New York
2 plead not guilty to assaulting ex-NY governor
NEW YORK (AP) — Two people charged with attacking former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were just trying to break up a confrontation, defense lawyers said Tuesday.
Diamond Minter and Travor Nurse pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony assault charges stemming from the fracas on Manhattan’s Upper East Side Friday night.
According to the ex-governor and Manhattan prosecutors, the 20-year-old stepson, Anthony Sliwa, quarreled Friday with some youngsters who were climbing on a structure outside his building. He’s the son of Guardian Angels anti-crime group founder Curtis Sliwa, whose ex-wife Mary married Paterson in 2019.
Later, Paterson and Anthony Sliwa went for a walk and ran into the same youths outside a nearby McDonald’s and had more words with them.
Manhattan assistant district attorney Zachary Campbell told a judge Tuesday that Minter and Nurse intervened. According to prosecutors, Nurse gestured aggressively toward the 70-year-old, legally blind governor and his stepson, Sliwa shoved Nurse, Nurse and Minter started taking swings at Sliwa, and vice versa.
According prosecutors, Nurse hurled Sliwa to the ground and kicked him, Minter pulled back his arms, and two youths stomped at him. Two boys, ages 12 and 13, also have been charged; their cases are being handled in family court.
Nurse also hit Paterson in the back of the head and knocked him to the pavement, prosecutors say.
Nurse’s lawyer, Jeffrey Chabrowe, said by phone that his understanding was that his client and Minter, who work together at a housing agency, were trying to defuse a conflict.
Noting that Paterson has alluded in interviews to his stepson’s martial arts prowess, Chabrowe said Nurse “ended up being on the receiving end of that” when he and Minter sought to stop “what they saw as adults harassing children.”
Messages seeking comment were sent Tuesday to Minter’s attorney, Zachary Wechsler. According to the Daily News, Wechsler told the court that his client got involved after seeing two adults facing off with children.
Paterson spokesperson Sean Darcy said Tuesday night that the encounter “was a traumatic event that Governor Paterson and his family would like to move past.”
“We are confident justice will be served,” Darcy added in an email.
Nurse’s bail was set at $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond. Minter was freed on supervised release. Both are due back in court Friday.
Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010. He attained the office after Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a sex scandal.
Alabama
U.S. Supreme Court rejects IVF clinic’s appeal of state’s frozen embryo ruling
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review an Alabama ruling that triggered concerns about in vitro fertilization availability by allowing couples to pursue wrongful death lawsuits over the accidental destruction of frozen embryos.
A fertility clinic and hospital had asked the court to review the Alabama Supreme Court decision that a couple, who had a frozen embryo destroyed in an accident, could pursue a lawsuit against them for the wrongful death of their “minor child.” Justices turned down the petition without comment.
The state court decision in February sparked a national backlash and concerns about legal liability for fertility clinics. In the wake of the decision, several large fertility providers in Alabama paused IVF services. After Alabama lawmakers approved immunity protections from future lawsuits, the providers resumed services.
The Center for Reproductive Medicine and Mobile Infirmary Medical Center in August filed a petition asking justices to review whether the couple could bring the lawsuit and if the decision to let the lawsuit proceed ran afoul of constitutional protections of due process and fair notice rights.
“In an astonishing decision, and ignoring over 150 years of the statute’s interpretive history, the Supreme Court of Alabama held here that an unimplanted, in vitro embryo constitutes a ‘minor child’ for purposes of the statute, upending the commonsense understanding of the statute around which many Alabamians, including Petitioners, have ordered their businesses and lives,” lawyers for the two medical providers wrote.
The wrongful death lawsuit brought by the couple is ongoing. Two other couples, who had been part of the earlier case, dropped their lawsuits after reaching settlement agreements.
New York
Judge tosses law that moved many elections to even-numbered years
A law moving many town and county elections in New York to even-numbered years to align them with state and federal races was struck down by a state judge, providing a win to Republicans who claimed it was a partisan effort by Democrats to gain an electoral edge.
Sponsors of the bill approved by the Democrat-led state Legislature last year said they wanted to shift elections for town supervisor, county executive and some other local posts from odd-numbered years to reduce confusion and increase voter turnout. Republicans
denounced the law as an effort to move local elections to higher-turnout presidential election years, which could favor Democrats.
A number of Republican officials sued the state, leading to the ruling on Tuesday in Syracuse from state Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri, who said the law violated the state constitution. Neri said, in part, that the law violates the rights of local governments to control their own affairs.
The judge also noted that the law does not affect New York City elections, since city elections and certain local posts such as county district attorney are held on odd-numbered years under terms of the state constitution. Neri said the law raises questions over the federal requirement that governments provide equal protection to people under the law.
“Are the urbane voters of New York City less likely to be confused by odd year elections than the rubes living in Upstate and Long Island?” Neri asked.
The attorney general’s office was reviewing the decision.
State Sen. James Skoufis, a sponsor of the bill, predicted the decision would be overturned on appeal.
“This case was always going to be appealed and I fully expect a more objective panel of judges to rule in favor of the law’s constitutionality,’’ Skoufis, a Democrat, said in a prepared release. “In the meantime, the plaintiffs continue to waste local tax dollars on their senseless crusade to preserve lower turnout in elections.”
State Republican Chairman Ed Cox said the ruling was a victory for people who care about local elections.
“This radical change to longstanding election law was a blatant effort by Democrats to consolidate total, one-party control at every level of government, and establish permanent Democratic authority in our state, as discussion of local issues would have been buried beneath an avalanche of federal and state spending,” Cox said in a prepared statement.
Georgia
Mayor indicted for allegedly trying to give inmates alcohol suspended
THOMSON, Ga. (AP) — The mayor of a small Georgia town has been suspended after he was indicted over allegations that he illegally left a bottle of gin in a ditch for a state prison work crew.
Thomson Mayor Benjamin “Benji” Cary Cranford, 52, was suspended Friday by Gov. Brian Kemp after a review panel concluded that the charges hurt his ability to perform his job.
The August indictment in McDuffie County Superior Court says Cranford drove to a store June 3, bought a bottle of Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin and left it in a ditch along Georgia 150 in Thomson in the path of a work crew from the Jefferson County Correctional Institution. He is charged with two felonies — furnishing prohibited items to inmates and attempting to commit a felony.
Three days later Thomson police asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate the claim that Cranford gave alcohol to inmates, the GBI has said.
Agents arrested the mayor at Thomson City Hall after a council meeting and led him away in handcuffs. He is free on $5,000 bail.
Cranford has told WRDW-TV that he doesn’t remember what he did June 3 and doesn’t know any prisoners in the Jefferson County facility.
Cranford will remain suspended without pay until the charges are resolved or his term of office ends.
Cranford won election last year, beating 12-year-incumbent Kenneth Usry. A paving contractor before he was elected, Cranford later settled a lawsuit alleging he tried to hide assets from a bonding company that was on the hook to pay some of his company’s debts.
California
Police union director fired after an opioid smuggling arrest pleads guilty
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The former executive director for a Northern California police union pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to charges she illegally imported synthetic opioid pills from India and other countries.
Joanne Marian Segovia, who was executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, was charged last year with unlawfully importing thousands of valeryl fentanyl pills. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
Segovia’s plea before a federal judge in San Jose was part of an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which agreed to reduce the severity of her charges, the Mercury News reported. She only said “yes” when asked by the judge to confirm and demonstrate her understanding of her guilty plea, the newspaper reported.
Starting in 2015, Segovia had dozens of drug shipments mailed to her San Jose home from India, Hong Kong, Hungary and Singapore with manifests listing their contents as “wedding party favors,” “gift makeup,” “chocolate and sweets” and “food supplement,” according to a federal criminal complaint.
Segovia at times used her work computer to make the orders and at least once used the union’s UPS account to ship the drugs within the country, federal prosecutors said.
The police association fired Segovia after completing an initial internal investigation following the charges. Segovia, a civilian, had worked for the union since 2003, planning funerals for officers who die in the line of duty, being the liaison between the department and officers’ families and organizing office festivities and fundraisers, union officials said.
Federal prosecutors said that in 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted a parcel being sent to her home address that contained $5,000 worth of Tramadol, a synthetic opioid, and sent her a letter telling her they were seizing the pills. The next year, CBP intercepted a shipment of Tramadol valued at $700 and sent her a seizure letter, court records show.
But federal officials didn’t start investigating Segovia until 2022, when they found her name and home address on the cellphone of a suspected drug dealer who was part of a network that ships controlled substances made in India to the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the complaint. That drug trafficking network has distributed hundreds of thousands of pills in 48 states, federal prosecutors said.
2 plead not guilty to assaulting ex-NY governor
NEW YORK (AP) — Two people charged with attacking former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were just trying to break up a confrontation, defense lawyers said Tuesday.
Diamond Minter and Travor Nurse pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony assault charges stemming from the fracas on Manhattan’s Upper East Side Friday night.
According to the ex-governor and Manhattan prosecutors, the 20-year-old stepson, Anthony Sliwa, quarreled Friday with some youngsters who were climbing on a structure outside his building. He’s the son of Guardian Angels anti-crime group founder Curtis Sliwa, whose ex-wife Mary married Paterson in 2019.
Later, Paterson and Anthony Sliwa went for a walk and ran into the same youths outside a nearby McDonald’s and had more words with them.
Manhattan assistant district attorney Zachary Campbell told a judge Tuesday that Minter and Nurse intervened. According to prosecutors, Nurse gestured aggressively toward the 70-year-old, legally blind governor and his stepson, Sliwa shoved Nurse, Nurse and Minter started taking swings at Sliwa, and vice versa.
According prosecutors, Nurse hurled Sliwa to the ground and kicked him, Minter pulled back his arms, and two youths stomped at him. Two boys, ages 12 and 13, also have been charged; their cases are being handled in family court.
Nurse also hit Paterson in the back of the head and knocked him to the pavement, prosecutors say.
Nurse’s lawyer, Jeffrey Chabrowe, said by phone that his understanding was that his client and Minter, who work together at a housing agency, were trying to defuse a conflict.
Noting that Paterson has alluded in interviews to his stepson’s martial arts prowess, Chabrowe said Nurse “ended up being on the receiving end of that” when he and Minter sought to stop “what they saw as adults harassing children.”
Messages seeking comment were sent Tuesday to Minter’s attorney, Zachary Wechsler. According to the Daily News, Wechsler told the court that his client got involved after seeing two adults facing off with children.
Paterson spokesperson Sean Darcy said Tuesday night that the encounter “was a traumatic event that Governor Paterson and his family would like to move past.”
“We are confident justice will be served,” Darcy added in an email.
Nurse’s bail was set at $25,000 cash or $50,000 bond. Minter was freed on supervised release. Both are due back in court Friday.
Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010. He attained the office after Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned amid a sex scandal.
Alabama
U.S. Supreme Court rejects IVF clinic’s appeal of state’s frozen embryo ruling
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review an Alabama ruling that triggered concerns about in vitro fertilization availability by allowing couples to pursue wrongful death lawsuits over the accidental destruction of frozen embryos.
A fertility clinic and hospital had asked the court to review the Alabama Supreme Court decision that a couple, who had a frozen embryo destroyed in an accident, could pursue a lawsuit against them for the wrongful death of their “minor child.” Justices turned down the petition without comment.
The state court decision in February sparked a national backlash and concerns about legal liability for fertility clinics. In the wake of the decision, several large fertility providers in Alabama paused IVF services. After Alabama lawmakers approved immunity protections from future lawsuits, the providers resumed services.
The Center for Reproductive Medicine and Mobile Infirmary Medical Center in August filed a petition asking justices to review whether the couple could bring the lawsuit and if the decision to let the lawsuit proceed ran afoul of constitutional protections of due process and fair notice rights.
“In an astonishing decision, and ignoring over 150 years of the statute’s interpretive history, the Supreme Court of Alabama held here that an unimplanted, in vitro embryo constitutes a ‘minor child’ for purposes of the statute, upending the commonsense understanding of the statute around which many Alabamians, including Petitioners, have ordered their businesses and lives,” lawyers for the two medical providers wrote.
The wrongful death lawsuit brought by the couple is ongoing. Two other couples, who had been part of the earlier case, dropped their lawsuits after reaching settlement agreements.
New York
Judge tosses law that moved many elections to even-numbered years
A law moving many town and county elections in New York to even-numbered years to align them with state and federal races was struck down by a state judge, providing a win to Republicans who claimed it was a partisan effort by Democrats to gain an electoral edge.
Sponsors of the bill approved by the Democrat-led state Legislature last year said they wanted to shift elections for town supervisor, county executive and some other local posts from odd-numbered years to reduce confusion and increase voter turnout. Republicans
denounced the law as an effort to move local elections to higher-turnout presidential election years, which could favor Democrats.
A number of Republican officials sued the state, leading to the ruling on Tuesday in Syracuse from state Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri, who said the law violated the state constitution. Neri said, in part, that the law violates the rights of local governments to control their own affairs.
The judge also noted that the law does not affect New York City elections, since city elections and certain local posts such as county district attorney are held on odd-numbered years under terms of the state constitution. Neri said the law raises questions over the federal requirement that governments provide equal protection to people under the law.
“Are the urbane voters of New York City less likely to be confused by odd year elections than the rubes living in Upstate and Long Island?” Neri asked.
The attorney general’s office was reviewing the decision.
State Sen. James Skoufis, a sponsor of the bill, predicted the decision would be overturned on appeal.
“This case was always going to be appealed and I fully expect a more objective panel of judges to rule in favor of the law’s constitutionality,’’ Skoufis, a Democrat, said in a prepared release. “In the meantime, the plaintiffs continue to waste local tax dollars on their senseless crusade to preserve lower turnout in elections.”
State Republican Chairman Ed Cox said the ruling was a victory for people who care about local elections.
“This radical change to longstanding election law was a blatant effort by Democrats to consolidate total, one-party control at every level of government, and establish permanent Democratic authority in our state, as discussion of local issues would have been buried beneath an avalanche of federal and state spending,” Cox said in a prepared statement.
Georgia
Mayor indicted for allegedly trying to give inmates alcohol suspended
THOMSON, Ga. (AP) — The mayor of a small Georgia town has been suspended after he was indicted over allegations that he illegally left a bottle of gin in a ditch for a state prison work crew.
Thomson Mayor Benjamin “Benji” Cary Cranford, 52, was suspended Friday by Gov. Brian Kemp after a review panel concluded that the charges hurt his ability to perform his job.
The August indictment in McDuffie County Superior Court says Cranford drove to a store June 3, bought a bottle of Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin and left it in a ditch along Georgia 150 in Thomson in the path of a work crew from the Jefferson County Correctional Institution. He is charged with two felonies — furnishing prohibited items to inmates and attempting to commit a felony.
Three days later Thomson police asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate the claim that Cranford gave alcohol to inmates, the GBI has said.
Agents arrested the mayor at Thomson City Hall after a council meeting and led him away in handcuffs. He is free on $5,000 bail.
Cranford has told WRDW-TV that he doesn’t remember what he did June 3 and doesn’t know any prisoners in the Jefferson County facility.
Cranford will remain suspended without pay until the charges are resolved or his term of office ends.
Cranford won election last year, beating 12-year-incumbent Kenneth Usry. A paving contractor before he was elected, Cranford later settled a lawsuit alleging he tried to hide assets from a bonding company that was on the hook to pay some of his company’s debts.
California
Police union director fired after an opioid smuggling arrest pleads guilty
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The former executive director for a Northern California police union pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to charges she illegally imported synthetic opioid pills from India and other countries.
Joanne Marian Segovia, who was executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, was charged last year with unlawfully importing thousands of valeryl fentanyl pills. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
Segovia’s plea before a federal judge in San Jose was part of an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which agreed to reduce the severity of her charges, the Mercury News reported. She only said “yes” when asked by the judge to confirm and demonstrate her understanding of her guilty plea, the newspaper reported.
Starting in 2015, Segovia had dozens of drug shipments mailed to her San Jose home from India, Hong Kong, Hungary and Singapore with manifests listing their contents as “wedding party favors,” “gift makeup,” “chocolate and sweets” and “food supplement,” according to a federal criminal complaint.
Segovia at times used her work computer to make the orders and at least once used the union’s UPS account to ship the drugs within the country, federal prosecutors said.
The police association fired Segovia after completing an initial internal investigation following the charges. Segovia, a civilian, had worked for the union since 2003, planning funerals for officers who die in the line of duty, being the liaison between the department and officers’ families and organizing office festivities and fundraisers, union officials said.
Federal prosecutors said that in 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers intercepted a parcel being sent to her home address that contained $5,000 worth of Tramadol, a synthetic opioid, and sent her a letter telling her they were seizing the pills. The next year, CBP intercepted a shipment of Tramadol valued at $700 and sent her a seizure letter, court records show.
But federal officials didn’t start investigating Segovia until 2022, when they found her name and home address on the cellphone of a suspected drug dealer who was part of a network that ships controlled substances made in India to the San Francisco Bay Area, according to the complaint. That drug trafficking network has distributed hundreds of thousands of pills in 48 states, federal prosecutors said.
