Court Digest

Nevada
Governor sues over ethics censure, fine for use of badge on campaign trail
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo filed a lawsuit challenging the state ethics commission’s authority to censure and fine the former Clark County sheriff for using his publicly issued sheriff’s uniform and badge during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign.

In July, the Nevada Commission on Ethics found Lombardo guilty of violating ethics law after his campaign posted four photos of him wearing his county-issued sheriff’s badge on campaign materials. That was found to have violated a statute that bars the use of government resources to secure a private interest without warrant for each image or video.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Carson City District Court, attempts to circumvent the state ethics commission’s authority to hand out such fines, claiming that it violates the separation of powers principles in the state constitution. Lombardo’s lawyers argue that this is because the state legislature appoints half of the commission’s members.

It also attempts to permanently bar the commission from conducting any investigations or penalties over the governor.

The July ruling, they argue, is “arbitrary, capricious and/or an abuse of discretion.”

While Lombardo received a censure and a $20,000 fine, he ultimately avoided being fined nearly $1.67 million that the commission’s executive director, Ross Armstrong, initially sought from the commission for 68 alleged violations — two for each of the 34 times the campaign posted one of the four photos.

In an emailed statement on Monday, Armstrong said he could not comment on pending litigation.

Lombardo spokesperson Elizabeth Ray referred comments to the governor’s counsel. The counsel did not respond to a request asking if they had any comment beyond the filing’s contents.

Iowa
State promises services to kids with severe mental and behavioral needs after lawsuit
Iowa’s health agency will take steps to develop home and community-based services for children with severe mental and behavioral needs as part of an initial agreement with civil rights groups that filed a class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed in January on behalf of three children. It alleges that Iowa has for decades failed to meet its legal obligations to Medicaid -eligible children who should have access to individualized and coordinated care plans, in-home therapy and emergency services.

The complaint includes children who have been institutionalized for services that they were previously recommended to receive — and say they were entitled to receive, given the Medicaid Act — in their communities or homes.

“There was a desperate need to build a statewide children’s health system with an effective array of services,” said Catherine Johnson, executive director of Disability Rights Iowa. “The complaint that we’ve filed alleges that these services are not available in anywhere in Iowa. They just don’t exist.”

Iowa’s Department of Health and Human Services agreed to consult at least monthly with groups that filed the lawsuit, including Disability Rights Iowa and Children’s Rights, as officials develop a plan to provide these services and manage oversight.

Kelly Garcia, the department’s director, said a “multi-year effort” on Medicaid services in Iowa was already underway prior to the initial agreement.

“Iowa HHS has spent the past several years honing its work to better support children and families,” she said in a statement.

The parties would have until July 1, 2024, to reach a final settlement, which must include a mutually agreed-to plan for implementation of these services and performance metrics.

Johnson is optimistic about the work over the coming months, but she added that “time is of the essence” for these children and families.

“They would like to have these services — well, they would have liked them years ago,” she said. “There is certainly an urgency to providing these services.”


California
Ex-MLB pitcher and woman who accused him of assault settle legal dispute
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former major league pitcher Trevor Bauer and a woman who accused him of beating and sexually assaulting her in 2021 have settled their legal dispute, Bauer’s attorneys said Monday.

“Both of their respective claims have been withdrawn with prejudice, effective today,” attorneys Jon Fetterolf and Shawn Holley said in a statement.

The former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher was placed on administrative leave by MLB in July 2021 after the allegations were made by the woman, who said Bauer assaulted her on two different occasions at his home in Pasadena during what she said began as consensual sexual encounters between them.

The 32-year-old Bauer denied the allegation, saying the encounters were consensual.

Prosecutors decided not to file charges in February 2022.

Bauer was suspended an unprecedented 324 games by Major League Baseball, a ban reduced to 194 games by an independent arbitrator in December 2022. After Bauer’s suspension ended, the Dodgers cut him and no team picked him up. He now plays in Japan.

Bauer sued the woman, and she countersued. Their settlement calls for no exchange of money between the parties.

The woman will receive a separate $300,000 payout from her insurance company, her attorney, Jesse Kaplan, said in a letter to Bauer’s lawyers. That payment is independent of her settlement with Bauer.

“Quite frankly, regardless of the outcome in court, I’ve paid significantly more in legal fees than (the accuser) could ever pay me in her entire life, and I knew that would be the case going in,” Bauer said in a video statement. “But the lawsuit was never about the money for me. It was the only way for me to obtain critical information to clear my name.”

As part of the settlement terms, Bauer said he retained his right to speak publicly about the case.

“Now over the last two years, I’ve been forced to defend my integrity and my reputation in a very public setting, but hopefully this is the last time I have to do so, as I’d prefer to just remain focused on doing my job, winning baseball games and entertaining fans around the world,” he said. “So today I’m happy to be moving on with my life.”

Bauer faces a different accusation from an Arizona woman who alleges in a lawsuit he held a knife at her throat and choked her until she passed out during a rape that left her pregnant in late 2020.

Bauer was never arrested or charged and has countersued, denying the allegations and accusing the woman of faking a pregnancy and trying to extort money from him.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault.

Texas
Elon Musk faces defamation ­lawsuit over posts that falsely ­identified man ­in protest
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A California man who says he was harassed after Elon Musk amplified posts on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that falsely placed the man at a confrontation involving far-right protesters sued the billionaire for defamation in a lawsuit filed Monday.

Benjamin Brody, 22, is represented by Mark Bankston, a Texas attorney who won a defamation case last year against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a lawsuit brought by families of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. Brody is seeking a jury trial in Austin, Texas, and unspecified damages of at least $1 million.

Attorneys for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment left through a spokesperson.

In June, video posted to X showed a confrontation involving protesters near a Pride festival in Oregon. Some of those involved wore the same colors of the Proud Boys extremist group, according to The Oregonian. On X, some users falsely identified one of the participants as Brody, highlighting his post-college plans to work for the government to spread baseless assertions that federal agents were involved.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of Musk engaging with users spreading the posts involving Brody, including one in which Musk described it as a “probable false flag situation.” Brody, a recent college graduate who said he was in California when the event happened, came under harassment because of Musk’s reach, according to the lawsuit.

The posts by Musk were still on X as of Monday.

It is not the first time Musk has been sued for defamation. He defeated a lawsuit in 2019 from a British cave explorer who claimed he was branded a pedophile when the Tesla CEO called him “pedo guy” on what was then called Twitter.

Musk’s tech company has also taken others to court over what is posted on the site. In August, X sued a group of researchers over accusations that their work highlighting an increase in hate speech on the platform cost the company millions of dollars of advertising revenue.


Alabama
Judge says freestanding birth centers can remain open
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A judge ruled that Alabama cannot shut down freestanding birth centers that meet certain standards, siding with midwives and doctors who challenged what they described as Alabama’s de facto ban on the facilities.

Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Greg Griffin on Saturday issued a preliminary injunction that for now prevents the Alabama Department of Public Health from refusing to license the centers as long as they demonstrate compliance with standards established by the American Association of Birth Centers. The centers are where babies are delivered via the midwifery care model.

The ruling provides a pathway for the birth centers to get licensed to operate while a lawsuit goes forward challenging a requirement for the facilities to be licensed as hospitals.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the operators of the Oasis Family Birthing Center in Birmingham, Alabama, which closed, and two others that paused plans to open.

“We are pleased that the court put an end to the Alabama Department of Public Health’s unlawful and dangerous de facto ban on birth centers, allowing the dedicated providers in this case to offer pregnant Alabamians the essential health care they need in birth centers throughout the state,” Whitney White, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement.

The ACLU of Alabama said that after the ruling that Oasis will be “working to obtain a license from ADPH and resume providing patient care as soon as possible.”

The Alabama Department of Public Health had opposed the injunction, writing in a court filing that allowing the facilities to remain open gave an “implied badge of safety to potential mothers.” The department argued the state has a legal duty to regulate healthcare providers and the obstetrical care provided at facilities requires licensure as a hospital.

The providers who filed the lawsuit said the freestanding birth centers operate under the midwifery model of care, instead of obstetrics, and provide low-risk women an alternative place to deliver. The providers argued that the centers provide needed care in a state that has long struggled with high rates of infant mortality.