National Roundup

Colorado
Man arrested for offering weed for sheriff’s SUV

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado man landed in jail after offering to trade illegal homegrown marijuana for an SUV listed on Craigslist — a vehicle that happened to be owned by a sheriff.

The Gazette reports that Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell recently received a text from a 39-year-old Vail man offering to buy his SUV.

The man sent photos of the product, and Mikesell says he showed the texts to detectives. A meet up was scheduled in Woodland Park in late November.

The man and a 41-year-old woman arrived for the swap and were arrested. Authorities say they found about 4 pounds (2 kilograms) of illegal marijuana in the duo’s car.

The man and woman were charged with possession with intent to sell.

Mikesell says he won’t relist the SUV on Craigslist.

Washington
ACLU asks judge to lift Trump’s ban on entry of refugee families

SEATTLE (AP) — Lawyers representing refugees who have legally settled in the U.S. are asking a federal judge to stop the Trump administration from keeping the families of the refugees from joining them in this country.

The ACLU, representing a Somali man living in Washington state, will argue in federal court Thursday that Trump’s indefinite prohibition on refugee families violates immigration law and the constitutional rights of the legal permanent residents.

The man, using the pseudonym Joseph Doe, fled Somali when he was 10. He spent 22 years in Kenyan refugee camps and after extensive screening, arrived in the U.S. in 2014. His wife and three children remain in Kenya. He filed petitions to bring them over, but the Trump ban has blocked that effort.

The ACLU says the decision to indefinitely halt the “follow-to-join” refugees inflicts irreparable injury and should be stopped.

The government says extra screening is needed for national security.

Illinois
Man gets prison after false claim of military service

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (AP) — A western Illinois man who falsely claimed that he fought in Vietnam to receive disability benefits has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison.

In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rock Island says a federal judge on Wednesday also ordered 68-year-old William R. Jones of Geneseo to pay a fine of $40,000 and $71,000 in restitution.

The release says Jones joined the Air National Guard in 1971 but when he retired from service as a lieutenant colonel in 2002 he had never seen combat or served in Vietnam.

The release says in 2013 he received $71,000 for combat-related disability from the Department of Veterans Affairs after he falsely claimed that being shot down and wounded in Vietnam had left him suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ohio
Teen who claims other personality killed woman says not guilty

URBANA, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio teen who told a 911 dispatcher an alternate personality killed his father’s longtime girlfriend has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity to aggravated murder and murder charges in the woman’s slaying.

Fifteen-year-old Donovan Nicholas entered the pleas Tuesday in Champaign County’s adult court. He was 14 on April 6, when authorities allege he killed Heidi Fay Taylor. He told the 911 dispatcher then that an alternate personality stabbed and shot Taylor at the home she shared with him and his father in Mad River Township.

Nicholas’ attorney says a psychologist has said he believes the teen has multiple personalities.

The judge has ordered a psychological exam for the boy. The judge set bond at $700,000.

The case was transferred from juvenile court last month.

New York
Man sentenced for fatally ­stabbing wife and daughter

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man who stabbed his estranged wife and daughter dozens of times, killing them, has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

A Monroe County Court judge gave 38-year-old Patrick Brooks, of Rochester, the maximum possible sentence Wednesday for the deaths of Christie Brooks and 18-year-old Victoria Brooks. A jury convicted him of two counts of murder.

Authorities say Patrick Brooks killed the women on Thanksgiving last year, after having dinner with them. Christie Brooks was stabbed 29 times as she slept. When Victoria Brooks awoke, her father stabbed her 55 times.

Victoria was the oldest of Christie Brooks’ eight children.

New York
Ex-journalist gets 5 years in prison in Jewish threats case

NEW YORK (AP) — A former journalist who admitted cyber stalking an ex-girlfriend and terrorizing Jewish groups with bomb threats has received a five-year prison sentence.

Juan Thompson was sentenced Wednesday by Judge P. Kevin Castel in Manhattan federal court. He called Thompson’s crimes domestic terrorism.

The judge sentenced Thompson to a year longer than the federal sentencing guidelines recommended. The judge cited the eloquence of a victim statement delivered by Thompson’s ex-girlfriend, Francesca Rossi.

She said Thompson began abusing her during their relationship and intensified the terror delivered largely through social media and electronic communications after they broke up.

Thompson, of St. Louis, pleaded guilty in June to cyber stalking and making fake bomb threats to a dozen Jewish community centers and day schools.

West Virginia
Charity stuck with fan payouts after holes-in-one

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Most golfers like short par 3s, but West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice probably wishes No. 18 at the Greenbrier Classic in 2015 was a little longer — 33 yards longer to be exact.

In 2015, Justice’s charity promised fans at the 18th hole $100 for the first hole-in-one and $500 for the second in 2015. Professionals George McNeill and Justin Thomas aced the 137-yard hole, forcing the charity to give almost $200,000 to fans around the green.

The charity took out an insurance policy on the payouts, but a federal appeals court says the policy only covered holes at least 170 yards long.

Old White Charities Inc. accused the insurer of breach of contract for not covering the payout, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that claim.