Local News

Colorado Man, Operating Under the Nicknames “Penissmith” and “Botah”, Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Moderating Disputes on Darknet Marketplace Alphabay

FRESNO — Bryan Connor Herrell, 26, of Aurora, Colorado, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Dale A. Drozd to 11 years in prison, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott for the Eastern District of California and Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced.

According to court documents, Herrell was a moderator on the AlphaBay marketplace, an illegal website that operated on the so-called darknet. On AlphaBay, vendors, and purchasers engaged in hundreds of thousands of illicit transactions for guns, drugs, stolen identity information, credit card numbers, and other illegal items. At the time, AlphaBay was the world’s largest online drug marketplace.

Madera County Confirms Death from First Human Case of Saint Louis Encephalitis Virus in California in 2020

MADERA - Madera County is reporting a fatality from St. Louis Encephalitis Virus (SLEV) in a male in his 90s from August 2020. This is the first confirmed case of SLEV in the state of California in 2020 and the first case in Madera County since 1976. While preliminary testing originally suggested the West Nile Virus, further testing has now confirmed SLEV as the final diagnosis.

Saint Louis Encephalitis is transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. Testing of mosquitos in Madera had demonstrated one pool testing positive recently for SLEV. Mosquito abatement control was notified at the time of the original diagnosis and has been spraying in the areas where the positive tests were localized. SLEV is similar to West Nile Virus: both can result in infections of the brain, paralysis, and rarely death.

Atwater Police Investigating Possible Hate Crime Against a High School Teacher

ATWATER - The Atwater Police Department has initiated a hate crime investigation after a report of an African American Teacher at Buhach Colony High School being subjected to racial epitaphs and slurs during a Zoom online classroom event on Thursday, August 27.

Officers are investigating the circumstances around the event and are collecting digital evidence to determine the persons responsible. Due to this incident occurring across a computer network, responsible parties may be charged not only with a hate crime but with using a computer network to commit a crime.

Former PG&E Employee Pleads Guilty to over $1.4M Fraud Conspiracy

SACRAMENTO - A former PG&E employee pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and admitted to receiving kickback payments from a Stockton transportation company owned by his cousin, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to the plea agreement, Ronald S. Schoenfeld, 65, of Goodyear, Arizona, formerly of Dublin, California, while employed at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, conspired to obtain contracts from PG&E for his cousin’s transportation business in exchange for kickbacks from that business worth approximately 2.5% of the value of the contracts.

Founder and CEO of Fresno Substance Abuse Treatment Center Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Health Insurance Carriers

FRESNO - Orlando Gillam, 46, of Fresno, pleaded guilty Thursday to mail fraud in connection with false claims he submitted to public and private health insurers, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. According to court documents, Gillam is the founder and CEO of Dunamis Inc. Group Home, a nonprofit that provided services that included alcohol and drug treatment and counseling.

Between January 2016 and January 2018, Gillam falsely billed insurers hundreds of thousands of dollars for alcohol and drug treatment and counseling, mental health treatment, and group and individual psychotherapy purportedly rendered to multiple individuals. Those individuals did not receive the services billed, and several of them were not Dunamis clients at all.