Court Digest

New Mexico
Court affirms convictions in Albuquerque policeman’s death
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court has affirmed the convictions of a man in the fatal shooting of an Albuquerque police officer in 2015.

In a unanimous opinion Thursday, the state’s high court rejected Davon Lymon’s arguments on appeal challenging his convictions of first-degree murder, evidence tampering, forgery, receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle, and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.

In 2019, Lymon was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole for the murder plus 11½ years for the other charges.

The sentence in the state case is to be served after Lymon finishes a 38-year sentence imposed in a separate federal prosecution on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Police officer Daniel Webster was shot as he tried to handcuff Lymon, who was stopped while driving a motorcycle that police dispatchers reported was stolen.

In his appeal, Lymon argued that the trial court judge improperly asked the jury to clarify its preliminary verdict forms concerning the first-degree murder charge, wrongly denied a request for a new trial based upon possible juror misconduct and should have instructed the jury about self-defense.

Connecticut
Judge puts breaks on UConn plan to eliminate women’s rowing
A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order that will prevent UConn from immediately eliminating its women’s rowing team as part of budget cuts in its athletic department.

U.S. District Judge Stephen Underhill issued the order Wednesday, ruling the rowers were likely to prevail in their lawsuit that alleges eliminating the team would violate Title IX, the federal law that guarantees equal access to women in education, including athletics.

Underhill found that there is compelling evidence that UConn has been inflating the numbers of participants in its women’s programs to make it appear it was complying with the law. He also wrote that the evidence presented in court during a hearing last week also showed UConn experienced participation gaps each year for the past 13 years.

“Plaintiffs have shown that it is substantially likely that UConn is not presently in compliance with Title IX’s effective-accommodation mandate, and cutting the women’s rowing team would only exacerbate that noncompliance by magnifying UConn’s disparity in athletic participation opportunities,” the judge wrote.

The school issued a statement saying it disagrees with the ruling and believes it is “inconsistent with longstanding guidance provided by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.”

“UConn used its best efforts to eliminate the fewest number of teams as possible, but there was no path forward that would permit the university to preserve the long-term viability of its athletics program in the absence of cuts,” the school said in a statement.

Rowing coach Jennifer Sanford said she is happy the judge decided to issue the restraining order and called on UConn to look closely at its Title IX compliance based on the evidence the judge heard during a court hearing last month on the motion for a restraining order.

Sanford had testified that she was told keep her roster at 60 rowers, when only 40-42 would be needed for a a viable Division I team, an apparent attempt to inflate the participation numbers.

“ I am proud of the women on the team, specifically the twelve plaintiffs, who have fought for their right to remain a Division One program,” she wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “As a loyal rowing coach of the University of Connecticut and Husky fan since I arrived in 1997, I am hopeful this is a positive step toward UConn Rowing continuing with varsity status moving forward, and for a very long time ahead.”

UConn said last June that it wants to reduce its $42 million athletic deficit by about $10 million a year, cutting the need for a subsidy to the athletic department by 25% over the next three years. The school decided to eliminate women’s rowing, men’s swimming and diving, men’s cross-country and men’s tennis at the end of this school year.

The school said it considered the civil rights implications before making that move.

According to the school’s annual filing with the NCAA, the rowing team has a roster of 38 rowers but had 62 participants in the program and operating expenses totaling $1,345,104 in the 2020 fiscal year. UConn rowing gave at least partial scholarships to 32 rowers at a cost of $713,417 and its coaches earned a total of $196,575, according to the report.

A hearing on the rowers motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Aug. 2.

Colorado
Denver pays firefighter $100K after being secretly recorded
DENVER (AP) — A female firefighter in Colorado will receive $100,000 in a lawsuit settlement against the Denver Fire Department after a former fire department lieutenant placed a secret camera in her fire station bedroom and recorded her changing clothes, city officials said.

Denver City Council approved the settlement after the woman filed a discrimination charge against the department with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, The Denver Post reported  Wednesday. The Post did not name the firefighter because she is a victim of sexual harassment.

A jury convicted former lieutenant Daniel Flesner in October of criminal invasion of privacy and attempting to tamper with physical evidence. Court records show he was sentenced in January to two years of probation, therapy and a mental health screening.

He retired two days after the camera was discovered. The female firefighter found the camera — which looked like a phone charger — in her room in March 2019 after hearing an echo of her voice.

“Because Defendant Flesner was able to destroy evidence it is not known for how long he had spied on Plaintiff, nor whether he shared the videos with anyone else,” the woman’s lawsuit said.

The firefighter was the only woman who worked at the station.

“DFD leadership has agreed to take a number of steps to ensure female firefighters feel safe and respected and that individuals like Lt. Flesner are held accountable for any harm they may cause,” Denver Department of Public Safety spokesperson Kelli Christensen said.

The department said the changes include requiring additional sexual harassment training, an outside review of discrimination and harassment policies and meetings between female employees and department leaders on equity.

Attorneys for the female firefighter did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.

Utah
Utah Jazz fan’s lawsuit over taunting incident dismissed
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A lawsuit against the Utah Jazz by a fan who was banned for life from the team’s arena over what were called racial taunts directed at point guard Russell Westbrook was dismissed by a judge, according to court documents filed Thursday.

Shane Keisel has said there was nothing racial about his heckling during the 2019 game and that the high-profile incident cost him his job and exposed him to online threats. The Jazz, however, said the team investigated the episode that ignited a national conversation about race and fan behavior and stood by the decision to bar him from the arena.

The ruling came just hours after Westbrook was once again a victim of unruly fan behavior, this time in Philadelphia where someone sitting over the tunnel that leads from the floor threw popcorn on him as he left the game with an ankle injury Wednesday night. The 76ers apologized Thursday and announced the unnamed fan who was a season-ticket holder would be banned from all events at the arena.

The NBA said rules surrounding fan behavior will be “vigorously enforced” going forward. In a separate incident Wednesday night, video showed that someone spit on Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks while he was preparing to inbound the basketball in the fourth quarter of New York’s win over Atlanta at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks apologized and banned that fan from the arena.

An unrelated verbal altercation occurred at the Jazz arena Wednesday night that resulted in the removal and banning of three Jazz fans indefinitely, the team said, declining to provide additional details.

“Utah Jazz have zero tolerance for offensive or disruptive behavior,” the Jazz said in a statement. “We apologize to all who were impacted by this unfortunate incident and condemn unacceptable fan behavior.”

In the 2019 incident, Westbrook was fined $25,000 by the NBA after video surfaced of him directing vulgar comments at Keisel in the crowd. Then a point guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder who had had other in-game exchanges with fans, Westbrook was shown along the sideline using threatening language that also referred to Keisel’s girlfriend, who was at the game.

Westbrook said at the time that he had been provoked by the fan who told him to “get down on your knees like you used to.”

Westbrook said he would never abuse a woman, but that Keisel’s racial taunts went over the line, especially after past disrespectful comments from other Utah fans. His stance was backed by Jazz star Donovan Mitchell, who said it wasn’t the first time a racially motivated event occurred at a Jazz game.

The Jazz banned Keisel the day after the game, saying there is no room for personal attacks or disrespect.

In the lawsuit, Keisel acknowledged heckling Westbrook, who now plays for the Washington Wizards, and telling him in a mocking way to “take care of his knees” because the point guard had them wrapped in towels while he sat on the bench. But he denies making the comment that Westbrook said he did.

Jazz attorney Jeff Hunt said the team was “pleased with the court’s ruling” and will continue to enforce its fan code of conduct.

Scott Hoyt, Keisel’s attorney, said his client intends to appeal the trial court’s decision.

Washington
Everett man sentenced to nearly 29 years in stomping death
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — An Everett man was sentenced to nearly 29 years in prison for the “savage” stomping murder of an Everett woman.

One week after a jury convicted him, Jamel Alexander’s defense attorneys maintained he would have been acquitted if jurors knew about “crucial evidence” they weren’t allowed to see. Superior Court Judge George Appel disagreed, the Everett Herald reported.

“You took her life in the most demeaning and savage way you could manage,” Appel said Thursday. “The jury did not make a mistake. There is no reasonable doubt. You murdered Shawna Brune.”

At 9 a.m. Oct. 12, 2019, a man walking his dog found Brune’s battered body near a parking lot, according to court documents. Brune was nude. Shoe prints marked her body in a crosshatch pattern. An autopsy showed she suffered broken facial bones and brain swelling.

With the help of other security footage, detectives identified Alexander as the suspect. He told detectives he paid Brune $100 for a sex act that night, but did not harm her.

Alexander was found guilty of first-degree murder.

Defense attorneys argued the jury would not have convicted him had they been shown two pieces of evidence: Brune’s diary, which was found in her purse near the crime scene, and an alleged confession by two people who knew Brune.

California
Man sentenced in kidnap-torture of marijuana dispensary owner
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A man who took part in a plan to steal $1 million from a Southern California marijuana dispensary owner who was kidnapped, tortured and mutilated has been sentenced to more than 12 years in state prison.

Ryan Kevorkian, 42, was sentenced last week after pleading guilty to kidnapping, burglary and assault. He was granted credit for time spent in county jail since his 2013 arrest, the Orange County Register reported.

His attorney, Michael Molfetta, said his client didn’t realize what would happen when he and several others kidnapped the dispensary owner from a Newport Beach home in 2012 along with the girlfriend of the homeowner, who was out of town.

The men wrongly believed the dispensary owner had buried $1 million in the desert. During a more than two-hour drive to the Mojave Desert they hit him with rubber piping, shocked him with a Taser and burned him with a blowtorch, prosecutors said.

Once in the desert, the kidnappers cut off the dispensary owner’s penis, then left him and the woman bound as they drove off. The woman flagged down a law enforcement officer, and the dispensary owner survived, though authorities were unable to recover his body part.

The mastermind of the plot, Hossein Nayeri, was sentenced last year to life in prison without possibility of parole. While awaiting trial in 2016, Nayeri escaped from the Orange County jail with two other inmates and led authorities on a weeklong manhunt across the state before being captured.

Another defendant, Kyle Handley, was previously convicted and sentenced to four life terms.

Naomi Rhodus, Kevorkian’s former wife, is awaiting trial on charges that she bought the weapons and helped to rent the van used in the kidnapping.