Connecticut
Bad idea: Pouring gas on wet ballfield, setting it on fire
RIDGEFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Authorities say it could cost over $50,000 to repair a Connecticut baseball diamond where somebody dumped gasoline and set it on fire to dry out the infield.
Police are investigating the fire in Ridgefield in which 25 gallons of gasoline was poured on the field Saturday.
First Selectman Rudy Marconi told Hearst Connecticut Media that 75 to 100 people watched as it happened, with some recording video on their cellphones. The town's high school baseball team had been planning to host Amity on the field.
Workers from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection responded. A hazardous waste removal crew began digging up the contaminated soil Sunday, and Marconi says the spill team will move it off site this week.
No one has been charged.
Hawaii
Legal foreign resident sues Hawaii over gun license laws
LIHUE, Hawaii (AP) - A foreign citizen living legally in Hawaii is suing the state over laws preventing him from obtaining a gun license, according to court documents.
United Kingdom citizen Andrew Roberts filed the federal civil lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, The Garden Island reported Sunday.
Hawaii statutes restricting gun ownership on the basis of citizenship are unconstitutional denials of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment, the lawsuit claims.
"The law is clearly in violation of the Constitution," Roberts said. "This is just the process we have to go through in order to change it."
Roberts, a director for the Hawaii Firearms Coalition, moved there from England 12 years ago and established legal residency. He said this is his third gun rights lawsuit in Hawaii.
His 2015 federal lawsuit overturned a Honolulu Police Department policy requiring non-citizen residents applying for a gun-ownership license to provide additional documentation from their country of origin. In 2018, he filed a lawsuit, which is still pending, that challenges Hawaii laws banning civilians from owning stun guns, the newspaper reported.
Hawaii has some of the nation's strongest gun laws and is the only state that requires firearms to be registered at a statewide level. Hawaii permits allow firearm purchase and transport to limited places such as shooting ranges or gunsmiths, and for hunting. Prior to 2014, Hawaii only granted ownership permits to U.S. citizens until a federal judge ruled that statute unconstitutional, the newspaper reported.
Alabama
Murder trial for officer delayed pending immunity appeal
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - The murder trial for a Huntsville police officer who shot a suicidal gunman last year is being delayed so he can appeal a judge's ruling that he's not immune from prosecution.
Officer William "Ben" Darby was supposed to go on trial Monday. A grand jury indicted him for murder despite his being cleared by a police review board.
WAAY-TV and AL.com are reporting the details of last week's pre-trial hearing where Madison County Circuit Judge Donna Pate denied the immunity claim.
Darby said he followed police procedure and his shooting was justified.
Video evidence shows 49-year-old Jeffrey Parker was holding a gun to his head inside his home as officer Genisha Pegues tried to calm him down and another officer, Justin Beckles, stood in the doorway.
Darby then entered the home, yelled at her to point her gun at Parker, and within 10 seconds, fatally shot Parker in the face with his shotgun.
Officer Pegues testified that Parker had told her he wasn't going to hurt her, and that she never felt threatened. Darby, though, said he feared Pegues wasn't protecting herself and should have withdrawn to set up a perimeter and wait for a standoff negotiator. Pegues agreed the video showed she had taken her gun off Parker, in violation of her training, but otherwise said she felt she had followed police rules.
Video shows the three officers told Parker seven times to drop his gun. Parker refused and shrugged his shoulders. Darby said that shrug made him believe Parker was about to shoot an officer, so he fired.
A video interview between Darby and a Huntsville police investigator was played in court. Three days after shooting, Darby said: "I regret it became necessary, but I don't regret my action."
Beckles, who is now a police officer at the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal, also testified that he did not believe Pegues had control of the situation. He said Parker was not going to drop his weapon. Beckles told the judge it was "inevitable we needed to eliminate the threat from non-compliance."
Huntsville is paying for the officer's defense. Police Chief Mark McMurray and Mayor Tommy Battle said Darby did nothing wrong.
Darby's on desk duty while the charges are pending. Beckles left the force and works as a police officer at the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenel. Pegues was sent to remedial training and reassigned as a school resource officer.
California
Hospital apologizes to women who were secretly filmed
LA MESA, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California hospital issued an apology to the women who claimed they were secretly filmed during gynecological surgeries.
More than 80 women sued Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa last week, alleging they were recorded by motion-activated cameras set up in three operating rooms as part of an effort to catch a possible drug thief, KNSD-TV reported.
As part of the class-action lawsuit first filed three years ago, one woman claimed she was recorded while giving birth by emergency caesarean section.
"No one ever asked me to record one of my most tender, life-changing moments," Melissa Escalera told the station. "I would have never agreed to be recorded in that vulnerable moment."
The hospital near San Diego said in a letter Thursday that the cameras set up in 2012 and 2013 were intended to record only individuals in front of the anesthesia carts. However, the letter said patients and medical personnel were at times visible to the cameras and recorded without sound.
Through the investigation, hospital officials identified the person they believed was stealing drugs and that person no longer works there.
The hospital said it has stopped using this surveillance method and that the videos are kept in a secured safe and only released in response to the legal processes or specific patient requests.
"We sincerely apologize that our efforts may have caused any distress to the women who were recorded, their families, and others we serve," the letter said.
Published: Tue, Apr 09, 2019
