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DC Circuit allows trespassing charge used to prosecute more than 1,400 Jan. 6 defendants

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 08 Nov 2024 19:05:15 +0000

Criminal Justice

DC Circuit allows trespassing charge used to prosecute more than 1,400 Jan. 6 defendants

October 23, 2024, 1:39 pm CDT

Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin rides a horse on 5th Avenue in New York City on May 1, 2020. (Photo by Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)

Prosecutors don’t have to show that a Jan. 6, 2021, trespassing defendant was aware that the U.S. Capitol grounds were restricted because of the presence of then-Vice President Mike Pence, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The federal trespassing charge at issue has been used in the prosecutions of more than 1,400 Jan. 6 defendants, Politico reports. About 95% of the Capitol riot defendants were charged under the law, according to Reuters.

The federal law bans unauthorized members of the public from entering safety zones that protect people guarded by the Secret Service.

The defendant, Couy Griffin, is the founder of Cowboys for Trump. He led a group of Capitol protesters in prayer, according to briefs cited by Law.com. He was convicted for knowingly entering a restricted building or grounds.

Griffin had argued that he did not “knowingly” violate the law because there was no showing that he knew that the area was restricted because of the presence of Pence, a Secret Service protectee. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed in a 2-1 decision.

“We hold that knowingly breaching the restricted area suffices, even without knowing the basis of the restriction—here, the presence of Vice President Pence at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” wrote Judge Cornelia Pillard for the majority.

Pillard is an appointee of former President Barack Obama. Judge Gregory Katsas, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, dissented.

The majority’s interpretation “ensnares a hotel guest who walks past an ‘area closed for private event’ sign in search of an open bar if, unbeknownst to the thirsty interloper, the first lady is expected to attend,” Katsas said. “Likewise, it ensnares an individual who stepped over temporary plastic fencing just outside the Capitol grounds on Jan. 5, 2021, to save a few steps on a walk home from work, even if he was unaware of the impending arrival of the vice president.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is more likely to agree to hear the case given Katsas’ dissent, according to Politico.

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Lawyer must face ethics charge alleging he tried to hire Israeli hackers to access judge’s emails

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 03:43:33 +0000

Ethics

Lawyer must face ethics charge alleging he tried to hire Israeli hackers to access judge’s emails

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 19, 2024, 11:52 am CDT

A California bar court judge has rejected a lawyer’s bid to dismiss an ethics charge alleging that he plotted to hire Israeli hackers to hack in to the email and phone accounts of a judge and a lawyer. (Image from Shutterstock)

In a Sept. 17 order, State Bar of California Judge Yvette D. Roland denied the motion to dismiss filed by lawyer Michael Jacob Libman of Tarzana, California, Law360 reports.

Libman had argued that the bar charge should be dismissed because it is based on allegations that he talked about his plan, rather than engaging in it. He also claimed that his conversations about the matter were speech protected by the First Amendment. And he claimed that he was entitled to a jury trial under a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ethics regulators initially accused Libman in March of plotting to file a billing-mistake lawsuit on behalf of Los Angeles utility customers that would settle favorably to the city. The suit and the $67 million settlement agreement had been prepared by a lawyer hired by the city, the ethics complaint alleged.

The settlement included an attorney fee award of $1.65 million for Libman. He was ordered in March 2021 to forfeit the fee after he failed to turn over detailed time records for the case and refused to answer deposition questions.

Regulators added an ethics charge for the alleged Israeli hacker plot in June. Libman was accused of seeking to hack the accounts of California Judge Elihu Berle, who had ordered Libman to disgorge attorney fees, and lawyer Brian S. Kabateck, who was appointed to be the new class counsel in the utility case.

Libman allegedly talked about the hacking plot with another lawyer, Paul Paradis of New York, who turned out to be a confidential FBI informant directed to record his phone calls and meetings with Libman.

Roland said Libman’s alleged plot included more than just talk. Libman engaged Paradis as an accomplice, revealed that he was communicating with Israeli hackers, and received an encrypted burner phone to talk with the hackers, Roland said. Libman and Paradis also allegedly discussed costs in a call with one of the hackers.

The ethics allegations are based on overt acts that furthered the hacking plan, and the alleged illicit conduct is not protected by the First Amendment, Roland said.

Libman had also argued that he was entitled to a jury trial before a neutral adjudicator. In support of that argument, Libman cited the Supreme Court’s decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy. The June decision held that defendants facing civil penalties for securities fraud before the Securities and Exchange Commission are entitled to a jury trial under the Seventh Amendment.

Roland said Jarkesy doesn’t affect the ethics case because the Seventh Amendment applies only to civil trials in federal court and not to state court proceedings.

“Moreover, the state bar court is ‘not an ordinary administrative agency,’” Roland said, citing a 2000 California decision. “Rather, the state bar court functions as an arm of the California Supreme Court, which has inherent jurisdiction over attorney disciplinary proceedings.”

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Murder charge reinstated against former state trooper

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 21 Sep 2024 07:55:25 +0000

Left: Christopher Baldner (Ulster County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Monica Goods (GoFundMe).

A New York State appeals court has reinstated a murder charge against a former state trooper for allegedly causing the death of an 11-year-old Brooklyn girl during a chase. The decision reverses an earlier dismissal issued by the trial court judge overseeing the matter.

In October 2021, Christopher G. Baldner was indicted by an Empire State grand jury on a charge of murder in the second degree for the death of Monica Goods, 11. He was also charged with one count of second-degree manslaughter and six counts of first-degree reckless endangerment. The next month, he was denied bail.

In February 2023, Ulster County Court Justice Bryan E. Rounds dismissed the murder charge, more or less allowing the lesser charges against Baldner to stand; the reckless endangerment charges were cut in half and also reduced to second-degree violations.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, appealed the lower court’s dismissal of the murder charge, which was granted in a 4-1 opinion by a panel of judges sitting in Albany on Thursday.

In the opinion, the Appellate Division of the Third Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court cited hard-charging language from the original indictment handed up in the case.

“The grand jury heard that, in September 2019, defendant ‘came out of the woods like the Dukes of Hazard’ in his State Police vehicle, sirens activated, when he observed a minivan speeding at 80 miles per hour,” the opinion reads. “The evidence of the December 2020 incident follows a similar pattern. The grand jury heard from witnesses that, around 11:40 p.m., defendant was ‘see[ing] if he could get one last ticket’ before meeting his partner when he stopped an SUV for speeding.”

The SUV, a Dodge Journey, was being driven by the dead girl’s father. After the traffic stop, the incident quickly escalated.

“[D]efendant began the traffic stop by angrily and profanely accusing Goods of traveling over 100 miles per hour,” the court wrote – crediting the narrative offered by the girl’s father. “An argument between defendant and Goods ensued in front of Goods’ wife and two children, who tried to calm him.”

The court summed up what happened next in exceedingly unflattering terms for the since-retired state trooper, at length:

Witnesses testified that, after defendant stepped away upon Goods’ request to summon a supervisor, defendant returned and, without warning or provocation, pepper-sprayed the passenger cabin of the SUV, and Goods’ wife and two children began screaming in pain. Goods, who had shielded his eyes from the spray, fled the traffic stop; in the commotion, defendant’s pepper spray canister ended up inside the passenger cabin of the SUV.

A frantic and hectic state of things ensued. According to the girl’s father, he drove away instinctively after being pepper-sprayed.

Baldner quickly followed the Goods family in hot pursuit – radioing dispatch that the SUV was “taking off” with his pepper spray.

“During the pursuit, Baldner twice rammed his police vehicle into the rear of the Goods car,” James said in a statement issued when the defendant was indicted. “Upon the second strike, the Goods car flipped over several times and came to rest upside down. The impact ejected Monica Goods from the car, and she died.”

Monica was dead by the time first responders arrived. Her older sister survived the crash – but her family says she was irreparably traumatized and suffered a lost childhood due to the fatal incident.

A GoFundMe for the girl’s family remembers her fondly: “Monica was a smart talented beautiful amazing giggly bubbly little girl. Monica was the most loving and caring person you could meet. She was filled with so much energy.”

The appellate court accepted James’ framing of the incident – and added some key details about the circumstances of each impact.

“[T]he grand jury could infer that defendant saw the SUV falling apart all over the road after he rammed it the first time at 130 miles per hour, permitting the grand jury to find that defendant – aware that the SUV still contained a family of four, including two children, all of whom he had just pepper-sprayed – was callously indifferent to the predictably tragic consequences of ramming it a second time at 100 miles per hour,” the opinion by Justice Sharon A.M. Aarons reads.

In dissent, Justice J.P. Egan Jr. said that Baldner was “doing his job in a reckless and undisciplined fashion” but that his conduct did not rise to the level of “utter disregard for human life.”

The majority, of course, disagreed – noting that even when Baldner used his service vehicle’s brakes during the chase, the reason he did so was to “to intentionally ram the SUV.” Such an act, the court observed, was only allowed under state police rules with a supervisor present – and in Baldner’s case, was of a piece with prior behavior.

“Viewing that evidence in the light most favorable to the People, the grand jury could readily conclude that defendant acted recklessly in both incidents by executing unauthorized maneuvers to end the chases and placing the occupants of the vehicles he was pursuing at risk of death, and it could therefore hand up an indictment charging offenses requiring that state of mind,” the court determined.

James issued a statement praising the court’s ruling:

As a former State Trooper, Christopher Baldner was responsible for serving and protecting the people of New York, but the indictment alleges that he violated that sacred oath and used his vehicle as a deadly weapon, resulting in the senseless death of a young girl.

While nothing can return Monica Goods to her family’s loving arms, this decision from the court will enable my office to continue our efforts to seek some semblance of justice for the Goods family.

We must hold law enforcement professionals to the highest standards, and we will continue our work on this case to ensure that justice is served.

Oppositely, and on Baldner’s behalf, the Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers Inc., a union organization, issued a statement critical of the court’s ruling.

“We strongly disagree with the decision, which we believe improperly reinstated the ‘depraved indifference’ charge,” the union said. “We are deeply concerned that this ruling, if it stands, sets a dangerous precedent that could put a chill on law enforcement officers’ ability to do their job effectively and protect and serve the public. The PBA will continue to support retired Trooper Baldner and cover his legal expenses as he seeks leave to appeal this decision.”

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Child feared mom would kill her after poisoning charge: Docs

homesafetytechpros — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 22:17:10 +0000

Yue Yu faces charges after allegedly poisoning her husband’s tea with a “Drano-like” liquid, prosecutors said. (Mug shot from Irvine Police Department; screenshot of her in the kitchen courtesy of Steven G. Hittelman of the Hittelman Family Law Group)

The daughter of a California dermatologist facing charges for allegedly poisoning her husband’s tea with a “Drano-like” liquid told a school counselor she feared her mom would kill her if she didn’t lie about it in court, court documents say.

Dr. Yue “Emily” Yu’s 11-year-old daughter, appearing to be distressed and tearful, told her school counselor in a private session last November that she feared if she didn’t lie about what happened, she would make her mom angry, the therapist wrote in court documents.

When the therapist asked why, the girl said, “Because what if she does what she did to my dad to me?”

The counselor then asked, “Are you afraid that your mom would kill you?”

“Yes,” the girl replied, according to court documents.

The allegations surfaced as Yu and her husband, Dr. Jack Chen, are in the middle of a divorce and custody battle.

Yu’s lawyer, David Dworakowski, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime. But in court documents, he and his co-counsel said Yu “categorically denies having any violative communications with the children, much less coaching them about facts related to her defense in the criminal matter.”

“Over the past year of Mother’s parenting time, there has not been a scintilla of evidence that Mother, or Grandmother, attempted improper communications with the children,” the document said. “Nothing extraordinary has been seen by the monitors. Additionally, the evidence is that the children enjoy the parenting time spent with Mother, and it is evident that a bond exists between the children and Mother.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, Chen alleged his wife tried to kill him by poisoning his hot lemonade with drain cleaner after he started noticing a chemical taste in the drink in March and April 2022.

His suspicions were raised after he was diagnosed with two stomach ulcers, gastritis, and inflammation of his esophagus. He put up a nanny cam in the kitchen, which caught her three times taking the drain cleaner from under the sink and pouring it into his drink, court documents said.

Yu was arrested after Chen reported the incidents to the Irvine Police Department on Aug. 4, 2022. She faces three felony counts of poisoning and one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury, prosecutors said. Yu was released from jail after posting a $30,000 bond and faces a hearing in the criminal case in May.

Chen alleged years of verbal and physical abuse by Yu and her mother — the children’s grandmother — on their children and him, court documents said.

In court documents, the school therapist wrote that when the daughter came in to see her she described her mother using her phone to type lines for her. In one alleged instance about the drain cleaner used in the house, the daughter “acted out herself and her mom by changing voices,” the documents said.

The daughter said Yu would ask her, “and why did we have Drain-O in the house in the summer?”

“Because we had ants and dad wouldn’t buy ant traps,” the daughter was expected to say, court documents said.

Later, the therapist wrote, the daughter said her mother grabbed her by the arm and it hurt. She reported feeling scared to make her mom angry and didn’t know what to do about being asked to lie.

The daughter said when she lived at home with her mother, Yu would keep her up late and wake her up early to study for tests and practice piano.

She also reported her mother would sometimes unscrew the leg of a baby chair that mom would use to “beat” her, court documents said.

Her maternal grandmother told her and her younger brother to come over so she could hit them with the chair leg, documents said.

“If they ran grandma would chase them and beat them,” the documents said.

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Federal gun charge trial for Hunter Biden set for June 3

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 03:58:49 +0000

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, with attorney Abbe Lowell, left, leaves after a closed-door deposition in the Republican-led investigation into the Biden family, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The federal gun charge trial for Hunter Biden is set for June 3.

A federal judge in Delaware set aside the weeks of June 3 and June 10 for a jury trial, the court docket said.

CBS News reported that the judge is reviewing motions, including one by Hunter Biden to dismiss the case, and will issue a ruling later. Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said he does not expect the case to go to trial, telling the network he thinks the judge will dismiss it based on diversion and a plea agreement.

The president’s son was indicted last September on charges related to his purchase of a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver from a federally licensed firearms dealer on Oct. 12, 2018, when he was using drugs, Law&Crime reported. Authorities allege he made a false written statement on a federal form when he bought it, allegedly certifying he was not an unlawful user of, or addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.

As Law&Crime reported this week, he offered the judge in his case additional authorities to support his attempt to torpedo the case as selectively and vindictively brought by special counsel David Weiss, whom the defendant likened to a tool of Russian intelligence.

Pointing to erstwhile FBI informant Alexander Smirnov’s February indictment for making allegedly “false bribery allegations” against Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, the president’s son asserted Weiss knew for years that the claims were “baseless” but reopened an investigation after pressure from congressional Republicans and, just a short time later, after prosecutors reneged on a plea agreement, Weiss was appointed as special counsel and only ramped up his probe to secure bicoastal indictments for gun and tax offenses.

Hunter Biden, 54, who struggled with addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine, has been under the spotlight.

Federal prosecutors have been investigating his finances. Senate Republicans have subjected him to immense scrutiny, opening several investigations into his overseas business dealings, specifically his work on the board of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings.

Law&Crime’s Matt Naham and Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.

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Man who faced off with guards on Jan. 6 faces felony charge

homesafetytechpros — Sat, 17 Feb 2024 06:57:01 +0000

Barry Allen Toth (Photos from court documents)

A Michigan man who bragged, “I just stormed the f—— capitol building and helped kick down the chamber door” during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack has been arrested in connection with the insurrection, authorities said.

Barry Allen Toth, 35, is charged with a felony offense of obstruction of an official proceeding and several misdemeanors, including entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

He joined thousands of Donald Trump supporters protesting Congress certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win that day in an “open-source” video dressed in a camouflaged body armor vest with a red, white, and blue “I voted” sticker on the front.

He wore a blue hat with the words “Trump 2020,” a gray shirt or jacket with white checkered sleeves, and a red and white checkered hood, officials said.

“This is our country and we are taking it back. Hell or high water. I love you,” he says to a camera as the crowd chants, “Fight for Trump.”

Toth climbed through a broken window next to the Senate wing door to get into the Capitol building at 2:21 that day, eight minutes after the initial breach, authorities said closed-circuit TV footage showed.

“I just stormed the f—— Capitol,” he can allegedly be heard saying as he walked toward the crypt.

Toth allegedly pushed to the front of a group with a fire extinguisher and stood outside the House Chamber Door, where members of Congress were sheltering.

As the crowd chanted, “Break it down,” someone smashed the glass panes of the House Chamber door. Toth allegedly looked through the glass and saw officers inside with their guns drawn and pointing at the door, authorities said.

He put his hands up and stepped away from the door, allegedly telling the crowd, “They have guns.”

At one point, he made a futile attempt to calm the crowd near the door, saying, “Everybody please listen to me, we need to remain calm. We made our point, let’s be peaceful,” officials said.

But the crowd continued chanting and banging on doors anyway, court documents said.

Toth remained with the crowd that berated officers and threatened members of Congress through the broken glass panes before police used tear gas to clear them away.

“We pushed that way, then I saw a bunch of smoke,” Toth told a rioter at one point before walking out of the Capitol building at 2:51 p.m., 30 minutes after he went in, authorities said.

“Everybody, I just stormed the f—— capitol building and helped kick down the chamber door,” he allegedly shouted through a bullhorn to the crowd outside. “I got a gun pointed at my head, I’ve been tear-gassed, and I am [unintelligible] up, and I have the biggest f——- hard-on in my g—— life. I am proud of each and every single one of you. We showed these people this our [unintelligible]. Everybody, they’ve stopped the vote.”

Then he sang the national anthem with the crowd, officials said.

A statement of facts alleges Toth was linked to the riot through GPS data on his cellphone, putting him at the U.S. Capitol from 2:22 to 2:50 that day.

In an interview with two FBI agents at his house in June 2021, he admitted he had entered the Capitol building that day, authorities said.

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