Court Digest

Wisconsin
Milwaukee man who killed 5 family members gets 205 years
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man has been sentenced to 205 years in prison for fatally shooting five members of his family and he offered no explanation for his actions, saying that he must have a lot of hate.

Before receiving his sentence Tuesday, Christopher Stokes told the judge in Milwaukee County Circuit Court that he wasn’t asking for leniency and that he deserved to be locked up. Stokes, 44, said he couldn’t explain why he killed his family members.

Killed were Teresa Thomas, 41, and her two children, 16-year-old Tiera Agee and 14-year-old Demetrius Thomas. Two others related to Stokes were also killed, 19-year-old Marcus Stokes and 17-year-old Lakeitha Stokes.

Only Stokes’ 3-year-old grandchild was spared. Prosecutors say the child witnessed the shootings and asked Stokes not to hurt him.

A criminal complaint said Stokes called 911 on April 27, 2020, and told dispatchers he had “just massacred” his family.

Milwaukee County Judge Michelle Havas sentenced Stokes to 40 years in prison for each of the five counts of first-degree reckless homicide he earlier pleaded guilty to, plus another five years for illegally possessing a gun as a convicted felon.

Illinois
Man convicted of gun possession during 2020 unrest sentenced
CHICAGO (AP) — A man arrested last year for carrying a loaded gun and a hammer during rioting in Chicago’s Loop business district was sentenced Tuesday to a year in federal prison.

Prosecutors said they had no evidence Brandon Pegues, 29, caused any damage during the rioting, but as a convicted felon, he was not allowed to possess a gun. Pegues was being chased by police on May 31, 2020 when he fell, causing a gun to fall from clothing. He pleaded guilty in March to illegal possession of a firearm.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports before sentencing, Pegues said he took “full responsibility” for his actions, adding he has started a landscaping business.

“I would like you to take into account everything I am and not just the person who made an awful decision,” he told U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall.

However, Kendall pointed to the domestic abuse allegations that surfaced earlier this year, saying violent abuse of women is never tolerated. Pegues was convicted of residential burglary, a felony, in January 2010, court records show.

Investigations continue into the rioting last year that followed protests of the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Chicago announced Tuesday that Jose Valdovinos, 32, of Cicero was arrested on charges he set charged in June with setting fire to a Walgreens in Chicago during disturbances in June 2020. It wasn’t immediately known if Valdovinos has retained legal representation.

New York
Court upholds conviction of man in terror case
NEW YORK (AP) — The conviction of a New Yorker charged with providing material support to Hezbollah by seeking targets in New York City for terrorist attacks was upheld Tuesday by an appeals court, though one of three judges questioned the 40-year prison sentence, saying it was too long because nobody was harmed directly by the crimes.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled on Ali Kourani’s appeal challenging the conviction and the sentence.

Prosecutors said the Lebanon-born Kourani spent years conducting surveillance at federal buildings, airports and day care centers after he was recruited, trained and deployed by Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization.

In a majority opinion written by Circuit Judge Jose A. Cabranes, the appeals judges concluded that a trial was properly conducted  before Kourani’s 2019 conviction and that the judge did not error by allowing prosecutors to use confessions he made during 2017 interviews with the FBI at his trial.

The 2nd Circuit said FBI agents were not coercive when they met with Kourani at a conference room at Seton Hall University, where the agents were dressed in business-casual clothing and did not display weapons.

But in a partial dissent, Circuit Judge Rosemary S. Pooler said the 40-year sentence was overly harsh when compared with the prison sentences given to other defendants convicted of similar crimes. She wrote that a 20-year prison term would have been more consistent with what resulted from similar convictions.

And she said: “It is not lost on me that Kourani’s actions could have culminated in far more injurious results. Nevertheless, they did not, and accordingly, the sentence imposed is disproportionately high.”

Authorities said Kourani came to the U.S. legally in 2003, earning a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering in 2009 and a master’s degree in business administration in 2013. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in April 2009 and was issued a U.S. passport.

Prosecutors said Kourani was recruited by the terrorist group after a family residence was destroyed in 2006 during the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

They said he traveled to Lebanon in 2011, when he learned to use a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, assault rifles, a submachine gun, a machine gun and a Glock pistol.

New York
Judge orders release of Avenatti financial information
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge on Tuesday ordered the public disclosure of financial information Michael Avenatti provided to qualify for publicly funded lawyers to defend him against charges he defrauded porn star Stormy Daniels.

U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in Manhattan said the common law and First Amendment rights of public access to judicial documents require that the information be unsealed.

“There are no countervailing factors or higher values sufficient to outweigh the public’s right to access the documents,” the judge wrote.

Avenatti, 50, faces trial early next year in New York on charges that he cheated Daniels  of hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds for her book. Avenatti gained a high public profile as a lawyer who appeared regularly on cable television programs when he represented Daniels in 2018 in lawsuits against then-President Donald Trump.

Avenatti currently is representing himself at a federal criminal trial in Los Angeles, where he is charged with cheating several clients out of nearly $10 million. During opening statements last week, Avenatti told jurors that he did not embezzle funds but instead recouped expenses after negotiating settlements in legal proceedings.

Earlier this month, he was sentenced in New York to 2 1/2 years in prison for trying to extort up to $25 million from Nike by threatening the apparel giant with bad publicity.

In the case involving the book deal for Daniels, whose birth name is Stephanie Clifford, Avenatti initially was represented by private counsel when he was arrested in spring 2019, but he applied for a court-order appointing the Federal Defenders of New York to represent him.

The request was granted last August and Avenatti was required to provide updated financial information every few months to prove he was still eligible for appointed lawyers.

Initially, Avenatti was granted a request that the financial information he submitted be sealed temporarily. As the judge considered whether to keep the information sealed, he received submissions from the Inner City Press, a media outlet which sought disclosure, and documents from attorneys in the case.

Furman said he rejected Avenatti’s argument that his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination requires sealing so that his statements in his financial affidavit cannot be “weaponized against him” when prosecutors learn what was said.

The judge noted that Avenatti’s lawyers pointed out that prosecutors had already aggressively used his financial condition against him in the Nike trial, which ended with conviction in early 2020.

“Far from supporting Avenatti’s argument, that fact undermines it. That is, as Avenatti himself concedes, the Government already has ample evidence that he ‘is millions of dollars in debt,’” Furman wrote.

Before the documents are released, Avenatti has until Aug. 10 to propose redactions of such things as financial account numbers and the identities of children.

Lawyers for Avenatti declined comment.

Maryland
Man sentenced for threats against Biden, Harris
BALTIMORE (AP) — A Maryland man was sentenced Tuesday to seven months in federal prison for making death threats against U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris when they were candidates during the 2020 campaign.

The threats were contained in a scrawled letter left on the doorstep of a neighbor who had yard signs supporting the Democrats.

Looking disheveled with a thick black beard and wearing a red prison jumpsuit, James Dale Reed told a federal judge he was “deeply remorseful” for writing the letter in early October 2020. Among other things, it said he was among those with “scary guns” who would attack Biden and Harris and then execute them both on national television. The letter also threatened Democratic supporters.

“I don’t know what evil drove me to do such an act,” the slight man told U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Hollander at sentencing Tuesday.

The case is an extreme example of the volatile polarization that has permeated some of the country’s political conversations. Earlier this year, Reed had been found guilty of voter intimidation during a bench trial in state court regarding the same matter. He was found not guilty of a charge of threat of mass violence.

A home security camera captured images of Reed leaving the threatening letter on his neighbor’s doorstep in Maryland’s Frederick County, located in the northern part of the U.S. state near the Pennsylvania line.

An anonymous tip to police led to investigators to question Reed at his home. He initially denied writing the letter or being the person seen in the security camera footage. But after he gave palm prints and a handwriting sample to investigators, he acknowledged it was him, according to court documents.

Authorities obtained an extreme risk protective order to seize Reed’s firearms based on misdemeanor charges of voter intimidation and threats of mass violence.

On Tuesday, Hollander described Reed’s letter as “horrifying,” comparing it to the “same kind of mentality” that led to the appalling events of Jan 6, when insurrectionists disrupted the congressional certification of Biden’s presidential victory. Seven people died during and after the Capitol riot.

Prosecutors noted that it wasn’t the first time Reed had sent threatening letters and there was a serious need for deterrence in his case. In 2014, he sent two emails to a nonprofit making threatening comments about then-President Barack Obama and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Prosecutors sought a sentence of 18 months.

Hollander sentenced him to seven months in prison and four months of home detention, followed by three years of supervised release. She gave Reed credit for time served in federal custody since February. He will have to participate in a mental health treatment program that deals with anger management.

“I think you have in fact paid a significant price for your errant ways,” said Hollander, noting that the 43-year-old with various health problems had no prior arrests.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lenzner said “making threats against candidates and fellow citizens for their political beliefs undermines our democracy and will not be tolerated.”


Minnesota
Former township clerk sentenced to prison for fraud scheme
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Twin Cities woman was sentenced Tuesday to more than two years in federal prison and ordered to pay back more than $650,000 she admitted to stealing from Vermillion Township in Dakota County while serving as its elected clerk.

Maryann Stoffel, 70, of Hastings, pleaded guilty in March to felony wire fraud in connection with a scheme that spanned nearly eight years.

Stoffel had signature authority over the township’s bank account, which required two people signing off on checks, according to the complaint. Investigators said she either forged the signatures of the township’s treasurer or board chair or collected their actual signatures on blank checks while claiming she was going to pay township bills.

Instead, Stoffel put the funds in her personal bank account and then left off the payments to herself from the township’s annual report.

U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schultz sentenced Stoffel to 27 months in prison and ordered restitution of $652,674.66.