Former financial advisor who stole more than $3 million from clients including one of the wrongfully convicted “Dixmoor Five” was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison Thursday.
Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin listens as the verdict is read in his trial for the 2020 death of George Floyd on April 20 at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. Photo from the Associated Press/Court TV Pool.
Former Minneapolis police officer seeks new trial
Lawyers have filed a motion seeking a new trial for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted in the May 2020 death of George Floyd. The motion said the judge should have sequestered jurors, should have moved the location of the trial, and should have granted a new trial. The motion also sought a hearing into whether the jury committed misconduct or felt threatened but did not offer specifics. Some conservative commentators have seized on a photo of a juror who participated in a March on Washington event commemorating the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr. (The New York Times, NBC News, the Washington Post)
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Judge Trims Ex-Howard & Howard Intern s Sex Bias Suit
Law360 (May 4, 2021, 7:52 PM EDT) An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday found that a former Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC summer associate hadn t alleged conduct severe or pervasive enough to sustain her sexual harassment claim as part of a broader gender discrimination suit against the Chicago firm.
Jennie Christensen sued the firm in August, asserting it violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and that she faced a hostile work environment. But while the alleged conduct she describes in her complaint raises eyebrows, the allegations are insufficient for her harassment claim, U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland said.
Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times file photo
A political operative with ties to indicted Ald. Edward Burke (14th) and the late state Sen. Martin Sandoval pleaded guilty Tuesday to concealing material information from the FBI.
In doing so, Rudy Acosta Sr., 70, admitted that he made cash payments in order to sway Sandoval, and that he “facilitated bribe payments” to another unnamed official information he acknowledged he hid from the feds between 2017 and 2019 as he “provided information regarding other individuals’ involvement in criminal activity.”
Acosta also confirmed during a hearing Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland that he has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in exchange for a potential break at sentencing. As it stands, Acosta faces a likely prison sentence of no more than six months behind bars.
Longtime political operative Rudy Acosta, 70, pleaded guilty Tuesday to misleading the FBI in a series of interviews in 2017 and 2018 about its investigation into elected officials.