Photo by: Jeff Chiu/APFILE – In this Dec. 24, 2020, file photo, a COVID-19 vaccination record card is shown at Seton Medical Center during the coronavirus pandemic in Daly City, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)A West Seneca couple is accused of using fake COVID-19 vaccine cards to enter Highmark Stadium for a Buffalo Bills game.
The Erie County District Attorney’s Office announced 34-year-old Michael Naab and 37-year-old Amber Naab were arraigned Monday in Orchard Park Town Court. Both are charged with one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, a class “D” felony.
According to the district attorney’s office, they are accused of intentionally presenting falsified COVID-19 vaccine cards at Highmark Stadium for the Buffalo Bills game on January 15 in violation of the vaccination policy.
In December, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law that made falsification of COVID-19 vaccination records a crime.
“Individuals who misrepresent their vaccination history, not only jeopardize their own health, but the health of all those they come into contact with. This legislation ensures that as New York opens up and many businesses choose to rely on checking vaccination status, the falsification of vaccination records will not be tolerated,” the governor said in December.
The district attorney’s office said this is the first case to be prosecuted in Erie County following the passage of that bill.
This legislation makes it clear that presenting a fake vaccine card, with the intent to defraud another person or entity, is a crime. I am committed to keeping the residents of Erie County safe, which includes upholding laws related to public health. These two defendants are accused of using a fake vaccine card to intentionally violate the rules at the stadium, potentially putting the health of other fans at risk. As I have stated before, if you present a fake vaccine card, you will be prosecuted.– Erie County District Attorney John J. FlynnMichael Naab and Amber Naab are scheduled to return February 22 at 5:00 p.m. for a felony hearing and were released on their own recognizance as the charge is a non-qualifying for bail. If convicted of the charge, they face a maximum of 7 years in prison.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:
The Georgians who joined a false slate of GOP electors to aid Donald Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election could face criminal charges, legal experts say, as federal officials launch a new inquiry into efforts to undermine the vote and local prosecutors ramp up their investigation.
The alternative slate, which met behind closed doors in a second-floor state Capitol conference room while Democrats formally cast their ballots in the state Senate chambers, were not a fringe group.
Among the members are state Republican Party Chairman David Shafer [photo] and state Sen. Burt Jones, now a leading candidate for lieutenant governor. Several well-known activists and party officials also were involved.
Read the full article.
This Feb. 5, 2013, file photo, shows exterior of the now closed Sweet Cakes by Melissa in Gresham.Everton Bailey Jr./Staff
The Oregon Court of Appeals for a second time Wednesday upheld a ruling by the state civil rights division that found that a Gresham bakery illegally discriminated against a same-sex couple by refusing to sell them a wedding cake in 2013.
However, the court found that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries did not exhibit religious neutrality in ordering Sweet Cakes by Melissa to pay $135,000 in noneconomic damages for illegal discrimination. The court sent the case back to the civil rights division to reassess the damages.
The long-running case began nine years ago, when Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer filed a complaint against Sweet Cakes by Melissa owners Aaron and Melissa Klein, alleging the bakery refused to bake them a wedding cake upon learning the cake would be for a same-sex couple.
The Bureau of Labor and Industries found in their investigation that the bakery had violated the couple’s civil rights. The Kleins appealed that decision, contending that baking a cake for a same-sex wedding went against their Christian beliefs.
Oregon law bans discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in jobs and in places that serve the public, such as bakeries.
The Oregon Court of Appeals originally affirmed the civil right division’s ruling in 2015, but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the ruling four years later. It directed the state appellate court to review its decision in the context of the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in a similar case in Colorado.
In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Supreme Court ruled on narrow grounds in favor of a baker who refused to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple, finding that a commissioner was openly hostile to religion in violation of the First Amendment’s requirement for governmental religious neutrality.
In making its ruling Wednesday, the Oregon Court of Appeals considered the Supreme Court’s decision in the Colorado case and a separate ruling from 2021 where the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Catholic foster care agency who said the city of Philadelphia violated its rights by refusing to work with the agency because it didn’t place foster children with same-sex couples.
In its ruling Wednesday, the Oregon Court of Appeals found the state civil right division ordered Sweet Cakes by Melissa to pay significant damages partly based on a statement Aaron Klein made to Cheryl McPherson, the mother of Rachel Bowman-Cryer, in which he quoted a biblical verse. The court found the state civil rights division awarded the damages despite finding that Klein’s statement had been incorrectly relayed by McPherson to the couple.
But the court found Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s rulings didn’t change its interpretation of whether Sweet Cakes by Melissa had violated the state’s nondiscrimination statutes.
“We adhere to our prior decision upholding BOLI’s determinations that Aaron unlawfully discriminated against the Bowman-Cryers based on sexual orientation, in violation of ORS 659A.403,” the court wrote, “and concluding that neither the state constitution nor the federal constitution precludes the enforcement of the statute against Aaron, even though the enforcement of the statute burdens Aaron’s practice of his faith.”
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