U.S. Attorney’s Office Atlanta

Canadian man who tried to lure Cobb teenage girl into sex gets 16 years

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A Canadian man who had flown to Atlanta to have sex with a Cobb teenage girl last year has been sentenced by a federal judge.Cobb teenage girl, Kell High School teacher indicted

Yves Joseph Legault, 54, from Toronto, will serve 16 years in prison for a variety of sexual exploitation charges that include his attempt to meet a 13-year-old Cobb County girl last year. He also will be on supervised release for life and will be deported to Canada upon his release from prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta.

Legault pleaded guilty in September to several charges, including coercing and enticing the production of child sexual exploitation images over the Internet. Federal prosecutors said he preyed on victims in Georgia and Mississippi at the same time.

He was arrested last August at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after getting off a plane for what federal prosecutors was a trip to have sex with the Marietta girl, whom he met via Omegle, an anonymous online text and video chat tool.

During Legault’s trial, prosecutors said Legault and the girl moved their chats to Google Hangouts, where he asked her to perform sex acts for him on a live video stream. Later, he arranged to travel to Georgia to meet her for in-person sex acts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the girl’s mother alerted the FBI after her daughter received a package from Canada, and after intercepting messages between Legault and the girl.

While Legault was facing charges in Georgia, prosecutors also said he had engaged in similar behavior with an eight-year-old girl in Pascagoula, Miss. He was charged there with one count of coercing and enticing the production of child pornography, and also pleaded guilty to that charge in federal court in Atlanta.

“Predators like Legault are always lurking on line, and a threat to our children. Hopefully his sentencing will serve as a warning to all parents to monitor what their children are doing on the internet and on their cell phones,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said both the Georgia and Mississippi cases are part of the U.S. Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood initiative to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.

 

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Former Cobb Medical Examiner sentenced in county drug case

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A few weeks after he was sentenced to federal prison for exchanging opioid prescriptions for sexual favors, the former Cobb Medical Examiner has been sentenced on drug-related charges in Cobb County.Former Cobb medical examiner sentenced

Joe Burton, 73, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday by Cobb Chief Magistrate Court Judge Joyette Holmes. In July, he pleaded guilty to several counts of racketeering, fraud in obtaining controlled substances, and violations of Georgia’s controlled substances act.

“No one is above the law,” Cobb assistant district attorney Jason Saliba said in a statement. “We prosecute anyone who distributes narcotics in Cobb County.”

Burton was given an eight-year federal prison sentence on Aug. 29. According to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office, Burton will serve his sentences concurrently.

The Cobb medical examiner from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, Burton pleaded guilty in federal court in May to being part of a conspiracy to illegally distribute opioid painkillers in exchange for sexual favors.

He was one of several people indicted in February by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta. According to his federal indictment, Burton issued more than 1,100 opioid prescriptions over a two-year period beginning in July 2015, amounting to more than 108,000 individual doses, including over 66,000 oxycodone pills.

Federal prosecutors said Burton prescribed opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone without conducting a medical examination of patients or even meeting with them at all.

The street value of the oxycodone pills alone, prosecutors estimated, was more than $2 million.

Three female co-defendants in the federal case had sex with Burton in exchange for receiving the drugs for themselves and for others, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

 

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Former East Cobb attorney indicted for wire fraud, identity theft

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Chalmer E. “Chuck” Detling II, a former East Cobb attorney, has been indicted for allegedly obtaining fraudulent litigation advances from clients and keeping the money for himself.Chuck Detling, East Cobb attorney indicted

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta, Detling was indicted by a federal grand jury last Wednesday of seven counts of wire fraud and eight counts of aggressive identity theft. He was arraigned on Friday in federal magistrate court.

Federal prosecutors contend he used “the identities of 36 former clients without their knowledge or authorization in order to apply for and obtain 50 fraudulent litigation advances, totaling hundreds of thousands dollars.”

Detling operated the Detling Law Group at 3020 Roswell Road from 2012-2016. According to a 2015 advertorial in the EAST COBBER magazine, Detling also used the same office for the East Cobb Mediation service for divorce and elder care settlements.

Personal injury and workers’ compensation lawyers occasionally obtain litigation advances from clients for non-ligitation expenses while their cases are pending.

Atlanta U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak alleged that between October 2014 and April 2016, Detling obtained personal financial information from clients without their knowledge or permission to apply for the advances, collecting $383,000.

Prosecutors say instead of forwarding the money to clients, Detling picked up checks himself or had money for the advances wired instead to his law firm’s account.

When making the financing applications, prosecutors allege, Detling provided fake phone numbers and e-mail addresses. They also claim he submitted documents for the financing that allegedly included signatures by his clients whom he knew “had not actually executed the agreements.”

Prosectors say litigation financing entities didn’t require the clients to be present when submitting the applications or when the advances were made.

“Lawyers are supposed to assist their clients, not use their identities to commit fraud.” Pak said in a statement. “Detling allegedly violated his ethical and fiduciary duties by using his clients’ personal information to apply for litigation advances in their names.”

Detling, who was admitted to the state bar in 2004, surrendered his license in October 2016 and is no longer allowed to practice law in Georgia.

In 2012, Detling was fined by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after admitting that he helped conceal a federal fraud indictment against a former client who was pursuing a municipal bond issue to purchase a casket company.

Detling also failed to disclose a $200,000 loan he made to the client, and was reprimanded by the State Bar of Georgia.

The FBI is continuing to investigate the wire fraud and identity theft case against Detling, along with the state bar, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

More courts and trials news

 

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Two men sentenced in Northeast Cobb drug trafficking case

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Two Cobb County men arrested last spring in a Northeast Cobb drug trafficking case that also included major weapons charges have been sentenced to prison.

Kyle Nixon, 26, was given an eight-year sentence, followed by five years of supervised release. Eric Gamez, 27, was sentenced to nine years and five months, with five years of supervised release.

The sentences were announced Monday by the Cobb District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta. Northeast Cobb drug trafficking case, Kyle Nixon, Eric Gamez

Nixon and Gamez were arrested April 6, 2016 following a joint investigation by the Marietta/Cobb/Smyrna Organized Crime Unit and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

A search warrant was executed at Nixon’s residence on Sanford Drive in Northeast Cobb, where authorities found 400 grams of cocaine and more 300 grams of heroin, which authorities believe they intended to sell.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, more than $13,000 in cash and 19 firearms, including an AK-47 rifle, also were discovered at the home.

The men tried to flee the residence, but were taken into custody at the scene, according to police. Nixon pleaded guilty in April 2017 and was sentenced in July. Gamez pleaded guilty in February and his sentence was handed down Sept. 14, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“These defendants were distributing cocaine and heroin while protecting their drug business with an arsenal of firearms,” Atlanta U. S. Attorney John Horn said in a statement. “Their actions disregarded the safety of our community, but swift action by law enforcement kept them from causing further harm.”