Virginia
Judge hits pause button on removal of slave auction block
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) - A judge in Virginia has hit the pause button on a city's plans to remove a 175-year-old slave auction block from a city's downtown street corner.
The Free Lance-Star reported Monday that Circuit Court Judge Sarah Deneke has agreed to a 15-day stay of her order to remove the block in Fredericksburg.
Her order allows a business owner who is challenging the removal to ask the Virginia Supreme Court to take on the case.
E.D. Cole Building LLC owns a commercial building across the street from the auction block. The firm and the owner of a nearby restaurant have argued that they'll lose business from tourist traffic if the auction block is removed.
The judge already ruled that city officials have the authority to approve the removal the block. The city had previously placed traffic cones around the block with plans to move it before the business owner urged the court to stop the city.
The judge on Monday denied the business owner's request for a temporary injunction to stop the removal while an appeal is heard. But she only allowed time for the state Supreme Court to possibly intervene.
Connecticut
Serial armed robber gets 21 years in prison
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut man who pleaded guilty to committing a series of violent armed robberies during which two people were shot has been sentenced to 21 years in federal prison.
Jachim Brown, 29, of Bridgeport was also sentenced Monday to three years of probation.
The robberies occurred in Bridgeport and Stratford between September and November 2017 and included making off with nearly $2,500 at a bar, authorities said.
In November 2017, Brown twice robbed a restaurant cash courier, the second time shooting the victim in the thigh when he found out he wasn't carrying any money, prosecutors said.
He shot another man while robbing another bar, shooting an employee with their hands raised, according to federal prosecutors.
He was finally caught on Nov. 16, 2017, when police responding to a report of a robbery in progress caught him after an exchange of gunfire.
Brown pleaded guilty in May to multiple charges.
His half-brother and accomplice in four robberies, Eric Chambers, 39, has also been convicted to related charges and awaits sentencing.
California
Appeals court blocks release of ''Bolder Than Most' rapist
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A California appeals court on Monday blocked the release of a man dubbed the "Bolder Than Most" rapist who was charged with a string of bizarre and brutal attacks in the San Diego area in the 1980s.
The 4th District Court of Appeals reversed the decision of a judge to grant the conditional release of Alvin Quarles, 57, who was charged with committing more than 50 rapes, robberies and burglaries in the 1980s.
Prosecutors said some of the assaults occurred at knifepoint, and sometimes the victims' husbands or boyfriends were forced to watch or take part in sex acts that Quarles watched. Some couples were confronted as they slept in motel rooms, and during or after some of the assaults, Quarles talked with victims, bargained for the kind of sex act he wanted and apologized or tried to give money to some of the women, prosecutors said.
Quarles pleaded guilty in 1989 to four rapes along with burglary and robbery. He served 25 years of a 50-year prison sentence. He was then was sent to the mental hospital indefinitely after being designated a "sexually violent predator" with mental disorders that made him a continuing danger to society. He had petitioned for release several times.
The original 2018 ruling - confirmed by the judge last year - would have permitted Quarles to be released to a home in San Diego County on condition that he continued to receive treatment and supervision in the community.
The decision was condemned by victims and local officials.
In its ruling, a three-judge appellate panel said San Diego Superior Court Judge David M. Gill didn't use the proper legal standard in making his decision and ordered the lower court to hold a new trial on whether Quarles should be released.
The appeals court also said it was concerned about Quarles's potential for committing more crimes if he fails treatment.
"Quarles is a serial rapist whose crimes were shockingly brutal and destructive," the court said in its ruling. "If he fails after he is conditionally released, considering his past, we shudder to contemplate the consequences of such a failure. This is not a risk the Superior Court should place on the public."
The appellate decision was "a victory for the region and public safety," San Diego County Board of Supervisors member Dianne Jacob tweeted.
Tennessee
State lawmakers look to change sex offender legislation
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A federal lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of a Tennessee statute that made it a felony for sex offenders to live with their own young children has prompted moves by the GOP-dominant State house to amend the 2019 law.
Gov. Bill Lee had signed the bill into law to make convicted sex offenders subject to arrest if they were alone with, spent the night with, or lived with their children under age 12. But three convicted sex offenders immediately filed suit and the law never took effect last year amid the challenge.
The men - identified simply as John Doe 1, 2 and 3 - alleged the ban violated their constitutional rights because it would effectively result in their loss of parental rights without a trial. Each had completed sentences and treatment following crimes involving victims under 12.
A federal judge had initially blocked the law from taking effect. A separate judge said the lawsuit should continue to be paused - despite objection from the plaintiffs - to give the GOP-dominant State house a June 30 deadline of this year for amending the law.
Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. wrote in his Feb. 18 order that pausing the lawsuit was necessary because allowing the case to move through the courts could result in "unnecessary litigation"
On Monday, the Tennessee Senate unanimously approved a new version with no one debating or questioning the revised proposal.
Under the amended proposal, convicted sex offenders could spend time with and live with their own child under 12, but only if a court hasn't ruled they would present a harm to that minor.
Sen. Joey Hensley, a Republican from Hohenwald, said the new proposal "sets up a procedure that the offender, after two years, could re-petition the court if their circumstances change."
The measure must now clear the House.
This is the second measure the State house has had to overhaul this year after facing litigation on bills which Lee signed into law.
Last year, the governor signed GOP-backed legislation that made Tennessee the first state in the country to fine registration groups for turning in too many incomplete signup forms. It also criminalized intentional infractions of other new rules with misdemeanor charges.
The law immediately triggered two lawsuits and was blocked by a federal judge.
Tennessee lawmakers have decided to once again back new rules on how to sign up new voters that hopefully avoid a lawsuit.
Published: Wed, Feb 26, 2020
