Wisconsin
State Supreme Court won’t hear longshot case trying to head off impeachment
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit seeking an order blocking any attempt from the state Legislature to impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a new member of the court whose victory this spring tilted control of the court in favor of liberals.
The court decided Tuesday not to hear the lawsuit, issuing the order without comment. Protasiewicz did not participate in the decision.
Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has raised the possibility of impeaching Protasiewicz if she does not recuse from hearing a pair of redistricting lawsuits. Protasiewicz has not decided whether to recuse, and the court has also not ruled on whether it will hear the cases.
Republicans are worried that the liberal-controlled court will order that GOP-drawn maps that have solidified their majorities over the past 12 years must be redrawn. They contend Protasiewicz can’t fairly hear the cases because she called the maps “rigged” and “unfair” during her campaign.
The lawsuit, filed by former liberal Supreme Court candidate Tim Burns, argued that proceeding with impeachment would violate the constitutional rights of voters who elected Protasiewicz. It also argued that the reasons given by lawmakers for considering impeachment do not meet the constitutional requirements. The Wisconsin Constitution limits impeachment only to those who have engaged in corrupt conduct in office or committed crimes.
The lawsuit asked that the court order the Legislature not to proceed with impeachment against any justices without a ruling by a majority of the court that the constitutional standards for impeachment have been met.
Burns said in an email Thursday that he did not plan to pursue the lawsuit in lower court.
Washington
2 lawsuits blame utility for fire that killed man and burned 240 homes
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Two lawsuits have been filed against an electric utility for allegedly sparking a fire in eastern Washington that killed a man and burned approximately 240 homes.
A lawsuit filed Monday in Spokane County Superior Court says Inland Power and Light Company’s electrical equipment contacted or caused sparks to surrounding vegetation that started the Gray fire on Aug. 18, KREM-TV reported.
The suit, filed by fire litigation law firm Singleton-Schreiber on behalf of a property owner in Medical Lake, west of Spokane, alleges the utility designed its power lines to be bare, uncovered and carry a high voltage. All of that increases the risk of ignition when coming into contact with grass or equipment, according to the lawsuit.
“Inland Power was very aware as a utility company that Washington is deemed a high wildfire risk area, and they should have used this knowledge to properly protect their clients and the residents of Spokane County,” lawyer Gerald Singleton told KREM-TV. “Because of Inland Power and Light’s negligence, a life was lost, other lives were completely upended, and this community will never be the same.”
The plaintiff is claiming damages of more than $100,000, according to the lawsuit.
The second lawsuit, filed by a Spokane law firm for 44 people affected by the fire, says an outdoor light constructed by Inland Power was seen sparking near the origin of the blaze.
A person cited in the complaint said they saw “sparks or molten/burning material” coming from the outdoor light and nearby electrical equipment that day, according to the lawsuit.
Investigators with the Washington Department of Natural Resources have collected the light fixture for further investigation, it adds.
Inland Power told the news outlet that the cause of the Gray fire is still under investigation.
“We will not make any speculations while an active investigation is still underway,” the utility said.
The Washington Department of Natural Resources has said it could take months to determine what caused the Gray fire, which sparked during critical fire weather conditions west of Medical Lake.
About 240 homes and 86 other kinds of structures were destroyed, and more than 17 square miles (44 square kilometers) were burned.
Carl Grub, 86, died Aug. 18 of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries near an intersection in Medical Lake in the area of the fire, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Georgia
Police charge man in deadly wreck, saying drivers were racing at 100 mph or more
DULUTH, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man has been charged with vehicular homicide after police say he was one of two drivers racing at speeds above 100 mph (160 kph) in a Sept. 4 crash that killed five teens on a suburban Atlanta highway.
Gwinnett County police said Emanuel Rene Esfahani, a 20-year-old Lawrenceville man, turned himself in Tuesday and is charged with five counts of vehicular homicide. He’s also charged with reckless driving, racing, speeding, unsafe lane change and not wearing a seatbelt.
Esfahani was being held in jail with no bail set Wednesday. A clerk in Gwinnett County Magistrate Court said no appearance before a judge was yet scheduled and no lawyer was
listed in court records. The Associated Press could not immediately find a phone number associated with Esfahani’s address.
Investigators say Esfahani was racing a pickup truck driven by 18-year Hung Nguyen about 4 a.m. on Labor Day on Georgia 316 when the two came upon a slower vehicle. Police say they believe Esfahani, driving an Infiniti G35, swerved into the right-hand emergency lane on a curving flyover ramp that merges onto Interstate 85 to pass the vehicle, while Nguyen passed it on the left.
But Esfahani came upon a truck stopped in the emergency lane and swerved left, striking Nguyen’s Toyota Tacoma. The truck then began to spin and roll, investigators say, plunging over a concrete barrier and 37 feet (11.3 meters) to the ground, coming to rest upside down on an adjoining exit ramp.
The wreck killed Nguyen and four passengers: 17-year-old Katy Gaitan of Atlanta, 16-year-old Ashley Gaitan of Atlanta, 17-year-old Coral Lorenzo of Atlanta and 19-year-old Abner Santana of Lawrenceville. The Gaitan sisters and Lorenzo were students at Lakeside High School in DeKalb County.
One passenger in the Tacoma survived. Jonathan Reyes, 18, sustained minor injuries and was released from the hospital a day later.
Two passengers in the truck were ejected in the crash, investigators said. One had not been wearing a seatbelt, but investigators could not determine if the second passenger had been wearing one.
New York
Judge rejects an 11th-hour bid to free FTX founder during his trial
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Thursday closed the door on FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s hopes to be free during his trial, although he extended the hours that the cryptocurrency peddler can meet with his lawyers in a federal courthouse.
At a hearing, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected a request by Bankman-Fried’s lawyers to free their client so he could better prepare his defense against charges that he defrauded cryptocurrency investors.
Bankman-Fried, 31, faces the start of his trial Tuesday in Manhattan. He has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer, Mark Cohen, told Kaplan that he cannot meaningfully confer with his client as long as Bankman-Fried is jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
And he insisted that there was no risk that Bankman-Fried would flee, prompting Kaplan to interrupt him.
“The closer we get to trial, the more I’m wondering about that,” Kaplan said. “Your client, if there is conviction, could be looking at a very long sentence. If things begin to look bleak — maybe he feels that now — if that were to happen and if he had the opportunity, maybe the time would come that he would seek to flee.”
Kaplan revoked Bankman-Fried’s $250 million bond last month after concluding that Bankman-Fried had tried to influence potential trial witnesses.
Since he was brought to the United States last December from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried had been required to stay at his parent’s Palo Alto, California, home with severely limited access to electronics.
Prosecutors say he intentionally deceived customers and investors to enrich himself and others while playing a central role in the company’s multibillion-dollar collapse after the equivalent of a bank run.
Kaplan said Bankman-Fried has had adequate time to prepare for trial in the more than seven months when he had unlimited access to evidence turned over by prosecutors and as a result of “extraordinary” measures taken at the federal jail to enable him to work on his defense.
And he said the case against him was “by no means unique” in presenting challenges for reviewing evidence. He noted that some drug conspiracy cases involve hundreds of thousands of hours of audio and surveillance tapes, often in foreign languages.
However, the judge said he wanted to make every effort to accommodate the defendant’s concerns and would thus order that he be brought to the courthouse at 7 a.m. on some days to work with his lawyers prior to the start of the trial day several hours later.
The trial is expected to last up to six weeks.
A third driver on the exit ramp struck one of the victims ejected from the Tacoma, Gwinnett County police Capt. Ryan Winderweedle said. He said the driver of the third vehicle was injured when he pulled over and tried to get off the roadway by climbing over a wall on a bridge. The third driver fell about 25 feet (7.6 meters) into a creek, breaking multiple bones.
The crash happened about 23 miles (37 kilometers) northeast of downtown Atlanta.
New York
Man who accosted former Rep. Lee Zeldin at campaign stop pleads guilty in federal case
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A man who climbed the platform at a campaign event in western New York last year and grappled with Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of assaulting a federal officer.
David Jakubonis, 44, faces up to a year in prison and a hefty fine at his sentencing, which is scheduled for December, U.S. Attorney for the Western District Trini Ross said in a news release.
At the campaign rally near Rochester, New York, in July 2022, Jakubonis approached then-U.S. Rep. Zeldin while carrying a keychain with two sharp points. According to prosecutors, the two men struggled, and Jakubonis pulled Zeldin down before being subdued.
Jakubonis’ attorneys said the Army veteran was drunk and was trying to get to the microphone. In October, he was released from jail to an alcohol treatment program.
Attorney John DeMarco said the misdemeanor plea was “a solid example of justice being reached.”
In an email, he said, “This disposition is a positive result for Congressman Zeldin as a crime victim, a good result for David Jakubonis, a disabled and decorated veteran, who has demonstrated great resolve in his recovery efforts, a good result for veterans who deserve to have their special equities considered in a circumstance like this.”
