North Dakota
Judge rules federal government owes nearly $28 million to state for pipeline protests
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday found the state of North Dakota entitled to nearly $28 million for responding to protests of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in 2016 and 2017 — a win for the state in its multiyear effort to recoup the costs from the federal government.
The state filed the lawsuit in 2019, seeking $38 million for policing the protests. The sometimes-chaotic demonstrations drew international attention for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the pipeline’s Missouri River crossing upstream of the tribe’s reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline, fearing an oil spill polluting its water supply.
A trial played out over several weeks in early 2024 in federal court in Bismarck, the state capital. People who testified included former North Dakota governors Doug Burgum, who took office in December 2016 during the protests’ height, and Jack Dalrymple, whose administration responded to the protests’ early months.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor found the United States liable to the state on all claims and for more than $27.8 million in damages.
The judge wrote: “The bottom line: United States had a mandatory procedure, it did not follow that procedure, and harm occurred to the state of North Dakota. The law allows reimbursement for this harm. More than that, the rule of law requires this Court to hold the United States liable to remind it of its role in the larger picture of ensuring peace, not chaos.”
Thousands of people camped and demonstrated against the pipeline near the crossing for months, resulting in hundreds of arrests. Sometimes-violent clashes occurred between protesters and law enforcement officers. Law enforcement officers from around the state and region responded to the protests.
The protest camps were cleared in February 2017. An attorney for the state said the protests ended in a response of more than seven months involving 178 agencies, resulting in 761 arrests and requiring four days of cleanup of the camp to remove millions of pounds of trash.
In a joint statement, Gov. Kelly Armstrong and Attorney General Drew Wrigley said: “As outlined in trial testimony and Judge Traynor’s ruling, decisions made by the Obama administration emboldened protestors and ultimately caused millions of dollars in damage to North Dakota, while endangering the health and safety of North Dakota communities, families and law enforcement officers who responded to the protests.”
The state’s claims included negligence, gross negligence, civil trespass and public nuisance.
Attorneys for the government said at trial that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials “acted reasonably given limited options at their disposal” during the protests, and that the state’s claim is “greatly overstated.” The government asked the judge to find a lack of legal jurisdiction for the state’s claims, that the state hasn’t proven its claims and is not entitled to damages.
The pipeline has been transporting oil since June 2017. Many state government officials and industry leaders support the pipeline as crucial infrastructure in the country’s No. 3 oil-producing state. The pipeline carries roughly 5% of the United States’ daily oil production.
In 2017, the pipeline company, Energy Transfer, donated $15 million to help cover the response costs. That same year, the U.S. Justice Department gave a $10 million grant to the state for reimbursing the response. The judge found the former to be a gift and reduced the latter from the state’s total recovery.
Then-President Donald Trump denied a 2017 request from the state for the federal government to cover the costs through a disaster declaration.
The pipeline is operating while a court-ordered environmental review of the river crossing is carried out.
A North Dakota jury recently found Greenpeace liable for defamation and other claims brought by the pipeline’s builder in connection with protest activities, with damages surpassing $660 million against three Greenpeace organizations.
Washington
DOJ brings first terrorism case against alleged high-ranking TdA gang member
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged an alleged high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua in Colombia with terrorism offenses, making the first case of its kind against a member of the gang the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization, officials said Wednesday.
The case is part of a broad push to target Tren de Aragua or TdA, a Venezuelan gang that has been blamed for drug smuggling and violence in the United States. President Donald Trump has labeled the gang an invading force under an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison as part of Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
The Justice Department’s application of a criminal statute primarily reserved in recent years for extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida underscores the extent to which the administration is relying on a strikingly expansive definition of terrorism as it pursues a national security agenda focused on drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
“TdA is not a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Today’s charges represent an inflection point in how this Department of Justice will prosecute and ultimately dismantle this evil organization, which has destroyed American families and poisoned our communities.”
Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, 24, was charged in Texas federal court with drug offenses as well as conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Prosecutors described him as part of the “inner circle of TdA leadership,” and accuse him of playing a role in the international distribution of cocaine.
He is in custody in Colombia awaiting further proceedings. The Justice Department said he faces up to life in prison.
The material support statute has long been a favored tool of the Justice Department to build prosecutions against people who are suspected of facilitating the operations of a militant group but not always carrying out violence themselves.
The addition of TdA to the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations enables the Justice Department to wield the statute against individuals suspected of supporting that group.
The announcement comes days after prosecutors announced what they said was the first case to bring federal racketeering charges, which were famously used to bring down the Mafia, against the Venezuelan street gang.
New Jersey
Man charged with arson after authorities say he sparked Pine Barrens blaze
CHATSWORTH, N.J. (AP) — A man set wooden pallets on fire and failed to properly put them out in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, sparking a quick-moving wildfire with smoke affecting the air quality in the New York City area, authorities said Thursday.
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette said the Waretown man faces aggravated arson and arson charges in the southern New Jersey wildfire, which authorities said Thursday morning grew to more than 23 square miles. (59 square kilometers).
The prosecutor’s office said the 19-year-old has no attorney listed yet.
Higher-than-normal pollution levels were expected Thursday in New York City, Rockland and Westchester counties, and in Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation advised Wednesday. The fire is roughly 54 miles (87 kilometers) south of New York City.
It said “going indoors may reduce exposure” to problems such as eye, nose and throat irritation, coughing, sneezing and shortness of breath.
The fire in the southern part of New Jersey could continue to burn for days before rain later this week, officials said. No one has been injured so far in the blaze, and 5,000 residents were evacuated but have been permitted to return home. A single commercial building and some vehicles were destroyed in the fire, while 12 structures remained threatened Wednesday evening.
“This is still a very active fire,” said New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette.
The Ocean County Sheriff’s Office in New Jersey also cautioned early Thursday about air quality, saying “smoke will continue to permeate the area.” It said emergency personnel will be on site for the next few days.
In New York, dry conditions across the state are resulting in a “high” fire danger rating in several regions including New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, Capital Region, and portions of the North Country, the state air quality advisory said. The rest of the state is at a moderate or low level of fire danger.
Officials said the fire is believed to be the second-worst in the last two decades, smaller only than a 2007 blaze that burned 26 square miles.
Acting New Jersey Gov. Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency Wednesday and officials said they’ve contained about 50% of the wildfire.
Video released by the state agency overseeing the fire service showed billowing white and black clouds of smoke, intense flames engulfing pines and firefighters dousing a charred structure.
Forest fires are a common occurrence in the Pine Barrens, a 1.1 million-acre (445,000-hectare) state and federally protected reserve about the size of the Grand Canyon lying halfway between Philadelphia to the west and the Atlantic coast to the east. The region, with its quick-draining sandy soil, is in peak forest fire season. The trees are still developing leaves, humidity remains low and winds can kick up, drying out the forest floor.
The area had been under a severe drought until recently.
New Hampshire
State settles second youth center abuse case for $4.5 million
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire has agreed to pay $4.5 million to a woman who accused a youth detention center staffer of raping her in storage closet just before he handed out candy to other children as a reward for good behavior.
Natasha Maunsell, 39, was in her mid-teens when she was held at the Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord in 2001 and 2002. She sued the state in 2021, and her case was set to go to trial next month, but the parties reached a settlement, her lawyer said Wednesday.
The staffer she accused, Victor Malavet, was charged with 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against Maunsell after the state launched a broad criminal investigation in 2019. His second trial is scheduled for June after an earlier trial ended with a hung jury in September.
More than 1,300 people have sued the state since 2020 alleging that they were physically or sexually abused in state custody as children, most at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Only one case has gone to trial, resulting in a $38 million verdict, though the state is trying to slash it to $475,000. Another case recently was settled for $10 million.
Many alleged victims have submitted claims via an alternative state settlement fund where payouts are capped at $2.5 million, but roughly 800 cases are still pending in court.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they’ve been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Maunsell did.
“I think that strength can be derived from even the darkest moments, and I feel like anybody who has experienced what I have, they don’t need to be crippled by it,” she said in a 2021 interview. “They can certainly still have hope.”
Judge rules federal government owes nearly $28 million to state for pipeline protests
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday found the state of North Dakota entitled to nearly $28 million for responding to protests of the Dakota Access oil pipeline in 2016 and 2017 — a win for the state in its multiyear effort to recoup the costs from the federal government.
The state filed the lawsuit in 2019, seeking $38 million for policing the protests. The sometimes-chaotic demonstrations drew international attention for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s opposition to the pipeline’s Missouri River crossing upstream of the tribe’s reservation. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline, fearing an oil spill polluting its water supply.
A trial played out over several weeks in early 2024 in federal court in Bismarck, the state capital. People who testified included former North Dakota governors Doug Burgum, who took office in December 2016 during the protests’ height, and Jack Dalrymple, whose administration responded to the protests’ early months.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor found the United States liable to the state on all claims and for more than $27.8 million in damages.
The judge wrote: “The bottom line: United States had a mandatory procedure, it did not follow that procedure, and harm occurred to the state of North Dakota. The law allows reimbursement for this harm. More than that, the rule of law requires this Court to hold the United States liable to remind it of its role in the larger picture of ensuring peace, not chaos.”
Thousands of people camped and demonstrated against the pipeline near the crossing for months, resulting in hundreds of arrests. Sometimes-violent clashes occurred between protesters and law enforcement officers. Law enforcement officers from around the state and region responded to the protests.
The protest camps were cleared in February 2017. An attorney for the state said the protests ended in a response of more than seven months involving 178 agencies, resulting in 761 arrests and requiring four days of cleanup of the camp to remove millions of pounds of trash.
In a joint statement, Gov. Kelly Armstrong and Attorney General Drew Wrigley said: “As outlined in trial testimony and Judge Traynor’s ruling, decisions made by the Obama administration emboldened protestors and ultimately caused millions of dollars in damage to North Dakota, while endangering the health and safety of North Dakota communities, families and law enforcement officers who responded to the protests.”
The state’s claims included negligence, gross negligence, civil trespass and public nuisance.
Attorneys for the government said at trial that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials “acted reasonably given limited options at their disposal” during the protests, and that the state’s claim is “greatly overstated.” The government asked the judge to find a lack of legal jurisdiction for the state’s claims, that the state hasn’t proven its claims and is not entitled to damages.
The pipeline has been transporting oil since June 2017. Many state government officials and industry leaders support the pipeline as crucial infrastructure in the country’s No. 3 oil-producing state. The pipeline carries roughly 5% of the United States’ daily oil production.
In 2017, the pipeline company, Energy Transfer, donated $15 million to help cover the response costs. That same year, the U.S. Justice Department gave a $10 million grant to the state for reimbursing the response. The judge found the former to be a gift and reduced the latter from the state’s total recovery.
Then-President Donald Trump denied a 2017 request from the state for the federal government to cover the costs through a disaster declaration.
The pipeline is operating while a court-ordered environmental review of the river crossing is carried out.
A North Dakota jury recently found Greenpeace liable for defamation and other claims brought by the pipeline’s builder in connection with protest activities, with damages surpassing $660 million against three Greenpeace organizations.
Washington
DOJ brings first terrorism case against alleged high-ranking TdA gang member
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged an alleged high-ranking member of Tren de Aragua in Colombia with terrorism offenses, making the first case of its kind against a member of the gang the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization, officials said Wednesday.
The case is part of a broad push to target Tren de Aragua or TdA, a Venezuelan gang that has been blamed for drug smuggling and violence in the United States. President Donald Trump has labeled the gang an invading force under an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison as part of Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
The Justice Department’s application of a criminal statute primarily reserved in recent years for extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida underscores the extent to which the administration is relying on a strikingly expansive definition of terrorism as it pursues a national security agenda focused on drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
“TdA is not a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Today’s charges represent an inflection point in how this Department of Justice will prosecute and ultimately dismantle this evil organization, which has destroyed American families and poisoned our communities.”
Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, 24, was charged in Texas federal court with drug offenses as well as conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Prosecutors described him as part of the “inner circle of TdA leadership,” and accuse him of playing a role in the international distribution of cocaine.
He is in custody in Colombia awaiting further proceedings. The Justice Department said he faces up to life in prison.
The material support statute has long been a favored tool of the Justice Department to build prosecutions against people who are suspected of facilitating the operations of a militant group but not always carrying out violence themselves.
The addition of TdA to the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations enables the Justice Department to wield the statute against individuals suspected of supporting that group.
The announcement comes days after prosecutors announced what they said was the first case to bring federal racketeering charges, which were famously used to bring down the Mafia, against the Venezuelan street gang.
New Jersey
Man charged with arson after authorities say he sparked Pine Barrens blaze
CHATSWORTH, N.J. (AP) — A man set wooden pallets on fire and failed to properly put them out in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, sparking a quick-moving wildfire with smoke affecting the air quality in the New York City area, authorities said Thursday.
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer and Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette said the Waretown man faces aggravated arson and arson charges in the southern New Jersey wildfire, which authorities said Thursday morning grew to more than 23 square miles. (59 square kilometers).
The prosecutor’s office said the 19-year-old has no attorney listed yet.
Higher-than-normal pollution levels were expected Thursday in New York City, Rockland and Westchester counties, and in Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation advised Wednesday. The fire is roughly 54 miles (87 kilometers) south of New York City.
It said “going indoors may reduce exposure” to problems such as eye, nose and throat irritation, coughing, sneezing and shortness of breath.
The fire in the southern part of New Jersey could continue to burn for days before rain later this week, officials said. No one has been injured so far in the blaze, and 5,000 residents were evacuated but have been permitted to return home. A single commercial building and some vehicles were destroyed in the fire, while 12 structures remained threatened Wednesday evening.
“This is still a very active fire,” said New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette.
The Ocean County Sheriff’s Office in New Jersey also cautioned early Thursday about air quality, saying “smoke will continue to permeate the area.” It said emergency personnel will be on site for the next few days.
In New York, dry conditions across the state are resulting in a “high” fire danger rating in several regions including New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley, Capital Region, and portions of the North Country, the state air quality advisory said. The rest of the state is at a moderate or low level of fire danger.
Officials said the fire is believed to be the second-worst in the last two decades, smaller only than a 2007 blaze that burned 26 square miles.
Acting New Jersey Gov. Tahesha Way declared a state of emergency Wednesday and officials said they’ve contained about 50% of the wildfire.
Video released by the state agency overseeing the fire service showed billowing white and black clouds of smoke, intense flames engulfing pines and firefighters dousing a charred structure.
Forest fires are a common occurrence in the Pine Barrens, a 1.1 million-acre (445,000-hectare) state and federally protected reserve about the size of the Grand Canyon lying halfway between Philadelphia to the west and the Atlantic coast to the east. The region, with its quick-draining sandy soil, is in peak forest fire season. The trees are still developing leaves, humidity remains low and winds can kick up, drying out the forest floor.
The area had been under a severe drought until recently.
New Hampshire
State settles second youth center abuse case for $4.5 million
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire has agreed to pay $4.5 million to a woman who accused a youth detention center staffer of raping her in storage closet just before he handed out candy to other children as a reward for good behavior.
Natasha Maunsell, 39, was in her mid-teens when she was held at the Youth Detention Services Unit in Concord in 2001 and 2002. She sued the state in 2021, and her case was set to go to trial next month, but the parties reached a settlement, her lawyer said Wednesday.
The staffer she accused, Victor Malavet, was charged with 12 counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault against Maunsell after the state launched a broad criminal investigation in 2019. His second trial is scheduled for June after an earlier trial ended with a hung jury in September.
More than 1,300 people have sued the state since 2020 alleging that they were physically or sexually abused in state custody as children, most at the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester. Only one case has gone to trial, resulting in a $38 million verdict, though the state is trying to slash it to $475,000. Another case recently was settled for $10 million.
Many alleged victims have submitted claims via an alternative state settlement fund where payouts are capped at $2.5 million, but roughly 800 cases are still pending in court.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they’ve been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Maunsell did.
“I think that strength can be derived from even the darkest moments, and I feel like anybody who has experienced what I have, they don’t need to be crippled by it,” she said in a 2021 interview. “They can certainly still have hope.”
