Georgia
Authorities say teacher was killed in a prank gone wrong. A teen is charged with homicide
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — It was a prank that turned deadly, authorities said: A group of teenagers unspooled rolls of toilet paper outside the home of a beloved high school teacher who tripped in the street and was struck by a pickup truck as the pranksters started to drive away.
The 40-year-old teacher, Jason Hughes, died after being brought to a hospital late Friday, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office said. The 18-year-old driver of the pickup was arrested on a felony charge of vehicular homicide, and four other teens were charged with misdemeanors.
Hughes’ family said he knew and loved the five students involved and urged authorities to drop all charges against them.
Hughes taught math and helped coach golf, football and baseball at North Hall High School in Gainesville, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.
Students and Hughes’ fellow teachers left a makeshift memorial of flowers piled along a section of fence outside the school.
Sean Pender, the school’s football coach, said that Hughes helped players with their academics and was a also a man of deep faith who led a weekly Bible study for other coaches.
The teenagers pulled up in two vehicles outside Hughes’ home at about 11:40 p.m. Friday and began wrapping his trees with toilet paper, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. It said the teens started to leave when Hughes came out of the house.
As one of the teens began to drive away in a pickup truck, “Hughes tripped and fell into the road and was run over,” the sheriff’s office said.
After Hughes was struck, the teens stopped and tried to render aid until emergency responders arrived, according to the sheriff’s office.
Hughes’ family said he wasn’t trying to confront the teens, but rather had heard in advance about their prank and hoped to surprise them.
Authorities charged the pickup’s driver, Jayden Ryan Wallace, with first-degree vehicular homicide — a felony punishable by three to 15 years in prison under Georgia law. He was also charged with reckless driving, a misdemeanor.
Wallace’s case did not show up in online court records Monday, and it was not immediately known if he had an attorney who could speak for him.
The four other teens were charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespassing and littering on private property, the sheriff’s office said.
Decisions on whether or how to prosecute the teens ultimately lie with Hall County District Attorney Lee Darragh.
“I’m not commenting on that case presently,” Darragh told an AP reporter by phone Monday. “I don’t have enough information about it to do so.”
Oregon
Portland residents near ICE building win court order limiting agents’ tear gas use
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge in Oregon on Friday limited federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at a Portland federal immigration building, as part of a lawsuit filed by an adjacent affordable housing complex following months of repeated exposure.
U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio issued the preliminary injunction after a hearing last month in which the complex’s residents described physical and psychological symptoms ranging from difficulty breathing, coughing, burning eyes and hives to anxiety and panic attacks. Some also testified about wearing gas masks in their own homes.
The case comes amid growing concern over federal officers using aggressive crowd-control tactics, as cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration.
In her opinion, Baggio said the case was not about the rights of protesters, but rather about allegations from the residents of the Gray’s Landing apartment building that federal officers’ use of chemical munitions during protests “has been so excessive — so enveloping — that it violates Plaintiffs’ rights.”
“The Court recognizes a preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy, but this is an extraordinary case,” she wrote.
Her order restricts agents from using chemical munitions in quantities likely to reach Gray’s Landing, which is catty-corner from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, unless needed to respond to an imminent threat to life.
A federal judge in a separate Oregon lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists, previously issued a temporary restraining order limiting agents’ use of tear gas during protests at the building and is also considering whether to grant a preliminary injunction in that case.
The property manager of the apartment building and several tenants filed the suit against the federal government in December, arguing that the use of chemical munitions has violated residents’ rights to life, liberty and property by sickening them, contaminating their apartments and confining them inside.
“This decision protects basic health and safety and the right to live in one’s home without fear of chemical weapons being used by the government,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a legal nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement Friday. “Residents should not be harmed simply because they live next to a site of public protest.”
The defendants, which include ICE and the Department of Homeland Security and their respective heads, say officers have deployed crowd-control devices in response to violent protests at Portland’s ICE facility, which has been the site of demonstrations for months.
ICE and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.
The plaintiffs filed an updated request for a preliminary injunction in late January, after agents launched gas at a crowd of demonstrators including young children that local officials described as peaceful.
Of the affordable housing complex’s 237 residents, nearly a third are age 63 or older, according to court filings. Twenty percent of units are reserved for low-income veterans and 16% of tenants identify as disabled.
The government said in court filings that federal officers have at times used crowd control devices in response to crowds that are “violent, obstructive or trespassing” or do not comply with dispersal orders.
It has also pushed back against the claims of tenants’ constitutional rights being violated, saying that under such an argument, “federal and state law enforcement officers would violate the Constitution whenever they deploy airborne crowd-control devices that inadvertently drift into someone’s home or business, even if the use of such devices is otherwise entirely lawful.”
The preliminary injunction will remain in effect as the lawsuit proceeds.
Authorities say teacher was killed in a prank gone wrong. A teen is charged with homicide
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — It was a prank that turned deadly, authorities said: A group of teenagers unspooled rolls of toilet paper outside the home of a beloved high school teacher who tripped in the street and was struck by a pickup truck as the pranksters started to drive away.
The 40-year-old teacher, Jason Hughes, died after being brought to a hospital late Friday, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office said. The 18-year-old driver of the pickup was arrested on a felony charge of vehicular homicide, and four other teens were charged with misdemeanors.
Hughes’ family said he knew and loved the five students involved and urged authorities to drop all charges against them.
Hughes taught math and helped coach golf, football and baseball at North Hall High School in Gainesville, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.
Students and Hughes’ fellow teachers left a makeshift memorial of flowers piled along a section of fence outside the school.
Sean Pender, the school’s football coach, said that Hughes helped players with their academics and was a also a man of deep faith who led a weekly Bible study for other coaches.
The teenagers pulled up in two vehicles outside Hughes’ home at about 11:40 p.m. Friday and began wrapping his trees with toilet paper, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. It said the teens started to leave when Hughes came out of the house.
As one of the teens began to drive away in a pickup truck, “Hughes tripped and fell into the road and was run over,” the sheriff’s office said.
After Hughes was struck, the teens stopped and tried to render aid until emergency responders arrived, according to the sheriff’s office.
Hughes’ family said he wasn’t trying to confront the teens, but rather had heard in advance about their prank and hoped to surprise them.
Authorities charged the pickup’s driver, Jayden Ryan Wallace, with first-degree vehicular homicide — a felony punishable by three to 15 years in prison under Georgia law. He was also charged with reckless driving, a misdemeanor.
Wallace’s case did not show up in online court records Monday, and it was not immediately known if he had an attorney who could speak for him.
The four other teens were charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespassing and littering on private property, the sheriff’s office said.
Decisions on whether or how to prosecute the teens ultimately lie with Hall County District Attorney Lee Darragh.
“I’m not commenting on that case presently,” Darragh told an AP reporter by phone Monday. “I don’t have enough information about it to do so.”
Oregon
Portland residents near ICE building win court order limiting agents’ tear gas use
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge in Oregon on Friday limited federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at a Portland federal immigration building, as part of a lawsuit filed by an adjacent affordable housing complex following months of repeated exposure.
U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio issued the preliminary injunction after a hearing last month in which the complex’s residents described physical and psychological symptoms ranging from difficulty breathing, coughing, burning eyes and hives to anxiety and panic attacks. Some also testified about wearing gas masks in their own homes.
The case comes amid growing concern over federal officers using aggressive crowd-control tactics, as cities across the country have seen demonstrations against the immigration enforcement surge spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s administration.
In her opinion, Baggio said the case was not about the rights of protesters, but rather about allegations from the residents of the Gray’s Landing apartment building that federal officers’ use of chemical munitions during protests “has been so excessive — so enveloping — that it violates Plaintiffs’ rights.”
“The Court recognizes a preliminary injunction is an extraordinary remedy, but this is an extraordinary case,” she wrote.
Her order restricts agents from using chemical munitions in quantities likely to reach Gray’s Landing, which is catty-corner from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, unless needed to respond to an imminent threat to life.
A federal judge in a separate Oregon lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Oregon on behalf of protesters and freelance journalists, previously issued a temporary restraining order limiting agents’ use of tear gas during protests at the building and is also considering whether to grant a preliminary injunction in that case.
The property manager of the apartment building and several tenants filed the suit against the federal government in December, arguing that the use of chemical munitions has violated residents’ rights to life, liberty and property by sickening them, contaminating their apartments and confining them inside.
“This decision protects basic health and safety and the right to live in one’s home without fear of chemical weapons being used by the government,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, a legal nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement Friday. “Residents should not be harmed simply because they live next to a site of public protest.”
The defendants, which include ICE and the Department of Homeland Security and their respective heads, say officers have deployed crowd-control devices in response to violent protests at Portland’s ICE facility, which has been the site of demonstrations for months.
ICE and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.
The plaintiffs filed an updated request for a preliminary injunction in late January, after agents launched gas at a crowd of demonstrators including young children that local officials described as peaceful.
Of the affordable housing complex’s 237 residents, nearly a third are age 63 or older, according to court filings. Twenty percent of units are reserved for low-income veterans and 16% of tenants identify as disabled.
The government said in court filings that federal officers have at times used crowd control devices in response to crowds that are “violent, obstructive or trespassing” or do not comply with dispersal orders.
It has also pushed back against the claims of tenants’ constitutional rights being violated, saying that under such an argument, “federal and state law enforcement officers would violate the Constitution whenever they deploy airborne crowd-control devices that inadvertently drift into someone’s home or business, even if the use of such devices is otherwise entirely lawful.”
The preliminary injunction will remain in effect as the lawsuit proceeds.
