Minnesota
Minneapolis to pay $700K to family of man killed by police
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The city of Minneapolis has agreed to a $700,000 settlement with family members who were locked inside two squad cars when police killed their father after officers refused their offers to try and help calm him down.
A federal judge ruled that officers were justified in shooting 52-year-old Chiasher Vue after he pointed a rifle at them on Dec. 15, 2019. The settlement will resolve a lawsuit his family filed arguing that police had illegally and unconstitutionally detained them that night.
Chamee Vue and her brothers Hailee and Nou Vue tried to intervene but weren’t allowed out of the police cars. And after the shooting, they spent hours detained in interrogation rooms while police questioned them.
“I couldn’t get out of the car, couldn’t give him reassurance that everything would be OK,” Chamee said.
A language barrier contributed to the incident because Chiasher Vue spoke little English and few officers there that night spoke Hmong. Hailee Vue said he wants the Hmong community to understand what happened to his family, and for their case to be instructive for future policing.
“I just don’t want any other family to go through what the four of us went through,” he said.
Since this incident, Minneapolis police have changed department policy on handling witnesses to say they must be treated in a constitutional manner. A police spokesman told the Minneapolis Star Tribune the policy change wasn’t related to this case, but the Vue siblings say they still take consolation in the change. The new policy makes it more clear that a person who has not been charged with a crime and isn’t being held on probable cause is free to leave at any time.
Family members say Chiasher Vue was going through a mental health crisis and suffering with untreated depression on the night he was killed.
A night of drinking and karaoke spiraled out of control when after a series of quarrels Chiasher fired several shots at a wall inside the house and another one of his sons called 911. An autopsy later determined that Chiasher Vue has a blood alcohol level of 0.20 at the time he was killed.
“Look, my dad is mentally ill ... Just let me and my little sister go talk to him. We can talk him out,” Nou Vue said to an unidentified officer, according to squad car footage. “You’re not getting out of the squad. Stop asking,” replied the officer.
But after Vue came out of the house pointing a rifle, he and officers quickly exchanged gunfire. Investigators weren’t able to determine who fired first, but Vue was struck by 13 bullets.
Georgia
Woman accused of abandoning newborn 4 years ago is charged
CUMMING, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia woman accused of leaving her newborn daughter in the woods nearly four years ago has been identified, arrested and charged with attempted murder.
Karima Jiwani, 40, was arrested Friday and was being held in the Forsyth County Jail after a judge denied bond on Saturday, jail records show. Hospital staff nicknamed the newborn girl Baby India after she was found in a wooded area in Cumming, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of Atlanta, on June 6, 2019.
Investigators said at the time that sheriff’s deputies found the girl after a nearby family reported hearing a child cry. Dramatic video released a few weeks later, showed deputies tearing open a plastic bag to rescue the baby girl.
“This child was tied up in a plastic bag and thrown into woods like a bag of trash,” Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman said during a news conference Friday.
The girl is now “happy and healthy,” Freeman said. He declined to say more, citing the need to protect the girl’s privacy.
About 10 months ago, the sheriff’s office identified the child’s father using DNA, Freeman said. Within the past week, authorities again used DNA to identify Jiwani.
Freeman declined to discuss Jiwani’s motive or any details of an interview with her, citing the pending prosecution. Jiwani has been charged with criminal attempt to commit murder, first-degree cruelty to children, aggravated assault and reckless abandonment, in addition to other crimes.
There is no evidence that the father was aware of Jiwani’s pregnancy or the abandonment of the baby, Freeman said.
Evidence indicates that the baby was likely born in a car and that Jiwani drove around with her for hours before deciding to tie her up in a plastic bag and abandon her, Freeman said. Jiwani had a history of concealed pregnancies, he said.
“This is an incredible case with the strangest of circumstances from the beginning to the end,” Freeman said.
Ohio
New trial ordered for death-row inmate in murder of 3-year-old boy
CINCINNATI (AP) — A new trial has been ordered for a man who spent more than a decade and a half on Ohio’s death row in the 2006 death of the 3-year-old son of his former live-in girlfriend.
Lamont Hunter, 54, was convicted of aggravated murder, child endangering and rape in the death of Trustin Blue, who authorities said was sexually assaulted and died from blunt impact and shaking injuries to his head. Hunter said he was doing laundry in the basement when the boy fell down the stairs and landed on the concrete floor.
Prosecutors agreed to a new trial after the deputy coroner who initially ruled the boy’s death a homicide changed that opinion two years ago after reviewing evidence she hadn’t previously been given. She said the cause of death was undetermined and also said injuries she had attributed to sexual assault were accidentally inflicted at the hospital.
A hearing Friday on whether Hunter could be freed on bond while awaiting a new trial ended with no decision after prosecutors sought a delay in the proceedings. Prosecutors said the county coroner’s office is re-reviewing the entire case, including more than 700 pages of records from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Defense attorney Al Gerhardstein told reporters outside the courtroom that such work should have been done 16 years ago. He expressed optimism that his client would be “out on bond by the end of the month.”
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that it was revealed at the hearing that prosecutors have offered Hunter a plea deal that would apparently lead to his release with a sentence of the time he already has spent in prison.
California
Former 49ers lobbyist says he received leaked report on team’s political influence
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The former chief lobbyist for the San Francisco 49ers has testified that a Silicon Valley city councilman illegally leaked a confidential report criticizing the team’s political influence, it was reported Friday.
Rahul Chandhok told a criminal grand jury March 21 that Santa Clara City Councilmember Anthony Becker digitally sent him the report — which was made by a civil grand jury — last October, the San Francisco Chronicle reported after reviewing a transcript of his testimony.
Prosecutors accuse Becker of providing the secret report to Chandhok and a local news outlet ahead of its official release and then lying to the grand jury about it.
He has pleaded not guilty to one felony count of perjury under oath and a misdemeanor count of willful failure to perform duty. He could face up to four years in state prison if convicted.
The 49ers play in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of San Francisco. Santa Clara owns the stadium and leases it to the team, and the two sides have feuded for years through ethics complaints and legal disputes.
Santa Clara County prosecutors said the football team has bankrolled Becker’s political career by spending at least $3.2 million through independent expenditure committees for his 2020 winning City Council race and a failed mayoral bid last year.
The civil grand jury report, titled “Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Santa Clara City Council,” alleged that councilmembers regularly voted “in a manner that is favorable to the 49ers.”
In his testimony, Chandhok said Becker sent him a copy of the report four days before it was to be made public and a month before the mayoral election, the Chronicle said.
Chandhok said he then began working to blunt the impact of the report.
Following news coverage of the report, Chandhok attacked it as “a shocking political hatchet job” in a statement that also alleged the civil grand jurors that issued it were corrupt and publicized where they lived and worshipped, the Chronicle said.
“The 49ers are committed to being a positive and contributing member of our community,” the team said Friday in a statement. “As the transcripts are related to an ongoing legal matter, we are unable to make any further comment at this time.”
Pennsylvania
Prosecutors refile charges against officer in protest arrest after judge dismisses case
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia judge dismissed all charges against a former police officer accused of assaulting a woman who accidentally drove a sport utility vehicle into a 2020 protest — but prosecutors quickly refiled the case.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the judge’s action Friday came after a police officer who was a witness failed to appear Friday for the aggravated assault trial of 42-year-old Darren Kardos. The woman wasn’t in court either, but prosecutors said they had video evidence to put the case on without her testimony.
The municipal court judge agreed to a defense request to dismiss the case while acknowledging that prosecutors were likely to refile the charges — something Assistant District Attorney Lyandra Retacco said was done later in the day. Kardos was in the courtroom but did not comment.
Kardos, a seven-year veteran of the force, was the only officer charged after the October 2020 events that involved scores of officers and occurred hours after the fatal police shooting of 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr. Relatives said Wallace, who was Black, was having a mental health crisis and lunged toward police with a knife.
Within hours, protests erupted and some in west Philadelphia began burglarizing stores and vandalizing police vehicles. During the unrest, a north Philadelphia woman who said she was driving to pick up her teenage nephew in west Philadelphia was stopped by police. Video showed officers surrounding the SUV, breaking the windows, pulling the woman and a passenger to the ground and then removing the woman’s 2-year-old son from the back seat.
The woman, a home health care aide, was later released without charges. Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said the officers had “terrorized” the woman and the mayor called their actions “absolutely appalling.” The case drew national attention and the city settled a civil lawsuit for $2 million.
Kardos was fired for excessive use of force and physical abuse with a baton. Another officer was not charged but was fired. Kardos was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, possession of an instrument of a crime, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.
