National Roundup

Washington
County, deputy sheriff to pay $56K in civil case
SEATTLE (AP) — An appellate court has ordered lawyers for a Washington state county and its deputy sheriff to pay more than $56,000 in attorney fees and costs for filing frivolous appeals in a federal civil-rights case filed by the family of a man shot by a deputy while wielding a ballpoint pen.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sanctioned the attorneys for King County and Deputy Sheriff Cesar Molina after they filed multiple impractical appeals in a case filed by the family of Tommy Lee, The Seattle Times reported  Thursday.

Lee, 20, who was under the influence of hallucinogens on the night before his high-school graduation in June 2017, reportedly ran at deputies who had responded to a report of a disoriented man, possibly armed with a knife or sharp object, authorities said.

Molina was the third deputy to arrive and, according to his sworn deposition and court documents, confronted and shot Le after he and another deputy unsuccessfully tried to incapacitate him with a stun gun. The King County sheriff’s office initially reported Le had attacked deputies and was shot in self-defense. An autopsy and investigation showed Le was shot in the back, court records said.

The sheriff’s Force Review Board concluded the shooting was justified. However, an external review found the investigation did not explore inconsistencies in the evidence.

Philip Talmadge, one of the family’s attorneys and a former state Supreme Court justice, on Thursday accused the county of filing the appeal to delay taking the case to trial.

“Hopefully, the county’s leadership and its attorneys will get the message that it’s time to resolve the case of Tommy Le’s unjustified shooting,” he said.

King County has denied the appeal was a delay tactic and pointed out that the extra time gave Le’s attorneys an opportunity to add an additional negligent claim.

Under the ruling, the attorneys for Le’s family, Talmadge, Jeff Campiche and Philip Arnold would receive $56,752.60 for their work to oppose the appeals. Le’s attorneys originally asked for $87,000.

King County and Molina’s private attorney Timothy Gosselin must determine who pays what, because they are both jointly responsible for the full amount.

Wyoming
Judge: Groups can’t challenge endangered species plans
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — An environmental group has no legal standing to challenge the specifics of recovery plans for endangered species, a judge in Montana has ruled.

The case began with a 2014 petition by the Center for Biological Diversity that asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revise and update its then-21-year-old species recovery plan for threatened grizzly bears in the contiguous United States.

Federal wildlife managers declined and the Center took the issue to court. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen ruled Dec. 23 that endangered species recovery plans are guidelines, not rules that can be challenged in court.

“Notwithstanding the merits of the Center’s claim that the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) Service is simply not doing enough to protect the grizzly bear, Congress has authorized only limited avenues for judicial review of administrative action, none of which are available in this case,” Christensen wrote.

While the case was brought against the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, several other entities intervened including the states of Wyoming and Idaho along with farm and ranch groups. The Mountain States Legal Foundation represented the Wyoming Stock Growers.

“The stakes in this case were very high,” the Mountain States Legal Foundation said in a news release on Tuesday. “While this case directly involved the grizzly bear in the Lower 48 states, a loss in this case would have opened the floodgates for new litigation over hundreds of other species as well.”

In its 2014 petition, the Center for Biological Diversity asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to update its recovery plan and add several new areas of historic grizzly bear range as potential recovery areas. In a 2011 status review, the wildlife service had said areas in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and southern Washington should be evaluated for their potential for grizzly bear recovery areas.

The Center also asked the agency to take into account new research on road density and new techniques to connect recovery areas in updating its recovery plans.

Although Fish and Wildlife denied the 2014 petition, the agency did update recovery plans for grizzlies in the Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems in 2017 and 2018. In 2019, a federal grizzly bear biologist concluded that reintroduction of grizzly bears in Colorado’s San Juan and California’s Sierra Nevada ranges would likely fail due to a lack of core habitat.

The Center for Biological Diversity argued in court that federal wildlife officials did not update the population monitoring requirements in the recovery plan for the Cabinet-Yaak and Selkirk recovery areas in Montana, Idaho, Washington and into Canada, even though the agency noted such an update was needed.

“A court may review a recovery plan to the extent that it is missing one of the required plan components,” the court order states, “but it may not entertain disagreements with the agency concerning the substance of those components.”


Wisconsin
Negligence claims filed in shootings during night of protest
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Claims filed on behalf of two men shot by an Illinois teen during a night of protests over a police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, allege the city and Kenosha County were negligent in their response to the unrest.

Gaige Grosskreutz, who was seriously wounded, and the parents of Anthony Huber, who was killed, have each filed $10 million claim notices with both the city and county. The notices usually are precursors to lawsuits filed against local governments.

Grosskreutz and Huber were shot by 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse on Aug. 25 during violent protests  that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was left partially paralyzed when a white officer fired numerous shots into his back as police tried to arrest him.

Rittenhouse, who is now 18, is charged with five felonies, including first-degree intentional homicide. He claims he fired his assault-style rifle in self-defense.

Grosskreutz’s attorney, Kimberly Motley, says the actions, or inactions, by police and sheriff’s deputies are tied to the shootings.

Motley said the claims lack details typically found in civil suits because the plaintiffs don’t want to interfere with the ongoing prosecution of Rittenhouse, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, is free on $2 million bail while awaiting trial.

The city of Kenosha is preparing for protests when a charging decision comes in the police shooting of Blake, officials said Sunday. A decision is expected within the next two weeks.