National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Man who wounded 14 in elementary school with machete dies
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man imprisoned since 2001 for attacking educators and students in a Pennsylvania elementary school with a machete, wounding 14, has died in prison.

William Stankewicz died Monday, Pennsylvania prison officials said. He was 78.

Stankewicz was found unresponsive in his cell at the State Correctional Institution at Dallas, the prison warden said in a statement. Authorities did not release a cause of death and said his death will be investigated.

Stankewicz was serving a 132- to 264-year sentence for the attack on North Hopewell-Winterstown Elementary School near York, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Philadelphia. The wounded included 11 kindergarten students.

Principal Norina Bentzel was the most seriously hurt, suffering severe cuts and a broken arm while helping wrestle Stankewicz to the ground.

In court, Stankewicz told the judge he committed the attack because he was angry about his divorce from his Russian-born ex-wife and her allegations that he molested her daughters. Stankewicz said she used him to get to America and then made the allegations to remain in the country.

Stankewicz, of Johnson City, Tennessee, said he attacked the elementary school because he could not find his ex-wife’s home.

Before the attack, Stankewicz had threatened to kill his ex-wife and her daughters. After he unsuccessfully sought to get her deported, he threatened immigration officials and a Pennsylvania congressman. He served two years in federal prison for the threats.

Wisconsin
Official who posted ‘ballot selfie’ has felony charge dismissed
PORT WASHINGTON, Wis. (AP) — A local official who posted a photo of his marked ballot on Facebook during the April 2022 election had felony charges against him dropped Monday.

Paul Buzzell, 52, of Mequon had faced maximum penalties of 3 1/2 years behind bars and $10,000 in fines. Buzzell, a member of the Mequon-Thiensville School Board, would have also been barred from holding elected office if convicted.

Ozaukee County Judge Paul Malloy dismissed the charges against Buzzell in a hearing Monday, saying a state law prohibiting voters from showing their marked ballots to anyone else is in violation of the constitutional right to freedom of speech, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

“This case was about more than just a Facebook post; it was about protecting the fundamental right to freedom of expression,” Michael Chernin, Buzzell’s attorney, said in a statement to the newspaper.

Ozaukee County District Attor­ney Adam Gerol, who brought the charges against Buzzell, promised to continue pursuing the case by asking Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to review the judge’s decision and decide whether to file an appeal.

Kaul did not respond to a request for comment from the Journal Sentinel on Monday.

There has been movement in other states in favor of allowing the so-called ballot selfies.

In New Hampshire, a federal judge held that a state law barring an individual’s right to publish their ballot violated the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. And in Michigan, Wisconsin’s neighbor, legislators changed state law in 2019 to make the practice legal.

The Wisconsin Senate passed a bill in 2020 to legalize ballot selfies, but the proposal died in the state Assembly.

Candidates for office in Wisconsin have sporadically posted photos of their completed ballots online over the years, in apparent violation of the law, but no charges were brought.


Mississippi
Lawmaker gets probation on tax conviction and intends to remain in office
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A longtime Mississippi lawmaker was sentenced Monday to two years of probation and has already paid nearly $85,000 in restitution, months after he pleaded guilty to a federal charge of willfully making a false statement on a tax return.

Democratic Rep. Earle Banks of Jackson was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves. Banks’ conviction does not prevent him from continuing to serve at the state Capitol and he intends to remain in office, according to his attorney Rob McDuff.

Banks, 69, is a funeral director and attorney. He has been in the House since 1993.

When he pleaded guilty in May, Banks admitted failing to report more than $500,000 of income from the 2018 sale of real estate that had been in his family for many years, McDuff said.

A federal charging document showed Banks claimed adjusted gross income of $38,237, even though he knew he had received more than $500,000 from the sale of real estate.

Banks has paid restitution of $84,766, McDuff said Monday. Banks could have faced up to three years in prison for the guilty plea.

Conviction of many felony charges disqualifies people from holding public offices in Mississippi, but convictions for man­slaughter or violating federal tax laws do not prevent people from seeking or holding office, including a legislative seat.

Banks was unopposed for reelection this year in House District 67, which is entirely in Hinds County. He ran unsuccessfully for a Mississippi Supreme Court seat in 2012.


New Jersey
Man charged with murder in shooting of 2 men, 1 woman
SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J. (AP) — A man has been charged with murder in the shooting deaths of three people in a New Jersey residence.

Officers were called to a South Plainfield home at about 9 a.m. Monday after a report of gunfire and found two men and a woman shot, Middlesex County prosecutors and South Plainfield police said.

One man, Dilipkumar Brahm­bhatt, 72, and the woman, Bindu Brahm­bhatt, 72, were pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said. The other man, Yash­ku­mar Brahmbhatt, 38, was taken to a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead there, authorities said.

Another man, Om Brahmbhatt, 23, who resided with the victims and was at the residence when authorities arrived, was later charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, authorities said.

He was taken to the Middlesex County Adult Correctional Center pending a pre-trial detention hearing; it wasn’t immediately clear whether he had an attorney and a listed number for him couldn’t be found.