Georgia
State high court reverses contempt ruling against rapper Young Thug’s lawyer
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s highest court on Tuesday reversed a judge’s contempt ruling against a lawyer for rapper Young Thug who refused to tell the judge how he found out about a meeting between the judge, prosecutors and a prosecution witness.
Defense attorney Brian Steel represents the rapper, who is currently on trial in Atlanta on numerous charges including violation of Georgia’s anti-racketeering and gang laws. Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville in June found Steel in contempt and ordered him to spend the next 10 weekends in jail, an order that was put on hold pending Steel’s appeal.
Steel argued that his information was subject to attorney-client privilege, that he didn’t interfere with the court’s proceedings and that Glanville was required under due process to recuse himself from the contempt proceeding since Steel was accusing the judge of wrongdoing.
The Supreme Court justices agreed with Steel that due process required Glanville to remove himself from the handling of the contempt issue.
“Because the court delayed punishment, the alleged disobedience was directed toward the court, and the court was involved in the controversy that formed the basis of the contempt, due process required the judge to recuse from the contempt proceeding. We therefore reverse the contempt imposed by the trial court,” Presiding Justice Nels Peterson wrote in the unanimous opinion.
Young Thug, a Grammy winner whose given name is Jeffery Williams, was charged two years ago in a sprawling indictment accusing him and more than two dozen other people of conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law. He also is charged with gang, drug and gun crimes and is standing trial with five of the others indicted with him.
Jury selection in the case began in January 2023 and took nearly 10 months. Opening statements were in November and the prosecution has been presenting its case since then, calling dozens of witnesses.
In open court on June 10, Steel told Glanville that he had learned of a meeting in the judge’s chambers that morning and proceeded to move for a mistrial. In an order finding Steel in contempt and ordering him jailed, Glanville wrote that he had “serious concern with how this information was improperly disclosed” to Steel.
While the judge asserted that Steel had information he shouldn’t have had, Steel had argued that the information hadn’t been declared confidential by any court order.
Glanville was removed from the long-running case in July over that meeting that he held with prosecutors and a state witness. Another judge granted motions from two defendants seeking Glanville’s recusal, saying she did not fault Glanville for holding the meeting but that “the ‘necessity of preserving the public’s confidence in the judicial system’ weighs in favor of excusing Judge Glanville” from the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker has taken over the case, which is expected to extend into next year.
Alabama
Judge appoints mediator in medical marijuana license dispute
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday appointed a mediator in the long-running dispute over who gets licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana in Alabama.
Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson named retired Circuit Judge Eugene Reese to act as mediator in the case. Anderson wrote that he believed the use of mediation “is appropriate in this case and could result in the speedy and just resolution of the dispute.”
Alabama lawmakers in 2021 approved a medical cannabis program that would allow people to access marijuana for certain medical conditions. But three years later, medical marijuana remains unavailable in Alabama amid a sprawling legal fight over the process used to award licenses to grow and sell the products.
Companies who were denied licenses have accused the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission of violating state law and administrative rules in selecting winners. They maintain they should be able to challenge the qualifications of winning companies. Companies that have won licenses have urged Anderson to let the program proceed.
The commission began accepting applications for licenses in 2022 and has attempted to award the licenses three times. The commission rescinded the awards twice over concerns about the selection process. Anderson in July issued a temporary restraining order blocking the issuance of some of the licenses, saying there was a “serious question” whether the third round of awards was also invalid.
New Mexico
Conviction upheld against former county official for illegally entering Capitol grounds
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A federal appeals court upheld on Tuesday a conviction against a former New Mexico county commissioner for illegally entering the U.S. Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
A panel of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the 2022 conviction against Couy Griffin, of Tularosa, in a 2-1 decision.
Separately, Griffin has been banished from public office for aiding in insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, under a state district court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court in March refused to hear an appeal of the ruling.
Griffin, a cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing then-President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans, was convicted of the misdemeanor charge at a 2022 bench trial at U.S. District Court in Washington while being acquitted of disorderly conduct.
Griffin was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served after his arrest in Washington in the days leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Griffin contends that he entered the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 without recognizing that it had been designated as a restricted area by the U.S. Secret Service and that he attempted to lead a crowd in prayer using a bullhorn, without engaging in violence. Nearby, Capitol police struggled to control a mob that disrupted Congress from certifying Biden’s presidential election victory.
The majority opinion from the Circuit Court rejected Griffin’s arguments that the Capitol was no longer cordoned off when he arrived and that prosecutors should have been required to prove that he knew that then-Vice President Mike Pence would be visiting the Capitol to participate in the election certification.
In a dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas said the lower court erred by not ruling on whether Griffin knew that Pence was present.
Griffin said he plans to appeal the new ruling.
Indiana
Man gets life in prison for 1975 drowning of teenage girl
ALBION, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 1975 killing of a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in a river after she failed to return home from her job at a church camp.
A Noble County judge sentenced Fred Bandy Jr., 69, on Tuesday to a life term with the possibility of parole in Laurel Jean Mitchell’s August 1975 death. The Goshen man was convicted of first-degree murder this month following a bench trial.
He was charged along with John Wayne Lehman, 69, of Auburn, Indiana, last year in Mitchell’s killing. Lehman was sentenced to eight years in prison this month after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.
Mitchell was found drowned in the Elkhart River on Aug. 7, 1975, the morning after she failed to return home in North Webster, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northeast of Indianapolis.
Prosecutors charged Bandy and Lehman in Mitchell’s killing in February 2023, nearly a half-century later.
Lehman said in an August deposition that Bandy raped Mitchell and drowned her. Lehman denied participating in the rape or the murder and said his fear of Bandy kept him from trying to stop the crimes, The News-Sun of Kendallville reported.
According to a probable cause affidavit, investigators said they believed Bandy and Lehman “forcibly, deliberately drowned” Mitchell after taking her to the river in Bandy’s car.
A DNA profile was obtained in recent years through testing on Mitchell’s clothing, which was saved along with other evidence collected in 1975. According to the affidavit, Bandy voluntarily provided a DNA sample in December 2022 to state police, and testing determined he was 13 billion times “more likely to be the contributor of the DNA in Laurel J. Mitchell’s clothing than any other unknown person.”
The DNA testing came after three people who were teens at the time of Mitchell’s killing tied Bandy and Lehman to the crime based on incriminating comments they had made about her death, the affidavit states.
Ohio
Man charged with bringing massive ‘Trump’ sign to Capitol for rioters to use as weapon
An Ohio man was arrested Tuesday on charges that he brought a massive “Trump” sign to the U.S. Capitol and joined other rioters in using it as a weapon against police officers during a mob attack.
Jeffrey Newcomb, 41, of Polk, Ohio, apparently posted on social media that he brought the custom-made, metal-framed sign to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, “because bullets are expensive,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. The sign was approximately 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide, with wheels the size of a person’s head, the affidavit says.
In March 2023, a message posted on a Twitter account linked to Newcomb included photos of the sign in the crowd of Donald Trump supporters who gathered outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. In one photo, the account’s user obscured his face with an emoji.
“Went to Jan 6th to peacefully protest in the loudest way possible: With a 13 ft by 10 ft signs on custom made aluminum wagon. I spent $700 on this. Keeping my identity a secret because bullets are expensive,” the post said.
The account on Twitter, now called X, has since been deleted.
Several other Capitol riot defendants have been charged with using the large Trump sign as a battering ram to assault officers and breach police lines outside the Capitol.
Newcomb was expected to make his initial court appearance on Tuesday in Ohio after his arrest in Polk. Court records didn’t immediately name an attorney representing him.
Newcomb is charged in a criminal complaint with felony charges of assaulting police and interfering with law-enforcement officers during a civil disorder.
Videos show Newcomb moving his large sign near Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. Other rioters helped him carry the sign into the mob on the Capitol’s West Plaza.
“Rioters cheered the sign’s arrival and many in the crowd helped pass the sign closer and closer to the police line,” the FBI agent wrote.
Newcomb let go of the sign just before other rioters shoved it into a police line. But he pushed on the backs of other rioters who continued to push it toward police, the agent said.
“As the police were struck by the sign, they easily could have been knocked over due to the frame’s sheer size, and the sharp edges and corners were readily capable of causing slicing or splitting injuries,” the agent wrote. “It ultimately took over a dozen officers to fully move the sign away from the line.”
More than 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 1,200 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials decided by judges and juries. And over 1,000 of the defendants have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
State high court reverses contempt ruling against rapper Young Thug’s lawyer
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s highest court on Tuesday reversed a judge’s contempt ruling against a lawyer for rapper Young Thug who refused to tell the judge how he found out about a meeting between the judge, prosecutors and a prosecution witness.
Defense attorney Brian Steel represents the rapper, who is currently on trial in Atlanta on numerous charges including violation of Georgia’s anti-racketeering and gang laws. Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville in June found Steel in contempt and ordered him to spend the next 10 weekends in jail, an order that was put on hold pending Steel’s appeal.
Steel argued that his information was subject to attorney-client privilege, that he didn’t interfere with the court’s proceedings and that Glanville was required under due process to recuse himself from the contempt proceeding since Steel was accusing the judge of wrongdoing.
The Supreme Court justices agreed with Steel that due process required Glanville to remove himself from the handling of the contempt issue.
“Because the court delayed punishment, the alleged disobedience was directed toward the court, and the court was involved in the controversy that formed the basis of the contempt, due process required the judge to recuse from the contempt proceeding. We therefore reverse the contempt imposed by the trial court,” Presiding Justice Nels Peterson wrote in the unanimous opinion.
Young Thug, a Grammy winner whose given name is Jeffery Williams, was charged two years ago in a sprawling indictment accusing him and more than two dozen other people of conspiring to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law. He also is charged with gang, drug and gun crimes and is standing trial with five of the others indicted with him.
Jury selection in the case began in January 2023 and took nearly 10 months. Opening statements were in November and the prosecution has been presenting its case since then, calling dozens of witnesses.
In open court on June 10, Steel told Glanville that he had learned of a meeting in the judge’s chambers that morning and proceeded to move for a mistrial. In an order finding Steel in contempt and ordering him jailed, Glanville wrote that he had “serious concern with how this information was improperly disclosed” to Steel.
While the judge asserted that Steel had information he shouldn’t have had, Steel had argued that the information hadn’t been declared confidential by any court order.
Glanville was removed from the long-running case in July over that meeting that he held with prosecutors and a state witness. Another judge granted motions from two defendants seeking Glanville’s recusal, saying she did not fault Glanville for holding the meeting but that “the ‘necessity of preserving the public’s confidence in the judicial system’ weighs in favor of excusing Judge Glanville” from the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker has taken over the case, which is expected to extend into next year.
Alabama
Judge appoints mediator in medical marijuana license dispute
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge on Tuesday appointed a mediator in the long-running dispute over who gets licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana in Alabama.
Montgomery Circuit Judge James Anderson named retired Circuit Judge Eugene Reese to act as mediator in the case. Anderson wrote that he believed the use of mediation “is appropriate in this case and could result in the speedy and just resolution of the dispute.”
Alabama lawmakers in 2021 approved a medical cannabis program that would allow people to access marijuana for certain medical conditions. But three years later, medical marijuana remains unavailable in Alabama amid a sprawling legal fight over the process used to award licenses to grow and sell the products.
Companies who were denied licenses have accused the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission of violating state law and administrative rules in selecting winners. They maintain they should be able to challenge the qualifications of winning companies. Companies that have won licenses have urged Anderson to let the program proceed.
The commission began accepting applications for licenses in 2022 and has attempted to award the licenses three times. The commission rescinded the awards twice over concerns about the selection process. Anderson in July issued a temporary restraining order blocking the issuance of some of the licenses, saying there was a “serious question” whether the third round of awards was also invalid.
New Mexico
Conviction upheld against former county official for illegally entering Capitol grounds
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A federal appeals court upheld on Tuesday a conviction against a former New Mexico county commissioner for illegally entering the U.S. Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
A panel of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the 2022 conviction against Couy Griffin, of Tularosa, in a 2-1 decision.
Separately, Griffin has been banished from public office for aiding in insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, under a state district court ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court in March refused to hear an appeal of the ruling.
Griffin, a cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing then-President Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans, was convicted of the misdemeanor charge at a 2022 bench trial at U.S. District Court in Washington while being acquitted of disorderly conduct.
Griffin was sentenced to 14 days and given credit for time served after his arrest in Washington in the days leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration.
Griffin contends that he entered the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 without recognizing that it had been designated as a restricted area by the U.S. Secret Service and that he attempted to lead a crowd in prayer using a bullhorn, without engaging in violence. Nearby, Capitol police struggled to control a mob that disrupted Congress from certifying Biden’s presidential election victory.
The majority opinion from the Circuit Court rejected Griffin’s arguments that the Capitol was no longer cordoned off when he arrived and that prosecutors should have been required to prove that he knew that then-Vice President Mike Pence would be visiting the Capitol to participate in the election certification.
In a dissenting opinion, Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas said the lower court erred by not ruling on whether Griffin knew that Pence was present.
Griffin said he plans to appeal the new ruling.
Indiana
Man gets life in prison for 1975 drowning of teenage girl
ALBION, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 1975 killing of a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in a river after she failed to return home from her job at a church camp.
A Noble County judge sentenced Fred Bandy Jr., 69, on Tuesday to a life term with the possibility of parole in Laurel Jean Mitchell’s August 1975 death. The Goshen man was convicted of first-degree murder this month following a bench trial.
He was charged along with John Wayne Lehman, 69, of Auburn, Indiana, last year in Mitchell’s killing. Lehman was sentenced to eight years in prison this month after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder.
Mitchell was found drowned in the Elkhart River on Aug. 7, 1975, the morning after she failed to return home in North Webster, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) northeast of Indianapolis.
Prosecutors charged Bandy and Lehman in Mitchell’s killing in February 2023, nearly a half-century later.
Lehman said in an August deposition that Bandy raped Mitchell and drowned her. Lehman denied participating in the rape or the murder and said his fear of Bandy kept him from trying to stop the crimes, The News-Sun of Kendallville reported.
According to a probable cause affidavit, investigators said they believed Bandy and Lehman “forcibly, deliberately drowned” Mitchell after taking her to the river in Bandy’s car.
A DNA profile was obtained in recent years through testing on Mitchell’s clothing, which was saved along with other evidence collected in 1975. According to the affidavit, Bandy voluntarily provided a DNA sample in December 2022 to state police, and testing determined he was 13 billion times “more likely to be the contributor of the DNA in Laurel J. Mitchell’s clothing than any other unknown person.”
The DNA testing came after three people who were teens at the time of Mitchell’s killing tied Bandy and Lehman to the crime based on incriminating comments they had made about her death, the affidavit states.
Ohio
Man charged with bringing massive ‘Trump’ sign to Capitol for rioters to use as weapon
An Ohio man was arrested Tuesday on charges that he brought a massive “Trump” sign to the U.S. Capitol and joined other rioters in using it as a weapon against police officers during a mob attack.
Jeffrey Newcomb, 41, of Polk, Ohio, apparently posted on social media that he brought the custom-made, metal-framed sign to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, “because bullets are expensive,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. The sign was approximately 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide, with wheels the size of a person’s head, the affidavit says.
In March 2023, a message posted on a Twitter account linked to Newcomb included photos of the sign in the crowd of Donald Trump supporters who gathered outside the Capitol on Jan. 6. In one photo, the account’s user obscured his face with an emoji.
“Went to Jan 6th to peacefully protest in the loudest way possible: With a 13 ft by 10 ft signs on custom made aluminum wagon. I spent $700 on this. Keeping my identity a secret because bullets are expensive,” the post said.
The account on Twitter, now called X, has since been deleted.
Several other Capitol riot defendants have been charged with using the large Trump sign as a battering ram to assault officers and breach police lines outside the Capitol.
Newcomb was expected to make his initial court appearance on Tuesday in Ohio after his arrest in Polk. Court records didn’t immediately name an attorney representing him.
Newcomb is charged in a criminal complaint with felony charges of assaulting police and interfering with law-enforcement officers during a civil disorder.
Videos show Newcomb moving his large sign near Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6. Other rioters helped him carry the sign into the mob on the Capitol’s West Plaza.
“Rioters cheered the sign’s arrival and many in the crowd helped pass the sign closer and closer to the police line,” the FBI agent wrote.
Newcomb let go of the sign just before other rioters shoved it into a police line. But he pushed on the backs of other rioters who continued to push it toward police, the agent said.
“As the police were struck by the sign, they easily could have been knocked over due to the frame’s sheer size, and the sharp edges and corners were readily capable of causing slicing or splitting injuries,” the agent wrote. “It ultimately took over a dozen officers to fully move the sign away from the line.”
More than 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 1,200 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials decided by judges and juries. And over 1,000 of the defendants have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.
