Washington
Woman pleads guilty to stealing more than $600,000
SEATTLE (AP) — A 40-year-old Tacoma woman has pleaded guilty to wire fraud involving a scheme to defraud friends and acquaintances out of more than $600,000.
Sabrina Taylor admitted to lying about her health, employment status, and education to steal money from people who had offered to help her, said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. She’s scheduled to be sentenced on October 7.
From 2013 to July 2019, Taylor convinced people to provide her with funds by claiming she needed to buy medicine for multiple sclerosis, pay tuition at the University of Washington, or bail her brother out of jail, Brown said.
In fact, Taylor didn’t have multiple sclerosis, wasn’t paying college tuition and didn’t have an incarcerated brother. Taylor used most of the funds to pay for luxuries including almost $60,000 for trips to Japan and Korea, nearly $38,000 for online purchases, more than $29,000 for clothing, and nearly $16,000 for make-up.
Taylor also made false claims about how she would repay loans, prosecutors said.
Taylor met some of the people she defrauded online, using shared interests like Japanese anime, comic books, or video games to establish a relationship. Taylor admitted stealing over $550,000 from one victim.
She faces up to 20 years in prison and must pay restitution.
Indiana
State pays nearly $520,000 to law firm for governor’s suit
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana governor’s office racked up more than $500,000 in legal bills for its successful court fight against an attempt by state legislators to give themselves more power to intervene during public health emergencies.
The state has paid almost $520,000 to the Indianapolis law firm Lewis Wagner for its representation of Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb in the lawsuit, according to records from the state auditor’s office.
Holcomb hired the law firm as Republican state Attorney General Todd Rokita, whose office typically represents the state in court, sided with the GOP-dominated Legislature in the dispute. The law aimed to give legislative leaders authority to call the General Assembly into an “emergency session” after the governor declared a statewide emergency.
The governor’s office referred Friday to previous comments in which Holcomb said the lawsuit was necessary because actions taken by the Legislature under the law could have been challenged as illegal and led to “significant uncertainty” during a time of emergency.
“From the beginning, this case presented important procedural, statutory and constitutional questions that only the courts could answer,” Holcomb said.
The Indiana Supreme Court agreed with Holcomb, issuing a unanimous decision in early June that the law violated the state constitution.
The governor’s office first signed a contract with the law firm in July 2021 for up to $195,000. That contract was amended in November and June to increase the maximum amount to $525,000.
The attorney general’s office, which represented the Legislature in the dispute, did not track the time its staff spent on the case or hire any outside assistance, Rokita spokeswoman Molly Craft said.
Despite the state Supreme Court’s ruling that the law was unconstitutional, Rokita said in a statement that the governor’s legal bill “was a waste of Hoosier taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”
“As we pointed out in this case, Indiana taxpayers already pay the office of the attorney general to litigate these types of matters on their behalf,” Rokita said.
The state Supreme Court’s decision settled the legal fight that lasted more than a year over the law that was a response to Holcomb’s efforts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Holcomb’s lawyers contended that the state constitution allows only the governor to call the Legislature into meetings for consideration of new laws outside of its annual sessions that begin in early January and adjourn by the end of April.
New York
Key players granted bail in Buffalo Billion corruption case
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has granted bail to a prominent Buffalo developer and other businessmen serving prison time for a bid-rigging scheme related to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion economic redevelopment program.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni signed an order Friday allowing developer Louis Ciminelli and three others to be released after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal of their wire fraud convictions.
The justices are expected to take up the case during their next term, which begins in October.
The high court also agreed to hear the related case of Joseph Percoco, a former Cuomo aide convicted in 2018 of accepting more than $300,000 from companies that wanted to gain influence with the Cuomo administration.
It was not immediately clear whether Percoco also would be released on bail.
Among the issues in the case is whether private citizens with official connections may be convicted of honest-services fraud.
Ciminelli was convicted in a pay-to-play conspiracy in which his firm won a development job worth a half billion dollars. Prosecutors called the scheme an “enormous fraud” and said it involved state-funded contracts worth more than $850 million being steered to favored developers.
Also granted bail on Friday were developers Steven Aiello and Joe Gerardi, executives at Syracuse-based COR Development, and Alain Kaloyeros, formerly the president of the State University of New York’s Polytechnic Institute.
Prosecutors said Kaloyeros arranged for Ciminelli and his company LPCiminelli to win a development job in Buffalo worth a half billion dollars.
Cuomo was not charged or accused of wrongdoing, but the criminal proceedings tarnished a program the former governor had made a centerpiece of his efforts to lift the upstate economy.
Mississippi
Judge set to hear challenge of state abortion law
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A judge is holding a hearing Tuesday to consider a lawsuit filed by Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, which is trying to remain open by blocking a law that would ban most abortions in the state.
The law — which state lawmakers passed before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling that allowed abortions nationwide — is set to take effect Thursday.
The Jackson Women’s Health Organization sought a temporary restraining order that would allow it to remain open, at least while the lawsuit remains in court.
The closely watched lawsuit is part of a flurry of activity that has occurred nationwide since the Supreme Court ruled. Conservative states have moved to halt or limit abortions while others have sought to ensure abortion rights, all as some women try to obtain the medical procedure against the changing legal landscape.
If Chancery Judge Debbra K. Halford grants the clinic’s request to block the new Mississippi law from taking effect, the decision could be quickly appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The new Mississippi law says abortion will be legal only if the pregnant woman’s life is in danger or if a pregnancy is caused by a rape reported to law enforcement. It does not have an exception for pregnancies caused by incest.
Mississippi was one of several states with a “trigger” law contingent on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The law was passed in 2007 and has never been challenged in court.
The clinic’s lawsuit cites a 1998 Mississippi Supreme Court ruling that said the state constitution invokes a right to privacy that “includes an implied right to choose whether or not to have an abortion.” That state decision was rooted in U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 1973 and 1992 that established or protected abortion rights but were overturned on June 24.
In arguments filed Sunday, the state attorney general’s office said the Mississippi Constitution does not recognize a right to abortion and the state has a long history of restricting the procedure.
“Text, history, and precedent all show that the Mississippi Constitution does not protect a right to abortion and that the laws here are valid,” the attorney general’s office wrote.
The lawsuit was filed three days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a case that originated in Mississippi.
The clinic has continued to see patients, but owner Diane Derzis said it will close if the near-ban on abortions takes effect.
Tennessee
Man sentenced to more than 120 years in robbery
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A man who was convicted in a violent Tennessee home invasion robbery that took place 11 years ago has been sentenced to more than 120 years in prison, prosecutors said.
A criminal court judge has sentenced Giorgio Lakeith Jennings to 132 years in prison, including 126 years without the possibility for parole, the Shelby County district attorney’s office said in a news release Saturday.
Jennings, 33, was convicted in November on 22 felony charges, including aggravated rape and aggravated robbery.
Authorities said Jennings and two other gunmen forced their way inside a Memphis home in January 2011. Three women were sexually assaulted, two men were shot in their right hands, and another man was pistol whipped.
Items stolen included two video-game systems, knives, a bow, a spear, and several medieval-type swords, prosecutors said.
Jennings was identified as a suspect through DNA evidence, and stolen property was found in his home.
An arrest warrant was issued for Jennings in 2014. He was arrested on the Tennessee charges three years later in St. Louis, where he was in jail on another crime, prosecutors said.
Warrants have been issued for the other two suspects based on DNA evidence, prosecutors said.
New York
Stroller-pushing mom’s alleged killer held without bail
NEW YORK (AP) — The ex-boyfriend of a New York City woman who was shot dead as she pushed their infant daughter in a stroller has been ordered jailed without bail, with prosecutors describing the killing as a “premeditated execution.”
Isaac Argro, 22, appeared Saturday evening in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of second-degree murder and second-degree weapons possession.
Prosecutor Brittany DeCesare told Judge Eric Schumacher that on the night of the killing, Argro dressed in all black and wore a ski mask as he paced back and forth waiting to shoot Azsia Johnson, his estranged girlfriend.
“This case can only be described as a premeditated execution,” DeCesare said, according to The New York Post. “The defendant persuaded the victim to meet after work and under the guise that he wanted to give the deceased items for their 3-month-old daughter.”
Argro’s defense attorney declined to comment.
Johnson, 20, was shot around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 95th Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She was pronounced dead at a hospital.
The 3-month-old in the stroller was not hurt, but was taken to a hospital for medical evaluation, police have said.
Authorities allege Argro called Johnson’s family after the shooting to ask where his child was and threatened that another unidentified person was “next,” the Post reported.
Johnson’s family has said Argro routinely abused the mother of his child, beating her during her pregnancy and threatening to kill her.
Argro is set to return to court Thursday.
