National Roundup

Iowa
Dubuque to pay $1.8M to settle discrimination lawsuit by police
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — The city of Dubuque will pay more than $1.8 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by a former police captain who accused the city and police chief of fostering a culture of sexism in the department.

The city does not admit any wrongdoing in approving the settlement, which goes to Abby Simon and her lawyers, the Telegraph Herald reported  Tuesday.

Simon said in her lawsuit  that she was passed over in 2016 and 2017 for promotion to captain, despite having received better test and interview scores than the men who were promoted. Simon was promoted to captain in 2018 after filing a complaint, but said she faced hostility from fellow officers and Chief Mark Dalsing.

That included an email Dalsing sent to colleagues lamenting that the department was “forced” to create a new captain’s position for Simon after she complained of discrimination, the lawsuit said. Simon said City Manager Mike Van Milligen also asked her “whether she had thought about the long-term consequences if she sued the city.”

Simon was the highest-ranking woman in the department when she retired in January 2020, citing what she said was City Council members’ refusal to hold Dalsing and Van Milligen accountable.

In court filings, Dalsing and the city denied Simon’s claims. Dalsing did not immediately return phone and email messages left Tuesday morning by The Associated Press seeking comment. Van Milligen declined to comment.

Attorneys for the city, Mayor Roy Buol and other city officials declined to comment on the settlement to the Telegraph Herald.

Ohio
Dozens more OSU over doc’s sexual misconduct
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Dozens more men are suing Ohio State over the university’s failure to stop sexual abuse and misconduct decades ago by team doctor Richard Strauss.

They echo claims filed previously by over 400 men, many of whom allege they were groped during required medical exams or while seeking treatment for unrelated ailments. New claims from at least 41 plaintiffs were filed in two federal lawsuits on Friday and one on Monday, which marked two years since a report from a law firm investigation concluded university employees were aware of concerns about Strauss as early as 1979 but didn’t stop him.

“With this suit, plaintiffs seek to hold OSU accountable for its failures, and to ensure that something like this can never happen again,” lawyers wrote in one of the new cases.

Strauss, who died in 2005, has been accused of abusing young men throughout his two decades at the school.

The university has publicly apologized, promised a “monetary resolution” for survivors and already reached nearly $47 million in settlements for 185 plaintiffs. It also recently announced an individual settlement program that could help resolve more claims from five of the remaining lawsuits.

No one has publicly defended Strauss since alumni began stepping forward in 2018 with allegations about the doctor’s misconduct.

Until then, and even until results of the law firm’s investigation made national headlines in 2019, many of the men thought their experiences were isolated, didn’t recognize those as sexual assault, or didn’t know that school officials had been aware of concerns during the doctor’s tenure, the newest plaintiffs said in their court filings.

Among them is an Ohio man who alleges he was repeatedly fondled by Strauss during exams when the plaintiff was a high schooler and his coach brought him to the university campus to practice as a prospective athlete for its swimming team. The alleged abuse occurred between 1978 and 1981, in the doctor’s earliest years at the school, according to the complaint.

The newest plaintiffs, most of whom filed anonymously, also include former athletes in football, basketball, wrestling, ice hockey, track and field, lacrosse, baseball, volleyball, gymnastics, swimming and diving, as well as a former student who was treated by Strauss at the health center in 1996.

Georgia
Lawyers say detainees in jail are being denied access to pens
ATLANTA (AP) — People held in a Georgia jail are being denied access to pens, effectively eliminating their ability to communicate with their lawyers by mail, according to a filing in federal court.

Civil rights groups sued Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill and several of his high-ranking subordinates in July, alleging that overcrowding, a lack of personal protective equipment and limited access to cleaning and sanitation supplies were putting people in the county jail at risk of exposure to the coronavirus. A judge in December approved class-action status for the lawsuit, meaning it would include all current and future detainees.

After lawyers began communicating by mail with a large number of detainees, jail officials abruptly changed policy to declare pens contraband, confiscated all detainees’ pens and stopped selling them through the commissary, according to a filing Thursday in federal court.

The “unprecedented policy” has no legitimate purpose, keeps people held in the jail from being able to communicate confidentially with their lawyers by mail and makes it difficult for the lawyers to gather necessary information from their clients, the filing says. It also violates the constitutional rights of the lawyers and their clients and “supports an inference of unlawful retaliation for protected speech,” the filing says.

COVID-19 has already “substantially restricted” the lawyers’ access to their clients at the jail, and virtual legal visits last only 30 minutes and cost about $12, the filing says. Given that the class size is roughly 2,000 people, mail is also the most efficient way for the lawyers to communicate with their clients, the filing says.

The filing asks a judge to issue an order to ensure that people held in the jail can communicate with their lawyers by mail.

No one in the sheriff’s office responded immediately Monday to a voicemail from The Associated Press seeking comment.

A lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which filed the class-action suit along with the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote two letters in April to the jail officials’ lawyer asking him to investigate and remedy the situation.

In an email that was attached as an exhibit to the court filing, Jack Hancock, the lawyer for the jail officials, said detainees are no longer able to buy or keep pens “as a result of the use of the pens as weapons.” Hancock said detainees can get pens from jail staff but cannot keep them longer than necessary. He also noted that detainees have access to kiosks that allow them to email and text.

Sworn declarations from people held in the jail and attached to the court filing say the pens they used to get were short and extremely flexible, specifically to keep them from being used as weapons. They also say jail staff haven’t let them access pens at all since the policy change.