National Roundup

North Carolina
School system sets record for guns on campus
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s second largest school system says it has surpassed its previous 10-year high for the amount of guns on campuses after just three months of the 2021-22 academic year.

The previous highs of 19 guns found or confiscated in the 2016-17 school year, and 22 in the 2018-19 school year, are figures from complete years, based on annual reports from the school district to the N.C. Department of Instruction, The Charlotte Observer reported.

By comparison, from the start of school in August to Dec. 13, a total of 23 guns have been found in CMS schools, the newspaper reported.

The number of guns and other weapons found on students during a school day has varied in recent years. In 2017-18, nine guns were reported by CMS to state officials. During the 2020-21 school year, when students missed much of their normal class time because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the district reported six guns.

Superintendent Earnest Winston and others in Mecklenburg County are pleading with CMS families, as well as students, to help reverse the trend of safety concerns and keep weapons out of the hands of children and teenagers.

New York
Defense set to make case Maxwell is taking fall for Epstein
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City jury has heard four women detail accusations that they were teens when they became victims of a sex-abuse scheme devised by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Starting Thursday, the British socialite’s attorneys are expected to make their case that Maxwell isn’t the one to blame.

Maxwell’s trial will resume  with the defense calling its own witnesses in federal court in Manhattan. The government’s case lasted only two weeks and the defense case could last just two days. Both sides streamlined their witness lists without revealing why, making the trial end well short of an original six-week estimate.

The start of the defense case has already sparked the usual speculation about whether the high-profile defendant will take the witness stand in her own defense — a gamble that is almost never taken. Either way, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan will have to receive direct confirmation from Maxwell about her decision before the defense can rest.

Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges she acted as Epstein’s chief enabler, recruiting and grooming young girls for him to abuse during sexual massages.

Maxwell was once Epstein’s girlfriend before becoming a trusted employee. Witnesses testified the pair exploited them between 1994 to 2004 at Epstein’s homes, including an estate in Palm Beach, Florida; his posh Manhattan townhouse; and a Santa Fe, New Mexico, ranch.

The defense has insisted that Maxwell is being made a scapegoat for alleged sex crimes by Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019. Her lawyers have sought to show that the accusers exaggerated her involvement at the behest of lawyers seeking payouts for the women from civil claims against the Epstein estate.

West Virginia
Judge to issue ruling in charter school case
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A judge has heard arguments in a lawsuit that seeks to stop the newly created West Virginia Professional Charter School Board from authorizing any new schools.

Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Bailey said she would issue a ruling by Friday after hearing from lawyers Tuesday in a virtual hearing, news outlets reported.

Two West Virginia fathers sued state officials earlier this year after they amended a law to allow charter schools to open without the approval of local voters. The suit claims the law is unconstitutional. Defendants include Gov. Jim Justice and the leaders of the House of Delegates and Senate.

The creation of the Professional Charter School Board ignores a provision of the state constitution that says “independent free school district(s)” cannot be created without the consent of the school district or voters in that district, said Joshua Weishart, a law professor at West Virginia University who is helping representing the plaintiffs.

“At stake in this suit is the constitutional right of county voters to vote on their local schools,” he said.

Assistant state attorney general Sean Whelan, who represents state officials, said the constitution doesn’t prohibit “the existence of a school district within another school district.”

“The plaintiffs want to vote on whether other West Virginians get to send their kids to charter schools,” he said. “The constitution does not afford them this right.”

He also argued that the governor and Legislature have no statutory role in authorizing charter schools so the plaintiffs are seeking an injunction against the wrong parties.

New York
Judge rejects motions by doc facing sex assault charges
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge rejected arguments Wednesday that were aimed at dismissing sex assault charges against a former New York gynecologist.

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman also rejected a request by lawyers for Robert Hadden that his upcoming trial be moved outside of New York. The Englewood, New Jersey, resident was arrested last year.

A former gynecologist, Hadden has pleaded not guilty to charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of young and unsuspecting female patients for over two decades — including a young girl he’d delivered at birth — while trying to make the victims believe the abuse was appropriate and medically necessary.

Hadden, 63, remains free on $1 million bail. Trial is scheduled for March 28.

Prosecutors said they began their probe last year before obtaining an indictment  charging Hadden with bringing patients, including multiple minors, across state lines for the purpose of sexual abuse from approximately 1993 to 2012.

Among arguments he rejected Wednesday, Berman noted that defense lawyers asserted the federal government was prosecuting the case as a tool of state prosecutors.

He called the theory “far-fetched, speculative, conclusory” and said that although there was no referral of the case from a New York district attorney to federal authorities, it would not be improper if it had happened.

The judge also rejected a request to move the trial to another venue, saying pretrial publicity was not pervasive and half of the jury pool in Manhattan federal court comes from outside Manhattan anyway.

A message seeking comment was sent to Hadden’s lawyers.

The indictment said the abuse took place at medical offices and Manhattan hospitals while Hadden worked as a medical doctor at Columbia University and at New York Presbyterian Hospital. The two institutions announced a settlement earlier this month with 79 women who say they were abused by Hadden, and established a $71.5 million compensation fund.