Washington
Ex-judge gets 15 months for sex assault against co-workers
ASOTIN, Wash. (AP) — A former judge in southeastern Washington state who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two former court employees over several years was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
Spokane County Judge Michael Price sentenced Scott Gallina last month, the Lewiston Tribune reported. Price handed down his decision after listening to statements from a victim, the former judge, Gallina’s family members, and attorneys for the state and defendant. The sentencing range was 13 to 27 months in prison.
In April, Gallina pleaded guilty to third-degree assault with sexual motivation, a felony, and fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation, a gross misdemeanor, as part of a plea deal, and had charges of rape and indecent liberties dismissed. He was formerly the Superior Court judge for Asotin, Garfield and Columbia counties.
Price hailed the women as heroes for speaking out about the pervasive sexual harassment and assaults in the workplace.
“I’m overwhelmed by your courage, and awestruck by your dignity,” he said. “If you hadn’t spoken out, I have no doubt this outrageous behavior would’ve continued.”
The judge told Gallina he bears him no ill will but he was “stunned” by what he read in the presentence investigation.
Instead of demonstrating remorse for his actions, Gallina focused on his regrets about what the case did to his family, income and career, Price said. The blame was shifted to the victims, when Gallina continued to imply it was all nonsense, and the women were lying for some kind of monetary gain, the judge said.
“I was hoping you’d say, ‘my behavior was outrageous and wrong,’ and that you’re profoundly sorry,” Price said.
In court, Gallina said he has nothing but remorse and empathy, and that he accepts responsibility for what occurred.
Attorney Melanie Tratnik of the State Attorney General’s Office said Gallina’s actions impacted the entire courthouse, and his criminal behavior turned one victim’s dream job into a nightmare.
The woman, who no longer works at the courthouse, talked about the “life-altering” ordeal and her ongoing problems that stemmed from sexual abuse from a powerful person.
Over the past three years, she’s suffered anxiety, depression, insomnia, shame, guilt and fear, and has lost close relationships, but the woman said she is proud about coming forward.
Tratnik argued for 27 months of prison time, but Price ruled the sentences for each conviction should run concurrently, rather than consecutively. Gallina was ordered to register as a sex offender and must complete three years of community custody when released from prison.
Florida
Lawyer’s group text causes 2nd mistrial in man’s murder case
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A prosecutor in a murder case complained about a judge’s ruling in a group text message that included the judge, resulting in a second mistrial for a man charged with killing his girlfriend’s young son. Now the defense wants the case dismissed altogether.
Broward County Judge Peter Holden refused to allow a 911 call as evidence against Corey Gorden, who is accused of killing the 3-year-old in 2015 and returning him in his car seat to his mother as if nothing had happened.
Assistant State Attorney Katya Palmiotto then sent a text complaining about the ruling to a group of current and former homicide prosecutors, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.
“Holden just sustained their objection and wouldn’t let us put the 911 call in as hearsay,” she wrote.
As a former homicide prosecutor who was appointed to the bench in 2018, the judge remained in the group chat. And lawyers are prohibited in criminal cases from talking with the judge if the defendant’s lawyers are not present.
Defense lawyer Michael Gottlieb filed for mistrial on Wednesday, saying in a summary that the 15-year veteran prosecutor had been overheard saying she messed up “real bad.”
“The judge was visibly upset and appeared angry,” Gottlieb wrote.
Holden grilled the prosecutor about the text message before declaring a mistrial.
In May, another judge declared a mistrial when prosecutors asked a witness about Gorden’s refusal to give a statement. Criminal trial jurors are not permitted to consider the defendants silence as proof of guilt.
Holden has not set a hearing on Gottlieb’s motion to dismiss the case.
Montana
Court: BIA owes damages for officer who got woman pregnant
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs can be held responsible for damages awarded to a Montana woman who became pregnant after an on-duty BIA officer used the threat of criminal charges to coerce her into having sex, the Montana Supreme Court has ruled.
The woman, identified by the initials L.B. in court documents, sued former BIA officer Dana Bullcoming and his employer for the October 2015 sexual assault on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation that resulted in the birth of a child, who is now 7, said her attorney, John Heenan.
“This is a woman that had the courage to report a federal law enforcement officer for sexually assaulting her and then had the courage to go through the entire process, including agents there to collect DNA when the child was born,” Heenan said Wednesday. She pursued the case on behalf of people living on reservations to show “that they should have the same rights as Montanans do on this issue.”
U.S. District Judge Susan Watters of Billings awarded the woman $1.6 million in damages in May 2020, but had ruled earlier that the BIA could not be held responsible for paying them because under federal law, the coercion and sex were outside the scope of Bullcoming’s duties.
The woman appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in turn asked the Montana Supreme Court to determine whether the federal agency could be held accountable under state law.
Since a 2009 court ruling, Montana law has held that an employer is responsible for the action of employees when they have a duty to provide protection, Heenan said.
On Tuesday, the Montana Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that the facts in the case establish that “Officer Bullcoming was not, as a matter of law, acting outside the scope of his employment when he sexually assaulted L.B.,” Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote.
The conduct at issue here, the court wrote, “is the BIA officer’s abuse of his official authority by expressly or implicitly threatening L.B. with arrest and criminal prosecution with the intent and purpose to coerce her into engaging in sexual intercourse with him.”
The BIA did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Heenan said he expected the case to be returned to Watters’ court for an order holding the BIA financially liable.
“It’s a great day for Native women in Montana,” April Youpee-Roll, an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Tribes and an attorney who represented some Montana tribes who filed briefs in support of L.B., said in a statement. “The Montana Supreme Court closed the gap and provided us the same remedy for on-duty sexual assault by law enforcement as Montana already afforded our neighbors.”
In this case, L.B. called dispatchers to report that her mother was driving while intoxicated after they returned from a bar off the reservation. After finding the woman’s mother was OK, Bullcoming went to the woman’s house in Lame Deer and asked her if she had been drinking. She was home with her two children.
He then took her to his patrol car and performed a breath test, which revealed she was legally intoxicated and thus in violation of a tribal law that prohibits intoxication on the southeastern Montana reservation, court records said.
She asked Bullcoming not to arrest her or call tribal social services out of fear of losing custody of her children and her job. Bullcoming responded that “something has to be done,” according to court records.
The woman asked if that meant sex and Bullcoming said it did, court records said. The woman got pregnant.
After a DNA test confirmed Bullcoming was the father of the child, he pleaded guilty to depriving the woman of her rights using the power and authority granted to him by the BIA. He was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Washington
Man charged with assaulting 2 woman now faces murder charge
SEATTLE (AP) — A 40-year-old Seattle man jailed since March on allegations he randomly assaulted two women was charged Tuesday with premeditated first-degree murder, accused of bludgeoning a third stranger to death on Capitol Hill, King County prosecutors said.
Alexander Jay was arrested the day after throwing a woman down the stairs at the International District/Chinatown light-rail station and stabbing a woman at least 10 times at a bus stop in Seattle’s Little Saigon International District, court records say.
Jay was charged with first- and second-degree assault, the Seattle Times reported.
Roughly 12 hours after the bus stop stabbing, someone called 911 to report finding a man bleeding from the head in the parking lot of a Capitol Hill dry cleaner, according to the murder charge filed Tuesday.
Seattle police found Brent Wood dead from blunt-force injuries. An autopsy later determined he had been struck at least five times and suffered fatal skull fractures, charging papers say.
Police found a bloody piece of rebar in a recycling bin near Wood’s body and sent it to the State Patrol Crime Lab for DNA testing, the charges say. In June, the test results showed a match to Wood and a second male. The lab later confirmed a match to Jay’s DNA.
Jay was also identified in surveillance footage from businesses near the site. Crime lab scientists determined that Wood’s blood was on Jay’s boots, according to the charges.
Jay remains jailed in lieu of $650,000 bail on the two assault charges and $5 million bail on the murder charge, jail records show.
In April, Jay was diagnosed with unspecified schizophrenia spectrum disorder and found not competent to stand trial on the assault charges, court records show. King County Superior Court Judge Johanna Bender ordered him to undergo competency restoration treatment at Western State Hospital. Jay has previously had his competency restored after being forcibly medicated at the hospital.
Defense attorney Leslie Somerstein has sought to have the assault charges against Jay dismissed, arguing his due process rights continue to be violated because he has still not undergone competency restoration treatment, according to court records.
Though Bender denied Somerstein’s motions to dismiss the charges, the judge imposed a $250-a-day sanction against the state Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees Western State Hospital, in June “for willful failure to comply with the court’s order for inpatient felony competency restoration treatment,” the records say.
The Department of Social and Health Services in late 2018 entered into a contempt settlement agreement in federal court due to delays for people requiring forensic competency services at Western State.
Court records in Jay’s assault cases show the department estimates Jay won’t be admitted to Western State for competency restoration treatment until early October.
