Georgia
Man waives jury trial in killing of nursing student
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — A man on Tuesday waived his right to a jury trial in the killing of a Georgia nursing student, a case that became a flashpoint in the national immigration debate.
Jose Ibarra was charged in the February killing of Laken Hope Riley, whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus. A 10-count indictment accused Ibarra of hitting the 22-year-old Augusta University College of Nursing student in the head, asphyxiating her and intending to sexually assault her.
Prosecutors had chosen not to seek the death penalty but said in a court filing that they intended to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Shortly after his arrest, federal immigration officials said Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen, illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case. Immigration was already a major issue in the presidential campaign, and Republicans seized on Riley’s killing, with now-President-elect Donald Trump blaming Democratic President Joe Biden’s border policies for her death.
As he spoke about border security during his State of the Union address just weeks after Riley’s killing, Biden mentioned Riley by name.
Riley’s body was found on Feb. 22 near running trails after a friend told police she had not returned from a morning run. Police have said her killing appeared to be a random attack. Ibarra was arrested the next day and is being held in the Athens-Clarke County Jail without bond.
The indictment charged Ibarra with one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and peeping Tom.
The indictment said that on the day of Riley’s killing, Ibarra peered into the window of an apartment in a university housing building, which is the basis for the peeping Tom charge.
Defense attorneys had tried unsuccessfully to have the trial moved out of Athens, to have the peeping Tom charge handled separately and to exclude some evidence and expert testimony.
Louisiana
Federal judge blocks law that requires classrooms to display Ten Commandments
BATON ROUGE, LA. (AP) — A new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1 has been temporarily blocked after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday.
The judge said the law is “unconstitutional on its face” and plaintiffs are likely to win their case with claims that the law violates the First Amendment.
The ruling marks a win for opponents of the law, who argue that it is a violation of the separation of church and state and that the poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments would isolate students, especially those who are not Christian. Proponents say that the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance to the foundation of U.S. law.
U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles in Baton Rouge, issued the order in an ongoing lawsuit filed by a group of parents of Louisiana public school children. They say that the legislation violates First Amendment language forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty.
The new law in Louisiana, a reliably Republican state that is ensconced in the Bible Belt, was passed by the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature earlier this year.
The legislation, which has been touted by Republicans including former President Donald Trump, is one of the latest pushes by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms — from Florida legislation allowing school districts to have volunteer chaplains to counsel students to Oklahoma’s top education official ordering public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons.
In recent years, similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, none have gone into effect.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.
Louisiana’s legislation, which applies to all public K-12 school and state-funded university classrooms, requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed on a poster or framed document at least 11 inches by 14 inches (28 by 36 centimeters) where the text is the central focus and “printed in a large, easily readable font.”
Each poster must be paired with the four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
Tens of thousands of posters would likely be needed to satisfy the new law. Proponents say that schools are not required to spend public money on the posters, and instead that they can be bought using donations or that groups and organizations will donate the actual posters.
Mississippi
State Senate paid Black attorney less than white ones, US Justice Department says
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Senate discriminated against a Black attorney by paying her about half of what her white colleagues were paid for doing the same job, the U.S. Justice Department says in a lawsuit it filed Friday.
“Discriminatory employment practices, like paying a Black employee less than their white colleagues for the same work, are not only unfair, they are unlawful,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Kristie Metcalfe worked as a staff attorney for the Mississippi Senate’s Legislative Services Office from December 2011 to November 2019. Attorneys for the nonpartisan office write bills and handle other legal questions for the 52 senators. Many of them stay on the job for decades.
The Senate office employed only white attorneys for at least 34 years before Metcalfe was hired, and she was the only Black attorney on staff during her time there, the lawsuit said.
Metcalfe’s starting salary was $55,000, while other Senate staff attorneys were paid $95,550 to $121,800, according to the lawsuit. The other attorneys received pay raises about a month after Metcalfe was hired, making their salary range $114,000 to $136,416. Metcalfe did not receive a raise then.
The current governor, Republican Tate Reeves, presided over the Senate as lieutenant governor from January 2012 until January 2020 — most of the time Metcalfe worked for the Senate.
The Associated Press sought comment about the lawsuit Friday from Reeves and current Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is also a Republican.
“We do not comment on pending litigation,” said the current secretary of the Senate, Amanda Frusha White, who works for Hosemann.
Metcalfe’s salary remained $40,000 to $60,000 less than her lowest-paid white colleague during her years on the job, the lawsuit said. It also said the Senate hired another attorney, a white man, in December 2018 and set his salary at $101,500, which was $24,335 more than Metcalfe was being paid at the time.
Metcalfe and the new attorney both had eight years’ experience practicing law, although the new attorney had not yet worked for the Legislature. They were assigned the same types of work for the Senate, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said Metcalfe complained about the pay disparity to with then-Sen. Terry Burton, a Republican. As the Senate president pro tempore, Burton was chairman of the Rules Committee, which sets staff salaries. He denied Metcalfe’s request to equalize her salary with that of her new colleague, the lawsuit said. She resigned about 11 months later.
Wisconsin
Obama relatives settle racial bias dispute with private school
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Former first lady Michelle Obama’s brother and his wife have settled a lawsuit they filed in 2022 alleging a private school in Milwaukee refused to reenroll their children after the couple raised concerns about racism and inappropriate conduct at the school.
Craig and Kelly Robinson alleged in the lawsuit that the University School of Milwaukee terminated their then 9- and 11-year-old sons’ re-enrollment contracts for the 2021-2022 school year after the couple complained that teachers treated students of color and socioeconomically underrepresented students unfairly. The couple said that when the boys were learning virtually at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, they became aware of racial and ethnic stereotypes appearing in assignments.
School officials said at the time that the enrollment decision had nothing to do with their complaints. But USM Head of School Steve Hancock told the couple in a termination letter and an email that they had repeatedly engaged in disrespectful communications with teachers and administrators.
He issued a statement when the lawsuit was filed that the enrollment decisions had nothing to do with complaints about inequity or discrimination. But Hancock said the school would not tolerate “persistently disrespectful, bullying, or harassing behavior” directed at teachers and administrators.
Online court records indicate Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Thomas McAdams dismissed the lawsuit on Tuesday. The Robinsons and the school issued a joint statement saying that they have resolved the dispute and both sides regret that the disagreement resulted in the Robinson children no longer being enrolled. The statement called the Robinson children “model students.”
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The Robinsons were seeking unspecified monetary damages.
New Jersey
Judge extends time to indict driver accused of killing hockey player and brother
SALEM, N.J. (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, as they were cycling on a rural New Jersey road briefly appeared in court Tuesday, where the judge extended the window for prosecutors to seek an indictment.
The brief hearing, in which the judge granted prosecutors 30 additional days in which to seek formal charges in the Gaudreaus’ Aug. 29 deaths, marked the first time the Gaudreau family and the 44-year-old defendant, Sean M. Higgins, faced one another in court.
Authorities say Higgins was impaired after he drank five or six beers on the day he drove into the brothers’ bicycles, and that he has a history of road rage and aggressive driving.
Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and Matthew Gaudreau, 29, were killed near their childhood home in South Jersey on Aug. 29, on the eve of their sister’s wedding.
A driver who was in front of Higgins told police that Higgins had been driving aggressively. When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and moved left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreaus, she said.
Higgins had a blood-alcohol level of .087, which is above the state’s .08 legal limit, and he failed a field sobriety test, police said. He faces preliminary charges of two counts of death by auto, reckless driving, possession of an open container, and consuming alcohol in a vehicle.
Higgins faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The judge said that made him a flight risk and ordered him jailed until the trial.
Man waives jury trial in killing of nursing student
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — A man on Tuesday waived his right to a jury trial in the killing of a Georgia nursing student, a case that became a flashpoint in the national immigration debate.
Jose Ibarra was charged in the February killing of Laken Hope Riley, whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus. A 10-count indictment accused Ibarra of hitting the 22-year-old Augusta University College of Nursing student in the head, asphyxiating her and intending to sexually assault her.
Prosecutors had chosen not to seek the death penalty but said in a court filing that they intended to seek a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Shortly after his arrest, federal immigration officials said Ibarra, a Venezuelan citizen, illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case. Immigration was already a major issue in the presidential campaign, and Republicans seized on Riley’s killing, with now-President-elect Donald Trump blaming Democratic President Joe Biden’s border policies for her death.
As he spoke about border security during his State of the Union address just weeks after Riley’s killing, Biden mentioned Riley by name.
Riley’s body was found on Feb. 22 near running trails after a friend told police she had not returned from a morning run. Police have said her killing appeared to be a random attack. Ibarra was arrested the next day and is being held in the Athens-Clarke County Jail without bond.
The indictment charged Ibarra with one count of malice murder, three counts of felony murder and one count each of kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, hindering an emergency telephone call, tampering with evidence and peeping Tom.
The indictment said that on the day of Riley’s killing, Ibarra peered into the window of an apartment in a university housing building, which is the basis for the peeping Tom charge.
Defense attorneys had tried unsuccessfully to have the trial moved out of Athens, to have the peeping Tom charge handled separately and to exclude some evidence and expert testimony.
Louisiana
Federal judge blocks law that requires classrooms to display Ten Commandments
BATON ROUGE, LA. (AP) — A new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1 has been temporarily blocked after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday.
The judge said the law is “unconstitutional on its face” and plaintiffs are likely to win their case with claims that the law violates the First Amendment.
The ruling marks a win for opponents of the law, who argue that it is a violation of the separation of church and state and that the poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments would isolate students, especially those who are not Christian. Proponents say that the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance to the foundation of U.S. law.
U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles in Baton Rouge, issued the order in an ongoing lawsuit filed by a group of parents of Louisiana public school children. They say that the legislation violates First Amendment language forbidding government establishment of religion and guaranteeing religious liberty.
The new law in Louisiana, a reliably Republican state that is ensconced in the Bible Belt, was passed by the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature earlier this year.
The legislation, which has been touted by Republicans including former President Donald Trump, is one of the latest pushes by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms — from Florida legislation allowing school districts to have volunteer chaplains to counsel students to Oklahoma’s top education official ordering public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons.
In recent years, similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms have been proposed in other states including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, with threats of legal battles over the constitutionality of such measures, none have gone into effect.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar Kentucky law was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says Congress can “make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” The high court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a plainly religious purpose.
Louisiana’s legislation, which applies to all public K-12 school and state-funded university classrooms, requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed on a poster or framed document at least 11 inches by 14 inches (28 by 36 centimeters) where the text is the central focus and “printed in a large, easily readable font.”
Each poster must be paired with the four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
Tens of thousands of posters would likely be needed to satisfy the new law. Proponents say that schools are not required to spend public money on the posters, and instead that they can be bought using donations or that groups and organizations will donate the actual posters.
Mississippi
State Senate paid Black attorney less than white ones, US Justice Department says
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Senate discriminated against a Black attorney by paying her about half of what her white colleagues were paid for doing the same job, the U.S. Justice Department says in a lawsuit it filed Friday.
“Discriminatory employment practices, like paying a Black employee less than their white colleagues for the same work, are not only unfair, they are unlawful,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Kristie Metcalfe worked as a staff attorney for the Mississippi Senate’s Legislative Services Office from December 2011 to November 2019. Attorneys for the nonpartisan office write bills and handle other legal questions for the 52 senators. Many of them stay on the job for decades.
The Senate office employed only white attorneys for at least 34 years before Metcalfe was hired, and she was the only Black attorney on staff during her time there, the lawsuit said.
Metcalfe’s starting salary was $55,000, while other Senate staff attorneys were paid $95,550 to $121,800, according to the lawsuit. The other attorneys received pay raises about a month after Metcalfe was hired, making their salary range $114,000 to $136,416. Metcalfe did not receive a raise then.
The current governor, Republican Tate Reeves, presided over the Senate as lieutenant governor from January 2012 until January 2020 — most of the time Metcalfe worked for the Senate.
The Associated Press sought comment about the lawsuit Friday from Reeves and current Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who is also a Republican.
“We do not comment on pending litigation,” said the current secretary of the Senate, Amanda Frusha White, who works for Hosemann.
Metcalfe’s salary remained $40,000 to $60,000 less than her lowest-paid white colleague during her years on the job, the lawsuit said. It also said the Senate hired another attorney, a white man, in December 2018 and set his salary at $101,500, which was $24,335 more than Metcalfe was being paid at the time.
Metcalfe and the new attorney both had eight years’ experience practicing law, although the new attorney had not yet worked for the Legislature. They were assigned the same types of work for the Senate, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit said Metcalfe complained about the pay disparity to with then-Sen. Terry Burton, a Republican. As the Senate president pro tempore, Burton was chairman of the Rules Committee, which sets staff salaries. He denied Metcalfe’s request to equalize her salary with that of her new colleague, the lawsuit said. She resigned about 11 months later.
Wisconsin
Obama relatives settle racial bias dispute with private school
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Former first lady Michelle Obama’s brother and his wife have settled a lawsuit they filed in 2022 alleging a private school in Milwaukee refused to reenroll their children after the couple raised concerns about racism and inappropriate conduct at the school.
Craig and Kelly Robinson alleged in the lawsuit that the University School of Milwaukee terminated their then 9- and 11-year-old sons’ re-enrollment contracts for the 2021-2022 school year after the couple complained that teachers treated students of color and socioeconomically underrepresented students unfairly. The couple said that when the boys were learning virtually at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, they became aware of racial and ethnic stereotypes appearing in assignments.
School officials said at the time that the enrollment decision had nothing to do with their complaints. But USM Head of School Steve Hancock told the couple in a termination letter and an email that they had repeatedly engaged in disrespectful communications with teachers and administrators.
He issued a statement when the lawsuit was filed that the enrollment decisions had nothing to do with complaints about inequity or discrimination. But Hancock said the school would not tolerate “persistently disrespectful, bullying, or harassing behavior” directed at teachers and administrators.
Online court records indicate Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Thomas McAdams dismissed the lawsuit on Tuesday. The Robinsons and the school issued a joint statement saying that they have resolved the dispute and both sides regret that the disagreement resulted in the Robinson children no longer being enrolled. The statement called the Robinson children “model students.”
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The Robinsons were seeking unspecified monetary damages.
New Jersey
Judge extends time to indict driver accused of killing hockey player and brother
SALEM, N.J. (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, as they were cycling on a rural New Jersey road briefly appeared in court Tuesday, where the judge extended the window for prosecutors to seek an indictment.
The brief hearing, in which the judge granted prosecutors 30 additional days in which to seek formal charges in the Gaudreaus’ Aug. 29 deaths, marked the first time the Gaudreau family and the 44-year-old defendant, Sean M. Higgins, faced one another in court.
Authorities say Higgins was impaired after he drank five or six beers on the day he drove into the brothers’ bicycles, and that he has a history of road rage and aggressive driving.
Johnny Gaudreau, 31, and Matthew Gaudreau, 29, were killed near their childhood home in South Jersey on Aug. 29, on the eve of their sister’s wedding.
A driver who was in front of Higgins told police that Higgins had been driving aggressively. When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and moved left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreaus, she said.
Higgins had a blood-alcohol level of .087, which is above the state’s .08 legal limit, and he failed a field sobriety test, police said. He faces preliminary charges of two counts of death by auto, reckless driving, possession of an open container, and consuming alcohol in a vehicle.
Higgins faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. The judge said that made him a flight risk and ordered him jailed until the trial.
