Court Digest

North Dakota
Judge tosses death sentence in slaying of student
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has thrown out the death sentence for a man convicted in the 2003 slaying of a North Dakota college student.

Judge Ralph Erickson ruled Friday that misleading testimony from a medical examiner and limitations on mental health evidence had violated Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.’s constitutional rights. He ordered a new sentencing phase be conducted.

Rodriguez has been on death row at a federal prison for nearly two decades in the death of Dru Sjodin, a Minnesota woman who was abducted from a Grand Forks mall parking lot in November 2003.

Rodriguez, a sex offender, was arrested the following month. Despite several massive searches, Sjodin’s body wasn’t found until the following April near Crookston, Minnesota.

In his ruling, Erickson wrote that Ramsey County Medical Examiner Michael McGee’s testimony had been “unreliable, misleading and inaccurate” about the cause of Sjodin’s death. He also wrote that Rodriguez’s attorneys did a disservice to Rodriguez by choosing to limit a mental health evaluation of their client that could have cost him a possible insanity defense.

“While it is beyond question that Rodriguez abducted and murdered Sjodin, the evidence now in the record has led the Court to conclude that errors were made that violate the United States Constitution such that due process demands a new penalty phase trial be held,” Erickson wrote.

Washington
Murder conviction overturned due to use of racist stereotype
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A man accused of fatally shooting an ex-girlfriend in 2017 at her Milton apartment has won his appeal after he successfully argued that prosecutorial misconduct deprived him of a fair trial.

The News Tribune reported Monday that a three-judge panel of Division II of the Washington State Court of Appeals overturned his convictions Aug. 31, saying prosecutors committed misconduct in suggesting racist stereotypes to the jury.

A Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson said the office is deciding whether to ask the state Supreme Court to review the decision.

Jurors convicted Joshua Kioni Ellis of second-degree murder for the death of 25-yar-old Wendi Traynor, and Ellis was sentenced to over 23 years in prison.

Prosecutors told jurors Ellis shot Traynor about a month after she had left their home in Kentucky and moved back to Washington. Her family found her body about a week after the shooting.

Ellis argued at trial that he killed Traynor in self-defense as she reached for a gun.

On appeal, Ellis argued that deputy prosecutor John Neeb’s reference to The People v. O.J. Simpson and an implicit bias exercise were improper during jury selection.

“Ellis argues that the prosecutor committed misconduct during voir dire because he invoked racial stereotypes and appealed to the prejudice of the jury,” Judge Bernard Veljacic wrote for the panel. “Because the prosecutor committed misconduct that deprived Ellis of a fair trial, we reverse his convictions.”

Nevada
Tribes lose bid to block digging at lithium mine
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal judge has denied tribal leaders’ bid to temporarily block digging for an archaeological study required before construction can begin for a Nevada lithium mine on what they say is sacred land where their ancestors were massacred more than century ago.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du refused three tribes’ request for a preliminary injunction blocking the trenching planned to collect samples near the Oregon state line at the site of the largest known lithium deposit in the United States.

The tribes say their ancestors were massacred in the late 1800s at the proposed Thacker Pass site. Lithium is a key component in electric vehicle batteries. Demand for the mineral is expected to triple over the next five years.

Du emphasized in the ruling late Friday in Reno she has pledged to hear and rule on the merits of the case before Lithium Nevada Corp. hopes to begin construction early next year on the mine the U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved in January.

She rejected a similar request in July for a preliminary injunction sought by environmentalists who claim the digging would destroy critical habitat for greater sage grouse, an imperiled ground-dwelling bird.

Du said Friday she was “not unpersuaded by the tribes’ broader equitable and historical arguments.” But she said there was no evidence the bureau acted unreasonably, no evidence the mine was planned on an actual massacre site and that the agency has contingency plans if “human remains are unexpectedly discovered.”

“In sum, while the court finds the tribes’ arguments regarding the spiritual distress that the (digging) will cause persuasive, the court must nonetheless reluctantly conclude that they have not shown sufficiently specific irreparable harm that aligns with the relief they could ultimately obtain in this case,” Du wrote in denying the temporary injunction.

The company said the government’s review of the plans has included “substantial consultation” with local tribes that never raised similar concerns, while it spent $10 million on the permitting process for the mine.

The Bureau of Land Management began consultation three tribes in the affected area in October 2018 — the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe and Winnemucca Indian Colony.

Three additional tribes — the Burns Paiute Tribe in Oregon, Reno Sparks Indian Colony and affiliated Atsa Koodakuh Wyh Nuwu/People of Red Mountain — filed the lawsuit in July accusing the BLM of violating historic preservation laws by failing to consult with them about an Historic Properties Treatment Plan guiding the initial archaeological dig required before mine construction can begin.

Du said the People of Red Mountain are not a federally recognized tribe so it has no legal standing.

A specific federal permit for the archaeological dig is still pending. But the Historic Properties Treatment Plan (HPTP) approved by the bureau allows a Lithium Nevada contractor to dig two to 25 holes by hand at each of 21 historic sites and seven mechanical trenches at some 40 meters (131 feet) long on .04 acres (.02 hectare) of an area no larger than one-quarter acre (.1 hectare), the judge said.

She acknowledged the tribes consider the entire Thacker Pass area sacred. But she said the National Historic Properties Act “does not give the tribes the right to prevent all digging in the entire project area. It merely provides for consultation.”

“There is no question BLM could have done more here,” Du wrote.

“However, all that the applicable regulations require is that BLM make ... a reasonable and good faith effort,” she said. “BLM is not required to consult every Native American tribe on every project it approves.”

Du said government field notes from 1868 the tribes presented as evidence of the massacre “only describe the scattered remains of ‘Indians’ generally.”

“At least as catalogued in the HPTP, none of these sites are burial or massacre sites; they are primarily locations where the tribes’ ancestors gathered obsidian to make arrowheads,” Du said.


Minnesota
Twin Cities man indicted for allegedly killing wife in 2010
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Ramsey County grand jury has indicted a man accused of killing his wife in St. Paul more than a decade ago.

Nicholas Firkus, 38, of Mounds View, was arrested in May on suspicion of killing 25-year-old Heidi Firkus on April 25, 2010. He was indicted Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported. A grand jury is typically used if the offense is punishable by life in prison.

Nicholas Firkus told police that someone broke into their home about 6:30 a.m. that day and grabbed his shotgun, after which the two struggled over the weapon. Firkus said the gun fired, killing his wife, and he was injured in the leg when it went off a second time.

Attorney Joe Friedberg, who is representing Nicholas Firkus, has called the case “completely circumstantial.” Heidi Firkus’ family had said after the arrest that they “are hopeful that these charges will finally bring out the truth and result in justice for Heidi.”

Firkus is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 12.

North Carolina
Court rules Catholic school wrongfully fired gay substitute
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A gay substitute teacher was wrongfully fired by a Roman Catholic school in North Carolina after he announced in 2014 on social media that he was going to marry his longtime partner, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn ruled Friday that Charlotte Catholic High School and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Charlotte violated Lonnie Billard’s federal protections against against sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Cogburn granted summary judgment to Billard and said a trial must still be held to determine appropriate relief for him.

“After all this time, I have a sense of relief and a sense of vindication. I wish I could have remained teaching all this time,” Billard said in a statement released Friday by the ACLU, which represented him in court. “Today’s decision validates that I did nothing wrong by being a gay man.”

Billard taught English and drama full time at the school for more than a decade, earning its Teacher of the Year award in 2012. He then transitioned to a role as a regular substitute teacher, typically working more than a dozen weeks per year, according to his 2017 lawsuit.

He posted about his upcoming wedding in October 2014 and was informed by an assistant principal several weeks later that he no longer had a job with the school, according to the ruling.

The defendants said that they fired Billard not because he was gay, but rather because “he engaged in ‘advocacy’ that went against the Catholic Church’s beliefs” when he publicly announced he was marrying another man, the ruling said.

But Cogburn ruled that the school’s action didn’t fit into exemptions to labor law that give religious institutions leeway to require certain employees to adhere to religious teachings, nor was the school’s action protected by constitutional rights to religious freedom.

“Plaintiff is a lay employee, who comes onto the campus of a religious school for the limited purpose of teaching secular classes, with no mandate to inculcate students with Catholic teachings,” Cogburn wrote.

The diocese released a statement to The Charlotte Observer saying that it disagreed with the ruling and was considering how to proceed.

“The First Amendment, federal law, and recent Supreme Court decisions all recognize the rights of religious organizations to make employment decisions based on religious observance and preference,” the statement said. “They do not — and should not — compel religious schools to employ teachers who publicly contradict their teachings.”


Massachusetts
Ex-trooper, wife plead not guilty to charges in teen’s drowning
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — A retired Massachusetts state police captain and his wife pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of reckless endangerment and serving alcohol to minor in connection to the drowning of a teenager at their home in June.

James and Leslie Coughlin were released on personal recognizance after a hearing at the Dedham District Court, during which not guilty pleas to the misdemeanor charges were entered for them.

Alonzo Polk, 17, died days after he was pulled from the pool the Coughlin’s house in Dedham during a graduation party for high school graduates.

The couple’s attorney, Brian Kelly, said outside the courthouse that it was a “terrible accident and a terrible tragedy for Alonzo,” but said Alonzo was “not a drinker” and “wasn’t drinking at this party,” The Boston Herald reported. Their lawyer has said Alonzo was thrown into the pool by a friend who didn’t realize he couldn’t swim.

Family and friends of Polk’s who attended Tuesday’s hearing shouted outside the courthouse: “We want justice for who? Alonzo!” the Herald reported.

A family spokesperson told the newspaper that it “wants each and every person who had anything to do with causing or creating the circumstances that led to his death to be held accountable.”


New Hampshire
Man pleads not guilty to two second-degree murder charges
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — A man charged with two counts of second-degree murder pleaded not guilty and a New Hampshire judge ordered him held without bail on Tuesday.

Ryan Barden, 30, of Laconia, was arrested in Belmont on Friday, hours after an arrest warrant was issued for him in connection with a death that happened last month.

Police in Nashua found Jared Daley, 35, dead on Aug. 11. They said he died from multiple blunt force injuries to his head.

A public defender entered not guilty pleas on Barden’s behalf in Hillsborough Superior Court and did not challenge the bail order.

A police affidavit in the case has been sealed.