New York
Dealer sentenced to 19 years for giving drugs that killed transgender activist in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City drug dealer who admitted providing the fentanyl-laced heroin that killed a prominent transgender activist was sentenced Tuesday to 19 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Michael Kuilan, 45, of Brooklyn, was also ordered to pay $24,482 in restitution and forfeit $30,000 and a seized firearm.
“Cecilia Gentili was tragically poisoned from fentanyl-laced heroin,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said in a statement. “Today, the perpetrators who sold the deadly drugs to Gentili are being held accountable.”
Kuilan had three prior state felony convictions related to selling heroin before he pleaded guilty to the federal charges last year, according to prosecutors.
He faced up to 20 years in prison for the drug distribution charge and up to 35 years for unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon at his sentencing in Brooklyn federal court.
Kuilan’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
His co-defendant, Antonio Venti, 53, of Long Island, was sentenced in February to five years in federal prison after also pleading guilty to the same drug offense last year.
Prosecutors said text messages, cell site data, and other evidence showed that Kuilan had supplied Venti with drugs that he then sold to Gentili.
The 52-year-old Brooklyn resident was found dead in her bedroom from the combined effect of fentanyl, heroin, xylazine and cocaine on Feb. 6, 2024 — the day after purchasing the drugs, according to prosecutors.
The former sex worker had been a leading advocate for other transgender people, as well as sex workers and people with HIV.
She also acted in the FX television series “Pose,” about the underground ballroom dance scene in the 1980s and 1990s.
Gentili’s well-attended funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan drew outrage from some in the Catholic community, including from the venerable church’s own pastor.
Massachusetts
Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging ‘balanced literacy’ approach to teaching reading
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of Massachusetts parents who claimed their children were harmed by contested reading curricula designed by three prominent literacy experts.
The parents, in their December lawsuit, accused Lucy Calkins, Irene Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell and their publishers of using deceptive marketing and questionable research to sell curricula which, instead of emphasizing proven phonics instruction, relied on strategies that they said left their children struggling to read.
The lawsuit was filed as states around the country, in response to poor reading scores, have been reemphasizing phonics instruction while moving away from the defendants’ “balanced literacy” approaches that rely on practices such as cueing, which prompt students to use pictures and context to predict words.
In dismissing the suit last week, a judge in Boston said that issuing a decision would require the court to assess the quality of the curricula. Judge Richard Stearns’ order noted that the lawsuit acknowledged that the defendants cited research supporting their products, but he said finding the research inadequate, as the parents claimed, would mean delving into the experts’ approach to instruction.
“The court rightly recognized that decisions about how best to teach reading should be made by educators,” Calkins, a faculty member at Columbia University’s Teachers College whose curriculum is called Units of Study, said in a statement. “I’m glad that the lawsuit has been dismissed so we can all turn our attention to the urgent work of teaching America’s children to read.”
Pinnell and Fountas, whose approach is known as “Guided Reading,” did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
Argentina
Judge steps down in Diego Maradona trial after documentary controversy
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — One of the three judges overseeing the trial of seven health professionals accused of negligence in the death of Diego Maradona stepped down from the proceedings Tuesday amid controversy over her participation in the making of a documentary about the case.
Julieta Makintach withdrew from the case after the prosecutor showed footage of the documentary that spans the first moments after the soccer star’s death in 2020 to the start of the trial more than two months ago, in which the judge appears as one of its lead characters.
Following Makintach’s resignation, the other two judges will have to decide how the case will proceed.
The trial was suspended for a week after prosecutor Patricio Ferrari asked the San Isidro court to review Makintach’s role in allegedly allowing the documentary to be filmed during the trial.
Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s primary physician at the time of the star’s death and one of the main defendants, had requested Makintach’s removal from the trial.
Luque’s lawyer, Julio Rivas, said he had been contacted by the BBC requesting an interview because they were making a documentary about the trial.
Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986, died on Nov. 25, 2020 while undergoing home hospitalization on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, days after undergoing surgery for a hematoma that formed between his skull and brain. He was 60.
Seven healthcare professionals are on trial for allegedly failing to provide adequate care and could face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
Illinois
Prosecutors won’t seek death penalty for son of drug cartel leader
Federal prosecutors won’t seek the death penalty for the son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” if he’s convicted of multiple charges in Chicago.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros filed a one-sentence notice Friday saying he would not seek the death penalty against Joaquin Guzman Lopez. The notice did not offer any explanation.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s attorney, listed in online court records as Jeffrey Lichtman, said in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that he was pleased with the decision “as it’s the correct one.”
“Joaquin and I are looking forward to resolving the charges against him,” Lichtman said.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s father is Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, former leader of the Sinaloa cartel. According to federal prosecutors, El Chapo smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years. He was convicted in 2019 on multiple conspiracy counts and sentenced to life in a U.S. prison later that year.
Prosecutors allege Joaquin Guzman Lopez and his brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the cartel known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, that has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. Prosecutors unsealed sweeping indictments in 2023 against dozens of members of the Sinaloa cartel, including the brothers.
Federal authorities arrested Joaquin Guzman Lopez and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, in July in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez has been indicted on eight counts, including money laundering, drug dealing and conspiracy to distribute drugs. He has pleaded not guilty.
Zambada has said Joaquin Guzman Lopez kidnapped him and brought him to the U.S. He faces multiple counts in federal court in New York, including international distribution of cocaine, money laundering and manufacturing drugs for illegal importation. He has pleaded not guilty.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He’s charged in federal court in Chicago with money laundering, drug and firearm offenses. He has pleaded not guilty but online court records indicate that he is scheduled to appear in court on July 9 to change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Lichtman is also representing Ovidio Guzman Lopez. He declined in an email to provide any details about an agreement.
Washington
Ex-NBA star pleads guilty to assault charge in mall lot shooting
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Former NBA star Shawn Kemp pleaded guilty to an assault charge on Tuesday for shooting at two men inside a vehicle in a Washington state mall parking lot.
Kemp, 55, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma as part of a plea agreement, according to the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The Toyota 4Runner the men were inside and another vehicle were damaged in the March 2023 shooting, but the men were not hurt.
Kemp was initially charged with one count of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement, but prosecutors last week added another count of assault as well as a drive-by shooting charge, The Seattle Times reported. Convictions on those charges could have resulted in a lengthy prison term.
He will be sentenced in August. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Howe recommended that Kemp be sentenced to nine months in jail, one year of Department of Corrections supervision and support after he is released, and to pay restitution.
Kemp, a six-time NBA all-star who played for the Seattle SuperSonics from 1989 to 1997, declined to comment to the newspaper on Tuesday.
“Shawn is committed to moving forward in a positive direction,” Kemp’s attorney, Tim Leary, told the Times. “He was presented with an offer from the state that allows him to take responsibility, but I think also recognizes the self-defense nature of how this transpired.”
According to court documents filed by Kemp’s attorneys, Kemp and several employees who worked at his cannabis dispensary were at a Seattle concert venue when Kemp’s truck was broken into on March 8, 2023. An employee’s purse was stolen along with keys to Kemp’s business, a cellphone, paperwork and sports memorabilia, including game-worn Gary Payton and Kemp jerseys that were to be auctioned off for charity, the defense’s trial brief says.
Using a phone tracking app, Kemp located and briefly tried to talk to the driver of the 4Runner that was circling a casino parking lot, according to the trial brief. The men in the vehicle afterward dumped some of Kemp’s belongings but hung on to the phone, the brief says.
Kemp later saw his phone was near the Tacoma Mall. He drove there, spotted the same 4Runner and “expressed his understandable frustration” with the driver, according to the brief.
The brief says a man in the back seat “fired off a round from a handgun at Mr. Kemp. Mr. Kemp returned fire and attempted to disable the Toyota. It did not work.” The 4Runner fled and when the vehicle was found abandoned days later, an empty holster was found inside but there was no gun, documents said.
A police call log included in court records indicates that at least one witness who called 911 reported that two men were firing at each other.
Howe, in a statement explaining the plea agreement, wrote that because of the two witnesses’ past crimes of dishonesty and the “fact that those people were illegally in possession” of Kemp’s belongings, the case should be resolved short of trial.
As part of his plea, Kemp cannot have a firearm and will be required to provide a sample for a law enforcement DNA database.
Dealer sentenced to 19 years for giving drugs that killed transgender activist in NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City drug dealer who admitted providing the fentanyl-laced heroin that killed a prominent transgender activist was sentenced Tuesday to 19 years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
Michael Kuilan, 45, of Brooklyn, was also ordered to pay $24,482 in restitution and forfeit $30,000 and a seized firearm.
“Cecilia Gentili was tragically poisoned from fentanyl-laced heroin,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said in a statement. “Today, the perpetrators who sold the deadly drugs to Gentili are being held accountable.”
Kuilan had three prior state felony convictions related to selling heroin before he pleaded guilty to the federal charges last year, according to prosecutors.
He faced up to 20 years in prison for the drug distribution charge and up to 35 years for unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon at his sentencing in Brooklyn federal court.
Kuilan’s lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
His co-defendant, Antonio Venti, 53, of Long Island, was sentenced in February to five years in federal prison after also pleading guilty to the same drug offense last year.
Prosecutors said text messages, cell site data, and other evidence showed that Kuilan had supplied Venti with drugs that he then sold to Gentili.
The 52-year-old Brooklyn resident was found dead in her bedroom from the combined effect of fentanyl, heroin, xylazine and cocaine on Feb. 6, 2024 — the day after purchasing the drugs, according to prosecutors.
The former sex worker had been a leading advocate for other transgender people, as well as sex workers and people with HIV.
She also acted in the FX television series “Pose,” about the underground ballroom dance scene in the 1980s and 1990s.
Gentili’s well-attended funeral at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan drew outrage from some in the Catholic community, including from the venerable church’s own pastor.
Massachusetts
Judge dismisses lawsuit challenging ‘balanced literacy’ approach to teaching reading
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of Massachusetts parents who claimed their children were harmed by contested reading curricula designed by three prominent literacy experts.
The parents, in their December lawsuit, accused Lucy Calkins, Irene Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell and their publishers of using deceptive marketing and questionable research to sell curricula which, instead of emphasizing proven phonics instruction, relied on strategies that they said left their children struggling to read.
The lawsuit was filed as states around the country, in response to poor reading scores, have been reemphasizing phonics instruction while moving away from the defendants’ “balanced literacy” approaches that rely on practices such as cueing, which prompt students to use pictures and context to predict words.
In dismissing the suit last week, a judge in Boston said that issuing a decision would require the court to assess the quality of the curricula. Judge Richard Stearns’ order noted that the lawsuit acknowledged that the defendants cited research supporting their products, but he said finding the research inadequate, as the parents claimed, would mean delving into the experts’ approach to instruction.
“The court rightly recognized that decisions about how best to teach reading should be made by educators,” Calkins, a faculty member at Columbia University’s Teachers College whose curriculum is called Units of Study, said in a statement. “I’m glad that the lawsuit has been dismissed so we can all turn our attention to the urgent work of teaching America’s children to read.”
Pinnell and Fountas, whose approach is known as “Guided Reading,” did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
Argentina
Judge steps down in Diego Maradona trial after documentary controversy
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — One of the three judges overseeing the trial of seven health professionals accused of negligence in the death of Diego Maradona stepped down from the proceedings Tuesday amid controversy over her participation in the making of a documentary about the case.
Julieta Makintach withdrew from the case after the prosecutor showed footage of the documentary that spans the first moments after the soccer star’s death in 2020 to the start of the trial more than two months ago, in which the judge appears as one of its lead characters.
Following Makintach’s resignation, the other two judges will have to decide how the case will proceed.
The trial was suspended for a week after prosecutor Patricio Ferrari asked the San Isidro court to review Makintach’s role in allegedly allowing the documentary to be filmed during the trial.
Leopoldo Luque, Maradona’s primary physician at the time of the star’s death and one of the main defendants, had requested Makintach’s removal from the trial.
Luque’s lawyer, Julio Rivas, said he had been contacted by the BBC requesting an interview because they were making a documentary about the trial.
Maradona, who led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986, died on Nov. 25, 2020 while undergoing home hospitalization on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, days after undergoing surgery for a hematoma that formed between his skull and brain. He was 60.
Seven healthcare professionals are on trial for allegedly failing to provide adequate care and could face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
Illinois
Prosecutors won’t seek death penalty for son of drug cartel leader
Federal prosecutors won’t seek the death penalty for the son of notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo” if he’s convicted of multiple charges in Chicago.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros filed a one-sentence notice Friday saying he would not seek the death penalty against Joaquin Guzman Lopez. The notice did not offer any explanation.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s attorney, listed in online court records as Jeffrey Lichtman, said in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that he was pleased with the decision “as it’s the correct one.”
“Joaquin and I are looking forward to resolving the charges against him,” Lichtman said.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s father is Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, former leader of the Sinaloa cartel. According to federal prosecutors, El Chapo smuggled mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States over 25 years. He was convicted in 2019 on multiple conspiracy counts and sentenced to life in a U.S. prison later that year.
Prosecutors allege Joaquin Guzman Lopez and his brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, ran a faction of the cartel known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, that has been identified as a main exporter of fentanyl to the U.S. Prosecutors unsealed sweeping indictments in 2023 against dozens of members of the Sinaloa cartel, including the brothers.
Federal authorities arrested Joaquin Guzman Lopez and another longtime Sinaloa leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, in July in Texas after they landed in the U.S. on a private plane.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez has been indicted on eight counts, including money laundering, drug dealing and conspiracy to distribute drugs. He has pleaded not guilty.
Zambada has said Joaquin Guzman Lopez kidnapped him and brought him to the U.S. He faces multiple counts in federal court in New York, including international distribution of cocaine, money laundering and manufacturing drugs for illegal importation. He has pleaded not guilty.
Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested in Mexico in 2023 and extradited to the United States. He’s charged in federal court in Chicago with money laundering, drug and firearm offenses. He has pleaded not guilty but online court records indicate that he is scheduled to appear in court on July 9 to change his plea as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Lichtman is also representing Ovidio Guzman Lopez. He declined in an email to provide any details about an agreement.
Washington
Ex-NBA star pleads guilty to assault charge in mall lot shooting
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Former NBA star Shawn Kemp pleaded guilty to an assault charge on Tuesday for shooting at two men inside a vehicle in a Washington state mall parking lot.
Kemp, 55, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault in Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma as part of a plea agreement, according to the county Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. The Toyota 4Runner the men were inside and another vehicle were damaged in the March 2023 shooting, but the men were not hurt.
Kemp was initially charged with one count of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement, but prosecutors last week added another count of assault as well as a drive-by shooting charge, The Seattle Times reported. Convictions on those charges could have resulted in a lengthy prison term.
He will be sentenced in August. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Howe recommended that Kemp be sentenced to nine months in jail, one year of Department of Corrections supervision and support after he is released, and to pay restitution.
Kemp, a six-time NBA all-star who played for the Seattle SuperSonics from 1989 to 1997, declined to comment to the newspaper on Tuesday.
“Shawn is committed to moving forward in a positive direction,” Kemp’s attorney, Tim Leary, told the Times. “He was presented with an offer from the state that allows him to take responsibility, but I think also recognizes the self-defense nature of how this transpired.”
According to court documents filed by Kemp’s attorneys, Kemp and several employees who worked at his cannabis dispensary were at a Seattle concert venue when Kemp’s truck was broken into on March 8, 2023. An employee’s purse was stolen along with keys to Kemp’s business, a cellphone, paperwork and sports memorabilia, including game-worn Gary Payton and Kemp jerseys that were to be auctioned off for charity, the defense’s trial brief says.
Using a phone tracking app, Kemp located and briefly tried to talk to the driver of the 4Runner that was circling a casino parking lot, according to the trial brief. The men in the vehicle afterward dumped some of Kemp’s belongings but hung on to the phone, the brief says.
Kemp later saw his phone was near the Tacoma Mall. He drove there, spotted the same 4Runner and “expressed his understandable frustration” with the driver, according to the brief.
The brief says a man in the back seat “fired off a round from a handgun at Mr. Kemp. Mr. Kemp returned fire and attempted to disable the Toyota. It did not work.” The 4Runner fled and when the vehicle was found abandoned days later, an empty holster was found inside but there was no gun, documents said.
A police call log included in court records indicates that at least one witness who called 911 reported that two men were firing at each other.
Howe, in a statement explaining the plea agreement, wrote that because of the two witnesses’ past crimes of dishonesty and the “fact that those people were illegally in possession” of Kemp’s belongings, the case should be resolved short of trial.
As part of his plea, Kemp cannot have a firearm and will be required to provide a sample for a law enforcement DNA database.
