Court Digest

California
Judge orders virus testing at immigration center
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge in California ordered immediate testing of all detainees and staff at an immigration detention center where COVID-19 was spreading for weeks while officials refused to test for the virus.

Federal District Court Judge Vince Chhabria ordered the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to conduct quick-result testing of everyone in the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Facility in Bakersfield, The Los Angeles Times reports.

At least 54 of the 104 detained people remaining at the facility are positive for the virus. Initial results from quick tests Saturday found 11 more positive cases, MacLean said.

Chhabria’s order also directed about 140 staff members at Mesa Verde to be tested during their next shift, and weekly thereafter.

The order followed results Friday showing nearly half of the detainees tested earlier in the week were positive for COVID-19.

Deputy Public Defender Emi MacLean of the San Francisco public defender’s office said the judge cited the “deliberate indifference” of ICE and GEO Group, the private company managing the facility.

The public defender’s office represents detainees at the facility in San Francisco Immigration Court.

The order followed a series of hearings in a class-action lawsuit filed in April that sought to ensure the facility was taking adequate measures to ensure the detainees’ safety. As the litigation proceeded, ICE tested only those who showed symptoms of possible infection and reported there were none, MacLean said.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.

Pennsylvania
2 men sentenced to decades in murders of 4 in basement
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Two men have been sentenced to decades in prison in the shootings deaths of four people gunned down in the basement of a west Philadelphia home over a drug stash almost two years ago.

Jahlil Porter, 34, was sentenced Friday to spend at least 50 years in prison and Keith Garner, 35, was sentenced to at least 40 years, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Authorities said two stepbrothers, 31-year-old William Taylor and 28-year-old Akeem Mattox, found the drugs while renovating homes. But authorities say an attempt to sell the drugs in November 2018 led to their deaths and those of two sisters, 20-year-old Tiyaniah Hopkins and 17-year-old Yaleah Hall.

Testimony at the four-hour sentencing hearing indicated that the defendants had been friends with the two men, and days after the shooting Garner texted Porter a message thanking him “for bringing the beast back out of me.”

Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott expressed surprise that the victims weren’t strangers but were people with whom the defendants “hung out.”

“It is very, very rare that this court sees a case that cannot be described as anything other than an execution,” she told Porter.

Garner acknowledged Friday that the two female victims had nothing to do with the drug stash and simply happened to be in the house at the time.

“I know it seemed like everybody was supposed to die, but it was just supposed to be a robbery, and it went bad,” Garner said. “I’m sorry for what happened. I’m not going to sit here and put the blame on nobody.”

Porter, who could be seen crying at times, also apologized, telling the victims’ friends and relatives “I know I owe all of you so much more than words, and I’m sorry.”

Relatives and friends of the victims said the crime had left them traumatized and frightened.

“My children are scared to enter the basement thinking something’s going to happen to them,” the girls’ mother said in a statement read by prosecutor Danielle Burkavage.

The prosecutor had sought 80-year prison terms, but the judge said the defendants should have the opportunity to appear before a parole board decades from now.

A third man was sentenced earlier to at least 25 years in prison but is seeking reconsideration of that term.

California
LA Kings suspends mascot after sexual harassment lawsuit
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Kings have suspended the man who performs as the ice hockey team’s mascot after a sexual harassment lawsuit was filed against him.

The team suspended Tim Smith, who portrays Bailey the lion and is the senior manager of game presentation and events for the team, after the suit was filed by a former member of the Kings Ice Crew, ESPN reported.

The lawsuit against Smith, the Kings and team owner AEG Corp. seeks more than $1 million in damages. The team said it plans to conduct an investigation.

The woman who filed the lawsuit began working in 2018 a member of the Kings Ice Crew, who work as brand ambassadors leading fan activities during games and promoting the team away from the arena.

The lawsuit alleges Smith verbally and physically harassed the woman and then fired her after she protested.

A Kings team official asked her to return, but the harassment continued and she eventually quit, the lawsuit claims.

Smith has worked for the Kings organization since 2007. He was previously sued for harassment in 2017 by a man who alleged he grabbed his buttocks during an elevator ride. The lawsuit was settled in July 2018.

Nebraska
Man sues police officer who used Taser on him
COZAD, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man who was sitting in a swing in his sister’s backyard with his empty hands visible when a police officer shocked him with a Taser has filed an excessive force lawsuit over the videotaped encounter.

Hilario Velasquez, of Lexington, and his sister, Sarah Garrett, filed the lawsuit in federal court against Cozad Police Sgt. John Peden and the city of Cozad, The Lincoln Journal-Star reports.

The suit said the siblings were in the backyard of Garrett’s home on May 28 when the sergeant demanded to know where their brother was. Cozad Police Chief Mark Montgomery wouldn’t say why police were looking for their brother and declined to comment on the lawsuit.

When the sergeant told Velasquez he had to leave, Velasquez said they weren’t looking for him, and he didn’t have anything to do with it, a 50-second cellphone video clip shows.

“Just get up and leave,” Peden told Velasquez while pointing a Taser at him.

“No, my son’s in there,” Velasquez said, motioning to the house, a second before the sergeant shocked him, then kept verbally pressing. “Get up.”

The siblings’ attorney, Maren Chaloupka, called it an assault.

Cozad City Attorney Scott Trusdale declined to comment, saying Friday that the city had not yet received official notice of the lawsuit.

Vermont
Fugitive who escaped through court bathroom window caught
LYNDON, Vt. (AP) — A fugitive who escaped from a Vermont courthouse through a bathroom window was caught by police a day later in a grocery store parking lot.

Travis Johnson, 33, was in police custody at the courthouse in St. Johnsbury for sentencing Friday when a Lyndonville police officer removed his hand cuffs and allowed him to use the first-floor bathroom without supervision, the Caledonian Record reported. Johnson climbed out of the bathroom window and fled.

On Saturday, Lyndonville Police Chief Jack Harris, who was in his personal vehicle, spotted Johnson in a car that was leaving the White Market Plaza Store parking lot in Lyndon, police said. Harris blocked the vehicle with his own and then took Johnson into custody at gunpoint, police said. Johnson did not resist arrest and was being held at the Northeast Regional Correctional Facility in St. Johnsbury. It was not immediately known if he is being represented by an attorney.

Johnson had been arrested by police Friday on two warrants, including failing to appear in court for multiple convictions including burglary, grand larceny, unlawful mischief, possession of stolen property, forgery and multiple violations of conditions of release. He was found hiding under a bed in a camper, police said.

Illinois
Review cites ‘operational failures’ in Jussie Smollett prosecution
CHICAGO (AP) — A special prosecutor in Chicago said Monday that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and her office abused their discretion in the case against actor Jussie Smollett but did nothing criminal.

In a statement on the conclusions his investigation, special prosecutor Dan Webb sharply criticized the handling of the Smollett case by Foxx and her assistant prosecutors, saying their handling was marked by disarray and misleading statements.

In March last year, Foxx’s office surprised and angered many in Chicago by dropping charges that accused the former “Empire” actor of staging a racist, homophobic attack against himself.
Smollett is still adamant that the attack was real and wasn’t a publicity hoax.

Webb’s statement said his investigation “did not develop evidence that would support any criminal charges against State’s Attorney Foxx or any individual working at (her office).” But it added, it “did develop evidence that establishes substantial abuses of discretion and operational failures” in how it handled the Smollett matter.

Webb’s findings announced Monday came after charges were restored against Smollett by the same special prosecutor in February. Webb said at the time that dropping the charges against Smollett were unjustified, including because the evidence against Smollett seem and because he was not required to admit that the attack was a hoax.

One of the focuses of Webb’s inquiry was about whether Foxx acted improperly by speaking to a Smollett relative and a onetime aide of former first lady Michelle Obama before the charges were dropped, or by weighing in on the case after recusing herself.

Foxx is the first black woman to hold Chicago’s top law enforcement job. She defeated her primary opponents earlier this year even as they made her handling of the Smollett case central to their campaigns. In overwhelmingly Democratic Chicago, the primary invariably determines who wins the general election.

Charging documents refiled by Webb in February accuse the black, openly gay actor of making a false police report in claiming two men attacked him early on Jan. 29, 2019, in downtown Chicago, shouting slurs and looping a rope around his neck.

Reform advocates have hailed reforms Foxx pushed through — often over the angry objections of Chicago’s police union and chiefs of police across Cook County, including treating certain nonviolent crimes, such as shoplifting, as lower priorities.

Illinois
Former McDonald’s CEO asks court to dismiss case against him
McDonald’s former CEO is asking a court to dismiss the company’s lawsuit against him, calling it “meritless and misleading.”

Chicago-based McDonald’s sued Stephen Easterbrook  last week, seeking to reclaim millions of dollars in compensation paid to him. McDonald’s fired Easterbrook without cause last November after he admitted to exchanging videos and text messages in a consensual, non-physical relationship with an employee. A search of Easterbrook’s cell phone confirmed that account.

But McDonald’s said it conducted a second investigation last month after it received an anonymous tip that Easterbrook had a physical relationship with another employee. McDonald’s said it has since found that Easterbrook had sexual relationships with three employees and destroyed evidence.

The company’s board says it would not have agreed to Easterbrook’s separation agreement — which allowed him to keep more than $42 million in stock-based benefits — if it had that information when he was fired.

In a response filed late Friday in Delaware Chancery Court, Easterbrook said McDonald’s hired outside attorneys to investigate his conduct, including interviewing employees and reviewing electronic information, before it signed off on his separation agreement.

“McDonald’s is improperly attempting to get out of its bargain nine months after the fact and despite admitting it always possessed the information upon which is it now relying,” Easterbrook’s response reads.

Easterbrook also claims the case should be tried in Illinois, not Delaware.

McDonald’s rejected Easterbrook’s arguments Monday.

“McDonald’s stands by its complaint, both the factual assertions and the court in which it was filed,” a spokesperson for the company said.