Court Digest

Washington
Court reinstates wrongful death claim over police shooting
SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington State Court of Appeals has reversed itself and reinstated a wrongful-death lawsuit against the King County Sheriff’s Office over the 2016 fatal shooting of a 23-year-old pregnant mother of three by deputies asked to check on her welfare.

The Seattle Times reports a three-member panel of judges from Division One of the Court of Appeals panel found that the trial judge erred in dismissing the claim based on a state law that prohibits people who were engaged in the commission of a felony from filing state personal injury claims. The Sheriff’s Office said Renee Davis had a handgun and pointed it at the deputies, which amounted to felony assault and precluded her survivors from filing a wrongful death claim.

However, the Court of Appeals on Monday rejected that argument, saying a jury should be allowed to decide whether Davis actually had the intent to injure anyone — a requisite element to prove assault.

Evidence developed during an investigation and inquest showed that Davis, a member of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, was suicidal, suffering from a mental crisis and that a handgun found near her body was unloaded.
According to testimony, she stated, “It’s not even loaded” as she slumped over and fell off the bed after the deputies shot her.

Moreover, there was conflicting testimony over where the gun was located and whether one of the deputies moved it after the shooting.

The same panel of judges had rejected Davis’s appeal in October. The court reversed itself on a motion by Davis’ attorneys, and remanded the case to trial in King County Superior Court.

One of Davis’ attorneys, Gabe Galanda, called the ruling “great news.”

“Renee needed a welfare check. Instead, two sheriff’s deputies shot her dead,” Galanda said in a statement.

Ted Buck an attorney representing the King County Sheriff’s Office and the deputies involved, said the appellate court “appears to have overlooked” an admission by the plaintiffs that Davis pointed the weapon at the officers intending to force them to shoot her.

“The law is clear that officers are justified in using deadly force where they perceive an imminent risk of death or significant bodily harm to themselves or others,” Buck said.

Virginia
Ex-jail warden convicted of fraud, denying inmates care
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — The former superintendent of a Virginia jail has been convicted on corruption charges for denying medical treatment to an inmate who suffered brutal attacks and giving preferential treatment to another inmate, including personally delivered ice cream, whose family made financial donations.

John Marshall Higgins, 62, was superintendent of the Rockbridge Regional Jail near Lexington until 2017, when he resigned after state police began an investigation of the jail. He also served two terms on the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors.

U.S. District Judge Norman Moon found Higgins guilty on three counts of denying an inmate his civil rights and three counts of honest services fraud related to his providing preferential treatment to the inmate.

He was acquitted on more than a dozen fraud counts alleging he illegally received thousands of dollars worth of free Viagra from the company that supplied the jail’s pharmaceuticals. Moon ruled that prosecutors had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Higgins received the drugs for free.

Testimony during last year’s bench trial in Lynchburg revealed that Higgins turned a blind eye when two sex offenders were beaten and tortured at the jail. One of the inmates was regularly attacked, forced to eat and drink bodily fluids, bleach and excrement. He was sodomized with a shampoo bottle in one assault.

Despite the apparent and severe injuries suffered by the inmate, Higgins rejected for several days requests from his lieutenants at the jail to transfer the inmate to a hospital.

The fraud convictions revolve around the treatment Higgins gave to inmate Nicholas Hansel, who was sentenced to three years in prison for aggravated involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving. A prison sentence of that length almost always requires transfer to a state prison, but Hansel served his sentence at the local jail.

Testimony revealed that Hansel was given private use of Higgins’ office for family visits and was immediately transferred into the least restrictive part of the jail on Higgins’ order. He was allowed out for work release on holidays when his employer was closed. Higgins brought Hansel ice cream and frozen yogurt, and even changed the jail’s cable package to offer more sports channels when Hansel complained.

The judge found that Hansel received the preferential treatment in exchange for thousands of dollars in donations made by Hansel’s family to a scholarship fund run by Higgins’ family.

Higgins’ lawyer, Grady Donaldson, said Monday he was still reviewing the judge’s written ruling and unable to comment.

New York
Hartford Courant wins appeal over secrecy in juvenile crimes
NEW YORK (AP) — The Hartford Courant triumphed Monday in its challenge to a Connecticut law sealing some juvenile court proceedings, including records in Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel’s murder case.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said a 2019 Connecticut law that kept secret the identities of juveniles when their cases were transferred to adult court was written too broadly to be constitutional, and the First Amendment requires a presumption of disclosure in these instances unless it can be proven confidentiality is necessary.

The decision came in a lawsuit challenging the law filed by the newspaper and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The law had only allowed records involving the juveniles to be unsealed if they were convicted. The three-judge appeals panel, in affirming a lower court judge’s decision last summer, said that wasn’t enough.

“There is a presumption of confidentiality when it could be the other way around,” the 2nd Circuit said in a decision written by Circuit Judge Denny Chin.

“Open trials assure the public that procedural rights are respected, and that justice is afforded equally. Closed trials breed suspicion of prejudice and arbitrariness, which in turn spawns disrespect for law. Public access is essential,” it added.

In its decision, the 2nd Circuit noted the law would have applied to Skakel’s murder case even though he is now in his 60s.

Skakel, a nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel Kennedy, was convicted in 2002 of killing a 15-year-old girl when he was 15 in 1975. He served over 11 years in prison before a judge reversed his conviction in 2013, citing mistakes by his trial lawyer. The state Supreme Court reinstated the murder conviction in 2016, but later reversed itself and overturned the conviction.

Prosecutors announced in October they would not retry him.

Records in Skakel’s case would have been mandatorily sealed because he was a juvenile when the killing occurred, even though he was 40 when he was charged, the appeals court said.

“The need to protect the confidentiality of juveniles is not implicated by Mr. Skakel’s case, and yet the statute’s broad scope reaches him, in a case of great public interest,” according to the decision.

Elizabeth Benton, a spokesperson for the Connecticut attorney general’s office, said lawyers were reviewing the decision and evaluating next steps.

In a statement, attorney Katie Townsend called the ruling “an important victory for judicial transparency.”

Townsend, who argued the appeal as legal director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the decision “will ensure that defendants in Connecticut that are criminally prosecuted as adults for serious crimes that they committed as juveniles will not be tried in secret.”

Washington
LuLaRoe to pay $4.75M to settle lawsuit over pyramid scheme
SEATTLE (AP) — The California-based multi-level marketing business LuLaRoe is paying $4.75 million to settle allegations from the Washington state Attorney General’s Office that it operated as a pyramid scheme.

LuLaRoe sells leggings and other clothing to a network of independent retailers, who can recruit other retailers to sell the company’s products.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson sued the company and its executives two years ago, saying they deceived people about how profitable it was to be a LuLaRoe retailer. While two people at the top made millions from 2016 to 2019, thousands of others were left with debt and unsold product, which they couldn’t return due to the company’s complex and misleading refund policy, he said.

Ferguson said that $4 million of the settlement will be distributed to about 3,000 Washington residents who were recruited to the company. “Every Washington retailer who lost money under LuLaRoe’s pyramid structure will receive restitution,” his office said in a news release.

The company denied wrongdoing in a consent decree filed late Monday in King County Superior Court in Seattle, but the agreement prohibits LuLaRoe from operating a pyramid scheme and requires it to be more transparent with retailers. Among other things, it must publish an income disclosure statement that accurately details how much retailers might earn.

Ferguson said LuLaRoe’s structure violated the state’s anti-pyramid scheme law, which defines enterprises as pyramid schemes if they offer the opportunity to earn compensation primarily from recruitment, rather than retail sales.

LuLaRoe did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.

Missouri
Lawmaker indicted for stem cell fraud scheme
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Missouri state legislator on fraud charges after she falsely promoted a treatment she was selling at medical clinics as containing stem cells that could treat various diseases, including COVID-19.

The 20-count indictment unsealed Monday also accuses 63-year-old Rep. Tricia Derges, a Republican from Nixa, Missouri, of illegally providing prescription drugs to clients and making false statements to federal agents investigating the case.

Derges did not immediately respond to phone and email messages seeking comment. She was released on her own recognizance after making an initial court appearance during which she pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Her defense attorney, Stacie Bilyeu, said that after the U.S. attorney’s office held a news conference to announce the indictment, Derges’ social media was flooded with comments by people who assumed by what they heard that she was guilty, which she called unfortunate.

“These are just allegations, these are just charges,” Bilyeu said. “Dr. Derges hasn’t been convicted of a thing and she is presumed innocent until, and if, she is — and that simply hasn’t happened yet.”

Prosecutors say Derges administered amniotic fluid, which she falsely claimed contained stem cells, as a treatment to patients who suffered from various diseases, including erectile dysfunction, Lyme disease and urinary incontinence.

Derges, who was elected in November 2020, also allegedly wrote in an April Facebook post: “This amazing treatment stands to provide a potential cure for COVID-19 patients that is safe and natural,” according to the indictment.

A National Institutes of Health panel recommends against stem cells’ use for COVID-19  outside of clinical trials.

U.S. Attorney Tim Garrison said in a news release that Derges abused “her privileged position to enrich herself” through deception.

“The indictment alleges she lied to her patients and she lied to federal agents,” Garrison said. “As an elected official and a health care provider, she deserves to be held to a high standard. This grand jury indictment exposes her deception and holds her accountable for her actions.”

Derges is not a physician but is licensed as an assistant physician, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. She operates three Ozark Valley Medical Clinic sites in Springfield, Ozark and Branson.

Her attorney contends Derges has a medical degree, although she couldn’t immediately recall from which university.

Eight counts against Derges involve five victims who lost nearly $200,000 in a fraud scheme that lasted from December 2018 to May 2020. She is also accused in 10 counts of distributing Oxycodone and Adderall over the internet without valid prescriptions. Two counts accuse her of making false statements to federal agents.

“Derges vowed to do no harm as a health care professional and was elected to serve the people, not deceive them,” said Timothy Langan, special agent in charge of the FBI in Kansas City, Missouri. “She used her position for personal gain and damaged the public’s trust.”

A jury trial was set for March 22.