Court Digest

Ohio
Third person sentenced in death of woman struck by log
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A third person has been sentenced in the death of a woman killed when she was struck by a log that two teenage boys had pushed off a cliff at an Ohio state park.

Miranda Spencer, 20, of Nelsonville, received a suspended 90-day jail sentence Tuesday after she pleaded guilty to obstructing official business, a misdemeanor offense. She initially was charged with a felony count of obstructing justice in the Sept. 2, 2019 death of Victoria Schafer at Hocking Hills State Park .

Schafer, 44, a married mother of four, was taking photos at the foot of the stairs at Old Man’s Cave when she was struck by the log. Jordan Buckley and Jaden Churchheus, who were both 16 at the time, admitted pushing the log, which weighed 74 pounds (33 kilograms), off a cliff at the top of the stairs.

Prosecutors said Spencer, who was at the park with the two boys and another teenage girl, did not notify authorities about the incident. She was charged in October 2020.

Churchheus and Buckley both pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and are now serving three-year terms in a juvenile detention facility.

North Carolina
Soldier gets 12 years for sex with girl, staged kidnapping
NEW BERN, N.C. (AP) — A soldier who was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina has been sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison for taking a 12-year-old across state lines for sex after staging her kidnapping.

WRAL reports that Pvt. James Murdock Peele, 22, was sentenced on Tuesday.

He was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division Sustainment Brigade. He had pleaded guilty to transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Authorities say the case began in 2018 when a woman in Craven County reported her granddaughter missing. She said she found the window to the girl’s room was open and a ransom note demanding $20,000.

Authorities said they tracked Peele down because he was listed as the girl’s boyfriend on her Facebook page. FBI agents said the girl told them that Peele knew her age, but he told her that age was just a number.


Washington
Trial starts for Mount Vernon woman accused of murder plot
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — The trial of a Mount Vernon woman accused of plotting to have her ex-husband killed has started.

Vanessa Valdiglesias-Lavalle, 37, is charged in Skagit County Superior Court with solicitation to commit murder and solicitation to commit assault with a noxious substance after she allegedly tried to convince her child to kill the the child’s father, The Skagit Valley Herald reported.

According to court documents, Mount Vernon police received a report in June about a conversation the 10-year-old boy recorded with his cellphone in which Valdiglesias-Lavalle allegedly is heard telling a child to tamper with his father’s food or drink using “venom” or rat poison.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney Rich Weyrich told jurors that while there was no promise of money to be exchanged, Valdiglesias-Lavalle promised her oldest son that if he would poison his father the boy and his younger brother would be able to live with her forever.

The father has primary custody of the children, Weyrich said.

Valdiglesias-Lavalle’s lawyer, public defender Adam Yanasak, told jurors in his opening statement that the evidence would prove Valdiglesias-Lavalle was not a vengeful or vindictive woman who tried to hire her son to commit murder, but that she was instead a “hardworking, loving mother, who has a tendency ... to overshare with her children.”

The conversation between mother and son, was “inappropriate,” Yanasak said, but not illegal.

Massachusestts
ACLU, defense lawyers seek probe into Springfield police
BOSTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union and defense attorneys are asking Massachusetts’ highest court to order an investigation into what they describe as rampant misconduct in the Springfield Police Department.

The petition filed with the Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday says the state has not comprehensively examined mounting evidence of violence by officers in the western Massachusetts police department even after the U.S. Justice Department found last year that its narcotics officers routinely use excessive force with no accountability.

The group is also demanding an investigation into whether prosecutors in the Hampden Country District Attorney’s Office are properly disclosing evidence of police misconduct to defense attorneys. The petition says the prosecutors’ office appears to routinely fail to give defendants such evidence that could help their case, as they are entitled.

“Despite lawsuits, indictments, news articles, judicial findings, and the DOJ Report, the Commonwealth has not investigated the full scope and gravity of misconduct within the SPD. Nor has the HCDAO established sufficient policies within its own agency to ensure that misconduct is discovered and disclosed to defendants,” the petition filed says.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said it is “committed to fairness and justice for all.”

“The ACLU’s filing is a misdirected political effort supported by biased opinions and falsehoods. It is baseless and inaccurate and we will litigate it as such,” Jim Leydon said in an email.

Springfield Police Commissioner Cheryl Clapprood said in an emailed statement that the department has not yet reviewed the filing, but stressed that she has been working to “modernize” the police force and “prioritize training and public service.”

“We have seen positive early results including our mental health professional co-responder program, our approach to illegal firearms and a prioritization of internal affairs and holding all of our officers and employees accountable to the people of Springfield at all times, and we will continue those efforts,” she said.

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump last year found that officers in Springfield’s narcotics bureau routinely punched people in the face unnecessarily during arrests and other encounters. Officers regularly resort to blows to the head to gain compliance even when the person isn’t a physical threat without ever being disciplined for their misconduct, investigators found.

“Tellingly, a former Narcotics Bureau officer reported that people know that if you mess with the SPD or try to run, you ‘get a beat down,’” investigators wrote.

Despite that, as of July there had been no sustained findings of excessive force with in the department against a narcotics bureau officer in the last six years, investigators said.

The top federal prosecutor for Massachusetts said at the time that city officials cooperated with the investigation and had “made clear their commitment to genuine reform.”


Nevada
State high court to consider death penalty dispute
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A death penalty dispute goes before Nevada’s Supreme Court Wednesday when justices hear arguments about how long a Salvadoran immigrant’s lawyers should have to prove he’s intellectually disabled and therefore can’t be executed if convicted of four murders.

Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman, 22, is scheduled to go to trial Sept. 20 for the fatal shootings and multiple burglaries during an 11-day crime rampage in Reno and rural Douglas County in January 2019.

A Washoe County judge set an April 20 deadline for his lawyers to file an intellectual disability motion that would require evidentiary hearings to determine if Martinez-Guzman could legally be put to death in Nevada.

His public defenders say state law allows such motions be filed up to 10 days before trial. They’ve asked the Supreme Court to stay all district court proceedings until justices rule on their objection to what they say is a premature deadline set five months before the scheduled trial.

They say they’ve been unable to gather necessary evidence in his native El Salvador due largely to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Prosecutors say it’s a stall tactic that further delays justice for the victims and families at a trial that’s already been postponed twice while witnesses’ memories continue to fade.


Arizona
Ruling: Grand jury must be notified of defendant’s letter
PHOENIX (AP) — Prosecutors must notify a grand jury when a defendant sends a letter outlining a defense so that jurors can decide whether to see the letter, according to an Arizona court decision.

The Court of Appeals issued its ruling Tuesday in a case involving Chung Trinh, a psychiatry practice’s co-owner awaiting trial on charges of practicing medicine without a license and other crimes.

The ruling said a Maricopa County Superior Court judge rejected Trinh’s request to order the grand jury to reconsider whether there was probable cause to indict Tring after prosecutors didn’t disclose the existence of Trinh’s letter.

The prosecution argued that it didn’t have to disclose the letter’s existence to the grand jury because Trinh wasn’t offering to testify and because the letter didn’t present clear evidence indicating that Trinh was innocent.

The appeals court rejected the prosecution’s non-disclosure of the letter, saying that undermined the grand jury’s independence.

But the ruling also said to let stand the existing indictment’s charges against Tring because the prosecution’s presentation included most of Trinh’s assertions and because the grand jury decided probable cause, not guilt.


Missouri
High court OKs lawsuit against Catholic school
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that a lawsuit alleging a St. Louis Catholic school allowed sexual abuse against a student should continue.

At issue is a lawsuit filed by a former student who graduated from Chaminade College Preparatory School in the 1970s, known in court records only as John Doe.

Doe alleged that his counselor sexually abused him in 1971 and sued the school for allowing the abuse to happen.

Chaminade removed the guidance counselor, Brother John Woulfe, in 1977 because of allegations of sexual abuse against him. Woulfe died before Doe filed his lawsuit, according to court records.

A lower court ruled against Woulfe and didn’t let the civil suit go to trial. But the Supreme Court ruled that there’s enough evidence for a jury to possibly find that the school knew about allegations of abuse against Woulfe and hired him anyway.

The high court in its ruling pointed to letters between Woulfe and a Chaminade brother before Woulfe was hired at the school. One expert testified that the letters use euphemisms to refer to previous allegations of sexual abuse against Woulfe.

Supreme Court judges said a jury should be allowed to consider that evidence and sent the case back to the lower court to continue.

California
Man accused in $227M Ponzi scheme involving film rights
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of running a $227 million Ponzi scheme that solicited investors for phony film licensing deals, federal prosecutors said.

Zachary Joseph Horwitz, 34, was charged with wire fraud, which carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. It wasn’t immediately known if Horwitz has an attorney.
Prosecutors said Horwitz told investors that their money would be used to purchase film distribution rights that would then be licensed to platforms such as HBO and Netflix.

But instead of using the funds to make distribution deals, Horwitz allegedly operated his firm 1inMM Capital as a Ponzi scheme, using victims’ money to repay earlier investors and to fund his own lifestyle, including the purchase of a $6 million home, prosecutors said.

Representatives for Netflix and HBO have denied that their companies engaged in any business with Horwitz, according to an affidavit.

Horwitz is scheduled to be arraigned May 13.