Court Digest

Alabama
Video shows band director shocked with stun gun, arrested after refusing order to stop music
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Police body camera video shows an Alabama high school band director being shocked with a stun gun and arrested by officers in front of screaming students, in a chaotic scuffle that broke out after he refused to immediately stop the band as it played in the bleachers following a football game.

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, who is representing band director Johnny Mims as his attorney, said Tuesday that the incident is an “alarming abuse of power” that instead “should have been deescalated.”

The Birmingham Police Depart­ment said it remains under investigation but the band director resisted arrest and allegedly pushed an officer.

The altercation erupted after the game last Thursday between Minor and Jackson-Olin high schools.

In the body camera video released by police Monday night, officers are seen approaching Mims, the band director at Minor, as the band plays in the stands. They ask him several times to stop the band and clear the stadium. Mims continues to direct the band and replies to the officer, “Get out of my face.”

“We’re fixing to go,” he continues. “This is their last song.”

As the music continues, an officer tells Mims he will go to jail. and another says she will contact the school. Mims flashes two thumbs up and says, “That’s cool.”

“Put him in handcuffs,” an officer is later heard saying.

The video shows that the band played for about two minutes after officers approached Mims.

After the music stops, officers are seen on the video apparently trying to arrest him, in a scrum of bodies. One says Mims swung at an officer and must go to jail, and Mims denies doing so. An officer then shocks Mims with a stun gun.

Students — more than 140 were present, according to Givan — are heard screaming in the night as the arrest plays out.

Police said Friday in a statement that Mims refused to put his hands behind his back and the arresting officer said he was pushed by the band director, which led to the use of the stun gun.

Givan said Tuesday that she is not going to debate “whether my client was right or my client was wrong” but said officers “should have never drawn their Taser.”

Givan, who is a graduate of Minor High School, said Birmingham has a high homicide rate “yet you’ve got law enforcement officers at a darn kids’ game that would attack my client excessively and abuse him in front of kids.”

Officer Truman Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the department, said Mims was charged with disorderly conduct, physical harassment and resisting arrest. The police chief has met with the mayor and the superintendents of the two school systems, Fitzgerald said.

Also Tuesday, city Mayor Randall L. Woodfin announced the formation of a civilian-led Public Safety Advisory Committee, though his office said it had been in development for some time and was not related to the incident at the football game.

New York
West Point sued over using race as an admissions factor in wake of high court ruling
West Point was accused in a federal lawsuit Tuesday of improperly using race and ethnicity as factors in admissions by the same group behind the legal challenge that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court striking down affirmative action in college admissions.

Students for Fair Admissions claims the U.S. Military Academy sets benchmarks for how many Black, Hispanic and Asian cadets there should be in each class. The lawsuit filed in New York’s Southern District claims West Point is violating the Fifth Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution, which contains an equal-protection principle that binds the federal government.

“Instead of admitting future cadets based on objective metrics and leadership potential, West Point focuses on race,” according to the complaint. “In fact, it openly publishes its racial composition ‘goals,’ and its director of admissions brags that race is wholly determinative for hundreds if not thousands of applicants.”

The academy said in a prepared statement that it “does not comment on ongoing litigation to protect the integrity of its outcome for all parties involved.”

The filing comes after the Supreme Court in June struck down affirmative action in college admissions, forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies. The court’s conservative majority invalidated admissions plans at Harvard University, and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively.

That ruling did not cover West Point and the nation’s other military academies.

But Edward Blum, president of SFFA, said in a prepared statement that with the recent high court decision, “it must follow that the U.S. military’s higher education institutions must end their race-based policies as well.”

“Over the years, courts have been mindful of the military’s unique role in our nation’s life and the distinctive considerations that come with it,” Blum said. “However, no level of deference justifies these polarizing and disliked racial classifications and preferences in admissions to West Point or any of our service academies.”

West Point produces about 17% of newly commissioned Army officers each year, according to the lawsuit.

West Point in recent years has made concerted efforts to diversify its ranks, with officials increasing outreach to metropolitan areas like New York City, Atlanta and Detroit.

Minority enrollment was about 38% for the class of more than 1,240 that entered the academy north of New York City this summer.

The academy also recently complied with recommendations from a commission created by Congress to remove honors to Robert E. Lee and other Confederate officers as a way to address racial injustice. Still, some graduates of color from West Point and the nation’s other military schools have described hostile environments.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday also names the Department of Defense, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and other officials.

Indiana
Senate candidate files lawsuit challenging law that may keep him off the ballot
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An egg farmer seeking the Republican nomination for Indiana’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2024 filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of a state law that could prevent him from getting on the ballot.

John Rust, the chair of Seymour-based Rose Acre Farms, filed the lawsuit against Secretary of State Diego Morales, the Indiana Election Commission and Jackson County Republican Party Chair Amanda Lowery.

Rust told The Indianapolis Star he hopes the lawsuit will allow Indiana residents that identify with their party to run for office without following requirements in Indiana law on political party affiliation.

The law says a candidate’s past two primary elections must be cast with the party the candidate is affiliated with or a county party chair must approve the candidacy. In the lawsuit filed in Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis, Rust states that this statute “should be struck down as being unconstitutionally vague and overly broad.”

Rust voted as a Republican in the 2016 primary but as a Democrat in the 2012 primary. He did not vote in the 2020 Republican primary due to the coronavirus pandemic and the lack of competitive Republican races in Jackson County, the lawsuit says.

He said his Democratic votes went to people who he knew personally. But he said he’s always been a conservative Republican and voted for Republicans in the general elections.

The lawsuit states Lowery, in a July meeting with Rust, expressed concerns about Rust’s votes in Democratic primaries and said she would not certify him.

Lowery said she could not comment on pending litigation. An email seeking comment was sent to Morales’ office.

Rust faces an uphill battle for the GOP nomination against U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, who has received the endorsement of the Indiana Republican Party. In a statement, Banks said Rust’s “longtime Democrat voting record” disqualifies him from running as a Republican.

“No one is trying to keep him off the ballot, he just thinks he’s above the law and can throw his money around to buy a U.S. Senate seat,” Banks said.

The U.S. Senate seat is being vacated by Sen. Mike Braun, who is running for governor.


Nevada
Teens face murder charges for fatal hit-and-run they captured on video, police say
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two teenagers face murder charges for targeting a bicyclist in Las Vegas and capturing on video the moment they drove into the man as he pedaled along the side of a road, authorities said Tuesday.

Las Vegas police said they have tied the teens to at least three hit-and-run incidents on the morning of Aug. 14. They believe the death of 64-year-old Andreas Rene Probst, a former police chief in Bell, California, was the final one.

Video shot from the front passenger seat shows the vehicle approaching Probst from behind while he was riding near the curb on an otherwise traffic-free road. As those in the car laugh, the vehicle steers toward Probst and then rams the bicycle, sending Probst hurtling onto the hood and into the windshield.

A final image from the moving car shows Probst on the ground next to the curb.

Deputy Police Chief Nick Farese called the recording from inside a stolen vehicle appalling and a “cowardly act.”

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said he has taken a personal interest in the case and vowed to charge both teens as adults. Until then, he said they wouldn’t be identified.

“Justice will be served in this case,” Wolfson said.

At a news conference Tuesday, Taylor Probst described her father — known as Andy — as a man of honor and integrity who worked for more than 35 years in law enforcement.

“We are devastated by the senseless murder of Andy,” she said. “Andy’s life was robbed by two individuals who did not believe that lives of others matter.”

The 17-year-old driver was arrested on the day of the crashes on traffic charges related to the fatal hit-and-run. Police said they initially weren’t aware of the video until weeks later when a school resource officer provided it to investigators, leading to a murder charge for the driver and prompting a police search for the passenger in the video. The second teen was arrested Tuesday.

According to police, the vehicular crimes began just before dawn when the teenagers struck a 72-year-old bicyclist before driving off and crashing into a Toyota Corolla. The driver wasn’t injured in the crash, police said. They didn’t detail what injuries, if any, the bicyclist suffered.

Shortly after striking the Toyota, the teenagers drove into Probst as he rode his bicycle in a designated bike lane, police said.

They took off while laughing, said Farese, the deputy police chief, “leaving him for dead on the side of a road.”