Pennsylvania
Lawsuit aims to strike down LGBTQ antidiscrimination protections
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two public school districts and several parents have sued the state in a bid to undo antidiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people in Pennsylvania, saying that the two-year-old regulation is illegal because it goes beyond what lawmakers intended or allowed.
The lawsuit, filed in the statewide Commonwealth Court late Thursday, comes amid a debate in Pennsylvania and nationally over the rights of transgender high school athletes to compete in women’s sports.
If the lawsuit is successful, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission would no longer be able to investigate complaints about discrimination involving sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The plaintiffs’ lawyers also say a favorable ruling in court would bar transgender student athletes from competing in women’s high school sports in Pennsylvania.
The plaintiffs include two districts — South Side Area and Knoch, both in western Pennsylvania — and two Republican state lawmakers, Reps. Aaron Bernstine and Barbara Gleim, as well as three parents and seven students.
The lawsuit names Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which investigates complaints about discrimination because of someone’s race, sex, religion, age or disability in housing, employment and public accommodations.
Shapiro’s office said it had no immediate comment Friday and the commission did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the lawsuit Friday.
The lawsuit is aimed at the definition of sex discrimination that the commission expanded by regulation to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
The regulation was approved in late 2022 by a separate regulatory gatekeeper agency, and it took effect in 2023.
The plaintiffs contend that the state Supreme Court has interpreted the term “sex” as used in the Pennsylvania Constitution to mean either male or female.
They also contend that the state Legislature never gave permission to the Human Relations Commission to write regulations expanding the legal definition of sex discrimination, making the regulation a violation of the Legislature’s constitutional authority over lawmaking.
The commission has justified the expanded definition by saying that state courts have held that Pennsylvania’s antidiscrimination laws are to be interpreted consistently with federal antidiscrimination law. The commission can negotiate settlements between parties or impose civil penalties, such as back pay or damages.
For years, Democratic lawmakers tried to change the law to add the terms sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to the portfolio of complaints that the Human Relations Commission could investigate. Every time, Republican lawmakers blocked the effort.
Wisconsin
Judge: Plans can move forward to release woman in Slender Man case
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin woman who nearly killed her classmate years ago to please horror character Slender Man can be released from a psychiatric hospital as planned, a judge decided Thursday, rejecting state health officials’ last-minute attempt to keep her committed.
Morgan Geyser has spent the last seven years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren in January ordered her released after state and county health officials completed a community supervision and housing plan.
State Department of Health Services officials were approaching a 60-day deadline to present the plan to the judge when they abruptly asked him last week to keep her committed.
Agency officials argued that Geyser didn’t volunteer to her therapy team that she had read “Rent Boy,” a novel about murder and selling organs on the black market. They also alleged that she has been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia, and has sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body and a postcard saying she wants to be intimate with him.
Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Abbey Nickolie said during a hearing Thursday that Geyser only told her treatment team about the book and the collector when she was asked.
“The state has real concerns these things are, frankly, just red flags at this point,” Nickolie said.
Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, argued Geyser hasn’t done anything wrong and blasted the state’s request to keep her in the hospital as a “hit job.”
He told the judge that Geyser only reads what Winnebago staff allow, adding that she has a wide range of reading interests, including biographies.
As for the collector, Winnebago staff knew that he had visited her three times in June 2023 and that Geyser cut off communications with him last year after she realized he was selling things she sent him, Cotton said.
“Morgan is not more dangerous today,” Cotton said.
Bohren heard testimony from the same three psychologists who recommended her release in January. All of them said that they don’t see how she presents any more of a risk now.
The judge found that the state’s request lacked substance. He said that he didn’t think Geyser was trying to hide anything from her treatment team and was simply responding to questions she was asked.
“I don’t see the risk to the public,” Bohren said. He set a new hearing on a release plan for March 21.
Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured Payton Leutner to a Waukesha park after a sleepover in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. All three girls were 12 years old.
Leutner barely survived her wounds. Geyser and Weier told investigators that they attacked her to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and to ensure Slender Man didn’t hurt them or their families.
Geyser pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in 2017 but claimed she wasn’t responsible because she was mentally ill. Bohren committed her to the psychiatric hospital for 40 years in 2018.
Weier pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon in 2017, but like Geyser claimed she wasn’t deemed responsible because of her mental illness. She was committed to 25 years in a mental hospital but was granted release in 2021 if she agreed to live with her father and to wear a GPS monitor.
Virginia
Man suspected of being about to conduct church shooting convicted of hate crime
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia man who was arrested during a megachurch’s Sunday services on suspicion that he was about to embark on a mass shooting has been convicted of a hate crime, according to federal prosecutors.
A federal jury convicted Rui Jiang of Falls Church on Thursday of trying to obstruct congregants’ free exercise of religious beliefs, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The charge included that Jiang’s attempt involved a dangerous weapon and an attempt to kill, prosecutors said. He was also convicted of transmitting online threats and a firearms violation.
Prosecutors have said Jiang intended to shoot congregation members of the Park Valley Church in Haymarket in September 2023. He was arrested during Sunday services at the church, armed with a handgun and other weapons, after a former girlfriend called police and alerted them to disturbing social media posts he made.
According to authorities, Jiang had recently joined the church but indicated he was mad at God and at men for blocking him from having romantic relationships with women. He left behind a “final letter” in which he said he intended to only shoot and kill men and apologized in advance for any women who might be “collateral damage.”
In interviews with police after his arrest, Jiang acknowledged he was mad at God but denied planning to kill anyone, according to court documents. He admitted he was armed inside the church but said he has a concealed carry permit and is frequently armed.
He was initially charged in state court, but federal prosecutors took over the case last year. The case was put on hold after a competency hearing was ordered, but the judge ruled in July that Jiang could stand trial.
Police touted Jiang’s arrest as an example of fast-moving interagency cooperation between at least three police departments in Maryland and Virginia to apprehend Jiang before any violence occurred. Security personnel at the church had also noticed Jiang’s odd behavior and had begun to question him.
Jiang faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to life in prison at sentencing June 18. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.
The federal public defender’s office, which is representing Jiang, did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment Friday.
Massachusetts
Flight attendant pleads guilty to secretly recording a 14-year-old girl in plane bathroom
BOSTON (AP) — A former American Airlines flight attendant has pleaded guilty to secretly recording video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom and having recordings of four other girls using the lavatories.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.
According to investigators, the girl got up to use the main cabin lavatory nearest to her seat during a Sept. 2, 2023, flight from Charlotte to Boston but found it was occupied.
Thompson told her the first-class lavatory was unoccupied and escorted her there, investigators said. She told investigators that before she entered the bathroom, Thompson told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken.
After he left, the teen entered the bathroom and saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position, officials said, with the words written in black ink and all caps, “inoperative catering equipment,” “remove from service,” and “seat broken.” Beneath the stickers, Thompson had concealed his iPhone to record a video, investigators said. The girl used her phone to take a picture of the stickers and concealed iPhone before leaving.
“We are pleased to hear that the American Airlines flight attendant who preyed on at least five young girls as they used the airplane bathroom has pled guilty for his depraved crimes,” Paul Llewellyn, whose law firm Lewis & Llewellyn has represented the 14-year-old girl and another victim in lawsuits stemming from the case, said in a statement. “We commend the US Attorney’s Office for its work on the criminal case in bringing this felon to justice.”
Llewellyn said the firm settled the 14-year-old’s lawsuit with American Airlines and is set to go to trial in July in the other lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of a 9-year-old girl from Texas.
Prosecutors also allege that their investigation turned up hundreds of images in Thompson’s iCloud account of child sexual abuse generated through artificial intelligence, as well as the images of the other four girls captured on earlier flights using the aircraft lavatories. They were ages 7, 9, 11 and 14.
American Airlines said following his arrest that Thompson was “immediately withheld from service” and hadn’t worked for the airline since the phone was discovered.
Attempted sexual exploitation of children carries a sentence of 15-30 years in prison, while possessing images of sexual abuse of a prepubescent minor carries a maximum prison term of 20 years. Both charges also provide for at least five years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution.
Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced June 17.
Lawsuit aims to strike down LGBTQ antidiscrimination protections
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two public school districts and several parents have sued the state in a bid to undo antidiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people in Pennsylvania, saying that the two-year-old regulation is illegal because it goes beyond what lawmakers intended or allowed.
The lawsuit, filed in the statewide Commonwealth Court late Thursday, comes amid a debate in Pennsylvania and nationally over the rights of transgender high school athletes to compete in women’s sports.
If the lawsuit is successful, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission would no longer be able to investigate complaints about discrimination involving sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The plaintiffs’ lawyers also say a favorable ruling in court would bar transgender student athletes from competing in women’s high school sports in Pennsylvania.
The plaintiffs include two districts — South Side Area and Knoch, both in western Pennsylvania — and two Republican state lawmakers, Reps. Aaron Bernstine and Barbara Gleim, as well as three parents and seven students.
The lawsuit names Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, which investigates complaints about discrimination because of someone’s race, sex, religion, age or disability in housing, employment and public accommodations.
Shapiro’s office said it had no immediate comment Friday and the commission did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the lawsuit Friday.
The lawsuit is aimed at the definition of sex discrimination that the commission expanded by regulation to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
The regulation was approved in late 2022 by a separate regulatory gatekeeper agency, and it took effect in 2023.
The plaintiffs contend that the state Supreme Court has interpreted the term “sex” as used in the Pennsylvania Constitution to mean either male or female.
They also contend that the state Legislature never gave permission to the Human Relations Commission to write regulations expanding the legal definition of sex discrimination, making the regulation a violation of the Legislature’s constitutional authority over lawmaking.
The commission has justified the expanded definition by saying that state courts have held that Pennsylvania’s antidiscrimination laws are to be interpreted consistently with federal antidiscrimination law. The commission can negotiate settlements between parties or impose civil penalties, such as back pay or damages.
For years, Democratic lawmakers tried to change the law to add the terms sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to the portfolio of complaints that the Human Relations Commission could investigate. Every time, Republican lawmakers blocked the effort.
Wisconsin
Judge: Plans can move forward to release woman in Slender Man case
WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin woman who nearly killed her classmate years ago to please horror character Slender Man can be released from a psychiatric hospital as planned, a judge decided Thursday, rejecting state health officials’ last-minute attempt to keep her committed.
Morgan Geyser has spent the last seven years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren in January ordered her released after state and county health officials completed a community supervision and housing plan.
State Department of Health Services officials were approaching a 60-day deadline to present the plan to the judge when they abruptly asked him last week to keep her committed.
Agency officials argued that Geyser didn’t volunteer to her therapy team that she had read “Rent Boy,” a novel about murder and selling organs on the black market. They also alleged that she has been communicating with a man who collects murder memorabilia, and has sent him her own sketch of a decapitated body and a postcard saying she wants to be intimate with him.
Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Abbey Nickolie said during a hearing Thursday that Geyser only told her treatment team about the book and the collector when she was asked.
“The state has real concerns these things are, frankly, just red flags at this point,” Nickolie said.
Geyser’s attorney, Tony Cotton, argued Geyser hasn’t done anything wrong and blasted the state’s request to keep her in the hospital as a “hit job.”
He told the judge that Geyser only reads what Winnebago staff allow, adding that she has a wide range of reading interests, including biographies.
As for the collector, Winnebago staff knew that he had visited her three times in June 2023 and that Geyser cut off communications with him last year after she realized he was selling things she sent him, Cotton said.
“Morgan is not more dangerous today,” Cotton said.
Bohren heard testimony from the same three psychologists who recommended her release in January. All of them said that they don’t see how she presents any more of a risk now.
The judge found that the state’s request lacked substance. He said that he didn’t think Geyser was trying to hide anything from her treatment team and was simply responding to questions she was asked.
“I don’t see the risk to the public,” Bohren said. He set a new hearing on a release plan for March 21.
Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured Payton Leutner to a Waukesha park after a sleepover in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. All three girls were 12 years old.
Leutner barely survived her wounds. Geyser and Weier told investigators that they attacked her to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and to ensure Slender Man didn’t hurt them or their families.
Geyser pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in 2017 but claimed she wasn’t responsible because she was mentally ill. Bohren committed her to the psychiatric hospital for 40 years in 2018.
Weier pleaded guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide with a dangerous weapon in 2017, but like Geyser claimed she wasn’t deemed responsible because of her mental illness. She was committed to 25 years in a mental hospital but was granted release in 2021 if she agreed to live with her father and to wear a GPS monitor.
Virginia
Man suspected of being about to conduct church shooting convicted of hate crime
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A northern Virginia man who was arrested during a megachurch’s Sunday services on suspicion that he was about to embark on a mass shooting has been convicted of a hate crime, according to federal prosecutors.
A federal jury convicted Rui Jiang of Falls Church on Thursday of trying to obstruct congregants’ free exercise of religious beliefs, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The charge included that Jiang’s attempt involved a dangerous weapon and an attempt to kill, prosecutors said. He was also convicted of transmitting online threats and a firearms violation.
Prosecutors have said Jiang intended to shoot congregation members of the Park Valley Church in Haymarket in September 2023. He was arrested during Sunday services at the church, armed with a handgun and other weapons, after a former girlfriend called police and alerted them to disturbing social media posts he made.
According to authorities, Jiang had recently joined the church but indicated he was mad at God and at men for blocking him from having romantic relationships with women. He left behind a “final letter” in which he said he intended to only shoot and kill men and apologized in advance for any women who might be “collateral damage.”
In interviews with police after his arrest, Jiang acknowledged he was mad at God but denied planning to kill anyone, according to court documents. He admitted he was armed inside the church but said he has a concealed carry permit and is frequently armed.
He was initially charged in state court, but federal prosecutors took over the case last year. The case was put on hold after a competency hearing was ordered, but the judge ruled in July that Jiang could stand trial.
Police touted Jiang’s arrest as an example of fast-moving interagency cooperation between at least three police departments in Maryland and Virginia to apprehend Jiang before any violence occurred. Security personnel at the church had also noticed Jiang’s odd behavior and had begun to question him.
Jiang faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to life in prison at sentencing June 18. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties.
The federal public defender’s office, which is representing Jiang, did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment Friday.
Massachusetts
Flight attendant pleads guilty to secretly recording a 14-year-old girl in plane bathroom
BOSTON (AP) — A former American Airlines flight attendant has pleaded guilty to secretly recording video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom and having recordings of four other girls using the lavatories.
Estes Carter Thompson III, 37, of Charlotte, North Carolina, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of attempted sexual exploitation of children and one count of possession of images of child sexual abuse depicting a prepubescent minor.
According to investigators, the girl got up to use the main cabin lavatory nearest to her seat during a Sept. 2, 2023, flight from Charlotte to Boston but found it was occupied.
Thompson told her the first-class lavatory was unoccupied and escorted her there, investigators said. She told investigators that before she entered the bathroom, Thompson told her he needed to wash his hands and that the toilet seat was broken.
After he left, the teen entered the bathroom and saw red stickers on the underside of the toilet seat lid, which was in the open position, officials said, with the words written in black ink and all caps, “inoperative catering equipment,” “remove from service,” and “seat broken.” Beneath the stickers, Thompson had concealed his iPhone to record a video, investigators said. The girl used her phone to take a picture of the stickers and concealed iPhone before leaving.
“We are pleased to hear that the American Airlines flight attendant who preyed on at least five young girls as they used the airplane bathroom has pled guilty for his depraved crimes,” Paul Llewellyn, whose law firm Lewis & Llewellyn has represented the 14-year-old girl and another victim in lawsuits stemming from the case, said in a statement. “We commend the US Attorney’s Office for its work on the criminal case in bringing this felon to justice.”
Llewellyn said the firm settled the 14-year-old’s lawsuit with American Airlines and is set to go to trial in July in the other lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of a 9-year-old girl from Texas.
Prosecutors also allege that their investigation turned up hundreds of images in Thompson’s iCloud account of child sexual abuse generated through artificial intelligence, as well as the images of the other four girls captured on earlier flights using the aircraft lavatories. They were ages 7, 9, 11 and 14.
American Airlines said following his arrest that Thompson was “immediately withheld from service” and hadn’t worked for the airline since the phone was discovered.
Attempted sexual exploitation of children carries a sentence of 15-30 years in prison, while possessing images of sexual abuse of a prepubescent minor carries a maximum prison term of 20 years. Both charges also provide for at least five years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and restitution.
Thompson is scheduled to be sentenced June 17.
