Former mayor gets 3 years in fraud case
BALTIMORE -- The former mayor of Baltimore was sentenced to three years in federal prison Thursday for arranging fraudulent sales of her self-published children's books to nonprofits and foundations to promote her political career and fund her run for the city's highest office.
Catherine Pugh, who pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy and tax evasion charges in November, spoke through tears for about 10 minutes before her sentencing in federal court in Baltimore. The 69-year-old veteran Democratic politician apologized and said "no one is more disappointed than me."
Pugh was elected mayor in 2016 and resigned under pressure in May as authorities investigated bulk sales of her Healthy Holly paperbacks, which netted her hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Federal authorities accused Pugh of double selling the books, keeping many for self-promotion purposes and failing to deliver them to institutions they were purchased for, including the Baltimore City Public Schools. Pugh used the proceeds to fund straw donations to her mayoral campaign and buy a new house.
Pugh, helped by longtime aide Gary Brown Jr., carefully carried out the Healthy Holly scheme over more than seven years, starting when she was a Maryland state senator and into her tenure as Baltimore's mayor. Brown and another Pugh associate, Roslyn Wedington, await sentencing after pleading guilty to conspiracy and tax fraud.
Pugh was also sentenced Thursday to serve three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay more than $411,000 in restitution and to forfeit more than $669,000 to the government.
Ex-sheriff's conviction stays on books
PHOENIX -- A federal appeals court has denied former Phoenix-area Sheriff Joe Arpaio's bid to erase his criminal conviction for disobeying a 2011 court order, saying President Donald Trump's pardon makes it unnecessary.
Arpaio was convicted of a misdemeanor contempt of court charge for disobeying an order barring his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.
Arpaio, who was defeated for reelection in 2016 after six terms, wanted the conviction removed from his record. The 87-year-old lawman is running for sheriff again this year.
A 2017 lower court decision said that while Trump's pardon removed his possible punishments, pardons don't erase convictions or the facts of cases.
On Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Arpaio's request, saying the verdict no longer has any legal consequence because of the pardon, which was done before he was sentenced and that the final judgment in the case dismissed the contempt charge.
Arpaio and his attorney portrayed the decision as a victory.
"They can't use that conviction against me in a court of law," Arpaio said. "That's a win."
House passes funds to get rid of nutria
WASHINGTON -- A measure to provide funding to try to eradicate the invasive rodents called nutria has passed in the U.S. House with the help of a large, stuffed specimen.
California Rep. Josh Harder took the taxidermied nutria that he calls Nellie to the House floor Wednesday ahead of a vote that approved the bill.
Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves co-sponsored the legislation, which would make $12 million available each year until 2025 to about a dozen states battling the invasion of the rodent, news outlets reported.
"Nearly 4.5 million people live in Louisiana, yet we have an estimated 20 million nutria," Graves said in a statement.
The state recently raised the bounty it pays to hunters who kill nutria, from $5 to $6.
Nutria, native to South America, came to the United States in the 20th century. The webbed-toed, buck-toothed rodents are between the size of muskrats and beavers, and contribute to erosion by burrowing in land and eating marshland plants, including the roots.
Lawyers: Oklahoma executions bad idea
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Attorneys for death row inmates in Oklahoma said in a court filing Thursday that the state is ill-prepared to resume executing inmates and its new lethal injection protocols would violate the constitutional rights of prisoners.
The attorneys filed a motion seeking to reopen a case in federal court in Oklahoma City that challenges Oklahoma's lethal injection method, saying newly released protocols are incomplete and that a grand jury investigation is unfinished.
"Oklahoma has a history of bungling executions," attorney Dale Baich said in a statement. "Their lack of planning is a recipe for another Oklahoma execution disaster."
Earlier this month, state officials announced that they had obtained the drugs needed to resume lethal injections and were ready to begin scheduling executions.
There are 47 inmates on Oklahoma's death row, and more than two dozen have exhausted all of their appeals.
Executions in Oklahoma were put on hold after a botched lethal injection in 2014 that left an inmate writhing on the gurney and drug mix-ups in 2015 in which the wrong lethal drugs were delivered.
A Section on 02/28/2020