National Roundup

California
CEO convicted in COVID-19 and allergy test fraud
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A Silicon Valley executive who lied to investors about inventing technology that tested for allergies and COVID-19 using only a few drops of blood was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison and ordered to pay $24 million in restitution, federal prosecutors said.

Mark Schena, 60, was convicted last year of paying bribes to doctors and defrauding the government after his company billed Medicare $77 million for fraudulent COVID-19 and allergy tests, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Schena claimed his Sunnyvale, California-based company, Arrayit Corporation, had the only laboratory in the world that offered “revolutionary microarray technology” that allowed it to test for allergies and COVID-19 with the same finger-stick test kit, prosecutors said.

In meetings with investors, Schena claimed he was on the shortlist for the Nobel Prize and falsely represented that Arrayit could be valued at $4.5 billion, prosecutors said.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, from 2018 through February 2020, Schena and other employees paid bribes to recruiters and doctors to run an allergy screening test for 120 allergens ranging from stinging insects to food allergens on every patient whether they were needed or not, authorities said.

The case against Schena shared similarities with a more prominent legal saga surrounding former Silicon Valley star Elizabeth Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford University in 2003 to found a company called Theranos that she pledged would revolutionize health care with a technology that could scan for hundreds of diseases and other issues with just a few drops of blood, too.

Holmes was convicted on four felony counts of investor fraud following a nearly four-month trial in the same San Jose, California, courtroom where Schena’s trial was held. In May, Holmes entered a Texas prison where she could spend the next 11 years.

Idaho
Execution of death row inmate delayed for sentence hearing
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The November execution of a man on Idaho’s death row was delayed on Wednesday because the state’s parole board has granted a hearing to consider changing his sentence to life in prison.

An Idaho judge last week issued a death warrant for Thomas Creech, the state’s longest-serving death row inmate. Creech was convicted of killing two people in Valley County in 1974 and sentenced to death. After an appeal, however, that sentence was reduced to life in prison.

Less than 10 years later, he was convicted of beating another man in custody, David Jensen, to death with a sock full of batteries. Creech was sentenced to death for that crime in 1983.

After the death warrant was issued last week, the Idaho Department of Correction had said Creech would be executed by lethal injection on Nov. 8 and said they already had the necessary chemicals.

Creech’s attorneys with the nonprofit Federal Defender Services of Idaho petitioned the parole board to schedule the sentence review hearing. In their 256-page filing, they argued that Creech, 73, should be allowed to live out his days in prison and die of natural causes, the Idaho Statesman reported.

The board hasn’t yet scheduled a hearing date.

In the clemency hearing petition, Creech described himself as a “devout Christian” and apologized to the family of the man he killed in prison for the pain he caused them. He said he was remorseful for all of his crimes, according to the petition.

Texas
City settles lawsuit over police response
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas city on Wednesday agreed to a $175,000 settlement with passengers on one of President Joe Biden’s campaign buses in 2020, including Democrat Wendy Davis, who accused police of ignoring their calls for help after a caravan of Donald Trump supporters surrounded them on a highway.

The episode took place days before the November election as the bus approached Austin. Video that circulated widely on social media at the time showed trucks with large Trump flags driving close to the bus, which had campaign surrogates and staffers on board but not the candidates.

A lawsuit filed by Davis, a former state senator who ran for Texas governor in 2014, and the other passengers accused San Marcos police of ignoring “acts of violent political intimidation” and abdicating their responsibility by not sending an escort despite multiple 911 calls made from the bus. Under the settlement, the City of San Marcos also agreed to give officers additional training that includes principles of giving “individuals a voice” and being neutral in decision-making.

San Marcos City Manager Stephanie Reyes said the city continues to deny many of the allegations in the lawsuit. However, she said the response by police that day did not reflect the department’s standards “for conduct and attention to duty.”

Filings in the lawsuit included text messages and transcripts of 911 calls. The lawsuit alleged that city officials and police violated an 1871 federal law often called the “Ku Klux Klan Act,” originally designed to stop political violence against Black people. The law has also been cited in lawsuits following the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Massachusetts
Woman says she was raped after getting into a car she thought she had booked
BOSTON (AP) — A man has been charged with raping a woman who thought he was the driver she requested after leaving a Boston nightclub.

The woman told police she left the nightclub early Saturday and got into the car, believing it to be an Uber she had requested for the ride home. But after she got in, the driver drove behind some buildings, put a T-shirt over the rear window and then raped her, police said in a report.

“This is a terrifying incident involving a woman who entered a vehicle with the full understanding that she was going to be delivered home in safety and a driver who took advantage of the victim and the situation,” Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a news release Wednesday.

Afterward, the driver drove the woman around before dropping her off near her house, police said.

Investigators said they used video surveillance and descriptions provided by the woman to identify the car.

The driver, identified as a 29-year-old man from Worcester, was arrested Sunday and charged with rape. He pleaded not guilty in municipal court on Monday, and his bail was set at $10,000. He was scheduled to return to court on Nov. 15. The Associated Press sent an email to his attorney seeking comment.

Uber told The Boston Globe that the man is not a driver for the ride-booking service.