A Florida judge on Monday was primed to sentence a 55-year-old man to 20 years in prison for allegedly shooting his ex-fiancee eight times as she lay on the couch. But then the judge heard the alleged victim’s testimony.

Bridget Knighton spoke of the “countless assaults” before the shooting, a courtroom report from Miami ABC affiliate WPLG stated. How the suspect, Gayle Blount, allegedly prevented her from answering the door when the cops would arrive during prior domestic violence incidents, threatening to blow her “brains out” if she “even uttered a sound.” The time he slammed her on a table full of dishes and food at Denny’s. All the times he ignored the restraining order, showing up at her apartment several times leading up to the shooting.

More from Law&Crime: Ex-boyfriend who threw mother of 2 ‘out with the trash’ charged with murder after ‘large crime scene’ found: Police

“Those restraining orders are just a piece of paper,” Knighton reportedly said. “They don’t stop a bullet.”

In May 2021, Knighton was on her couch in her Miami Gardens apartment when Blount allegedly grabbed a gun from a car, barged into the home and shot her eight times. He reportedly told her “Look what you made me do.”

As a result, Knighton has had to undergo some 11 surgeries and suffers from other health problems. She also must walk with a cane.

Blount has sat in a Miami-Dade County jail cell for nearly four years. Last month Blount and prosecutors came to a plea deal where he would plead guilty to attempted murder in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence. But Knighton reportedly testified that she felt the punishment was not stiff enough for all the terror he allegedly put her through.

A 78-year-old woman pleaded no contest to killing her terminally ill husband as part of a suicide pact, court records say.

Ellen Gilland, who was slated to go on trial on Jan. 6,  entered the no contest plea to manslaughter with a firearm and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. She appeared in court Tuesday to make the plea. As part of the deal, the state has agreed to a 10-year cap as to any prison sentence and waived a three-year mandatory minimum on one of the aggravated assault charges. Prosecutors also agreed to waive sentencing guidelines. Volusia County Judge Kathryn D. Weston will sentence Gilland Feb. 28.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Gilland was indicted on charges of assisting in self-murder, two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, and a count of aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer with a firearm in the Jan. 21, 2023, shooting death of her husband, 77-year-old Jerry Gilland at Advent Health Hospital.

“1000-lb Sisters” reality TV star Amy Slaton Halterman admitted to drug charges stemming from her arrest at a drive-through safari park in Tennessee, where deputies found her in a car with marijuana, mushrooms and her two kids after she called police to report a camel bit her.

As part of the plea deal, she and her co-defendant, Brian Scott Lovvorn, were sentenced on Thursday to two years probation, ordered to pay $1,000 and were barred from the Tennessee Safari Park. A felony marijuana charge was reduced to simple possession, and two child neglect charges were dismissed.

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3. Former CFO at Tom Girardi’s law firm reaches…

Criminal Justice

Former CFO at Tom Girardi’s law firm reaches plea deal, agrees to $3.1M forfeiture

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 10, 2024, 9:18 am CDT

The former chief financial officer at disbarred lawyer Tom Girardi’s law firm has reached a deal to plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud that caused losses of at least $3.5 million.

Former CFO Christopher K. Kamon agreed to plead guilty, to forfeit $3.1 million and to pay restitution, report Law360 and the Los Angeles Times.

The agreement was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

The plea deal follows Girardi’s August conviction for stealing $15 million from four personal injury clients at his now-collapsed firm, Girardi Keese, over the course of a decade.

Girardi, 85, was famous for his legal team’s portrayal in the film Erin Brockovich and for his marriage to Erika Girardi, who has appeared on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reality TV show. He is now living in an assisted living facility and has a dementia diagnosis. His lawyers are seeking to overturn the conviction for an alleged inability to understand trial proceedings, Law.com reports.

Kamon acknowledges that he worked with Girardi to defraud clients, and that he participated in a “side fraud” scheme involving fraudulent invoices.

A factual statement says Girardi typically called Kamon each morning and asked how much money was in the firm’s bank accounts, including its client trust accounts. When operating accounts were low, Girardi allegedly instructed Kamon to move money out of client trust accounts and label them as attorney fees, even when attorney fees had already been paid.

“This was a common practice at Girardi Keese of which other senior lawyers in the firm were aware,” the statement of facts said.

Sometimes settlement funds belonging to current clients in trust accounts were used to pay other clients whose settlement funds had been stolen, according to the statement of facts.

Kamon and federal prosecutors in Los Angeles disagreed on the amount of the loss. Kamon said the amount is at least $3.5 million and no more than $9.5 million. Prosecutors reserved the right to argue that the amount ranged from more than $9.5 million to less than $25 million.

Kamon did not agree to a particular prison sentence. Money collected from Kamon in the bankruptcy proceedings for Girardi Keese would be credited toward the forfeiture amount.

The potential maximum prison sentence is 40 years. The offenses also carry a potential fine equal to twice the gain or losses resulting from the offenses or the amount of $500,000, whichever is greater.

Kamon, Girardi and a third lawyer are facing separate charges in Chicago for allegedly stealing settlement money from five relatives of victims killed in an October 2018 plane crash.

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Ethics

Lawyer accused of storing 1,000 pounds of marijuana at law office enters guilty plea

By Debra Cassens Weiss

October 4, 2024, 9:14 am CDT

A Virginia lawyer has been temporarily suspended after pleading guilty for his role in a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of marijuana.

Lawyer Matthew Taylor Morris, 38, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was suspended effective Oct. 1 and ordered to show cause why his law license should not be further suspended or revoked, according to a Sept. 27 show-cause order.

The Legal Profession Blog noted the temporary suspension and a Sept. 24 press release on Morris’ guilty plea.

Morris allowed other participants in the conspiracy to store 1,000 pounds of marijuana and cash proceeds at his Virginia Beach law firm, the Top Tier Law Group, prosecutors said.

The street value of the marijuana products ranged from $800,000 to $1.6 million, according to a statement of facts signed by Morris and filed with the show-cause order.

Morris also allowed a co-conspirator to store cash proceeds from marijuana sales at his law office, the statement said. In one photo taken at the law office, a co-conspirator posed with more than $100,000 in cash. On the wall behind him are Morris’ diplomas and legal credentials.

As compensation, Morris received part of his monthly rent for his law office from a co-conspirator “for several months beginning in late 2021”, prosecutors said. Morris also received 70 pounds of THC products, at the rate of 15 pounds per month, that he could sell to his customers.

Morris also allegedly received a handgun from a co-conspirator, even though Morris unlawfully used Adderall, cocaine, opiates and THC, prosecutors said.

Morris is a former prosecutor in Portsmouth, Virginia, who resigned from the commonwealth attorney’s office Sept. 6, four days before the indictment, WVEC reported here and here.

Morris joined the prosecution office three months after the drug conspiracy allegedly ended in May 2022, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

Morris pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 22, 2025.

Morris is represented by lawyer James O. Broccoletti in the criminal case. He did not immediately respond to an ABA Journal email seeking comment.

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3. Prosecutors seek to revoke Alex Murdaugh’s…

Criminal Justice

Prosecutors seek to revoke Alex Murdaugh’s federal plea deal over $6M in missing money

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 27, 2024, 2:02 pm CDT

Federal prosecutors want to revoke their financial-crimes plea deal with disbarred South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh because they think that he has not been truthful about the location of more than $6 million in missing money and the possible involvement of another attorney in wrongdoing.

Prosecutors say Murdaugh was required to be “fully truthful” about criminal activity as part of the deal in which Murdaugh pleaded guilty to federal charges in September 2023 for stealing millions of dollars from clients, his law firm and the estate of his late housekeeper. He violated that promise, prosecutors say in a March 26 motion filed in South Carolina federal court.

The Associated Press and the Post and Courier have coverage of the prosecution request to hold Murdaugh in breach of the agreement.

Prosecutors had alleged that Murdaugh murdered his wife, Maggie, and son Paul in June 2021 to distract attention from his financial crimes. He was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison in March 2023. Two months after he pleaded guilty to federal charges of stealing from clients, he pleaded guilty to state charges of financial crimes.

As part of the federal plea deal, prosecutors said they would recommend that Murdaugh’s federal sentence for stealing from clients run concurrently with any state sentence for the same conduct. Now, prosecutors say the government should be relieved of its obligations under the plea deal, including the recommendation for a concurrent sentence. Prosecutors now plan to recommend the maximum sentence.

The government says Murdaugh failed polygraph tests in which he was asked about the missing money and possible involvement by the other attorney, who was not named in the motion. Murdaugh did, however, admit involvement of two others in his financial crimes—former banker Russell Laffitte and disbarred lawyer Cory Fleming, the government points out.

The motion says Murdaugh can’t withdraw his guilty plea because it would unjustly reward him for breaching the plea agreement.

Murdaugh has sought a new trial on the murder charges on the ground that the elected court clerk in Colleton County, South Carolina, tampered with the jury by warning jurors that they shouldn’t be fooled by defense testimony and by meeting privately with a jury foreperson. The new trial request was denied.

Rebecca Hill, the Colleton County, South Carolina, clerk, announced her resignation Monday, the Washington Post reports.

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Ethics

Lawyer’s joint sex with boyfriend and his daughter was ‘tantamount to rape,’ despite plea deal, disbarment order says

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 13, 2024, 11:51 am CDT

An Ohio lawyer has been permanently disbarred for repeatedly joining with her boyfriend to abuse his 13-year-old daughter.

The Ohio Supreme Court disbarred lawyer Amber Renee Goodman of Elida, Ohio, rejecting ethics officials’ recommendation for an indefinite suspension based on the lawyer’s plea to a lesser charge, report the Columbus Dispatch, Law360 and Court News Ohio (via the Legal Profession Blog).

“Looking to the misconduct underlying Goodman’s conviction shows that her actions were tantamount to rape,” the Ohio Supreme Court said in its March 12 decision. “Goodman encouraged and perpetuated the sexual molestation committed by the victim’s father, and at the very least, she was complicit in his crimes. But she was actually more than complicit—she actively engaged in the repeated rape of the child.”

The abuse involving Goodman and the teenager’s father happened over a period of four to six months. The boyfriend had sexual intercourse with Goodman and his daughter, while Goodman performed other sexual acts, the state supreme court said. The teen said, however, her father began sexually molesting her much earlier, when she was 9 years old.

“Goodman’s willingness, in the victim’s words, to ‘join in’ perpetuated and added to the abuse that the child suffered, and Goodman became just another ‘monster’ in the child’s life,” the Ohio Supreme Court said in an opinion by Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy. “And rather than report this abuse to authorities, Goodman told the victim not to tell anyone about it.”

After the teen reported the abuse in January 2019, Goodman continued a relationship with the teen’s father for two years.

Goodman had pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful sexual contact with a minor, a third-degree felony, in May 2022. The law bars adults from engaging in sexual conduct with a person older than age 13 but less than age 16, when the offender knows the age of the victim or is reckless in that regard.

Goodman was placed on an interim suspension after her conviction. The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct had recommended an indefinite suspension with no credit for time spent under interim suspension. Generally, lawyers on indefinite suspension can apply for reinstatement after two years, according to Court News Ohio.

Goodman was sentenced to 30 months in prison. She was released after almost eight months of incarceration provided that she served 120 days in the county jail and five years on community control. She was also required to abstain from use of alcohol and illegal substances.

Goodman had claimed that past trauma had made her susceptible to manipulation by the boyfriend. Goodman said her father had left when she was 3 years old, and “nothing she ever did as a child was good enough for him.” She also said she had been mentally abused by one of her two ex-husbands and physically abused by both of them.

“At her disciplinary hearing, Goodman portrayed herself as the victim of manipulation and lies, but she failed to explain how that could possibly cause her to molest a child,” the state supreme court said.

Nor did she produce evidence showing how trauma that she suffered as a child and an adult contributed to her misconduct, the Ohio Supreme Court said.

In a concurrence, Justice Michael P. Donnelly said ethics officials would have been able to recommend a more appropriate sanction if “the criminal-justice system properly held Goodman to account for the criminal acts she committed.”

Donnelly said he thought that Goodman would have been convicted of rape if prosecutors had presented evidence available to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Donnelly criticized the Ohio Supreme Court for rejecting a rule change eight years ago that would have required felony charges in plea bargains to have a factual basis in the conduct actually committed.

“As a result,” Donnelly said, “Goodman managed to plead guilty to a crime that does not come close to accounting for the vile acts she committed.”

Goodman’s lawyer, George D. Jonson, did not immediately reply to an ABA Journal email and a voicemail seeking comment. Jonson’s voicemail message states that he is in a disciplinary hearing through Thursday.

A man seen in video striking officers with a metal baseball bat during the U.S. Capitol riots and saying he was “not there for Trump” is considering a plea deal in his case, court documents said.

The U.S. Justice Department has submitted a plea offer to Emanuel Jackson. He was charged with assaulting an officer of the United States, assaulting an officer of the United States with a deadly or dangerous weapon, obstruction of an official proceeding, unlawful entry and physical violence on restricted building or grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Defense attorneys are reviewing the offer, and a plea hearing is set for May 10, according to the court docket.