North Carolina company owner pleads guilty over attempted technology sale to China
RALEIGH, N.C. — The owner of a North Carolina company pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to trying to sell electronic devices that have military applications to China without having a required U.S. government license, authorities said.
David C. Bohmerwald, who was formally charged in October with violating the Export Control Reform Act and other portions of the federal code, entered the plea to a count before U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle in Raleigh. Bohmerwald, 63, has a tentative sentencing date for mid-May, court records show. He could face up to 20 years in prison, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.
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Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Miami Herald
Former Haiti mayor who lied about killing opponents is sentenced to 9 years in U.S.
The former mayor of a small rural village in Haiti, accused of torturing and killing opponents in his homeland, was sentenced Friday in a Massachusetts federal court to nine years in prison for lying about the atrocities in order to obtain a U.S. green card. Jean Morose Viliena, 53, who served as mayor of Les Irois, in the country's Grand'Anse region, had previously been ordered by a federal court in Boston to pay $15.5 million in damages after being found guilty in a civil case of torture, extrajudicial killings, attempted killing and arson. On Friday Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the District of Massachusetts sentenced him to do time in prison, plus three years of supervised release, after a federal jury in March convicted him of three counts of visa fraud to obtain his permanent resident or green card. After completely his sentence, Viliena is expected to be deported to Haiti, which is routine for foreign nationals convicted of crimes in the US. Prosecutors said that when Viliena, already two years into his mayoral term, presented himself at the U.S. Embassy Consular Office in Port-au-Prince in 2008 to apply for a U.S. visa, he falsely responded 'no' to a question about whether he was 'a member of any class of individuals excluded from admission into the United States, including those who have 'ordered, carried out or materially assisted in extrajudicial and political killings and other acts of violence against the Haitian people.' That response allowed him to be granted the visa, which he used to visit the U.S. before deciding to settle in the Boston area. READ ME: Boston bus driver and former mayor in Haiti sued for human rights abuses in U.S. court Two months before his appointment at the U.S. embassy, Viliena and his associates had carried out an attack against an opposition radio station in Les Irois. Viliena, at the time the mayor, and his political associates beat a student during the attack and when the student tried to flee, a bullet struck his face, leaving him permanently blind in one eye. 'According to multiple witnesses' testimony, Viliena mobilized armed members of his staff and supporters to forcibly shut down the radio station and seize its broadcasting equipment,' the U.S. Justice Department said Friday in a statement announcing the sentencing. 'Viliena distributed firearms to his men, some of whom also carried machetes and picks. According to the evidence presented at trial, during this incident, Viliena beat one man and ordered an associate to shoot him when he tried to flee. As a result, the man's leg was later amputated above the knee.' Viliena first became mayor in December 2006 and served until February 2010. He returned to the office in 2012 as an appointee of then President Michel Martelly despite many questions around his appointment. At the time, United Nations staff flagged the appointment due to a murder conviction in Haitian courts against Viliena, but their concerns were ignored by Haitian authorities. As both a candidate and mayor, Viliena was backed by Korega, a political machine that used armed violence to exert power throughout the southwestern region of Haiti. Viliena personally supervised his mayoral staff and other armed supporters aligned with Korega and directed them to engage in armed violence to quash opposition to his authority, U.S. authorities said, citing evidence presented during trial. In addition to the radio station attack, witnesses testified about another brutal incident on July 27, 2007, when Viliena violently retaliated against an activist who had previously spoken at a judicial proceeding on behalf of a neighbor whom Viliena had assaulted. In an of reprisal that evening, Viliena led an armed group to the activist's home, where he and his associates shot and killed the activist's younger brother and then smashed the brother's skull with a large rock before a crowd of bystanders. 'His lies to U.S. immigration authorities allowed him to unlawfully enter this country and obtain lawful permanent resident status,' said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's criminal division. Viliena's past eventually caught up with him in 2017 after three of his victims filed suit against him with help from San Francisco-based Center for Justice & Accountability and the multinational Dentons law firm. By then, he had obtained his green card and had built a comfortable home as an Uber and bus driver. He also had raised a U.S.-born son. U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said while Viliena's victims were forced to live with the pain of his human rights abuses, he was able to build a life in the United States 'by burying the truth about his violent past — a past marked by by political persecution, bloodshed and the silencing of dissent in Haiti. 'For more than a decade, he lived freely and comfortably in this country while the victims of his brutality lived in fear, exile and pain. Today's sentence brings a measure of justice for the lives he shattered and sends a clear message: the United States will not be a safe haven for human rights abusers.,' Foley added. 'Lying to gain entry into this country and then lying again under oath to avoid accountability strikes at the heart of our immigration and legal systems. ' Both said Viliena's conviction serves as a reminders to those who commit violent crimes in their home countries: The U.S. will not be a refuge, and those who carry out human rights abusers and lie take refuge here will be investigated and prosecuted.
4 days ago
Former Georgia jail guard abused inmates with Taser and lied about it, authorities say
ATLANTA -- A former Fulton County jail guard has been indicted on federal civil rights charges after prosecutors said she used her Taser abusively against three inmates and then lied to cover it up. Khadijah Solomon, a 47-year-old Fairburn resident, pleaded not guilty to the six-count indictment in federal court in Atlanta on Tuesday and was released on bail. The troubled jail where Solomon worked has been under a federal civil rights investigation for the past two years and was also the site where Donald Trump surrendered on election interference charges in 2023. A lawyer for Solomon didn't immediately respond to an email and phone call seeking comment on Wednesday. The June 11 indictment said Solomon used her Taser 'without legal justification" against separate inmates at the Atlanta jail on Jan. 16, Jan. 25 and Jan. 27. The indictment alleges that Solomon then wrote reports falsely justifying what she did. In reality, sheriff's office investigators said body-worn camera video showed the pretrial detainees were compliant and not resisting. In the Jan. 16 incident, sheriff's office investigators said Solomon approached an inmate who was kicking his cell door and said she was about to 'pop' him before opening the cell and using the Taser on the inmate. Investigators said Solomon then stunned the inmate twice more. She later claimed in her report that the inmate 'was getting ready to throw' a tray at her. The sheriff's office in February announced that it had fired Solomon and two other jail officers — Chantrece Buggs and LaQuondria Pierce — arrested them, and charged them with state crimes including aggravated assault and violating their oath of office. Solomon, a jail sergeant, was also charged with cruelty to inmates and false statements or writings. At the time, investigators said Pierce had used her Taser without justification on an inmate on Feb. 13 and that Buggs had encouraged Solomon's violence. No federal charges against the other two were announced, and neither has yet been indicted in a state court. Pierce has the same lawyer as Solomon and he didn't respond to requests for comment. Natalie Ammons, a spokesperson for Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat, said the sheriff's office had worked with the FBI in the Solomon case. 'On three occasions, Khadijah Solomon allegedly tased Fulton County Jail detainees without a legitimate purpose, causing each of them pain and injury," U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement. "Abuses of power of this kind are unconstitutional, erode our community's trust, and will be prosecuted.' The U.S. Justice Department in July 2023 opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Fulton County, citing violence, filthy living quarters and the in-custody death of a man whose body was found covered in insects. That investigation found that jail officers didn't receive adequate training and guidance on the use of force and were found to engage in 'a pattern or practice of using excessive force' against people in county custody. The Justice Department and Fulton County officials announced in January that they had entered into a court-enforceable consent decree. An independent monitor was appointed in February to oversee that agreement.
Los Angeles Times
15-06-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Judge blocks Mayor Adams' plan to allow immigration agents in New York City jail
NEW YORK — A judge blocked New York Mayor Eric Adams from letting federal immigration authorities reopen an office at the city's main jail, in part because of concerns Adams had invited them back in as part of a deal with the Trump administration to end his corruption case. New York Judge Mary Rosado's decision Friday is a setback for the Democratic mayor, who issued an executive order permitting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies to maintain office space at the Rikers Island jail complex. City lawmakers filed a lawsuit in April accusing Adams of entering into a 'corrupt quid pro quo bargain' with the Trump administration in exchange for the U.S. Justice Department dropping criminal charges against him. Rosado temporarily blocked the executive order in April. In granting a preliminary injunction, she said City Council members have 'shown a likelihood of success in demonstrating, at minimum, the appearance of a quid pro quo whereby Mayor Adams publicly agreed to bring Immigration and Customs Enforcement ... back to Rikers Island in exchange for dismissal of his criminal charges.' Rosado cited a number of factors, including White House border advisor Tom Homan's televised comments in February that if Adams did not come through, 'I'll be in his office, up his butt saying, 'Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'' Adams has repeatedly denied making a deal with the administration over his criminal case. He has said he deputized his first deputy mayor, Randy Mastro, to handle decision-making on the return of ICE to Rikers Island to make sure there was no appearance of any conflict of interest. Rosado noted that Mastro reports to Adams and 'cannot be considered impartial and free from Mayor Adams' conflicts.' Mastro said in a statement Friday that the administration was confident it would prevail in the case. 'Let's be crystal clear: This executive order is about the criminal prosecution of violent transnational gangs committing crimes in our city. Our administration has never, and will never, do anything to jeopardize the safety of law-abiding immigrants, and this executive order ensures their safety as well,' Mastro said. City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is running in the Democratic primary for mayor, called the decision a victory for public safety. 'New Yorkers are counting on our city to protect their civil rights, and yet, Mayor Adams has attempted to betray this obligation by handing power over our city to Trump's ICE because he is compromised,' she said in a statement.
