Tokyo
Japanese doctors demand damages from Google over ‘groundless’ reviews
TOKYO (AP) — A group of Japanese doctors has filed a civil lawsuit against U.S. search giant Google, demanding damages for what they claim are unpoliced derogatory and often false comments.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Tokyo District Court, demands 1.4 million yen ($9,400) in damages for 63 medical professionals.
Google said in an emailed statement Friday that it is working “24 hours a day” to reduce misleading or false information on its platform, combining human and technological resources “to delete fraudulent reviews.”
The lawsuit claims groundless negative reviews have been posted on Google Maps, a very popular app in Japan, that allows people to write in ratings of various institutions and their personal reviews.
Some comments are irresponsible and appear to be written out of spite and the “word of mouth” remarks take on a life of their own and are nearly impossible to refute, according to the lawsuit.
It said Google has done very little to fix the problem, despite complaints.
“The damage suffered is substantial, and the people have been powerless to fight back. We don’t agree that the platform shares no responsibility,” Yuichi Nakazawa, who leads the legal team for the plaintiffs, told reporters.
Some Japanese say they rely on what people say online about hospitals, including how long the wait was or what kind of care they got, rather than official sites. But those online comments may be inaccurate and even detrimental to health care, those behind the lawsuit say.
Japan boasts a relatively widespread and affordable health care system, making the medical sector a hot topic in one of the fastest aging societies in the world.
Class actions are relatively rare in Japan, though Google has been sued in the U.S. and various other nations, accused of misleading advertising, violations of privacy and other problems.
Earlier this month, Google agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. who had surfed the internet through its Chrome web browser. That was part of a settlement in a U.S. lawsuit that had accused Google of illegal surveillance.
The lawsuit in Japan is intended to highlight the potential dangers from Google’s technology, the lawyers for the medical professionals say. The damages they are seeking are symbolic, about 23,000 yen ($150) per plaintiff.
Arizona
Jury weighs case against rancher in migrant killing
PHOENIX (AP) — A jury in southern Arizona was ordered to resume deliberation Friday in the trial of a rancher charged with fatally shooting an unarmed migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Jurors received the case Thursday afternoon after a nearly one-month trial in a presidential election year that has drawn widespread interest in border security. George Alan Kelly, 75, is charged with second-degree murder in the January 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea.
The Santa Cruz County Superior Court did not immediately confirm whether the jury took the case back up at 8:30 a.m. as instructed by Judge Thomas Fink.
Cuen-Buitimea, 48, lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. Court records show Cuen-Buitimea had previously entered the U.S. illegally several times and was deported, most recently in 2016.
Some on the political right have supported the rancher as anti-migrant rhetoric and presidential campaigning heat up.
Prosecutor Mike Jette said Kelly recklessly fired an AK-47 rifle toward a group of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 100 yards (90 meters) away on his property.
Kelly said he fired warning shots in the air, but he didn’t shoot directly at anyone.
Jette said Kelly fired nine shots toward the group.
The prosecutor said Cuen-Buitimea suffered three broken ribs and a severed aorta.
Jette encouraged jurors to find Kelly guilty of reckless manslaughter or negligent homicide if they can’t convict him on the murder charge. A second-degree murder conviction would bring a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.
Defense attorney Brenna Larkin urged jurors to find Kelly not guilty, saying in her closing argument that Kelly “was in a life or death situation.”
“He was confronted with a threat right outside his home,” Larkin said. “He would have been absolutely justified to use deadly force, but he did not.”
No one else in the group was injured, and they all made it back to Mexico.
The trial that started March 22 included jurors visiting Kelly’s nearly 170-acre (69-hectare) cattle ranch outside Nogales.
Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault. He earlier rejected a deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.
Connecticut
A convicted rapist is charged with murder in the killing of a visiting nurse
A convicted rapist was charged with murder and attempted sexual assault Friday in the killing of a visiting nurse at a Connecticut halfway house for sex offenders in October — a crime that spurred calls for better safety measures for home health care workers.
Authorities added the charges against Michael Reese, 39, as he appeared in state court in Danielson for a related larceny and drug paraphernalia case. Police arrested him on those allegations as he was leaving the Willimantic halfway house on the day when Joyce Grayson was found dead in the basement on Oct. 28. Officers said Reese had some of Grayson’s possessions on him.
Grayson, a 63-year-old mother of six and a nurse for 36 years, had gone to the house to administer medication to Reese. Police responded there when someone reported she had missed later appointments.
Reese was charged with murder, felony murder and attempted first-degree sexual assault, according to the court clerk’s office. Additional details of the allegations were not immediately available.
Reese’s public defender did not immediately return phone and emails messages seeking comment Friday.
Grayson was a nurse for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for 26 years before serving as a visiting nurse for over a decade, according to her family. She also was a beloved foster parent, taking in nearly three dozen children and being honored with the state’s Foster Parent of the Year award in 2017.
After her death, state and federal lawmakers renewed pushes to prevent violence against health care workers.
Reese, who was on probation after serving more than 14 years in prison for stabbing and sexually assaulting a woman in 2006 in New Haven, was taken into police custody while leaving the halfway house on the day Grayson was killed. He was released from prison in late 2020 and was sent back to detention two times for violating probation, state records show.
Authorities said he had some of Grayson’s belongings, including credit cards, and was charged with violating probation, larceny and using drug paraphernalia.
A judge on Friday set bail at $2 million on the new charges. Reese has been detained on bail since his arrest. He is due back in court on June 7.
Grand Rapids
Appeals court dismisses charges against an election worker who downloaded a voter list
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — An appeals court dismissed charges against a Michigan election worker who put a USB flash drive into an electronic poll book and downloaded the names of voters at the close of a primary election in 2022.
The court’s conclusion: James Holkeboer’s conduct was improper but not a crime.
He was charged with election fraud. But Holkeboer’s lawyers pointed out that the state law used by prosecutors only bars acts that change the election record.
“The prosecution had to demonstrate that Holkeboer fraudulently removed or secreted the election list of voters such that the information was no longer available or altered,” the court said in a 3-0 opinion Thursday.
“Here, no evidence was presented that election information was altered or made unavailable” to local election officials, the court said.
Holkeboer’s acts did not affect the results of the 2022 primary election. He was working at a polling place in Kent County’s Gaines Township, south of Grand Rapids, for the first time.
Holkeboer, a Republican, told investigators that he downloaded information about voters because he wanted to compare it to lists he was seeking under a separate public records request, according to a summary of the case.
Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons, who oversees elections, said she’s in favor of an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.
“This breach of public trust must be addressed,” she said.
Missouri
A man gets 19 years for a downtown St. Louis crash that cost a teen volleyball player her legs
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for causing a downtown accident that resulted in the amputation of the legs of a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee. Daniel Riley was convicted last month of second-degree assault, armed criminal action, fourth-degree assault and driving without a valid license. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Judge Michael Noble on Thursday followed the jury’s recommendation in sentencing Riley. The February 2023 accident set off a chain of events that led to the resignation of Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. Riley was a robbery suspect out on bond when he sped through an intersection and caused a wreck that pinned 17-year-old Janae Edmondson between two vehicles.
Vermont
Suspect in fire outside of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office to remain detained, judge says
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The man accused of starting a fire outside independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Vermont office earlier this month will remain detained pending further legal proceedings, a federal judge ordered Thursday.
Shant Michael Soghomonian was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of maliciously damaging or attempting to damage and destroy by fire a building used in interstate commerce, according to the indictment filed with the court. Soghomonian, 35, has not yet been arraigned.
Surveillance video shows the man throwing a liquid April 5 at the bottom of a door opening into Sanders’ third-floor office in Burlington and setting it on fire with a lighter, according to an affidavit filed by a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The motive remains unclear, and Sanders was not in the office at the time.
Seven employees working in the office were able to get out unharmed. The building’s interior suffered damage from the fire and water sprinklers.
Soghomonian, who was previously from Northridge, California, had been staying at a South Burlington hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to the special agent’s report.
Prosecutors argued that Soghomonian is a danger to the community and a flight risk and should remain detained. A phone message was left with his public defender and was not immediately returned.
Japanese doctors demand damages from Google over ‘groundless’ reviews
TOKYO (AP) — A group of Japanese doctors has filed a civil lawsuit against U.S. search giant Google, demanding damages for what they claim are unpoliced derogatory and often false comments.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Tokyo District Court, demands 1.4 million yen ($9,400) in damages for 63 medical professionals.
Google said in an emailed statement Friday that it is working “24 hours a day” to reduce misleading or false information on its platform, combining human and technological resources “to delete fraudulent reviews.”
The lawsuit claims groundless negative reviews have been posted on Google Maps, a very popular app in Japan, that allows people to write in ratings of various institutions and their personal reviews.
Some comments are irresponsible and appear to be written out of spite and the “word of mouth” remarks take on a life of their own and are nearly impossible to refute, according to the lawsuit.
It said Google has done very little to fix the problem, despite complaints.
“The damage suffered is substantial, and the people have been powerless to fight back. We don’t agree that the platform shares no responsibility,” Yuichi Nakazawa, who leads the legal team for the plaintiffs, told reporters.
Some Japanese say they rely on what people say online about hospitals, including how long the wait was or what kind of care they got, rather than official sites. But those online comments may be inaccurate and even detrimental to health care, those behind the lawsuit say.
Japan boasts a relatively widespread and affordable health care system, making the medical sector a hot topic in one of the fastest aging societies in the world.
Class actions are relatively rare in Japan, though Google has been sued in the U.S. and various other nations, accused of misleading advertising, violations of privacy and other problems.
Earlier this month, Google agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. who had surfed the internet through its Chrome web browser. That was part of a settlement in a U.S. lawsuit that had accused Google of illegal surveillance.
The lawsuit in Japan is intended to highlight the potential dangers from Google’s technology, the lawyers for the medical professionals say. The damages they are seeking are symbolic, about 23,000 yen ($150) per plaintiff.
Arizona
Jury weighs case against rancher in migrant killing
PHOENIX (AP) — A jury in southern Arizona was ordered to resume deliberation Friday in the trial of a rancher charged with fatally shooting an unarmed migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Jurors received the case Thursday afternoon after a nearly one-month trial in a presidential election year that has drawn widespread interest in border security. George Alan Kelly, 75, is charged with second-degree murder in the January 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea.
The Santa Cruz County Superior Court did not immediately confirm whether the jury took the case back up at 8:30 a.m. as instructed by Judge Thomas Fink.
Cuen-Buitimea, 48, lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. Court records show Cuen-Buitimea had previously entered the U.S. illegally several times and was deported, most recently in 2016.
Some on the political right have supported the rancher as anti-migrant rhetoric and presidential campaigning heat up.
Prosecutor Mike Jette said Kelly recklessly fired an AK-47 rifle toward a group of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 100 yards (90 meters) away on his property.
Kelly said he fired warning shots in the air, but he didn’t shoot directly at anyone.
Jette said Kelly fired nine shots toward the group.
The prosecutor said Cuen-Buitimea suffered three broken ribs and a severed aorta.
Jette encouraged jurors to find Kelly guilty of reckless manslaughter or negligent homicide if they can’t convict him on the murder charge. A second-degree murder conviction would bring a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.
Defense attorney Brenna Larkin urged jurors to find Kelly not guilty, saying in her closing argument that Kelly “was in a life or death situation.”
“He was confronted with a threat right outside his home,” Larkin said. “He would have been absolutely justified to use deadly force, but he did not.”
No one else in the group was injured, and they all made it back to Mexico.
The trial that started March 22 included jurors visiting Kelly’s nearly 170-acre (69-hectare) cattle ranch outside Nogales.
Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault. He earlier rejected a deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.
Connecticut
A convicted rapist is charged with murder in the killing of a visiting nurse
A convicted rapist was charged with murder and attempted sexual assault Friday in the killing of a visiting nurse at a Connecticut halfway house for sex offenders in October — a crime that spurred calls for better safety measures for home health care workers.
Authorities added the charges against Michael Reese, 39, as he appeared in state court in Danielson for a related larceny and drug paraphernalia case. Police arrested him on those allegations as he was leaving the Willimantic halfway house on the day when Joyce Grayson was found dead in the basement on Oct. 28. Officers said Reese had some of Grayson’s possessions on him.
Grayson, a 63-year-old mother of six and a nurse for 36 years, had gone to the house to administer medication to Reese. Police responded there when someone reported she had missed later appointments.
Reese was charged with murder, felony murder and attempted first-degree sexual assault, according to the court clerk’s office. Additional details of the allegations were not immediately available.
Reese’s public defender did not immediately return phone and emails messages seeking comment Friday.
Grayson was a nurse for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services for 26 years before serving as a visiting nurse for over a decade, according to her family. She also was a beloved foster parent, taking in nearly three dozen children and being honored with the state’s Foster Parent of the Year award in 2017.
After her death, state and federal lawmakers renewed pushes to prevent violence against health care workers.
Reese, who was on probation after serving more than 14 years in prison for stabbing and sexually assaulting a woman in 2006 in New Haven, was taken into police custody while leaving the halfway house on the day Grayson was killed. He was released from prison in late 2020 and was sent back to detention two times for violating probation, state records show.
Authorities said he had some of Grayson’s belongings, including credit cards, and was charged with violating probation, larceny and using drug paraphernalia.
A judge on Friday set bail at $2 million on the new charges. Reese has been detained on bail since his arrest. He is due back in court on June 7.
Grand Rapids
Appeals court dismisses charges against an election worker who downloaded a voter list
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — An appeals court dismissed charges against a Michigan election worker who put a USB flash drive into an electronic poll book and downloaded the names of voters at the close of a primary election in 2022.
The court’s conclusion: James Holkeboer’s conduct was improper but not a crime.
He was charged with election fraud. But Holkeboer’s lawyers pointed out that the state law used by prosecutors only bars acts that change the election record.
“The prosecution had to demonstrate that Holkeboer fraudulently removed or secreted the election list of voters such that the information was no longer available or altered,” the court said in a 3-0 opinion Thursday.
“Here, no evidence was presented that election information was altered or made unavailable” to local election officials, the court said.
Holkeboer’s acts did not affect the results of the 2022 primary election. He was working at a polling place in Kent County’s Gaines Township, south of Grand Rapids, for the first time.
Holkeboer, a Republican, told investigators that he downloaded information about voters because he wanted to compare it to lists he was seeking under a separate public records request, according to a summary of the case.
Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons, who oversees elections, said she’s in favor of an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court.
“This breach of public trust must be addressed,” she said.
Missouri
A man gets 19 years for a downtown St. Louis crash that cost a teen volleyball player her legs
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for causing a downtown accident that resulted in the amputation of the legs of a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee. Daniel Riley was convicted last month of second-degree assault, armed criminal action, fourth-degree assault and driving without a valid license. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Judge Michael Noble on Thursday followed the jury’s recommendation in sentencing Riley. The February 2023 accident set off a chain of events that led to the resignation of Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner. Riley was a robbery suspect out on bond when he sped through an intersection and caused a wreck that pinned 17-year-old Janae Edmondson between two vehicles.
Vermont
Suspect in fire outside of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office to remain detained, judge says
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The man accused of starting a fire outside independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Vermont office earlier this month will remain detained pending further legal proceedings, a federal judge ordered Thursday.
Shant Michael Soghomonian was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of maliciously damaging or attempting to damage and destroy by fire a building used in interstate commerce, according to the indictment filed with the court. Soghomonian, 35, has not yet been arraigned.
Surveillance video shows the man throwing a liquid April 5 at the bottom of a door opening into Sanders’ third-floor office in Burlington and setting it on fire with a lighter, according to an affidavit filed by a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The motive remains unclear, and Sanders was not in the office at the time.
Seven employees working in the office were able to get out unharmed. The building’s interior suffered damage from the fire and water sprinklers.
Soghomonian, who was previously from Northridge, California, had been staying at a South Burlington hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to the special agent’s report.
Prosecutors argued that Soghomonian is a danger to the community and a flight risk and should remain detained. A phone message was left with his public defender and was not immediately returned.
