National Roundup

Colorado
Lawsuit: Fertility doctor used his own sperm to impregnate client
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — A family alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that a Colorado fertility doctor used his own sperm instead of that of an anonymous donor to impregnate a woman without her consent.

KUSA-TV reports that the lawsuit contends Dr. Paul Jones of Grand Junction committed fraud by using his own sperm to artificially inseminate Cheryl Emmons, allowing her to give birth to two daughters in 1980 and 1985, respectively.

The Mesa County District Court suit contends the daughters discovered they shared Jones’ DNA with a number of strangers this year — including cousins of Jones, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Patrick Fitz-Gerald.
It alleges negligence, fraud and other causes of action and seeks damages in a civil trial.

Attorneys Nicole Black, who represents Jones, and Ivan Sarkissian, who represents Women’s Health Care of Western Colorado, where Jones practiced, didn’t immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment.

Plaintiffs include Emmons; her husband, John Emmons; and daughters Maia Boring and Tahnee Scott. They live in Texas.

The daughters’ claimed discovery of shared DNA with at least five strangers — people born between 1976 and 1997 — came through use of Ancestry. com and 23andMe.com, KUSA reported.

The daughters confronted their mother, who disclosed earlier this year that she had had artificial insemination procedures by Jones to conceive.

Jones, of Grand Junction, refused to answer when asked if he’d donated his own sperm to father the children.

“I don’t deny it. I don’t admit it,” he told KUSA.

Jones, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, has been licensed to practice medicine in Colorado on July 11, 1972. He co-founded what’s now known as Women’s Health Care of Western Colorado, where the suit claims he saw Cheryl Emmons from 1979 to 1985.

Texas this year passed a law barring a fertility doctor from inseminating a patient without her consent. California and Indiana have so-called “fertility fraud” laws, but Colorado does not.

Pennsylvania
Paper: Family suit in police shooting settled for $2 million
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal civil rights lawsuit brought by the family of a black teenager killed by a white Pennsylvania police officer has been settled for $2 million, a newspaper reported.

A federal judge Tuesday approved dismissal of the suit against the city of East Pittsburgh and earlier did the same for a suit against the former officer. Federal court documents don’t include details about settlements or payment amounts, but Allegheny County court records for the teenager’s estate include the settlement amount, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Family attorneys declined comment, saying the documents speak for themselves.

Authorities said 17-year-old Antwon Rose was shot after bolting from a car during a June 2018 traffic stop. Ex-officer Michael Rosfeld, who said he thought Rose or another suspect had a gun pointed at him, was acquitted of homicide in March. Rose was unarmed but had a gun clip in his pocket. Protests followed both shooting and verdict.

The teenager’s parents, Michelle Kenney and Antwon Rose Sr., contended in their suit that Rosfeld had no reason to fire, that he acted out of racial bias and that he wasn’t properly trained. The former officer’s lawyers said he was conducting a felony traffic stop following a drive-by shooting when the youth fled with his arm extended as if he had a gun. The officer fired three times, killing him.

The law firms who represented the teenager’s parents will receive $400,000 each as well as reimbursement costs, while the remaining $1.1 million will go to Antwon’s estate, the Post-Gazette reported

Tennessee
Man gets life in prison for killing wife at office
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to shooting his wife to death at the dentist’s office where she worked, months after she filed a restraining order against him.

News outlets report 64-year-old Harry Clint Weaver was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison Tuesday.

Under a plea deal he also pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and aggravated domestic assault.

The Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office said in February that Harry Weaver fatally shot Kelly Weaver as she worked. Witnesses said at a March hearing that he burst into the office and screamed at her: “I told you I was going to get you!” A patient in the office with a concealed carry permit shot Harry Weaver and held him until police arrived.

Georgia
Judge: sheriff can’t put Halloween warning signs up
JACKSON, Ga. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked a Georgia sheriff from posting signs in front of the homes of three registered sex offenders warning people not to trick-or-treat there.

Judge Marc Treadwell in Macon ruled Tuesday that the sex offenders were likely to win their argument that Butts County Sheriff Gary Long’s signs violate their free speech rights.

The judge said the sheriff was forcing the sex offenders to accept his message that their homes were unsafe for children by forbidding them from removing the signs or putting up a competing message.

Long in a statement on Facebook cited a Georgia law that requires sheriffs to inform people about sex offenders. He said he will continue to fight for children, but there isn’t enough time to appeal the judge’s ruling before Halloween.

Louisiana
Wrongful death suit against officers dismissed
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing Louisiana correctional officers of failing to supply heart medication to a man who died from cardiac arrest the day he was booked into jail.

The Advocate reports Judge Greg Guidry ruled this week that jail officials tried to find out what medications Edward Murphy Jr. needed and administer them. But an Assumption Parish officer couldn’t say whether Murphy received a dose of his critical blood thinners. It’s also not known if those thinners could’ve prevented his death.

The 2018 lawsuit had to prove jail officials showed “deliberate indifference” to Murphy’s well-being, but Guidry wrote that officers didn’t intend to harm him.