Court Digest

Kentucky
Coroner, ex-state trooper charged in federal court
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky coroner and a former state trooper have been charged in federal court with conspiracy to commit theft.

A federal grand jury handed down the indictments Thursday for Scott County Coroner John Goble and former Kentucky State Police Trooper Michael Crawford, news outlets reported, citing court records. The indictment alleges the men conspired with another person to illegally obtain weapons and ammunition from state police.

Goble and Crawford were indicted in state court in 2018 on multiple counts of receiving stolen property. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges.

An internal investigation by state police found that more than $40,000 in ammunition had been unlawfully taken to Goble’s residence, police said. Goble also received three rifles and 10 shotguns that were illegally obtained from state police, the indictment said.

Illinois
Man accused of threatening Trump, other federal officials
CHICAGO (AP) — A central Illinois man is accused of threatening the life of former President Donald Trump, a U.S. attorney and a federal judge, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Damien Grant, 33, of Peoria is charged with influencing a federal official by threat, mailing threatening communications and threatening the president of the United States. Grant allegedly made the threats from the Tazewell County Jail, where he has been held since July 2019, when he allegedly was in an altercation with two Illinois State Police troopers after a traffic stop.

The threats Grant allegedly made were against Trump, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois and a federal judge. Although the U.S. attorney wasn’t named, John Milhiser was the top federal prosecutor as the time. The federal judge also wasn’t named, but U.S. District Judge James Shadid recused himself from the case.

The threats against the three were made between the November presidential election and the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden.

“And the moment you walk out of office, I’m going to have you shot! Right in your (expletive) head,” Grant allegedly wrote in a Dec. 22 letter to Trump.

In a letter to the U.S. attorney, Grant allegedly wrote the prosecutor had two days to drop investigations and charges against him, or he will make sure Milhiser will never see Christmas.

“I might have someone walk in the Court House and blow all you evil (expletive) to pieces,” Grant said in a Nov. 30 letter addressed to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois.

Milhiser declined through a spokeswoman to comment. Shadid on Thursday could not be reached for comment.

Although the charges were filed in Peoria, the U.S. attorney’s office there has recused itself and Grant will be prosecuted by the U.S. attorney in Chicago. The arraignment of Grant hasn’t been scheduled, and it wasn’t immediately known if he has legal representation.

New York
NYC strip clubs sue state over COVID shutdown
NEW YORK (AP) — A group of New York City exotic dancing clubs sued New York state Thursday, saying it’s not fair that they’re being kept closed when everything from axe-throwing venues to bars with live music and casinos can open up.

The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court claimed that thousands of employees are forced out of work by the state’s ban because of the coronavirus. Defendants included Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state’s liquor licensing authority.

Exotic dancing clubs including “Starlet’s,” “Sugar Daddy’s” and “Gallagher’s 2000” in the borough of Queens asked the court to declare it a violation of the First and 14th Amendments to keep their clubs closed while letting other enclosed establishments open up.

The lawsuit comes as the state’s widening of rules for bars and restaurants have led many to open this week.

It also was filed after similar clashes between establishments that allow nudity or dancing in other states. In December, a judge in California let two San Diego strip clubs make their own determinations about providing a safe environment for dancers and patrons during the pandemic.

A spokesperson for the governor’s office said the lawsuit attempts to undermine “science-based public health measures.”

“While we are working to reopen as many facets of the economy as quickly and safely as possible, science, data, and common sense dictate that exotic dancing is not allowable at this time,” spokesperson Jack Sterne said in a statement.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, maintains that four strip clubs in Queens have been ready to open with COVID-19 safety protocols since the early days of the pandemic.

They pledged to require masks and temperature checks for guests and employees, to keep everyone safely apart and to engage in frequent cleanings of all surfaces with ample supplies of disinfectant throughout the clubs.

Yet, the lawsuit said, Cuomo and the state have ordered restaurants and bars “with exotic dancing to remain closed while permitting night clubs, lounges, jazz dinner theaters, churches, axe throwing venues, billiards halls, event venues for weddings, casinos, restaurants and bars with live music and bowling alleys that pose similar or greater risks of COVID-19 transmission to reopen.”

According to the lawsuit, at least 41 other states allow similar businesses to remain open.

New York State formally outlawed the operation of strip clubs during the pandemic in early July despite allowing live music indoors, the lawsuit said. It noted that other indoor establishments were also allowed to open at various times, including Saturday Night Live in October.

In recent weeks, Cuomo has announced that large establishments like Madison Square Garden can open and movie theaters were permitted to reopen earlier this month, along with businesses with recreational activities including darts, racket games and axe throwing.

Comedy clubs, nightclubs and Broadway theaters will open in April, the lawsuit noted.

California
Founders of fecal matter-testing company indicted
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who founded a biotech company that tested fecal matter are accused of bilking their investors and health insurance providers, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Zachary Schulz Apte and Jessica Sunshine Richman, co-founders of now-bankrupt microbiome testing company uBiome, were  indicted Thursday on multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud and money laundering.

Their court appearances have not been scheduled, and it was not immediately clear if they had attorneys who could speak on their behalf.

Apte, 36, and Richman, 46, founded uBiome in 2012 as a direct-to-consumer service called “Gut Explorer.” Customers would submit a fecal sample that the company analyzed in a laboratory, comparing the consumer’s microbiome to others’ microbiomes, prosecutors said. The service cost less than $100 initially.

The company grew to include “clinical” tests of gut and vaginal microbiomes, which were aimed to be used by medical providers so uBiome could seek up to $3,000 in reimbursements from health insurance companies.

The federal indictment states that uBiome sought upwards of $300 million in reimbursement claims from private and public health insurers between 2015 and 2019. The company was ultimately paid more than $35 million for tests that “were not validated and not medically necessary.”

The defendants are also accused of falsifying documents, lying and concealing facts about their billing model when asked by insurance providers, as well as misleading and defrauding their investors.

Washington
Justices: Man can sue over handling of brother’s corpse
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The brother of a man whose corpse was used without permission for training by the Bellingham Fire Department can sue over it, the Washington Supreme Court said Thursday.

Eleven people at the fire department, including an account manager and a secretary, performed 15 intubations on the corpse of Bradley Ginn Sr. without permission from the family in 2018. Ginn died as paramedics were taking him to a hospital.

An investigation revealed that the department had for decades used bodies without permission to practice medical procedures.

The city has paid settlements totaling $325,000 to Ginn’s wife and children, but it claimed Ginn’s brother, Robert Fox, was not a relative defined in law as one who had responsibility for the disposition of the body. Thus, the city argued, he was not entitled to sue.

The justices disagreed in a 6-3 decision Thursday, saying the legal action for wrongful interference with a corpse was designed to compensate relatives who suffer from the mishandling of their loved one’s remains. The U.S. District Court in Seattle asked the justices to address the question as part of a federal lawsuit brought by Fox.

Writing for the majority, Justice Susan Owens said the court would not enumerate a list of specific relatives entitled to sue in such cases. She said each case would be determined based on an analysis of how close the relative was to the decedent and whether they might foreseeably suffer mental anguish from the mishandling of the remains.

Texas
No charges for officer in killing of college student
DENTON, Texas (AP) — A grand jury has declined to indict a North Texas police officer in the fatal shooting of a college student who had refused to drop a frying pan and a cleaver and then advanced toward them with the pan.

The Denton County grand jury made the decision Thursday about the officer, whose name police have not released.

Darius Tarver, a 23-year-old University of North Texas student, was shot in January 2020 after residents of an apartment complex in Denton, located 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Dallas, called 911 and said a man was banging on doors and breaking light fixtures.

Body camera footage showed that he was shocked twice with a stun gun before he was fatally shot.

Tarver’s family and their attorney have said he was in the midst of a mental health crisis after suffering a brain injury in an earlier car crash.

Denton police said in a written statement that an internal investigation of the shooting to determine whether departmental policies were followed will end within 30 days. The officer remains on administrative duty.

Nevada
Russian man pleads guilty in ransomware plot against Tesla
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Russian man has pleaded guilty to offering a Tesla employee $1 million to get computer malware into the electric car company’s massive electric battery plant in Nevada for a ransomware attack that never happened, according to court records.

Federal public defenders representing Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov did not immediately respond Friday to messages seeking details about his plea entered Thursday in U.S. District Court in Reno.

Kriuchkov, 27, told a judge in September that he knew the Russian government was aware of his case. Prosecutors and the FBI have not alleged he had ties to the Kremlin.

Kriuchkov is expected to face no more than 10 months in prison under terms of his plea agreement.

He has been in custody for seven months, since his arrest in August in Los Angeles. Prosecutors have said he was heading to an airport to fly out of the country when he was detained.

The FBI said the plot was stopped before any damage happened.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said his company was the target of what he termed a serious effort to collect company secrets.

Cybersecurity experts have called the case highly unusual because it alleged that a ransomware syndicate tried to recruit an insider to physically plant malware.

Most hacks happen when people use the internet to compromise networks, said Brett Callow, a ransomware analyst at cybersecurity firm Emsisoft.