Illinois
ACLU: Chicago police monitoring protest groups 'unsettling'
CHICAGO (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois says reports of Chicago police monitoring peaceful protest groups is "unsettling" and is calling for City Council hearings.
The group issued a Sunday statement responding to a Chicago Sun-Times report, which outlined seven investigations by police since 2009 to monitor groups exercising free-speech rights.
Emails released by the city in the wake of the 2014 fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald showed officials watched actions of protesters closely. The black teenager was shot by a white officer 16 times.
The Sun-Times reports the department's top attorney approved 2015 plans to send undercover officers to monitor meetings, including those held by Black Lives Matter activists, churches and philanthropic organizations.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says the investigations were to ensure safety. He says while the department was approved to send undercover officers, it sent plainclothes officers.
North Carolina
Man convicted of killing Jordan's dad seeks hearing
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Attorneys for the man convicted of killing Michael Jordan's father in North Carolina in 1993 and dumping his body in South Carolina say they have new evidence to bolster their request for a new trial.
The Charlotte Observer reports that court documents claim misleading testimony and misconduct by the prosecutor and jury helped wrongfully convict Daniel Green of murder. His attorneys have long argued that Green helped get rid of James Jordan's body but didn't participate in the carjacking.
They're seeking a hearing on their evidence.
Green and his friend Larry Demery were convicted 20 years ago of killing 56-year-old Jordan along U.S. 74 near Lumberton. Both were sentenced to life in prison.
A jury found Green fired the fatal shot. The verdict has been upheld on several appeals.
California
Schwarzenegger ally's son freed from state prison
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - The son of a former California state Assembly speaker has been freed from prison after his manslaughter sentence was dramatically reduced in 2011 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, prison officials said Sunday.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Esteban Nunez, now 27, will live in Sacramento County on parole supervision for three years.
Nunez entered prison in June 2010 to serve a 16-year sentence in the stabbing death of college student Luis Santos in San Diego.
On his last day in office in 2011, Schwarzenegger commuted the sentence to seven years. Nunez is the son of Fabian Nunez, who was speaker of the state Assembly and a political ally while Schwarzenegger was governor.
Esteban Nunez received credit for good behavior, and was ultimately released after serving less than six years.
"Our son has paid his debt to society. ... He is committed to continuing the work of healing, self-reflection and spiritual growth," the Nunez family said in a statement released Friday.
Santos' mother had anticipated Estaban Nunez's early release, and she steadfastly believes a high-level political favor is sending him home.
"It makes you sick that something like this can happen, and you have no power," Kathy Santos told the Los Angeles Times, adding she doesn't believe the young man has reformed.
The Santos family sued to overturn the shortened sentence, but without success.
In 2012, a Sacramento judge called the commutation "repugnant" but legal. In 2015, an appeals court wrote that "back-room dealings were apparent," but upheld Schwarzenegger's power to reduce the sentence.
Schwarzenegger said at the time that he acted because he thought the 16-year sentence was excessive, but he also acknowledged he was helping a friend.
Nevada
8 years later, flood victims win $18.1M settlement
FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) - Eight years, dozens of lawyers and hundreds of thousands of documents later, more than 200 northern Nevada flood victims are finally going to be paid for damages suffered when a century-old irrigation canal burst and sent a wall of water into their homes in 2008.
No one was killed or seriously injured but 590 homes in Fernley were flooded when water burst through a 50-foot breach in the canal's earthen embankment Jan. 5, 2008.
A 2-foot-tall wave swamped the neighborhood and water collected 8 feet deep in some parts of the rural town 30 miles east of Reno. More than a dozen residents were rescued from rooftops by helicopter, while others were taken to safety by boats.
Judy Kroshus, lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit the local irrigation district recently agreed to settle for $18.1 million, and her 2-year-old grandchild were stranded by water "up to our windshield" before her son waded several blocks to rescue them.
"We were lucky to get out," she said.
The aging, 31-mile canal is a key component of the nation's first federal reclamation project, started in 1903. It's owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation but managed by the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID). The bureau concluded within two months of the breach that burrowing rodents had weakened the canal, causing it to fail.
In July 2012, a federal jury returned a verdict during the liability phase of the trial finding the district's history of negligence in maintaining the canal was primarily to blame. Soon after, the district agreed to a $10 million settlement, but then backed out.
The damages phase of the trial was scheduled to resume two months ago, but the district agreed to the new settlement terms after its members voted in February to raise money to finance the damage award by selling off some water rights to the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. Judge Lloyd George approved the deal March 31.
"The settlement finally brings closure to those who were harmed through no fault of their own," said Patrick Leverty, lead co-counsel for the plaintiffs.
Kroshus, who's the director of a tribal health service resource center in Fernley, said she had to short-sell her flood-damaged home and bought a new one just a year ago. "It's not in the flood area," she said.
A similar rupture in the same vicinity flooded 60 homes in December 1996.
The $18.1 million settlement includes about $7.8 million in attorney fees and expenses.
Leverty said no one in the class objected to that part of the deal.
Published: Tue, Apr 12, 2016
