Tag: prison

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Manafort Ordered To Wear Orange Jumpsuit To Sentencing Hearing

Paul Manafort

Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort requested, through his lawyers, if he could be allowed to wear a suit to his sentencing hearing later this week.

The request was denied.

It looks like Manafort will be donning a crisp shade of orange for his next court appearance.

From Politico:

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Paul Manafort’s request to wear a professional suit during a hearing later this week about his sentence, noting the former Trump campaign chairman is now a convicted felon who has lost the right to wear street clothing in all his court proceedings.

“This defendant should be treated no differently from other defendants who are in custody post conviction,” U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III wrote in a sharply-worded order.

The decision and its tone signals Manafort may be facing a very different environment when he returns Friday to the same Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom for a hearing to discuss his ongoing cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller and to begin the process of setting a sentencing date.

I hear the president is fond of orange, no?

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Switzerland: Homophobia & Transphobia Now Punishable By Up To 3 Years In Prison

By a vote of 118-60, the National Council of Switzerland has amended its penal code to make homophobia and transphobia as illegal as racism.
Switzerland makes LGBTQ discrimination illegal

 By a vote of 118-60, the National Council of Switzerland has amended its penal code to make homophobia and transphobia as illegal as racism.

Under the new ordinance, anyone who is found guilty of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity will face up to three years in prison.

The move to change the penal code was lead by National Councillor Mathias Reynard.

Upon passage of the new law, Reynard tweeted his celebration writing, “Victory! By 118 against 60 and 5 abstentions, the National Council accepts my parliamentary initiative against homophobia and Transphobia!

“A great success for human rights! Final response in December to the Council of States,” he added along with an LGBT Pride emoji and LGBT hashtag.

Gay Times Magazine reports Reynard told the press following the vote, “Homophobia is not an opinion. It’s a crime. One in five homosexuals attempted suicide, half before the age of 20. This victory sends a strong signal. I have already received hundreds of reactions.”

While Switzerland has allowed civil partnerships since 2007, the country is woefully behind the times in terms of most civil rights for LGBTQ people. There are no legal accommodations for same-sex couples when it comes to adoption, taxes, welfare or fertility.

Following this recent win, Reynard says that he plans on introducing marriage equality to Switzerland.

(h/t Gay Times Magazine)

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Australia: HIV+ Man Receives 4.5 Years In Prison For Knowingly Infecting Boyfriend

An Australian man has pleaded guilty to infecting his former boyfriend with HIV.
Martin Peter Jaksic (image via Facebook)

An Australian man has pleaded guilty to infecting his former boyfriend with HIV.

Martin Peter Jaksic was diagnosed as HIV positive in 2010. But he never shared that news with the man he would soon meet and go on to date for six years even though he was fully aware of the risks.

In a Sydney courtroom on Wednesday, Jaksic pleaded guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily hard to his former boyfriend.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the 31-year-old told the court in a letter than he had been in denial after receiving his own diagnosis and admitted that what he had done to the victim was “cowardly and unthinkable.”

Judge Peter Zahra showed no sympathy for Jaksic saying, “The offender’s conduct was a gross betrayal of trust and a contemptible and callous disregard for the victim’s life.”

“At all times (he) would have been aware of the grave risk of the victim suffering serious illness which had the potential to be life-threatening,” the judge added. “The continuing effect of the harm caused to the victim is incalculable.”

The former boyfriend shared in his victim impact statement that due to his infection he now faces “internal wounds and emotional struggles” that will never heal.

The ex-boyfriend told the court that when he entered into what he believed to be a “close and loving” monogamous relationship more than 6 years ago, Jaksic did not share his HIV status.

Even though the couple had unprotected sex during their relationship, Jaksic never suggested using condoms or any other protection.

The victim added that after trusting Jaksic during their six year relationship, he nows sees him as someone who behaved “dishonestly, callously and ruthlessly.”

Jaksic was arrested at the airport in January 2016 attempting to flee Sydney.

He received the maximum sentence of four years and six months in prison.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 24 states in the U.S. have laws which specifically require persons who are aware that they have HIV to disclose their status to sexual partners.

Penalties vary from state to state with some treating the transmission of HIV as a felony and others as a misdemeanor.

There has been a movement, however, in recent years to repeal these HIV-specific laws due to the success of antiretroviral therapy which can bring viral levels down to undetectable.

In that the CDC’s current medical policy is that “undetectable=untransmittable,” many feel those who are HIV+ but undetectable shouldn’t be prosecuted in the same manner as they once were at the height of the epidemic.

The REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act was introduced in Congress in 2011. The legislation would call for a review of all federal and state laws involving the criminal prosecution of people for HIV-related offenses.

(h/t Sydney Morning Herald)

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Settlement Reached In California Prison Lawsuit Alleging LGBTQ Abuses

(photo credit: Donald Tong via Pexels)

In 2014, a group of LGBTQ inmates at the Alternative Lifestyle Tank at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga filed a federal class action lawsuit alleging hate speech by the prison guards and extreme incarceration due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

According to The LA Times, attorneys for the plaintiffs now say they have reached a settlement with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

Among the allegations raised by the lawsuit:

• Under the guise of “protection,” LGBTQ inmates were held in their cells for up to 23 hours a day

• The plaintiffs say they were subjected to derogatory hate speech and anti-gay slurs by prison guards and staff

• They were not allowed to take part in educational programs or drug rehabilitation programs

• They were unable to participate in work programs that could potentially reduce their sentences or attend religious services

The lead plaintiff, former sheriff’s deputy Dan McKibben, told the press at a 2014 news conference when the lawsuit was filed, “When you’re sworn, you’re sworn. And I took that oath.”

“These guys, every other minute, were violating that,” he added. McKibben died in 2016 before a resolution could be reached.

Veronica Pratt, a 33-year-old transgender woman, told The LA Times on Wednesday, “It was just depressing. It was demeaning.”

“It’s a struggle being incarcerated and then to have someone tell you ‘You can’t go to classes, you can’t try to better yourself’ because of your sexual orientation,” said Pratt. “It’s degrading.”

More from The LA Times:

The settlement agreement, which was filed in federal court in Riverside, would compel the county to offer more housing options for gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex inmates; lift restrictions on participation in work, educational, religious and community reentry programs; and establish a committee that will meet regularly with incarcerated gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people to discuss their housing options.

Transgender and intersex inmates will also have the opportunity to be housed based on their gender identity.

The settlement also includes a nearly $1-million payment that will be divided among class members. And the Alternative Lifestyle Tank will be renamed the GBTI Unit — gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex.

LGBTQ inmates will still have the choice to be housed in the newly-named unit, but the new agreement dictates that they will have access to rehabilitation/education courses and any other programs available to other inmates.

A spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department declined to comment because the settlement has not been approved by the judge.

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Seven Year Prison Sentence For Indiana Man Heading To LA Pride With Explosives

James Wesley Howell pleaded no contest to charges of unlawful assault weapon activity, possession of a destructive device on a public road or highway and possession of a destructive device. The 22-year-old was sentenced to 7 years in state prison on Thursday.
James Wesley Howell

Just hours after the deadly Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, two years ago, an Indiana man was arrested and police confiscated weapons, ammunition and bomb-making materials found in his car.

In court this week, James Wesley Howell pleaded no contest to charges of unlawful assault weapon activity, possession of a destructive device on a public road or highway and possession of a destructive device. The 22-year-old was sentenced to 7 years in state prison on Thursday.

Howell was found sitting in his car in Santa Monica in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, after police responded to a call regarding a man knocking on residents’ windows and doors.

From the LA Times:

Inside his car, police found three rifles — including an Anderson Manufacturing AM-15 .223 caliber rifle that police described as an assault weapon — and two 30-round magazines.

In addition to the guns, Howell was also driving with a full five-gallon container of gasoline and a 25-pound container of “Shoc-shot,” a commercially sold two-component explosive that detonates when hit by a high-velocity rifle round, Santa Monica police said at the time.

Howell also had a black hood, a Taser, handcuffs, a Buck knife, a security badge and additional ammunition for the guns, court records show.

At the time of his arrest, Howell told police he was planning on attending LA Pride, but the Indianapolis Star later reported he had been charged with sexually molesting a 12-year-old girl in Indiana.

As a result of the Pulse shooting and the dangerous materials found in his possession, security measures were heightened at the Pride festival.

(h/t LA Times)

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Florida: 11 Years For Human Trafficking/Gay Sex Ringleader

(photo credit  – Carl Juste)

The Miami Herald is reporting on what may be the first prison sentence for someone convicted of the human trafficking of gay men.

His captors raped him. One of the ringleaders, who sometimes wielded a sword, threatened him and his family in Hungary with bloodshed. If he slept with enough johns, the traffickers might give him extra food or a few cigarettes.

Even today, the ordeal has left his psyche in tatters, the 24-year-old told a judge on Tuesday.

“It’s really hard for me to socialize, to mingle with people,” he testified through a Hungarian interpreter. “I started drinking heavily to try and forget. I lost all my friends.”

His story — and the accounts of two other Hungarian men forced into sex slavery — convinced a Miami-Dade judge to sentence one of the ringleaders, Andras Janos Vass, to just over 11 years in state prison for human trafficking.

The 24 year old Hungarian man traveled to NYC in 2012 with two other young men after being promised they would be working for a legitimate business, and earn thousands of dollars.

All three men were forced to live in a cramped one bedroom apartment in NYC, performing sex acts at all times of day.

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Former Subway Spokesman Jared Fogle Sentenced To Over 15 Years In Prison

(image: Michael Conroy/AP)

Disgraced Subway pitchman Jared Fogle was sentenced to over 15 years in prison for charges related to sex with minors and child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, describing Fogle’s level of “perversion and lawlessness” as “extreme,” ordered Fogle on Thursday to serve 188 months in prison — 20 more than the advisory guidelines. Fogle pleaded guilty to one count of traveling to engage in sexual conduct with a minor and one count of receiving child pornography. He must participate in a sex offender treatment program while in prison.

Prosecutors had asked for a 12.5-year jail sentence, while Fogle’s attorneys had sought a five-year term.

Under a plea deal, Fogle must register as a sex offender after his release (he’ll be eligible for parole after 13 years), have his digital devices monitored and pay a $175,000 fine.

More at Variety.com

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Former GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia Sentenced to 2 Years Prison For Public Corruption

Former Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell (R), has been sentenced to two years in prison and two subsequent years on probation after being convicted on 11 charges of public corruption.

From Politico:

McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted of corruption charges in September, following a highly emotional trial filled with testimony about their rocky marriage. Bob McDonnell was convicted by a jury on 11 charges, while his wife was convicted on eight. Maureen McDonnell, who was present at the court Tuesday, is to be sentenced next month.

The defense is expected to pursue an appeals process.

The McDonnells were found guilty of seeking to trade official favors and the prestige of the governor’s office for more than $165,000 worth of gifts and loans from Richmond-area businessman Jonnie Williams.

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Gambia passes legislation imposing life in prison for gays and lesbians

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh

The West African nation of Gambia has passed a bill which would impose life sentences for “aggravated homosexuality.” Under the new legislation, charges could be brought against those who are “repeat offenders” or people living with HIV/AIDS.

Previously, the country sanctioned punishment for homosexuals with up to 14 years in prison. In 2005 the laws were amended to include lesbians as well as gays.

The bill currently awaits President Jammeh’s signature.

Jammeh has a documented anti-gay past. In February, while addressing the nation on television, Jemmeh said, “We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively.”

In 2008, Jammeh “instructed” gays and lesbians to leave the country or risk being beheaded.

(source)