Security News: Federal Indictment Returned for Columbia Man For Possessing a Firearm and Marijuana

Source: United States Department of Justice News

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — A federal grand jury in Columbia returned a two-count indictment against Nicholas Vanover, 25, of Columbia, for being a felon in possession of a firearm and simple possession of marijuana.

The indictment alleges that Vanover possessed a firearm after having previously been convicted of a prior felony and possessed a quantity of marijuana on January 30, 2020.

Vanover faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and is currently detained and has a detention hearing.

The case is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the City of Columbia Police Department. 

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William K. Witherspoon is prosecuting the case. 

U.S. Attorney Corey F. Ellis stated that all charges in the indictment are merely accusations and that defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

###

Security News: Federal Indictment Returned for Columbia Man For Possessing a Firearm and Marijuana

Source: United States Department of Justice News

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — A federal grand jury in Columbia returned a 3-count indictment against Kendrick Mann, 36, of Columbia, for being a felon in possession of a firearm, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute.

The indictment alleges that Mann possessed a firearm after having previously been convicted of a prior felony, possessed a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and possessed a quantity of marijuana with the intent to distribute all on July 5, 2020.

Mann faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine and is currently detained.

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the City of Columbia Police Department.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar J. Fyall is prosecuting the case. 

U.S. Attorney Corey F. Ellis stated that all charges in the indictment are merely accusations and that defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

###

Security News: Federal Indictment Returned for Columbia Man For Possessing a Firearm

Source: United States Department of Justice News

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — A federal grand jury in Columbia returned a 1-count indictment against Eric Grier, 54, of Columbia, for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The indictment alleges that Grier possessed a firearm after having previously been convicted of a prior felony on October 10, 2020.

Grier faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine and is currently detained.

The case was investigated by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the City of Columbia Police Department.

This case was prosecuted as part of the joint federal, state, and local Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) Program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar J. Fyall is prosecuting the case. 

U.S. Attorney Corey F. Ellis stated that all charges in the indictment are merely accusations and that defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

###

Security News: Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks at Justice John Paul Stevens Bar Memorial

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court. Actually, I do not think that traditional prayer is necessary today. I am certain that the request I will be making at the end of these remarks will please the Court.

The Bar of the Court met today to honor the memory of John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from 1975 to 2010.

Justice Stevens was humble, curious, and generous, both as a judge and as a human being. He exemplified open-mindedness, collegiality, and integrity. He was unfailingly well-prepared, civil, and intellectually formidable on every case he heard.

He modeled the best of the judicial craft and was a proud and tireless guardian of judicial independence.

Justice Stevens was born on April 20, 1920 in Chicago. He attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools for elementary and high school, and then the University of Chicago for college

Justice Stevens graduated in 1941 and had begun work on a Master’s degree in English when his dean asked him to consider cryptographic work for the Navy. He took the suggestion to heart and was commissioned as a Naval officer.

In his distinguished Navy career, Justice Stevens helped crack codes with important consequences for the war effort. He did this through his knack for seeing angles in problems that others missed – an ability that would be recognized throughout his subsequent career.

When he left the service, Justice Stevens pursued law school at the suggestion of his brother. At Northwestern University School of Law, he became co-editor-in-chief of the law review and graduated first in his class. His outstanding performance — and a fortunate coin toss with a classmate — won him a clerkship with Justice Wiley B. Rutledge.

Upon completion of the 1947 Term, Justice Rutledge gave Stevens a photo inscribed, “To my friend and former clerk, with appreciation and affection.”  Years later, Justice Stevens made a practice of inscribing photos to his own clerks in the same way.

After his clerkship, Justice Stevens returned home to Chicago. He became a leading litigator in private practice and argued a case in this Court.

He specialized in antitrust law, a subject he also taught as an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern and at the University of Chicago.

He accepted important opportunities for public service, including serving as Associate Counsel to a House Subcommittee on the Study of Monopoly Power, and as Counsel to a Special Commission to investigate charges of corruption in the Illinois Supreme Court. He took cases pro bono, including a criminal matter in which he won reversal of his client’s murder conviction premised on a coerced confession.

In 1970, he became a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. And then, in 1975, President Gerald R. Ford appointed him to the Supreme Court of the United States.

My distinguished predecessor, Attorney General Edward Levi, called Stevens “a craftsman of the highest order,” whose opinions were “gems of perfection.” 

In 2005, former President Ford reflected on the appointment with pride, writing of his presidency: “I am prepared to allow history’s judgment of my term in office to rest (if necessary, exclusively) on my nomination thirty years ago of Justice John Paul Stevens to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

As a member of this Court, Justice Stevens was independent, insightful, and prolific.

His vast body of opinions touched almost every corner of federal law. It would be impossible to do justice to that remarkable body of judicial work in these brief remarks, so I will limit myself to just a few examples.

In the realm of criminal law, Justice Stevens’s landmark opinion in Apprendi v. New Jersey was the first in a line of cases that transformed the law of sentencing — a line that also included Justice Stevens’s opinions in United States v. Booker and Gall v. United States.

His opinions in INS v. St. Cyr, Rasul v. Bush, and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld protected the writ of habeas corpus as a means of testing the legality of executive detention.

His opinion in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, holding that courts must defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, has charted the course of administrative law for a generation.

And in antitrust, his first love, his influential opinions in cases like NCAA v. Board of Regents and American Needle v. NFL have guided the principles governing horizontal restraints adopted by associations and joint ventures.

Justice Stevens’s time on the Court was defined not only by what he contributed to the law, but also by how he did so.

He was kind and unassuming, without any airs. He would often preface his questions from the bench with: “May I ask a question?”

He was a warm colleague both on and off the bench. The affection that his fellow Justices had for him was manifest.

He also made good on the words he inscribed on the photos he gave his law clerks: they were both his former clerks and his friends.

I first met the Justice a few years after he came on the Court. As a new clerk for Justice Brennan, I dropped by the Stevens chambers to talk with his clerks about a case. When he heard us talking in the clerks’ room, the Justice came in, plopped himself down into an easy chair, and immediately entered into the conversation.

It was clear that he loved the give-and-take of the conversation.

It was clear that this kind of discussion was central to the way he made up his mind about a case.

It was very clear that even though he was so attentive to what we thought, the final decision would be his, based on his own independent judgment.

And it was also very clear that his clerks loved being part of that process.

For a moment, I was jealous of the fact that he hired only two clerks, who would undoubtedly become closer to their Justice than the rest of us in chambers with twice that number. Then I remembered that, because they were not in the cert pool, those two clerks would be working on every cert petition filed that year.

But while he was a congenial colleague and boss, Justice Stevens was also fearless in going it alone — whether piloting small airplanes; disputing that William Shakespeare actually wrote the Shakespeare plays; rooting for the Cubs as a South Sider; writing the first drafts of his opinions; or concurring or dissenting solo when his views departed from those of other Justices.

He placed a premium on exercising independent judgment and was insistent on explaining the legal reasoning underlying that judgment.

He also believed that it was important to change your mind when you concluded that your original position, or even one of your published opinions, was wrong.

As he put it just a few years before his retirement: “Learning on the bench has been one of the most important and rewarding aspects of my own experience over the last 35 years.” 

Justice Stevens embodied the independence and commitment to judging each case on its own merits that is essential to the rule of law. When Justice Stevens retired from the Court at age 90, he had been working long after most people his age had retired. Yet, he appeared only to have become younger each year he sat on this bench. In the words of President Obama, he retired “at the top of his game.” 

Not that he really retired in any conventional sense. In the years after leaving the Court, he published three books, including “The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years.”

Although he traded tennis for ping pong, and acceded to his family’s wishes that he stop swimming in the open ocean on his own, he kept up the kind of pace that made many believe there might well be a second 94 years. In his last days, he flew to Portugal to participate in a conference. His travel companions reported that he hadn’t lost a step.

At the time of his passing in 2019, Justice Stevens had been retired from active service for nearly a decade. And yet, in the words of Justice David Souter, he remained “the soul of principle and an irreplaceable friend.”

Justice Stevens will long be remembered for his extraordinary service to our country, for his commitment to the rule of law, for his fundamental decency, and for the integrity with which he worked and lived.

Mr. Chief Justice, on behalf of the lawyers of this Nation – and in particular, the members of this Court’s Bar – I respectfully request that the resolutions presented to you in honor of John Paul Stevens be accepted by the Court, and that together with the chronicle of these proceedings, they be ordered kept for all time in the records of this Court.

Security News: Interim September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) Special Master Appointed Following Departure of Rupa Bhattacharyya

Source: United States Department of Justice News

The Justice Department announced today the appointment of August E. Flentje as the interim Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). Rupa Bhattacharyya resigned as Special Master on April 29. The VCF was created by Congress to compensate those who suffered personal injuries or died as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the rescue, recovery, and debris removal efforts undertaken in the aftermath of the attacks.

“I want to convey my sincere appreciation for Rupa’s 27 years of dedicated public service,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “I am especially grateful for her service as Special Master for the September 11th VCF. In her six years as Special Master, Rupa enhanced the efficiency of this vital program, helped it achieve permanent status, and garnered the support of the 9/11 community and Members of Congress.”  

Bhattacharyya was appointed to the position of VCF Special Master by the Attorney General in July 2016. She is a career civil servant who has held numerous leadership positions within the Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury.

Under Bhattacharyya’s leadership, the VCF has significantly reduced the time it takes to review and decide a claim, and has awarded over $8 billion in compensation to more than 35,000 responders and survivors who have become sick or died because of their exposure to 9/11 toxins. Bhattacharyya helmed the program when a bipartisan Congress reauthorized the VCF in 2019 to accept claims until 2090 and appropriated to it such funds as may be necessary to pay all eligible claims, thus ensuring both the program’s financial stability and that it would remain operational to assist victims of the 9/11 terror attacks for decades to come. 

The Attorney General appointed Flentje as the VCF’s Special Master on an interim basis while a search for a permanent Special Master is conducted. Flentje is a career civil service attorney with the Department’s Civil Division and has managed several Civil Division components for temporary periods, including the Torts Branch, through which the Civil Division has provided administrative oversight of VCF operations. 

The Department does not expect any interruption in VCF claim review or in the issuance of awards during this interim period.    

Learn more information on the VCF at: https://www.vcf.gov.