National Roundup

Missouri
Officer told to ‘tone down’ gayness settles suit for $10.25M
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis County has agreed to a $10.25 million settlement with a gay police lieutenant who says he was passed over for promotion 23 times and was told to “tone down” his “gayness.”

The agreement with Keith Wildhaber was finalized Monday, hours after St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar announced he is retiring, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Although jurors awarded Wildhaber nearly $20 million in October, each side had reason to negotiate because Wildhaber could keep a larger share of the award by settling.

Wildhaber, who was a sergeant at the time of the trial, could not be reached for comment by the Post-Dispatch. And his attorney, Russ Riggan, didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press early Tuesday.

Belmar promoted Wildhaber to lieutenant in December, placing him in command of a new diversity  and inclusion unit.

“This lawsuit acknowledges what Lt. Wildhaber survived in the police department and lets us move forward as a county,” County Executive Sam Page said on Monday.

After the verdict, Belmar’s leadership was called into question, with Democratic Councilwoman Lisa Clancy urging him to resign. Page said he was sticking with Belmar to lead the department through a period of change, but he replaced four of the five police commissioners that have the power to fire him.

Page said Monday that Belmar’s retirement was not a condition of the settlement. He said Belmar had confided in him much earlier that he planned to retire this year.

The county could have avoided the massive verdict by accepting Wildhaber’s offer on April 5, 2019, to settle the case for $850,000 plus a promotion to lieutenant.

Instead, the county’s lawyers went to trial under the legal stance that the Human Rights Act does not bar discrimination against gay people — a strategy that Page and the county counselor said offended them.

The jury foreman in the case had told reporters after the trial it wanted a big verdict “to send a message.”

Page said on Monday that message was received.

“This is an opportunity for our department to move forward and to continue to make the progress that has been made and to stay focused on my ... goals for our police department, which is first to keep us safe and second to respect all people,” he said.

Alabama
Motion: State’s prisons not safe for ex-officer
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) —  An  attorney for a white former police officer convicted of killing an unarmed black man has filed a motion asking that his client not serve his sentence in an Alabama prison because of “unconstitutional conditions” behind bars.

The motion was filed by Dwight Richardson III, the attorney for former Montgomery police officer Aaron Cody Smith, news outlets reported. Smith was sentenced last month to 14 years in prison for the 2016 shooting death of Gregory Gunn.

The motion said Smith’s status as a former officer would subject him to heighten safety concerns in Alabama prisons, which Richardson states have been found to violate the Eighth Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The Department of Justice condemned  the state’s prisons in a scathing report released last April.

Richardson also requested in the motion that the judge amend Smith’s time behind bars to a three-year split sentence at the Dale County Jail. Smith has been held there since being convicted of manslaughter, WSFA-TV reported. The split sentence would mean Smith serves three years in the jail and the rest of the time on probation.

Richardson has filed a notice of appeal and a motion for an appeal bond, which would make him eligible for a bond while his appeal was being considered. Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey opposed an appeal bond during the sentencing hearing and his office filed a written objection.

Prosecutor Ben McGough wrote in the objection that an appeal bond, “would demonstrate that there is one set of rules for some convicts and another set for convicted police officers,” the Montgomery Advertiser reported.

Attorneys who represented Smith from when he was charged until he was convicted filed motions to withdraw from his case after he was sentenced, WSFA reported.

Arizona
Federal judge  sentences man in lottery fraud case
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A federal judge in Tucson has sentenced a man to 21 months in prison for laundering funds from a lottery fraud scheme that targeted elderly people.

Prosecutors say Morgan Alek Forrester also was ordered to pay $176,000 in restitution.

Forrester is among four co-defendants charged in the conspiracy. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Prosecutors say Forrester participated in scheme where Jamaican-based scammers called elderly U.S. victims and falsely stated they had won a lottery.

In order to receive their winnings, the elderly victims were told they must first submit money for taxes and fees.

Prosecutors say Forrester’s role in the conspiracy was to help launder the fraudulent proceeds to Jamaica.

Oregon
Bar sued for $2.1M for over-serving man who killed 2
BEND, Ore. (AP) — The estate of a man who was killed in a drunken driving crash in 2017 and a crash victim who survived are suing the Prineville bar that over-served driver Justin Bittick.

The estate of Stephan Mitchell Leader-Bowles filed suit in Crook County Circuit Court against Cooler Bar LLC, which owns the Horseshoe Tavern, The Bulletin reported. Lawyers for Cooler Bar have filed motions challenging facts in the pleadings, and plaintiffs’ attorneys have filed responses.

Bittick went to Horseshoe Tavern by himself on his birthday, Oct. 20, 2017, and drank to intoxication, according to court records.

He persuaded four people at the bar to return with him to his home to continue partying and the vehicle he was driving rolled. Leader-Bowles was killed, as was Caleb Williams.

Alex Shaver and Corrine Hatchell were severely injured, as was Bittick, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and couldn’t remember the incident.

Bittick was convicted of manslaughter and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission revoked the Horseshoe Tavern’s liquor license and sanctioned the bar employee who served Bittick.

Janette Leader Hill, mother of Leader-Bowles, is seeking $1.25 million in noneconomic damages and “costs and disbursements.” Shaver, who suffered a broken neck and was “permanently” injured in the wreck, is seeking $900,000.