Category Archives: US justice system

Tyrese Gibson sues Home Depot for $1m over alleged racial discrimination

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Fast & Furious actor claims staffers at hardware store discriminated against him and two of his workers

The US actor and singer Tyrese Gibson is demanding more than $1m from Home Depot after he says staffers at one of the American hardware giant’s stores racially discriminated against him and two of his workers.

Gibson’s lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday, recounts how he and two men who regularly provide construction services for the Fast & Furious actor went to a Home Depot in West Hills, California, on 11 February to buy some materials for a building project at the entertainer’s home.

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Trump requests to review classified documents at Mar-a-Lago ahead of trial

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Trump’s lawyers asked for a secure facility to be reinstalled at the same Mar-a-Lago club where he hoarded classified documents

Lawyers for Donald Trump asked a federal judge on Wednesday to approve the re-establishment of an ultra-secure facility at his Mar-a-Lago club to review classified documents produced to him in discovery, an audacious request without precedent in national security cases.

The request essentially would give Trump the freedom to discuss and review the same classified documents he has been charged with illegally retaining in the same location where the alleged crimes took place.

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Former Taliban prisoner Bowe Bergdahl’s desertion conviction vacated

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A federal judge ruled that the military judge in former US soldier’s trial failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest

A US judge has vacated the military conviction of Bowe Bergdahl, a former army soldier who pleaded guilty to desertion after he left his post and was captured in Afghanistan and tortured by the Taliban.

The ruling from federal district judge Reggie Walton in Washington says that military judge Jeffrey Nance, who presided over the court-martial, failed to disclose that he had applied to the executive branch for a job as an immigration judge, creating a potential conflict of interest.

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Key judge orders leak inquiry over New Orleans archdiocese cover-up report

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Inquiry ordered following Guardian investigation into retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation

A high-ranking federal official has ordered an investigation after the Guardian exposed how New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese went to extreme lengths to conceal a retired priest who confessed decades ago to child molestation, is still living and has never been prosecuted.

Yet the investigation recently ordered by federal judge Jane Triche Milazzo is not designed to aid efforts to criminally charge the cleric or hold the church administrators who hid his past accountable. Instead, the inquiry is aimed at determining whether anyone violated broad confidentiality rules governing the New Orleans archdiocese’s pending bankruptcy protection filing and related litigation before the Guardian’s report on 91-year-old Lawrence Hecker was published on 20 June.

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Catholic chaplain who sexually abused Louisiana students jailed for five years

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Patrick Wattigny, former high school chaplain who resigned in 2020, pleads guilty to molesting two minors at school

The former chaplain of a Roman Catholic high school in Louisiana has pleaded guilty to molesting two minors whom he met through his work and was ordered to spend five years in prison.

Patrick Wattigny’s plea and sentence on Wednesday came after both of his victims strongly advocated for a harsher punishment. One victim, who was present, described how Wattigny spent time grooming him in the mid-1990s. The victim said Wattigny told him he could help him gain entry to heaven, then took him to a rectory to fondle his genitals. Wattigny also used his fingers to rape the victim while masturbating.

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California governor says he won’t contest parole ruling of Manson follower Leslie Van Houten

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The Charles Manson follower could be free in about two weeks, after spending more than 50 years in prison for two murders

Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten could be freed in about two weeks after California governor Gavin Newsom announced he will not ask the state supreme court to reverse her parole. The move paves the way for Van Houten’s release after spending more than 50 years in a southern California prison for two murders in 1969.

The governor’s office said an appeal against a parole ruling by a California appeals court was unlikely – the court only accepts reviews in about 3% of cases petitioned – to succeed and that Newsom was disappointed. The governor had previously rejected parole for Van Houten but on 30 May an appellate court overturned that decision.

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US ‘mom influencer’ guilty of falsely accusing Latino couple of trying to kidnap her children

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Kathleen Sorensen, of California, sentenced to three months in prison for knowingly making false report of crime

A white California woman who styled herself on social media as a “mom influencer” has been ordered to spend three months in prison for falsely accusing a Latino couple of attempting to kidnap her children.

State jurors in Sonoma county found 30-year-old Kathleen “Katie” Sorensen guilty in April of knowingly making a false report of a crime in a case that involved her publishing a December 2020 social media post that asserted a man and a woman had tried to steal her two children from her in the parking lot of a Michaels craft store about 40 miles outside San Francisco.

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Arizona man freed after nearly three decades on death row

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Barry Jones pleads guilty to lesser charge in deal to overturn his conviction for murder of four-year-old girl in 1994

An Arizona man who spent nearly three decades on death row before the reversal of his conviction over the death of a four-year-old girl has been freed from prison.

Barry Jones’s release, ordered on Thursday, came after a Tuscon-area state court judge approved a deal between prosecutors and him which involved his pleading guilty to a lesser murder charge. According to prosecutors, a medical review of the case failed to conclude that Jones caused the girl’s fatal injury, and his pleading guilty to second-degree murder involves his failure to adequately seek emergency care for the victim.

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Missouri man executed for killing two jailers in failed escape plot

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Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection for killing Leon Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph county jail in 2000

A man who shot and killed two rural Missouri jailers nearly 23 years ago during a failed attempt to help an inmate escape was executed on Tuesday evening.

Michael Tisius, 42, received a lethal injection of pentobarbital at the state prison in Bonne Terre and was pronounced dead at 6.10 pm . He was convicted of the 22 June 2000 killing of Leon Egley and Jason Acton at the small Randolph county jail.

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Trump hush money trial set for March 2024 during Republican primaries

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Video hearing follows news that E Jean Carroll seeks new damages over ex-president’s comments in CNN town hall

Donald Trump’s trial in New York on criminal charges over hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels will begin on 25 March 2024, amid the Republican presidential primary and less than than eight months before the general election the former president hopes to contest.

The trial date was announced in a hearing in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, Trump attending by video link from his Florida home.

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Parents of US man killed by police during mental health crisis to get $19m

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Killing of Christian Glass, 22, in Colorado last year prompted calls to reform how authorities respond to people in crisis

The parents of a 22-year-old Colorado man in a mental health crisis killed by police are to receive $19m from government state and local agencies while prompting changes to how officers are trained under a settlement announced on Tuesday.

The shooting of Christian Glass by the Clear Creek county sheriff’s office after Glass’s SUV became stuck in the mountain town of Silver Plume last year drew national attention and prompted calls to reform how authorities respond to people with mental health problems.

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Minneapolis to pay $700,000 to family of man killed by police

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Chiasher Vue’s kids wanted to calm their mentally ill father, but police detained them in vehicle and killed him as he pointed a gun

The city of Minneapolis has agreed to a $700,000 settlement with family members who were locked inside two squad cars when police killed their father after officers refused their offers to try and help calm him down.

A federal judge ruled that officers were justified in shooting 52-year-old Chiasher Vue after he pointed a rifle at them on 15 December 2019. The settlement will resolve a lawsuit his family filed arguing that police had illegally and unconstitutionally detained them that night.

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Oklahoma plans new sex offender laws after rapist killed six people before trial

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Scott Fetgatter proposes legislation aimed at halting early release of certain sex offenders after mass killing

An Oklahoma state lawmaker is planning to introduce new legislation aimed at halting the early release of certain sex offenders after a convicted rapist killed six people – including five children – at his home the night before he faced another criminal trial.

The proposal from state representative Scott Fetgatter would come after the killings in his district by 39-year-old Jesse McFadden, who authorities say murdered his wife, her three children and two of their friends before he died by suicide and their bodies were discovered on Monday.

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Elizabeth Holmes to begin 11-year prison sentence at end of month

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Federal judge denies Theranos founder’s request to remain free while she appeals her conviction of fraud and conspiracy

Elizabeth Holmes must begin her more than 11-year prison sentence on 27 April after a federal judge denied the disgraced Theranos founder’s request to remain free while she appeals her conviction.

Holmes, who was convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy related to the failed blood-testing startup in January 2022, is “not likely to flee or pose a danger” to the public, US district court judge Edward Davila wrote in his ruling. However, the San Jose-based judge found that her appeal was unlikely to result in a reversal of the verdict or a new trial – a requirement for a defendant to remain free post-conviction.

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‘A truly incredible amount of money’: millions ride on one US judicial election

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The race for a place on Wisconsin’s supreme court could have major implications for abortion, democracy and the 2024 election

More than $37m has already been spent in an election that will this month determine control of Wisconsin’s supreme court, easily making it the most expensive judicial contest in US history.

Spending in the race easily shatters the $10m spent in the 2020 Wisconsin supreme court race, the previous record in the state. It also easily surpasses the previous national record, $15m spent on an Illinois supreme court race in 2004. The race has national implications – it will probably ultimately determine the legality of abortion in the state as well as play a key role in setting voting rules for the 2024 election in one of America’s most competitive states.

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Police stopped a Black couple in Tennessee – and took their children

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Bianca Clayborne and Deonte Williams’ case fits pattern of child welfare services fueling disparities in who gets to remain a family

Nearly a month ago, Bianca Clayborne, Deonte Williams, and their five children were on their way from Georgia to Chicago for Clayborne’s uncle’s funeral when a highway patrol officer stopped them in Manchester, Tennessee.

That moment – about 60 miles outside Nashville – has since upended their lives as Clayborne and Williams try to regain custody of their children after they say state authorities “kidnapped” them on account of a minuscule amount of marijuana in the car, the Tennessee Lookout first reported.

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Ransomware attack on US Marshals compromises sensitive information

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Federal agency best known for tracking down fugitives suffered security breach on 17 February

The US Marshals service fell victim to a ransomware security breach this month that compromised sensitive law enforcement information, a spokesperson said on Monday.

The federal agency which is perhaps best known for its work in tracking down and capturing fugitives wanted by law enforcement notified the US government of the breach, and agents there began a forensic investigation, the chief of the Marshals’ public affairs office, Drew Wade, told Reuters in a statement.

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‘I would never give up’: how a Missouri man was exonerated after decades in prison

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Lamar Johnson’s long fight to prove his innocence paid off and helped change state law: ‘I can’t say I knew it would happen’

As he languished in a Missouri prison for nearly three decades, Lamar Johnson never stopped fighting to prove his innocence, even when it meant doing much of the legal work himself.

This week, a St Louis judge overturned Johnson’s murder conviction and ordered him freed. Johnson closed his eyes and shook his head, overcome with emotion. Shouts of joy rang out from the packed courtroom, and several people – relatives, civil rights activists and others – stood to cheer. Johnson’s lawyers hugged each other and him.

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Missouri man freed after serving nearly three decades in prison for 1994 murder

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Lamar Johnson, convicted to life for the killing, was released after judge found ‘reliable evidence of actual innocence’

A Missouri judge on Tuesday overturned the conviction of a man who has served nearly 28 years of a life sentence for a killing that he has always said he didn’t commit.

Lamar Johnson, 50, closed his eyes and shook his head slightly as a member of his legal team patted him on the back when Judge David Mason issued his ruling. In coming to his decision, Mason explained that there had to be “reliable evidence of actual innocence – evidence so reliable that it actually passes the standard of clear and convincing”.

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Emmett Till relative’s lawsuit seeks to serve white woman’s arrest warrant

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Cousin of murdered Black teenager tries to compel sheriff to enforce 1955 warrant against Carolyn Bryant Donham, now 89

A relative of Emmett Till has filed a lawsuit seeking the arrest of the white woman whose allegations resulted in the 14-year-old Black boy’s kidnapping, torture and murder nearly 70 years ago.

Earlier this week, Till’s cousin, Patricia Sterling, filed a federal lawsuit against Ricky Banks, the sheriff in Leflore county, Mississippi, seeking to compel the elected official to serve a 1955 arrest warrant against Carolyn Bryant Donham, who was then identified as “Mrs Roy Bryant” on the document.

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