Court Digest

Maine
Man sentenced to 40 years for killing roommate
ALFRED, Maine (AP) — An Old Orchard Beach man is going to prison for 40 years for murdering his roommate last year.

A judge imposed the maximum sentence under a plea agreement for Dustan Bentley on Tuesday.

Bentley pleaded guilty to murder in the death of 65-year-old William Popplewell, who was beaten, stabbed and strangled with a ligature. Popplewell was in frail health and used a walker.

Bentley appeared in the courtroom, while family members appeared via video conference, because of the coronavirus.

During their statements, the victim’s family said Bentley took advantage of the victim, described as a kind, gentle man. Bentley lived rent free and didn’t pay for his food, family members said.

Bentley and Popplewell met at a Portland homeless shelter, and Bentley later moved into Popplewell’s apartment in Old Orchard Beach in December 2018. Popplewell was killed in March 2019.

Washington
Son faces charges in mother’s assault, death
SEATTLE (AP) — Police said a 17-year-old boy is facing charges after his mother was assaulted and killed at their apartment in Seattle’s Northgate area.

KOMO-TV reports  officers and medics were called to the residence, located in the 900 block of NE 105th Street, at around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday after the teen called 911 to report a domestic violence assault.

When officers arrived, the teen was sitting outside and admitted he was the suspect, police said.

The victim, whose identity has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators have not publicly said how the woman died or revealed a motive for the killing.

The suspect was taken to the King County Jail, where he is expected to face charges in connection with the slaying. It was not clear if bond has been set in the case.

The circumstances leading up to the deadly assault were under investigation. Authorities have not said if anyone else was inside the home when the attack occurred.

West Virginia
Inmate charged in 1981 shooting death of woman
BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) — Authorities said a California inmate has been indicted in the shooting of a West Virginia school teacher whose body was found the night before her wedding in 1981.

Earl James Robbins, 64, was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Cynthia Miller, news outlets reported.

Raleigh County Prosecutor Kristen Keller said investigators believe Robbins shot and killed Miller on Aug. 26, 1981, the day before she was set to marry Lester Police officer Gary O’Neal, who has since died.

Beckley Police Sgt. Morgan Bragg said Robbins was interviewed after the shooting but further details on that conversation and Robbins’ involvement won’t be released before trial.

Keller said the cold-case investigation also led to another indictment against Robbins, charging him with an October 1980 kidnapping and first-degree sexual assault of a child.

Keller said witnesses led to other witnesses, which is how authorities came in contact with the victim.

“The investigation is like following a spider web,” Keller said.

It’s unclear whether the two cases are connected.

Robbins is incarcerated at Valley State Prison in California. He’s serving consecutive sentences for kidnapping and raping a woman who was acting as his real estate agent and personal assistant in Beaumont, Calif., and for beating his brother-in-law with a hammer.

An extradition hearing will be held at a later date.

It’s unclear whether Robbins has an attorney to comment on his behalf.

New York
Video shows shirtless judge shove officer
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Police body camera video shows a shirtless New York Supreme Court justice shove a Buffalo police officer who was putting handcuffs on his wife during an argument with neighbors.

Justice Mark Grisanti and his wife, Maria, were placed in the back of police cars during the altercation in June but no charges were filed.

He is seen on video obtained by WKBW-TV through an open records request telling officers that Mayor Byron Brown is a friend, and that he has relatives on the police force.

Erie County District Attorney John Flynn’s office announced in July that it had reviewed the altercation and would not charge anyone involved with a crime. Police Capt. Jeff Rinaldo told the station it was the officers’ decision not to charge Grisanti because he “didn’t tackle anyone. He didn’t punch him. He gave him like a shoulder shove.”

The expletive-filled video shows Grisanti shouting at the officer who is subduing his wife before he, too, is grabbed by police officers.

“Keep your hands off of a cop,” one of them tells him.

“You better get off my (expletive) wife,” Grisanti yells. “My daughter and my son are both Buffalo police officers ... I’ll call them right now.”

An officer scolds him for name-dropping.

“You want to say ‘I know all these coppers, I know all these things?’ You want to make us look dirty? Is that what you want to do?” the officer asks.

Later, on the phone in the back of a police car, Grisanti acknowledges to a police detective that he pushed an officer but says he quickly apologized.

The Grisantis were involved in another scuffle in 2012 at a Niagara Falls casino when Grisanti was a state senator. He said he and his wife were attacked and beaten after he tried to break up an argument between two men.

Grisanti lost his Senate seat in 2014 when he was defeated by attorney Kevin Stocker in the Republican primary. Stocker had attacked Grisanti’s support for stricter gun controls pushed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and for his key 2011 vote as one of four Republicans who favored legalizing same-sex marriage in New York.

Cuomo nominated Grisanti to the Court of Claims in 2015.

Ohio
OSU settles more doc abuse cases; total tops $46M
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio State University will pay $5.8 million to settle lawsuits by about two dozen more survivors over decades-old sexual abuse by a now-deceased team doctor, Richard Strauss — bringing the total settlements so far to $46.7 million for 185 survivors, the university announced Tuesday.

Nearly 400 men have sued the university over its failure to stop Strauss during his two-decade tenure, despite students raising concerns with various school officials as far back as the late 1970s. The claims by more than half of those accusers remain pending in federal court. Many say they were groped during exams at campus athletic facilities, an off-campus men’s clinic or Strauss’ home.

Top OSU officials have apologized for what happened with Strauss and have said the school is working toward “restorative justice” and is committed to a “monetary resolution” for remaining plaintiffs.

Twenty-three survivors will receive a share of the newest settlements, with payments varying based on the harm they experienced. The university has indicated settlement money will come from discretionary funds, not tuition or taxpayer or donor funds.

Attorney Rick Schulte, who represented some of the plaintiffs and helped negotiate the announced agreements, said in a university news release that the settlement process was fair, and he praised Ohio State for doing “the right thing.”

But some of Strauss’ loudest accusers from the ongoing lawsuits don’t see it that way. They have argued that the university hasn’t negotiated fairly with them — which the school denies — and that they deserve compensation more comparable to other major sexual abuse scandals in higher education, such as Michigan State’s $500 million settlement for the 500-plus female victims of imprisoned sports doctor Larry Nassar.
By contrast, the Strauss settlements so far average just over $252,000 per survivor. The university hasn’t said how much of that goes to the attorneys involved.

Strauss died in 2005. No one has publicly defended him since an ex-wrestler first brought the allegations to light more than two years ago.


California
LA County agrees to settle immigration suit for $14 million
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County agreed Tuesday to pay $14 million to settle a lawsuit that said the Sheriff’s Department improperly held thousands of people in jail beyond their release dates at the request of immigration officials.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to settle the class-action suit that was filed in 2012, although the agreement still needs a judge’s approval.

The lawsuit alleged that between 2010 and 2014, the Sheriff’s Department routinely held people in jail for days, weeks or even months beyond the dates of their release and refused to allow them to post bail solely because of immigration detention requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In 2018, a federal judge ruled that the practice violated the inmates’ rights.

More than 18,500 people could qualify for a share of the settlement, attorneys for the plaintiffs told the Los Angeles Times.

“It should send a very strong message to law enforcement agencies around the country who continue to blindly comply with ICE’s requests that are patently unlawful,” said Jennie Pasquarella, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Sheriff’s Department agreed to stop honoring ICE detainer requests in 2014.

“I kicked ICE out of the jails and I banned all transfers of inmates to custody of ICE,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Tuesday.

In August, Villanueva permanently banned inmate transfers from county jails to ICE unless the agency obtained a judicial warrant.


Tennessee
Judge reprimanded for sexting women in his robes
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee judge has been publicly reprimanded for engaging in sexually explicit communications with a woman who formerly had a child custody matter before him and another woman whose law firm does business with the judge’s court, among others.

A letter of reprimand sent last week to Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Lee Young from the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct stated, “The messages include content ranging from flirtatious to overtly sexual. Most of these communications depict you in your judicial robe.”

The communications were “sent to multiple women on various social media platforms from 2015 to 2020,” according to the letter. Young became a judge in 2014 and hears cases in Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Overton, Pickett, Putnam and White counties.

The board found that Young’s behavior violated a number of ethical standards including a prohibition on behavior that could be seen as coercive.

“Engaging in sexual conversations and soliciting pictures while in your judicial robe would appear to a reasonable person to be coercive, particularly when the recipients of those communications include former litigants and persons whose job responsibilities intersect with the court system,” the reprimand stated.

The letter does not go into specific findings but says that in at least one instance a party used knowledge of the judge’s behavior “to their strategic advantage in a case.” In another case, the judge had to recuse himself after a party learned of his behavior and asked him to step aside.

“Although you may have thought that your social media communications were private, your activities have adversely affected the administration of justice,” the board wrote.

In addition to the public reprimand, Young is required to attend a judicial ethics training, refrain from engaging in further misconduct and recuse himself from all cases involving a list of specific attorneys that was not disclosed publicly. In opting for a reprimand, rather than a harsher punishment, the panel considered that Young acknowledged the misconduct and fully cooperated with the investigation against him.

Young did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday left with his office by The Associated Press.