resulting in death.

According to prosecutors, Jose Hernandez was delivering the mail when he saw Zamora, who was 17 at the time, arguing with his mother outside her home.

Hernandez tried to diffuse the dispute.

Authorities say that’s when Zamora struck and pushed Hernandez. The teen then retrieved a gun from the house and shot the mail carrier in the stomach.

Hernandez died 20 minutes later.

Zamora was found hiding in a nearby home a few days later.

The gun he used was never found, according to court documents.

Hernandez had been with the Postal Service for 12 years. He was also a husband and father of four.