Oregon
Man shot with stun gun while in creek sues police
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — A federal civil rights lawsuit alleges two southern Oregon police officers used excessive force against a man who fled from a vehicle stop and was shot with a Taser while standing in a creek.
The lawsuit says two Eagle Point officers fired their stun guns at Jonathon J. Wolf on June 21, 2021, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The suit says that caused him to fall in the water and hit his head on a rock, knocking him unconscious.
Police initially had stopped a car in which Wolf was riding. Wolf ran as police tried to arrest him on a parole violation warrant.
The suit alleges the officers should have known that Wolf’s position standing in a creek with a rocky bottom would lead to injury when a Taser was used.
Aaron Prunty, Eagle Point’s city administrator, said he hadn’t read the suit and couldn’t comment.
Attorney David J. Linthorst said that Wolf floated face down in the water for at least a minute before officers could get to him.
Wolf, 33, was hospitalized for a concussion and lung damage, Linthorst said.
The suit, filed this week in federal court in Medford, seeks unspecified damages for Wolf’s injuries, medical costs and his pain and suffering.
Wolf’s “mere flight” from an officer wasn’t sufficient justification to use a Taser to stop him, Linthorst argues.
Massachusetts
Man pleads guilty in pandemic loan fraud case
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man who lied on his application for federal coronavirus business stimulus funds and then used some of the $400,000 he received to pay his mortgage has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, federal prosecutors said.
Adley Bernadin, 44, of Stoughton, entered his plea in U.S. District Court in Boston on Wednesday, according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins.
Bernadin in May 2020 submitted a fraudulent application on behalf of a purported home health care company for a Paycheck Protection Program loan of about $400,000, falsifying a tax form and falsely claiming the business had a monthly payroll of $175,200, prosecutors said.
The program, enacted as part of the CARES Act in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering economically from the effects COVID-19 pandemic, provided forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and certain other approved expenses.
Bernadin used the funds to make mortgage payments on his home and wrote checks to people he knew, including $135,000 to someone described by prosecutors as his wife or partner, authorities said.
Bernadin, who was arrested in March, faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing scheduled for Sept. 28.
The U.S. Secret Service reported in December that nearly $100 billion at minimum has been stolen from federal COVID-19 relief programs set up to help businesses and people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
Illinois
Man who torched Chicago police SUV sentenced to 34 months
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge sentenced a Chicago man to nearly three years in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to setting a police SUV on fire while wearing a Joker mask during widespread May 2020 demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood sentenced 33-year-old Timothy O’Donnell to 34 months.
O’Donnell pleaded guilty in February to one count of interfering with law enforcement during the commission of civil disorder.
“He set a car on fire in the middle of a crowd,” Wood said. “He did it in a way that was intended to target law enforcement. He did it in a way that could have caused serious injury or death. Fortunately, it did not.”
Before he was sentenced, O’Donnell apologized “to those whose businesses were left in utter ruin” and said he was sorry “if I hurt Chicago’s character in any way.”
In a plea agreement, O’Donnell said he would pay $58,125 restitution to the Chicago Police Department to cover the cost of the damaged vehicle.
O’Donnell has been in custody since his June 2020 arrest.
Prosecutors said that a downtown protest had grown violent on the afternoon of May 30, 2020, when O’Donnell was seen on video taken by a bystander approaching the parked police vehicle, placing a cloth inside the gas tank and lighting it with a lighter.
Minnesota
Feds want 25 years for Chauvin for violating Floyd’s rights
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Wednesday to sentence a former Minneapolis officer to 25 years for violating the rights of George Floyd, saying Derek Chauvin’s actions were cold-blooded and needless as he knelt on the Black man’s neck while Floyd repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe.
Chauvin pleaded guilty in December to violating Floyd’s rights, admitting for the first time that he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck — even after he became unresponsive — resulting in Floyd’s death. Chauvin, who is white, admitted he willfully deprived Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, including unreasonable force by a police officer, during the May 2020 arrest.
Floyd’s killing sparked immediate protests in Minneapolis that spread around the U.S. and beyond in a reckoning over police brutality and discrimination involving people of color.
As part of his plea agreement, Chauvin also pleaded guilty to violating the rights of a then-14-year-old Black boy who he restrained in an unrelated case in 2017.
U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson has accepted the plea deal, in which both sides agreed Chauvin should face 20 to 25 years, with prosecutors seeking the high end of the range.
In a court filing Wednesday, prosecutors reiterated their request for a 25-year sentence, saying it would reflect the serious nature of the offense, provide just punishment and deter other officers from “imposing punishment” on others. They also said Chauvin’s history should be taken into account, noting he “used his law enforcement career to engage in abusive conduct” more than once.
A federal sentencing date has not been set.
Chauvin was also convicted on state charges of murder and manslaughter and is already serving a 22 1/2-year state sentence. He would serve the federal sentence at the same time as the state sentence.
Magnuson also presided over the trial of three other ex-officers who were convicted of related federal civil rights charges in Floyd’s death. Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng remain free remain free while they await their sentencing dates, which have not been scheduled.
Lane has also pleaded guilty to a state count of aiding and abetting manslaughter, while Thao and Kueng face an October trial on state charges of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
California
Former Tesla worker rejects $15 million award in racism case
(AP) — A Black former Tesla worker who said he was harassed and faced with “daily racist epithets,” including the “N-word,” while working at the company’s Fremont, California, plant has rejected a substantially reduced award of $15 million in his lawsuit.
Owen Diaz, who worked at the Tesla plant in 2015 and 2016 as a contracted elevator operator before quitting, was originally awarded $6.9 million in damages for emotional distress and $130 million in punitive damages in the case.
A judge slashed that by nearly 90% to $15 million, which Diaz turned down, according to a court filing. Diaz’s rejection of the award could mean a new trial in the case.
Diaz had alleged that employees drew swastikas and left racist graffiti and drawings around the plant and that supervisors failed to stop the abuse.
A representative for Tesla could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday night.
Maryland
Man pleads not guilty to trying to kill Justice Kavanaugh
GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A man who was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home in Maryland earlier this month pleaded not guilty Wednesday to trying to kill Kavanaugh.
Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, remained in custody after his arraignment on one count of attempting to assassinate a Supreme Court justice.
During the arraignment, he bowed his head and clasped his hands around his neck as he answered U.S. Magistrate Judge Ajmel Quereshi’s questions. His public defender, Andrew Szekely, told the judge that he was satisfied his client was getting the medical care and unspecified medication that he needs while in custody.
Quereshi set a tentative trial date for Aug. 23.
A grand jury in Greenbelt, Maryland, indicted Roske on the charge last week. The charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Roske, who was arrested on June 8, was armed with a gun and a knife, was carrying zip ties and was dressed in black when when he arrived by taxi just after 1 a.m. outside Kavanaugh’s home in Chevy Chase, a Washington suburb in Maryland’s Montgomery County, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.
Roske turned and walked away after seeing two deputy U.S. Marshals outside standing nearby, the affidavit said.
Roske called county police and said he had come to Maryland from California to kill a Supreme Court justice, the agent wrote. Roske also told police that he had a gun in his suitcase and was having suicidal thoughts, the affidavit said.
After his arrest, Roske told a police detective that he was upset by a leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court is about to overrule Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion case. Roske also said he was upset over the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and believed Kavanaugh would vote to loosen gun control laws, the affidavit said.
Investigators found a pistol with ammunition, a knife, pepper spray, zip ties, a hammer, duct tape, a pistol light and other gear in Roske’s suitcase and backpack, according to the FBI.
A Homeland Security Department report said the draft opinion’s leak in May unleashed a wave of threats against officials and others and increased the likelihood of extremist violence. The leaked opinion also sparked protests outside the homes of Kavanaugh and other justices.
Arizona
AG sues Scottsdale board for alleged open meeting violations
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has filed a lawsuit against the Scottsdale Unified School District, saying the governing board violated the state’s open meeting law last August.
Brnovich said the board issued content-based restrictions on public comment and allowed people to only talk about one of the agenda items.
According to the attorney general’s complaint, board members also violated the law when they cut off speakers who tried to give input on any other topic including a proposed mask mandate that was also on the agenda.
The lawsuit seeks to have board member Jann-Michael Greenburg removed, impose civil penalties on the board and ensure no future open meeting law violations occur.
Greenberg was the board’s president at the time of the alleged violations.
The school district said in a statement that it doesn’t comment on pending litigation but maintains the board complied with the open meeting law “with respect to the statutorily required hearings and the meetings held in August 2021.”
