Another Former Correctional Officer Pleads Guilty to Beating of Handcuffed and Shackled Inmate at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola

Today at the Judicial Studies Institute (JSI) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor addressed 24 judges from El Salvador, Mexico, and Panama as part of a Department of Justice (DOJ) training program for the judiciaries of the Western Hemisphere. Justice Sotomayor stressed the importance of their contribution to rule of law in the hemisphere and lauded them for their role in the transformation of Latin American justice.

Two West Virginian business owners were sentenced to prison today for conspiring to defraud the United States of employment and income taxes, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Michael B. Stuart for the Southern District of West Virginia. Russell Rucker was sentenced to serve 18 months in prison, and his wife, Karen Rucker, was sentenced to six months in prison.  

A federal court in Columbus, Georgia, permanently barred Stacy Lee and Heather Lee from preparing tax returns for others and from owning, operating, or franchising a tax return preparation business, the Justice Department announced today. The court also ordered Stacy Lee and Heather Lee to close their tax return preparation stores. Stacy Lee and Heather Lee consented to the relief.

A currently imprisoned Florida businessman was sentenced to an additional 20 months in prison today for willfully omitting assets from a pre-sentencing financial disclosure form he provided to the Justice Department, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida.

eputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen issued the following statement:
“Sadly, in 2017, more than 1,000 Americans died every two weeks from fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances. In an effort to combat this deadly drug epidemic, DOJ’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in February 2018 issued a temporary emergency two-year order that made illegal all fentanyl-related substances. Our country has seen a marked supply impact from DEA’s temporary scheduling of fentanyl-related substances during the past two years, with a 50 percent decrease in fentanyl-related substances encountered across the United States. However, DEA’s emergency authority expires at midnight on February 6, 2020, unless Congress acts to extend it.