Court Digest

Mississippi
White officer said he was moved to prevent Black’s promotion
TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — A city in Mississippi is settling a lawsuit brought by a white former police lieutenant who said he was moved within the department to prevent a Black subordinate’s promotion.

A federal judge dismissed Michael Russell’s lawsuit against the city of Tupelo on Wednesday because it has been or is being settled, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports.

“All claims have been resolved and the city has admitted no liability,” city spokesman Scott Costello said in a statement to the newspaper. “We’re glad we’ve come to a resolution where both parties can move on.”

Russell’s settlement will be the fourth in six years involving the police department; details, including amounts paid to plaintiffs, all were confidential, the newspaper reported.

Trial in Russell’s suit had been scheduled to start Monday before U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock.

Aycock also presided over two racial discrimination lawsuits brought by the Black officer, Tiffany Gillylen, online court records show. Gillylen, who has retired, settled one in 2017 and the other in 2019.

Russell’s lawsuit alleged that department leaders blocked his highly praised community outreach work to avoid promoting Gillylen.

His attorney, Jim Waide, who also represented Gillylen and another officer who settled with the city in 2019, told the newspaper that Russell’s claims highlight a continuing pattern of improper behavior among the upper ranks of the Tupelo Police Department.

“This is one of a series of cases where outstanding police officers have been severely mistreated,” Waide said. “Things were not done in the officers’ best interest and the best interest of the city.”

For many years Russell had been director of the city’s Police Athletic League, one of the department’s best-known community initiatives. The league used sports and recreation to connect with children in the community — particularly Black kids from lower income families.

Russell testified that he did not want his transfer in 2018 to a vacant leadership position in the patrol division.

His lawsuit contended that he was given the job to keep it away from Gillylen, then a patrol division sergeant. She had been given that position after filing a lawsuit and a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.

City leaders said they wanted to quickly fill an important vacancy with an experienced officer.

Deputy Chief Anthony Hill, who is Black, testified that Russell’s absence hurt the athletic program and the department’s youth outreach efforts.

In another case, trial was underway before Aycock in 2019 when former officer Jennifer Baker settled a wrongful termination lawsuit. Baker claimed she was fired as retaliation for opposing a de facto ticket-writing quota policy and for disputing the police department’s overtime practices.


Washington
2 charged with stealing $1M in jobless benefits
SEATTLE (AP) — Two Seattle residents are charged with allegedly stealing over $1 million in jobless benefits and small business loans during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Seattle Times reports Bryan Sparks and Autumn Luna were charged Wednesday with stealing at least $500,000 in jobless benefits from the state Employment Security Department and $520,000 in Small Business Administration loans, according to a 16-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court.

The jobless benefits charge appears to be the largest in dollar terms so far stemming from Washington state paying out over $647 million in pandemic-related fraudulent claims. Some $370 million has been recovered, state officials have said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle said Luna and Sparks were arrested June 22 in Washington, D.C.

From March 2020 through at least January 2021, prosecutors allege the pair used stolen Social Security numbers and other personal information to file fraudulent jobless claims and apply for federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans.

Sparks and Luna used more than a dozen cellphones and addresses in Seattle, Des Moines, Federal Way, Auburn, and Lynnwood, among other places, in the fraud, prosecutors said.

Sparks and Luna had proceeds mailed to those addresses or deposited in bank accounts opened using stolen personal information, prosecutors say. Other individuals also may have been involved, according to the indictment.

Sparks and Luna are charged with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. It wasn’t clear whether Sparks and Luna had an attorney to speak on their behalf.

Other people charged in connection to the state fraud include former state Employment Security Department employee Reyes De La Cruz III, who is accused of stealing at least $360,000 in jobless benefits.

Federal investigators charged Abidemi Rufai, of Lekki, Nigeria, with stealing more than $350,000 in benefits. A lawyer for Rufai has said he denies any involvement.

Federal prosecutors have also charged Chukwuemeka Onyegbula, a Nigerian IT engineer, with stealing roughly $290,000 in benefits from Washington and from other states.

Attempts to locate an attorney for De La Cruz and Onyegbula haven’t been successful.

Texas
Man gets 37 years for murdering transgender woman
DALLAS (AP) — A Texas man who strangled a transgender woman to death and dumped her body in a lake in 2019 was sentenced Thursday to 37 years in prison.

A Dallas County jury sentenced Ruben Alvarado, 24, of Mesquite, a day after finding him guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Chynal Lindsey, 26, in June 2019.

Alvarado told jurors that he had taken the Dallas woman to White Rock Lake for sex but ordered her from his sport utility vehicle upon discovering her biological sex. He claimed that Lindsey then attacked him, so he strangled her with his belt in self-defense and  dumped her weighted body in the lake.

Prosecutors had asked for a 60-year prison term. Alvarado could have gotten between five years to life in prison.

Lindsey’s death had marked the second killing of a transgender woman in Dallas in less than a month.

In a separate case, Kendrell Lavar Lyles, 36, remained jailed while awaiting trial on murder charges in the deaths of three women in Dallas, including 23-year-old transgender woman Muhlaysia Booker  in May 2019. It wasn’t clear Thursday if Lyles has an attorney.

California
2 convicted in laptop robbery that killed engineer
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Two men have been convicted of robbing and killing a San Francisco Bay Area engineer when he tried to retrieve a laptop snatched from him.

An Alameda County jury on Wednesday found Byron Reed, 24, guilty of second-degree murder and Kejuan Wiggins, 20, guilty of voluntary manslaughter in the Dec. 31, 2109, robbery that killed Shuo Zeng,  the East Bay Times reported.

The computer research engineer was working on his laptop at a Starbucks coffee shop in Oakland’s Montclair neighborhood before going to celebrate his 34th birthday and New Year’s Eve.

Prosecutors said Wiggins came up from behind Zeng and grabbed his laptop. Zeng chased Wiggins, then grabbed onto Reed’s car as it accelerated. He was knocked from the vehicle and then Reed ran him over, killing him.

During trial, a witness for the prosecution testified that Wiggins kicked Zeng off the car. Prosecutors argued that both defendants were guilty of first-degree murder and were both active participants in the robbery. They presented text messages between Reed, Wiggins and Javon Lee — a lookout for the robbery — that showed they were plotting thefts around the Bay Area.

Reed’s attorney countered that his client wasn’t aware that Zeng grasped onto the car.

Lee pleaded no contest to robbery charges before the trial. He faces between two to 10 years in prison. Reed faces 15 years to life on the murder conviction alone, while Wiggins faces up to 12 years for the manslaughter count.

Ohio
Man convicted of shooting, wounding wildlife officer
MARTINSVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A hunter who shot and seriously injured an officer with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources who was investigating a deer poaching complaint has been convicted of felonious assault.

Brian Liming, 44, of Caesarcreek, was also found guilty of tampering with evidence and misdemeanor charges of hunting without a license and hunting without a deer permit, Clinton County prosecutors said Thursday.

Liming shot Kevin Behr, a 25-year veteran of the department, last December. Behr was among a group of ODNR officers investigating the poaching complaint, but no other officers were injured in the shooting. Behr testified at trial that his pelvis was shattered and many of his internal organs were damaged.

Liming and two other men were in a pickup truck looking for deer when they spotted a buck in a wooded area, authorities said. Liming fired a shot that was intended to chase out the buck, but instead the bullet struck Behr, according to court documents.

Behr called to Liming to stop shooting and asked him to call 911 to summon medical aid. But prosecutors said Liming discarded his weapon and didn’t make the call before he fled. Behr was soon helped by fellow officers and other first responders.

Liming was found walking down a nearby road shortly after the shooting occurred and denied any involvement in the incident, authorities said. He also claimed to be pursuing the shooter.

Behr remained hospitalized through March and underwent numerous surgeries, and must walk with the aid of two walking sticks.


Minnesota
State court panel weighs allowing more video trial coverage
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A state court advisory committee meets Friday to discuss whether to allow more video coverage of criminal proceedings in Minnesota.

Chief Justice Lorie Gildea directed the panel to study the issue in June after coverage of the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd got widespread national viewership.

“While the decision to allow camera coverage of this trial was based on the unprecedented public health restrictions in place during the pandemic, it would be a mistake for us not to reflect on the lessons learned and experiences gained through this process,” the chief justice said at the time.

The panel, which is in the early stages of its work, is due to report its recommendations by next July.

The advisory committee meeting comes just days after a judge reversed her earlier decision and agreed to allow video coverage of the upcoming trial of ex-Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter in the death of Daunte Wright.

Under Minnesota court rules, audio and video coverage of a criminal trial is usually barred unless all parties consent. The rules are looser for sentencings. The judge presiding over the Chauvin case made an exception and allowed gavel-to-gavel electronic coverage to ensure safe public and media access amid the pandemic.