Court Roundup

North Carolina: Lawsuit against paramedic in death to proceed
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) — A judge has agreed to allow the parents of a high school football player to sue a paramedic who responded to their son before he died.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported that Superior Court Judge Carl Fox on Monday rejected a request by former paramedic James Griffin to dismiss the lawsuit against him.

David and Malinda Fraley says Griffin failed to follow proper procedures after their son Atlas Fraley called 911 shortly before he died two years ago.

State and county investigations found that Griffin violated several agency policies in responding to the former Chapel Hill High School player’s 911 call.

An autopsy suggested Fraley’s dehydration and cramping may have led to a fatal heart attack, though the autopsy did not provide a definitive cause of death.

California: Judge nixes suit over 5,000-acre development
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — A California judge has thrown out a lawsuit that aimed to stop development of a 5,000-acre gated resort community on the sprawling Tejon Ranch property.

Superior Court Judge Kenneth Twisselman ruled Friday that Kern County officials did not violate state environmental laws when they approved the Tejon Mountain Village project in October.

Lawyers with the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups had argued that officials ignored the project’s potential harm to the California condor and other environmental impacts.

Tejon Mountain Village spokesman David Crowder praised the ruling in a statement.

Center for Biological Diversity attorney Adam Keats says the environmental groups will appeal.

The planned resort is about 60 miles north of Los Angeles.

Georgia: Church: Bishop accompanied young accusers
LITHONIA, Ga. (AP) — New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia acknowledges that Bishop Eddie Long accompanied four young men on trips, but says it can neither confirm nor deny that anything inappropriate took place.

The church was responding in DeKalb County State Court on Monday to lawsuits alleging that Long coerced the four into sexual relations. The four men allege that Long used his influence, lavish trips, gifts and jobs to coerce them.

South Dakota: Farmer’s lawsuit over failed hog barn is derailed
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A federal judge derailed a farmer’s civil rights lawsuit when he ruled that Ben Elliott waited too long to sue Lake County and county officials for denying a building permit for a hog barn.

U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange’s Nov. 3 ruling in favor of the defendants came in a case that twice went to state court and the South Dakota Supreme Court, which ruled against Elliott.

His federal lawsuit alleged violations of property rights and civil rights because of delays and subsequent new restrictions that kept him from building a farrowing barn for hogs east of Madison.