Court Digest

Missouri
Ex-police chief who rescued baby pleads guilty to assault
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former suburban Kansas City police chief who helped rescue a baby from an icy pond and later assaulted the man accused of trying to kill the infant has pleaded guilty in the case.

Greg Hallgrimson, 51, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday, the Kansas City Star reported. He was indicted in 2019 on a single count of violating the civil rights of Jonathon Zicarelli.

Prosecutors have said Hallgrimson threw a handcuffed Zicarelli to the ground, punched him in the face and told Zicarelli, “You deserve to die,” after returning from the rescue mission to the Greenwood, Missouri, police station. Zicarelli had walked into the police station in December 2018 and said he had tried to drown his 6-month-old daughter in a nearby pond, police said.

Hallgrimson and another officer rushed to the pond and found the unconscious infant floating face up and her lungs filled with water. Hallgrimson and the other officer worked to warm and revive the baby until paramedics arrived and rushed her to a hospital, where she was treated for severe hypothermia.

Hallgrimson was put on administrative leave shortly after being accused of assaulting Zicarelli, which prosecutors say was captured on video. He resigned in May 2019.

Zicarelli remains in Jackson County jail on pending felony charges of domestic assault and child abuse.

South Carolina
Newspaper sues district after superintendent’s resignation
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina newspaper is suing a school district over officials’ lack of transparency in their handling of the resignation of a popular superintendent last month.

The State newspaper in Columbia reports that it filed the lawsuit in state court last week against the Lexington-Richland 5 school district.

The suit alleges that the school board approved a settlement agreement with former superintendent Christina Melton behind closed doors, never holding a public discussion or a vote as required by South Carolina’s open meeting laws.

Melton resigned unexpectedly last month following a closed-door executive session at a board meeting. A settlement agreement obtained by the newspaper showed the board agreed to pay Melton $226,368 on top of her regular salary and benefits in exchange for her departure. That agreement was never presented in public.

Melton’s resignation came shortly after she was named South Carolina’s Superintendent of the Year, a title she had to forfeit with the job.

The move prompted one board member to quit as well.

School board chair Jan Hammond defended the closed-door meeting when reached by the paper for comment, saying it was considered standard practice for the board.


Connecticut
Court overturns order in case of gun permit fingerprinting
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned a lower court order issued last year that required Connecticut to resume fingerprinting for gun permit applicants despite the state’s suspension of those services because of the coronavirus pandemic.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York vacated the preliminary injunction on technical grounds. The judges also noted local police resumed fingerprinting shortly before the June 2020 preliminary injunction was issued, and state police resumed the services shortly after it was issued.

The Connecticut Citizens Defense League and six people seeking gun permits sued Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, the state’s public safety commissioner and local police chiefs in federal court in New Haven, saying the suspension of fingerprinting services violated their Second Amendment gun rights. Judge Jeffrey Meyer agreed and issued the injunction requiring fingerprinting to resume.

The appeals court judges said the six plaintiffs’ claims were moot because fingerprinting resumed, and the defense league did not have legal standing to be a part of the case.

Craig Fishbein, a Republican state representative from Wallingford and a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said he disagreed with Wednesday’s ruling. He said the plaintiffs will be deciding how to respond.

State Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat who appealed the injunction, said the new ruling vindicates the governor’s authority to issue pandemic-related orders to protect public health.

Fishbein said the court case is continuing, however, because many local police agencies have stopped taking fingerprints, due to a lack of training to use a new state fingerprinting computer system. He also said gun shops are having trouble getting necessary approval from state police for firearm sales because of an understaffed phone system.


Florida
5 years’ prison for man in arson at racial protest
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison for torching a sporting goods store during racial protests in 2020.

A Tampa federal judge imposed the sentence on 21-year-old Terrance Lee Hester Jr., who pleaded guilty to an arson charge in April, according to court records.

Federal investigators say Hester was identified through video surveillance footage as he threw a flaming white cloth through a broken window at a Champs Sports store. Later, prosecutors say, he was seen with a burning palm frond moving toward the store’s back door.

Damage was estimated at $1.2 million. No one was injured. The potential maximum prison sentence for Hester was 20 years.

The store was burned during several nights of racial justice protests in Tampa following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer. Similar protests were held around the country.

The Tampa Bay Times reports that state prosecutors charged 120 people with 265 separate crimes related to the unrest, including burglary and grand theft. Hester’s father is among those charged in the looting of businesses.

Alabama
DOJ won’t defend Rep. Brooks in lawsuit over Capitol violence
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice won’t help defend U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama against a civil lawsuit that claims he helped to incite the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol.

In a court filing Tuesday, the Justice Department urged a judge to deny the congressman’s request for immunity as a federal employee over his remarks at a pro-Donald Trump rally that occurred before the rioting at the U.S. Capitol.

Brooks had argued that he was acting within the scope of his office when he spoke at a rally Jan. 6 and thus was due the legal protections afforded federal employees and members of Congress who are facing civil lawsuits over their jobs.

The Justice Department said the event was campaign-related and it would not certify that Brooks was acting in his official capacity.

“The record indicates that Brooks’ appearance at the January 6 rally was campaign activity, and it is no part of the business of the United States to pick sides among candidates in federal elections,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, who served as a House manager in Donald Trump’s last impeachment trial, filed a lawsuit in March against the former president and others, including Brooks, whose actions he charges led to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Brooks, now a candidate for U.S. Senate, has come under fire for telling the pro-Trump rally that preceded the Capitol riot that, “today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.” Brooks has maintained his words were intended to fire up the crowd for the next election cycle.

“Anyone with a brain larger than a pea knew that I was not advocating violence,” Brooks told The Associated Press earlier this year.

According to court filings, Brooks had argued that his appearance at the rally was within the scope of his office or employment because it was about the upcoming certification vote. He also noted that his constituents overwhelmingly supported Trump in the 2020 election.

Federal law known as the Westfall Act authorizes the Justice Department to determine whether an employee was acting within the scope of their office or employment in an incident that is subject to a lawsuit claim. If the Justice Department certifies that the employee was doing so, the employee is dismissed and the action proceeds against the United States.

In rejecting Brooks’ request for certification, the Justice Department wrote, “it appears that the fundamental purpose of the rally was to advance the electoral success of a presidential candidate.”

Ohio
$1M bail set for man accused of killing couple at wildlife campsite
MCCONNELSVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Bail has been set at $1 million for a man charged with aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of a couple found dead at a campsite in southeastern Ohio.

Brian Jason Weimert, 43, of Sidney made his initial court appearance Wednesday. It’s not known if he’s retained an attorney.

Weimert is accused of killing Steven Sturgill Jr., 36, and his 39-year-old girlfriend, Chrystal Burchett. Relatives had reported the Circleville residents as missing after they were unable to contact them for about three weeks.

The Morgan County sheriff’s office was asked Monday afternoon to help the Ohio Department of Natural Resources check on the couple, who were camping at the Equine Area of the Appalachian Hills Wildlife area, formerly known as AEP Recreation Lands. The wildlife area is a heavily forested 35,396-acre property that extends across the three southeastern Ohio counties of Morgan, Muskingum, and Noble.

The missing couple’s trailer and vehicle were found and the woods around the equine area were searched into the early morning hours Tuesday. The sheriff’s office said the couple’s bodies were found in two different locations.

Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive for the slayings or said if Weimert knew either victim.

Colorado
Ex-judge who told friend of drug investigation sentenced
DENVER (AP) — A former Weld County District Judge who tipped off a friend that a mutual acquaintance was the target of a federal drug investigation has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

U.S. District Court Judge William Martinez sentenced 42-year-old Ryan Kamada on Wednesday, The Greeley Tribune reported. Kamada was also sentenced to two years of probation upon his release.

Kamada had pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge of obstructing an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the Weld County Drug Task Force.

He tipped off his friend in 2019 after learning about the investigation when officers asked him to sign a search warrant. He warned the friend via text to stay away from the acquaintance because of the investigation. The friend then tipped off the acquaintance.

Both men were later arrested as part of the drug investigation, which resulted the indictment of 19 people.

Kamada resigned in August 2019. He was censured in 2020 by the Colorado Supreme Court. According to the censure, Kamada frequently texted his friends inappropriate comments about what was happening in his courtroom.

“I’m ashamed of what I’ve done and all the ethics I’ve violated,” he said at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.

Nevada
Judge allows tribes to join fight over lithium mine
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A judge has cleared the way for two tribes to join an ongoing legal battle over plans to build a Nevada mine at the largest known U.S. deposit of lithium and seek a temporary ban on digging for an archaeological survey they say would desecrate sacred tribal lands near the Oregon line.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du granted formal intervenor status in Reno late Wednesday for the Reno Indian Colony and Asta Koodakuk Wyh Nuwu/People of Red Mountain in a lawsuit against Lithium Nevada Corp. The tribes say their ancestors were massacred in the late 1800s at the proposed Thacker Pass mine site.

They say the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the project during a December rush in the final days of the Trump administration violates the National Historic Preservation Act because they haven’t been consulted about potential mitigation efforts.

Last week, the judge rejected a request from four conservation groups that sought to block the digging of sample trenches based on claims it would destroy critical sage grouse habitat.

But she indicated during a hearing at the time that the tribes might be in a better legal position to argue they would suffer irreparable harm necessary for an injunction.