Court Digest

Indiana
Man gets 110 years for killing ex-girlfriend and her grandmother
FRANKFORT, Ind. (AP) — A man who fatally shot a former girlfriend and her grandmother outside an Indiana automotive seating plant was sentenced to 110 years in prison by a judge who called the killings “brutal and heinous.”

Gary Ferrell II, 28, had avoided a possible death sentence when he pleaded guilty in April to two counts of murder in the 2021 killings of Promise Mays, 21, and Pamela Sledd, 62. He was sentenced Thursday.

The Rossville women had driven to NHK Seating of America in Frankfort together and were about to start their shift on Aug. 18, 2021, when Ferrell, a fellow employee, shot them outside the business. The Frankfort man was arrested after crashing his car in a construction zone shortly after the killings.

Clinton Superior Court Judge Justin H. Hunter wrote in his sentencing order that the murders were premeditated and “brutal and heinous” and noted that the two family members “watched the other being shot,” WISH-TV reported.

Hunter added that Ferrell “acted out an entitlement to control and possess Promise Mays, whether in life or in death, even though she had demonstrated only kindness for the many people whom she encountered in her short and precious life.”

Workers at the plant in Frankfort, 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis, design and make seating for vehicles.

New York
Trump hosts a $100,000-per-person fundraiser to help Giuliani pay legal bills
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump hosted a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club as Giuliani struggles to pay his mounting legal bills.

Giuliani, a longtime Trump ally who also served as the fellow Republican’s lawyer, is facing a barrage of legal fees, fines, sanctions and damages related to his work helping Trump try to overturn the 2020 election and other cases. He was indicted last month along with Trump and 17 others in Georgia for what Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has described as a wide-ranging conspiracy to subvert the will of the voters after Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Giuliani’s son, Andrew, said in a radio interview that the Thursday night event was expected to raise more than $1 million for his father and that Trump had committed to hosting a second event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, later in the fall or early winter.

“So that will be very helpful,” he said on WABC radio. Still, he said, “It won’t be enough to get through this.”

He has created a committee, the Giuliani Defense PAC, to raise funds for his father. Allies have also been soliciting checks for what they have called The Rudy Giuliani Freedom Fund.

Brian Tevis, who is representing Giuliani in Georgia, said on CNN on Thursday night that he assumed the former mayor was trying to raise “as much as possible,” adding, “And I think that they’re going to need it.”

Giuliani was held liable last month by a federal judge in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers who say they were falsely accused of fraud. A trial could result in Giuliani being ordered to pay significant damages to the women, in addition to the tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees he’s already being directed to pay.

To generate cash, he’s hawked autographed 9/11 shirts and pitched sandals sold by election denier Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow. He’s also joined Cameo, a service through which celebrities record short videos for profit.

In July, he put his Manhattan apartment up for sale for $6.5 million.

Last year, a judge threatened Giuliani with jail in a dispute over money owed to his third ex-wife. Giuliani said he was making progress paying the debt, which she said totaled more than $260,000.

In May, a woman who says she worked for Giuliani sued him, alleging that he owed her nearly $2 million in unpaid wages and that he had coerced her into sex. Giuliani denied the allegations.

His lawyers have repeatedly cited his financial troubles in court filings.

Nevada
Wynn Resorts to settle sexual harassment inaction claim from 9 female salon workers
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Wynn Resorts and nine unnamed women are settling a lawsuit alleging the casino company failed to investigate allegations that female employees were sexually harassed by former company CEO Steve Wynn, according to a court document.

Attorneys for Wynn Resorts and the women who worked as manicurists and makeup artists filed the document last week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The women accused company officials of being aware and failing to act on allegations of misconduct before Steve Wynn resigned in February 2018. He was not a named a defendant in the case.

Wynn, now 81 and living in Florida, has paid record monetary fines to gambling regulators but consistently has denied sexual misconduct allegations in multiple courts.

The plaintiffs are identified in the lawsuit only as Judy Doe No. 1 through Judy Doe No. 9. Their attorneys, led by Kathleen England and Jason Maier, did not respond Thursday to emails from The Associated Press.

Wynn Resorts spokesman Michael Weaver declined to comment.

Steve Wynn’s lawyers in Las Vegas, Colby Williams and Donald Campbell, did not respond Thursday to an email from AP requesting comment.

The settlement was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro scheduled a Nov. 6 court date to dismiss the case to allow time for completion of “the settlement process, including the issuance of settlement fund,” according to the court filing.

The lawsuit was filed in September 2019 in Nevada state court and moved in October 2019 to U.S. District Court. It was dismissed in July 2020 by a federal judge in Las Vegas who faulted it for using pseudonyms and not specifying individual harassment claims.

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals revived it in November 2021, ruling the nine women could remain anonymous and amend their complaint to add individual harassment allegations.

Steve Wynn resigned from his corporate positions after the Wall Street Journal published allegations by several women that he sexually harassed or assaulted them at his hotels. He divested company shares, quit the corporate board and resigned as finance chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Wynn in July agreed to end a yearslong battle with the Nevada Gaming Commission by paying a $10 million fine and cutting ties to the casino industry he helped shape in Las Vegas, where he developed luxury properties including the Golden Nugget, Mirage and Bellagio. He also developed the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi; and Wynn Macau in China.

His former company, Wynn Resorts Ltd., paid the commission $20 million in February 2019 for failing to investigate the sexual misconduct claims made against him.

Massachusetts gambling regulators fined Wynn Resorts another $35 million and new company chief executive Matthew Maddox $500,000 for failing to disclose when applying for a license for the Encore Boston Harbor resort that there had been sexual misconduct allegations against Steve Wynn.

Wynn Resorts agreed in November 2019 to accept $20 million in damages from Steve Wynn and $21 million more from insurance carriers on behalf of current and former employees of Wynn Resorts to settle shareholder lawsuits accusing company directors of failing to disclose misconduct allegations.

Virginia
Lawsuit stemming from police pepper-spraying an Army officer will be settled
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A town in Virginia has agreed to independent reviews of misconduct allegations against its police force to settle a lawsuit filed after a Black and Latino Army lieutenant was pepper sprayed during a traffic stop.

The town of Windsor also agreed to more officer training as part of a settlement agreement signed Thursday. In exchange, the state Attorney General’s Office will drop its argument that Windsor police broke a new law by depriving Caron Nazario of his rights.

Windsor agreed to keep working toward accreditation by the Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission. Police also will hold officer training exercises twice a year and submit to the Isle of Wight Commonwealth’s Attorney reviewing any allegations of excessive force or misconduct against its officers.

The Attorney General began investigating the town after a December 2020 traffic stop involving two Windsor Police Department officers and Nazario, an Army lieutenant who is Black and Latino.

The traffic stop, captured on video, showed officers drawing their guns, pointing them at Nazario, who was in uniform, and using a slang term to suggest he was facing execution before pepper-spraying him and knocking him to the ground. He was not arrested.

The Attorney General’s Office said its investigation found that while about 22% of Windsor’s population is Black, they accounted for about 42% of the department’s traffic stops between July 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. The department also searched more vehicles driven by Black motorists than by white drivers.

Nazario sued the two officers involved in his encounter for $1 million in damages. But in January, a jury in Richmond mostly sided with the officers and awarded the soldier a total of $3,685.

After investigating the traffic stop, then Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring said his agency found it was part of larger problem with the department.

Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, who defeated Herring in a subsequent election, signed the settlement agreement with the town of about 3,000. Windsor lies about 70 miles (112 kilometers) southeast of Richmond.

“What we all saw in the shocking traffic stop video involving Army Lt. Caron Nazario was an egregious and unjust use of power,” Miyares said in a statement. “I join the hundreds of thousands of good and decent law enforcement officers who stand against the kind of police misconduct we witnessed.”

Windsor officials said the town signed the agreement to “avoid further unfair and unjustified financial impositions placed upon the citizens of Windsor by the Office of the Attorney General.”

Over the past seven years, Windsor officers used force 20 times in 23,000 encounters. Six of those encounters involved African Americans, one of which led to a valid complaint, according to the town.

“The Town of Windsor has worked diligently within its police force to enhance training, improve policies and procedures, and ensure the public that its law enforcement operates without prejudice and within the law,” the town said in a statement.