National Roundup

Wyoming
Civil rights lawsuit against deputies dismissed
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against two Wyoming sheriff’s deputies who interrogated a woman about her sexual history and preferences after she reported a sexual assault.

The Casper Star-Tribune reported Monday that a judge ruled Friday the woman’s allegation of a civil rights violation was “all but impossible” to pursue.

Judge Alan Johnson said he did not condone the behavior of the deputies.

Neither an attorney for the plaintiff nor for the Albany County Sheriff’s Office immediately responded to requests for comment.

The Albany County deputies, Sgt. Christian Handley and Aaron Gallegos, investigated a sexual assault claim against a University of Wyoming student in February 2017.

The sheriff’s office did not recommend the case for criminal prosecution.

The woman’s lawsuit included a transcript of a meeting in which Gallegos says he thought that because the woman consented to sex with the man one evening she inherently consented to sex with him the next morning.

“He is wrong,” Johnson wrote in his ruling.

Yet the judge ruled the doctrine of qualified immunity prohibited a ruling in the plaintiff’s favor.

The doctrine requires a lawsuit against a government official to show the deputies violated her constitutional right to equal protection by treating her differently than a straight woman or a man. The plaintiff is a lesbian.

The judge wrote the case failed to provide sufficient legal evidence in support of the woman’s argument.

“The court recognizes it may be all but impossible to show another individual alleging sexual assault was treated differently, given the sensitive nature of such a matter. However, the court cannot rewrite the law,” the judge wrote.

Louisiana
Priest convicted of molestation released on bond
OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) — A former Louisiana priest convicted of molesting an altar boy was released from jail on bond over coronavirus safety concerns.

Michael Guidry, 77, was released Friday nearly a year after he pleaded guilty to molesting a 16-year old boy after giving him alcohol in Guidry’s home, The Advertiser reported. The victim said in a civil lawsuit that he woke up one day in 2015 after doing chores in Guidry’s home and found the former priest molesting him, The Advocate reported. The victim told authorities about the molestation when he was an adult, four years after it happened.

Guidry, who served as the priest of St. Peter’s Church in Morrow, was then sentenced to 10 years in prison in April 2019, KATC-TV reported.

His release on bond from St. Landry Parish jail comes amid objections from state prosecutors after his defense attorney, Jane Hogan, requested an emergency appeal hearing because of the virus outbreak. Guidry had been awaiting another sentencing hearing after a request to reconsider his 10-year sentence was denied by a judge in September, KATC-TV reported.

Kevin Bourgeois, a volunteer at a New Orleans nonprofit group for survivors of clergy abuse, told KATC-TV Guidry’s release on bond sends a message to survivors that “their life is not as important as this sex offender’s life.”

Judge Alonzo Harris, the same judge who sentenced Guidry last year, had set the bond for Guidry. During that sentencing, the judge said “there are some things in life you just can’t tolerate and one is sexual abuse on our children by priests.”

Guidry will be placed on house arrest with an ankle monitor while on bond, and the court has also instructed him to not make contact with the victim.

Tommy Guilbeau, a defense attorney that is not involved in the case, said while it’s “highly unusual” for a felon convicted of child molestation to be on house arrest, not releasing them at this time would be “condemning them to die in a petri dish of COVID-19.”

The victim’s parents and siblings told the court last year that the abuse caused chaos and pain in their family. The family declined to comment to KATC-TV due to a gag order.

Kentucky
Teen pleads guilty to 2018 school shooting
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A teen charged in the 2018 Kentucky school shooting that killed two students has pleaded guilty to murder.

Gabriel Ross Parker was 15 when he fired a handgun into a crowd of students before classes started at Marshall County High School on Jan. 23, 2018. Parker was arrested at the school and charged with murder. He later was charged as an adult.

Marshall County Commonwealth’s Attorney Dennis Foust said the plea deal gives Parker a life sentence. Along with the murder convictions, he also pleaded guilty to 14 counts of assault.

Parker, now 18, appeared by teleconference on Tuesday before Marshall Circuit Judge James Jameson.

Foust said the coronavirus pandemic played a role in moving toward a plea agreement for Parker. The trial was scheduled to open June 1.

Foust, the lead prosecutor in the case, said the trial would likely have been pushed back to January at the earliest, and because of restrictions, he was having trouble lining up witnesses and medical experts.

“So at that point at some people are saying maybe it’s time to get some closure,” Foust said by phone Tuesday.

Killed in the shootings were Bailey Holt and Preston Cope, both 15. Foust spoke with Holt and Cope’s parents about the plea deal before moving forward.

“It just made more sense to do this,” Foust said. Parker would be eligible for parole in 2038, he said.

WPSD-TV in Paducah first reported the plea agreement on Tuesday. Parker will be sentenced by a judge on June 12.

In a statement received by the news station on Tuesday, Parker’s mother, Mary Minyard, said she has struggled over the two years to “express how deeply sorry I am for everything that has happened.”

“To the Holt and Cope families, I know there will never be words that I can say to make up for the precious lives you’ve lost, but I hope you know how deeply I feel that loss and how truly sorry I am,” Minyard wrote.

Parker told police investigators that he took the handgun used in the shooting from his stepfather’s bedroom closet, using a laundry basket to sneak it out of the room. Parker told police he had the gun in his bag when he went to school, pulled it out and began firing into a commons area.

He said in the hysteria after the shooting some students, not knowing he had fired the gun, urged him to join them in a safe room with other students.

One of the students huddled in that room, Keaton Conner, said in 2018 that she was talking to her mother on the phone when she saw Parker — who she didn’t know — with a “cold expression on his face.” Police later came into the room and arrested Parker, Conner said.

“He was the person who had just killed two of my classmates,” she said.