Court Digest

Detroit
AG defends charges in man’s death at mall in 2014
DETROIT (AP) — New evidence and a fresh look led to charges against four security guards in the 2014 death of a Black man who stopped breathing during a struggle at a suburban Detroit mall, Michigan’s attorney general said Thursday.

McKenzie Cochran’s case got renewed attention last year during a local race for prosecutor and amid outrage over the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was pinned to the ground by Minneapolis police.

“Law enforcement doesn’t always get things right,” said Attorney General Dana Nessel, referring to wrongful convictions. “But it is equally important for us to recognize that justice is also undermined when those who are guilty of abhorrent crimes are allowed to go free.”

Cochran, 25, struggled with guards and was hit with pepper spray at Northland Mall in Southfield nearly eight years ago. He was trapped on the ground and handcuffed before dying of compression asphyxiation.

Cochran “repeatedly told security guards that he could not breathe,” Nessel said, citing witnesses.

Moments earlier, a jewelry store had reported that Cochran was making threats.

Jessica Cooper, the Oakland County prosecutor at the time, declined to file charges, saying the guards had no intent to harm Cochran.

But Nessel this week filed involuntary manslaughter charges against four men, claiming death occurred during negligent acts. They are Lucius Hamilton, John Seiberling, Gaven King and Aaron Maree.

“We do have additional evidence that (Cooper) did not have in 2014,” Nessel said. “Whether or not that information, had it been available, would have made a difference in her assessment, I can’t tell you.”

King’s attorney said the charge wasn’t warranted. There was no immediate response to requests for comment from lawyers for Hamilton and Seiberling. No attorney was listed yet for Maree.

In a statement, Cochran’s family said they were “overwhelmed with joy and hope” about the reopening of the case.

Nessel acknowledged that evidence gathered by the family’s attorneys during a civil lawsuit was shared with investigators. She also suggested the guards didn’t follow internal policies about the use of handcuffs.

Karen McDonald, the new prosecutor in Oakland County, raised the Cochran case in her campaign to defeat Cooper. She welcomed the charges.

“We have moved forward as a community, as a state, as a country, and we no longer swipe these things to the side when we know there’s been wrongdoing,” McDonald said at Nessel’s news conference.

Illinois
Man gets 31⁄2 years for stealing from charity
CHICAGO (AP) — A suburban Chicago man who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $831,000 from a charity he ran for kids with disabilities and spending the money on golf outings, luxury vacations and tickets to NBA games has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in federal prison.

“This was just simple greed and it was your attempt to live a life that you couldn’t afford,” U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis told 45-year-old Stuart Nitzkin as she sentenced him Thursday, about five months after the Deerfield man pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

For five years starting in 2011, Nitzkin submitted bogus invoices and receipts to finance his expensive lifestyle while he worked as the executive director of American Friends of the Israel Sports Center for the Disabled.

He spent the money on family vacations to places such as Scotland, Puerto Rico and Las Vegas, but also on more mundane expenses such as health club dues and car repairs, he admitted in his plea agreement.

Nitzkin’s attorneys Adam and Barry Sheppard, who sought probation, wrote in a court memo before the hearing that Nitzkin had raised more than $11 million for the charity and that contributions surged with him at the helm.

But in asking for a lengthy prison sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sheri Mecklenburg pointed in her own memo to the harm Nitzkin did by stealing from the charity.

“The money raised by the charity paid not just for sporting events for the children, but also for wheelchairs, therapeutic pools and other rehabilitative equipment,” Mecklenburg wrote. “(Nitzkin) repeatedly has said that he would ‘never hurt the kids,’ but that is exactly what he did.”

Massachusetts
City, minority residents settle voting rights lawsuit
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of Black and Latino residents of Worcester who alleged that the city’s system of electing school committee members dilutes the voting power of people of color and violates federal voting laws.

In a joint filing Thursday, the plaintiffs and the city asked the federal judge overseeing the case to approve a settlement that would effectively end the legal battle and pave the way to replace the current at-large voting system with a system in which some members are elected by district, The Telegram & Gazette reported.

The suit filed in February said despite the fact that more than half of students in Worcester identify as Hispanic, Latino/Latina or Black, the city’s six-member school committee is all white, and historically has been predominantly white.

“This is a major victory for the people of Worcester,” said Rebecca MacDowell Lecaroz, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “The Worcester School Committee’s lack of diversity was a direct result of the city’s all at-large electoral system — which was directly counter to the fundamental principle of equal voting opportunity and a violation of federal law.”

The Worcester City Council voted 8-3 earlier this week to approve the filing and to authorize the city to enter into a consent decree with the plaintiffs.

Mayor Joseph M. Petty said the willingness to work out a settlement rather than fight the lawsuit shows the community the council is listening.

“We’re trying to address concerns about representation — elected representation on the school committee,” Petty said.

Mississippi
Chief justice extends COVID-19 order for courts
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The head of the Mississippi Supreme Court is extending a emergency order that allows judges to postpone jury trials to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The extended  order by Chief Justice Mike Randolph remains in place through Nov. 12.

Randolph issued an emergency order in August, and this the second extension of that. He said in a statement Thursday that the state Supreme Court “has sought to properly balance individual rights, public health and safety, and the constitutional requirement that Mississippi state courts remain open and accessible.”

Judges presiding over drug intervention courts may modify drug testing schedules and home supervision of participants.

Judges are also allowed to use teleconferencing, videoconferencing and electronic filing to limit in-person contact. They may allow felony plea hearings, felony sentencing hearings and probation violation hearings to be conducted remotely by interactive video equipment.

Pennsylvania                                          
Artist sues newly freed Bill Cosby over 1990 hotel encounter
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A prominent Bill Cosby accuser filed suit Thursday against the actor over a 1990 hotel room encounter in Atlantic City, New Jersey, before the state’s two-year window to file older sexual assault claims expires.

Los Angeles artist Lili Bernard told The Associated Press she was prompted in part by Cosby’s recent release from prison. The 84-year-old Cosby has been free since June, when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned his 2018 sexual assault conviction in another case on procedural grounds.

He had served more than two years of a potential 10-year sentence.

The 57-year-old Bernard says Cosby drugged and raped her in a hotel room after promising to mentor her on his top-ranked TV show. She was 26 at the time.

New Jersey’s two-year window to file sexual assault lawsuits that would otherwise be considered too old to pursue closes next month.

“When Bill Cosby was released, it retraumatized me, it terrified me. I was really horrified for any woman or girl that would come into contact with him,” Bernard told the AP. “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court let a predator back on the streets.”

The Pennsylvania trial judge had classified Cosby as a sexually violent predator subject to lifetime supervision, but that finding became moot when the conviction was overturned, leaving Cosby free of any reporting requirements.

Cosby’s spokesperson said that so-called “look-back” windows like the one passed in New Jersey violate a person’s due process rights.

“This is just another attempt to abuse the legal process, by opening up the flood gates for people who never presented an ounce of evidence,” spokesperson Andrew Wyatt said, noting that Cosby maintains his innocence and would fight allegations to “the highest court in these United States of America.”

Prosecutors in suburban Philadelphia must decide soon whether to appeal the reversal of his conviction in their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A jury had convicted Cosby of sexually assaulting Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his home in January 2004 after incapacitating her with three blue pills. Cosby was arrested in 2015, days before the 12-year statute of limitations expired.

The state Supreme Court said the case should not have gone to trial because Cosby believed he had a binding promise from an earlier prosecutor that he would never be charged.

Cosby settled a civil lawsuit with Constand for $3.4 million. His insurer, after the conviction, settled a defamation lawsuit filed by seven accusers in Massachusetts for an undisclosed amount.

The AP typically does not identify people who say they are sexual assault victims without their permission, which both Constand and Bernard have granted.

Oklahoma
Abortion supporters ask court to put 3 laws on hold
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Reproductive rights supporters have filed an appeal asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to put three anti-abortion laws on hold, including restrictions on medication-induced abortions.

The appeal Wednesday comes after District Judge Cindy Truong said she would allow the laws to take effect Nov. 1, pending the outcome of a legal challenge, the Tulsa World reported.

The case in Oklahoma County District Court challenged five abortion laws that were enacted last Legislative session. Truong temporarily blocked two of the five laws from taking effect, including a measure similar to a Texas abortion law that effectively bans the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy.

The other three would create new restrictions on medication-induced abortions and require all doctors who perform abortions to be board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology.

If allowed to take effect, the “laws will decimate abortion access in Oklahoma,” according to the suit. “Oklahomans will face tremendous delays and costs in accessing abortion, and many will be entirely prevented from obtaining care in the state.”

A spokesperson for the state attorney general’s office, which has defended the new laws, did not immediately return phone calls for comment on Thursday.

A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who signed the legislation, also did not reply immediately to a phone call for comment.

The requirement that doctors be certified as an OB-GYN will drastically reduce access “by arbitrarily prohibiting highly trained, board certified family medicine doctors from providing abortions,” the suit says.

The plaintiffs are asking that the Oklahoma Supreme Court fast track the appeal.

The medication-induced abortion restrictions include requirements previously struck down by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Those include an admitting privileges requirement that has been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court and an ultrasound requirement that is more restrictive than an ultrasound law the state Supreme Court already struck down.

Abortion clinics in Oklahoma already are being overwhelmed by patients from Texas, where the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a law to take effect on Sept. 1 that made it illegal to perform abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, which is usually around the sixth week of pregnancy.

Florida
High court rules against traffic ticket service
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Miami company that offered services to fight traffic tickets was practicing law without authorization, The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The founder of TIKD, Christopher Riley, is not a lawyer. Rather he created an app and a website in which people could upload photos of their tickets and the company would then hire a lawyer to fight them.

“As a nonlawyer, TIKD simply lacks the skill or training to ensure the quality of the legal services provided to the public through the licensed attorneys it contracts with, nor does it possess the ability to ensure compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct,” the court wrote.

TIKD is no longer a registered corporation in Florida. The state Division of Corporations revoked that status last month. TIKD’s website is down, its Twitter account has been suspended and its Facebook page hasn’t been updated since 2018. A number listed for Riley in previous corporate filings was disconnected.