Wisconsin
State high court justice accuses liberals of ‘raw exercise’ of power
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The conservative chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court accused her liberal colleagues of a “raw exercise of overreaching power” after they flexed their new majority Wednesday and fired the director of the state’s court system.
The four liberal justices, on just their second day as a majority on the court after 15 years under conservative control, voted to fire Randy Koschnick. Koschnick held the job for six years after serving for 18 years as a judge and running unsuccessfully as a conservative in 2009 against then-Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, a liberal.
“To say that I am disappointed in my colleagues is an understatement,” Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, now a member of the three-justice conservative minority, said in a lengthy statement after Koschnick was fired.
Ziegler said the move undermined her authority as chief justice. She called it unauthorized, procedurally and legally flawed, and reckless. But she said she would not attempt to stop it out of fear that other court employees could be similarly fired.
“My colleagues’ unprecedented dangerous conduct is the raw exercise of overreaching power,” she said. “It is shameful. I fear this is only the beginning.”
Fellow conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley blasted the move in a social media post, saying, “Political purges of court employees are beyond the pale.”
Koschnick called the move “apparently political.”
“I think that portends bad things for the court’s decision making going forward,” he said.
The court announced Wednesday evening that Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Audrey Skwierawski will serve as the interim director of state courts beginning Thursday. Skwierawski will take a leave from her position on the circuit court, where she has served since her appointment by former Gov. Scott Walker in 2018, it said.
The justices who voted to fire Koschnick did not respond to a request for comment left with the court’s spokesperson.
Ziegler noted that when conservatives took control of the court in 2008, they did not act to fire the director of state courts at that time, John Voelker. He remained in the position for six more years before resigning.
Ziegler praised Koschnick for his 18 years as a judge and his efforts as director of the state court system, a job that includes hiring court personnel and maintaining the statewide computer system for courts. She also applauded him for addressing the mental health needs of people in the court system, tackling a court reporter shortage and keeping courts operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Koschnick said he could have accepted his firing — and ensured a smoother transition with his successor — if the justices had waited to do it at a planned administrative meeting next month. Instead, he said, court workers are boxing up his personal belongings while he is in New York at a judicial conference.
“It creates a really unstable workplace,” he said.
New York
Assault trial for actor Jonathan Majors postponed until September
NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence trial was postponed until at least Sept. 6 after New York City prosecutors asked Thursday for more time to prepare.
Majors, 33, appeared in court for what was to have been the start of his trial on charges stemming from a March confrontation with a woman who says he twisted her arm behind her back, struck her on the head and pushed her into a vehicle. The woman was treated at a hospital for minor neck and head injuries, including a cut to her ear.
Majors is charged with misdemeanors, including assault, and could be sentenced to as much as a year in jail if convicted.
The judge set a new tentative trial date of Sept. 6 after prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office requested more time for discovery.
Majors walked out of the courtroom after the hearing, acknowledging some seated in the gallery. At one point he bumped his hand to his heart to a woman seated near the door.
Majors, who plays the villain Kang the Conqueror in the Marvel films, has denied the accusations.
Texas
Drag artists sue to block law that bans public sexual performances
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A group of drag performers and LGBTQ+ rights advocates have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a new Texas law that expands what is considered an illegal public performance of sexual conduct, arguing it is meant to target drag shows and could also criminalize ballet and even cheerleading.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. district court in Houston by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of plaintiffs, contends that the law is unconstitutional and threatens the “livelihood and free expression of many Texans, including drag performers across our state.”
It seeks to block the from taking effect Sept. 1.
The law approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature was part of a broader effort in Texas and other conservative states to crack down on drag shows and limit LGBTQ rights.
Such laws have already run into trouble in other states, including Florida and Tennessee, where judges put drag performance bans on hold.
Like Texas, Arkansas has a new law regulating adult-oriented performance that doesn’t mention drag specifically but has raised concerns that it would be applied to drag performances. And Montana has a ban in effect that targets drag queen story hours, specifically.
The new Texas law on sexual content in performances was initially meant to bar children from attending drag shows. It was changed to remove specific references to drag performances, but it broadened the scope of what would be illegal.
It would ban real or simulated groping, real or simulated arousal, and the display of a sex toy if done in a “prurient” manner in front of a minor or on public property. And it includes a definition of sexual conduct that bars the wearing of accessories or prosthetics that enhance the female or male form in front of a minor or on public property.
Violators could face up to a year in jail, and businesses hosting performances deemed illegal could be fined $10,000 for each violation.
Drag performers say the law is intended to crack down on their art.
“Texas queens and kings from across our great state have been targets of threats and misinformation as a result of the anti-drag law,” said drag artist Brigitte Bandit of Austin, who is one of the plaintiffs. “Our community will not be used as a scapegoat or a distraction by politicians who do not know who we are or what we do.”
Supporters of the bill say it’s needed to protect children from seeing sexually explicit content.
“Someone must fight back against the radical left’s degradation of our society and values. I will not allow Texas children to be sexualized and scarred for life by harmful drag performances,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, said when the bill passed in May.
The lawsuit argues that the new guidelines could ensnare all kinds of performances in addition to drag shows, including touring Broadway plays, professional cheerleading routines and karaoke nights at a local club.
Television, movies and websites could also fall under the guidelines, and “any type of wardrobe malfunction” could result in fines or jail, the lawsuit said.
“The Texas Drag Ban is stunningly broad in scope and will chill entire genres of free expression in our state,” said Brian Klosterboer, attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “This law flies in the face of the First Amendment. No performer should ever be thrown in jail because the government disfavors their speech.”
New Mexico
13-year-old boy charged with murder in fatal shooting of woman
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A middle school student has been charged with murder and other counts in the shooting of a woman who allegedly confronted him and other teens who were riding around in her vehicle, which had been stolen days earlier.
The boy, who recently turned 13, was booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said they would seek to keep him in custody pending trial and that authorities were trying to determine how the 8th grader got the gun. The Associated Press does not generally identify juvenile crime suspects.
District Attorney Sam Bregman said the woman was killed because she asked the teens what they were doing in her stolen car.
“You bet we’re going to try and keep this teen in custody,” Bregman said in a statement.
A public defender was planning to talk with the teen after learning that he had turned himself in. The boy also was charged with
tampering with evidence and unlawful possession of a handgun.
The shooting happened Monday night at a gas station on the city’s west side. Witnesses told police that the victim, identified as 23-year-old Sydney Wilson, had been trying to locate her stolen vehicle with the GPS on her phone.
Police said several teens were in the car and told police they stole several bottles of alcohol from a store.
According to a criminal complaint, the driver of the stolen car hit another vehicle and then crashed into a curb while trying to flee. The teens were starting to walk away when Wilson approached and asked why they were in her car. The complaint states that the 13-year-old boy, who had been in the rear passenger seat, pulled a gun and fired, hitting Wilson at least once.
Police found two shell casings at the scene and detained three teens, including one who was taken to a hospital due to intoxication.
Rhode Island
Man is charged with cheating Home Depot stores out of $300,000 with door-return scam
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Connecticut man was given nearly $300,000 in fraudulent Home Depot credit by walking into stores in several states, taking expensive doors and then returning them without a receipt, federal prosecutors allege.
Alexandre Henrique Costa-Mota, 26, of West Hartford, Connecticut, was detained without bail after a judge entered not-guilty pleas on his behalf this week in federal court in Rhode Island to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. attorney’s office in Providence said in a statement Wednesday.
An email seeking comment was left with Costa-Mota’s attorney.
Costa-Mota dressed to appear like a contractor and entered the stores empty-handed, prosecutors allege in court documents. He would then load a door or several doors worth hundreds of dollars each onto a lumber cart, take them to the service department and return them without a receipt, authorities said.
He was given a store credit that he later redeemed at other stores, prosecutors said.
If the return was denied, he would take the doors without paying and return them at another store, prosecutors said.
Home Deport stores in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey were involved. The defendant was given about 370 fraudulent store credits between June 2021 and February 2022, prosecutors said.
