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U.S. NEWSFriday 8 April 2016
Feds: Payday lender charged 700 percent interest on loans
MARYCLAIRE DALE the indictment. According to prosecutors, dictment said. it had no assets.
Associated Press Hallinan operated under In Pennsylvania, the law Hallinan and co-defen-
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The a string of business names he tried to evade state typically caps interest to 6 dant Wheeler K. Neff also
head of a payday lend- that included Easy Cash, percent on personal loans, steered at least one other
ing enterprise accused of My Payday Advance and consumer protection laws though banks can charge payday lender into a simi-
charging more than 700 Instant Cash USA, and de- up to 24 percent interest on lar tribal agreement, the
percent interest on short- frauded at least 1,400 cus- by looping in Native Ameri- loans below $25,000, fed- indictment said. And Hal-
term loans was indicted tomers. eral authorities said. linan’s companies took
Thursday on federal rack- He was released on can tribes as the supposed They said Hallinan, of Villa- control of various aspects
eteering charges. $500,000 bail after plead- nova, paid a tribal leader of the payday lending busi-
Charles M. Hallinan, 75, ing not guilty at a brief lenders so they could claim in British Columbia $10,000 ness, owning firms that also
led a group that preyed court hearing Thursday in a month to pretend that he generated leads and per-
on customers while taking Philadelphia. His lawyers tribal immunity from state owned the payday lend- formed credit checks, au-
in nearly $700 million from declined comment on the ing enterprise and, amid a thorities said. q
2008 to 2013, according to case. regulations and deflect class-action lawsuit, to say
class-action lawsuits.
Hallinan’s companies
charged customers about
$30 for every $100 they bor-
rowed, costing customers
700 percent interest on an
annualized basis, the in-
Court hears case of teen who sent beau texts urging suicide
DENISE LAVOIE In this photo, Michelle Carter listens at Juvenile Court in New Bedford, Mass. Carter, of Plain- “Even when she said, ‘get
AP Legal Affairs Writer ville, Mass., is charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly pressuring Conrad Roy III, of back in the truck,’ that was
BOSTON (AP) — Dozens of Fairhaven, Mass., to commit suicide in 2014. not the proximate event
text messages that a teen- that resulted in his death,”
age girl sent to her boy- (Peter Pereira/Standard Times via AP) Curhan said.
friend that encouraged Roy got back in his truck
him to kill himself were just Justice Robert Cordy ques- ing Roy to kill himself, Stern was way over the line when and waited until the fumes
words and do not consti- tioned Assistant District said, Carter also spoke on she told him to get back in overcame him, Curhan
tute a crime, her lawyer Attorney Shoshana Stern the phone with him while the truck,” Stern said. said.
told the state’s highest about what he called the he was in his truck inhaling But Carter’s attorney Dana “The undisputed evidence
court Thursday. “$100,000 question” in the carbon monoxide fumes. Curhan said Roy was deter- is that Mr. Roy inflicted the
But a prosecutor argued case: “When did this cross When Roy got out of his mined to take his own life. harm,” Curhan said.
that Michelle Carter pres- the line — when did these truck, she told him to “get He said Carter repeatedly Carter was 17 and Roy was
sured Conrad Roy III for words cross the line?” back in,” Stern said. tried to talk him out of it but 18 when he died in 2014.
weeks to end his life and In addition to the many “I think what we can say finally gave up about two They had met in Florida
engaged in “emotional text messages encourag- that we know is that she weeks before his death. two years earlier while vis-
manipulation” of a vulner- iting relatives. They kept in
able teen who had strug- touch mostly through texts
gled with depression and and emails when they both
previously attempted sui- returned to their homes in
cide. Massachusetts — about 50
The Supreme Judicial miles apart. They hadn’t
Court heard arguments in seen each other in more
Carter’s appeal of a juve- than a year before Roy’s
nile court judge’s refusal death.
to dismiss the manslaugh- “You can’t think about it.
ter charge stemming from You just have to do it. You
Roy’s 2014 death. said you were gonna do
The justices made it clear it. Like I don’t get why you
they were struggling with aren’t,” Carter wrote to
whether Carter’s actions Roy the day of his death.
met the definition of man- Roy’s body was found in his
slaughter, peppering both pickup truck in Fairhaven.
side with questions about Police found a gasoline-
exactly what she did to en- operated water pump in
courage or assist Roy’s sui- the back seat. q
cide.
Man accused of killing on loose from US psychiatric hospital
MARTHA BELLISLE er, 28, crawled through a in 2013. He had been ac- Services recently extended The state has a history of
Associated Press window of a locked unit cused of tying a woman to the hospital’s deadline for underfunding its mental
SEATTLE (AP) — One of two of Washington state’s larg- a bed with electrical cords fixing the problems from health programs, including
men who escaped from a est psychiatric hospital on at her home and torturing April 1 to May 3. its facilities, said Lauren Si-
troubled psychiatric facility Wednesday night. her to death, Snohomish monds, executive director
was caught Thursday, but County Assistant Prosecu- Officials are conducting a for the state chapter of the
the other, who had been Adams was found without tor Craig Matheson said. safety review of the hospi- National Alliance on Men-
charged with murder but incident Thursday morning U.S. regulators have re- tal and will bring in outside tal Illness Washington.
found mentally incompe- after someone recognized peatedly cited Western experts to help, said Carla She said she hopes fund-
tent to stand trial, remained him on a bus, Lakewood State Hospital over safety Reyes, assistant director of ing added during the re-
at large. police Lt. Chris Lawler said. concerns and threatened the Department of Social cent legislative session will
Police and hospital officials But the search continued to cut millions in federal and Health Services’ Be- help move the state from
said Mark Alexander Ad- for Garver, who was arrest- funding. The Centers for havioral Health Administra- being ranked lowest in the
ams, 58, and Anthony Garv- ed on suspicion of murder Medicare and Medicaid tion. nation.q
