National Roundup

Connecticut
Lawyer: ­Herbalist’s ­widower let acclaimed farm fail

COVENTRY, Conn. (AP) — The widower of renowned herbalist Adelma Grenier Simmons, sometimes called America’s “first lady of herbs,” is fighting eviction from her once-acclaimed farm in Connecticut.

The lawyer overseeing Simmons’ estate is seeking to have Edward Cook, 81, removed from the 62-acre property known as the Caprilands Herb Farm on allegations he has let it fall into disrepair, flouted court orders to allow inspections and owes back taxes, The Journal Inquirer reported.

The case is playing out in Hartford Superior Court on Monday, where the newspaper says lawyer George Purtill will seek to have Cook put under oath to reveal his assets. An eviction hearing is also set for Friday in Vernon Superior Court.

Purtill argues in court documents that Cook has refused to vacate the property, despite a probate court judge’s order from 2017 that stripped him of the role of executor of his wife’s will and ended the life tenancy bestowed on him in it.

Cook argues in court documents that his tenancy can’t simply be revoked by a judge’s order. He told The Associated Press in an email Sunday night that, “They are trying to grab the estate and have no intention of saving Caprilands because they have no concept of what Caprilands is.”

The Journal Inquirer reports Cook is also being fined $1,000 a day for not permitting Purtill and town officials to inspect the farmhouse as part of another probate court ruling. The penalties now exceed $300,000.

Simmons is credited with helping popularize the use of herbs in American cooking and published more than 50 books and pamphlets. She and Cook, a chemistry professor at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, were married for about four years when she died in 1997 at age 93. He was her third husband.

Simmons’ will called for the private property to live on as a nonprofit education, preservation and research institution, with Cook serving as a chairman of the board of trustees.

A decade after her death, Cook established the Caprilands Institute in 2007 to raise money to restore the farm, but as recently as July, Coventry Town Manager John Elsesser called the property blighted, with the farmhouse in disrepair.


Tennessee
Ex-convict ­convicted in fatal shooting of ­Tennessee officer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — An ex-convict was found guilty of first-degree murder and other charges Sunday in the fatal shooting of a police officer in Memphis, Tennessee.

A jury in state court convicted Tremaine Wilbourn on Sunday in the August 2015 killing of Officer Sean Bolton. Wilbourn also was found guilty of carjacking and weapons charges, news outlets reported.
Bolton, who was white, was one of four police officers to be fatally shot in Memphis since July 2011. Wilbourn is black.

Police said Bolton interrupted a drug deal in a car Wilbourn occupied in a residential neighborhood. Wilbourn got out of the vehicle, and he and Bolton got into a physical struggle, according to authorities. Wilbourn took out a gun and shot Bolton, police said.

An autopsy report shows Bolton was shot eight times.

Wilbourn already has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison on weapons charges. His lawyer said his client did not intend to kill Bolton. In court documents during his federal trial, prosecutors said Wilbourn carjacked a vehicle a few minutes after the shooting, telling the motorist that “he needed the car because he had just shot a police officer.”

Wilbourn led officers on an intense, two-day manhunt before turning himself in to U.S. marshals.

At the time of the shooting, Wilbourn was on federal probation after serving prison time for armed bank robbery.

Washington
Supreme Court turns away ­challenge to ­California gun control

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is refusing a new invitation to rule on gun rights, leaving in place California restrictions on carrying concealed handguns in public.

The justices on Monday rejected an appeal from Sacramento residents who argued that they were unfairly denied permits to be armed in public.

The complaint alleged that a prior Sacramento sheriff who was in charge of handgun permits arbitrarily rewarded friends.

The state urged the court to reject the case, noting that a new sheriff has changed the permit policy. But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra acknowledged that state and local gun restrictions might someday “warrant further consideration by this court.”

The court has rejected several appeals asking it to elaborate on the extent of gun rights it declared in decisions in 2008 and 2010.

Georgia
Public reprimand ordered for tardy and absent ­Georgia judge

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s highest court has ordered a public reprimand for a judge for frequently being absent and late for court.

In an opinion issued Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court said Chatham County Recorder’s Court Chief Judge Tammy Stokes violated the Code of Judicial Conduct through “habitual tardiness” and “excessive absenteeism.”

The reprimand is to be imposed in person in open court by a judge chosen by the high court.

The opinion says that over the past year Stokes frequently took the bench more than an hour late and offered no good reason for her tardiness. She also missed 38 of her scheduled court days in 2017 and has already missed 36 this year.

The director of the Judicial Qualifications Commission brought formal charges against Stokes in September.

Montana
Judge rules wildlife agency must do more to protect lynx

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must do more to protect Canada lynx from bobcat traps.

The Missoulian reports the lawsuit by WildEarth Guardians and Center for Biological Diversity claimed the federal agency of failing to follow a treaty protecting endangered species and of not doing enough to stop trappers from capturing the wrong animal.

Lynx are classified as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy found the agency’s rules were “both overbroad and underinclusive.”

The judge found that agency wasn’t doing enough to protect the cat by relying on trappers to self-report accidental captures of lynx.