Georgia: State court vacates man’s robbery sentence
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s top court has tossed a lower court’s ruling involving a man who pleaded guilty to armed robbery in Chatham County.
The Georgia Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion Monday concluding that Terry Eric Johnson’s attorney gave him incorrect information about his sentence.
Johnson pleaded guilty to armed robbery in 1996 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Transcripts show his attorney told him he could be eligible for parole.
Johnson filed an appeal in 2007 after learning that the law required him to serve the entire sentence but a judge upheld the sentence.
The state’s top court vacated the sentence and sent it back to a lower judge. It found both the trial court and the attorney should have known that Johnson was “categorically ineligible for any parole.”
Mississippi: Former finance manager accused of taking $22K
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) — A former finance manager for the Bay-Waveland School District will stand trial Aug. 16 in Hancock County Circuit Court on an embezzlement charge.
Linda Gavagnie is accused of embezzling more than $22,000 by making false entries into financial records of the school and transferring funds into accounts to hide the money.
Gavagnie was finance manager for the Bay-Waveland School District from January 1994 until her resignation on Sept. 21, 2007.
Prosecutors say the embezzlement dated back to 2002.
Gavagnie’s trial date was set during a court appearance this past week.
Georgia: Prosecutor blames courts for case dismissal
ATLANTA (AP) — Fulton County’s top prosecutor is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to reinstate charges against a woman accused of cruelty to an elderly nursing home resident.
Charges against Mai Nagbe were dismissed after she appeared before five judges and had two arraignment hearings, two final plea hearings and two status conferences. Two key witnesses died during that 22-month period.
A Fulton County judge dismissed the case on grounds that Nagbe was denied a speedy trial, and a state appeals court upheld the ruling last month.
But District Attorney Paul Howard says the multiple transfers from judge to judge were not his department’s fault and that Nagbe’s constitutional rights were not violated.
Pennsylvania: Fired Pittsburgh officer faces slapping trial
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh police officer is due in court to face an assault charge that has already gotten him fired.
The non-jury trial for 42-year-old Eugene Hlavac (huh-LAH’-vac) Jr. centers on whether he slapped his ex-girlfriend so hard that he dislocated her jaw on Dec. 18.
Prosecutors say Hlavac was angry with the woman for not picking up their son on time, making him late for work.
Hlavac has denied wrongdoing and told reporters after the charges that “I’ve never been more eager to go to court.”
An Allegheny County judge has ordered Hlavac to stay away from his ex-girlfriend for three years and awarded her custody of their 3-year-old son.
Georgia: Death penalty changes could lead to challenge
ATLANTA (AP) — A Senate panel has approved changes to Georgia’s death penalty laws that could open the door to a legal challenge.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted last week to remove a rule that requires the Georgia Supreme Court to review whether a death penalty sentence is proportionate to the severity of the crime.
Criminal defense attorney Sandy Michaels tells the Daily Report that removing the requirement is a “golden invitation” for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the issue. But the proposal’s supporters say such reviews will still be required under federal law.
The measure must still be approved by the full Senate and House and Gov. Sonny Perdue.
Kansas: CEO of Topeka tax service company to be sentenced
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The founder and CEO of a Topeka-based tax service company is scheduled to be sentenced on more than six dozen federal counts of conspiracy, fraud and money laundering.
Michael C. Cooper will be sentenced Tuesday for practices that brought in $75 million before a state judge shut down Renaissance, The Tax People.
A federal prosecutor says in court filings that Cooper should be sentenced to life in prison and ordered to forfeit $75 million.
Cooper’s attorney, John Jenab argues that Cooper should get no more than six years and six months in prison and opposed the $75 million forfeiture.
A state judge ordered the company closed in Kansas in May 2001 for what he called an illegal pyramid scheme.
Utah: Man pleads guilty to releasing minks from farm
OGDEN, Utah (AP) — An Ogden man has pleaded guilty to breaking into a Utah mink farm last summer to let hundreds of animals loose.
Alex Jason Hall could get up to five years in prison at his sentencing June 30.
The 21-year-old Hall pleaded guilty Thursday before U.S. District Judge Dee Benson to damaging or interfering with an animal enterprise.
He was accused of letting about 650 mink loose and destroying breeding records at the McMullin mink farm in South Jordan.
The farm recovered most of the mammals; several mink died after being hit by cars or from stress after they returned to the farm.
Prosecutors dropped another, similar charge for an attempted attack on another mink farm in Hyrum 10 months earlier.
A companion of Hall’s is serving two years in federal prison for the break-in at the South Jordan mink farm.
