Court Digest

California
School janitor who spent years in jail acquitted of child sexual abuse
JOSHUA TREE, Calif. (AP) — A jury has acquitted a former Southern California elementary school janitor who spent years in jail after being accused of sexually abusing students, his attorneys announced Tuesday.

Pedro Martinez, of Hesperia, who’s been jailed since January 2019, was found not guilty on Monday on all 10 counts against him. An 11th charge was dismissed during his 3 1/2-month-long trial, according to a statement from his attorneys.

He has been released.

“We are thrilled that Pedro Martinez has been found not guilty of any of the terrible crimes that he was accused of, and he is home again with his family,” defense attorney Ian Wallach said in the statement.

Martinez’s attorneys alleged there wasn’t any legitimate evidence in the case and accused the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office and the Sheriff’s Department of bungling and misconduct. They didn’t immediately indicate whether Martinez might sue but said he is considering his options.

“Although the outcome was not what we were seeking, we want to thank the members of the jury for their time and consideration,” the DA’s office said in an email.

An email seeking comment from the Sheriff’s Departments wasn’t immediately returned.

Martinez was arrested after a woman who was a friend of one student’s family claimed that for months he had been molesting 6-year-old boys at Maple Elementary School in Hesperia, his attorneys said.

Prosecutors alleged Martinez took boys into a classroom during school lunch periods and abused them. They charged him with multiple counts related to sexual abuse of a child.

A sheriff’s deputy who lacked special training in interviewing children spoke with three boys who denied any wrongdoing and then “seemingly prompted and coerced one of them to agree that some abuse happened,” Martinez’s attorneys said. “That is the extent of the evidence.”

Further investigation, including DNA testing and interviews with school employees, failed to connect Martinez to any crimes on campus, but he was arrested anyway, his lawyers said.

“Accusations of child molestation are extremely serious and we expect law enforcement to respond swiftly and to act with integrity and professionalism at every step,” defense co-counsel Katherine McBroom said in the statement. “In this case, law enforcement seemed to endorse this witch hunt and got carried away with panic, pride, and self-preservation.”

Illinois
Family of woman who died in hotel freezer agrees to $10M settlement
CHICAGO (AP) — The family of a Chicago woman who froze to death after she became locked in a hotel freezer has agreed to a $10 million legal settlement.

Kenneka Jenkins’ mother, Tereasa Martin, will receive about $3.7 million, according to court records made public Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reported. Other family members will receive $1.2 million and $1.5 million. Another $3.5 million will cover attorney fees, with $6,000 covering the cost of Jenkins’ funeral.

Jenkins was found dead in the walk-in freezer at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in suburban Rosemont in September 2017, a day after she attended a party there. The Cook County medical examiner’s office determined that she died of hypothermia and that her death was accidental.

Alcohol intoxication and the use of a drug for treating epilepsy and migraines were “significant contributing factors” in her death, the office said. Surveillance videos released by police showed Jenkins wandering alone through a kitchen area near the freezer at around 3:30 a.m. on the day she disappeared.

Martin filed a lawsuit in December 2018 alleging that the hotel, a security company and a restaurant at the hotel that rented the freezer were negligent because they didn’t secure the freezer or conduct a proper search following Jenkins’ disappearance. The lawsuit initially sought more than $50 million in damages.

According to the lawsuit, friends that Jenkins had attended the party with alerted Martin at around 4 a.m. that she was missing. Martin contacted the hotel and was told it would review surveillance footage, according to the lawsuit.

But Jenkins’ body wasn’t discovered for more than 21 hours after she was believed to have entered the freezer. Surveillance footage wasn’t reviewed until police arrived at the hotel, according to the lawsuit. Had the hotel properly monitored the security cameras, Jenkins would still be alive, the lawsuit argued.

Texas
Judge finds officer not guilty in fatal shooting of pickup driver
DALLAS (AP) — A Texas judge found a Dallas-area police office not guilt of murder on Wednesday for fatally shooting the unarmed driver of a pickup truck that had been reported stolen.

Farmers Branch officer Michael Dunn was acquitted in the 2019 killing of Juan Moreno, 35, after taking the witness stand during a three-day trial in which video was shown of the pickup truck swerving past the police SUV. The case was decided by a judge rather than a jury at the defendant's request.

Dunn, 47, testified that he opened fire in self-defense, fearing Moreno was going to drive into him moments after he stepped out of his police cruiser. Prosecutors contended Moreno did not pose a threat.

Judge Mike Snipes issued the verdict after deliberating for less than half an hour. Dunn, who's been on administrative leave from his suburban police department since the shooting, faced a sentence of up to life in prison if he had been convicted.

An attorney for Dunn did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said in a statement that his team "presented all of the evidence we had" and respects the judge's decision.

Dunn was indicted two weeks after the June 2019 shooting outside a Dallas shopping center. The officer had followed a white pickup truck reported stolen from the nearby city of Irving and was exiting his cruiser as Moreno was pulling out of the parking lot.

Surveillance video shows Dunn firing into the driver's side of the truck as it makes a sweeping turn around his vehicle.

Moreno's family brought a civil suit against Dunn and his department. That action was paused pending the outcome of the criminal case.

New Hampshire
Attorney general files 2nd complaint against white nationalist group
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire attorney general is again accusing a white nationalist group of civil rights violations, this time in response to a demonstration outside a Concord café hosting a drag story hour event.

Attorney General John Formella said Wednesday he has filed a civil complaint saying that the Nationalist Social Club-131 and one of its leaders violated the state’s anti-discrimination law.

The complaint says that Christopher Hood, of Newburyport, Massachusetts, led a group of NSC-131 members stood outside the Teatotaller Café for more than an hour on June 18 shouting homophobic slurs, chanting loudly and saluting in a fashion reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

Group members also are accused of banging on the café’s windows and making intimidating gestures and comments directed at the performer and others in the café. Such actions, the complaint alleges, amount to an attempt to coerce the business into refusing access to its venue based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The Associated Press wasn’t able to reach Hood for comment about the lawsuit. A number listed for him had been disconnected, and an attorney who represented the group in an earlier New Hampshire case did not immediately respond to a phone message.

The complaint comes a week after Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a similar complain t against the group, Hood and another man in connection with attempts to shut down drag story hours around the state between July 2022 and January 2023. And it marks the second complaint in New Hampshire.

Earlier this year, a judge dismissed trespassing complaints alleging the group violated the state’s Civil Rights Act when it displayed “Keep New England White” banners from a Portsmouth overpass without a permit. Formella’s office has appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

The Anti-Defamation League describes NSC-131 as a New England-based neo-Nazi group founded in 2019 that “espouses racism, antisemitism and intolerance” and whose “membership is a collection of neo-Nazis and racist skinheads, many of whom have previous membership in other white supremacist groups.”


Wisconsin
High Court refuses to hear lawsuit against voucher school program
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear a lawsuit brought by Democrats seeking to end the state’s taxpayer-funded private school voucher program.

The lawsuit could be refiled in county circuit court, as both Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration and Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos had argued. The Supreme Court rejected it without comment in an unsigned, unanimous order.

Democrats who brought the lawsuit asked the state Supreme Court to take the case directly, which would have resulted in a much faster final ruling than having the case start in lower courts.

Brian Potts, attorney for those challenging the voucher programs, did not reply to a message seeking comment.

Supporters of the voucher programs hailed the court’s rejection of the lawsuit.

The lawsuit “was plagued with misleading, misinformed, and nonsensical legal arguments,” said Rick Esenberg, president of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty. That group represented private schools, parents of students who attend them and other advocates of the program.

Democrats have argued for decades that the voucher program is a drain on resources that would otherwise go to public schools.

The lawsuit argues that the state’s revenue limit and funding mechanism for voucher school programs and charter schools violate the Wisconsin Constitution’s declaration that public funds be spent for public purposes. It also contends that vouchers defund public schools, do not allow for adequate public oversight and do not hold private schools to the same standards as public schools.

The nation’s first school choice program began in Milwaukee in 1990. Then seen as an experiment to help low-income students in the state’s largest city, the program has expanded statewide and its income restrictions have been loosened. This year, nearly 55,000 students were enrolled.

The lawsuit was filed two months after the state Supreme Court flipped to 4-3 liberal control. But the justices were in agreement on this case, unanimously deciding not to take it up at this point. They offered no comment on the merits of the arguments.

The lawsuit was brought by several Wisconsin residents and is being funded by the liberal Minocqua Brewing Super PAC. Kirk Bangstad, who owns the Minocqua Brewing Co., is a former Democratic candidate for U.S. House and state Assembly.