Court Digest

Georgia
Former NBA star Dwight Howard denies sexual assault lawsuit filed by man
ATLANTA (AP) — Dwight Howard has denied accusations by a Georgia man who says he was sexually assaulted by the former NBA star and another person.

Stephen Harper filed a state civil suit against Howard in July, alleging assault and battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

In a response filed this week by his attorney, Howard described the 2021 encounter at his home in the Atlanta suburbs as consensual and requested that the case be dismissed.

Harper’s lawsuit says he met Howard through Instagram and they exchanged explicit text messages before arranging to meet at Howard’s home on July 19, 2021.

While on his way to the Gwinnett County residence, Harper says Howard texted him to ask if another man or woman could join their planned sexual encounter. Harper says he told Howard he was not interested.

Once at Howard’s home, Harper claims they were joined by a man dressed as a woman who identified only as “Kitty.” Harper says he tried to resist the two men, but Howard and Kitty forced him to participate in sexual activity.

“Mr. Harper was trapped in Defendant’s bedroom and believed that he would suffer imminent bodily harm if he resisted Defendant’s sexual advances,” the lawsuit said. Afterward, “Mr. Harper felt extremely violated and humiliated, and was in complete shock.”

Howard denied the allegations in his response, which says the three men agreed to “engage in consensual sexual activity.” He asked for a summary judgment, with court costs and attorney fees to be assessed against Harper.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault unless they have agreed to be named publicly.

The 37-year-old Howard was an eight-time All Star, three-time defensive player of the year and one of the NBA’s most dominant centers during the prime of his 18-year professional career.

He played for seven franchises, most notably the Orlando Magic — who took him with the No. 1 overall selection in the 2004 draft out of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy — and the Los Angeles Lakers, the team he was with for his lone NBA title during the pandemic-affected 2019-20 season.

California
Imprisoned ‘apostle’ of  megachurch charged with child pornography
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The head of a Mexican megachurch who is serving more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young followers was charged Wednesday with two federal crimes involving a 16-year-old girl, prosecutors said.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Naasón Joaquín García, 54, on two charges of possessing and producing child pornography, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

When he was arrested in California in 2019, Garcia had an iPad that contained five videos depicting the then-teenaged girl engaging in sexual activity, the statement said.

“We did not indict until after the state case was finished,” the U.S. attorney’s office added in an email.

Garcia is the head of La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World), which claims to have 5 million followers worldwide. Believers consider him to be the “apostle” of Jesus Christ.

But prosecutors in California say Garcia used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation — or damnation if they refused.

An email seeking comment from the church on the new federal charges wasn’t immediately returned Wednesday.

Garcia currently is serving a prison sentence at the California Institution for Men in Chino. Last year, he pleaded guilty to two state counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15.

In exchange, California prosecutors dropped 16 counts that included allegations of raping children and women, as well as human trafficking to produce child pornography.

At the time, the church said that García pleaded guilty because he didn’t think he could get a fair trial after prosecutors withheld or doctored evidence and the agreement would allow him to be freed sooner.

Victims who spoke at Garcia’s trial objected to the plea deal, saying it was too lenient.

If convicted of the federal charges, Garcia would face 15 to 30 years in federal prison for producing child pornography and up to 10 years in prison for possessing it. A judge would decide whether he served the time concurrently or in addition to his state sentence, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Indiana
Man gets 240 years for killing his wife and a bystander at gas station last year
NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting his wife and a bystander and injuring a third person at a southern Indiana gas station last year was sentenced to 240 years in prison Wednesday.

A jury found Cherok Ameer Douglass, of New Albany, guilty in August of two counts of murder and one count each of attempted murder and robbery resulting in serious bodily injury.

Prosecutors said Douglass killed Brandee Kay Douglass, 38, and Lorin M. Yelle, 43, of Louisville, Kentucky, in April 2022. Police chased him to a nearby restaurant where he took the owner, Winnie Wen, as a hostage. She was injured falling from his vehicle.

Investigators did not believe there was any connection between Yelle and Cherok or Brandee Douglass. They said Yelle was a customer at the gas station and was shot walking to his vehicle.

Floyd Superior Court Judge Carrie Stiller gave Douglass the maximum sentence, calling his crimes “the worst of the worst.”

Douglass apologized to family members of his victims but said he planned to appeal the jury’s verdict.

Court documents show Douglass was under the influence of heroin and methamphetamine on the day of his arrest.

“I still don’t remember what happened that night,” Douglass said during the sentencing hearing.

Defense attorneys asked for the minimum sentence of 131 years.

Illinois
Ex-NFL player charged with killing mother, denied release
MAYWOOD, Ill. (AP) — Former NFL player Sergio Brown, charged with killing his mother, bought a one-way ticket to Cancun, Mexico, after being the last person seen with the woman before her slaying last month, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Brown, who faces charges of first-degree murder and concealing a homicide, appeared in court for a detention hearing Wednesday before Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez, who denied him pretrial release. He will be detained until his next court date, scheduled for Nov. 22.

The body of his mother, Myrtle Brown, was discovered Sept. 16 near a creek in Maywood, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago. A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide and determined that she had been injured during an assault.
Brown, 35, and his 73-year-old mother lived together in Maywood.

On Oct. 7, Brown was deported to the U.S. from Mexico, and he was brought back to Illinois on Tuesday, local news outlets reported.

During the hearing, Brown stood in a gray sweatshirt and red basketball shorts with his wrists bound in handcuffs, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. He didn’t speak except when the judge addressed him and didn’t display any visible emotion.

Brown was the last person seen with his mother, and he was observed burning fabric the night of her death, Sept. 14, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Jose Villarreal said in court. Brown flew out to Cancun the next morning, and charges on his credit card suggest he had rented two homes in Colombia before being deported, Villarreal said.

The cellphones of Brown and his mother showed they were near the same location at the estimated time of her death, Villarreal said.

The prosecutor said investigators found similarities between DNA samples from under Myrtle Brown’s fingernails and a toothbrush in Sergio Brown’s bedroom, but public defender Robert Fox refuted that, saying no one witnessed the crime.

“There’s no direct evidence, it’s all circumstantial,” Fox said in court.

Charnelle Dunlap, an assistant public defender who works with Fox, said her office was “not in a position to comment on the case at this time.”

Brown attended Proviso East High School in Maywood and played college football at the University of Notre Dame. In 2010, he was signed by the New England Patriots as an undrafted free agent. He also played in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts, Atlanta Falcons, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills through 2016.


Washington
Hunter Biden prosecutor wasn’t blocked from bringing charges, USA tells Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — A second U.S. Attorney has testified to Congress that the prosecutor overseeing the Hunter Biden investigation had full authority over filing charges, rebutting whistleblower claims that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss didn’t have the final say on the case against the president’s son.

The allegation that Weiss was blocked from filing tax charges in California and Washington D.C., is one of the more explosive from Internal Revenue Service Agents who testified as part of a GOP probe that the case had been “slow-walked” and mishandled by the Justice Department.

Martin Estrada, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, said he told the House Judiciary Committee behind closed doors Tuesday that he understood that Weiss had full authority to bring charges and offered him logistical support. “I did not and could not ‘block’ Mr. Weiss since he did not need my approval to bring charges in my district,” he said in a statement.

That echoes testimony from Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., who testified last week that while he declined to partner with Weiss, he never did anything to block him and instead offered logistical support.

An attorney for IRS Agent Joseph Ziegler, on the other hand, said declining to partner with Weiss amounted to blocking him from going forward with the case outside his district. Lawyers for supervisory special agent Gary Shapley said U.S. Attorneys appointed by President Joe Biden “shouldn’t have been involved at all because of their conflict of interest.”

Weiss, for his part, has also said in writing he had full authority over the case. He is scheduled to testify himself on the subject on Nov. 7. While that testimony will also take place outside the public view, speaking about an open investigation is a very unusual step that Justice Department officials have said was warranted to “correct any misrepresentations” about work done on case.

The five-year investigation into Hunter Biden had been expected to end with a plea deal this summer, but it imploded during a July plea hearing. Weiss has now charged the president’s son with three firearms felonies related to the 2018 purchase of a gun during a period Hunter Biden has acknowledged being addicted to drugs. No new tax charges have yet been filed.

The agreement had been pilloried as a “sweetheart deal” by Republicans who have made Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the Justice Department’s handling of the case a key part of an impeachment inquiry into the president.