Nebraska
Woman pleads guilty to burning, concealing fetus after abortion
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska woman pleaded guilty Monday to burning and concealing a fetus after she took medication to end her pregnancy, while prosecutors move forward with a criminal case accusing her mother of illegally helping with the abortion.
Prosecutors said Celeste Burgess gave birth to the stillborn fetus about 29 weeks and five days into her pregnancy. She was 17 at the time, but prosecutors charged her as an adult.
Burgess, now 18, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of concealing or abandoning a dead body and prosecutors dropped two misdemeanor charges. The fetus was found buried in a field north of Norfolk in northeast Nebraska.
Her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, is accused of illegally helping with the abortion last spring. The prosecutor involved has said he had never before charged anyone with violating Nebraska’s 20-week abortion limit that was passed in 2010. On Monday, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a 12-week abortion ban into law. It took effect immediately.
The case against the mother and daughter is based partly on Facebook messages the two women exchanged about their plan to obtain the medication to induce an abortion and then to burn the fetus.
Jessica Burgess has pleaded not guilty and is due back in court on July 7 for a pretrial hearing. Her lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a message Monday.
Celeste Burgess is scheduled to be sentenced on July 20. She faces up to two years in prison. Prosecutors agreed not to make a sentencing recommendation.
According to court documents, the daughter talked in the messages she exchanged with her mom “about how she can’t wait to get the ‘thing’ out of her body.” She also said “I will finally be able to wear jeans” in one of the messages investigators obtained with a search warrant.
In one message, Jessica Burgess told her daughter she obtained the pills and gave her instructions on how to end her pregnancy.
Last summer, a man pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for helping the women bury the fetus.
Nevada
Court rules US deportation law is ‘neutral as to race’
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that a U.S. deportation law that fueled family separations at the southern border is “neutral as to race,” striking down an unprecedented Nevada ruling that had determined it was racist and unconstitutional.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals made that determination Monday in its long-awaited decision on the law known as Section 1326, which makes it a crime to unlawfully return to the U.S. after deportation, removal or denied entry.
The ruling is a blow for advocates who had hoped to see major changes to the nation’s immigration system after U.S. District Judge Miranda Du almost two years ago threw out an illegal reentry charge against a Mexican immigrant. Du said she dismissed the case on the grounds that Section 1326 of the Immigration and Nationality Act is discriminatory against Latinos and therefore violated Gustavo Carrillo-Lopez’s constitutional rights.
“We are deeply disappointed in the Ninth Circuit’s decision to uphold Section 1326, a discriminatory law that continues to fuel the mass incarceration of Black and brown people, waste government resources, and tear families apart,” Sirine Shebaya, executive director of the National Immigration Project, said in an emailed statement.
A federal public defender for Gustavo-Carrillo said she also was disappointed by the court’s ruling but declined to say whether she will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We intend to seek further review on this very important constitutional issue,” Amy Cleary said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Du’s ruling in August 2021 was the first of its kind since Congress made it a crime almost a century ago to return to the U.S. after deportation under the Undesirable Aliens Act of 1929.
Her order spanning 43 pages traced the law’s history to the 1920s — a time when “the Ku Klux Klan was reborn, Jim Crow came of age, and public intellectuals preached the science of eugenics,” said UCLA history professor and leading Section 1326 researcher Kelly Lytle Hernandez.
The Justice Department quickly appealed. It conceded that the 1929 law was based on racism but argued in December before a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit in California that later revisions — like Section 1326 — made it constitutional.
“That statute, as enacted in 1952 and amended since, is constitutional under equal protection principles,” a Justice Department attorney told the judges. “And the district court in this case is the only one in the country to conclude otherwise.”
The Justice Department said Monday it had no comment on the appellate court’s ruling.
Amid the appeal, the U.S. government still pursued Section 1326 cases across the country because Du’s order did not include an injunction on the statute.
Section 1326, along with its misdemeanor counterpart Section 1325, are among the most prosecuted charges by the federal government. Section 1325 criminalizes unauthorized entry into the U.S.
The number of cases has fallen since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, but the Justice Department continues to prosecute tens of thousands of people annually for illegal reentry.
At the same time, immigration lawyers and advocates nationwide have continued to challenge the deportation law using the same legal framework seen in the Nevada case.
And there are more cases to come, said Khaled Alrabe, a senior staff attorney at the National Immigration Project.
Later this week, a panel of judges for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals on the U.S. Virgin Islands is set to hear a similar case challenging Section 1326 as racist and unconstitutional.
“We’ll continue to work with our partners, advocates, organizers and, of course, the federal defenders to repeal and rid ourselves of these racist laws,” Alrabe said.
Alabama
Judge dismisses ex-sheriff’s appeal to have theft and ethics conviction overturned
ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — Former Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely has lost his latest appeal to have his theft and ethics conviction and jail sentence overturned.
Circuit Judge Tim Jolley dismissed Blakely’s post-trial appeal on Saturday. Blakely argued the retired judge, who was appointed to preside over his trial, was not qualified because her membership had lapsed with the Alabama Bar Association. Jolley ruled that her appointment was proper.
A jury in 2021 found the longtime sheriff guilty of charges of theft and using his office for personal gain. After nearly 40 years in office, Blakely was removed from his position as sheriff following the conviction. The two convictions arose from accusations that Blakely helped himself to no-interest loans from a jail safe used to hold inmates’ money and that he deposited $4,000 in campaign funds into his personal account.
Blakely was sentenced to serve three years behind bars.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker appointed former Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Pamela Baschab to preside over Blakely’s case after other judges had recused themselves.
Jolley, in rejecting Blakely’s appeal, said nothing in state law or the Alabama Constitution requires the appointment of retired judges with an active law license. He also said Blakely could have raised the issue at trial but did not do so.
“Because neither requires a retired judge— not least one with more than thirty years of unblemished service— to maintain an active license to practice law, Judge Baschab’s appointment was lawful and proper,” Jolley wrote in the Saturday order.
The Alabama Supreme Court in February declined to hear an earlier appeal by Blakely.
California
Ambulance company sued over paramedic accused of sexual assault
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A lawsuit filed against medical transport provider American Medical Response West in California court says the ambulance company’s lax hiring and oversight allowed a paramedic to sexually assault two women in their 80s while en route to a hospital.
The law firm of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy filed the suit last week in San Mateo County Superior Court. It also names American Medical Response, Inc., based in Colorado, as a defendant. AMR operates in most U.S. states.
Miguel Nieblas Ontiveros, 35, has pleaded not guilty in criminal court to two felony counts of forcible oral copulation.
Anne Marie Murphy, the lead attorney on the case, said the paramedic should never have been left alone with vulnerable patients, one of whom was allegedly assaulted in May of last year and the other in December.
“It’s a horrific situation. Our client is an 82-year-old Asian woman who was frail and she needed to be transported to a hospital,” she said. “Unfortunately, the paramedic in the back was a sexual predator.”
The woman, who is not named in the lawsuit, was assaulted while strapped to a gurney on her way to a hospital after falling at the assisted living home where she resides, according to the lawsuit. Her neck was also immobilized by a brace at the time.
The ambulance company reported the incident to the California Highway Patrol and put Ontiveros on unpaid leave after the allegations arose in December. The company also fired him after his arrest in April.
American Medical Response said it does not comment on ongoing or pending litigation. “The employee in question was terminated immediately upon his arrest. AMR is cooperating with law enforcement and the prosecutor,” according to a statement.
The lawsuit says AMR hired or retained Ontiveros despite a grand theft case filed in December 2020, stemming from his previous job with the South San Francisco Fire Department. He faces five counts of grand theft in a case that is pending.
According to the lawsuit, AMR also knew or should have have known that Ontiveros was accused of assaulting another woman, who was 80, in May 2022.
The lawsuit alleges physical abuse of a dependent adult and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Ontiveros is being held in jail on $3 million bail. His attorney, Joshua Bentley, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Michigan
Man charged after toddler finds gun in couch and fatally shoots self
KENTWOOD, Mich. (AP) — A Grand Rapids-area man was charged Monday with involuntary manslaughter after his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son found a gun and fatally shot himself.
Police said the gun was in the couch at their apartment in Kentwood. Kiaire McCoy apparently found it and shot himself Friday.
Markus Nevills Jr., 22, objected to being charged during his initial court appearance.
“I don’t understand this. I’m trying to see how they’re saying this is my fault. I didn’t shoot and kill him,” Nevills said.
Police quoted Nevills as saying he had “zoned out” while high on marijuana and was scrolling through his phone when the shooting occurred, according to a court filing. Prosecutors said he was grossly negligent.
“It sounds like a terrible accident, and there is no criminal intent there,” defense attorney Richard Zambon said.
A law recently signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will require gun owners to keep guns in a locked storage box if children are present. It takes effect in 2024.
