Hydrocodone tablets with prescription bottle

Physician convicted for unlawfully prescribing over 1 million opioid pills in a single year

A physician was convicted for unlawfully prescribing more than one million pills of the opioid hydrocodone.    According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, James Pierre, 52, a doctor, of Houston, Texas, unlawfully prescribed controlled substances from June 2015 through July 2016 to individuals posing as patients at West Parker Medical Clinic (West […]

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson photo courtesy Wikipedia

GOP senators attack and interrupt Judge Jackson in final day of questioning U.S. Supreme Court nominee

(Missouri Independent) – In the third day of hearings Wednesday on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, several Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee interrogated her about sentences she handed down for child pornography offenses, disagreeing vehemently with her judicial decisions. Republicans grilled her with questions she had already answered […]

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson photo courtesy Wikipedia

Ketanji Brown Jackson vows to decide U.S. Supreme Court cases from a ‘neutral posture’

(Missouri Independent) – Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson began her four-day confirmation process to become the nation’s first Black female associate justice on Monday, listening to hours of opening statements from Senate Judiciary Committee members before giving her own. In her first public remarks since President Joe Biden nominated her last month, Jackson, who grew […]

Prison Sentence news graphic

Judge sentences Missouri woman to 9-1/2 years in federal prison on drug and gun charges

Kietra R. Studdard, age 44, of Fenton, Missouri appeared before United States District Court Judge Sarah E. Pitlyk and pleaded guilty. Studdard was sentenced to 115 months in federal prison for possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine; possession of pseudoephedrine with intent to manufacture methamphetamine, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.  […]

Illegal Firearms and firearm theft

Irondale, Missouri man sentenced to 8 years in federal prison for possession of a firearm by convicted felon

The United States Attorney’s Office announced that Eli B. Rawlins, age 35, of Irondale, Missouri, was sentenced to 96 months in federal prison for the offense of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Rawlins appeared for his plea and sentencing hearing today before United States District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr. at the federal courthouse […]

Smuggling Scheme News Graphic

Federal correctional officer charged, former prison nurse pleads guilty in bribery and contraband smuggling schemes

A former nurse at Leavenworth Detention Center has pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle contraband into the prison, and a federal grand jury in the District of Kansas has returned an indictment charging a former correctional officer with a similar scheme.   According to court documents, Jeane Arnette, 61, of Leavenworth, Kansas, previously worked at […]

Gavel with word indictment news graphic

Former corrections official indicted for sexually assaulting a dozen female inmates while serving as a nurse

A federal indictment was unsealed in Portland, Oregon, charging a former Oregon Department of Corrections employee with sexually assaulting a dozen female inmates while serving as a nurse at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Oregon’s only women’s prison. Tony Daniel Klein, 37, of Clackamas County, Oregon, is charged with 21 counts of depriving the victims […]