Texas
Judge orders immigration officials to release witness in ICE shooting
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered U.S. immigration authorities to release a key witness in the fatal shooting of a Mexican homebuilder by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ordered the release of Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego from ICE custody within 48 hours, after the judge previously blocked his deportation. Ellison agreed with Rojas Pliego’s argument that his detention violates his Fifth Amendment due process rights.
Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an attorney for Rojas Pliego, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rojas Pliego was one of three passengers in a van driven by Lorenzo Araujo Salgado when Araujo Salgado was shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop. All three passengers were taken into ICE custody.
The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the July 7 shooting that Salgado Araujo had “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” and that the officer had fired in self-defense. But Rojas Pliego and another passenger wrote in statements submitted in court that the officers were to the sides of their van, never in front or behind it. Rojas Pliego described the government’s account as “a lie.”
Araujo Salgado, a 52-year-old father of three, had been living in the U.S. for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status, according to his family. He had no known criminal record. His killing, one of at least 10 during immigration enforcement operations since the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, sparked widespread protests in Houston and calls for an independent investigation.
Rojas Pliego also had entered the U.S. decades ago and had not gained legal status, according to his stepdaughter, Griselda Silva.
He has a pending application for a U-Visa, a special legal status for victims of certain crimes who have suffered physical or mental abuse and assisted law enforcement, according to the judge’s order. If granted, he would receive a four-year work permit, protection from deportation and a path to a green card.
If immigration agents seek to detain Rojas Pliego again, they’re required to notify him and hold a pre-detention hearing, the judge wrote.
New York
Judge dismisses lawsuit over makeup of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission
A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit Monday from an interfaith group that challenged the legitimacy of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, dismissing claims that its overwhelmingly conservative Christian makeup lacked a legally required balance of viewpoints.
Judge John P. Cronan said that although a federal law requires that advisory commissions have a balance of viewpoints, it didn’t specify how this should be done. The New York judge said Trump has wide discretion in picking members.
The lawsuit was filed by several plaintiffs, including the progressive Interfaith Alliance as well as Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups. They argued that the commission was imbalanced because it consisted almost entirely of conservative Christians, along with one Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and that several commissioners were on record questioning church-state separation and supporting the idea of America as a Judeo-Christian country.
Critics of the the commission said such fears were borne out when it issued a draft report in June that challenged the understanding of a separation of church and state in recent generations, calling instead for “bridges” between the two.
But Cronan said the lawsuit, which sought a more ideologically and religious diverse commission, failed to meet legal criteria to proceed.
He also wrote that the commission is diverse in other ways, such as including both clergy and lay people. And he said the commission has “adherents of at least five different religions” — by citing the one Jewish member and then members of various Christian denominations and identities.
The Interfaith Alliance argued that the commission lacked balance because members believed “the law should protect the exercise of religious beliefs over the civil rights of minority groups.” But Cronan wrote that because Trump’s executive order creating the commission rejected the idea of “religious liberty as inconsistent with civil rights,” he wasn’t obligated to appoint someone who disagreed with that founding premise.
The Interfaith Alliance has been vocal in criticizing the commission, saying its recent draft report failed to address crucial issues such as anti-Muslim attacks and saying it supports policies privileging some religious groups over others.
“Today’s dismissal wrongly ignored that the Commission privileges one narrow religious and ideological view,” the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement. “Interfaith Alliance and our multifaith partners will keep standing up to Christian nationalism wherever it threatens our democracy. Our fight for true religious freedom continues.”
New York
Weill Cornell Medicine deal to boost sexual abuse prevention ends criminal investigation
NEW YORK (AP) — In a deal that ends a criminal investigation, a prestigious New York City medical institution agreed to boost its sexual abuse prevention program after one of its star doctors was convicted of abusing patients during a decade-long span and was sentenced to life behind bars, authorities said Monday.
Weill Cornell Medicine, whose faculty treats patients at several New York-area hospitals, reached a voluntary compliance agreement with the federal government that calls for it to spend $30 million to create the Institute for Safe Patient Care and Patient Empowerment.
Weill Cornell Medicine had previously agreed to pay victims over $1 billion to settle civil claims.
The deal comes after Darius Paduch, 59, was sentenced in 2024 to life in prison for sexually abusing patients from at least 2009 to 2019, including boys as young as 13. His victims, authorities said, suffered from certain genetic conditions, along with sexual and erectile dysfunction.
The doctor had claimed some of his methods of touching patients were medically necessary, though the indictment said they were intended for his own sexual gratification. The sentencing judge said his crimes were so horrific that it was the first time she’d ever sentenced someone to life in prison when it was not required.
In a statement, Weill Cornell Medicine called the institute “the first-of-its kind” for the early identification and prevention of sexual misconduct.
“This resolution is a significant step forward for us in addressing our former faculty member’s misconduct. Today, Weill Cornell Medicine is a safer organization,” it said.
In a release, Criminal Division Chief Amanda Houle from the Southern District of New York prosecutor’s office said Weill Cornell Medicine under the agreement will maintain an industry-leading sexual-abuse prevention program and will self-report future federal crimes involving sexual misconduct.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said the agreement sends a “strong, clear message to all healthcare institutions” that patients should never be sexually abused and that they must devote the necessary resources to build and maintain programs that detect, report and prevent sexual abuse.
Prosecutors said in the release that they determined Weill Cornell Medicine had policies and programs insufficient to detect, prevent and respond to Paduch’s widespread sexual abuse of patients.
The investigation, according to the release, determined that Paduch sexually abused many of his patients during his decade with the institution.
Weill Cornell Medicine, as part of its agreement, acknowledged that its policies and programs were insufficient and had failed to detect and adequately respond to Paduch’s behavior, prosecutors said.
New Jersey
Johnson & Johnson proposes $5.5 billion talc settlement to end remaining lawsuits
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $5.5 billion to tie up remaining lawsuits that claim its talc products caused ovarian cancer.
The drugmaker, which has been fighting talc-related lawsuits for more than a decade, said that the settlement is conditioned on at least 95% of remaining claimants participating.
A U.S. bankruptcy court judge denied a $9 billion settlement proposed by company subsidiary Red River Talc last year that would have been one of the biggest mass tort settlements in history.
Johnson & Johnson decided not to appeal that ruling and instead fight on in court.
A federal judge last week ordered plaintiffs in the case against Johnson & Johnson to show why the remaining pending talc claims should not be dismissed after their witnesses could not provide a direct link between the company’s product and cancer.
“The Court’s order placed plaintiffs in an untenable position of having to present specific causation evidence to maintain their claims that does not exist,” Erik Haas, worldwide vice president of litigation, Johnson & Johnson, said in a prepared statement Monday.
As part of the settlement proposed this week, Johnson & Johnson will make an initial payment of no more than $3 billion next year. It has no additional payments due until 2028.
“While we are confident the company would have ultimately prevailed with further litigation, as it has in the vast majority of cases tried to date, this resolution allows the company to put this matter behind it and remain focused on its mission to develop medicines and devices that save lives,” Haas said.
Johnson & Johnson said that it previously settled about 95% of filed lawsuits for mesothelioma, a cancer in the tissue surrounding organs like the lungs and heart, all state consumer protection claims, and all talc-supplier disputes.
Washington
Teen pleads guilty to gun charge for running onto Capitol grounds with loaded gun
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Georgia teenager who charged at the U.S. Capitol armed with a loaded shotgun and wearing body armor and camouflage clothing pleaded guilty on Monday to illegally carrying a firearm, court records show.
Carter Camacho, 18, of Smyrna, Georgia, told police officers who apprehended him outside the Capitol on Feb. 17 that he intended to confront members of Congress and “scare them into speaking the truth,” according to federal prosecutors. But he didn’t make it into the building, and nobody was injured.
Camacho is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C. He has remained jailed since his arrest.
Camacho pleaded guilty to two counts: illegal possession of a firearm on Capitol grounds and receipt or distribution of child pornography. The latter charge stems from a search of his phone after his arrest.
Surveillance video captured Camacho exiting a parked car and running toward the west side of the Capitol with the shotgun in his hands. He complied with Capitol Police officers’ commands to stop and get down on the ground.
Camacho told police that he purchased the shotgun for “home defense” less than a week before he drove from Georgia to the Capitol, prosecutors said. He also said he had left pepper spray and other tactical gear in his car “just in case I don’t want to shoot anyone,” according to prosecutors.
Judge orders immigration officials to release witness in ICE shooting
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered U.S. immigration authorities to release a key witness in the fatal shooting of a Mexican homebuilder by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison ordered the release of Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego from ICE custody within 48 hours, after the judge previously blocked his deportation. Ellison agreed with Rojas Pliego’s argument that his detention violates his Fifth Amendment due process rights.
Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, an attorney for Rojas Pliego, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rojas Pliego was one of three passengers in a van driven by Lorenzo Araujo Salgado when Araujo Salgado was shot by an ICE officer during a traffic stop. All three passengers were taken into ICE custody.
The Department of Homeland Security said shortly after the July 7 shooting that Salgado Araujo had “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer,” and that the officer had fired in self-defense. But Rojas Pliego and another passenger wrote in statements submitted in court that the officers were to the sides of their van, never in front or behind it. Rojas Pliego described the government’s account as “a lie.”
Araujo Salgado, a 52-year-old father of three, had been living in the U.S. for 35 years and was close to obtaining legal status, according to his family. He had no known criminal record. His killing, one of at least 10 during immigration enforcement operations since the start of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, sparked widespread protests in Houston and calls for an independent investigation.
Rojas Pliego also had entered the U.S. decades ago and had not gained legal status, according to his stepdaughter, Griselda Silva.
He has a pending application for a U-Visa, a special legal status for victims of certain crimes who have suffered physical or mental abuse and assisted law enforcement, according to the judge’s order. If granted, he would receive a four-year work permit, protection from deportation and a path to a green card.
If immigration agents seek to detain Rojas Pliego again, they’re required to notify him and hold a pre-detention hearing, the judge wrote.
New York
Judge dismisses lawsuit over makeup of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission
A federal judge tossed out a lawsuit Monday from an interfaith group that challenged the legitimacy of President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, dismissing claims that its overwhelmingly conservative Christian makeup lacked a legally required balance of viewpoints.
Judge John P. Cronan said that although a federal law requires that advisory commissions have a balance of viewpoints, it didn’t specify how this should be done. The New York judge said Trump has wide discretion in picking members.
The lawsuit was filed by several plaintiffs, including the progressive Interfaith Alliance as well as Hindu, Muslim and Sikh groups. They argued that the commission was imbalanced because it consisted almost entirely of conservative Christians, along with one Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and that several commissioners were on record questioning church-state separation and supporting the idea of America as a Judeo-Christian country.
Critics of the the commission said such fears were borne out when it issued a draft report in June that challenged the understanding of a separation of church and state in recent generations, calling instead for “bridges” between the two.
But Cronan said the lawsuit, which sought a more ideologically and religious diverse commission, failed to meet legal criteria to proceed.
He also wrote that the commission is diverse in other ways, such as including both clergy and lay people. And he said the commission has “adherents of at least five different religions” — by citing the one Jewish member and then members of various Christian denominations and identities.
The Interfaith Alliance argued that the commission lacked balance because members believed “the law should protect the exercise of religious beliefs over the civil rights of minority groups.” But Cronan wrote that because Trump’s executive order creating the commission rejected the idea of “religious liberty as inconsistent with civil rights,” he wasn’t obligated to appoint someone who disagreed with that founding premise.
The Interfaith Alliance has been vocal in criticizing the commission, saying its recent draft report failed to address crucial issues such as anti-Muslim attacks and saying it supports policies privileging some religious groups over others.
“Today’s dismissal wrongly ignored that the Commission privileges one narrow religious and ideological view,” the Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement. “Interfaith Alliance and our multifaith partners will keep standing up to Christian nationalism wherever it threatens our democracy. Our fight for true religious freedom continues.”
New York
Weill Cornell Medicine deal to boost sexual abuse prevention ends criminal investigation
NEW YORK (AP) — In a deal that ends a criminal investigation, a prestigious New York City medical institution agreed to boost its sexual abuse prevention program after one of its star doctors was convicted of abusing patients during a decade-long span and was sentenced to life behind bars, authorities said Monday.
Weill Cornell Medicine, whose faculty treats patients at several New York-area hospitals, reached a voluntary compliance agreement with the federal government that calls for it to spend $30 million to create the Institute for Safe Patient Care and Patient Empowerment.
Weill Cornell Medicine had previously agreed to pay victims over $1 billion to settle civil claims.
The deal comes after Darius Paduch, 59, was sentenced in 2024 to life in prison for sexually abusing patients from at least 2009 to 2019, including boys as young as 13. His victims, authorities said, suffered from certain genetic conditions, along with sexual and erectile dysfunction.
The doctor had claimed some of his methods of touching patients were medically necessary, though the indictment said they were intended for his own sexual gratification. The sentencing judge said his crimes were so horrific that it was the first time she’d ever sentenced someone to life in prison when it was not required.
In a statement, Weill Cornell Medicine called the institute “the first-of-its kind” for the early identification and prevention of sexual misconduct.
“This resolution is a significant step forward for us in addressing our former faculty member’s misconduct. Today, Weill Cornell Medicine is a safer organization,” it said.
In a release, Criminal Division Chief Amanda Houle from the Southern District of New York prosecutor’s office said Weill Cornell Medicine under the agreement will maintain an industry-leading sexual-abuse prevention program and will self-report future federal crimes involving sexual misconduct.
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said the agreement sends a “strong, clear message to all healthcare institutions” that patients should never be sexually abused and that they must devote the necessary resources to build and maintain programs that detect, report and prevent sexual abuse.
Prosecutors said in the release that they determined Weill Cornell Medicine had policies and programs insufficient to detect, prevent and respond to Paduch’s widespread sexual abuse of patients.
The investigation, according to the release, determined that Paduch sexually abused many of his patients during his decade with the institution.
Weill Cornell Medicine, as part of its agreement, acknowledged that its policies and programs were insufficient and had failed to detect and adequately respond to Paduch’s behavior, prosecutors said.
New Jersey
Johnson & Johnson proposes $5.5 billion talc settlement to end remaining lawsuits
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay $5.5 billion to tie up remaining lawsuits that claim its talc products caused ovarian cancer.
The drugmaker, which has been fighting talc-related lawsuits for more than a decade, said that the settlement is conditioned on at least 95% of remaining claimants participating.
A U.S. bankruptcy court judge denied a $9 billion settlement proposed by company subsidiary Red River Talc last year that would have been one of the biggest mass tort settlements in history.
Johnson & Johnson decided not to appeal that ruling and instead fight on in court.
A federal judge last week ordered plaintiffs in the case against Johnson & Johnson to show why the remaining pending talc claims should not be dismissed after their witnesses could not provide a direct link between the company’s product and cancer.
“The Court’s order placed plaintiffs in an untenable position of having to present specific causation evidence to maintain their claims that does not exist,” Erik Haas, worldwide vice president of litigation, Johnson & Johnson, said in a prepared statement Monday.
As part of the settlement proposed this week, Johnson & Johnson will make an initial payment of no more than $3 billion next year. It has no additional payments due until 2028.
“While we are confident the company would have ultimately prevailed with further litigation, as it has in the vast majority of cases tried to date, this resolution allows the company to put this matter behind it and remain focused on its mission to develop medicines and devices that save lives,” Haas said.
Johnson & Johnson said that it previously settled about 95% of filed lawsuits for mesothelioma, a cancer in the tissue surrounding organs like the lungs and heart, all state consumer protection claims, and all talc-supplier disputes.
Washington
Teen pleads guilty to gun charge for running onto Capitol grounds with loaded gun
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Georgia teenager who charged at the U.S. Capitol armed with a loaded shotgun and wearing body armor and camouflage clothing pleaded guilty on Monday to illegally carrying a firearm, court records show.
Carter Camacho, 18, of Smyrna, Georgia, told police officers who apprehended him outside the Capitol on Feb. 17 that he intended to confront members of Congress and “scare them into speaking the truth,” according to federal prosecutors. But he didn’t make it into the building, and nobody was injured.
Camacho is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C. He has remained jailed since his arrest.
Camacho pleaded guilty to two counts: illegal possession of a firearm on Capitol grounds and receipt or distribution of child pornography. The latter charge stems from a search of his phone after his arrest.
Surveillance video captured Camacho exiting a parked car and running toward the west side of the Capitol with the shotgun in his hands. He complied with Capitol Police officers’ commands to stop and get down on the ground.
Camacho told police that he purchased the shotgun for “home defense” less than a week before he drove from Georgia to the Capitol, prosecutors said. He also said he had left pepper spray and other tactical gear in his car “just in case I don’t want to shoot anyone,” according to prosecutors.
