Colorado
Denver Public Schools sues to stop policy allowing ICE agents in schools
Denver Public Schools became the first U.S. school district Wednesday to sue the Trump administration challenging its policy allowing ICE immigration agents in schools.
Colorado’s largest public school district argued in the federal lawsuit that the policy has forced schools to divert vital educational resources and caused attendance to plummet.
“DPS is hindered in fulfilling its mission of providing education and life services to the students who are refraining from attending DPS schools for fear of immigration enforcement actions occurring on DPS school grounds,” the lawsuit states.
The federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the Trump administration hasn’t provided “good reason” for rescinding the rules nor adequately considered or addressed the fallout.
Last month, President Donald Trump lifted longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near sensitive locations, including schools. The announcement came as the new president seeks to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations.
“Denver is standing up for its children and families and protecting the right of all children, regardless of their immigration status, to attend public schools,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, said in an email.
Denver Public Schools serve more than 90,000 students — about 4,000 of which are immigrants, according to the lawsuit, which cites 2023-2024 school year numbers. More than half of the students are Hispanic or Latinx.
The city of Denver has seen an increase in migrants recently. Since 2023, about 43,000 people have arrived in the city from the U.S. southern border, according to the lawsuit.
“Parents across Denver enroll their children in public schools believing that while at school, their children will be educated and enriched without fear the government will enforce immigration laws on those premises,” the lawsuit said.
The school district says it has had to devote a lot of time and resources to adding policies that keep students safe and training faculty and staff on how to respond to people claiming they are conducting immigration enforcement at schools.
Denver Public Schools also want to see DHS publish the directive publicly, saying that not being able to view the change in policy has impeded their ability to prepare for it, according to the lawsuit.
New Mexico
Jury convicts ex-officer in fatal shooting of Black man at gas station
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A former police officer was found guilty Wednesday of voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a Black man during a 2022 confrontation at a New Mexico gas station.
Las Cruces police Officer Brad Lunsford’s verdict in a jury trial is the latest outcome in cases that prosecutors have linked to systematic brutality against Black people by members of law enforcement, nearly five years after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Lunsford, who is white, had pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Jose Coronado, said he will ask the judge to review the verdict for its legal sufficiency.
“While I respect the jury’s verdict, I am extremely disappointed in it. I don’t believe the state met its burden,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.
Prosecutors said he shot Presley Eze at point-blank range in a scuffle after police responded to a 911 call from a gas station attendant who reported that Eze stole beer. Eze allegedly placed his hand on a second officer’s stun gun before being shot.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the use of deadly force was not reasonable, noting that Lunsford immediately drew his service weapon and shot Eze in the back of the head.
“Today’s verdict reaffirms a fundamental principle: no one is above the law — not even those sworn to uphold it. Officer Lunsford’s actions were not just a tragic lapse in judgment; they were an egregious abuse of power that cost Presley Eze his life,” Torrez said in a statement after the verdict was announced.
The charge of voluntary manslaughter with a firearms enhancement carries a possible sentence of up to nine years in prison. Evidence at trial included police body camera video of the confrontation, in which police pulled Eze from a vehicle and the struggle ensued.
Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said most fatal shootings by on-duty officers are determined to be legally justified under precedent stemming from two 1980s-era U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
“It is incredibly difficult for a prosecutor to obtain a conviction in a jury trial in one of these cases, and that’s because jurors are very reluctant to second guess the split-second, often life-or-death decisions of an on-duty police officer in a potentially violent street encounter,” Stinson said. “Anything can happen, but it’s only in the most egregious cases.”
Records compiled by Stinson, university colleagues and students through the Police Integrity Research Group show that 205 nonfederal law enforcement officers have been arrested on criminal charges of homicide or manslaughter over the past 20 years, resulting in 66 convictions, 27 convictions of them for manslaughter or homicide.
“If you do get a conviction, it’s often for the lesser offense,” Stinson said.
More than 900 fatal shootings by on-duty state and local law enforcement officers typically take place each year in the U.S., he said
In pursuing a criminal charge against Lunsford, Torrez described the killing of Eze as a tragedy and “yet another example of poor police tactics resulting in an unjustifiable use of force to subdue an individual resisting arrest for the commission of a minor crime.”
Arizona
Lawyers for inmates ask judge to take over health care services in prisons
PHOENIX (AP) — Lawyers for 25,000 people incarcerated in Arizona have asked a judge to take over health care operations in state-run prisons and appoint an official to run them, saying the state is not capable of fixing deep failures in care even though it has been required to do so over the last decade.
In a filing Tuesday, the attorneys said a takeover is urgently needed because the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry lacks the leadership to comply with changes ordered by a judge in a 2012 lawsuit over the quality of medical and mental health care for prisoners.
The first constitutional violation in the case was found in 2015, they said, and “A decade later, defendants still have not demonstrated the will, knowledge, or capacity to reform their prison healthcare system.”
Arizona settled the case in 2014 but for years was dogged by complaints that it failed to follow through on its promises. The court slapped the state with contempt fines of $1.4 million in 2018 and $1.1 million in 2021. The settlement was eventually thrown out due to Arizona’s noncompliance, and a trial was ordered.
In a blistering 2022 verdict, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver ruled that the state was violating prisoners’ constitutional rights by providing them with inadequate care, knew about the problem for years and refused to correct it.
She also said prison health care deficiencies resulted in preventable deaths and issued an injunction requiring corrections authorities to fix the constitutional violations.
In September 2019 lawyers representing the prisoners made a similar request for a takeover, also known as a receivership. Though Silver has previously shied away from granting that, she later said she would revive that possibility if the state acts in bad faith or fails to comply with the court-ordered changes.
Lawyers for prisoners pointed to a recent report from a court-appointed expert who said health care for prisoners “remains poor, has shown little improvement since the start of the Injunction, and continues to place the residents at significant risk of serious harm, including death.”
The corrections department and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the request.
Past receiverships have been ordered for prisons in other states. In California in 2005, a federal judge seized control of the prison medical system after finding that an average of one inmate a week was dying of medical neglect or malpractice.
The Arizona lawsuit does not cover the nearly 10,000 people incarcerated in private prisons for state convictions.
New Mexico
Attorney at center of DWI police corruption probe in Albuquerque pleads guilty
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Albuquerque attorney who investigators alleged was at the center of a sweeping corruption scandal that allowed people arrested for driving while intoxicated to evade conviction has pleaded guilty to federal charges, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday.
Thomas Clear III admitted to running what federal authorities have referred to as a “DWI Enterprise” in which his firm offered gifts and thousands of dollars in bribes to officers in exchange for having DWI cases dismissed. His plea comes a day after he was suspended from practicing law by the New Mexico Supreme Court.
A third former Albuquerque police officer, Neill Elsman, also pleaded guilty Wednesday. He was among 12 officers placed on leave after the allegations became public last year.
Clear pleaded guilty to racketeering, bribery and two extortion related counts. Elsman pleaded guilty to receiving a bribe and two counts of attempted interference with commerce by extortion.
Clear’s former paralegal Ricardo Mendez pleaded guilty to a slew of federal charges last month that included racketeering and bribery.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said Wednesday that his department worked with the FBI and federal prosecutors to expose the scheme and that the police force has worked internally to hold officers accountable. Aside from three former officers reaching plea agreements, Medina noted that 10 officers have left the department as a result of the investigation.
“As I have said, we will leave no stone unturned, even if it means going back 30 years to scrutinize the actions of officers,” Medina said. “We are learning more details every day and we anticipate exposing more wrongdoing as our investigation continues.”
In his plea agreement, Clear said he worked with numerous officers from the Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico State Police and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office as part of the scheme, in which officers would receive money or gifts to not appear in court as a necessary witness to the driving incident, resulting in the dismissal of the case.
Clear said the enterprise evolved over the years, growing as more Albuquerque officers began referring cases to his law firm so they could secure and increase payments to themselves. He said some officers would help recruit and train the “next generation” within the police force’s DWI unit so they also could participate in the scheme.
Clear also said Mendez was warned about which officers to stay away from, explaining there were some in the unit who would have reported the criminal activity had they known about it. Still, he said, generational participation in the scheme allowed it to “take root amongst almost the entire APD DWI unit over a lengthy period of time.”
Denver Public Schools sues to stop policy allowing ICE agents in schools
Denver Public Schools became the first U.S. school district Wednesday to sue the Trump administration challenging its policy allowing ICE immigration agents in schools.
Colorado’s largest public school district argued in the federal lawsuit that the policy has forced schools to divert vital educational resources and caused attendance to plummet.
“DPS is hindered in fulfilling its mission of providing education and life services to the students who are refraining from attending DPS schools for fear of immigration enforcement actions occurring on DPS school grounds,” the lawsuit states.
The federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the Trump administration hasn’t provided “good reason” for rescinding the rules nor adequately considered or addressed the fallout.
Last month, President Donald Trump lifted longtime rules restricting immigration enforcement near sensitive locations, including schools. The announcement came as the new president seeks to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations.
“Denver is standing up for its children and families and protecting the right of all children, regardless of their immigration status, to attend public schools,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, said in an email.
Denver Public Schools serve more than 90,000 students — about 4,000 of which are immigrants, according to the lawsuit, which cites 2023-2024 school year numbers. More than half of the students are Hispanic or Latinx.
The city of Denver has seen an increase in migrants recently. Since 2023, about 43,000 people have arrived in the city from the U.S. southern border, according to the lawsuit.
“Parents across Denver enroll their children in public schools believing that while at school, their children will be educated and enriched without fear the government will enforce immigration laws on those premises,” the lawsuit said.
The school district says it has had to devote a lot of time and resources to adding policies that keep students safe and training faculty and staff on how to respond to people claiming they are conducting immigration enforcement at schools.
Denver Public Schools also want to see DHS publish the directive publicly, saying that not being able to view the change in policy has impeded their ability to prepare for it, according to the lawsuit.
New Mexico
Jury convicts ex-officer in fatal shooting of Black man at gas station
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A former police officer was found guilty Wednesday of voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a Black man during a 2022 confrontation at a New Mexico gas station.
Las Cruces police Officer Brad Lunsford’s verdict in a jury trial is the latest outcome in cases that prosecutors have linked to systematic brutality against Black people by members of law enforcement, nearly five years after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Lunsford, who is white, had pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Jose Coronado, said he will ask the judge to review the verdict for its legal sufficiency.
“While I respect the jury’s verdict, I am extremely disappointed in it. I don’t believe the state met its burden,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.
Prosecutors said he shot Presley Eze at point-blank range in a scuffle after police responded to a 911 call from a gas station attendant who reported that Eze stole beer. Eze allegedly placed his hand on a second officer’s stun gun before being shot.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez said the use of deadly force was not reasonable, noting that Lunsford immediately drew his service weapon and shot Eze in the back of the head.
“Today’s verdict reaffirms a fundamental principle: no one is above the law — not even those sworn to uphold it. Officer Lunsford’s actions were not just a tragic lapse in judgment; they were an egregious abuse of power that cost Presley Eze his life,” Torrez said in a statement after the verdict was announced.
The charge of voluntary manslaughter with a firearms enhancement carries a possible sentence of up to nine years in prison. Evidence at trial included police body camera video of the confrontation, in which police pulled Eze from a vehicle and the struggle ensued.
Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said most fatal shootings by on-duty officers are determined to be legally justified under precedent stemming from two 1980s-era U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
“It is incredibly difficult for a prosecutor to obtain a conviction in a jury trial in one of these cases, and that’s because jurors are very reluctant to second guess the split-second, often life-or-death decisions of an on-duty police officer in a potentially violent street encounter,” Stinson said. “Anything can happen, but it’s only in the most egregious cases.”
Records compiled by Stinson, university colleagues and students through the Police Integrity Research Group show that 205 nonfederal law enforcement officers have been arrested on criminal charges of homicide or manslaughter over the past 20 years, resulting in 66 convictions, 27 convictions of them for manslaughter or homicide.
“If you do get a conviction, it’s often for the lesser offense,” Stinson said.
More than 900 fatal shootings by on-duty state and local law enforcement officers typically take place each year in the U.S., he said
In pursuing a criminal charge against Lunsford, Torrez described the killing of Eze as a tragedy and “yet another example of poor police tactics resulting in an unjustifiable use of force to subdue an individual resisting arrest for the commission of a minor crime.”
Arizona
Lawyers for inmates ask judge to take over health care services in prisons
PHOENIX (AP) — Lawyers for 25,000 people incarcerated in Arizona have asked a judge to take over health care operations in state-run prisons and appoint an official to run them, saying the state is not capable of fixing deep failures in care even though it has been required to do so over the last decade.
In a filing Tuesday, the attorneys said a takeover is urgently needed because the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry lacks the leadership to comply with changes ordered by a judge in a 2012 lawsuit over the quality of medical and mental health care for prisoners.
The first constitutional violation in the case was found in 2015, they said, and “A decade later, defendants still have not demonstrated the will, knowledge, or capacity to reform their prison healthcare system.”
Arizona settled the case in 2014 but for years was dogged by complaints that it failed to follow through on its promises. The court slapped the state with contempt fines of $1.4 million in 2018 and $1.1 million in 2021. The settlement was eventually thrown out due to Arizona’s noncompliance, and a trial was ordered.
In a blistering 2022 verdict, U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver ruled that the state was violating prisoners’ constitutional rights by providing them with inadequate care, knew about the problem for years and refused to correct it.
She also said prison health care deficiencies resulted in preventable deaths and issued an injunction requiring corrections authorities to fix the constitutional violations.
In September 2019 lawyers representing the prisoners made a similar request for a takeover, also known as a receivership. Though Silver has previously shied away from granting that, she later said she would revive that possibility if the state acts in bad faith or fails to comply with the court-ordered changes.
Lawyers for prisoners pointed to a recent report from a court-appointed expert who said health care for prisoners “remains poor, has shown little improvement since the start of the Injunction, and continues to place the residents at significant risk of serious harm, including death.”
The corrections department and Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the request.
Past receiverships have been ordered for prisons in other states. In California in 2005, a federal judge seized control of the prison medical system after finding that an average of one inmate a week was dying of medical neglect or malpractice.
The Arizona lawsuit does not cover the nearly 10,000 people incarcerated in private prisons for state convictions.
New Mexico
Attorney at center of DWI police corruption probe in Albuquerque pleads guilty
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Albuquerque attorney who investigators alleged was at the center of a sweeping corruption scandal that allowed people arrested for driving while intoxicated to evade conviction has pleaded guilty to federal charges, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday.
Thomas Clear III admitted to running what federal authorities have referred to as a “DWI Enterprise” in which his firm offered gifts and thousands of dollars in bribes to officers in exchange for having DWI cases dismissed. His plea comes a day after he was suspended from practicing law by the New Mexico Supreme Court.
A third former Albuquerque police officer, Neill Elsman, also pleaded guilty Wednesday. He was among 12 officers placed on leave after the allegations became public last year.
Clear pleaded guilty to racketeering, bribery and two extortion related counts. Elsman pleaded guilty to receiving a bribe and two counts of attempted interference with commerce by extortion.
Clear’s former paralegal Ricardo Mendez pleaded guilty to a slew of federal charges last month that included racketeering and bribery.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said Wednesday that his department worked with the FBI and federal prosecutors to expose the scheme and that the police force has worked internally to hold officers accountable. Aside from three former officers reaching plea agreements, Medina noted that 10 officers have left the department as a result of the investigation.
“As I have said, we will leave no stone unturned, even if it means going back 30 years to scrutinize the actions of officers,” Medina said. “We are learning more details every day and we anticipate exposing more wrongdoing as our investigation continues.”
In his plea agreement, Clear said he worked with numerous officers from the Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico State Police and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office as part of the scheme, in which officers would receive money or gifts to not appear in court as a necessary witness to the driving incident, resulting in the dismissal of the case.
Clear said the enterprise evolved over the years, growing as more Albuquerque officers began referring cases to his law firm so they could secure and increase payments to themselves. He said some officers would help recruit and train the “next generation” within the police force’s DWI unit so they also could participate in the scheme.
Clear also said Mendez was warned about which officers to stay away from, explaining there were some in the unit who would have reported the criminal activity had they known about it. Still, he said, generational participation in the scheme allowed it to “take root amongst almost the entire APD DWI unit over a lengthy period of time.”
