Alabama
Deal could end desegregation case in state’s school system
LaFAYETTE, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge will consider an agreement between the Justice Department, civil rights attorneys and school officials in an east Alabama county that could end more than 50 years of federal desegregation oversight of the system.
A consent decree between school officials in Chambers County, located on the Georgia line, the government and attorneys with the Legal Defense Fund includes construction of a new school and more opportunities for black students in the county of roughly 35,000 people, officials said.
The agreement was announced Friday to end a desegregation order that’s been in place since 1970. It followed a previous, interim agreement reached in 1993.
“We are pleased to arrive at a consent decree that addresses the many concerns our clients raised as key to ensuring the effectiveness of the desegregation process in Chambers County,” said GeDá Jones Herbert, an attorney with the Legal Defense Fund. “It was particularly important that Black students in the district are afforded equal and high-quality educational opportunities in safe and modern facilities.”
The agreement said the sides negotiated for years to reach the proposed settlement, announced nearly 70 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the end of racial segregation of public schools.
“This proposed consent order reinforces the Civil Rights Division’s unwavering commitment to ensuring that all students receive the equal educational opportunities to which they are entitled regardless of their race or color,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement.
Under the agreement, the school district will form an advisory committee on desegregation that will have input on issues including the consolidation of high school students and improved opportunities for students in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.
Before the end of the next school year, the district must pick a site to build a new, consolidated high school to replace LaFayette High School, which is heavily Black, and Valley High School, which has a large population of white students. The agreement said the new location “must not impose an unequal burden on students on the basis of race, to the extent practicable.”
Students from LaFayette, a mostly black city, temporarily will be transferred to the school in Valley, which is majority white, but not before the start of the school year after construction begins, according to the agreement.
The school system did not admit any purposeful segregation.
Kansas
State ordered to pay $63 million to former pizza magnate
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The state of Kansas must pay former pizza executive Gene Bicknell more than $63 million to settle a long-running dispute over his tax bill.
The court ruled on Friday that Bicknell was a Florida resident in 2005 and 2006 when he sold NPC International, which owned more than 800 Pizza Hut locations around the world.
The Kansas Department of Revenue argued the Bicknell, a longtime resident of Pittsburg, set up a residence in Florida to avoid paying taxes on the sale to Kansas. In 2010, it ordered him to pay $42 million to the state.
The case wound through several courts over the years before being taken up by the state Supreme Court, which sided with Bicknell, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
“These findings support its legal conclusion that Gene was domiciled in Florida in 2005 and 2006,” Justice K.J. Wall Jr., wrote in the opinion.
In 2020, Bicknell said Kansas owed him $63 million — his original tax bill plus interest.
“The Department of Revenue’s approach has always felt like extortion, forcing me and my family to endure hundreds of interrogatories, depositions, three trials, three appeals, 15 years of attorney time, and appearances before an agency board that was a kangaroo court,” Bicknell said in a statement Friday.
The revenue department is reviewing the court’s 75-page decision, spokesman Zach Fletcher said.
Kansas
State Supreme Court disbars former prosecutor
The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday disbarred former prosecutor Jacqie Spradling for her conduct during a double-murder trial in Topeka in 2012.
The court said while Spradling was a prosecutor in Shawnee County, she engaged in “repeated patterns of misconduct” during the trial of Dana Chandler, who was convicted of killing her husband and his fiance.
Chandler’s convictions were later overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct. She is scheduled for a new trial later this year.
The Supreme Court said Spradling ignored a court order, made arguments not supported by evidence, lied in her briefs and oral arguments and made false statements during a disciplinary investigation, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
The Kansas Board for Discipline of Attorneys recommended in June 2021 that Spradling be disbarred for her “win at all costs” attitude in the Chandler case and in the 2017 conviction of Jacob Ewing, of Holton, on rape and sodomy charges.
The state Supreme Court found Spradling did not violate ethical standards in Ewing’s case. The Kansas Court of Appeals reversed Ewing’s conviction in 2018 but he later accepted a plea deal.
Last year, Spradling resigned from her position as assistant county attorney in Allen County and as county attorney in Bourbon County.
Wisconsin
Man sentenced in $2.4 million investment scheme
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Wisconsin man convicted in a $2.4 million investment scheme involving more than 20 victims has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
Jeremy Arrington, 44, of Middleton, pleaded guilty earlier to one count of wire fraud. Authorities say several of the investors lost their retirement savings to Arrington.
Arrington was the chief financial officer for Wisconsin Home Buyers Network, a real estate business. Investigators say he ran a Ponzi scheme by promising investors returns ranging from 12% to 36% with little or no risk.
Investor funds were combined with other funds and used for payments to existing investors, payroll for related businesses, debt reduction, personal draws by the partners, back taxes and legal fees, according to the complaint.
U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig sentenced Arrington Thursday to 33 months in prison.
