National Roundup

California
City to pay $100K to settle pot shop raid lawsuit
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California city will pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging police harassment during a raid on a marijuana dispensary.

The city of Santa Ana will also drop misdemeanor charges against a dozen people accused of unlawfully operating Sky High Holistic, the Orange County Register reported Wednesday.

Attorney Matthew Pappas said the money will go to two Sky High volunteers and an unrelated doctor whose nearby office was affected by last year’s raid.

The suit was filed after surveillance video showed police playing darts and an officer making demeaning comments about a woman in a wheelchair. Another officer can be seen eating what appears to be a pot-laced edible, according to the lawyer.

Santa Ana Deputy City Manager Roberto Cortez declined to discuss the settlement, the newspaper said.

The suit alleged that Mayor Miguel Pulido and other city employees favored certain dispensaries. It said the city put up a ballot proposal, Measure BB, for the November 2014 election, soliciting payments from collectives with the promise of winning a spot in an eventual marijuana permit lottery.

Sky High Holistic did not win a spot in the lottery and its patients allege that because Pulido and other city employees had financial ties with competing dispensaries, they used their positions to close down the competition.

Pulido denied the allegations and said the city hired a firm to conduct the lottery.

Earlier this year, three police officers were charged with misdemeanor petty theft and one with vandalism for allegedly stealing snacks and damaging surveillance cameras. They are no longer employed by the city’s police department.

Mississippi
DA: Shooting of man in stabbing rampage justified
TAUNTON, Mass. (AP) — Prosecutors in Massachusetts say an off-duty sheriff’s deputy was justified in fatally shooting a man who went on a stabbing rampage in a mall restaurant.

Bristol District Attorney Thomas Quinn announced Wednes­day a report found that Plymouth County Deputy Sheriff James Creed was justified in using deadly force to prevent death or serious harm to himself or others.

The report says Creed was having dinner at a Silver City Galleria mall restaurant in Taunton on May 10 when Arthur DaRosa entered and started attacking a waitress. DaRosa stabbed and killed a 56-year-old teacher who tried to intervene.

The report says Creed fatally shot DaRosa when he refused to comply with orders to drop the knife.

Authorities say DaRosa had fatally stabbed an 80-year-old woman in her home earlier that night.

Kentucky
Officers win case over pregnancy discrimination
FLORENCE, Ky. (AP) — The Justice Department has announced an agreement in a pregnancy discrimination case involving two police officers in northern Kentucky.

The Kentucky Enquirer reports the agreement, pending court approval, will result in new accommodation policies for pregnant employees and employees with disabilities in Florence. It also includes a payout of $135,000 to the officers.

The Justice Department says Florence Police Officers Lyndi Trischler and Samantha Riley were denied light-duty requests in 2014 because of their pregnancies. Instead, it says the city required them to take paid and unpaid leave.

Once the court approves the settlement, Florence has 30 days to draft new policies, pending further approval. The $135,000 in damages and attorney’s fees Florence agreed to pay each officer will also restore paid leave they were forced to use

Pennsylvania
Woman charged after man with maggot-filled foot wounds dies
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A former Pennsylvania caregiver has been charged with homicide after authorities say she failed to properly treat a man with a congenital defect who died after his foot wounds became severely infected and filled with maggots.

The state attorney general’s office says 43-year-old Stacey Ann Cunnius of Reading neglected the care of Jessie McCrimmon, who had spina bifida.

Prosecutors say McCrimmon died last year because he didn’t receive proper care and “endured considerable pain.”

Investigators say McCrimmon was missing toes on one foot and had bone exposed. The other was being held on by necrotic flesh.

Cunnius also faces charges including Medicaid fraud, neglect of a care-dependent person and recklessly endangering another person.

Cunnius was in the Berks County jail Thursday with no attorney listed in court records.

Virginia
Man found guilty of killing girlfriend out of jealousy
HANOVER, Va. (AP) — A Goochland County man has been convicted of killing his girlfriend at her home last year.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports 39-year-old Lamare Shiron Jennings was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder in the death of 44-year-old Leaudrey Salmon.

Hanover County prosecutor Mackenzie Babichenko says Jennings strangled and repeatedly slit Salmon’s throat with a knife last June inside her Rockville home. Babichenko says Jennings planned the slaying out of jealousy after a 911 recording captured Jennings expressing anger over his belief that Salmon had become romantically involved with another man.

During the call, Salmon begged for her life while Jennings gave her demands and tortured her. He was arrested days later.

A jury recommended Jennings be sentenced to life in prison. His formal sentencing is set for Jan. 9.

Louisiana
Transgender inmate’s rape case against jail set for trial
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawsuit in which a transgender inmate says she was raped after being locked up with a male prisoner last year in the newly opened New Orleans jail is expected to go to trial in June.

A federal judge set a June 19 date in a Wednesday order.

The lawsuit against jail officials was filed last month. It says the former inmate, who was born male but lives as a female, had just been transferred to the jail when a male armed robbery suspect raped her.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, says deputies at the jail lack proper training. It also criticizes a “failure to separate transgendered inmates from the general inmate population.”

The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, which runs the jail, has declined comment on the lawsuit.