Indiana
Man charged with killing police officer seeking insanity defense
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A man charged with fatally shooting an Indianapolis police officer when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020 is seeking an insanity defense as he tries to avoid the death penalty.
Attorneys for Elliahs Dorsey filed a motion with the court Wednesday saying a report prepared by a doctor states he was suffering from a mental illness when he fatally wounded Officer Breann Leath of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
Leath and three other officers were responding to a domestic violence call involving Dorsey when she was shot to death through the door of an Indianapolis apartment, police have said. She died of two gunshots to the head.
Dorsey faces one count each of murder and criminal confinement, and four counts of attempted murder, one of which stems from his alleged shooting of a woman he had confined inside the apartment.
His attorneys acknowledged they filed their motion for an insanity defense later than normal but blamed the delay in part on issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Marion County judge ruled this month that prosecutors can seek the death penalty against Dorsey.
Dorsey’s trial currently is scheduled to begin Sept. 18.
Arizona
City faces dueling lawsuits over homeless crisis
PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix is facing dueling lawsuits as it tries to manage a crisis of homelessness that has converted its downtown into a tent city housing hundreds of people as summer temperatures soar.
The city was ordered by the local Superior Court to clear out the downtown encampment because it is considered a “public nuisance.” But Arizona’s American Civil Liberties Union argued in a federal lawsuit that the city is violating the constitutional rights of unhoused people by slowly clearing the area known as “The Zone.”
The dilemma faced by Phoenix is an example of the balance municipalities across the United States now must strike when trying to satisfy the demands of residents and business owners while respecting the rights of homeless people.
Seattle faced a similar situation in 2020 when a woman sued the city, alleging that a sweep of the homeless encampment where she lived would violate her rights.
In New Mexico, as the city of Albuquerque worked to prohibit panhandling along roadways, the ACLU fought for that right.
U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow on Friday declined a request by the ACLU to declare Phoenix in contempt of a ruling he issued in December that ordered the city to refrain from enforcing camping and sleeping bans against people who cannot get shelter. He said he would not bar the city from further cleanups at the encampment site pending another hearing set for next month.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2019 that homeless people cannot be criminalized for sleeping outside if no alternatives exist.
But a Maricopa County Superior Court judge overseeing the case filed by business owners and residents who say the encampment is a public nuisance ordered Phoenix in March to make a plan to clear the tent city quickly.
By May 10, the city started the first round of the plan, cleaning one block of the encampment. But the ACLU said city employees seized and destroyed the property of homeless individuals and refused to let them return to the area after it was cleaned.
“The city should be held accountable for its conduct before any future cleanings can take place,” Jared Keenan, legal director for the ACLU of Arizona, said in a statement.
The city has said it “vehemently disagrees” with the ACLU’s assessment.
Amid the back and forth in court, Phoenix area advocates have scrambled for more shelter space for homeless people as the hot season begins.
Shelter space in an old motel came online Friday, but with just 52 beds it’s hardly enough as Arizona’s largest county announces the first four heat associated deaths of the year.
More than a third of the 425 people who died from heat-associated causes in Maricopa County last year were homeless.
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, a former social worker, has been seeking new solutions to Arizona’s housing crisis.
She successfully pushed for $150 million to be included in Arizona’s Housing Trust Fund in the state’s recently approved budget to shore up rent and utility assistance programs, eviction prevention, and build new shelters and affordable housing.
Another $60 million was included in the state budget for a new homeless shelter and services fund to be overseen by the Arizona Department of Housing.
New York
Pot regulators vote to settle lawsuit stalling upstate dispensaries
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York marijuana regulators voted Tuesday to settle a federal lawsuit that has blocked them from granting dispensary licenses in the Finger Lakes region.
The settlement reviewed at a meeting of the Cannabis Control Board would remove a legal impediment that has slowed the growth of New York’s fledgling marijuana market. The state was sued last year by a company owned by a Michigan resident, who said New York’s retail license selection process unconstitutionally favors New Yorkers over out-of-state residents.
A federal judge in November issued a temporary injunction against the licenses being handed out in five areas around the state, including Brooklyn. But the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in March narrowed the injunction to the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York.
The injunction affected the rollout of dispensaries around New York. Critics also have blamed the state for what they call an overly cumbersome process designed to ensure the first round of licenses go to people who had pot convictions in their pasts or their relatives.
Office of Cannabis Management general counsel Linda Baldwin told the board Tuesday that the plaintiff, Variscite NY One, has agreed to settle. She said the agreement would allow licenses to be issued in the Finger Lakes and would provide a license for the plaintiff in the future.
The board approved a resolution to move ahead with a settlement, which Baldwin expected to be filed in court later this week.
State regulators said they would provide no additional details of the settlement until it is finalized.
Calls seeking comment were made to Variscite’s attorneys.
