Court Digest

Illinois
Court: Lawsuit against MLB over foul ball injury can proceed

CHICAGO (AP) — An Illinois appellate court ruled Tuesday a woman struck by a foul ball at Wrigley Field can move ahead with a lawsuit she filed against Major League Baseball.

In upholding a lower court ruling, the appellate court said the plaintiff was not limited to arbitrating her case with Major League Baseball. It noted the arbitration provision was hidden in fine print and couldn’t be appreciated by the plaintiff.

Laiah Zuniga was struck in the face by a foul ball during a 2018 Chicago Cubs game. In the lawsuit filed last year, Zuniga says the ball knocked her unconscious, caused facial fractures and extensive damage to her teeth. She says she was hit because the stadium hadn’t extended netting that protects fans from foul balls all the way down the third base line, where she was sitting.

Professional sports teams have largely been protected from lawsuits. Language on the back of ticket stubs states the ticket holder assumes the risks and dangers that come with attending a game. The assumption of risk has been spelled out on ticket stubs for more than a century.

In its opinion, the court noted the likelihood a ticket holder would see or read the full arbitration provision by accessing a team’s website or visiting its administrative office is diminished further by the minimal effort on the ticket to draw the holder’s attention to the need to do so in order to understand they are agreeing to binding arbitration.

``I think it was a well-reasoned ruling,” said Henry Simmons, managing partner of the law firm representing Zuniga, noting a ticket holder is at a disadvantage when it comes to the conditions listed on the ticket stub.
Simmons pointed out the need to go to a team website to learn the terms of the arbitration agreement and finding out that ticket holder option of notifying them within seven days if you rejected the terms.

``It doesn’t make any sense,” Simmons said. ``That is the reason the court found it unconscionable.”

An attorney representing MLB did immediately return telephone calls for comment on the appellate court decision. The appellate court’s ruling can be appealed before the Illinois Supreme Court.

MLB issued recommendations for protective netting or screens in December 2015, encouraging teams to have it in place between the ends of the dugouts closest to home plate. The push for an expansion increased after a series of spectator injuries.

Before the 2018 season, Major League Baseball mandated netting extend to the far end of each dugout.

Louisiana
Suit filed in Black man’s death from fight with police

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Family members of a Black man who died after an altercation with police filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against a northwest Louisiana city, its police chief and four of its officers.

The four Shreveport officers named in the civil lawsuit were charged by a grand jury in Caddo Parish in September with negligent homicide and malfeasance following an investigation into the death of Tommie McGlothen Jr.

The new civil rights lawsuit says McGlothen’s death was caused by the officers who punched him, kicked him, beat him with a baton and used a stun device and pepper spray on him. It was filed by lawyers for McGlothen’s daughter and two sons, and on behalf of his widow, who died this year.

The suit also says McGlothen spent 48 minutes in a police patrol unit, unattended and handcuffed, with dash-camera video showing he was in respiratory distress before officers summoned medical help.

It claims the city’s screening, training and supervision of police is inadequate and that there is an ineffective system of review of police misconduct. It seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages plus coverage of McGlothen’s funeral and burial costs.

 McGlothen had three encounters with police within a short time span on the day he died. The lawsuit faults police for failing to take into account that he was showing clear signs of a mental condition — excited delirium syndrome — with symptoms that included hallucinations and violent behavior.

Part of one encounter was video-recorded from a distance by a witness with a phone. KSLA TV reported when it aired the recording in June that officers can be seen wrestling with a man on the ground, one of them punching him repeatedly and another appearing to strike him with a baton.

A spokesman for the police department declined comment Tuesday on the lawsuit.

Officers Treona McCarter, Brian Ross, D’Marea Johnson and James LeClare have pleaded not guilty in the criminal case. KTBS-TV reports that they have a March 29 court date.

After the four officers were charged in September, the Caddo Parish District’s Attorney’s Office issued a news release saying the case was reviewed by a “nationally recognized” forensic pathologist and experts on police use of force. The release said the investigation confirmed that excessive force was used on McGlothen.


Florida teen sentenced in hack of celebrity Twitter accounts

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida teenager was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison for his role in hacking the Twitter accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls and scamming people around the globe out of more than $100,000 in Bitcoin.

Graham Ivan Clark, 18, pleaded guilty to multiple fraud charges as part of a deal with Hillsborough County prosecutors, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Clark was the mastermind behind the scheme to take over prominent Twitter accounts and send tweets seeking Bitcoin payments, prosecutors said. During the high-profile security breach on July 15, tweets were sent from the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also targeted.

Prosecutors said Clark was tried in state court instead of federal court because he was 17 at the time of the crimes, and state law allowed greater flexibility to try a minor as an adult in a financial fraud case.

Two other men also were charged in the case. Mason Sheppard, of the United Kingdom, and Nima Fazeli, of Orlando, were charged separately in federal court.

West Virginia
Feds: Man sold devices to anti-government supporters

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia man has pleaded guilty to a weapons charge after he was accused of selling machine gun conversion devices online to followers of a far-right extremist movement.

Timothy John Watson entered the plea Tuesday to possession of an unregistered firearm silencer in federal court in Martinsburg. Several other charges were dropped under a plea agreement.

Watson, 30, of Ranson, faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. No sentencing date was immediately announced. Prosecutors said they will seek a stiffer sentence due to the seriousness of Watson’s alleged conduct.

Watson was charged after he was arrested in early September for allegedly running a website claiming to sell wall hangers. Prosecutors said they plan to show at sentencing that the devices could be actually used to turn semi-automatic AR-15 rifles into fully automatic machine guns.

Authorities said the devices were sold to supporters of the anti-government “boogaloo” movement, the code word they use for their talk of a second civil war. Their prominence has grown during the pandemic as the gun-toting supporters, many dressed in Hawaiian shirts and camouflage garb, attended protests against government shutdowns.

As a part of the plea agreement, Watson will forfeit 3D printers and parts seized during a November search along with items that prosecutors allege are conversion devices.

Prosecutors had said Watson’s customers included an Air Force sergeant in California accused of fatally shooting a federal security officer and injuring several security personnel last May and June. Authorities said Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo had used a homemade AR-15-style rifle in two shootings and wore gear with references to the boogaloo movement.

Prosecutors also said Watson sold the devices to two men in Minnesota who allegedly attempted to aid a foreign terrorist organization and built firearm suppressors that they believed they sold to the Mideast militant group Hamas.

Watson’s attorney, Shawn McDermott, had denied in a court filing that Watson belonged to “any so-called Boogaloo movement,” and said his client “would reject any ideology that is based upon violence.” He said Watson operated his wall hanger business legally and that his products are not designed to create automatic machine guns any more than a clothes hanger made out of metal.

Investigators said they linked Watson and his online business to the movement through a cooperating defendant in Minnesota who told the FBI he learned about Watson’s website through Facebook boogaloo groups.

The social media giant has tried to crack down on the group by not recommending user groups associated with the term “boogaloo” to members of similar associations.

Prosecutors found cryptic comments on Watson’s social media accounts made by apparent sympathizers of the movement. One message between Watson’s wall hanger Instagram account and a user mentioned dead “redcoats,” an anti-government reference, according to court documents.

Prosecutors also said Watson was raising money for a Maryland man who the boogaloo movement depicts as a martyr after he was killed by police in a pre-dawn raid.

Wisconsin
Judge arrested, suspected of possessing child pornography

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Wisconsin judge was arrested Tuesday on tentative charges of possession of child pornography, authorities said.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Brett Blomme, 38, was apprehended following an investigation into “multiple uploads of child pornography,” the Wisconsin Department of Justice said in a release. A criminal complaint was expected to be filed Wednesday, the DOJ said.

The images were allegedly uploaded through a Kik messaging application account in October and November. After linking the uploads to Blomme, investigators obtained search warrants for his chambers, his vehicle and his residences in Milwaukee and Dane counties, the statement said.

A message could not be left at a number listed for Blomme’s chambers. A home number for him could not be found.

New York
State Assembly hires top law firm for Cuomo investigation

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s state Assembly hired the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP to lead its investigation into Gov. Andrew Cuomo over sexual harassment allegations, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine announced Wednesday.

“Since Thursday, Chairman Lavine led a vigorous search for a top-flight firm to assist with the investigation. I have the utmost faith that Assemblymember Lavine and our Judiciary Committee will conduct a full and fair investigation,” Heastie said in a statement. “Hiring Davis Polk will give the Committee the experience, independence and resources needed to handle this important investigation in a thorough and expeditious manner.”

Leaders in the Democrat-controlled Assembly announced Thursday that they would conduct an impeachment investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by Cuomo, also a Democrat.

Attorney General Letitia James is also investigating claims that the governor sexually harassed or inappropriately touched several female aides.

Cuomo has denied touching any women inappropriately and has rebuffed calls for his resignation.

President Joe Biden said in an interview with ABC News on Tuesday that Cuomo should resign if the state attorney general’s investigation confirms the claims against him.

New York
Man sentenced for killing teen, posting photos online

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York judge sentenced Brandon Clark to 25 years to life for killing a 17-year-old woman and posting photos of her body online afterwards.

About 40 people attended the sentencing hearing on Tuesday in Oneida County Court and heard both from Clark and several of the victim’s relatives, Syracuse.com reported.

Bianca Devins was killed in 2019 after coming back to Utica, New York, from a concert with Clark in New York City. Clark admitted to cutting Devin’s throat and posting photos of her body online immediately afterwards.

Kim Devins’, the mother of Bianca, talked about the pain she and her family have felt since her death, and said they were haunted by the photos Clark took of her.

“So many people have been affected by the pictures, scarred for life and suffering from PTSD, unable to erase the image from their mind.

“No one should have to see their loved one in such a state,’’ she told the court.