Louisiana
Reform prosecutor on the defense in federal tax trial
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams, elected as a reform candidate in 2020 even as he faced tax charges, arrived at the federal courthouse Monday for jury selection in his trial.
Williams and Nicole Burdett, who was an attorney in his law practice, are accused in an indictment of conspiring to cheat on Williams’ taxes during a five-year period ending in 2017.
A defense lawyer before he became the city’s top prosecutor, Williams was president of the New Orleans City Council when he was indicted in June 2020. He was elected district attorney that December with support from criminal justice reform advocates.
He succeeded Leon Cannizzaro, a hardline prosecutor and frequent target of Williams’ criticism who did not seek reelection. Williams took office facing pandemic-related backlog of cases and high expectations from criminal justice reform advocates.
There was also a growing violent crime problem that has not abated. And while Williams has drawn praise from reformers for efforts to free the wrongly accused and reexamine the cases of people convicted under a now defunct law allowing non-unanimous jury verdicts, he has also drawn criticism.
When Williams announced that two 15-year-olds would be charged as adults in the highly publicized gunshot death of a 52-year-old woman and her dog during a suspected carjacking attempt, he was accused by some advocates of going back on a campaign promise regarding juvenile offenders.
Williams has said the accusations in the tax case were ginned up by prosecutors for political reasons. His motion to have them dismissed was rejected last year by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman said at the time that Williams’ lawyers failed to prove that federal prosecutors targeted Williams because he was a public official running for office or because Williams is Black.
Feldman, however, did give credence to the defense’s point that other clients of a tax preparer at the center of the case — Henry Timothy, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud — were not being prosecuted.
Kentucky
Plan dropped to nominate anti-abortion lawyer for judgeship
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House dropped plans Friday to nominate an anti-abortion lawyer backed by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for a federal judgeship in Kentucky.
The decision to back off the nomination of Chad Meredith came amid a split between McConnell and Republican Sen. Rand Paul, his fellow Kentuckian, over the selection.
The White House pointed to resistance from Paul in abandoning the nomination.
“In considering potential District Court nominees, the White House learned that Senator Rand Paul will not return a ‘blue slip’ on Chad Meredith,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement. “Therefore, the White House will not nominate Mr. Meredith.”
A Paul spokeswoman did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Friday evening.
President Joe Biden had intended to nominate Meredith for a district court judgeship in eastern Kentucky. The plan, first revealed by the Courier Journal of Louisville, had languished for several weeks. The potential nomination drew resistance from Democrats from Kentucky to Washington.
McConnell, a key player in putting conservatives on the federal bench during Donald Trump’s presidency, told The New York Times that the White House intended to follow through on its commitment to nominate Meredith until Paul objected.
Meredith, a well-known conservative in Kentucky, defended the state’s anti-abortion laws in court. He also successfully defended a state law that stripped Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of his emergency power to implement COVID-19 restrictions.
Meredith previously served as chief deputy general counsel to former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin. Meredith then worked for Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who appointed him as the commonwealth’s first solicitor general in 2019. He left government to join a law firm. Meredith’s father, Stephen Meredith, is a state senator in Kentucky.
The decision to abandon the Meredith nomination caused reverberations in Kentucky. Scott Jennings, a Kentuckian and former adviser to President George W. Bush, called it a “sad day” and said it was “indefensible what’s happened to him.”
“Chad is a terrific human being and exactly the kind of young, conservative judge you’d want on the bench,” said Jennings, who has close ties to McConnell. “He could’ve been there for four decades. It’s a miracle McConnell had Biden talked into it and a tragedy that Senator Paul killed the nomination.”
Abortion-rights supporters applauded the development.
In a statement, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju said: “We’re pleased that the Biden administration made this decision — it’s the right call. With abortion rights and access on the line in Kentucky and across the country, it is absolutely essential that all judges defend and uphold our fundamental rights and freedoms, including reproductive freedom.”
Utah
Suit filed after autistic boy dies in hot car settled
PROVO, Utah (AP) — A wrongful death lawsuit filed after an 11-year-old autistic boy was left in a hot car while under the watch of a care facility in Utah has been settled.
The lawsuit filed against Roost Services and some of its employees in April stemmed from the July 2021 death of Joshua “Joshee” Hancey, who was left in a car for nearly three hours in American Fork south of Salt Lake City as temperatures reached the mid-90s, KSL-TV reported Sunday. Police Lt. Josh Christensen told reporters at the time that the car’s windows were up, the doors were closed and the engine was off.
Terms of the settlement have not been released.
David S. Bridge, an attorney for one of the employees, declined to comment about the settlement out of respect to the parties in the lawsuit. The attorneys for Roost Services and two other employees did not respond to KSL’s requests for comment.
Peter Mifflin, the attorney for the boy’s estate, said his clients hope the lawsuit leads to improvements in care to prevent similar mistakes from happening again.
According to the lawsuit, Roost employees said they were understaffed and overworked at the time. A report filed by American Fork police also said a lack of communication led to the boy being left in the car, and police investigators recommended the employee in charge of watching the boy be charged with child abuse homicide and obstruction of justice.
Utah County Attorney David Leavitt declined to file charges, saying the death was unintentional.
Mifflin said he hopes Utah County will revisit the case with a new county attorney at the beginning of next year.
“I still, to this day, find it interesting that, in the current environment in the state of Utah, someone who leaves a dog in the back of a car is charged immediately for animal cruelty without blinking, and that exact same conduct with regard to a human being is not charged at all. That still bothers me,” he said.
Missouri
Lawsuit claims Bass Pro won’t honor lifetime warranty on socks
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man says in a class-action lawsuit against Bass Pro that the outdoor outfitter is refusing to honor its lifetime warranty on socks.
Kent Slaughter of Springfield said that after years of exchanging his “Redhead Lifetime Guarantee All-Purpose Wool Socks” every time they wore out, the Springfield-based company changed its policy in 2021 before he tried to return four pairs of socks. Instead of getting another pair with a lifetime warranty, Slaughter said he was given socks that only carried a 60-day warranty, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
A Bass Pro representative said the company won’t comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit said Bass Pro is misrepresenting the socks in its ads because it says they are “The last sock you’ll ever need to buy” because of the lifetime warranty.
Slaughter said in the lawsuit that the warranty was a major factor in his decision to buy the socks.
California
Family of fleeing man killed by deputy to file claim against county
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The parents of a man shot in the head by a San Diego County sheriff’s deputy who fired 13 bullets during a car chase in February plan to file a claim against the county, the family’s attorneys said.
Jose and Rosaura Corrales demanded answers from the Sheriff’s Department during a news conference Friday about the death of their 31-year-old son, Mizael Corrales.
“Why 13 times? And why does he have to be shot in the head? Why like that?” asked Jose Corrales.
Attorneys for the Corrales family said they will file a claim against San Diego County this week, the Union-Tribune reported. Such claims are typically a precursor to a lawsuit.
The Sheriff’s Department declined comment, citing the pending litigation.
Mizael Corrales was driving a Mercedes in Otay Mesa on Feb. 19 when he tried to flee authorities in a strip mall parking lot, knocking two deputies to the ground as he backed into vehicles, according to police and sheriff’s officials.
One of those deputies, a 16-year department veteran, scrambled to his feet and opened fire at Corrales. Video of the incident shows glass flying as bullets pierce and break the driver’s side window, according to the Union-Tribune.
Family attorney John Burris said Friday that the “evidence is clear here that the officer was not in a position of danger when he shot the car 13 times,” Burris said.
“You cannot create a confrontation, shoot your way out of it and claim self-defense,” he said.
Authorities said the SUV was stolen. Corrales’ parents and their attorneys dispute that assertion, saying Corrales had an arrangement with the owner and had been driving the vehicle for months.
The District Attorney’s Office review of the Corrales case has not been completed, an office spokesperson told the newspaper Friday.
Nevada
GOP candidate files court challenge of primary loss
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A candidate for Nevada governor who lost the Republican primary in June is contesting the results in a lawsuit.
The lawsuit from defeated candidate Joey Gilbert challenges a primary election win by Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo and was filed with state District Court in Carson City, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported Saturday.
Lombardo beat Gilbert by 11 percentage points, our about 26,000 votes, in a crowded field. Gilbert already paid for a statewide recount that did not change the outcome.
In Nevada and beyond, this year’s Republican primaries have revealed a new political strategy among numerous candidates who are denying the results of elections and insisting results were rigged in a strategy with echoes of President Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020.
Gilbert — who was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection — is alleging in his lawsuit that election results were erroneous and that corrections would show he won by a wide margin.
Gilbert campaigned on false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. He said his challenges to the primary election outcome are not about his loss but election integrity overall.
The June 14 primary contest in Nevada otherwise proved largely successful for candidates endorsed by Trump and those who have called the 2020 election fraudulent.
