National Roundup

Massachusetts
Gym teacher sued over sex abuse allegations fired
DUXBURY, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts middle school gym teacher accused in a lawsuit of raping a student years ago has been fired, school district officials said.

Duxbury schools Superintendent John Antonucci said during a school committee meeting on Tuesday that Duxbury Middle School teacher John Blake was fired effective April 1 after an internal investigation.

Blake, who was also the varsity boys hockey coach at Duxbury High School for nearly two decades, was placed on administrative leave in November after a couple alleged that he sexually assaulted their son while he was in middle school in the mid-2000s. Joseph and Melissa Foley filed the $1 million lawsuit against Blake and the school district last week.

Their son, Joseph Parker Foley, died of an accidental drug overdose last October at age 27.

Antonucci said police have received more than a dozen anonymous tips about Blake's alleged behavior but no criminal charges have been filed.

Blake has denied the allegations, and his lawyer, Kevin Reddington, said Blake passed a polygraph test Monday.

"People are making assumptions about John Blake that are way off base," Reddington told The Boston Globe. "This case is absolutely malicious and not based on any factual evidence whatsoever."

Ohio
Report accuses Columbus Zoo top executives of misusing funds
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The former president and chief financial officer of the Columbus Zoo arranged for relatives to live in houses owned by the zoo and used its marketing sporting event tickets for their own personal use, according to findings released Tuesday by a law firm hired by the zoo's board.

The president, who was also the CEO, kept a $45,000 RV purchased by the zoo for his own exclusive use before it was sold to recoup revenue lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the preliminary report also said.

The executives are also being investigated after a $2 million contract for construction work was awarded to a company that didn't go through the competitive bidding or accounting processes.

The zoo hired Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP to investigate Tom Stalf, then president and CEO, and Greg Bell, then CFO, after a Columbus Dispatch investigation uncovered apparent improprieties by the two top executives. The preliminary findings were uncovered in a news release Tuesday evening. Both Stalf, 52, and Bell, 61, had resigned March 29 after the allegations became public.

Neither Stalf nor Bell could be reached Tuesday night.

A spokesperson for the zoo said in an emailed statement that the board has "engaged a forensic auditor to delve into questions" beyond this initial investigation. Nicolle Gomez Racey also said that the zoo will cooperate with an investigation opened Thursday by Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

According to the investigation's findings, the two former executives personally used suites procured and paid for by the zoo at Ohio State basketball games and Columbus Blue Jackets' hockey games. Stalf, according to the report, said he used a suite only one time. Bell admitted to obtaining 60 tickets to Blue Jackets' games for his son and his friends. Stalf and Bell did not reimburse the zoo, the report said.

Both Stalf and Bell arranged for their relatives to live in houses owned by the zoo, the investigation uncovered. Bell rented one of the houses to a friend of his daughter's and she also eventually moved in. It was never offered to zoo employees or advertised to the public, the report found. Bell's daughter left the house last month when the investigation opened.

Stalf also used an RV paid for by the zoo to take him and his family to Put-In-Bay, an island in Lake Erie.

The report said that Stalf awarded a $2 million construction contract for work to a company he chose without going through the competitive bidding process. The accounting process for the bid was done by Bell, rather than through proper channels. The law firm said they are still examining whether Bell or Stalf personally benefitted from that.

The report recommended that the Columbus Zoo undertake an audit to find out how much Stalf and Bell might owe the zoo in reimbursement funds. It also recommended competitive bidding for contracts and for the zoo to review its conflict of interest and ethics policies.

California
Lawsuit blames LAPD for death of burglary suspect
A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges police caused the wrongful death of a burglary suspect by improperly using a stun gun and excessive force after the man had surrendered.

Police officers Tased Daniel Rivera, 37, four times and kneeled on his back after he had surrendered and was on his stomach in a paved wash in the Arleta neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley last August, according to the federal suit filed on behalf of his mother and son.

Officers had been called to the scene by a report that a man was trying to enter homes and they spotted Rivera, who jumped a fence and went down into the wash, authorities said.

Video from a police body camera shows a half-dozen officers around Rivera in the wash. The video shows officers struggling to handcuff Rivera, who seems to be tensing his hands. Officers repeatedly warn him to stop resisting. After some minutes he is cuffed and his legs hobbled. Police then call for medical assistance.

About eight minutes after paramedics arrived, Rivera became unconscious, according to a Los Angeles County medical examiner's report. He died at the scene.

The lawsuit alleges that Rivera had surrendered, posed no threat and had shown signs of struggling to breathe yet even after he lay motionless, officers didn't perform first aid and delayed calling for medical help.

The lawsuit contends that officers caused Rivera's death by "piling on" him as he lay face down, Tasing him four times, using their full body weight to restrain him and causing "positional asphyxiation."

The LAPD says it can't comment on pending litigation.

The coroner's report found no evidence that he suffered asphyxiation but it concluded the death was homicide — meaning there was human involvement — and cited "law enforcement restraint maneuvers and methamphetamine use" as contributing factors.

The report also noted that Rivera had an enlarged heart but said that wasn't related to the immediate cause of death.

The suit against the city, Police Chief Michel Moore and several officers alleges wrongful death, unreasonable search and seizure, use of excessive force, assault and civil rights violations.