National Roundup

California
Jury awards $18M to fired ­Allstate employee
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A former Allstate Insurance Co. employee who was fired following an arrest has been awarded more than $18 million in damages.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports a San Diego jury awarded 55-year-old Michael Tilkey about $2.6 million in actual damages and nearly $16 million in punitive damages in his in wrongful termination lawsuit.
Tilkey was fired by Allstate in 2016 after he was arrested in Arizona the prior year following an argument he had with his then-girlfriend. Charges against him were later dismissed.

His attorney Joann Rezzo says the firing violated state labor law, which prohibits employers from considering arrest records that don’t result in a conviction when considering termination.

An Allstate spokeswoman says the company disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal.

Massachusetts
Court rules MIT can’t be held liable for ­student’s suicide
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts’ highest court has ruled that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology cannot be held responsible for the death of a graduate student who killed himself in 2009.

The Supreme Judicial Court sided with MIT on Monday in the closely-watched case that examined whether colleges and universities have a duty to protect students from harming themselves.

The family of 25-year-old Han Nguyen said in their lawsuit that the school knew Nguyen was a suicide risk and could have prevented his death.

But the high court said in its ruling that a school can only be held responsible when it either knows that a student has attempted suicide while enrolled or shortly before entering school or that the student had said he or she plans to kill themselves.

New?York
Jay-Z lawyers: SEC probe has become a ‘celebrity hunt’
NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Jay-Z say the Securities and Exchange Commission has gone on a “celebrity hunt” by demanding the rapper submit to unlimited questioning about various businesses.

The lawyers wrote in a court filing Monday that he has agreed to testify for a full day before the regulatory agency but is opposing appearing for as many days as the SEC would like.

A hearing on the matter is set for Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.

The court filing was made in advance of the hearing scheduled by U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe (GAHR’-duh-fee).

The SEC has said it is investigating the Iconix Brand Group to learn if federal securities laws were violated when the company reported financial results.

Jay-Z sold his Rocawear apparel brand to Iconix over a decade ago.

Kansas
SWAT team discouraged entering home before shooting
OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Body camera footage shows that law enforcement ignored the advice of SWAT team members when they entered a suburban Kansas City home and fatally shot a mentally distressed woman with a history of only minor, nonviolent offenses.

The Kansas City Star reports that it reviewed 23 hours of footage tied to the Aug. 23 shooting of 26-year-old Ciara Howard after a three-hour standoff in Olathe. The Star had sued for the video and dropped its lawsuit last month after receiving it.

The footage shows officers had been briefed that Howard was acting irrationally and had access to her boyfriend’s handgun when they arrived. They were there to arrest her on a warrant for walking away from the county’s adult residential center where she’d been required to report after her latest conviction.

“It’s not worth getting into a shootout and hurting an officer or hurting her over the type of warrants that we have,” a commander on the scene was heard on camera, relaying the word from Olathe and Johnson County that neither of their SWAT teams wanted to come to the scene and go into the house.

Howard, whose legal problems began with intoxicated conflicts and escalated when she failed to meet court requirements, was bipolar, relatives said. Her autopsy showed she had amphetamine and methamphetamine in her system.

Olathe police described Howard’s death as a “tragedy for everyone involved” in a written statement. The shooting was deemed justified, but the finding addressed only the threat the officers faced once they were in the house, Johnson County Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris McMullin said at the time. It did not address the tactics and decisions officers made to enter the house.

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden said his deputies were at the scene to back up Olathe police. He said he agreed with the county SWAT team commander’s decision not to send its SWAT team. He said he did not know why Olathe commanders ultimately decided to go into the house.

Before police forced open the door of a laundry room where Howard was sequestered, she could be heard repeatedly shouting, “You’re not real police!” Footage shows her pointing at them with her right hand while she held the gun in her left. The three lawmen who had wedged in through the door opened fire after she refused their demands to put down the weapon.

“I still don’t understand,” said Mark Arnold, the husband of Howard’s mother. “Why did they go in?”

None of the footage obtained by The Star captured any conversations that show why commanders on the scene decided to go into the house rather than wait her out, and Olathe police did not respond to questions from The Star.

South Carolina
NAACP questions traffic control used for ‘Black Bike Week’
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — A federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments this week in an NAACP lawsuit that says a traffic control plan during what’s known as “Black Bike Week” in South Carolina is discriminatory.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports the NAACP is seeking an injunction to bar Myrtle Beach from implementing a traffic loop during Memorial Day weekend. A judge will hear arguments Tuesday.

The 23-mile traffic loop was first implemented in 2015 for Atlantic Beach Bikefest, commonly referred to as “Black Bike Week.” The loop followed 2014 violence in which three people were killed and seven injured in eight shootings.

City officials said the loop is intended to control traffic, ease congestion and reduce crime.