Court Digest

Oregon
Judge dismisses transgender woman’s lawsuit against pageant
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by a transgender woman who accused the the Miss United States of America pageant corporation of discrimination for denying her the right to participate in competitions.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman found that the pageant association cannot be required to allow a transgender woman to participate in light of its mission to promote “natural-born” females, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

“I view it as an association that cannot under the Constitution be required to allow plaintiff to participate in what defendant says is a contradiction of that message,” Mosman ruled from the bench.
Anita Noelle Green of Clackamas, Oregon said she was disappointed in the ruling.

“This case brought awareness to an issue many people were and still are unaware of and that issue is that discrimination against transgender people is still actively happening in the private and public sector even within the pageant circuit,” Green said in a statement.

Attorney John T. Kaempf, who represented Miss United States of America LLC, said his client is not anti-transgender but just wants to hold a pageant that is only for biological females.

Green holds the title of 2019 Miss Earth Elite Oregon and competed in the 2018 Miss Montana contest.

Her application to participate in the Miss United States of America national pageant in 2019 was rejected.

Missouri
St. Louis prosecutor seeks to take back McCloskey case
ST. LOUIS (AP) — St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner has asked the Missouri Supreme Court to restore her authority to prosecute a couple accused of wielding guns at racial injustice protesters last summer.

Gardner’s office on Thursday petitioned the state Supreme Court to block a judge’s order disqualifying her and her office from prosecuting the case against Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, each pleaded not guilty in October to charges of unlawful use of a weapon and evidence tampering. Gardner was disqualified in December after a judge ruled she created an appearance of impropriety by mentioning the McCloskey case in fundraising emails before the August Democratic primary. She went on to win reelection.

On Wednesday, former U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan was appointed special prosecutor by Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer.

The McCloskeys are accused of waving guns at the protesters as they walked by the couple’s mansion during a racial injustice protest in June. They are also accused of altering the pistol that Patricia McCloskey was holding that day.

California
9th Circuit eyes state ban on high-capacity magazines
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal appeals court said Thursday that it will reconsider a three-judge court’s split ruling last year throwing out California’s ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, a decision with potential impact in other states.

An 11-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear the case after two members of the three-judge appellate panel ruled in August that California’s ban on magazines holding more than 10 bullets violates the U.S. Constitution’s protection of the right to bear firearms.

The third member had said the ruling conflicts with decisions in six other federal appellate courts across the nation, and with a 2015 ruling by a different panel of the 9th Circuit itself.

Advocates on both sides said they are eager for a rematch — a reflection of the changing nature of the federal courts.

The once notoriously liberal 9th Circuit has shifted to the right with recent appointments by former President Donald Trump, and gun owner rights groups are anxious to get such laws before the more conservative U.S. Supreme Court. However, a majority of the nation’s high court in June declined to consider several challenges to federal and state gun control laws, including Massachusetts’ ban on large-capacity ammunition magazines.

“We’re excited to have another opportunity to defend what Californians already know – law-abiding citizens’ ability to purchase, possess, and use standard-capacity magazines in California is a fundamental civil right and shall not be infringed,” said Chuck Michel, the California Rifle & Pistol Association’s president and general counsel.

State Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who is awaiting confirmation to join new President Joseph Biden’s Cabinet, called the rehearing decision “critical” and “the next step in the defense (of) our state’s commonsense gun laws.”

“Large-capacity magazines have been used in many horrific mass shootings around the country, including right here in California,” Becerra said in a statement.

The gun control group Brady, which advocates in Congress and the states, said it is “hopeful” the larger appeals panel will uphold the state’s ban.

“The Constitution, properly understood, should not entitle people to weapons of war, or prevent states from prohibiting military-style firearms or the large capacity magazines they use,” said Jonathan Lowy, the group’s chief counsel.

The two-paragraph announcement from the appeals court vacated the three-judge decision. But a lower court’s ruling in 2017 still prohibits the state from enforcing a law that would have barred gun owners from possessing magazines holding more than 10 bullets, Michel said.

San Diego-based U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez and the three-judge appellate panel went further by declaring unconstitutional a state law that had prohibited buying or selling such magazines since 2000. That law had let those who had the magazines before then keep them, but barred new sales or imports.


Wisconsin
Mall shooting case staying in juvenile court
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The case of a 15-year-old Milwaukee boy charged with shooting and wounding eight people at a suburban mall last year will remain in juvenile court, a judge has ruled.

In a petition for juvenile delinquency, the teen faces eight felony counts of first-degree reckless injury and one misdemeanor count of possessing a firearm while under 18 in connection with the  Nov. 20 shooting  at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa.

Before Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Brittany Grayson issued her ruling Thursday, prosecutors argued that because of the seriousness of the shooting, and the trauma it inflicted on the victims and the community, the teen should be locked up longer than the few months he would face if he is found delinquent in juvenile proceedings.

“It’s only by luck, and perhaps the grace of God, that no one was killed,” said Assistant District Attorney Sara Waldschmidt.

Assistant Public Defender Paul Rifelj argued that the boy’s personality was that of a child and that the treatment services available to him in the juvenile system would be best to help him.

Grayson agreed with Rifelj, who argued the state had not met its burden to support moving the case to adult court, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  reported.

The Milwaukee County Division of Youth and Family Services had recommended that the teen remain in juvenile court.

According to the petition, the teen and a friend were in the mall when the friend confronted a group of people descending an escalator — yelling and then punching one person in the group. Witnesses told police the teen was farther back and “took a shooter’s stance.” He began firing with a handgun drawn from his waistband, the petition said.

The teen fled and was arrested two days later in a car with Illinois plates, with a packed bag and the handgun police said was used in the shooting, according to the petition. He has remained in detention since his arrest.
The Associated Press is not naming the teen because he is charged as a juvenile.

Illinois
Man gets time served for not testifying about 2015 shooting
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago man who was wounded during a 2015 gang-related shooting that left a bystander dead was sentenced Thursday to time served for refusing to tell a grand jury who fired the shots.

Federal prosecutors charged Deshawn Danzler, 26, with contempt of court for refusing to answer questions about the shooting during a 2019 grand jury appearance. They asked U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman to sentence the 26-year-old Danzler to up 12-1/2 years in prison. However, Guzman handed down a two-year sentence with time considered served.

Guzman said Danzler, who was in federal custody for two year, made a mockery of the criminal justice system, but considered Danzler’s apology to the court and his violent upbringing, including the 2009 murder of his 11-year-old brother and losing cousins, friends and neighbors to violence and addiction.

The  Chicago Tribune reports Danzler told Chicago detectives while hospitalized he didn’t see the man who shot him and bystander Hammood Dawoudi, 23, in Danzler’s apartment. However, federal prosecutors contended he received a taunting telephone call from the suspected shooter the next day. Authorities also recorded telephone calls between Danzler and his brother, during which the shooter was named.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert Berry III contended Danzler deserved a substantial prison sentence because he’d “shown a loyalty to an abhorrent code of the street.”

Danzler, in federal custody for nearly two years, is serving a nine-year Illinois prison sentence for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Once that sentence is complete, he’ll be released under the supervision of Guzman for three years. The judge ordered Danzler to seek employment, attend drug counseling and avoid contact with gang members.

“This was a gift,” Guzman told Danzler. “If you don’t abide by my conditions, you will be right back in jail.”

No one has been arrested for the fatal shooting of Dawoudi. However, prosecutors say the suspected gunman is in custody on charges stemming from another unrelated killing.