National Roundup

Virginia
Gov. pardons man whose arrest  galvanized conservatives
 RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The father of a Virginia student sexually assaulted in her high school bathroom has been pardoned after his arrest two years ago protesting a school board meeting became a flashpoint in the conservative push to increase parental involvement in public education.

Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced on Fox News Sunday that he had pardoned Scott Smith of his disorderly conduct conviction stemming from the June 2021 incident. The episode featured prominently throughout the gubernatorial campaign that year for Youngkin, who has made support for the so-called “parents’ rights” movement a cornerstone of his political brand.

“Scott Smith is a dedicated parent who’s faced unwarranted charges in his pursuit to protect his daughter,” Youngkin said Sunday in a press release. “Scott’s commitment to his child despite the immense obstacles is emblematic of the parental empowerment movement that started in Virginia.”

According to Loudoun Now, Smith threatened to kick out the teeth of deputies who dragged him away from a Loudoun County School Board meeting over state-mandated protections for transgender students. The local news outlet reported that he had argued loudly, clenched his fist and sworn at a woman while demanding answers over the handling of his daughter’s assault.

In a statement released Sunday, Smith vowed to pursue legal action against Loudoun County Public Schools and continue fighting “for parents and their children.” The district did not immediately respond to a phone call and email requesting a response.

But Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj said Sunday that Youngkin was interfering in the case for “political gain” before the start of early voting in legislative elections.

“The justice system does not work when a Governor becomes the judge and jury,” Biberaj said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

A trial was scheduled this fall over Smith’s appeal of the disorderly conduct conviction and a circuit court judge had already tossed another charge of obstructing justice. Smith told WJLA that his pardon marked a “bittersweet moment.” He hoped the justice system would absolve him of wrongdoing without the “offramp” of a pardon.

“What happened to me cannot ever happen to another American again,” Smith said in an exclusive interview posted Sunday.

The teenager convicted of assaulting Smith’s daughter was later found guilty of forcibly touching another classmate at a nearby school where the perpetrator was allowed to attend classes while awaiting trial in juvenile court. The case galvanized conservatives nationwide when reports spread that the cisgender male student wore a skirt during the first attack.

Youngkin’s administration has since rolled back protections for transgender students. Model policies posted last fall by the Virginia Department of Education say students use of bathroom and locker facilities should be based on biological sex and that minors must be referred to by the name and pronouns in their official records, unless a parent approves otherwise.

The fallout came last December for the Northern Virginia school district in the Smith case. The board fired its superintendent after a special grand jury accused him of lying about the first sexual assault. The grand jury’s scathing report accused the school system of mishandling the teenage perpetrator and said authorities ignored multiple warning signs that could have prevented the second assault. Administrators failed to sufficiently communicate the risk posed by the student to the new school, according to the report.

The grand jury found a “stunning lack of openness, transparency and accountability” but no evidence of a coordinated cover-up.

 
Missouri
Jury awards $745M in death of woman struck by driver who used inhalants
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri jury has awarded $745 million to the parents of a young woman killed on a sidewalk outside an urgent care center by a driver who huffed nitrous oxide canisters right before the accident.

The verdict was reached Friday in the lawsuit brought by the parents of Marissa Politte, 25, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Politte was leaving her workplace at the Ballwin Total Access Urgent Care in St. Louis County on Oct. 18, 2020, when she was struck by an SUV.

The two-week trial focused on whether the company that distributes nitrous oxide under the name Whip-It! conspired with a smoke shop to sell the product to customers they knew intended to illegally inhale the gas to get high.

Police discovered that the 20-year-old driver, Trenton Geiger, had passed out behind the wheel after abusing Whip-It! nitrous oxide. Police found Whip-It! containers they say Geiger threw into the woods. Geiger purchased the canisters at a smoke shop before he struck and killed Politte, according to evidence at the trial.

“This is about more than money. My clients would give $750 million to have three minutes with their daughter again,” said Johnny M. Simon, attorney for Politte’s parents. “This is about holding companies that are profiting off selling an addictive inhalant accountable.”

Simon said Whip-It! is sold as a food propellant to make things like whipped cream, but evidence at trial showed that a large portion of its business model relies on selling the gas to smoke shops.

The jury found that United Brands Products Design Development, the company that distributes Whip-It!, was 70% liable, the smoke shop was 20% liable and Geiger was 10% liable.

Politte’s parents, Karen Chaplin and Jason Politte, both testified about the devastating loss of their daughter, who was a radiologic technologist.

A former United Brands warehouse employee estimated during testimony that three quarters of the company’s product went to smoke shops. Evidence included emails between company staff and smoke shop workers, and the company’s marketing campaigns directed at young people in the concert and party scenes. Evidence also included records of past deaths and injuries related to abuse of the product.

Attorneys for United Brands argued that Geiger alone should be responsible for misusing the product and ignoring warning labels advising against inhaling Whip-It!

“United Brands is no more responsible for Mr. Geiger’s illegal impaired driving than Anheuser-Busch would be for a drunk driving accident,” they wrote in court documents.

It wasn’t immediately clear if an appeal was planned. Email messages left Monday with United Brands were not immediately returned.

Geiger, now 23, pleaded guilty to second-degree involuntary manslaughter and other crimes in March. He was sentenced to two years in prison as part of a plea deal.

Geiger’s attorney, Thomas Magee, said his client “fell into a trap of thinking what he was using was harmless.”