New Hampshire
Court-martial planned for former National Guard commander
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A court-martial has been scheduled early next year for a New Hampshire National Guard officer who is expected to be charged with assault and sexual harassment, according to the U.S. Army.
Lt. Col. Mark Patterson, of Weare, New Hampshire, led a battalion serving on the southern U.S. border. He deployed with his unit in October 2022 and was assigned to Joint Task Force North, which supports the U.S. Border Patrol, according to Maj. Micah Maxwell, a spokesperson for U.S. Army North.
In January, the Army started an investigation and Patterson, then commander, was reassigned to staff officer, Maxwell said on Sunday. The investigation concluded in May and Patterson is expected to be charged with assault consummated by a battery; sexual harassment; maltreatment of subordinates; conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentlemen and violating general orders, Maxwell said.
Joseph Jordan, a lawyer for Patterson, said in an emailed statement: “Not everything is as it appears. There are individuals on the charge sheet who are not telling the complete truth about the nature of their relationship with our client. We continue to work towards the best resolution possible under the circumstances.”
Patterson has not yet been arraigned, Maxwell said. The court-martial has been scheduled for Jan. 22, 2024, he said.
Connecticut
Yale settles suit over pressuring students with mental health issues to withdraw
Yale University and a student group announced Friday that they’ve reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit that accused the Ivy League school of discriminating against students with mental health disabilities, including pressuring them to withdraw.
Under the agreement, Yale will modify its policies regarding medical leaves of absence, including streamlining the reinstatement process for students who return to campus.
The student group, which also represents alumni, had argued the process was onerous, discouraging students for decades from taking medical leave when they needed it most.
The settlement is a “watershed moment” for the university and mental health patients, said 2019 graduate Rishi Mirchandani, a co-founder of Elis for Rachael, the group that sued. It was formed to help students with mental health issues in honor of a Yale student who took her own life.
“This historic settlement affirms that students with mental health needs truly belong,” Mirchandani said.
A joint statement from Elis for Rachael and Yale, released on Friday, confirmed the agreement “to resolve a lawsuit filed last November in federal district court related to policies and practices impacting students with mental health disabilities.”
Under the agreement, Yale will allow students to study part-time if they have urgent medical needs. Elis for Rachael said it marks the first time the university has offered such an option. Students granted the accommodation at the beginning of a new term will receive a 50% reduction in tuition.
“Although Yale describes the circumstances for this accommodation as ‘rare,’ this change still represents a consequential departure from the traditional all-or-nothing attitude towards participation in academic life at Yale,” the group said in a statement.
The dean of Yale College, Pericles Lewis, said he was “pleased with today’s outcome.”
He said “constructive ideas” had emerged from students and alumni, saying in a statement that he hopes the changes “will make it easier for students to ask for support, focus on their health and wellbeing, and take time off if they wish, knowing that they can resume their studies when they are ready.”
In a November letter to alumni responding to a Washington Post article about student mental health and Yale’s withdrawal and readmission policies, President Peter Salovey said colleges and universities in the last few years have seen a surge in demand for mental health services that was exacerbated by the pandemic. He said Yale stopped requiring withdrawn students to take two courses at another school before they could seek readmission.
But the plaintiffs argued much more was needed, including a more individualized process for students. Under the agreement, the length of a student’s leave would be “based on a clinical assessment. Students may remain on a medical leave of absence for as long as they wish.”
California
Protester hit by projectiles fired by LA police awarded $3.75M
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A jury awarded $3.75 million in damages this week to a protester shot twice with hard-foam projectiles fired by Los Angeles police during demonstrations in 2020.
Jurors on Wednesday ruled that the LA Police Department was negligent when one or more of its officers fired the so-called less-lethal devices at Asim Jamal Shakir Jr., the Los Angeles Times reported.
Shakir had been filming a police skirmish line when he recognized his LAPD officer uncle among the formation and confronted him, shouting, “Our ancestors are turning over in their grave right now!” Shakir alleges that his uncle, Eric Anderson, then directed other officers to fire a hard-foam projectile at him.
Civil rights attorney Carl Douglas, who filed the suit on Shakir’s behalf, said he hopes the sizable damages awarded will signal that similar acts of police violence cannot be tolerated. The award must still be approved by the City Council.
Karen Richardson, a spokesperson for the city attorney’s office, told the Times her office had no comment on the jury’s decision. The police department did not respond to an email seeking comment Friday.
At trial, the defense team sought to reconstruct the events of that day with video from a body camera and an Instagram livestream.
Shakir was struck once, then a second time while he was bending down to pick up a phone that had been knocked out of his hand by the first projectile, according to the lawsuit.
Shakir had to go to physical therapy for a year because of the injury to his hand, and he still suffers pain, his attorney said.
An internal department investigation revealed that the less-lethal force that injured Shakir was never reported, Douglas said.
The incident occurred during mass protests that rocked the nation in the wake of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of police in Minneapolis.
The city is still facing a large class-action lawsuit by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and other groups over its handling of the 2020 protests, according to the Times. Several other suits have already been settled.
Alabama
Former deputy gets 12 years for assaulting woman
SELMA, Ala. (AP) — A former deputy sheriff in Alabama has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman while he was on duty in Selma, federal prosecutors said.
The U.S. Department of Justice wrote in a plea agreement that Joshua Davidson, 33, stopped the woman’s vehicle in Dallas County in 2020 for a broken tag light and told her he could see marijuana residue on her. He handcuffed her and drove her to a desolate location where he sexually assaulted her, the department said.
The victim was in fear that Davidson would shoot her, the Justice Department said.
Davidson pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law, according to court records. District Judge Kristi K. DuBose on Friday sentenced him to federal prison, specifying that it should be at an institution where mental health treatment is available.
“Today’s sentence sends a clear message that officers who abuse their positions of power to sexually assault women in their custody will face significant prison time for their unlawful actions,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a news release.
Washington
U.S. sues SpaceX for alleged hiring discrimination
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued SpaceX, the rocket company founded and run by Elon Musk, for alleged hiring discrimination against refugees and people granted asylum.
The complaint, filed in an administrative court within the department, asserts that SpaceX wrongly claimed that federal export control laws barred it from hiring anyone but U.S. citizens and permanent residents. As a result, it discouraged refugees and asylum grantees from applying for jobs at the company, according to the complaint.
Export controls typically aim to protect U.S. national security and to further national trade objectives. They bar the shipment of specific technologies, weapons, information and software to specific non-U.S. nations and also limit the sharing or release of such items and information to “U.S. persons.” But the Justice Department noted that the term includes not only U.S. citizens, but also permanent U.S. residents, refugees, and those granted asylum.
The department charged that SpaceX also refused to “fairly” consider applications from this group of people or to hire them. The positions in question included both ones requiring advanced degrees and others such as welders, cooks and crane operators at the company.
The U.S. is seeking “fair consideration and back pay” for people who were deterred from or denied employment at SpaceX due to the company’s alleged discrimination, in addition to undetermined civil penalties.
SpaceX, which is based in Hawthorne, California, did not reply to a request for comment.
Alabama
Supreme Court: Work on coastal bridge can resume
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that the state can continue work on a new bridge that will give motorists an alternate route to state beaches.
Justices reversed an injunction issued by a Montgomery judge that had halted work on the bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway. The injunction was issued after the operators of an existing toll bridge sued the state. Justices said the trial court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction over the bad-faith claim that served as the basis of the preliminary injunction.
The Alabama Department of Transportation said construction will resume in the coming weeks.
Alabama Department of Transportation spokesman Tony Harris said the bridge will help relieve traffic congestion at the coast and provide an additional evacuation route during hurricane season.
Baldwin County Bridge Company, which operates an existing toll bridge to get to Gulf beaches, filed a lawsuit seeking to block construction of the new bridge that would be located just over 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away from its existing toll bridge. The company argued that Transportation Director John Cooper acted in bad faith during negotiations to lower toll amounts and other operational changes, and then pursued the new bridge project to financially damage the company.
Montgomery Circuit Judge Jimmy Pool in May sided with the toll bridge company in issuing a preliminary injunction ordering a halt to construction of the project. Pool said trial evidence showed that Cooper pushed for the new bridge without traffic studies and had only one discussion about it with the governor.
