Indiana
4 women drop lawsuit accusing former AG of groping them
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Four women who accused Curtis Hill of drunkenly groping them at a bar when he was Indiana’s attorney general dropped their civil lawsuit against him hours before jury selection was set to begin on Monday.
The women initially sued in federal court in 2019 before filing this last lawsuit in a Marion County court in 2020, claiming that Hill committed battery against them at an Indianapolis bar and then defamed them with repeated claims that their allegations were false.
Their decision Sunday to drop the suit ends nearly seven years of investigations and litigation surrounding Hill’s actions during a March 2018 party on the final night of that year’s legislative session, The Indianapolis Star reported.
In a statement from their attorneys, the women said they agreed to dismiss the suit after reaching “the frustrating conclusion that proceeding with the trial cannot provide the relief they sought; namely, Mr. Hill accepting responsibility for his actions and admitting his fault in intentionally touching each of them in a sexual manner without consent.”
The four women who sued Hill are Mara Candelaria Reardon, Gabrielle McLemore Brock, Samantha Lozano and Niki DaSilva. At the time of the March 2018 party, Candelaria Reardon was a Democratic state representative from Munster in northwest Indiana, and the three other women were legislative staffers. All decided to come forward publicly in response to his denials.
Hill said Monday in a statement that the case’s dismissal is a vindication of his longstanding denial of the women’s claims.
“There was no financial settlement. There were no conditions for dismissal,” Hill said. “The case against me was dismissed with prejudice by each of the plaintiffs, thus ending this odyssey of unfounded allegations that have dogged me for nearly seven years and have served as the fuel for political and personal attacks against me.”
Despite Hill’s denials, the Indiana Supreme Court ordered a 30-day suspension of his law license in 2020 after finding “by clear and convincing evidence that (Hill) committed the criminal act of battery” against three female legislative staffers and a state lawmaker during the party. The justices ruled after nine people who attended the party testified at his professional misconduct hearing.
The allegations were a key campaign issue when Hill narrowly lost the 2020 Republican attorney general nomination for his reelection to Todd Rokita, who took office in January 2021.
Hill attempted a political comeback in 2022, but he lost a vote among Republican precinct committee members to replace U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski on the election ballot following her death in a highway crash. Business executive Rudy Yakym won the GOP nomination and election for northern Indiana’s 2nd District seat.
Hill also entered this year’s Indiana governor’s race, joining a six-way Republican primary to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb. But first-term U.S. Sen. Mike Braun won the May primary and the November general election.
Missouri
Companies sue to stop a law that raises minimum wage and requires paid sick leave
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri business groups announced Monday that they have filed a lawsuit to try to stop a voter-approved law that will raise the state’s minimum wage and require employers to give workers paid sick leave.
The powerful Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, restaurant and grocers associations say the law violates a state constitutional requirement that ballot measures only address one issue because it included the minimum wage increase and paid sick leave.
The law will increase the state’s minimum wage from the current $12.30 an hour to $13.75 in January and $15 in 2026. It gives workers up to seven paid sick days per year starting in May.
Leaders of the minimum-wage campaign said businesses are trying to undo the will of voters.
“Missouri’s working class, in lockstep with allies across the state, went to the ballot box on Nov. 5 to overwhelmingly voice our need for paid sick days and fair wages in a free and fair election,” said Terrence Wise, of the Fight for 15. “It’s sickening to me that corporations are trying to steal our victory away and quiet the will of the voters who made this win possible.”
The business groups asked the Missouri Supreme Court to find the law unconstitutional.
“While Proposition A is bad policy and will have extreme and detrimental effects on Missouri’s businesses, that is not the basis of this action,” the petition states. “Instead, the election irregularities and the constitutional violations are so significant that the election results must be overturned and Proposition A must be declared invalid.”
Missouri was among a several states where the minimum wage or sick leave was on the ballot this year.
Alaska voters approved a similar measure, while voters in California rejected an effort to raise the minimum wage for most workers to $18 an hour. In Arizona, voters rejected a measure that would have allowed businesses to pay tipped workers 25% less than the minimum wage, provided that tips pushed their total pay above the minimum wage. In Massachusetts, voters defeated a measure that would have gradually raised the minimum wage for tipped employees until it matches the rate for other employees.
Nebraska voters approved a measure to require many employers to provide sick leave, but it will not change wages.
Business groups also argue that Missouri voters were misled about how much the law will cost local governments and which companies and workers it will apply to.
For example, government employees and workers at businesses that make less than $500,000 a year are exempt from the paid sick leave entitlements. A short summary of the ballot measure provided to voters did not describe all exempt employees.
No hearings have been scheduled yet for the lawsuit.
Washington
U.S. indictment accuses two Syrian officials of torture at notorious prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. prosecutors are accusing two senior Syrian officials of overseeing a notorious prison that tortured peaceful protesters and other political prisoners, including a 26-year-old American woman who was later believed to have been executed.
The indictment was unsealed Monday, two days after a shock rebel offensive overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad. The U.S., U.N. and others accuse him of widespread human rights abuses in a 13-year battle to crush opposition forces seeking his removal from power.
The war, which began as a largely nonviolent popular uprising in 2011, has killed half a million people.
The indictment, filed Nov. 18 in federal court in Chicago, is believed to be the U.S. government’s first against what officials say were networks of Assad intelligence services and military branches and other allied groups that detained, tortured and killed thousands of perceived enemies.
It names Jamil Hassan, director of the Syrian air force’s intelligence branch, who prosecutors say oversaw a prison and torture center at the Mezzeh air force base in the capital, Damascus, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, who prosecutors say ran the prison.
The indictment charges the two with conspiring to commit cruel and inhuman treatment of civilian detainees during the course of the Syrian civil war. Detainees at the prison were whipped, kicked, electrocuted, burned and subjected to other mental and physical abuse, including being housed in cells alongside corpses of dead detainees, prosecutors allege.
Victims included Syrians, Americans and dual citizens, the indictment said. The U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force has long pushed federal prosecutors for action on the cases, including that of 26-year-old American aid worker Layla Shweikani.
The group presented witnesses who testified of Shweikani’s 2016 torture at the prison. Syrian rights groups believe she was later executed at the Saydnaya military prison in the Damascus suburbs.
“Now it is our time to capture these criminals and bring them to the United States for trial,” the Syrian Emergency Task Force said in a statement Monday. The group’s leader, Mouaz Moustafa, said his relatives were among those tortured at the prison.
Federal prosecutors said they had issued arrest warrants for the two officials, who remain at large.
Prospects of bringing them to trial were unclear. Assad’s toppling by the rebels over the weekend has scattered his government and left citizens searching prison torture centers around the country for survivors and evidence.
Massachusetts
Judge dismisses charges against Karen Read supporter who scattered rubber ducks and fake $100 bills
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts judge dismissed criminal charges Monday against a backer of Karen Read who admitted placing dozens of yellow rubber ducks and fake $100 bills around town in support of Read.
Richard Schiffer Jr. had argued in Stoughton District Court that he had a First Amendment right to support the defense theory that Read — accused of ramming into her boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving the Boston police officer to die in a snowstorm — has been framed in the polarizing murder case.
Schiffer’s attorney Timothy Bradl said Monday that the judge made the right call by quickly tossing the felony witness intimidation and criminal harassment charges against Schiffer.
The ruling comes as another judge decided Monday to push back Read’s retrial to April after a mistrial was declared in July when jurors couldn’t reach an agreement. Read was facing second-degree murder charges and two other charges. Her attorneys have argued that other law enforcement officers were responsible for O’Keefe’s death.
Regarding Schiffer’s charges, Bradl said, “There wasn’t a leg to stand on.”
The Norfolk District Attorney’s office declined to comment.
Schiffer has said he got the ducks idea after thinking about a defense lawyer’s closing argument that Read was framed. Alan Jackson told jurors that “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.”
Schiffer’s actions did not rise to the level of witness intimidation and criminal harassment “nor does his speech, or in this case his written word on fake currency and use of rubber toys, which are afforded the protections of the First Amendment,” Judge Brian Walsh wrote.
“It is the view of this Court that the defendant’s conduct and speech, though a rather sophomoric expression of his opinion, is nonetheless protected speech,” he wrote.
Walsh concluded the two-page ruling with quotes from Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley, believed to have coined the “walks like a duck” phrase, and Robert McCloskey, author of the children’s book “Make Way For Ducklings.”
The defense alleged that O’Keefe was actually killed inside the home of his fellow Boston officer Brian Albert and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
Schiffer has been among the dozens of Read supporters who accuse state and local law enforcement of a widespread cover-up. Their demonstrations have led to confrontations, especially in the town of Canton where the murder happened, between those who support Read and others who believe she is guilty.
Schiffer, who owns Canton Fence and has said that he knows practically everyone in town through his contracting work, was accused of placing some of the ducks outside a pizza shop run by Brian Albert’s brother, Canton Selectman Chris Albert. Other ducks appeared in O’Keefe’s neighborhood.
4 women drop lawsuit accusing former AG of groping them
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Four women who accused Curtis Hill of drunkenly groping them at a bar when he was Indiana’s attorney general dropped their civil lawsuit against him hours before jury selection was set to begin on Monday.
The women initially sued in federal court in 2019 before filing this last lawsuit in a Marion County court in 2020, claiming that Hill committed battery against them at an Indianapolis bar and then defamed them with repeated claims that their allegations were false.
Their decision Sunday to drop the suit ends nearly seven years of investigations and litigation surrounding Hill’s actions during a March 2018 party on the final night of that year’s legislative session, The Indianapolis Star reported.
In a statement from their attorneys, the women said they agreed to dismiss the suit after reaching “the frustrating conclusion that proceeding with the trial cannot provide the relief they sought; namely, Mr. Hill accepting responsibility for his actions and admitting his fault in intentionally touching each of them in a sexual manner without consent.”
The four women who sued Hill are Mara Candelaria Reardon, Gabrielle McLemore Brock, Samantha Lozano and Niki DaSilva. At the time of the March 2018 party, Candelaria Reardon was a Democratic state representative from Munster in northwest Indiana, and the three other women were legislative staffers. All decided to come forward publicly in response to his denials.
Hill said Monday in a statement that the case’s dismissal is a vindication of his longstanding denial of the women’s claims.
“There was no financial settlement. There were no conditions for dismissal,” Hill said. “The case against me was dismissed with prejudice by each of the plaintiffs, thus ending this odyssey of unfounded allegations that have dogged me for nearly seven years and have served as the fuel for political and personal attacks against me.”
Despite Hill’s denials, the Indiana Supreme Court ordered a 30-day suspension of his law license in 2020 after finding “by clear and convincing evidence that (Hill) committed the criminal act of battery” against three female legislative staffers and a state lawmaker during the party. The justices ruled after nine people who attended the party testified at his professional misconduct hearing.
The allegations were a key campaign issue when Hill narrowly lost the 2020 Republican attorney general nomination for his reelection to Todd Rokita, who took office in January 2021.
Hill attempted a political comeback in 2022, but he lost a vote among Republican precinct committee members to replace U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski on the election ballot following her death in a highway crash. Business executive Rudy Yakym won the GOP nomination and election for northern Indiana’s 2nd District seat.
Hill also entered this year’s Indiana governor’s race, joining a six-way Republican primary to replace term-limited GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb. But first-term U.S. Sen. Mike Braun won the May primary and the November general election.
Missouri
Companies sue to stop a law that raises minimum wage and requires paid sick leave
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri business groups announced Monday that they have filed a lawsuit to try to stop a voter-approved law that will raise the state’s minimum wage and require employers to give workers paid sick leave.
The powerful Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, restaurant and grocers associations say the law violates a state constitutional requirement that ballot measures only address one issue because it included the minimum wage increase and paid sick leave.
The law will increase the state’s minimum wage from the current $12.30 an hour to $13.75 in January and $15 in 2026. It gives workers up to seven paid sick days per year starting in May.
Leaders of the minimum-wage campaign said businesses are trying to undo the will of voters.
“Missouri’s working class, in lockstep with allies across the state, went to the ballot box on Nov. 5 to overwhelmingly voice our need for paid sick days and fair wages in a free and fair election,” said Terrence Wise, of the Fight for 15. “It’s sickening to me that corporations are trying to steal our victory away and quiet the will of the voters who made this win possible.”
The business groups asked the Missouri Supreme Court to find the law unconstitutional.
“While Proposition A is bad policy and will have extreme and detrimental effects on Missouri’s businesses, that is not the basis of this action,” the petition states. “Instead, the election irregularities and the constitutional violations are so significant that the election results must be overturned and Proposition A must be declared invalid.”
Missouri was among a several states where the minimum wage or sick leave was on the ballot this year.
Alaska voters approved a similar measure, while voters in California rejected an effort to raise the minimum wage for most workers to $18 an hour. In Arizona, voters rejected a measure that would have allowed businesses to pay tipped workers 25% less than the minimum wage, provided that tips pushed their total pay above the minimum wage. In Massachusetts, voters defeated a measure that would have gradually raised the minimum wage for tipped employees until it matches the rate for other employees.
Nebraska voters approved a measure to require many employers to provide sick leave, but it will not change wages.
Business groups also argue that Missouri voters were misled about how much the law will cost local governments and which companies and workers it will apply to.
For example, government employees and workers at businesses that make less than $500,000 a year are exempt from the paid sick leave entitlements. A short summary of the ballot measure provided to voters did not describe all exempt employees.
No hearings have been scheduled yet for the lawsuit.
Washington
U.S. indictment accuses two Syrian officials of torture at notorious prison
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. prosecutors are accusing two senior Syrian officials of overseeing a notorious prison that tortured peaceful protesters and other political prisoners, including a 26-year-old American woman who was later believed to have been executed.
The indictment was unsealed Monday, two days after a shock rebel offensive overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad. The U.S., U.N. and others accuse him of widespread human rights abuses in a 13-year battle to crush opposition forces seeking his removal from power.
The war, which began as a largely nonviolent popular uprising in 2011, has killed half a million people.
The indictment, filed Nov. 18 in federal court in Chicago, is believed to be the U.S. government’s first against what officials say were networks of Assad intelligence services and military branches and other allied groups that detained, tortured and killed thousands of perceived enemies.
It names Jamil Hassan, director of the Syrian air force’s intelligence branch, who prosecutors say oversaw a prison and torture center at the Mezzeh air force base in the capital, Damascus, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, who prosecutors say ran the prison.
The indictment charges the two with conspiring to commit cruel and inhuman treatment of civilian detainees during the course of the Syrian civil war. Detainees at the prison were whipped, kicked, electrocuted, burned and subjected to other mental and physical abuse, including being housed in cells alongside corpses of dead detainees, prosecutors allege.
Victims included Syrians, Americans and dual citizens, the indictment said. The U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force has long pushed federal prosecutors for action on the cases, including that of 26-year-old American aid worker Layla Shweikani.
The group presented witnesses who testified of Shweikani’s 2016 torture at the prison. Syrian rights groups believe she was later executed at the Saydnaya military prison in the Damascus suburbs.
“Now it is our time to capture these criminals and bring them to the United States for trial,” the Syrian Emergency Task Force said in a statement Monday. The group’s leader, Mouaz Moustafa, said his relatives were among those tortured at the prison.
Federal prosecutors said they had issued arrest warrants for the two officials, who remain at large.
Prospects of bringing them to trial were unclear. Assad’s toppling by the rebels over the weekend has scattered his government and left citizens searching prison torture centers around the country for survivors and evidence.
Massachusetts
Judge dismisses charges against Karen Read supporter who scattered rubber ducks and fake $100 bills
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts judge dismissed criminal charges Monday against a backer of Karen Read who admitted placing dozens of yellow rubber ducks and fake $100 bills around town in support of Read.
Richard Schiffer Jr. had argued in Stoughton District Court that he had a First Amendment right to support the defense theory that Read — accused of ramming into her boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving the Boston police officer to die in a snowstorm — has been framed in the polarizing murder case.
Schiffer’s attorney Timothy Bradl said Monday that the judge made the right call by quickly tossing the felony witness intimidation and criminal harassment charges against Schiffer.
The ruling comes as another judge decided Monday to push back Read’s retrial to April after a mistrial was declared in July when jurors couldn’t reach an agreement. Read was facing second-degree murder charges and two other charges. Her attorneys have argued that other law enforcement officers were responsible for O’Keefe’s death.
Regarding Schiffer’s charges, Bradl said, “There wasn’t a leg to stand on.”
The Norfolk District Attorney’s office declined to comment.
Schiffer has said he got the ducks idea after thinking about a defense lawyer’s closing argument that Read was framed. Alan Jackson told jurors that “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.”
Schiffer’s actions did not rise to the level of witness intimidation and criminal harassment “nor does his speech, or in this case his written word on fake currency and use of rubber toys, which are afforded the protections of the First Amendment,” Judge Brian Walsh wrote.
“It is the view of this Court that the defendant’s conduct and speech, though a rather sophomoric expression of his opinion, is nonetheless protected speech,” he wrote.
Walsh concluded the two-page ruling with quotes from Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley, believed to have coined the “walks like a duck” phrase, and Robert McCloskey, author of the children’s book “Make Way For Ducklings.”
The defense alleged that O’Keefe was actually killed inside the home of his fellow Boston officer Brian Albert and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
Schiffer has been among the dozens of Read supporters who accuse state and local law enforcement of a widespread cover-up. Their demonstrations have led to confrontations, especially in the town of Canton where the murder happened, between those who support Read and others who believe she is guilty.
Schiffer, who owns Canton Fence and has said that he knows practically everyone in town through his contracting work, was accused of placing some of the ducks outside a pizza shop run by Brian Albert’s brother, Canton Selectman Chris Albert. Other ducks appeared in O’Keefe’s neighborhood.
