Court Roundup

Mississippi
Man in new jail on $30M bail after 2 escape tries
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man is in a new jail on $30 million bail after authorities say he tried to escape twice.

Local media report that 45-year-old John Arnold sought to break out Tuesday from the Oktibbeha County jail after his Friday kidnapping arrest. Authorities say he attacked a guard and tried to escape the jail’s exercise yard on Tuesday afternoon. Then, Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Brett Watson said a jailer who was checking on Arnold saw what appeared to be an attempt to remove his cell’s vent to slither through the ceiling.

“They walked in and looked to them like he was setting himself up to try getting the vent down,” Watson told The Commercial Dispatch. “He never got the vent out to try making an attempt. Of course, the vent doesn’t go anywhere but he didn’t know that.”

Arnold was moved Wednesday to the Lowndes County jail in Columbus, which authorities believe is more secure.

Judge Marty Haug then set bond at $10 million on separate assault and escape charges from the initial escape attempt. Bond for the additional charge of attempted kidnapping was set at $10 million on Monday. Watson told the Starkville Daily News that no charges are now planned for the vent incident.

Arnold was first arrested Feb. 16 on charges of trying to check out a child from school without parental consent. Released on $100,000 bail, he was arrested again after officials said he broke bail conditions by attempting to telephone the child’s stepfather. Re-released on the condition that he wear an ankle monitor, authorities said he removed the monitor on Friday and tried to check out a child from a different school without parental consent. He was arrested again after a brief manhunt.

Alabama
City won’t appeal blocked school district split
GARDENDALE, Ala. (AP) — A mostly white Alabama city that a federal appeals court ruled cannot separate from a heavily black county school system has stopped its efforts to form its own educational district.

AL.com reports Gardendale Mayor Stan Hogeland and City Schools Board of Education President Michael Hogue said in a letter Wednesday to the Jefferson County Board of Education that it won’t appeal the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision.

A panel of the 11th Circuit on Feb. 13 said U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Haikala abused her discretion in creating her own remedy rather than denying the Birmingham suburb’s split from county schools based on her ruling that it was racially biased.

Gardendale officials denied the attempted split had racial motives.

Alabama
Judge awards whistleblower nearly $15 million
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has awarded almost $15 million to a former mortuary worker who blew the whistle on a kickback scheme.

An order released Wednesday awards the money to Barry Taul under a federal law that rewards people who report fraud and other crimes.

The judgment goes against the owner of Abanks Mortuary and Crematory, where Taul once worked in Birmingham.

A statement from Taul’s attorneys with the Montgomery-based Beasley Allen Law Firm says Taul reported a scheme where the mortuary paid kickbacks to two former officials with the Alabama Organ Center in exchange for business referrals. The funeral home collected tissues for the organ center.

Mortuary owner Jed Nagel was acquitted on theft charges in 2016, but two others pleaded guilty.

A jury ruled in Taul’s favor last month.

Indiana
Nurse gets 3 years for abusing disabled teen under her care
ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) — A central Indiana nurse captured on video abusing a disabled teenager under her care has been sentenced to three years in prison.

A Madison County judge sentenced 47-year-old Maretta L. Hostetler on Monday after the licensed practical nurse pleaded guilty to three felonies, including two counts of battery on a disabled person.

The Herald Bulletin reports the mother of a 17-year-old developmentally disabled girl Hostetler was caring for alerted Hostetler’s employer after noticing her daughter had a growing number of bruises.

The company’s owner set up a video recorder in the teen’s bedroom and several videos recorded last April showed Hostetler roughly handling the girl, who is nonverbal and extremely physically fragile.

Those videos show Hostetler pulling the girl’s hair, slamming her head onto the bed and slapping her face.