Florida
Sheriff must pay $15M for death of teen outside fair
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff has been ordered by a jury to pay $15 million to the parents of a teenager who died while trying to cross a highway after being kicked out of the state fair by deputies.
The 10-person jury reached its verdict Thursday evening in Tampa federal court in the case of Andrew Joseph III, a Black 14-year-old who was killed on Interstate 4 in 2014 after he was booted from the Florida State Fair following a disturbance involving several teenagers.
The jury verdict culminates more than six years of court action. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, who could appeal the verdict, issued a statement Friday expressing sympathy for the Joseph family.
“Losing a child is a heartbreaking and eternal grief that no parent should have to face, and we continue to keep the Joseph family in our prayers,” Chronister said in an email.
The jury found Chronister’s department 90% responsible for the child’s death, with Joseph assigned 10%. The money will be split evenly between his parents, Andrew Joseph Jr. and Deanna Joseph.
“That child didn’t do nothing wrong,” Joseph Jr. said after the verdict, according to media outlets. “Fifteen million (dollars) put some respect on it.”
“We are elated at this moment,” Deanna Joseph added.
The teenager wound up on Interstate 4 after he and others were kicked out of the fair for what deputies described as an altercation that included knocking over fair patrons and stealing from vendors.
Attorneys for the defendants said Joseph refused an offer for a ride from his football coach and instead decided to try to cross the highway to reach the main gate.
“It was not foreseeable that someone would leave and enter the interstate,” attorney Robert Fulton said.
The plaintiffs’ attorney said the boy should never have been placed in such a vulnerable situation by authorities.
“A kid should never have been put in this position,” attorney Chris Anulewicz told the jury. “He should not have been put in the position of trying to do this on his own.”
California
Judge approves $230M settlement in oil spill case
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has approved a $230 million lawsuit settlement by the owners of a pipeline that spilled more than 140,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean off California in 2015, lawyers announced Thursday.
A federal judge in Los Angeles gave final approval on Tuesday to a settlement of a class-action suit that blamed All American Pipeline, L.P. and Plains Pipeline, L.P. for the May 2015 spill off the Santa Barbara coast.
The corroded undersea pipeline ruptured north of Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County, northwest of Los Angeles. All American Pipeline later estimated that 142,800 gallons spilled.
It was the worst California coastal oil spill since 1969. It blackened popular beaches for miles, killing or fouling hundred of seabirds, seals and other wildlife and hurting tourism and fishing.
“Due to failed maintenance and extensive pipeline corrosion, the pipeline ruptured and spilled, devastating the fishing industry and soiling coastal properties from Santa Barbara County to Los Angeles County,” said a press statement from the law firms that filed the suit.
People who believe they may be entitled to some of the money have until Oct. 31 to submit claims.
The companies didn’t admit liability in the settlement agreement, which was reached in May following seven years of legal wrangling.
Federal inspectors found that Plains had made several preventable errors, failed to quickly detect the pipeline rupture and responded too slowly as oil flowed toward the ocean.
Plains apologized for the spill and paid for the costly cleanup. In 2020, Plains agreed to pay $60 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it violated safety laws. It also agreed to bring its nationwide pipeline system into compliance with federal safety laws.
Plains has applied for permission to build a new pipeline but it is facing an uphill battle.
Iowa
Woman gets 6 years in prison for damaging pipeline
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge sentenced an Arizona woman on Thursday to six years in prison for using a cutting torch to damage the Dakota Access pipeline in Iowa and setting fire to pipeline equipment in three counties in 2016 and 2017.
The judge also ordered Ruby Katherine Montoya, 32, to pay nearly $3.2 million in restitution together with Jessica Reznicek, a woman who helped her.
Montoya pleaded guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility. She admitted to helping Reznicek and others damage the pipeline in several locations in Iowa.
“The sentence imposed today demonstrates that any crime of domestic terrorism will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted by the federal government,” U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal said in a statement. He said the seriousness of the actions warranted a significant prison sentence and should deter others who might consider engaging in domestic terrorism.
Reznicek was sentenced to eight years in prison in June 2021 after pleading guilty to a similar charge. She appealed the sentence, but it was upheld by a federal appeals court in June.
Dakota Access, a subsidiary of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, constructed the controversial $3.8 billion, 1,168-mile pipeline that cuts through North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa, ending in Illinois.
Environmental groups opposed the pipeline, which they said risked an oil spill disaster. Some landowners also opposed the use of eminent domain to force farmers to allow its construction on their land, and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fought the pipeline, claiming the environmental impact review was inadequate.
Montoya’s attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
North Dakota
Prison guard fired over suicide of man serving life
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota prison guard was fired over the suicide of a man who was serving life sentences for killing four people.
Sgt. Deandre Adams violated corrections policy in failing to adequately check on Chad Isaak, according to a termination letter from the warden at North Dakota State Penitentiary. Adams was fired Thursday.
Warden James Sayler noted that Adams had received two previous written reprimands, for failing to report that he had left a missing inmate in a recreational area and for not intervening when two prisoners were potentially exchanging contraband, the Bismarck Tribune reported.
“Your credibility, professionalism, and the trust I had in you as a sergeant are irreparably damaged,” Sayler wrote. “This level of trust, which is expected of every team member, is something I no longer have in you, due to your misconduct.”
Isaak, 48, died July 31. An investigative report from the state Highway Patrol released last month found that Adams said he failed to adequately check on Isaak twice.
It also said Isaak had covered his cell with cardboard. Adams knew inmates were not allowed to cover their cell windows, but allowed it, as a “courtesy in case they were naked in their cells,” the report said. “He stated they could enforce it but that they would just get more window coverings.”
A jury last year convicted Isaak of four counts of murder and other charges in the April 1, 2019, deaths in Mandan of RJR Maintenance and Management co-owner Robert Fakler, 52; and employees Adam Fuehrer, 42; and married couple Bill Cobb, 50, and Lois Cobb, 45. No motive was ever established.
A judge in December sentenced Isaak to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Nebraska
Man gets prison for threatening wildlife officer
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An eastern Nebraska man who pleaded guilty to threatening to kill a U.S. wildlife officer and brandishing a gun during a violent crime has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in federal prison.
Cody Cape, 24, of Blair, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Omaha to 117 months in prison, the Omaha World-Herald reported. There is no parole in the federal system.
Prosecutors said Cape and a friend were cited for a hunting and fishing violation in October 2020 near the DeSoto Wildlife Refuge. The friend later told police that Cape drove by the home of the wildlife officer who had ticketed them and that Cape had forced the friend at gunpoint to drive by an area where he thought the officer might be. The friend also said Cape explained how he could use explosives to kill the officer and his family.
Blair police arrested Cape on Christmas night in 2020 during a traffic stop and said they found a handgun and bullets in Cape’s vehicle. A woman who was with Cape when he was arrested told police Cape had said he wanted to kill the wildlife officer, prosecutors said.
Washington
Breyer: Supreme Court leaker still appears unknown
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a Washington mystery that no one seems able to unravel. The Supreme Court apparently still hasn’t found the person who leaked a draft of the court’s major abortion decision earlier this year.
In a television interview airing this weekend, retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who left the court in June when the justices began their summer break, says he hasn’t heard that the person’s identity has been determined.
Breyer, 84, was speaking with CNN anchor Chris Wallace. According to a transcript provided by the network, Wallace asked about the leak, which happened in May: “Within 24 hours the chief justice ordered an investigation of the leaker. Have they found him or her?”
“Not to my knowledge, but ... I’m not privy to it,” Breyer responds. Wallace presses: “So in those months since, the chief justice never said, ‘Hey, we got our man or woman?’”
“To my knowledge, no,” again responded Breyer, who despite being retired maintains an office at the Supreme Court. The interview is to air Sunday on “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?”
Other justices have also suggested recently that the identity of the leaker remains unknown to the court. At a conference in Colorado this month Justice Neil Gorsuch said it is “terribly important” to identify the leaker and he is expecting a report on the progress of the investigation, “I hope soon.” Justice Elena Kagan also said recently she does not know if the investigation Roberts ordered has determined the source of the leak.
Breyer, a liberal appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton, also spoke on a range of other topics with Wallace.
Breyer, who watched his liberal colleague Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opt not to retire when President Barack Obama could have named a like-minded replacement, said he would miss being on the court but that it was time to leave. Ginsburg died near the end of former President Donald Trump’s term, and he named the conservative Justice Amy Coney Barret to replace her. Barrett was confirmed just days before the presidential election that ousted Trump from office.
“I’ve done this for a long time. Other people should have a chance. The world does change. And we don’t know, frankly, what would happen, if I just stayed there and stayed there. How long would I have to stay there? ... I owe loyalty to the court, which means don’t muck things up. Do things in a regular order,” Breyer said.
