National Roundup

California
Fresno to pay over $9M in fatal police shootings
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — The city of Fresno will pay $9.3 million to settle two lawsuits with the families of a teenager and a man fatally shot by police in separate shootings.

Officials reached a $4.9 million tentative settlement with the family of 16-year-old Isiah Murrietta-Golding, who was killed as he fled from police in 2017. The city also dropped its appeal and agreed to settle a separate case and pay the family of Casimero “Shane” Casillas $4.4 million. Casillas was killed by police in 2015, the Fresno Bee reported Sunday.

“These are two very difficult cases that the council wants to bring closure to the families that acknowledges loss and allows the city to pursue other settlements,” Councilmember Miguel Arias told the Fresno Bee. “I want to sincerely express our apologies and sympathies to the families. It’s my hope that the settlements allow the families to move forward.”

The council is looking to clear out pending cases in order to implement police reform recommendations in good faith, Arias said. Officials have confirmed that about two dozen of the 70-plus recommendations made by the Fresno Commission for Police Reform are in the works.

Video of the shooting showed Sgt. Ray Villalvazo firing a single round that struck the back of the head of Murrietta-Golding as he ran away from police. Police said he was a suspect in a fatal shooting the previous day.

Some people were further outraged when a body-worn camera captured what seems to be another officer saying “good shot,” as the boy lay dying on April 16, 2017.

The Fresno Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, Fresno County District Attorney’s Office and the city of Fresno’s Office of Independent Review all deemed the lethal force justified.

In the case of Casillas, a jury awarded $4.4 million to his family in 2019 but the city appealed the decision.

The Casillas family sued the city over their father’s death, alleging Officer Trevor Shipman violated Casillas’ civil rights by using excessive force when he confronted him on Sept. 7, 2015.

Shipman shot Casillas three times after what began as a traffic stop escalated into a confrontation. Shipman testified he fired his weapon at Casillas after he rushed toward him with a 2-foot-long (0.6-meter-long) metal pipe.

An investigation found Shipman to be justified in using deadly force against Casillas.

Connecticut
Lawsuits make new sex abuse claims against Legion of Christ
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Legion of Christ, a Roman Catholic order disgraced by sexual abuse committed by its founder and other clergy, is facing new allegations of molestation of children in lawsuits filed this month in Connecticut, where it is based.

Five men and a woman sued the order in federal court on April 14 and 15, saying they were victims of sexual crimes when they attended schools run by the Legion of Christ in New Hampshire and Rhode Island in the 1990s when they were children.

A spokesperson for the order said Monday that it was reviewing the complaints.

“The Legionaries of Christ respect everyone who comes forth with these types of allegations and are committed to creating and maintaining a safe environment for all children and all people who interact with its members and are involved in its ministries,” spokesperson Gail Gore said.

The five men allege they were fondled and subjected to other abuse while attending the Immaculate Conception Apostolic School in Center Harbor, New Hampshire. The woman claims a staff member exposed himself to her when she attended Immaculate Conception Academy in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

The men, known in court documents as John Does 1 through 5, are from Grants Pass, Oregon, Bellevue, Ohio, Sacramento, California, Fenton, Michigan, and Immokalee, Florida. The woman is from Auburn, California.

Three of the men allege they were abused by a member of the order. A fourth says he was molested by another member of the legion. The fifth man alleges he was abused by another student at the New Hampshire school. The woman says a legion member exposed himself to her at the Rhode Island academy.

The Legion of Christ, headquartered in Cheshire, Connecticut, has faced legal battles in the U.S. stemming from the fallout of a sexual abuse scandal involving the order’s founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, and church officials. A church investigation determined Maciel sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children. The Vatican took over the order in 2010, and Pope Benedict XVI ordered wholesale reform.

In a report released last month, the order said 27 Legion of Christ priests were known to have committed sexual abuse from 1941 to 2020, representing 2% of the 1,380 order members ordained to priesthood around the world throughout the order’s history. The report also said there were about 170 minors who were sexually abused by the priests.

Two of the priests were convicted in criminal courts, three died without being tried and the others have not been prosecuted, the report said. Sixteen of the 27 priests were sanctioned by the church, and another eight are facing disciplinary proceedings.

In 2019, the Legion of Christ acknowledged that four priests at the New Hampshire school, which closed in 2015, had abused students.

In 2012, the Rhode Island school closed after dozens of women said they endured psychological abuse that led to multiple cases of anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Tennessee
Former deputy gets 18 years in prison for child exploitation
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A former West Tennessee sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced to more than 18 years in federal prison for obtaining and viewing child sexual abuse images over the internet.

Matthew Berry, 42, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Jackson. He is a former Crockett County sheriff’s deputy, and he had also worked previously as an officer in Halls, Ripley, Maury City and Brownsville.

Berry pleaded guilty in September to charges that he obtained sexual abuse images of children. Prosecutors said Berry was identified in 2019 after an undercover operative with the police department in Michigan City, Indiana, found a computer that was making the images available over the internet.

Agents went to Berry’s home in Bells, and he told investigators that he had been watching child sexual abuse material for “a long time,” prosecutors said. Examination of Berry’s digital devices showed he had been seeking out the material since at least 2002.