Court Digest

West Virginia
State Supreme Court to hear lawsuit over governor’s residency
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia Supreme Court has set oral arguments in a lawsuit over whether Gov. Jim Justice must live in the state capital.

Arguments are set for Oct. 14 in an appeal of a Kanawha circuit judge’s ruling that denied the governor’s motion to dismiss the 2-year-old case filed by Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, news outlets reported.

Sponaugle, a Democrat, wants Justice to live in Charleston, per the state constitution that says governors should “reside at the seat of the government.” Lawyers for the Republican governor, who lives in Greenbrier County and is seeking reelection in November, have argued “reside” has vague meaning.

In their petition to the court, Justice’s attorneys say the question is political and it’s up to the governor or lawmakers to decide residency. The attorneys say a judicial ruling would represent a violation of the separation of powers clauses in both the state and U.S. constitutions.

That argument is based on an “incorrect interpretation of legal precedent,” Sponaugle said.

Indiana
Program slow in paying out money to those exonerated
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana program aimed at compensating those who have been wrongly convicted of crimes hasn’t yet paid out any money since it was formed last year.

State lawmakers approved the program paying $50,000 for each year spent in prison or jail for those later found “actually innocent” of the crime as long as those applying agree not to sue over their wrongful conviction. The state agency running the program has received 15 applications but has not yet awarded any compensation, WTHR-TV of Indianapolis reported.

Those applicants include Kristine Bunch, who was convicted of setting a fire at her Greensburg-area mobile home that killed her 3-year-old son. She spent 17 years in prison before an appeals court threw out the conviction.

A federal court dismissed Bunch’s lawsuit over her conviction and she said she was frustrated waiting for potentially $850,000 from the program.

“They’re going to talk to everyone who opposed me to get their opinion to weigh in, too,” Bunch said. “And then ultimately when the decision comes down it will be based on whether or not they believe I’m innocent.”

The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, which runs the program, said its staff must make sure all the criteria included in the state law are met before it makes any payments and that the process has been slowed by the coronavirus outbreak.

“These claims are complex and the review process takes time,” agency spokesman Ben Gavelek said. “Each application must be reviewed for completeness, which not only requires a thorough examination of the documents provided by the claimants, but also, as part of the process, requires us to pursue other sources of information, such as court case records, and verify time served post-conviction.”

A 2019 state legislative report said at least 25 exonerated people were potentially eligible nearly $14 million in compensation for 279 years of incarceration.

Indiana University law professor Fran Watson, who works with the law school’s wrongful conviction team, said waiting for the state agency can take a toll on those who’ve faced injustice.

“It’s a continuation of something they’ve lived with for too long,” Watson said. “This waiting for the lawyers, waiting for the courts.”

Republican state Rep. Greg Steuerwald of Avon, who sponsored the bill creating the program, said he understands it is taking time to start making payments.

“I would like to see some movement soon, but trust the agency is working and making headway as fast as it can,” Steuerwald said.

Nevada
Lawyers seek higher wage for inmates doing state work
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A lawsuit claims state inmates who perform manual labor outside correction facilities are paid well below Nevada’s minimum wage of $8 per hour, making their work akin to slave labor.

Attorneys Travis Barrick and Nathan Lawrence claim work by inmates cleaning state roadsides and using heavy equipment like chainsaws to clear vegetation risk injuries for a pay rate as low as $3 per day, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The attorneys argue that an inmate wage increase would not affect the state’s coffers. Instead, the money could be transferred from the state forestry division to the Department of Corrections.

The lawsuit names Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the forestry division as defendants.

“There is something to be accounted for in the way inmates are treated and viewed,” Lawrence said. “Their incarceration is their punishment. They don’t then get to be treated as slaves because we don’t think they deserve better. That’s what we’re trying to address here.”

A spokeswoman for the governor declined to comment on the litigation. Officials with the conservation department and forestry division could not immediately be reached.

Under state law, wages paid to offenders are subject to administrative supervision, while the state constitution says “each employer shall pay a wage to each employee of not less than the hourly rate” of $8 per hour.

Inmates who work for state agencies outside the prison are “legally and constitutionally entitled to receive a wage not less than the applicable hourly wage,” the lawsuit said.


Wisconsin
Officer pleads not guilty to reckless homicide
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A suspended Milwaukee police officer has pleaded not guilty to reckless homicide in the death of a man during a fight at the off-duty officer’s home in April.

Attorneys for Michael Mattioli entered the plea during an arraignment held virtually Tuesday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. The 32-year-old officer is accused of using a chokehold on Joel Acevedo during the fight causing his death six days later.

Defense attorney Michael Hart says Mattioli will argue self-defense.

Police were called April 19 to Mattioli’s home in Milwaukee and found him straddling Acevedo, who was on his stomach and not breathing and did not have a pulse, according to the criminal complaint.

Mattioli told an investigator from the district attorney’s office he had some people over for drinks and woke up to find Acevedo going through his pants pockets, so he told Acevedo to get out of his house. Mattioli said Acevedo denied stealing and punched another man as he left, and Mattioli got on top of him and called 911.

In addition to the charge against Mattioli, Acevedo’s family filed a lawsuit against the Milwaukee Police Department, demanding body-cam video and the recording of the 911 call.


Alaska
Settlement reached on holding people in mental health crisis
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska reached a settlement with an advocacy group in a dispute over involuntary commitments of people suffering mental health crises before they receive treatment from health care professionals.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services and the Disability Law Center reached a settlement Thursday after a series of lawsuits, KTUU-TV reported.

The lawsuits filed by the Disability Law Center and petitioners represented by the Public Defender Agency maintained that a lack of timely evaluations while holding people in jails or emergency units is unconstitutional.

The center’s initial lawsuit in 2018 sought to end the practice of holding mental health patients in correctional or emergency facilities as they awaited services through the Alaska Psychiatric Institute.

The state facility implemented a capacity policy that created longer wait times for admission, the lawsuit said.

People “who had been picked up in the community were brought to correctional facilities because they could not be admitted directly to API for evaluation, and no hospital would admit them,” the lawsuit said.

The settlement approved by Judge William Morse has several provisions, including a commitment by the health and social services department to train law enforcement officers to refrain from incarcerating people when jail is not appropriate.

The settlement also calls for mental health professionals to be dispatched to patients wherever they are kept when possible and for the state to file monthly reports through mid-2021 showing the location and duration of people being held.

The settlement also agreed to the implementation of a system known as “Crisis Now,” which seeks to make short-term stabilization centers available for evaluations.

“A lot of what our settlement looks at is the future,” Disability Law Center Legal Director Mark Regan said. “The future is going to be a less intrusive, less institutional system called ‘Crisis Now.’ “

The health and social services department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South Carolina
State wants $5 million for burning Mount Trashmore clean up
OKATIE, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina sued the owner of a site where a massive pile of trash burned and smoldered for months, demanding $5 million to pay back what the state spent to put out the fire and clean up the site.

 Able Contracting Inc. and Earlbee LLC accumulated debris in a mound that reached over 50 feet (15 meters) tall and when the compacted trash started to burn, “hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants” were released into the environment, according to the lawsuit obtained by The Island Packet of Hilton Head.

The site in Jasper County, nicknamed Mount Trashmore for the way it loomed over the surrounding neighborhood, began burning in July 2019. It took the state Department of Health and Environmental Control and the federal Environmental Protection Agency six months to completely extinguish the fire and clean the site, the lawsuit filed Thursday said.

Able Contracting’s owner, Chandler Lloyd, did not respond to the newspaper’s attempts to contact him.

The state and federal governments spent more than  $5 million cleaning up the site, the lawsuit said.

State Sen. Tom Davis urged the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office to sue so taxpayers could be reimbursed for the clean up.

The Beaufort Republican thanked health officials “for having taken swift action to completely clean up and shut down this facility, and for now seeking to make the taxpayers whole,” according to the Hilton Head Island newspaper.

The neighborhood around the trash fire was evacuated for two months after health officials found several chemicals, including arsenic, in hazardous levels in the air.

Georgia
Independent qualifies to challenge district attorney in Ahmaud Arbery case
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia prosecutor who has faced criticism over her handling of the investigation into the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery will face electoral opposition in November.

Independent candidate Keith Higgins has qualified for the ballot to run against incumbent Republican District Attorney Jackie Johnson. No Democrat qualified for the race, meaning Johnson was initially without opposition for another four-year term in the Brunswick Judicial Circuit, a southeast Georgia jurisdiction that includes Appling, Camden, Glynn, Jefferson Davis and Wayne counties.

Higgins tells The Brunswick News that more than 6,500 signatures have been verified on his petition. He only needed 3,526 after a judge cut signature amounts required statewide because of COVID-19.

Johnson was first appointed to the office in 2010.

Arbery was fatally shot last Feb. 23 when a white father and son armed themselves and pursued the unarmed 25-year-old Black man, who was running in their neighborhood, according to authorities. More than two months passed before Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, were charged with felony murder and aggravated assault.

A third man, William “Roddie” Bryan, a neighbor of the McMichaels who authorities say had joined in their pursuit of Arbery and recorded the cellphone video of the shooting, also was subsequently charged with murder. All three men remain jailed, awaiting trial.

Gregory McMichael had been a longtime investigator for Johnson’s office. Johnson recused herself, but handed the case off to a second district attorney. One county commissioner in Glynn County has claimed that officers were hesitant to arrest the McMichaels after the DA’s office told them it wasn’t necessary, but Johnson’s office has called that a “vicious lie” and denied wrongdoing The second prosecutor, George Barnhill, decided no charges were necessary. Barnhill was eventually removed over his own conflict of interest — his son works for Johnson and had prosecuted an earlier case against Arbery.

Both Barnhill and Johnson are now being investigated by federal authorities. Barnhill also denies wrongdoing.