After a court tossed out the confession, a California man pleaded down from a murder charge to voluntary manslaughter for killing his then-girlfriend’s 1-year-old daughter. Derrick Dimone Woods, 47, was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years and eight months in prison for killing Amanda Owens, 16 months, the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office announced.

He also pleaded guilty to physical child abuse for hurting and injuring Amanda’s 3-year-old brother, Elijah, and to false imprisonment by force or violence regarding both children.

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Judge accused of using ‘game or jail’ tactic, asserting abuse victims get ‘Super Bowl’ neurochemicals

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 27, 2025, 3:15 pm CDT

An Indiana judge has been accused in an ethics complaint of failing to recognize “appropriate ethical boundaries” and making “injudicious statements” to litigants and defendants.

Judge Matthew J. Elkin of Howard County, Indiana, allegedly singled out some participants for special treatment in the problem-solving courts over which he presided and made discourteous remarks to other participants and litigants, according to a March 26 statement of charges. A March 26 press release summarized the allegations.

WISH, WTHR, the Kokomo Tribune and the Indiana Lawyer have coverage.

The problem-solving courts included drug court, which addressed substance-abuse issues of criminal defendants, and the reentry court, which focused on reintegrating people into the community after incarceration.

In one instance in March 2023, Elkin allegedly told a reentry participant who had been a domestic violence victim why he thinks that such victims stay in relationships.

He began by talking about the kind of elation quarterback Tom Brady must feel when winning the Super Bowl. After the win, Brady’s brain “is filled with all kinds of neurochemicals,” he said.

“If I smack the sh-t out of you right now, what chemicals get dumped in your brain?” Elkin allegedly said. “The exact same chemicals he experiences when he wins the Super Bowl. Did you know that? So the whole thing is every time I beat you up or you beat me up, we won the Super Bowl. … So if I smack you in the head and you feel the exact same way so you can enjoy the relationship. That’s what happens. … That’s the truth. That’s why women don’t leave.”

In another instance in October 2023, Elkin is accused of using a “game or jail” tactic after learning that a re-entry court participant referred to as R.P. was accused of rule violations. Elkin ordered the handcuffing of the person seated next to R.P. and told them the handcuffed person would be sent to jail if R.P. lied to him.

His aim, Elkin later said, was to prevent R.P. from rationalizing or downplaying his behavior and would reward him for telling the truth.

The complaint also alleges that Elkin:

  • Remarked on a criminal defendant’s lengthy record, saying, “You have more convictions than the average child molester in this country. You are the one-third of the one percent of the worst people in the planet.”

  • Displayed a sign to a problem-solving court participant that said, “Watching you dumb a- -.”

  • Failed to disqualify himself in some cases in which he previously represented the defendant as a criminal defense attorney or appointed public defender.

  • Followed problem-solving court participants outside the courtroom to check up on them.

  • Told some staff members he has followed them or had them followed outside the courtroom and twice accused them of being “moles.”

  • Gave special treatment to some problem-solving court participants but not to others. In one case, he allowed a drug-court participant to live at his wife’s rental property, initially charging only for utilities. In other instances, he allowed participants to store personal belongings at his or his wife’s properties, rented a car for one participant applying for a job, offered household and personal belongings to participants, and walked one person to a medical appointment before incarceration.

A lawyer for Elkin, Jennifer Lukemeyer, did not immediately reply to an ABA Journal request for comment.

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An Arkansas football coach and his wife who were busted in an online child sex abuse sting operation after trying to meet with an extremely young child for sex have learned how they will spend the next decade and beyond: behind bars.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Benjamin Coney, 30, and Emily “Grace” Brinley, 26, were accused of one count each of internet stalking of a minor and conspiracy to commit rape, according to court documents obtained by Law&Crime. Coney had once worked as a minor league football coach in Little Rock — until the “To Catch a Predator”-like sting operation.

Federal authorities have announced that they have been sentenced to a combined 378 months in prison without the possibility of parole. Coney was sentenced to more than 17 years — 210 months — behind bars, followed by 25 years of supervision, and Brinley was sentenced to 14 years in prison, followed by 15 years of supervision. They were sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks, a Barack Obama appointee.

A prison doctor in Oregon is accused of normalizing his sexual abuse of an inmate with talks about horses, art and lunch — sometimes laughing in his face about the alleged assaults — while his higher-ups turned a blind eye, a new lawsuit says.

James Watkins, now a free man, alleges he was abused “over a course of months” by Oregon Department of Corrections physician Dr. Leland Beamer, who is chief medical officer at Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Jefferson County.

Watkins’ lawyers, Alicia LeDuc Montgomery and Elisabeth Claus, say he suffered from “physical pain and continues to suffer from personal humiliation, fear, anxiety, and mental and emotional distress” as a result of the abuse and have filed a lawsuit in federal court against DOC officials and employees, including Beamer and Deer Ridge’s former superintendent Amber Sundquist, who is accused of ignoring complaints and lawsuits regarding ODOC medical employees like Beamer who are “sexually harassing or abusing adults in custody at DOC facilities,” according to Watkins’ suit.

A federal judge appointed by Bill Clinton was removed from a high-profile child abuse case this week by a panel of Republican-appointed judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The removal of U.S. District Court Judge Janis Graham Jack came at the urging of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in a long-running case about inadequacies in the Lone Star State’s foster care system.

“Several facts compel bringing this case before a more disinterested tribunal,” the opinion and order authored by Judge Edith Jones reads.

A Seattle-area mother previously accused of medical child abuse and subsequently cleared of any and all wrongdoing is now taking the fight to her former accusers in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

Sophie Hartman, on behalf of herself and her two minor children, accuses the Washington Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and several other named defendants of battery, false imprisonment, fabrication of evidence, and other constitutional violations, according to the 71-page lawsuit obtained by Law&Crime.

“To defend against false medical accusations and a myriad of violations of professional standards, the Hartman family has spent millions of dollars on lawyers just to keep the family together and Sophie out of jail,” the complaint reads. “The actual harm to the family is vast and the spirit of subversion and hubris with which various defendants betrayed the Hartman family is shocking.”

Paul Ferguson, 21, testified against his mother, Shanda Margaret Vander Ark, 44, about her “sadistic” murder of his brother, Timothy Ferguson, 15, but that cooperation did not carry enough weight with a Michigan judge on Monday to save him from a lengthy prison sentence.

As referenced in court, Ferguson served as the “enforcer” while the three lived at the same home.

“I think you’re just as bad, if not worse,” Judge Matthew Kacel told him, sentencing the young man to 30 to 100 years in prison with 592 days credit for time served. Ferguson had pleaded guilty to child abuse for his role in Timothy’s death, but the judge had the option to go above or below guidelines in sentencing.

Vander Ark is set to serve the rest of her days behind bars for starving and torturing Timothy to death, having been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.