Virginia
Former police officer pleads no contest after son fatally shot self
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (AP) — A former police officer in Virginia has pleaded no contest to a charge related to his toddler son accidently shooting himself with his father’s service weapon. The 2-year-old died after the October shooting.
The Daily Press reported Monday that former Newport News police officer Stefhone C. McCombs Sr. made the plea on June 30.
McCombs pleaded no contest to recklessly allowing a loaded and unsecured firearm to endanger the life of a child 13 or younger. The charge is a misdemeanor.
McCombs’ no contest plea means he did not admit guilt, but did not challenge the case against him. The former officer was given a 12-month suspended jail term.
A stipulation of facts in the case stated that McCombs had put his handgun on a couch in an off-duty holster without a safety clip. He was in the kitchen for about 30 seconds when he heard a shot.
McCombs had been on the job for just over a year when the accidental shooting occurred. A police department spokeswoman told the Daily Press that he was no longer employed by Newport News police as of June 13.
Wisconsin
Blake’s uncle files lawsuit over protest arrest
The uncle of a Black man shot by police in Kenosha in 2020 has filed a federal lawsuit alleging sheriff’s deputies unjustly arrested and tortured him during a protest over the incident.
Justin Blake filed the action Tuesday in Milwaukee. He alleges that he was standing quietly outside the city’s public safety building during a protest over the shooting in April 2021 when sheriff’s deputies arrested him and strapped him into an emergency restraint chair for almost seven hours. He says he suffered injuries to his neck, back and shoulders and his treatment amounted to state-sponsored torture.
He argues that deputies recognized him as Jacob Blake’s uncle and punished him using excessive force for exercising his free speech rights. The lawsuit seeks an order ending use of the restraint chair as well as unspecified damages.
Kenosha County’s corporation counsel, Joseph Cardamone III, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
A white police officer shot Jacob Blake during a domestic disturbance in Kenosha in August 2020. The shooting left Jacob Blake paralyzed from the waist down. Protesters converged on Kenosha in the days immediately following the shooting, with some demonstrations turning violent. Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men, killing two of them, during one of the protests. A jury acquitted him of multiple charges last year, finding that he fired in self-defense.
Protests over the shooting and treatment of people of color in Kenosha have continued sporadically since the shooting.
Florida
Man convicted of storming US Capitol during riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida man was convicted Tuesday of storming the U.S. Capitol during the January 2021 insurrection.
A District of Columbia federal judge returned the verdict after a trial where William Rogan Reid, 37, of Davie, Florida, and the government agreed upon a stipulated set of facts regarding his conduct, according to court records.
The charges include felony counts of obstruction of an official proceeding and corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing a record, document or other objects, as well as five related misdemeanor offenses. His sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 7.
Reid was arrested at his home in April 2021.
According to court documents, Reid joined with others objecting to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over then-President Donald Trump. A mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying election results for Biden over the Republican Trump, authorities said. Five people died in the violence.
According to the criminal complaint, Reid posted a video on social media the afternoon of Jan. 6 of people walking toward the Capitol, with superimposed text stating, “Time to storm the Capitol.”
Reid was among the first rioters to break through a police line and rushed up steps towards the Northwest Courtyard, prosecutors said. Once there, he confronted another police line, where rioters again forced their way through.
Reid climbed a set of bleachers, recorded another video and eventually entered the Capitol. Officials said he damaged a television and watercooler inside a restroom.
Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 860 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, officials said. More than 260 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
Ohio
Judge rules video scan of room before online testing illegal
CLEVELAND (AP) — Cleveland State University violated a student’s Fourth Amendment right to privacy when he was required to use a webcam to show his bedroom before taking an online test, a federal judge in Cleveland ruled.
Matthew Besser, the attorney for student Aaron Ogletree, said that the lawsuit was filed last year to stop the university from enforcing an illegal practice aimed at preventing cheating and that Ogletree is not seeking monetary damages.
The ruling Monday by U.S. District Judge J. Philip Calabrese appears to set a precedent regarding student privacy rights, Besser said.
“Freedom from government intrusion into our homes is the very core of what the Fourth Amendment protects,” Besser said. “If there is any place where students have a reasonable expectation of privacy, it’s in their homes.”
Ogletree initially protested but scanned his room before a chemistry test, fearing he would receive a failing grade if he did not comply, Besser said.
Calabrese in his ruling ordered Besser and attorneys for Cleveland State to meet to determine what the next step in the case will be. He said in the order that Ogletree’s right to privacy “outweighs Cleveland State’s interests in scanning his room.”
Cleveland State spokesperson David Kielmeyer said Tuesday the school cannot comment on “active litigation.”
“Ensuring academic integrity is essential to our mission and will guide us as we move forward,” Kielmeyer said.
Ogletree said in the lawsuit that the COVID-19 pandemic forced him during the school’s 2021 spring semester to take classes online to protect his family members’ health.
The decision whether to require students to show their rooms before a test is left to the discretion of individual professors and is not enforced by all instructors, Ogletree said in the lawsuit. Room scans are visible to other students who are taking a test, Ogletree’s lawsuit said.
South Dakota
ACLU SD joins case in support of Indian Child Welfare Act
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota is joining other states in filing an amicus brief in defense of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
The ‘friend of the court’ brief involves the U.S. Supreme Court case Brackeen v. Haaland which challenges the act that establishes federal standards for placement of Native American children in foster of adoptive homes. The act seeks to give the child’s family and tribe the opportunity to be involved in decisions that previously may have been excluded from, including placement and services.
Arguments in the case are scheduled before the high court this November.
Stephanie Amiotte, legal director for the South Dakota ACLU said if the court overturns the law it could be devastating for tribes.
“ICWA was enacted by Congress to address a situation where disproportionate numbers of Indian children were being removed from their homes, and eventually a disproportionate number of them were being adopted into white families,” Amiotte tells South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
The act’s opponents say the race-based policy is unconstitutional.
Amiotte said keeping Indigenous children connected to their culture, improves outcomes.
“Native American Children have been essentially invisible within the American society,” Amiotte said. “Their cultural identity and their ethnic pride results in greater school success, lower alcohol and drug use, higher social functioning and assists them in overall success and achievement in life.”
Twelve state ACLU affiliates are included in the brief, including North Dakota.
Alaska
Military man charged in fiery Anchorage crash that killed 2
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A member of the military charged with manslaughter in a fiery crash in Alaska that killed two people told authorities he was so drunk, he didn’t remember driving, according to charging documents.
Matthew Davis, 23, also faces charges of driving under the influence in the early Sunday incident that police say involved him hitting three vehicles in and near downtown Anchorage, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Police have not yet identified the two people killed, awaiting confirmation of one victim through dental records, police spokesperson Cherie Zajdzinski said Tuesday.
The two people died before firefighters could extricate them from the vehicle, charging documents say.
Davis told Anchorage District Court Judge Michael Franciosi during his initial court appearance Monday that he serves in the military. His bail was set at $80,000 cash. Attempts to reach his court-appointed public defender were not successful Tuesday.
Davis told police he consumed between 10 to 15 alcohol drinks at several downtown bars before the crash, and his blood-alcohol content later measured three times the legal limit, the charges said.
Davis rear-ended a car in downtown Anchorage and fled the scene, the charging documents say. The driver of the car hit by Davis’ pickup pursued him for about a mile and a half until the fatal collision. A witness estimated to police the two vehicles were traveling 80 to 90 mph, according to Assistant District Attorney David Buettner.
Davis’ pickup slammed into a car at an intersection, and the car with the two victims inside hit a tree after the impact and caught on fire, authorities said.
Davis continued driving and hit another pickup, but there were no injuries in that crash. Davis’ pickup came to a rest after hitting a shed, sign and light pole, the charging documents say.
He was taken to a hospital for evaluation, where according to the charging documents he told police he was intoxicated and said: “I don’t remember driving.”
