National Roundup

Louisiana
$70,000 in settlements over prosecutors’ hardball tactics
The district attorney’s office in New Orleans has so far paid out $70,000 to settle with plaintiffs in a 2017 lawsuit over hardball prosecutorial tactics, including the threat of jail time for crime victims who don’t cooperate with prosecutors.

Settlements have been made with six individuals and one anti-crime organization, according to documents provided Friday to The Associated Press in response to a public records request to the district attorney’s office.

The lawsuit filed by civil liberties advocates said District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro’s staff used phony “subpoenas” that were never approved by a court and improperly used threats of jail to coerce reluctant crime victims to provide information.

Cannizzaro said the use of the fake subpoenas was halted after they were exposed by a New Orleans news outlet, The Lens. He has said the use of “material witness” warrants to jail uncooperative victims was rare in domestic violence or sexual assault cases, but sometimes necessary to prosecute dangerous criminals.

In 2019, a federal judge said some of the prosecutors named in the suit were immune from some of the claims. But U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo allowed much of the suit to continue, saying some of the claims “shock the conscience.”

Renata Singleton, the lead plaintiff, said she was jailed after she declined to pursue charges against a man who shattered her cellphone during a fight. The suit says she had ended her relationship with the man. She told a representative of Cannizzaro’s office she considered the situation resolved and did not want to risk having to take time off from work to pursue the case. She was also among three plaintiffs who said in the lawsuit that they received fraudulent subpoenas insisting that they speak with prosecutors.

Singleton has reached a partial settlement for $15,000 but still has some claims pending, according to the documents released Friday. Four other individuals have received $10,000 settlements and the anti-crime group Silence is Violence has settled for $15,000. The group claimed its leader was threatened with prosecution for complaining about prosecutors’ practices.

Claims involving Singleton and two others are pending against the District Attorney’s Office and multiple individual prosecutors as Cannizzaro completes two six-year terms as district attorney. He did not seek reelection this year. City Council member Jason Williams was elected to the post and will be sworn in Monday morning.


Ohio
Union still deciding action on officer fired in Hill’s death
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The union that represents Columbus police officers hasn’t decided yet whether to formally challenge the firing of the officer who shot and killed Andre Hill on Dec. 22.

The city fired officer Adam Coy, who is white, days after he shot and killed Hill, a Black man, walked out of a garage holding a cell phone. Police union president Keith Ferrell said Monday the organization is waiting for more information.

“I don’t think it would be fair for me to stand up here and tell you that Officer Coy did everything right, because I don’t know that,” said Ferrell, president of Capital City Lodge No. 9. “That’s not responsible for me to do that.”

Once the investigation is complete, the union “may or may not” file for arbitration.

However, in a procedural move Monday, the union notified the city of its intent to seek arbitration. Ferrell said the notification was necessary because the city didn’t grant the union an extension to continue its own investigation.

Ferrell said it’s not uncommon for the union, which represents officers in several central Ohio police departments, to choose not to fight an officer’s firing.

“We are fully prepared to defend our position when arbitration is scheduled,” Columbus Public Safety Director Ned Pettus Jr. wrote in a statement.

Also Monday, the union alleged the city violated several due process requirements during the Hill investigation and filed a grievance over those, Ferrell said.

The alleged violations involve rules over internal investigations procedures and the ability for officers to give their side of events. Ferrell did not provide specifics. That grievance is independent of any union decision about challenging Coy’s firing.

The city has yet to receive the grievance, said Glenn McEntyre, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, which oversees the police department.

New York
Bar association seeks Giuliani ban over ‘trial by ‘combat’ remarks
NEW YORK (AP) — Rudy Giuliani is facing possible expulsion from the New York State Bar Association over incendiary remarks he made to President Donald Trump’s supporters last week before they violently stormed the U.S. Capitol.

The organization said Monday that it has opened an inquiry into whether Giuliani should remain a member. Its bylaws state that “no person who advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States” shall remain a member.

Removal from the bar association, a voluntary membership organization dating to 1876, is not the same as being disbarred and banned from practicing law. That can only be done by the courts.

A message seeking comment was left with Giuliani’s spokesperson. The bar association said he will be afforded due process and be given a chance to explain and defend his words and actions.

Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, is Trump’s personal lawyer and has played a prominent role in the Republican president’s spurious fight to overturn his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat.

The bar association said it has received hundreds of complaints about Giuliani’s work to perpetuate Trump’s baseless voter fraud claims, which culminated in fiery remarks last Wednesday in Washington as Congress met to count Biden’s Electoral College win.

“If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we’re right, a lot of them will go to jail,” Giuliani told the crowd. “Let’s have trial by combat.”

The bar association said in a statement that Giuliani’s words “quite clearly were intended to encourage Trump supporters unhappy with the election’s outcome to take matters into their own hands.”

The bar association said it condemns the violence at the Capitol, calling it “nothing short of an attempted coup, intended to prevent the peaceful transition of power.”

“We cannot stand idly by and allow those intent on rending the fabric of our democracy to go unchecked,” the organization said in a statement.