Michigan
Detroit suburb reaches $3.25M settlement in case of a young woman found alive in body bag
A Detroit suburb has agreed to a $3.25 million settlement with the family of a young woman who had been declared dead at home but then gasped for air and opened her eyes when her body bag was unzipped at a funeral home.
Southfield paramedics were accused of gross negligence in how they responded to Timesha Beauchamp after a 911 call in 2020. The 20-year-old, who had cerebral palsy, was eventually rushed to a hospital and died two months later.
“We recognize that no resolution can undo the profound tragedy that occurred on August 23, 2020, or ease the pain experienced by Ms. Beauchamp’s family,” Southfield said in a statement. “This case involved extraordinarily difficult circumstances that arose in the complex world of a global pandemic.”
Beauchamp was struggling to breathe when her family called 911. A medical crew tried to resuscitate her and also consulted a doctor, who declared her dead over the phone without going to the home.
Later that day, a funeral home opened the body bag and found Beauchamp gasping for air. She was swiftly taken to a hospital but never recovered.
“She was put in a situation she never should have been in,” Steven Hurbis, an attorney for Beauchamp’s family, said Tuesday.
Medical professionals, he added, said Beauchamp would have survived if she had been taken immediately to a hospital from her home.
Southfield fought the lawsuit and persuaded a judge to dismiss it based on governmental immunity. The Michigan Court of Appeals, however, overturned that decision in 2024.
The Southfield fire chief had said Beauchamp’s situation might have been a case of “Lazarus syndrome,” a reference to people who come back to life without assistance after attempts to resuscitate have failed.
Connecticut
Police chief retires after theft allegations
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — New Haven’s police chief abruptly retired following allegations he stole money from a department account, Mayor Justin Elicker announced Monday.
The Democrat said Chief Karl Jacobson admitted he took money from a city fund that compensates confidential informants for helping police solve crimes.
He said the chief acknowledged taking the funds for personal use when three of his deputies confronted him Monday morning over the financial irregularities.
Elicker called the allegations “shocking” and a “betrayal of public trust.”
“No one is above the law,” he said in an evening press conference at the police station. “We put our trust in law enforcement to uphold the law, not to violate the law themselves.”
Jacobson didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment Monday. He had served as police chief in one of Connecticut’s largest cities and home to Yale University for more than three years.
The mayor said he was set to meet with Jacobson and place him on administrative leave when the chief instead submitted his paperwork to retire, effective Monday.
Elicker said it’s unclear how much and for how long Jacobson had been taking money from the informants’ account and that it doesn’t appear others were involved. He said city officials are cooperating with state investigators looking into the matter.
Elicker said he has tapped Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli, who was among the officers to confront Jacobson over the funds, to serve as interim chief.
Jacobson took office in July 2022, just weeks after a Black man was paralyzed in the back of a police van in an incident that roiled the police department and the city.
Five officers were arrested in connection with the mistreatment of Richard “Randy” Cox, who suffered a neck injury and was left paralyzed from the chest down when the police van with no seat belts he was in braked hard to avoid an accident and sent him flying into a metal partition.
Jacobson recommended firing four of the officers, and the city’s police commissioners terminated them. The fifth officer retired before he could be disciplined. One of the fired officers won his job back after an appeal.
Jacobson had been with the department for 15 years before being named chief.
Nevada
‘Dances with Wolves’ actor disrupts court week before sex abuse trial
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nathan Chasing Horse, the former “Dances with Wolves” actor accused of sexual abuse, was temporarily thrown out of court Monday after he disrupted proceedings with demands he be allowed to fire his defense attorney a week before trial.
Judge Jessica Peterson in Las Vegas ordered his jury trial to proceed next week as planned.
Chasing Horse has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges, including allegations that he sexually assaulted women and girls and that he filmed himself sexually abusing a girl younger than 14. Prosecutors allege he used his reputation as a spiritual leader and healer to take advantage of Native American women and girls over two decades.
Peterson ordered him removed from court Monday for trying to speak over her. He argued that his attorney, Craig Mueller, did not come to visit him and did not file timely. He asked that a public defender who previously represented him be his attorney.
Mueller, a private defense attorney, told the court his client was ready and privately told the judge that one of his investigators had visited with Chasing Horse. He declined to comment to The Associated Press.
Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
After starring in the Oscar-winning film, according to prosecutors, Chasing Horse began propping himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling around North America to perform healing ceremonies. When he was arrested in 2023, he was living in a North Las Vegas house with his five wives, according to prosecutors.
The case sent shock waves across Indian Country. The original indictment was dismissed in 2024 after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled prosecutors abused the grand jury process when they provided a definition of grooming as evidence without any expert testimony. However, the court left open the possibility of charges being refiled, and a new indictment was brought later that year.
Prosecutors claim Chasing Horse led a cult called The Circle, and his followers believed he could speak with spirits. His victims went to him for medical help, according to a transcript from a grand jury hearing.
Prosecutors expect the trial to last three weeks. It is scheduled to begin Monday.
Detroit suburb reaches $3.25M settlement in case of a young woman found alive in body bag
A Detroit suburb has agreed to a $3.25 million settlement with the family of a young woman who had been declared dead at home but then gasped for air and opened her eyes when her body bag was unzipped at a funeral home.
Southfield paramedics were accused of gross negligence in how they responded to Timesha Beauchamp after a 911 call in 2020. The 20-year-old, who had cerebral palsy, was eventually rushed to a hospital and died two months later.
“We recognize that no resolution can undo the profound tragedy that occurred on August 23, 2020, or ease the pain experienced by Ms. Beauchamp’s family,” Southfield said in a statement. “This case involved extraordinarily difficult circumstances that arose in the complex world of a global pandemic.”
Beauchamp was struggling to breathe when her family called 911. A medical crew tried to resuscitate her and also consulted a doctor, who declared her dead over the phone without going to the home.
Later that day, a funeral home opened the body bag and found Beauchamp gasping for air. She was swiftly taken to a hospital but never recovered.
“She was put in a situation she never should have been in,” Steven Hurbis, an attorney for Beauchamp’s family, said Tuesday.
Medical professionals, he added, said Beauchamp would have survived if she had been taken immediately to a hospital from her home.
Southfield fought the lawsuit and persuaded a judge to dismiss it based on governmental immunity. The Michigan Court of Appeals, however, overturned that decision in 2024.
The Southfield fire chief had said Beauchamp’s situation might have been a case of “Lazarus syndrome,” a reference to people who come back to life without assistance after attempts to resuscitate have failed.
Connecticut
Police chief retires after theft allegations
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — New Haven’s police chief abruptly retired following allegations he stole money from a department account, Mayor Justin Elicker announced Monday.
The Democrat said Chief Karl Jacobson admitted he took money from a city fund that compensates confidential informants for helping police solve crimes.
He said the chief acknowledged taking the funds for personal use when three of his deputies confronted him Monday morning over the financial irregularities.
Elicker called the allegations “shocking” and a “betrayal of public trust.”
“No one is above the law,” he said in an evening press conference at the police station. “We put our trust in law enforcement to uphold the law, not to violate the law themselves.”
Jacobson didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment Monday. He had served as police chief in one of Connecticut’s largest cities and home to Yale University for more than three years.
The mayor said he was set to meet with Jacobson and place him on administrative leave when the chief instead submitted his paperwork to retire, effective Monday.
Elicker said it’s unclear how much and for how long Jacobson had been taking money from the informants’ account and that it doesn’t appear others were involved. He said city officials are cooperating with state investigators looking into the matter.
Elicker said he has tapped Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli, who was among the officers to confront Jacobson over the funds, to serve as interim chief.
Jacobson took office in July 2022, just weeks after a Black man was paralyzed in the back of a police van in an incident that roiled the police department and the city.
Five officers were arrested in connection with the mistreatment of Richard “Randy” Cox, who suffered a neck injury and was left paralyzed from the chest down when the police van with no seat belts he was in braked hard to avoid an accident and sent him flying into a metal partition.
Jacobson recommended firing four of the officers, and the city’s police commissioners terminated them. The fifth officer retired before he could be disciplined. One of the fired officers won his job back after an appeal.
Jacobson had been with the department for 15 years before being named chief.
Nevada
‘Dances with Wolves’ actor disrupts court week before sex abuse trial
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nathan Chasing Horse, the former “Dances with Wolves” actor accused of sexual abuse, was temporarily thrown out of court Monday after he disrupted proceedings with demands he be allowed to fire his defense attorney a week before trial.
Judge Jessica Peterson in Las Vegas ordered his jury trial to proceed next week as planned.
Chasing Horse has pleaded not guilty to 21 charges, including allegations that he sexually assaulted women and girls and that he filmed himself sexually abusing a girl younger than 14. Prosecutors allege he used his reputation as a spiritual leader and healer to take advantage of Native American women and girls over two decades.
Peterson ordered him removed from court Monday for trying to speak over her. He argued that his attorney, Craig Mueller, did not come to visit him and did not file timely. He asked that a public defender who previously represented him be his attorney.
Mueller, a private defense attorney, told the court his client was ready and privately told the judge that one of his investigators had visited with Chasing Horse. He declined to comment to The Associated Press.
Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
After starring in the Oscar-winning film, according to prosecutors, Chasing Horse began propping himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling around North America to perform healing ceremonies. When he was arrested in 2023, he was living in a North Las Vegas house with his five wives, according to prosecutors.
The case sent shock waves across Indian Country. The original indictment was dismissed in 2024 after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled prosecutors abused the grand jury process when they provided a definition of grooming as evidence without any expert testimony. However, the court left open the possibility of charges being refiled, and a new indictment was brought later that year.
Prosecutors claim Chasing Horse led a cult called The Circle, and his followers believed he could speak with spirits. His victims went to him for medical help, according to a transcript from a grand jury hearing.
Prosecutors expect the trial to last three weeks. It is scheduled to begin Monday.
