California
3 men charged with conspiracy to make 'swatting' calls
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Three men have been charged with conspiracy to help a Los Angeles man make phony emergency "swatting" calls around the nation in hopes of sending police to the scene or forcing building evacuations.
Federal indictments unsealed Wednesday in Los Angeles allege they conspired with Tyler Barriss in 2017 to make bomb and shooting reports to police, a high school and convention center in Connecticut, Texas, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois.
Barriss pleaded guilty in November to making hoax calls, including one that led a Wichita, Kansas, police officer answering a shooting call to kill an innocent man.
The Los Angeles indictment names Neal Patel of Des Plaines, Illinois; Tyler Stewart of Gulf Breeze, Florida; and Logan Patten of Greenwood, Missouri.
Two are in custody. It's unclear if the men have lawyers.
South Carolina
3 plead to stealing razor blades from South Carolina Marine base
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Three civilian workers have pleaded guilty in a scheme to sell $1.5 million worth of shaving supplies stolen from a Marine Corps store in South Carolina.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reported 35-year-old Orlando Byson, 27-year-old Tommie Harrison Jr., and 36-year-old Sarah Brutus pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
They face up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines when they're sentenced.
They told U.S. District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks they worked with a noncommissioned Marine Corps officer to sell the razors and razor blades to people out of state.
Marine 1st Sgt. Lascelles Chambers is expected to be tried in April at Parris Island.
Illinois
A 50-year Chicago housing discrimination case settled
CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday approved a settlement between the Chicago Housing Authority and a public interest law group that will lead to the end of more than 50 years of federal oversight of public housing in the city.
The settlement concedes the housing authority has implemented programs to remedy past discrimination and has plans to build or acquire housing in mixed-income neighborhoods to assure access, diversity and opportunity.
However, the agreement provides a detailed timeline for the CHA to complete all planned mixed-income units and strengthen its housing voucher program to better enable families to move to more affluent areas, if they so choose.
Dorothy Gautreaux filed a federal lawsuit in 1966 accusing the CHA of violating the civil rights of tenants through a policy of segregation and racial discrimination. The court agreed and prohibited the CHA from doing further building in poorer, minority neighborhoods and ordered it to create housing in mixed-income and mixed-race areas.
The settlement allows the case to end by July 2024.
"The journey toward progress has been long, and it is one Chicago could only make by working together with strong partners like BPI," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. "This decision marks a seminal moment in Chicago's history."
At the time the case went to court, the city of Chicago was committed to building large public housing complexes in an effort to remove substandard housing. However, the complexes were confined to largely black and poor neighborhoods on the South and West sides.
The issue came to a head in 1966, when Dr. Martin Luther King rented a West Side apartment and led a series of fair housing marches. Gautreaux and other CHA residents alleged in their lawsuit that the housing authority deliberately chose public housing sites in ghettos to keep black families out of white neighborhoods.
In 1969, U.S. District Judge Richard Austin ordered the CHA to provide low-density, low-rise public housing on scattered sites in both white and black city neighborhoods.
"All of Chicago should be proud of the progress made, as all have been willing partners in ending decades of segregation," said Authority CEO Eugene E. Jones.
According to Jones, the CHA owns and provides affordable housing in 76 of the city's 77 communities, while more than 48,000 voucher holders are now renting in all 77.
Arizona
Court upholds ruling on dismissal of appeals upon defendant's death
PHOENIX (AP) - A state court ruling has upheld the constitutionality of Arizona's law that requires dismissal of any pending appeals upon the death of a convicted defendant.
The Court of Appeals panel's ruling Tuesday affirmed a Maricopa County Superior Court judge's dismissal of an appeal filed on behalf of a man who was convicted of voyeurism and ordered to pay restitution for attorney's fees paid by the female victim.
The judge ordered that Richard Allen Reed's appeal of the restitution order be dismissed following his death and his lawyer appealed that order, arguing that the law requiring dismissal is unconstitutional.
The panel disagreed, saying that Reed's right to appeal wasn't violated and that other arguments by Reed's lawyer weren't persuasive.
Under the Court of Appeals' ruling, the restitution order remains in force.
New York
Anger over alleged strip searches at upstate school
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) - A community firestorm has erupted over an alleged strip search of four 12-year-old girls at a New York middle school.
The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin says about 200 community members packed a heated school board meeting this week to discuss the incident.
They said the girls, who are black, were questioned and strip-searched by the school nurse and assistant principal because they seemed giddy during their lunch hour and were suspected of possessing drugs.
The local NAACP is demanding accountability measures.
The school district says it's sorry for the "unintended" consequence of "making the students feel traumatized."
It says students may be required to empty their pockets and remove shoes or jackets. Its statement made no mention of strip searches.
A procedural review is planned.
Published: Fri, Jan 25, 2019
