Court Digest

Alabama
Man arrested in slaying of coach killed at Selma restaurant
SELMA, Ala. (AP) — A man was arrested and charged with capital murder in the killing of an Alabama high school basketball coach nearly three weeks after the man was shot to death outside a barbecue restaurant, authorities said.

Federal marshals captured Jerry Johnson at the home of a woman in Montgomery on Tuesday, Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson told news outlets. He said Johnson was accused of killing Dallas County coach Christopher Harrell during what was described as a random robbery at the business.

Jailed without bail, Johnson was set to appear in court in Selma on Wednesday, Jackson said.

Harrell, 56, had stopped to pick up dinner when someone tried to rob him, authorities said. There was no indication the shooting had anything to do with Harrell’s work as a coach, Jackson said.

Court records were not immediately available to show whether Johnson had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

North Carolina
Release: Woman went shopping with $150,000 virus relief loan
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina woman who lied to get a coronavirus relief loan spent the money on shopping excursions to Nieman Marcus, Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton and diamond stores, federal prosecutors said.

Jasmine Johnnae Clifton, 24, appeared in court Monday and was later released on $25,000 bond, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.

The release said Clifton applied in March for a Small Business Administration loan designed to provide relief to existing businesses harmed by pandemic shutdowns. She created false documents claiming $350,000 in gross revenue in 12 months for her online clothing business, Jazzy Jas, even though other paperwork filed in early 2020 showed the company was effectively dissolved in September 2019, it said.

The loan application was approved in early August and Clifton received $149,900, which she later spent at over two dozen retailers, also shopping at Ikea and Rooms to Go, the release said.

On Feb. 17, a grand jury indicted Clifton on wire fraud in relation to a disaster benefit and fraud in connection with major disaster or emergency benefits. If convicted, Clifton faces 30 years for each charge and a possible $1,250,000 combined fine.

Clifton’s defender declined to comment on the charges Tuesday.

Washington
Appeals court: Edmonds can’t enforce safe storage gun law
EDMONDS, Wash. (AP) — The city of Edmonds lost another legal battle this week in its effort to enforce a statute telling residents how to store their guns.

A three-judge state appeals panel ruled unanimously that the city ordinance “regardless of its arguable benefits to public safety” is “unambiguously” pre-empted by state law and provisions of Initiative 1639, a gun safety measure passed by voters in November 2018, The Daily Herald reported.

“My reaction is one of relief,” said Brett Bass, one of three residents who challenged the law with help from the National Rifle Association and the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation.

Monday’s ruling affirms an October 2019 decision by Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Anita Farris preventing the ordinance’s enforcement.

An appeal to the state Supreme Court could be the city’s next step.

Councilwoman Adrienne Fraley-Monillas said the city is looking at the ruling and what to do next.

The Edmonds law, which took effect in March 2019, required gun owners to keep their firearms locked up and inaccessible to others, especially children. It did not apply to firearms carried by or under the control of owners.
If anyone not permitted to use the gun got access to it, under the statute, the owner could be held civilly liable and fined up to $1,000. If an unauthorized person used the firearm to commit a crime or hurt themselves or others, the gun owner could be fined up to $10,000.

The measure passed in July 2018.

The next month, Bass, Swan Seaberg and Curtis McCullough filed for an injunction contending state law preempts local governments from enacting their own regulations related to the possession of firearms.

In October 2019, Farris mostly agreed, ordering the city to not enforce the storage aspect of the ordinance.

Texas
Judge bans enforcement of Biden’s 100-day deportation pause
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge late Tuesday indefinitely banned President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations.

U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued a preliminary injunction sought by Texas, which argued the moratorium violated federal law and risked imposing additional costs on the state.

Biden proposed the 100-day pause on deportations during his campaign as part of a larger review of immigration enforcement and an attempt to reverse the priorities of former President Donald Trump. Biden has proposed a sweeping immigration bill that would allow the legalization of an estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally. He has also instituted other guidelines on whom immigration and border agents should target for enforcement.

Tipton, a Trump appointee, initially ruled on Jan. 26 that the moratorium violated federal law on administrative procedure and that the U.S. failed to show why a deportation pause was justified. A temporary restraining order the judge issued was set to expire Tuesday.

Tipton’s ruling did not require deportations to resume at their previous pace. Even without a moratorium, immigration agencies have wide latitude in enforcing removals and processing cases.

But in the days that followed his ruling, authorities deported 15 people to Jamaica and hundreds of others to Central America. The Biden administration has also continued expelling immigrants under a separate process begun by Trump officials, who invoked public-health law due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The legal fight over the deportation ban is an early sign of Republican opposition to Biden’s immigration priorities, just as Democrats and pro-immigrant legal groups fought Trump’s proposals. Almost four years before Tipton’s order, Trump signed a ban on travel from seven countries with predominantly Muslim populations that caused chaos at airports. Legal groups successfully sued to stop implementation of the ban.

It was not immediately clear if the Biden administration will appeal Tipton’s latest ruling. The Justice Department did not seek a stay of Tipton’s earlier temporary restraining order.

Florida
Deaf Costco worker with mumbling manager won’t get award
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A deaf former employee of a South Florida Costco store won’t be collecting $775,000 a federal jury awarded her in a discrimination and wrongful termination case.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to reconsider a judge’s decision to overturn the 2018 verdict in favor of Christine D’Onofrio. An appellate court also declined to reinstate the award.

D’Onofrio had worked for Costco for 24 years, and said she never had issues communicating with managers until one arrived who mumbled, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.

She requested an interpreter or to have communications written down for her. Instead, Costco provided her with a video phone with online interpretation services. Managers then wrote her up for yelling too loudly into the phone. She sent a letter to the company’s CEO complaining about her treatment. Shortly after, she was suspended for a week, then terminated in October 2013, the lawsuit said.

Jurors in the Fort Lauderdale trial agreed with D’Onofrio’s claim that Costco didn’t provide a reasonable accommodation as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, but decided she wasn’t terminated because of her disability and in retaliation for her complaints.

Jurors awarded her $750,000 for mental anguish and $25,000 in punitive damages, the newspaper reported.

U.S. District Judge William Zloch overturned the verdict, finding that “no reasonable jury could have found in favor of (the) plaintiff.” Zloch ruled that D’Onofrio had rejected the video phone and online interpretation services provided by Costco.

D’Onofrio’s lawyers appealed, arguing that the phone and online services did not overcome communication problems that arose during her final year at Costco, the newspaper reported.

The company argued that it went beyond its legal responsibilities in providing the interpretive services and equipment to D’Onofrio.

In January 2019, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision found that Costco did provide reasonable accommodation to D’Onofrio and declined to overturn Zloch’s ruling, the newspaper reported.

The petition to the Supreme Court asked justices to consider whether the appellate court failed to apply the correct standard of review. Her lawyer, William J. Butler in Miami Beach, said he had no insight into the Supreme Court’s decision.

Oklahoma
Man released early from prison accused in 3 deaths
CHICKASHA, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma man who had been released early from prison in January as part of a mass commutation effort is now accused of three killings, including the death of a neighbor whose heart he cut out, authorities said.

A judge denied bail Tuesday for Lawrence Paul Anderson, who faces three counts of first-degree murder, one count of assault and one count of maiming for the attack this month in Chickasha, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City.

According to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, Anderson is accused of killing Andrea Lynn Blankenship, 41, and cutting out her heart. Authorities say Anderson brought the heart to his aunt and uncle’s house, cooked it with potatoes and tried to serve it to them before killing Leon Pye, 67, wounding the aunt and killing Kaeos Yates, the pair’s 4-year-old granddaughter.

Anderson sobbed in court during an initial court appearance Tuesday, The Oklahoman reported.

“I don’t want no bail, your honor. I don’t want no bail,” he said.

Anderson’s attorney, Al Hoch, indicated that he will seek a mental evaluation to determine whether Anderson is competent to stand trial.

Anderson had been sentenced in 2017 to 20 years in prison for probation violations on a drug case, the newspaper reported. Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted the sentence last year to nine years in prison, and Anderson was released after serving a little more than three years.

Grady County District Attorney Jason Hicks criticized the criminal justice reform that led to the commutations of hundreds of Oklahoma inmates.

“It is time that we do better,” Hicks said. “If we have the highest incarceration rate in the world, OK. We can look at our citizens and be honest with them and tell them that you’re safe. I can’t tell the people in my district today that they’re safe.”

Stitt’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Jason Nelson, Oklahoma’s interim secretary for public safety, has said that the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended commutation for Anderson on a 3-1 vote.

Oregon
Man who worked as UPS driver pleads guilty in I-5 shootings
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A Roseburg man who shot at cars along Interstate 5 in southwest Oregon from his UPS vehicle has pleaded guilty to multiple charges, according to county officials.

Kenneth Ayers, 49, pleaded guilty to three counts of attempted murder, five counts of unlawful use of a weapon, three counts of reckless endangerment and multiple counts of criminal mischief, the Jackson County District Attorneys Office said in a news release Tuesday. The incidents, investigated by the Oregon State Police and local law enforcement agencies, happened from May into August 2020.

“During the investigation, a number of the victims reported traveling near a semi-truck when the shootings happened, some identifying the truck being a UPS double or triple trailer,” the District Attorney’s Office said.

On Aug. 19, a woman was shot in the shoulder while driving on I-5 between Gold Hill and Central Point and police arrested Ayers about 60 miles (96 kilometers) away. He was employed by UPS as a driver at the time.

No motive for the shootings has been released.

His sentencing has been set for March.