Wanderlust

Tag: Law Crime

  • Vittorio Dominelli, former Toronto cop, pleads guilty to eating marijuana chocolate on duty

    Vittorio Dominelli, a former officer for the Toronto Police Service, pleaded guilty Friday to obstruction of justice in connection with consuming a confiscated marijuana-infused chocolate bar while on

    Vittorio Dominelli, a former officer for the Toronto Police Service, pleaded guilty Friday to obstruction of justice in connection with consuming a confiscated marijuana-infused chocolate bar while on duty and then calling for backup.

    Dominelli, 36, entered the guilty plea in an Ontario courtroom along with a statement of facts recalling the embarrassing Jan. 28 incident, Canadian media reported.

    According to the statement read in court, Dominelli admittedly pocketed three marijuana-infused, hazelnut-flavored chocolate bars that had been confiscated during an early morning raid on a Toronto dispensary, outlets reported. He subsequently consumed one of the bars while on duty, fell ill and dialed for help.

    “My heart was pounding. I felt like it was going to come out of my mouth,” Dominelli said in a court document, The Toronto Star reported Friday. “I realized instantly what a stupid thing I had done … At that point, I did not care any more about the prospects of getting caught or the professional consequences, I just wanted medical help.”

    Dominelli dialed a dispatcher, reported an officer in need of assistance and requested an ambulance.

    “I think I’m going to pass out. … I’m just lightheaded,” Dominelli said during the phone call, the newspaper reported.

    Police were dispatched to the scene, but one of the responding officers slipped and fell and had to be hospitalized for a serious head injury, according to prosecutors.

    More than 10 months later, the injured police officer continues to suffer from “significant difficulties with speech and vision,” said Crown Prosecutor Philip Perlmutter, The Star reported.

    Dominelli indicated he “deeply regrets his actions,” the newspaper reported.

    Justice Mary Misener, meanwhile, called him a “complete idiot,” CTV News Toronto reported.

    “The conduct here, you can’t describe it as anything other than stupid,” she said, according to The Star’s report. “On the continuum, this is on the very low end, but nevertheless this is an evidence tampering case before me.

    A 13-year veteran of the force, Dominelli resigned from the department earlier this week.

    Dominelli “lost the trust of the policing community and the public to the point where he could no longer be a police officer,” said his lawyer, Peter Brauti, The Star reported.

    Prosecutors withdrew a separate charge of criminal breach of trust Friday, outlets reported.

    Sentencing details were not immediately clear.

    Jamie Young, a current Toronto police constable also charged in connection with the incident, is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 15 and remains suspended with pay, CTV reported.

    Canada legalized recreational marijuana last month, and provinces including Ontario have since implemented systems for legal pot sales.

    Toronto police officers can use marijuana, according to newly implemented policy, albeit no sooner than 28 days prior to reporting for duty, CTV reported previously.

  • Russian cybercrime suspect arrested in Bulgaria on U.S. hacking charges

    Bulgarian police have arrested a Russian citizen wanted by U.S. authorities in connection with a federal cybercrime case, spurring a new custody dispute between Moscow and Washington.

    Bulgarian police have arrested a Russian citizen wanted by U.S. authorities in connection with a federal cybercrime case, spurring a new custody dispute between Moscow and Washington.

    Identified by Russian media as Alexander Zh., 38, the suspected hacker is being held pending extradition to the U.S., where he has been charged with counts of computer fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud, the District Court of Varna, Bulgaria, said Thursday in a statement.

    The U.S. Department of Justice, as a matter of policy, “does not comment on extradition-related matters until a defendant is in the United States,” a DOJ spokesperson told The Washington Times Friday, adding: “There is nothing public at this time.”

    “We learnt about the arrest of the Russian citizen by the Bulgarian authorities from his wife,” said Vladimir Klimanov, Russia’s consular general in Varna, Bulgaria’s third largest city.

    “We haven’t received any official information,” Mr. Klimanov said Friday, Russian state media reported. “Under the circumstances, the Consulate General will take all the necessary measures.”

    Bulgarian authorities reported that the Russian is wanted in connection with allegedly causing at least $7 million in damages, and that he risks a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment if extradited to the U.S. and convicted.

    Russia does not have an extradition agreement with the U.S., meaning Moscow will not voluntarily surrender any citizens sought by Washington. Agreements exist between U.S. and other countries, however, and the Justice Department has more than once relied on authorities in allied countries apprehending Russian suspects traveling aboard.

    Yevgeny Nikulin, a Russian national accused of hacking U.S. companies including LinkedIn, was arrested in Prague in 2016 and was subsequently held by Czech authorities for 18 months while Washington and Moscow fought for custody. He was ultimately sent to the U.S. in April.

  • 6 detained in suspected plot to attack French president

    A French judicial official says six people have been arrested on preliminary terrorism charges, suspected of plotting to attack French President Emmanuel Macron.

    PARIS (AP) — A French judicial official says six people have been arrested on preliminary terrorism charges, suspected of plotting to attack French President Emmanuel Macron.

    The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the allegations, said intelligence agents detained the six in three widely scattered regions, including the Alps, Brittany and near the Belgian border. He said the plan appeared to be vague and unfinalized but violent.

    Macron is in Verdun on Tuesday as part of World War I commemorations and hosts U.S. President Donald Trump this weekend.

  • Julian Assange’s lawsuit against Ecuador halted over WikiLeaks publisher’s issue with translator

    WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange complained that his court-appointed translator was “not good enough,” prompting a judge overseeing his lawsuit against Ecuador to put a pause on proceedings to find

    WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange complained that his court-appointed translator was “not good enough,” prompting a judge overseeing his lawsuit against Ecuador to put a pause on proceedings to find a replacement fluent in “Australian,” news outlets reported Friday.

    Judge Karina Martinez cut Thursday’s hearing short in response to Mr. Assange’s protest and ordered the appointment of a translator better equipped to interpret matters for the Australian-born fugitive, the Sydney Morning Herald first reported.

    Mr. Assange filed the lawsuit through an attorney last week in response to the Ecuadorian government imposing new conditions on his asylum status, and Thursday’s hearing in Quito, the nation’s capital, was the first to be held by the court considering his case.

    Speaking remotely from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Mr. Assange complained about the quality of the translation service prior to the judge agreeing to suspend proceedings, The Herald reported.

    The initial hearing last roughly 90 minutes prior to being suspended due to “communication problems,” Spanish media separately reported.

    WikiLeaks did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

    Mr. Assange, 46, entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2012 and was subsequently granted asylum, effectively protecting him against the possibility of being prosecuted in the U.S. in relation to releasing classified government material through the WikiLeaks website.

    His relationship with Ecuador has grown increasingly tense, however, and WikiLeaks lawyer Baltasar Garzon sued the nation’s foreign minister last week in response to new rules governing Mr. Assange’s conduct inside the embassy, including restrictions on his internet and phone access.

    “The protocol makes Assange’s political asylum contingent on censoring his freedom of opinion, speech and association,” WikiLeaks said in a statement announcing the suit.

    Responding in court Thursday, Ecuador’s vice minister of foreign affairs, Andrés Terán, said the lawsuit was “paradoxical,” “illogical” and filed with an “irresponsibility” toward the “democratic state that has welcomed him,” according to Agencia EFE, a Spanish news agency covering the proceedings.

    “He is (there) of his own free will and (…) he has to abide by the rules imposed by the asylum country, it is as simple as that!” said Mr. Terán, the outlet reported.

    British authorities have said that Mr. Assange will be arrested upon exiting the embassy, at which point he would risk being extradited to the U.S. and tried in relation to releasing classified documents including U.S. diplomatic and military secrets.

    Mr. Assange would possibly surrender to U.K. authorities if he is spared a trip abroad, another one of his lawyers said Friday.

    “In British justice, he could even be sentenced to three to six months’ imprisonment,” said the lawyer, Carlos Poveda, AFP reported. “But what is being requested from the legal team is that there is a necessary assurance that after that sentence he will not be extradited to the United States.”

  • Kavanaugh impartiality to be tested in blue state lawsuits

    Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court has put a spotlight on the dozens of federal cases pitting the Trump administration against Democratic-leaning states, on issues including auto

    Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court has put a spotlight on the dozens of federal cases pitting the Trump administration against Democratic-leaning states, on issues including auto emission standards, immigration and a free-flowing internet.

    He lashed out against “left-wing opposition groups” and others during the recent Senate hearing over a high school-era sexual assault allegation, raising questions about whether he can be impartial deciding cases that revolve around Democratic policies or that directly involve Democratic officials.

    Kavanaugh already was known as a conservative judge. But his partisan rhetoric created new worries for some who will bring or support cases that eventually could come before the nation’s highest court.

    “I have even greater concerns about his judicial temperament and his ability to independently weigh cases that may involve the Trump administration,” said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a Democrat who has joined more than a dozen lawsuits against the administration.

    Democratic states are in scores of legal battles with the Trump administration over health care, the environment, consumer protections, immigration and other issues. Marquette University political scientist Paul Nolette has tallied 61 times that states have banded together in lawsuits against the Trump administration.

    Trump’s Department of Justice also has initiated legal action against blue states. Most recently, the department sued California just hours after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law requiring internet neutrality that runs counter to actions taken by the administration.

    Questions about Kavanaugh’s ability to remain impartial and give a fair hearing to such cases escalated after his defiant statement Sept. 27 to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

    He railed against the sexual assault accusations as being orchestrated by Democrats, saying: “This whole two-week effort has been a calculated and orchestrated political hit, fueled with apparent pent-up anger about President Trump and the 2016 election, fear that has been unfairly stoked about my judicial record, revenge on behalf of the Clintons and millions of dollars in money from outside left-wing opposition groups.”

    Kavanaugh, who denied the assault allegation, also said that “in the United States political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around” – a statement some observers took to be a threat. But Kavanaugh also said he would not be “swayed by public or political pressure.”

    Since then, he wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that “an independent and impartial judiciary is essential” and that he will “keep an open mind in every case.”

    Lawsuits between the states and the Trump administration could test that.

    Pat Gallagher, director of the legal program at the Sierra Club, said he expects Kavanaugh would oppose environmental regulation regardless of who calls for it – as he has often done as an appeals court judge.

    With his confirmation, Gallagher said, “we’re going to have to find ways to keep cases away from the Supreme Court.”

    Despite questions about Kavanaugh’s objectivity, many of the lawsuits involving blue states do not align neatly with partisan ideology. The core question is who has the power to regulate in that area – the federal government or the states?

    California’s newly signed internet neutrality law is a prime example. It prohibits internet service providers from favoring specific websites or online content by cutting access or charging more for some than others. The state adopted the law last month in response to a Federal Communications Commission policy change earlier this year that ended a similar federal requirement.

    “The California legislature has enacted an extreme and illegal state law attempting to frustrate federal policy,” U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement announcing a lawsuit against the state.

    California has sued – and been sued – multiple times since Trump took office. Its attorney general, Democrat Xavier Becerra, declined to comment, as did several other attorneys general involved in lawsuits against the administration.

    Similar questions over state vs. federal authority are in play in the Trump administration challenge of a law that set up California as a “sanctuary state” unwilling to cooperate with federal authorities in certain immigration matters.

    Thomas Saenz, president of MALDEF, a Latino civil rights organization, said Kavanaugh’s hearing reinforced what he believed after studying the judge’s previous rulings that touched on immigration.

    “The concern is that partisan ideology came first and then judicial philosophy, rather than the other way around,” he said.

    The group is involved in legal battles over immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

    Legal experts said it makes sense for blue states to keep pushing back against the administration, in part because not every case will reach the Supreme Court. Lawsuits can delay federal policies or force compromise.

    Both happened with the Trump administration’s ban on travel to the U.S. from a group of Muslim-majority countries. After lower courts knocked it back and forced delays, the administration modified the policy. A ban is now in effect and has been upheld by the Supreme Court, but it’s not as tough as Trump’s first version.

    Some advocates have suggested that Kavanaugh should step aside on cases involving the administration and those he criticized during his confirmation hearing. Doing so is rare, though.

    “Justices don’t recuse themselves simply because they’ve taken ideological or partisan positions in the past that might favor one side or the other,” said Anthony Johnstone, a University of Montana law professor and former state solicitor. “Part of what presidents get with their Supreme Court nominations is their views.”

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    Follow Mulvihill at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

  • Andrew Brunson’s lawyer filed an appeal to Turkey’s highest court

    Andrew Brunson’s lawyer filed an appeal on Wednesday to Turkey’s highest national court requesting his client be released from house arrest, Reuters reported.

    Andrew Brunson’s lawyer filed an appeal on Wednesday to Turkey’s highest court requesting his client be released from house arrest, Reuters reported.

    Mr. Brunson’s next court date is on October 12th, and he’s been under arrest for over a year.

    The American evangelical pastor’s plight has sparked a tense economic relationship between two NATO allies, with the U.S. slapping sanctions on top Turkish officials in response to the arrest.

    Mr. Brunson was arrested on terrorism charges after the Turkish government accused him of being involved with the attempted coup in 2016, but the U.S. denies the accusation.

    The Trump administration has repeatedly called for Mr. Brunson’s release.

    A total disgrace that Turkey will not release a respected U.S. Pastor, Andrew Brunson, from prison. He has been held hostage far too long. @RT_Erdogan should do something to free this wonderful Christian husband & father. He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018

  • Russia plotted sneaking Julian Assange out of Ecuadorian Embassy in London: Report

    Russian diplomats have secretly discussed extracting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and escorting him out of the U.K. and beyond the reach of a potential U.S. e

    Russian diplomats have secretly discussed extracting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and escorting him out of the U.K. and beyond the reach of a potential U.S. extradition request, The Guardian reported Friday.

    Citing four sources, The Guardian said Russians held secret talks in London last year with people close to the Australian-born WikiLeaks publisher on the subject of potentially facilitating his safe exit from the embassy, his residence since 2012.

    One tentative plan involved smuggling Mr. Assange out of the embassy in a diplomatic vehicle on Christmas Eve and transporting him to another country, possibly Russia, where he stood a lesser risk of being extradited to the U.S. and tried on charges related to his WikiLeaks website, The Guardian reported.

    Another plan considered involved shipping Mr. Assange on a boat to Ecuador, the newspaper reported.

    “It is false that giving Julian Assange diplomatic status is news,” WikiLeaks responded through its Twitter account Friday. “It has been widely discussed for almost a year by Ecuador and the international bar and has nothing, whatsover [sic], to do with Russia.”

    Mr. Assange, 47, was granted asylum by Ecuador within weeks of seeking refuge in its London embassy more than six years ago, though an outstanding arrest warrant issued by U.K. authorities and the related risk of being extradited abroad have kept him from exiting ever since.

    Ecuador naturalized Mr. Assange in late 2017, but a subsequent attempt to grant him diplomatic status days later was quickly quashed by U.K. authorities.

    According to The Guardian, the aborted Christmas Eve escape plan involved utilizing the diplomatic protection Mr. Assange would have been granted had the request been accepted. Ecuador could have given Mr. Assange diplomatic documents, and he could have then been picked up from the embassy by Russians and taken away in diplomatic vehicle, the report said.

    The plan was ultimately deemed “too risky” and aborted, the report said.

    Reacting to the report through its Twitter account, the Russian embassy in London called the story “another example of disinformation and fake news from the British media.”

    Mr. Assange sought refuge from Ecuador amid being sought for questioning by Swedish prosecutors investigating allegations of sexual assault. Sweden dropped the probe in 2017, but a U.K. judge subsequently ruled that Mr. Assange breached related bail conditions by entering the embassy and should be arrested upon exiting.

    WikiLeaks has published throngs of classified U.S. military, diplomatic and intelligence community documents during the past decade, including Democratic Party documents in 2016 allegedly sourced by Russian state-sponsored hackers, according to U.S. federal intelligence and law enforcement officials.

    Mr. Assange has not been charged publicly by U.S. prosecutors, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions previously called his arrest a “priority.”

  • Moscow lashes out at Washington for charging Russians with violating Syria sanctions

    Kremlin officials on Wednesday lashed out at the Justice Department’s move to charge Russians with violating U.S. sanctions on Syria, calling it an act of “political blindness” and hostility.

    Kremlin officials on Wednesday lashed out at the Justice Department’s move to charge Russians with violating U.S. sanctions on Syria, calling it an act of “political blindness” and hostility.

    On Tuesday at federal court in Washington, DOJ officials indicted five Russian employees of a Crimean-based shipping company, Sovfracht, for allegedly money laundering and supplying jet fuel to Syria — a violation of U.S. sanctions. Three Syrians were also charged.

    On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry responded by saying: “Washington has again demonstrated its political blindness by accusing the staff of Sovfracht public joint stock company of shipping aviation fuel to Syria.”

    According to the Russian state new service Tass, foreign ministry officials denied the fuel was bound for Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and was instead “intended for units of Russia’s Aerospace Force, which are helping to fight terrorist groupings on Syrian soil.”

    Syria has endured seven years of horrendous civil war. For the past three, Russia’s air force has flown missions in support of the Assad regime — which requested help in the fall of 2015 when almost collapsed.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has long called the assistance to Assad an operation against the Islamic State. Western military observers, however, have noted that Russians planes still target territory long abandoned by the Islamic State.

    “The new anti-Russian statement is a new confirmation that the US … does not want in any way to learn the lessons of history and again, as we have already noted, is looking for an enemy in areas other than where it is actually present,” the foreign ministry added.

    Along with the charges, the eight also face large fines. According to reports on Tuesday, the defendants had not yet entered a plea and face up to 25 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

  • Gal Vallerius, French beard grower, pleads guilty in Dream Market dark web drug case

    Gal Vallerius, a French national arrested by U.S. authorities en route to last year’s annual World Beard and Moustache Championships, pleaded guilty Tuesday to counts of narcotics trafficking and mone

    Gal Vallerius, a French national arrested by U.S. authorities en route to last year’s annual World Beard and Moustache Championships, pleaded guilty Tuesday to counts of narcotics trafficking and money laundering related to his involvement in running Dream Market, a site on the dark web that lets users buy and sell contraband ranging from heroin to hacking tools.

    Known online by the alias “OxyMonster,” Vallerius, 36, rose through the ranks of Dream Market between 2013 and his arrest last September, starting off as a vendor who sold prescription drugs Oxycodone and Ritalin and ultimately becoming one of the website’s administrators and senior moderators, he conceded in court documents filed in tandem with his guilty plea Tuesday in Miami federal court.

    Prosecutors will recommend that Vallerius spend 20 years behind bars, according to the agreement reached in the case — half of the statutory maximum, and a far cry from the potential life sentence he risked facing prior to cutting a deal with investigators this week.

    As part of his plea deal, Vallerius has agreed to cooperate fully with investigators, including but not limited to testifying against other suspected drug dealers and working in an undercover capacity, the agreement said.

    U.S. District Judge Robert Scola has set a sentencing hearing for Sept. 25, nearly one year after Vallerius was apprehended by U.S. authorities at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while traveling to to compete in the facial hair contest in Austin, Texas.

    Investigators had suspected Vallerius was the Dream Market vendor and administrator known as “OxyMonster” prior to taking him into custody, and a subsequent search of his laptop seized after landing on U.S. soil found data confirming his identity, the Drug Enforcement Administration said previously.

    While Vallerius personally sold only two types of prescription drugs to Dream Market users, prosecutors argued that he helped run the website during a span in which other dealers moved nearly 3,500 pounds worth of narcotics including heroin, cocaine, crack, meth, Oxycodone, Ritalin and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid considered several times more lethal than heroin.

    “In connection with his role as a ‘senior moderator,’ [Vallerius] also sold controlled substances to other members using the website, receiving payment for these sales through the use of a bitcoin ‘tip jar,’ or electronic depository,” a magistrate judge previously said while summarizing the prosecution’s case. “It was through this tip jar that law enforcement officials became aware of Vallerius’ true identity.”

    Addressing the court Tuesday, Vallerius said he was saddened that the conviction will keep him from spending time in the U.S. besides within prison walls.

    “It is unfortunate. … I cannot enjoy this beautiful country and everything it has to offer,” he told the court, The Associated Press reported.

    Dream Market touted a total of 94,236 listings shortly before Vallerius was arrested in 2017, including 47,405 categorized under “drugs,” the DEA said at the time. Today, the site boasts 122,993 listings, including 62,026 listed under the drugs category.

  • Woman faces prison after disabled son’s estate missing $400K

    A Michigan woman who authorities say embezzled more than $400,000 from her disabled 9-year-old son’s estate faces prison after entering a plea to resolve the case.

    CHARLOTTE, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan woman who authorities say embezzled more than $400,000 from her disabled 9-year-old son’s estate faces prison after entering a plea to resolve the case.

    The Lansing State Journal reports 32-year-old Kasie Pruden-Rivera of Eaton County will be sentenced next month after pleading no contest to embezzling more than $100,000. The plea isn’t an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing.

    Investigators say Pruden-Rivera received nearly $650,000 on behalf of her son and spent about $240,000 on a house, but that the rest is unaccounted for. Prosecutors say Pruden-Rivera will likely face no more than 20 months in prison because she has no previous convictions.

    Court records say her son has cerebral palsy, permanent brain damage and other health problems. The money was from a settlement after her son suffered seizures and brain damage shortly after birth at an Army hospital.

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    Information from: Lansing State Journal, http://www.lansingstatejournal.com