National Roundup

Texas
Pastor who accused Whole Foods of slur on cake drops suit
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A gay Texas pastor who sued Whole Foods after he bought a cake that he alleged had a slur written on it in icing has dropped his lawsuit against the grocer.

Jordan Brown of Austin dropped the suit and issued an apology on Monday. Brown said he was “wrong to pursue this matter and use the media to perpetuate this story.”

Whole Foods vigorously denied the allegation when Brown first came forward in April. The Austin American Statesman reports the company released surveillance video that it said showed Brown was lying and filed a counter suit against him.
The company said in a statement Monday that given Brown’s apology and public admission his story was false, it sees “no reason” to move forward with its lawsuit.

New York
New $60 million project to fight for First Amendment
NEW YORK (AP) — The First Amendment is getting a new champion, with some deep pockets.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Columbia University on Tuesday announced the launch of a $60 million project, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which would use litigation as well as research and education to fight for freedom of expression in an ever-evolving digital era.

The last half of the 20th century saw court cases that really defined and pushed the First Amendment forward, said Alberto Ibarguen, president of Knight Foundation. But it’s not the same environment, with the technology and tools of information gathering and dissemination changing rapidly, and there not being nearly the same number of newspaper outlets with the resources to take on the fights.

That’s where the institute can make a difference, Ibarguen said.

“So much is changing so fast that more voices, a bigger family of voices speaking in favor of free speech and free expression ... is more likely to lead to a more open societal attitude toward free speech,” he said.

The amendment bars the government from establishing an official religion and enshrines Americans’ rights to freedom to practice religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom to assemble peaceably.

The institute, which has started its search for an executive director, will conduct research and scholarship on First Amendment issues, and develop a long-term view of how freedom of expression should be protected, said Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia. It would take on and support court cases that connected to that strategy.

Bollinger said the institute would be able to make use of a Columbia-wide commitment, with access to the university’s law school and journalism schools and other departments. The Knight Foundation and Columbia are each putting $5 million toward the institute’s operating budget for the first five years, and $25 million each toward its endowment.

The focus would be on how freedom of expression is defined in a digital age filled with advances in technology that judges who decided cases decades ago couldn’t have seen coming, said Eric Newton, a consultant who was formerly a longtime journalism program leader at Knight and worked on the institute project.

“A citizen who can carry a cellphone, which is a printing press and a broadcast studio, in his or her pocket has legal standing that courts have yet to sort out,” he said, pointing out that whether that citizen has journalist protections currently varies from state to state.

“If everything gets re-litigated in a digital frame, that means that the First Amendment as we come to know it could change, and it could change dramatically,” he said. “It’s only the way it is because of some court cases that happened decades ago.”

Florida
Lawyer wants some charges dropped in  heists
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — An attorney for a woman accused in a string of armed jewelry store robberies across the South says some of the charges against her should be dismissed because they don’t qualify as a “crime of violence.”
In a motion filed over the weekend, attorney Michelle Daffin argues that forcing clerks at gunpoint to be bound in a back room is not violent by definition. She cites a U.S. Supreme Court case known as the “Hobbs Act.”

The News Herald reports 24-year-old Abigail Kemp and three men are accused in the robberies of stores in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

The FBI says Kemp and 35-year-old Lewis Jones III stole an estimated $4.3 million in jewelry. Two other men are accused of providing security for the crimes.

Pennsylvania
Tentative trial date set for teen in school stabbing
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A tentative trial date is set for a young man who was 16 years old when he stabbed 20 fellow students and a security guard at his Pennsylvania high school apparently in remembrance of the Columbine massacre.

According to court documents, the trial for Alex Hribal (RY’-buhl) is scheduled for June 20 and a status hearing is planned for early next month.

The 18-old-year Murrysville man is charged as an adult with 21 counts each of attempted homicide and aggravated assault in the April 2014 stabbing rampage at Franklin Regional High School, about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh.

No students died. Four were critically hurt.

Defense attorney Patrick Thomassey has acknowledged that Hribal stabbed the other students using two kitchen knives. Thomassey couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Hribal is being held without bail.

California
2 deputies convicted of jail beating, cover-up
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal jury in Los Angeles has found two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies guilty of beating a jail inmate and falsifying records to hide it.

The deputies were among the latest to be convicted of the more than 20 current or former sheriff’s employees charged in connection with a probe of corruption and abuse in the Sheriff’s Department.

The jury on Monday found Jason Branum and Bryan Brunsting guilty of three charges apiece including conspiracy to violate civil rights. They could get up to 40 years in prison.

Prosecutors say the men beat the inmate because he showed them disrespect in front of a trainee.

Former Sheriff Lee Baca pleaded guilty in February to lying to federal investigators during the broad investigation into the jail system. He’s awaiting sentencing.