National Roundup

Indiana
Family sues ­pediatrician accused of ­sexual abuse
LEBANON, Ind. (AP) — The family of a 12-year-old boy who alleges he was sexually abused by a central Indiana pediatrician has filed a civil lawsuit.

The Indianapolis Star reports the child’s parents, identified in court records as Jane Doe and John Doe, are seeking damages from 41-year-old Dr. Jonathon Cavins of Jamestown.

Cavins’ attorney in the civil case isn’t commenting on the lawsuit, due to pending litigation. Cavins is awaiting trial and now faces accusations from five accusers.

Cavins is charged with child molestation involving a 12-year-old boy and sexual misconduct with a minor involving two other teenage boys. The 12-year-old came forward in February, accusing Cavins of fondling him. In April, a judge approved a motion from prosecutors to add two additional counts of child seduction.

Tennessee
Lawsuits: Schools knew girls were ­sexually ­assaulted, taped
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The public school district of metro Nashville, Tennessee, is accused of not protecting its students from a known sexual harassment problem that involved female students being sexually assaulted, secretly recorded and then bullied.

The Tennessean reports the lawsuits involving four girls say the videos were later shared online. U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger has denied the district’s request to dismiss the lawsuits, which accuse it of not following Title IX rules when responding to sexual assault complaints.

The district argued that male students were also depicted in the videos, so the girls weren’t unequally treated per federal law. The judge says the boys didn’t suffer from bullying that “follows the easily recognizable script of treating women and girls as uniquely tainted and lessened by their engagement in sexual activity.”

Louisiana
Judge dismisses lawsuit claiming high prison temps are cruel
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal judge has conditionally dismissed a lawsuit that claimed three ailing death row inmates in Louisiana were being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment through high heat indexes.

The Advocate reports attorneys for the inmates and the state Department of Corrections jointly requested to dismiss the 2013 civil rights lawsuit. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson ruled in 2016 that cell heat indexes exceeding 88 degrees constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, but the ruling was overturned because it defined a maximum heat index.

The conditional dismissal requires Louisiana to remain in “substantial compliance” with an agreement it signed last year. That agreement requires the inmates to have daily showers, individual ice containers and fans, water faucets in their cells and other cooling techniques.

The dismissal could become final in November.

Alaska
Man’s death in village jail is 3rd in 2 weeks
AKIACHAK, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska man has died while in police custody, the third person to die in a western Alaska community jail in the past two weeks, authorities said.

Robert Nick, 54, died in a jail in the village of Akiachak, The Anchorage Daily News reported Sunday.

Nick was taken into protective custody “due to the level of his intoxication” Friday by a tribal officer in the village of about 600 people on the Kuskokwim River, northeast of Bethel, police said.

Alaska State Troopers were notified of Nick’s death Friday evening around 9 p.m. and boated to Akiachak to investigate.

State police did not say what Nick is believed to have died from or how long he had been dead when he was found by tribal jail guards.

His remains were sent to the state medical examiner’s office in Anchorage, authorities said.

Becca White, 24, and Isaiah Parka, 22, died in a blaze April 28 at the village jail in Napakiak, southwest of Bethel. The fire is still under investigation.

A guard was severely injured trying to save the two inmates, according to state troopers. White and Parka had been arrested by a village police officer employed by the tribe, troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

Residents of the Kuskokwim River village tried to fight the fire by pumping river water and using a garden hose to extinguish the flames, authorities said.

The deaths in Napakiak were the first in a fire in an Alaska jail for more than 30 years, police said.

Illinois
6 out of 7 chief judges in 7th ­Circuit to soon be women
CHICAGO (AP) — Most chief judges at federal trial courts in the 7th Circuit — comprised of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin — are already women. Soon, there’ll be just one man among them.

The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin reports six of seven chief judges will be women after Pamela Pepper succeeds William Griesbach in Wisconsin’s eastern district later this year.

Chief Judge Diane Wood of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals mentioned the development in a Milwaukee speech Monday.

In June, Rebecca Pallmeyer becomes the first female chief judge of the Northern District of Illinois.

Sara Darrow and Nancy Rosenstengel are chief judges of Illinois’ central district and southern district, respectively.

Jane Magnus-Stinson is the chief judge of the Northern District of Indiana and Theresa Springmann is for the Southern District of Indiana.

Utah
Judge orders ­disclosures in lawsuit against Mormon church
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been ordered to identify any women who accused the former head of a missionary training center of sexual misconduct and all women who were at the facility the same time as a woman suing the church.

A federal judge in Utah on Friday gave the church 21 days to provide the information to the court.

McKenna Denson of Pueblo, Colorado, accuses Phoenix-area resident Joseph L. Bishop of sexually abusing and raping her in 1984 at the Missionary Training Center in Provo where he was president.

Bishop has denied the allegations and last year was dismissed as a defendant in the lawsuit, along with part of the case against the church, but a fraud claim alleging a cover-up remains pending.