Court Digest

Washington
4 students injured in bus crash awarded $1.4M
SEATTLE (AP) — A jury has awarded four former marching band students at the University of Washington more than $1.4 million after they were injured in a bus crash on their way to a football competition with rival Washington State University.

Students Alexia Brown, Edith Myers-Power, Monica Mursch and Jacob Koreen sued the charter bus company MTRWestern, KOMO-TV reported  Thursday.

Herrmann Law Group, which represented the four students, said there was ice on the road and that the bus driver failed to slow down, lost control and crashed. The bus did not have seatbelts.

The marching band students were headed to the 2018 Apple Cup in Pullman when the charter bus rolled onto its side near the town of George, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) from the students’ destination. Authorities said 45 of the 56 people aboard the bus were injured.

The four students who filed the lawsuit will each receive a portion of the $1,482,2000.

Brown, a saxophone player, was awarded the largest amount of $569,000. Attorneys said she was ejected from the bus during the crash and suffered multiple fractures to her spine and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Myers-Power, also a saxophone player, received surgery on her shoulder and was unable to march again. Monica Mursch, also a saxophone player, broke her clavicle and Jacob Koreen, a baritone player, suffered bruises, lacerations and PTSD.

“After this long fight for justice, we are pleased the jury agreed this was a horrible crash,” Anthony Marsh, of Hermann Law Group, told  KCPQ-TV. “These four students survived an astounding tragedy. We hope anyone on the bus still fighting for justice will keep fighting until they get what is fair.”

“This was a tragic accident on all accounts, out hearts go to those who were affected by this event,” MTRWestern President Jeremy Butzlaff told The Associated Press in an email on Friday. “Then, as of now, we remain steadfast in our commitment to safety and we wish these students all the very best.”

Iowa
Industry foe charged under state’s new food trespassing law
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An animal rights activist whose investigations and pranks have made him a leading foe of the livestock industry has been charged with trespassing at a pig facility, in the first case brought under Iowa’s latest law aimed at protecting farming operations from intruders.

Matthew Johnson, 35, is charged with trespassing at a food operation for his presence Feb. 5 outside an Iowa Select Farms sow operation in Dows, 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Des Moines.

Investigators say surveillance video captured Johnson approach one of the buildings and try to pull a door to determine if it was locked before running away. Iowa Select Farms, one of the nation’s largest pork producers, turned over the footage to the Wright County sheriff’s office, and Johnson was charged last month.

Under the so-called ag-gag law signed by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in June, trespassing at a food operation is an aggravated misdemeanor that carries up to two years in prison and a $8,540 fine. A second offense is a felony that carries up to five years behind bars. Those are far harsher penalties than trespassing elsewhere, a simple misdemeanor that carries up to 30 days in jail and a $855 fine.

Johnson said Thursday that he was at the site filming videos for social media and trying to check on animals that “are living lives of horrific suffering” but that he never went inside any building. Separately, he is awaiting trial on burglary and electronic eavesdropping charges for allegedly entering the same facility on May 25, 2020, leaving recording equipment and taking a piglet that he said he rescued from slaughter.

Lawmakers say they increased the penalties for trespassing at livestock operations to protect farmers from harassment and deter intrusions that threaten the safety of the state’s multibillion-dollar agriculture industry.

Bill sponsor and Republican state Sen. Ken Rozenboom said Johnson and other activists have trespassed at his hog facilities four times.

“Every time he and his henchmen do that, they violate biosecurity protocols that are necessary to keep our food supply safe. And we simply can’t tolerate that kind of reckless, and I would say evil, intent,” he said.

But Johnson said activists follow biosecurity measures that are greater than the industry standard. He and other critics say the law targets undercover investigations that expose poor conditions for animals and turn public opinion against the meat industry.
Two previous Iowa laws that targeted undercover livestock investigations, passed in 2012 and 2019, have been put on hold amid legal challenges. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule soon on a federal judge’s decision that the initial law was unconstitutional because it criminalized protected speech.

Meanwhile, Iowa lawmakers moved this week to target Johnson’s tactics again by enhancing penalties for people who place surveillance equipment while trespassing and who take unauthorized samples from livestock for disease testing. The governor could soon sign the bill into law.

Johnson, a researcher with the group Direct Action Everywhere, last year placed recording equipment at another Iowa Select Farms property and documented company workers using heat and steam to kill thousands of hogs in what he called a barbaric practice.

The company defended the method, known as ventilation shutdown, as a veterinary-approved way to depopulate its farms after the COVID-19 pandemic slowed production at plants and left nowhere for the animals to go. But Iowa Select stopped using the practice shortly after Johnson’s expose. Prosecutors dropped related charges against Johnson after the company said it did not want to testify at trial.

In December, Johnson posed as the CEO of Smithfield Foods during a live interview on Fox Business, warning that farms “can sometimes be petri dishes for new diseases” and pledging $500 million annually to offset the environmental impact of the meat industry. Anchor Maria Bartiromo said on the air that she was “punked.”

Johnson said that he will likely use the charge to challenge the constitutionality of the new law.

Justin Merceau, a University of Denver law professor who has been involved in challenging “ag-gag” laws in Iowa and elsewhere, said it’s stunning that lawmakers responded to Johnson’s expose of hog deaths not by banning the practice but by going after the messenger. He said Johnson could someday be seen as a transformational figure for his work informing the public about the meat industry.

“He is doing the work on the underbelly of this beast that has been too dirty, too controversial and too risky for most people,” Merceau said. “He has that appetite and fearlessness. I imagine he is public enemy No. 1.”

Texas
Boeing sues subcontractor over work on Air Force One planes
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Boeing is suing a subcontractor it hired for work on new Air Force One planes used to carry the president, saying the company ran into financial problems and missed deadlines.

The aircraft maker said the subcontractor’s problems have caused millions in damages to Boeing and jeopardized work that is critically important to the U.S. Air Force and the president.

“Despite this situation we are not behind schedule and we still plan to meet the Air Force’s delivery schedule,” Boeing spokeswoman Deborah VanNierop said Friday. She said the company will find new suppliers or do the work itself.

The lawsuit was filed this week in a Texas state court in Fort Worth. GDC did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a $3.9 billion contract in 2018 to convert two Boeing 747-8 planes into the iconic presidential jets  and deliver them by December 2024. Boeing hired GDC for work on Air Force One and other executive planes used to carry government officials.

Boeing is currently working on electrical power upgrades, communication systems, executive interiors and other work on the planes at a Boeing facility in San Antonio, Texas, VanNierop said.

The lawsuit was first reported by KXAS-TV, the NBC affiliate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Wisconsin
Poisoning death conviction vacated, man heads back to trial
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A judge has vacated the conviction of a man who is heading back to trial in Kenosha County on charges of killing his wife with antifreeze.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled last month that Mark Jensen deserves a new trial in the 1998 death of his wife Julie Jensen. The high court ruled a letter Jensen’s wife wrote incriminating him in the event something should happen to her cannot be used by the prosecution.

Jensen has maintained his innocence with his attorneys arguing that Julie Jensen was depressed and killed herself after framing her husband.

Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Chad Kerkman vacated Jensen’s conviction Thursday and reinstated his bond. Jensen appeared virtually from Dodge Correctional Institution in Waupun, the Kenosha News  reported.

Jensen was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in 2008 after a jury convicted him. A series of appeals followed and in 2013 a federal court overturned his conviction and ordered that he be retried or released from prison.

When a second prosecution began in 2017, Judge Kerkman ruled the letter should be admitted and reinstated Jensen’s conviction without a trial.

The state Supreme Court ruled in March that Jensen must receive a new trial and that the letter and incriminating statements his wife made cannot be used by prosecutors.

Jensen is scheduled to return to court on May 7 for a bond hearing. He was being held on $1.2 million bond.

Oregon
Inmates sue over county’s handling of COVID-19
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — More than a dozen current and former inmates have sued Multnomah County over its handling of COVID-19.

In federal court documents filed this week, the inmates allege they contracted the virus at the county’s Inverness Jail because they were denied proper testing and treatment, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.

The complaint filed Monday in Portland also says the county knowingly put infected guards and inmates with those who were not infected, further spreading the disease.

The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, which staffs the jail, says in a statement it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

On Feb. 17, more than 37% of inmates tested positive for COVID-19, court papers say, while the general population of Oregon was contracting the virus at a rate of 3.5%.

“The reason for the outbreak is not a mystery,” the lawsuit says. “Inverness does not enforce use of PPE by its staff. Inverness corrections staff routinely do not wear masks and express statements disapproving of wearing masks. Not wearing masks placed plaintiffs at immediate risk of harm by spread of COVID-19.”