Court Digest

Kansas
State panel recommends prosecutor be disbarred
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A state board unanimously recommended Friday that the Kansas Supreme Court disbar a prosecutor who’s accused of misleading juries in two separate cases, actions that caused them to be overturned by higher courts.

The Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys argued that Jacqie Spradling embraced a “win at all costs” attitude in two cases: the 2012 double homicide case and a 2016 rape and sodomy case, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

Spradling is accused of falsely leading a jury to believe that Dana Chandler in Shawnee County had violated a protection order obtained by her ex-husband, who was killed along with his fiance. No abuse order was ever found to have existed.

Similar accusations were made against Spradling in the case of Jacob Ewing, a Jackson County man convicted in the rape and sodomy case.

In both cases, appeals courts tossed out the convictions.

The report argued that Spradling’s actions undermine confidence in the judicial system and resulted in significant financial costs.

Spradling, who works as a prosecutor in Bourbon and Allen counties, admitted in a December hearing that she erred in handling the cases, although her legal team has said the mistakes don’t rise to the level of misconduct.

Indiana
Feds oppose delaying Muncie officers’ excessive force trial
MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are objecting to an effort by four Muncie police officers to delay their trial on allegations they used excessive force during arrests  or tried to cover up that misconduct.

The officers are set to stand trial in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis on Sept. 21 — a date attorneys in the case agreed to last November, according to Acting U.S. Attorney John Childress.

But Childress said in a recent motion that lawyers for officers Chase Winkle, Jeremy Gibson, Joseph Krejsa and Corey Posey now want to have the trial, which has already been postponed three times, reset for January 2022.

He said they are seeking the delay in large part because prosecutors in April added a fourth defendant, Posey, who faces “a single false report charge,”  The Star Press reported.

At that time, additional allegations of excessive force and false reporting were also added to the counts already pending against Winkle and Gibson.

“Defendants have ample time to prepare for trial,” Childress wrote in his motion, which said that the government requests that a federal judge deny their request for the new delay.

He also said “the public interest favors maintaining the trial date,” and noted that the Muncie officers are charged with “serious civil rights and obstruction offenses in connection with seven different victims.”

Virginia
Judge considering moving ‘Unite the Right’ civil trial
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A federal judge is considering moving the trial in a civil lawsuit filed against organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally in Virginia because of potential logistical and safety issues.

The Daily Progress reports that U.S. District Judge Norman Moon floated the idea of moving the trial during a telephone hearing in the case Friday.

Violent street clashes broke out in Charlottesville on Aug 12, 2017, before a man fascinated with Adolf Hitler plowed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing a woman. Lawyers for victims of the violence sued several far-right extremist groups and individuals who participated in the event, which was organized in part to protest the city’s planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

The case has moved slowly over the past four years, inhibited partly by the sheer number of defendants and a lack of cooperation from some of them, and then the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The trial is currently scheduled to begin on Oct. 25.

Moon said he has several concerns about holding the trial in Charlottesville.

“The number of bodies and the lawyers in this case raises a significant logistical concern of how to make sure both sides are represented at trial, given space limitations even in a big courtroom such as in Charlottesville,” Moon said.

“Space limitations would be a concern regardless, but I expect we could continue to see risks from COVID-19 in October.”

Moon suggested potentially moving the trial to the federal courthouse in either Roanoke or Lynchburg.

Roberta Kaplan, chief attorney for the plaintiffs, said her team wants to keep the trial in Charlottesville and is willing to limit the number of plaintiffs and attorneys in the courtroom to one or two at a time. She also said the plaintiffs are open to viewing the trial proceedings via video from other rooms in the courthouse.

Several of the defendants said they had concerns about their safety if the trial is kept in Charlottesville.

Defendant Richard Spencer said he is in favor of moving the trial to Lynchburg.

“I have been attacked by activists, and so that is a concern to me,” he said. “I think your instincts are sound, and I think we should be trying to lower the temperature and remove any kind of public spectacle aspect to this and just stick to the facts.”

Defendant Matthew Heimbach, formerly of the Traditionalist Worker Party, echoed Spencer’s security concerns and also said that a monthlong trial would hurt his family, as he would be unable to work.

Forcing rally participants to return to the area also could draw in people the court has no control over, Moon said. Kaplan countered by pointing out that the trial location will never be secret and that people would likely travel regardless of where it is held.

Moon urged the two sides to confer before the next hearing and to file any submissions about the venue within the next seven days. It is unclear when he will decide.


South Carolina
Man faces prison for threats to ex-prosecutor
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man authorities linked to the extremist group the Proud Boys faces a prison sentence after pleading guilty to threatening a former federal prosecutor.

James Giannakos, 47, of Gilbert is scheduled for sentencing by a U.S. District Court judge June 29. Court records show Giannakos was arrested in February after recorded threats made to a former federal prosecutor in Florida were traced to a phone he owned.

Giannakos pleaded guilty in April, The State  reported. According to court records, he was angry at the prosecutor for comments confirming news reports that Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio had been an FBI informant in drug cases.

Giannakos is a self-employed home repairman and security system installer, according to documents filed in the legal case. When the FBI raided his home in February, agents found guns and Proud Boys literature, as well as a Capitol Police riot shield suspected to have been taken during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Giannakos has not been charged in the insurrection. But court records say federal authorities are investigating whether he committed crimes while taking part in the Capitol siege.

Giannaokos’ attorney, Allen Burnside, declined to comment on the case, the newspaper said.

The Proud Boys is a far-right, male chauvinist extremist group that seized on the policies of former President Donald Trump’s administration’ and was a major agitator during earlier protests and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.

Federal prosecutors say it was in late January, after the Capitol riot, that Giannakos left threatening voice mail messages for the former prosecutor at the law firm where she now works as a private attorney.

One message prominently mentions the Proud Boys leader, saying: “If anything happens to Mr. Enrique Tarrio, the same thing will happen to you and your family... If anything happens to him, I promise you and your associates will pay for it.”

A judge ordered Giannakos to remain jailed pending sentencing after concluding he remains a potential threat to the former prosecutor. Court records say federal guidelines call for a prison sentence of 24 to 30 months.

New York
Jury told deli owner hired manager to kill upstate woman
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man told a jury Friday that he spent two nights trying to cover up the 2019 killing of a woman he beat to death with a baseball bat and sledgehammer at an upstate deli where she had been an employee.

James Duffy, who has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, said deli owner George Kakavelos paid him $800 to kill Allyzibeth Lamont because the 22-year-old had complained to the state Department of Labor about his practice of paying employees off the books.

The Daily Gazette reports Duffy testified for more than four hours Friday at Saratoga County Court about their efforts to conceal Lamont’s death, including burying her in a shallow grave in the town of Malta, 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Johnstown.

Duffy is to be sentenced to 18 years to life in prison in exchange for testifying against Kakavelos, the newspaper reported.

Kakavelos’ defense attorney, Kevin O’Brien, called the state’s case a “disaster,” adding Lamont’s death was a “heinous crime that was orchestrated and done solely by James Duffy.”

“The government has bought what this drunk, self-serving crackhead has sold them to get a better deal for himself,” O’Brien told The Associated Press. “Now the prosecutors will have to watch as I destroy Duffy and the government’s case in front of the jury.”

Lamont went missing after an October 2019 shift at the Local No. 9 deli in Johnstown and was found three days later. An autopsy found she died of multiple blows to the head.

Duffy, 35, recalled cutting off the woman’s clothing before placing fertilizer, concrete, cement pavers and dirt over her. He and Kakavelos then put leaves, grass and branches over the grave, he said.

“I asked him to help me — he was really hesitant,” Duffy testified. “Said he didn’t want to see her face, it would haunt him.”

Duffy, who managed the deli, told a Saratoga County jury that Kakavelos, 52, had been a role model to him and “always taken care of me.” He said Kakavelos organized Lamont’s killing.

Kakavelos has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. His trial resumes Monday.


Maryland
Woman impaled by beach umbrella files lawsuit
OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) — A woman who was impaled by a beach umbrella in Maryland three years ago has sued the town and umbrella business, claiming their negligence resulted in serious injuries.

Jill Mendygral, of Kingston, Pennsylvania, was lounging on the beach in Ocean City on her first day of vacation when an umbrella was swept up by gusts of wind and impaled her chest, according to the lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Rescuers cut off the end of the umbrella, leaving the tip in her chest until a Maryland State Police helicopter could transport her to a hospital.

The Baltimore Sun  reports  that the lawsuit says Mendygral required surgery for the wound in her chest. To this day, she has back pain and pelvic pain, numbness in her right arm and hand, and a range of mental health conditions, among other ailments, the complaint alleges.

Her lawyer, Eric Lickstein, argues that none of her injuries or trauma would have occurred if not for the negligence of the Town of Ocean City or 85 ‘n Sunny LLC, a company that rents umbrellas, beach chairs, boogie boards and more.

The complaint names Patrick McLaughlin, resident agent of the beach rental company, as well as Matt James, president of the Ocean City Town Council. McLaughlin declined to comment. A spokesperson for Ocean City did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

The complaint alleges that the business and the town allowed a hazardous and dangerous condition to persist by failing to warn people of the dangers of leaving an umbrella open in the wind and failing to inspect the beach while a wind advisory was in effect.

The lawsuit seeks more than $150,000.