Louisiana
No federal charges in police custody death
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - No federal charges will be filed against officials with a Louisiana sheriff's office in the death of a man who was fatally shot while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.
The coroner in Iberia Parish, a coastal parish south of Lafayette, had already ruled that Victor White shot himself on the evening of March 2, 2014, despite being handcuffed behind his back while sitting in the car after a drug arrest.
Tuesday's Justice Department news release stopped short of conclusively stating that White shot himself, but it noted the coroner's ruling and independent experts' conclusions that White's fatal wound was self-inflicted.
"After a careful and thorough review of the evidence, federal prosecutors and FBI agents have determined that the evidence here is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that any officer fired a weapon at Mr. White," the statement said.
The statement also noted expert opinions that the gun was close to the body when fired. It said gunshot residue was found on White's hands. And it said video showed that White had, earlier in the evening, reached his cuffed hands around to his front pants pocket. The fatal shot entered the right side of White's chest.
A spokesman for Sheriff Louis Ackal did not immediately respond to telephone calls and emails seeking comment. It remains unclear how White gained access to the .25-caliber handgun with which authorities believe he killed himself.
State police have not yet released the results of their investigation into the shooting.
California
Hundreds of suits against VW to be consolidated
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A judicial panel on Tuesday decided to consolidate hundreds of lawsuits against Volkswagen over its emissions cheating scandal in California, a focal point of the carmaker's troubles.
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation gave U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer in San Francisco oversight of more than 450 suits filed against the carmaker across the nation.
The panel met last week in New Orleans to hear from numerous lawyers who were seeking to get the suits consolidated in a particular federal district. Volkswagen and the federal government asked the panel to centralize the suits in Michigan.
Instead, the panel said it makes more sense to turn California into the center of the legal wrangling, in part because there are so many VW owners and dealers there.
Lawyers for VW and the Justice Department did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
VW has admitted that 482,000 2-liter diesel vehicles in the U.S. contained software that turned pollution controls on during government tests and off during real-world driving. The government says another 85,000 6-cylinder diesels also had cheating software.
VW says the software in the 6-cylinder diesels is different and is legal in Europe, but it has halted sales of those vehicles in the U.S. while it explains its case to the government.
In Tuesday's ruling, the panel said no party in the litigation opposed centralization.
In choosing California, the panel said the state is where the "most affected vehicles and dealers" are located. The ruling also noted that the California Air Resources Board "played an important initial role in investigating and, ultimately, revealing VW's use of the defeat devices."
The panel also noted that the first federal suit against VW was filed in California; altogether, 101 cases have been filed there.
The panel said Breyer is "thoroughly familiar with the nuances of complex, multidistrict litigation," having handled nine other such cases, including some involving international defendants.
"We are confident that Judge Breyer will steer this controversy on a prudent and expeditious course," the panel ruled.
The judicial panel's job is to determine whether lawsuits in different federal districts should be amassed under one court to prevent duplication and inconsistent rulings and to make it easier for lawyers.
The panel holds hearings in different locations around the nation. It happened to be in New Orleans last week when the VW cases came up.
North Carolina
Suit challenges gay marriage law for magistrates
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges North Carolina's law allowing magistrates to refuse to perform gay marriages based on their religious beliefs, arguing that it violates equality and church-state provisions in the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit, filed by three couples, seeks to overturn the law, which was pushed by Republicans in the state legislature and passed in June over the veto of GOP Gov. Pat McCrory. Under the law, local magistrates, who can preside over marriages, and some register of deeds officials, who issue licenses, can opt out of performing marriages if they have a "sincerely held religious objection."
Only North Carolina and Utah provide religious-objection options for court officials.
In North Carolina, any official's decision to opt out applies to all marriages - same-sex and heterosexual - for at least six months. About 5 percent of the state's roughly 670 magistrates had filed recusal paperwork as of September, according to the state court system.
The lawsuit focuses primarily on the magistrate exception, arguing that it treats gay and lesbian couples differently, in violation of the equal-protection provision in the Constitution. The lawsuit also puts religious belief above the obligations of magistrates to carry out laws they swore to uphold, critics say.
The law "does not represent the values of inclusion on which North Carolina was built," Chris Sgro, executive director of gay-rights group Equality North Carolina, said in a news release. "It targets same-sex couples directly for discrimination and in the process also restricts access to taxpayer-funded government services for all North Carolinians."
Backers of the law say that it protects religious freedom and that government employees should be allowed religious accommodation if marrying same-sex couples runs counter to their beliefs.
The law, pushed by Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, was filed when several magistrates resigned shortly after federal judges in October 2014 struck down North Carolina's 2012 constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. The state's top court administrator said at the time that magistrates who declined to officiate for same-sex couples could be fired or face criminal charges.
The plaintiffs include two same-sex couples. One of them, Kay Ansley and Cathy McGaughey, helped overturn in court North Carolina's 2012 constitutional ban. The third couple, a white woman and black man, successfully sued in the mid-1970s when Forsyth County magistrates refused to marry them on religious grounds, according to the lawsuit.
Published: Thu, Dec 10, 2015
