National Roundup

Indiana
Judge apologizes for fight that led to his shooting
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A southern Indiana judge is apologizing for a fight outside an Indianapolis fast-food restaurant during which he and another judge were shot and seriously wounded.

Clark County Circuit Judge Andrew Adams pleaded guilty last year to one misdemeanor battery charge in a plea agreement with Marion County prosecutors, who dismissed two felony counts he had faced. Adams received a one-year suspended sentence.

He and fellow Clark County judge Brad Jacobs were shot and seriously wounded during a May 1, 2019, fight that followed a night of bar-hopping as they were in Indianapolis for a judicial conference.

The fight and shooting also led to charges  against two other men, including Brandon Kaiser, who’s accused of shooting the two judges. His trial on 14 charges is scheduled to start March 16.

Adams, Jacobs and Crawford Circuit Judge Sabrina Bell were temporarily suspended as part of disciplinary action taken by the Indiana Supreme Court in response to the judicial misconduct they were found to have committed. All three have since been reinstated.

Adams said he was limited in what he could say publicly before his reinstatement, but that he now wanted to apologize for the incident, the News and Tribune reported.

“I’m sincerely sorry it happened,” he said. “The incidents of May 1 by no means define me as a person, definitely not a judge.

“Everybody says ‘Would you change anything?’ Obviously I would have went back to the room earlier if I could change anything,” Adams said.

Ohio
U.S. judge dismisses lawsuit over transgender pronoun dispute
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (AP) — A judge dismissed a professor’s lawsuit against a small, public university in Ohio that rebuked him for not addressing a transgender student using the student’s preferred gender terms.

Nicholas Meriwether’s federal lawsuit alleged that Shawnee State University officials violated his rights by compelling him to speak in a way that contradicts his Christian beliefs.

Schools officials contended that such language was part of his job responsibilities, not speech protected by the First Amendment, and that the case should be dismissed. U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott dismissed it last week, agreeing that the manner in which Meriwether addressed the student wasn’t protected under the First Amendment.

He had received a written warning for violating the school’s nondiscrimination policy and unsuccessfully challenged his reprimand in a grievance process. Meriwether said he treated the student like “other biologically male students.”

New York
Judge: Top floors of new NYC tower have to go
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has ordered the developers of a condo tower under construction in New York City to remove several floors from the top of the building because it is too tall.

State Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry’s ruling last week instructs the Department of Buildings to revoke the building permit for the nearly completed tower on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and remove floors that exceed the zoning limit, The New York Times reported. The number of floors to be removed from the 52-story tower is not yet known, but the newspaper said it could be 20 or more.

A lawyer representing the project said the developers would appeal the Feb. 13 decision.

Community groups said in opposing the project that the developers, SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America, had abused zoning rules.

The building’s 112 luxury apartments are now being marketed, including a $21 million penthouse, which would likely be removed if the decision stands, the Times reported.

Oregon
Jury: Convicted meth dealer should lose home
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Yamhill County jury has concluded that police can seize the home of a woman convicted of a felony drug crime under Oregon’s civil forfeiture law.

Sheryl Sublet, 62, pleaded guilty in 2018 to selling less than 1,000 grams of methamphetamine, The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported. She was sentenced to six years in prison.

Sublet, a grandmother and military veteran, forfeited $50,000 in cashier checks found inside her home about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) outside Yamhill at the time of her arrest. The Yamhill County Interagency Narcotics Team then attempted to take Sublet’s $354,000 home.

Under Oregon’s civil forfeiture law, authorities can seize items from a person if they are convicted of a crime and if the property is suspected to be a proceed or instrument of the illegal conduct. The statute emphasizes that the value of the property forfeited should be “proportionate” to the conduct underlying the criminal conviction.

After a two-day trial, the jury determined Wednesday that the woman’s home helped facilitate her criminal activity and that forfeiting it to police would not be excessively punitive.

Sublet plans to appeal the decision, said her attorney, Zachary Stern.

“We don’t believe it’s appropriate for officers to police for profit,” Stern said. “Hopefully, my client is not homeless upon her release from prison.”

New York
Woman who says Rick James raped her in 1979 sues estate
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A woman who says she was raped by late R&B singer Rick James when she was 15 years old is suing his estate for $50 million.

The unidentified plaintiff says James raped her while she was staying at a group home in Buffalo, New York, in 1979. The lawsuit was filed on Thursday against the James Ambrose Johnson Jr. 1999 Trust, which is run by the singer’s estate. The suit was filed under the Child Victims Act, which opened  a one-year litigation window for victims  who were once blocked by the statute of limitations.

In the lawsuit, the woman said James was visiting one of the parents at the group home. She said he came into her room after dinner and raped her.

“He grabbed my hair and pushed my head into the pillow,” she said in the suit. “I tried to fight him off, but he told me to ‘shut up and quit moving or I’ll cut you.’”

The woman says she has suffered “physical, psychological and emotional injury” due to the alleged assault.

James, a Buffalo native, was convicted in 1993 of assaulting two women. The first case occurred in 1991, when prosecutors said James and his girlfriend tied a woman to a chair, burned her with a hot crack pipe and forced her to perform sex acts during a cocaine binge at his West Hollywood home. He was free on bail when the second assault occurred in 1992 in James’ hotel room. He served more than two years in prison.