Court Digest

Wisconsin
Family of man killed by police to appeal ruling on lawsuit
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The family of a man who was shot and killed by a Green Bay police officer said Sunday they will appeal a federal judge’s decision to throw out their lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge William Griesbach this past week dismissed the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the city of Green Bay, Brown County and law enforcement officials filed by the estate of Jonathon Tubby.

Tubby was handcuffed and unarmed when Green Bay Officer Erik O’Brien shot him five times and killed him at the Brown County Jail in October 2018. Authorities had arrested Tubby on a warrant during a downtown traffic stop.

After an investigation by the state Department of Justice, Brown County District Attorney David Lasee ruled O’Brien acted within the law, and would not face charges. O’Brien maintained he believed Tubby was armed and therefore was justified in shooting him.

The city asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, noting that the use of force was ruled justified.

Family members of the 26-year-old Tubby say they are sending the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. The family told WBAY-TV  they will also appeal a bill from Brown County for nearly $20,0000.

South Dakota
Contempt hearing set over judge’s order requiring COVID-19 vaccine
ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) — A federal judge in Aberdeen will decide whether three members of the U.S. Marshals Service should be found in civil contempt over his requirement to have everyone in his courtroom vaccinated for the coronavirus.

Judge Charles Kornmann notified courthouse employees in March that the vaccinations would be required in order to provide the safest environment for everyone.

The U.S. marshal for South Dakota, Daniel Mosteller, responded to the judge, telling him the U.S. Marshals Service is not requiring employees to get the vaccine and that they will not provide their vaccination status to the court.

Kornmann held his first courtroom session for the year on May 10. The U.S. marshal who brought the first defendant into the courtroom refused to disclose her vaccination status, Aberdeen American News reported. As a result, Kornmann told the marshal to leave and pulled in a different deputy marshal to sit in the courtroom.

Chief deputy marshal, Stephen Houghtaling, told Kornmann by phone that the remaining defendants scheduled for hearings had been removed from the courthouse because the marshals service didn’t think it could keep the courtroom secure without two marshals in the room.

Kornmann noted that the marshals service hasn’t followed that practice in the past.

The judge ordered Mosteller, Houghtaling and the chief of staff for the U.S. Marshals Service, John Kilgallon, to appear at a hearing June 14.

Nebraska
Inmates’ fight to wed ends after one of them dies
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Two convicted murderers who fought Nebraska officials in court for years for the right to marry each other will never have the chance to wed after one of their deaths earlier this year.

The death of 40-year-old Nicole Wetherell in February also ended the court case she and Paul Gillpatrick, 49, had waged since 2014 before any precedent could be established. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed their case Wednesday before deciding the state’s appeal, according  to the Omaha World-Herald.

Gillpatrick and Wetherell had been engaged since 2011, but officials consistently denied their request to marry because the corrections department was unwilling to transport either of them to the other’s prison for a wedding ceremony, or allow them to marry via video.

Gillpatrick, who is in a Lincoln prison, was sentenced in 2010 to 55 to 90 years for second-degree murder. Wetherell was serving a life sentence at a prison in York for first-degree murder. The two met through a mutual friend in the 1990s.

Wetherell died Feb. 26 with an undisclosed medical condition, officials said.

A U.S. District Judge ruled in the couple’s favor in 2019, but that decision was put on hold while the state appealed.

The head of the Nebraska American Civil Liberties Union Danielle Conrad said the case is a reminder that “justice delayed is justice denied.” The ACLU represented the couple.

“The bottom line is this: Our clients were simply asking for the ability to marry. Marriage is a fundamental right, including for Nebraskans who are incarcerated,” Conrad said.

She said Gillpatrick and his legal team are evaluating his options.

Oklahoma
District attorney picked to investigate ex-state judge
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The state has chosen the district attorney of four southwestern Oklahoma counties to consider sexual misconduct charges against a former judge.

The state attorney general’s office appointed Jason Hicks on Friday after he agreed to take on the case against former Oklahoma County Judge Tim Henderson, The Oklahoman reported. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has been investigating sexual misconduct allegations against Henderson involving five women.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater asked the OSBI to investigate two female assistant district attorneys’ accusations against the married judge.

Prater recused himself after Henderson’s attorney told The Oklahoman that the relationships had been consensual. However, the female prosecutors said they were shocked by Henderson’s advances and kept silent for fear that their careers would be ruined.

Hicks is the chief prosecutor for Caddo, Grady, Jefferson and Stephens counties.

Henderson, 62, is a former Edmond police officer, prosecutor and defense attorney who became a state district judge in July 2012. He was suspended on March 26 in the wake of the allegations and formally resigned in April.


Oklahoma
Prosecutor argues that McGirt is not retroactive
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma court has agreed to consider a prosecutor’s assertion that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state lacks jurisdiction for certain crimes on land within tribal reservations is not retroactive.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday granted Pushmataha County District Attorney Mark Matloff’s request for a stay of court proceedings in the case of Clifton Parish and directed Matloff and defense attorney Debra Hampton to file briefs in the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in what is known as the McGirt decision that Oklahoma lacks jurisdiction for crimes committed on tribal reservations in which the defendants or victims were tribal citizens.

A state district judge in April overturned Parish’s second-degree murder conviction in the 2010 beating and shooting death of Robert Strickland, ruling that Parish is a member of the Choctaw Nation and the crime occurred within the historic Choctaw Reservation.

Federal murder charges have since been filed against Parish, who pleaded not guilty.

Matloff says a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in a separate case found the Supreme Court did not apply its McGirt ruling retroactively.

Hampton, Parish’s attorney, did not immediately return a phone call for comment Saturday.


Virginia
Man pleads guilty to stealing $276K in dating scams
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Maryland man has pleaded guilty in Virginia to defrauding women whom he met through online dating websites, using phony identities to dupe them into sending him money.

Eugene Johnson Jr., 39, of Leonardtown, Maryland, stole a total of more than $276,00 from at least eight women, according to a court filing that accompanied his guilty plea on Friday to a mail fraud charge.

Johnson faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson is scheduled to sentence Johnson on Sept. 17.

Johnson used false names and identities, such as posing as a U.S. Marine with a son whose mother had died, to strike up romantic relationships with his victims and solicit money from them “for various pressing financial needs,” Friday’s court filing says.

“Although his claims varied, they generally involved some form of car, financial, legal, or health problems about which Johnson claimed to be very emotional,” it adds.

Plenty of Fish, a Canadian online dating service, was one of the platforms that Johnson used to contact women and convince them to wire him money. He often texted the women from different phone numbers to pose as people who could corroborate his stories, including his mother and law enforcement and military officers.

“None of these women would have given the defendant money if she had known that he was not who he claimed to be, did not intend to pursue a romantic relationship with her, would not spend the money on the expenses for which she had sent it, and could not and did not intend to repay her as claimed,” the court filing says.

South Carolina
Woman guilty of shooting Black man while yelling epithets
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina woman was convicted of shooting into her African American and Mexican neighbors’ homes while shouting racial epithets, prompting the sheriff on the case to say the state needs a hate crimes law.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told  The State newspaper that such a law would have let the judge enhance the 20-year sentence given to Mandy Fortson after a jury on Friday found her guilty of attempted murder and other charges.

Prosecutors said Fortson went into her backyard in 2017 and shot at two of her neighbors’ homes — an apartment with an African American family and a house with a Mexican family — while children were inside both dwellings.

Authorities said Fortson, who is white, yelled racial epithets about African Americans and Mexicans while firing a nearly foot-long revolver.

An African American man was struck by the bullets in the wrist and the hip, 5th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Byron Gipson said. No one was physically injured in the other home, though the family’s children remain traumatized, Gipson added.

During her trial, Fortson, a former county paramedic, denied shooting into the homes. Prosecutors said they never identified a motive for the crime despite the amount of evidence against Fortson.

Gipson told the newspaper that if a hate crimes law existed, he would have prosecuted Fortson under it.

“This shows the need for a hate crime law,” Lott said.

South Carolina is one of only three states without such a law. Legislators are considering a bill that would allow prosecutors to ask a jury to recommend extra punishment for a violent crime motivated by the victim’s race, religion, sex, gender, national origin, sexual orientation or physical or mental disability.

The measure passed the state House this year and is now on the Senate floor.  Senators didn’t take up the bill before adjourning earlier this month.


Washington
Over a dozen JBLM families sue over housing conditions
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Fifteen military families have filed a lawsuit against a private company that manages housing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord over living conditions they say caused property damage and health problems.

The 51 plaintiffs filed the lawsuit earlier this month in Pierce County Superior Court against Lewis McChord Communities LLC and its parent company, Lincoln Military Housing. The Olympian reported.

The lawsuit also names 50 John or Jane Doe defendants described as people, companies and employees who worked at the homes.

The lawsuit says the plaintiffs had water leaks leading to mold growth in their homes which thrived because of mismanagement and inadequate maintenance. The families included in the JBLM lawsuit lived on base between 2016 and 2020, court documents said.

The families said these issues caused blurred vision, fatigue, nasal congestion, body aches, headaches, and cough, among other symptoms.

Officials from Lincoln Military Housing said in a statement they are aware of the lawsuit and are “fully committed to ensuring our residents live in a safe and healthy environment every day.”

A spokesperson for JBLM said officials on the base will monitor the lawsuit closely.

In the last five years, almost a dozen lawsuits have been brought against Lincoln in local and federal courts across the country.

The families are asking for compensation in an amount to be proven at trial.

In 2020, Lincoln started a $70 million project to renovate more than 400 homes on JBLM. Lincoln  currently manages over 36,000 military homes nationwide.