Coronavirus & Crime: Kent County sees 37% spike in criminal charges for 2020
The Kent County Prosecutor’s Office in 2020 filed more than 10,500 criminal charges, a spike that local officials say was influenced by the coronavirus pandemic. Author: John Hogan Updated: 6:39 PM EST March 10, 2021
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. A year that saw a record number of homicides in Grand Rapids also saw a dramatic increase in criminal charges filed by the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office, with the coronavirus pandemic playing a role.
“I think across the board, people have said that violent crime is definitely up,’’ Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said. “COVID is certainly a factor.’’
Kent County Superior Court
DOVER, Del. (Legal Newsline) – The slate is wiped clean for a second Delaware trial after the first included the plaintiff’s lawyer crying and calling the defendants “filth” and a $500,000 punitive damages award – even though only $28 in compensatory damages were issued.
The state Superior Court on Feb. 25 set the stage for a new trial on punitive damages in the case of the late Mark Krieger, whose estate successfully argued AmGuard Insurance Company delayed paying him Workers’ Compensation benefits in bad faith while he was alive.
But the compensation reached in a Kent County Courthouse was only $28 in interest on the delayed payments. Jurors, however, must have been swayed by what the Superior Court called the overzealous representation of Krieger’s estate by lawyer John Spadaro, and handed out a half-million dollars in punitive damages.
UpdatedWed, Feb 24, 2021 at 4:40 pm ET
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Prosecutors say John Leboy in December of 2020 ran from a routine Warwick traffic stop and dropped a loaded handgun on the street. He was sentenced at the Kent County Courthouse on Feb. 23, 2021. (Mary Serreze | Patch)
A man known to Pawtucket police as a member of the Bucket East gang was sentenced to serve four years in state prison after pleading to a firearms charge stemming from a Warwick traffic stop.
John Laboy, 23, appeared in Kent County Superior Court on Tuesday where he pleaded
nolo contendere to a single charge of possessing a firearm while on probation for a previous crime. Under Rhode Island law, individuals convicted of certain violent crimes are prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms. Superior Court Magistrate John F. McBurney III sentenced Laboy to 10 years at the Adult Correctional Institutions, or ACI, with four years to serve and the balance of the sentence suspended with probation.