Nevada
Trial date postponed for ex-elected official accused of killing Las Vegas journalist
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former Las Vegas-area elected official accused of killing an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him will not go on trial next week.
A Nevada judge on Tuesday postponed Robert Telles’ trial but did not immediately set a new date. Telles, 47, remains jailed without bail and has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. He faces life in prison if he is convicted.
Prosecutors argued in court Tuesday that more time is needed to review key cellphone and computer records for evidence in the September 2022 stabbing death of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German.
Police work was stalled for months by arguments that went to the state Supreme Court about whether accessing German’s cellphone and computer files would expose confidential information that is protected from disclosure under state and federal law.
Those records are now being sifted by Review-Journal representatives.
German, 69, spent more than 40 years as an investigative reporter in Las Vegas. He was found stabbed outside his home months after he wrote articles in 2022 that were critical of Telles and his managerial conduct while Telles, a Democrat, was administrator of estates for Clark County.
Telles has pushed for a speedy trial but also has fired several teams of lawyers and filed dozens of pretrial motions while serving as his own attorney from behind bars. He twice lost bids to remove the judge handling the case.
He’s scheduled to be back in Clark County District Court for a status hearing March 26.
Alabama
Judge cuts bond by nearly $1.9M for man accused of car crash that injured Sen. Manchin’s wife
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge cut bond by nearly $1.9 million on Tuesday for a man accused of fleeing from police during a car chase and causing a crash last January that injured Gayle Manchin, the wife of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, and a work colleague.
Tradarryl Rishad Boykins, 31, of Birmingham, is charged with two counts of second-degree assault, felony attempting to elude, and certain persons forbidden to possess a firearm – also a felony – in connection with the Jan. 29 crash.
District Judge William Bell cut Boykins’ bond — originally set at more than $2 million — to a total of $135,000, al.com reported. Bond is typically set to ensure a defendant’s return to court and to protect the community at large.
Boykins’ attorneys — Juandalynn Givan and Reginald McDaniel — sought the reduction, telling the judge at a hearing Tuesday that the previous bond amounts were excessive and only set that high because Manchin is the wife of West Virginia’s Democratic U.S. senator.
Four of the bonds for the charges of assault, attempting to elude and persons forbidden to possess a firearm initially were set at $500,000 each but were cut to a total of $75,000.
“Clearly, bail was excessive in this matter,’’ Bell said.
Gayle Manchin, 76, is the federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission and was in Birmingham with commission colleague Guy Land for an event involving that economic development partnership of the federal government and 13 state governments.
Just before the crash, Homewood Police Sgt. John Carr said, officers had tried to stop a car in connection with a felony warrant and a traffic offense. He said a seven-minute police chase wound through that Birmingham suburb and surrounding areas and ended when the fleeing car struck the SUV carrying the two.
Both Gayle Manchin and Land, the commission’s congressional liaison, were injured in the crash. Manchin was a passenger in the SUV driven by Land.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Deborah Danneman asked that Boykins’ bonds actually be increased. Danneman said the defendant’s alleged behavior, beginning in December 2023, escalated leading up to the crash in which Manchin suffered a broken sternum and internal bleeding and Land sustained eight broken ribs and a broken hand.
“He has continuously shown blatant evidence that he will not return to court,’’ Danneman said of Boykin. “He has fled from law enforcement, endangering members of the public.”
Givan responded that Boykins has always shown for his court proceedings in the past. And she noted that at least a dozen family members of Boykins were present in court to support him, as well as his pastor.
Following the hearing, Givan called the judge’s ruling fair.
Boykins waived his right to a preliminary hearing and the case has been sent to a grand jury for consideration.
Gayle Manchin was sworn in as the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13th federal co-chair in 2021 after being nominated by President Joe Biden.
Texas
Parental consent law for teen contraception doesn’t run afoul of fed program, court says
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Texas law requiring that minors have parental permission to get birth control does not run afoul of a federally funded pregnancy health program known as Title X, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
President Joe Biden’s administration had argued that Title X preempts the Texas parental consent requirement. But a panel of three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, largely upholding a 2022 ruling from a Texas-based federal judge.
“Title X’s goal (encouraging family participation in teens’ receiving family planning services) is not undermined by Texas’s goal (empowering parents to consent to their teen’s receiving contraceptives),” Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote on behalf of the panel. “To the contrary, the two laws reinforce each other.”
It was unclear if the administration would appeal further. The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment to federal officials.
Tuesday’s decision upheld much of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Amarillo in a case filed by a Texas father who opposed Title X.
The panel did reverse one part of Kacsmaryk’s ruling, however. The district judge had struck down a regulation — adopted after the lawsuit was being litigated — that forbade Title X-funded groups from notifying parents or obtaining consent.
The 5th Circuit said it was too soon to rule on the new regulation and it was not immediately clear how it might affect availability of contraceptives for teens. Attorneys for both sides declined to comment.
Trial date postponed for ex-elected official accused of killing Las Vegas journalist
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A former Las Vegas-area elected official accused of killing an investigative reporter who wrote articles critical of him will not go on trial next week.
A Nevada judge on Tuesday postponed Robert Telles’ trial but did not immediately set a new date. Telles, 47, remains jailed without bail and has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge. He faces life in prison if he is convicted.
Prosecutors argued in court Tuesday that more time is needed to review key cellphone and computer records for evidence in the September 2022 stabbing death of Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German.
Police work was stalled for months by arguments that went to the state Supreme Court about whether accessing German’s cellphone and computer files would expose confidential information that is protected from disclosure under state and federal law.
Those records are now being sifted by Review-Journal representatives.
German, 69, spent more than 40 years as an investigative reporter in Las Vegas. He was found stabbed outside his home months after he wrote articles in 2022 that were critical of Telles and his managerial conduct while Telles, a Democrat, was administrator of estates for Clark County.
Telles has pushed for a speedy trial but also has fired several teams of lawyers and filed dozens of pretrial motions while serving as his own attorney from behind bars. He twice lost bids to remove the judge handling the case.
He’s scheduled to be back in Clark County District Court for a status hearing March 26.
Alabama
Judge cuts bond by nearly $1.9M for man accused of car crash that injured Sen. Manchin’s wife
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge cut bond by nearly $1.9 million on Tuesday for a man accused of fleeing from police during a car chase and causing a crash last January that injured Gayle Manchin, the wife of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, and a work colleague.
Tradarryl Rishad Boykins, 31, of Birmingham, is charged with two counts of second-degree assault, felony attempting to elude, and certain persons forbidden to possess a firearm – also a felony – in connection with the Jan. 29 crash.
District Judge William Bell cut Boykins’ bond — originally set at more than $2 million — to a total of $135,000, al.com reported. Bond is typically set to ensure a defendant’s return to court and to protect the community at large.
Boykins’ attorneys — Juandalynn Givan and Reginald McDaniel — sought the reduction, telling the judge at a hearing Tuesday that the previous bond amounts were excessive and only set that high because Manchin is the wife of West Virginia’s Democratic U.S. senator.
Four of the bonds for the charges of assault, attempting to elude and persons forbidden to possess a firearm initially were set at $500,000 each but were cut to a total of $75,000.
“Clearly, bail was excessive in this matter,’’ Bell said.
Gayle Manchin, 76, is the federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission and was in Birmingham with commission colleague Guy Land for an event involving that economic development partnership of the federal government and 13 state governments.
Just before the crash, Homewood Police Sgt. John Carr said, officers had tried to stop a car in connection with a felony warrant and a traffic offense. He said a seven-minute police chase wound through that Birmingham suburb and surrounding areas and ended when the fleeing car struck the SUV carrying the two.
Both Gayle Manchin and Land, the commission’s congressional liaison, were injured in the crash. Manchin was a passenger in the SUV driven by Land.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Jefferson County Deputy District Attorney Deborah Danneman asked that Boykins’ bonds actually be increased. Danneman said the defendant’s alleged behavior, beginning in December 2023, escalated leading up to the crash in which Manchin suffered a broken sternum and internal bleeding and Land sustained eight broken ribs and a broken hand.
“He has continuously shown blatant evidence that he will not return to court,’’ Danneman said of Boykin. “He has fled from law enforcement, endangering members of the public.”
Givan responded that Boykins has always shown for his court proceedings in the past. And she noted that at least a dozen family members of Boykins were present in court to support him, as well as his pastor.
Following the hearing, Givan called the judge’s ruling fair.
Boykins waived his right to a preliminary hearing and the case has been sent to a grand jury for consideration.
Gayle Manchin was sworn in as the Appalachian Regional Commission’s 13th federal co-chair in 2021 after being nominated by President Joe Biden.
Texas
Parental consent law for teen contraception doesn’t run afoul of fed program, court says
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Texas law requiring that minors have parental permission to get birth control does not run afoul of a federally funded pregnancy health program known as Title X, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
President Joe Biden’s administration had argued that Title X preempts the Texas parental consent requirement. But a panel of three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, largely upholding a 2022 ruling from a Texas-based federal judge.
“Title X’s goal (encouraging family participation in teens’ receiving family planning services) is not undermined by Texas’s goal (empowering parents to consent to their teen’s receiving contraceptives),” Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote on behalf of the panel. “To the contrary, the two laws reinforce each other.”
It was unclear if the administration would appeal further. The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment to federal officials.
Tuesday’s decision upheld much of a ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of Amarillo in a case filed by a Texas father who opposed Title X.
The panel did reverse one part of Kacsmaryk’s ruling, however. The district judge had struck down a regulation — adopted after the lawsuit was being litigated — that forbade Title X-funded groups from notifying parents or obtaining consent.
The 5th Circuit said it was too soon to rule on the new regulation and it was not immediately clear how it might affect availability of contraceptives for teens. Attorneys for both sides declined to comment.
