On May 19, 2009, the Justice Department will monitor the election in the city of Philadelphia to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws.

The Department has entered into a consent decree with Wagner Industrial Electric Inc. that, if approved by the court, will resolve the Department’s complaint the company failed to properly reemploy Indiana Army National Guard Reservist Kevin Stenger in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

The Department has filed suit against the town of Garner, N.C., and the town’s board of adjustment alleging that they violated the Fair Housing Act when they refused to allow up to eight men recovering from drug and alcohol addictions to live together as a reasonable accommodation for their disabilities.

"Graduates, as you dive head first toward tomorrow, I call upon you to never loosen nor lose your grip on hope. The optimism that seems to come naturally with youth need not be lost as the years pass."

The Department announced today a settlement of a lawsuit alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in the design and construction of four multifamily housing complexes in the Spokane, Wash., area in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act.

The Maine Department of Education (MDE) has agreed to pay the United States $1.5 million to settle allegations that it submitted false information to the U.S. Department of Education regarding the state education agency’s eligibility to receive federal funds under the Migrant Education Program.

The Department has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Arkansas against the City of Marion alleging it subjected Stacy D. Allen, an African-American and a former City part-time patrol officer, to discrimination on the basis of his race when he was not selected for either of two full-time patrol officer positions in the Marion Police Department.

The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., on behalf of U.S. Coast Guard Reserve member Paul Sutton against the city of Chesapeake alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

In a lawsuit filed today on behalf of U.S. Navy Reservist Porotesano Faapouli the Justice Department contends that Fresno County, Calif., violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) by failing to promptly and properly reemploy Faapouli when he returned from active military duty with a service-related injury.

The Justice Department today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., on behalf of U.S. Naval Reserve member George Lawton against the Newark Public Schools (NPS) alleging violations of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

Special Litigation Counsel Kristy Parker, a senior attorney in the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section, has been selected to receive the 2009 Top Prosecutor Award from the Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE).

A defense contractor has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and has admitted to engaging in other bribery-related conduct in connection with contracts in Iraq. According to the plea agreement filed in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia on Dec. 18, 2007, and unsealed today, Diana Bakir Demilta, a U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

"The Department of Justice and this Administration are fully committed to supporting state, local and tribal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. The Recovery Act is not a one-time investment. Only by sustained investment in our communities can we make them safer and make them fit for long-term economic development."

A federal court in Boston issued a preliminary injunction ordering Excel Home Care Inc. and Diane E. Porter of Tewksbury, Mass., to comply with federal tax withholding requirements and to timely pay all future employment and unemployment tax liabilities.

The Department today has entered into a consent decree that, if approved by the U.S District Court in Fort Myers, Fla., will resolve its complaint against the Sheriff of Hendry County, Fla., and the Hendry County Board of County Commissioners.

The Department today has entered into a settlement agreement with the city of Chicago’s Board of Education that, if approved and entered by the court, will resolve a complaint of pregnancy discrimination filed by the United States against the board under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Giancarlo Pertile was sentenced to prison for tax evasion yesterday afternoon. U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz sentenced Pertile, the former owner of Art Marble Design Inc., in Moorpark, Calif., to 60 months in federal prison and ordered Pertile to pay a fine of $75,000. In January 2009, Pertile was convicted by a Los Angeles federal jury of five counts of tax evasion for the years 1998 through 2002.

On June 2, 2009, the Department of Justice will monitor elections in the following jurisdictions to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting rights statutes: the towns of Como, Drew, Greenwood, Isola, Louise and Meridian, Miss.; Bergen County, Middlesex County and the borough of Penns Grove, N.J.; and the town of Martin, S.D.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a judgment upholding the Navy’s termination for default of a contract with McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics for the A-12 stealth attack aircraft.

The Department of Justice today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to remand the cases of former Alaska State Representatives Victor Kohring and Peter Kott, who were convicted on corruption charges in 2007, to the District Court.

At the eighth annual International Competition Network (ICN) conference in Zurich, Switzerland, the ICN adopted new Recommended Practices for substantive merger analysis and presented two new reports on the analysis of tying and bundled discounting and loyalty discounts and rebates under unilateral conduct laws.

A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit today rejected a challenge to the conviction of James Ford Seale, a former member of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi. Seale was convicted by a federal jury in Mississippi in 2007 and sentenced to three life terms in prison.

"By focusing on increased cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments as well as enhanced communication within U.S. law enforcement agencies, the National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy we introduce today provides an effective way forward that will crack down on cartels and make our country safer."

The Department filed a lawsuit today against Essex County, N.J., alleging that it discriminated against a Muslim corrections officer on the basis of her religion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Four detainees, Chinese nationals of Uighur ethnicity who had been held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, have been resettled in Bermuda.

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has indicted James Wilbur Fondren Jr., on one count of conspiracy to communicate classified information to an agent of a foreign government and act as an illegal foreign agent; four counts of unlawfully communicating classified information to an agent of a foreign government; and three counts of making false statements to the FBI.

The Department today entered into a consent decree with Harrison County, Ind., Sheriff George Michael Deatrick, in his official capacity, the Harrison County Board of Commissioners and the Harrison County Council that, if approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, will resolve the Department’s complaint filed in March 2009 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.

The Department today filed a lawsuit against the state of Nevada and its Office of the State Controller alleging it violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) by refusing to promptly reemploy Arthur Ingram when he returned from active military duty and then by firing him after he filed a USERRA complaint.

Gary Moss, 37, was sentenced to serve 41 months in federal prison for conspiring to deprive individuals of their civil rights, and co-conspirator Devan Klausegger, 30, was sentenced to serve 51 months for the same charge.

Two Baltimore businessmen were indicted today for conspiring to rig bids at tax lien auctions in Maryland for more than five years. The one-count felony indictment filed today in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore alleges that Harvey M. Nusbaum and his business partner, Jack W. Stollof, participated in a conspiracy to rig bids in tax lien auctions conducted by the city of Baltimore and various counties in the state of Maryland beginning in or around the Spring of 2002 and continuing until at least Aug. 9, 2007.

The Department today entered into a consent decree with the sheriff of Bryan County, Okla., that, if approved by the U.S. District Court in Muskogee, Okla., will resolve the Department’s employment discrimination complaint against the Sheriff, also filed today with the court.

"Giving ICE agents the authority to investigate drug trafficking cases, enhancing information sharing capabilities between ICE and the DEA, and ensuring full participation in intelligence centers will strengthen our efforts to combat international narcotics smuggling, streamline operations and bring better intelligence to our front line personnel."

The Department has entered into a consent decree with the city of Marion, Ala., that, if approved by the U.S. District Court in Mobile, Ala., will resolve the Department’s lawsuit filed against Marion on behalf of Cynthia Y. Davis, a member of the state’s Army National Guard.

The Department today filed a lawsuit against the former owner and managers of Homestead Mobile Home Village, a mobile home park in Gulfport, Miss., for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against black tenants on the basis of race or color.

The Department announced that it has moved to intervene in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Jackson, Miss., challenging inaccessibility in Jackson’s public transportation system. The pending lawsuit, filed by 11 residents of Jackson with disabilities and two non-profit organizations that work on behalf of people with disabilities, alleges violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA).

Media executive John C. Malone will pay a $1.4 million civil penalty to settle charges that he violated premerger reporting and waiting requirements when he acquired Discovery Holding Co. voting securities. The Department’s Antitrust Division, at the request of the Federal Trade Commission, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against Malone for violating the notification requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act of 1976. At the same time, the Department filed a proposed settlement that, if approved by the court, will settle the charges.

Sims Lawson Jr., a resident of Killen, Ala., pleaded guilty yesterday to filing false tax returns for years 2002 through 2004. Lawson appeared before Judge R. David Proctor in Birmingham, Ala., and admitted that he failed to pay federal income taxes of $369,038 and state income taxes of $50,938.

The co-owner of a Martinsville, N.J., landscaping company pleaded guilty to participating in a fraud conspiracy at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated Superfund site, Federal Creosote, located in Manville, N.J. Frederick Landgraber pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey today to one count of conspiracy to defraud the EPA from approximately March 2002 until approximately June 2005 at the Federal Creosote site.

The Department announced a simultaneous lawsuit and settlement with the state of Texas concerning the care given to residents of the state’s 13 facilities for persons with developmental disabilities. Along with the settlement agreement, the Department will file a complaint initiating a lawsuit against the state in federal court. An independent monitor will be appointed to oversee the state’s compliance with the settlement agreement and the court will retain ultimate jurisdiction.

The Department today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against Stonescape Pavers LLC alleging that the company willfully violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) by firing Matthew T. Denning without cause when he returned from active duty.

A former Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) social work associate was sentenced to three years in prison for her role in a scheme to defraud the United States of her honest services in connection with her work finding suitable housing and daily care for mentally ill and disabled military veterans and then obstructing the VA’s investigation into the fraudulent scheme.

Herbert L. Corn, the former superintendent of the city of Rochester Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rochester, Ind., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in South Bend, Ind., to falsifying monthly discharge monitoring reports that concealed violations of the Clean Water Act at the Rochester plant.

Additional charges and defendants have been added to a federal case arising from the abduction of a boy from his Las Vegas home in October 2008.

A Kansas woman pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI during an investigation into allegations of fraud against the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) E-Rate program. According to the plea agreement, filed today in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., Mary Jo LaDuron, aka Mary Jo Gault, of Leavenworth, Kan., lied to FBI agents who were investigating allegations of fraud against the E-Rate program.

A former executive of Bennett Environmental Inc. (BEI), a Canadian-based company that treats and disposes of contaminated soil, pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to pay kickbacks and commit fraud at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-designated Superfund site, Federal Creosote, located in Manville, N.J. The former executive also pleaded guilty to participating in a money laundering conspiracy and impeding a proceeding before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The U.S. Department of Justice, on behalf of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, filed a complaint seeking injunctive relief against Peregrina Cheese Inc., Brooklyn, N.Y., and two of its officers: Javier Peregrina and Isabel Peregrina. The company prepares and processes a variety of cheeses, sour cream, flan and gelatin products and distributes them to specialty grocery stores in northeastern Pennsylvania and in the New York City area.

A former State Department employee was sentenced today to one year of probation and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for illegally accessing more than 50 confidential passport application files.

Jonathan Haynes, a former police officer with the Jackson, Miss., Police Department, was sentenced today for a civil rights violation for stealing money from a citizen during an off-duty encounter.

The Department filed a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee alleging it violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) by refusing to provide Michael Crivello, then an incumbent Milwaukee police officer, with a make-up promotional examination for detective that he missed while away on active duty military service with the Air National Guard and thereby failing to properly determine his reemployment status as a police officer eligible for promotion to detective.