National Roundup . . .

Colorado
Aborted fetus could be evidence in rape case
DENVER (AP) — Authorities say an unusual piece of evidence may come into play if a Denver rape case goes to trial: A fetus collected by investigators after the 13-year-old victim had an abortion.

KUSA-TV reports that 30-year-old Gabino Otero-Labra faces two counts of sexual assault on a child stemming from the March 2010 attack. Court records don’t list his attorney.

The girl had an abortion, and Denver detectives obtained the fetus from the clinic for testing.

District Attorney Mitch Morrissey says a fetus could be important evidence, because it potentially contains DNA from both the victim and the suspect.

It’s unclear how often prosecutors use fetal tissue in rape cases. Investigators obtained fetal tissue in a different Denver case, but that suspect was acquitted after questions arose about the victim’s age.

Pennsylvania
Recruit who sued over bias faces abuse charge
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Pittsburgh police recruit who sued the city claiming its hiring practices discriminated against blacks is on unpaid leave after he was charged with bruising his 6-year-old son during a spanking.

Court records don’t list an attorney for 35-year-old James Foster, who is charged with simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child for the incident on Dec. 1.

Foster was one of five blacks who sued in 2012 with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, claiming the hiring practices resulted in fewer than 4 percent of recruits being black in a city whose population is 26 percent black.

The city paid nearly $1.6 million to settle the lawsuit earlier this year, but denied intentional bias. Screening changes resulted in a recruiting class — including Foster — that was 25 percent black.

Connecticut
Newtown families split $1.5M from gunman’s mother
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — The families of more than a dozen victims of the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, will split $1.5 million under settlements of lawsuits filed against the gunman’s mother’s estate.

A lawyer for several victims’ families says the settlements were finalized Dec. 17 in documents filed in Bridgeport Superior Court.

The lawsuits said Nancy Lanza failed to properly secure her legally owned Bushmaster AR-15 rifle. Her son, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, used the rifle to kill 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. He killed his mother before the school shooting and killed himself afterward.

The families of 16 people who were killed will split $1.5 million from Nancy Lanza’s homeowner’s insurance.

Victims’ families also are suing the maker of the Bushmaster rifle.

Ohio
Comedian mayor facing civil suit and investigation
HILLSBORO, Ohio (AP) — A southwest Ohio mayor who’s also a veteran standup comedian is facing a civil lawsuit and an investigation into possible criminal charges.

The Times-Gazette of Hillsboro reports that a civil complaint filed recently by five residents against Mayor Drew Hastings alleges misconduct involving a letter submitted to get a $500 refund of a vacant building fee.
The newspaper reports that Highland County sheriff’s deputies have seized documents, emails and other information from the city building related to a criminal probe. It reported that an affidavit filed by sheriff’s Sgt.
Randy Sanders cited information about “forgery and theft in office.”

There are also allegations that Hastings had building materials and carpet from his private properties dumped into city trash bins.

Hastings, a Republican who was handily re-elected in November to a second four-year term, has said the refund allegation is “ludicrous” and also dismissed the trash dumping allegations.

“I look forward to defending myself and refuting this,” Hastings said recently. “Let’s resolve this trash can issue.”

Hastings, 61, has appeared on Comedy Central and “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, as well as the syndicated “Bob & Tom Show” on radio. He has been credited with improving city finances, hiring more police officers and sprucing up the appearance of the city of 6,600 people about 60 miles east of Cincinnati.

Alabama
Settlement made in whistleblower lawsuit, $30M
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man who exposed a former government contractor accused of mishandling background checks for federal job applicants was awarded his share of a $30 million settlement late last week.

Blake Percival filed a whistleblower lawsuit against United States Investigations Services under the False Claims Act after he was fired in 2011. Conwell Hooper, a spokesman for Percival, said Percival’s $6 million portion of the settlement was disbursed Friday.

Percival’s lawsuit said USIS managers were ordering employees to send the Office of Personnel Management files on job applicants that were incomplete or that hadn’t been reviewed at all, a practice that employees called “dumping.” USIS field investigators were pressured to meet quotas and make deadlines so the company could continue collecting maximum payments from the U.S. government, the lawsuit said.
Percival refused managers’ orders to submit files that hadn’t been thoroughly reviewed and asked employees to work overtime to complete them. Percival was fired in June 2011 after being promoted in January of that year. Percival was the company’s director of fieldwork services and had been in other leadership positions in Birmingham and Montgomery before then.

The lawsuit said the OPM was the company’s main client and USIS sent federal officials at least 665,000 personnel files that had been marked as complete between March 2008 and September 2012. The U.S.
Department of Justice intervened in the lawsuit in October 2013.

Department of Justice officials said in an August news release that USIS did background checks for OPM between 1996 and September 2014. The company was responsible for reviewing the backgrounds of classified data leaker Edward Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis.

Incomplete files were submitted for candidates seeking jobs with numerous federal agencies including the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services and others, according to the lawsuit.

Altegrity, the parent company of USIS, filed for bankruptcy in February and federal officials said company officials agreed to forgo their right to collect $30 million in outstanding payments to settle the lawsuit.