Court Digest

Illinois
Teen reaches $1.9 million settlement after officer shot him in gun battle
CHICAGO (AP) — A teenager who was shot and wounded during a 2019 shootout between suburban Chicago police and a bank robbery suspect inside a music school has reached a $1.9 million settlement with the city of Des Plaines.

Rylan Wilder signed off this week on the settlement, nearly four years after a bullet fired by Des Plaines Officer James Armstrong tore a hole through his left arm, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Armstrong was chasing an armed man who had shot another officer after a bank robbery in Des Plaines when the suspect ran into Upbeat Music & Arts on Chicago’s Northwest Side. Armstrong followed him inside, shooting and killing him. In the process, he also accidentally shot Wilder, who was 15 and working as an intern at the school.

The bullet that hit the crook of Wilder’s left elbow destroyed an artery, shredded a nerve and obliterated bone, threatening his guitar-playing dreams.

Wilder’s parents sued in Cook County circuit court, alleging that the officer’s actions were excessive and that he displayed “reckless, willful and wanton conduct.” Armstrong wasn’t criminally charged in the shooting, was cleared of wrongdoing by the city, and is still with the department.

Wilder, who’s now 19 and a sophomore at Columbia College Chicago, needed more than a dozen operations and three years of physical therapy. He said he’s still playing guitar and writing music; he recently produced a song for his girlfriend. But he still suffers from his wound.

“My whole arm still feels very numb. I can’t feel in most of my fingers or in my hand,” Wilder told the Chicago Sun-Times Wednesday at his attorney’s office.

Under the settlement with Des Plaines, the city doesn’t admit wrongdoing or liability, according to a statement it released.

Washington
Starbucks, union sue each other in standoff over  social media post
Starbucks and the union organizing its workers sued each other Wednesday in a standoff sparked by a social media post over the Israel-Hamas war.

Starbucks sued Workers United in federal court in Iowa Wednesday, saying a pro-Palestinian social media post from a union account early in the Israel-Hamas war angered hundreds of customers and damaged its reputation.

Starbucks is suing for trademark infringement, demanding that Workers United stop using the name “Starbucks Workers United” for the group that is organizing the coffee company’s workers. Starbucks also wants the group to stop using a circular green logo that resembles Starbucks’ logo.

Workers United responded with its own filing, asking a federal court in Pennsylvania to rule that it can continue to use Starbucks’ name and a similar logo. Workers United also said Starbucks defamed the union by implying that it supports terrorism and violence.

On Oct. 9, two days after Hamas militants rampaged across communities in southern Israel, Starbucks Workers United posted “Solidarity with Palestine!” on X, formerly known as Twitter. Workers United — a Philadelphia-based affiliate of the Service Employees International Union — said in its lawsuit that workers put up the tweet without the authorization of union leaders. The post was up for about 40 minutes before it was deleted.

But posts and retweets from local Starbucks Workers United branches supporting Palestinians and condemning Israel were still visible on X Wednesday. Seattle-based Starbucks filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, noting that Iowa City Starbucks Workers United was among those posting pro-Palestinian messages.

In a letter sent to Workers United on Oct. 13, Starbucks demanded that the union stop using its name and similar logo. In its response, Workers United said Starbucks Workers United’s page on X clearly identifies it as a union.

“Starbucks is seeking to exploit the ongoing tragedy in the Middle East to bolster the company’s anti-union campaign,” Workers United President Lynne Fox wrote in a letter to Starbucks.

In its lawsuit, Workers United noted that unions often use the company name of the workers they represent, including the Amazon Labor Union and the National Football League Players Association.

Starbucks said it received more than 1,000 complaints about the union’s post. The Seattle-based coffee giant said workers had to face hostile customers and received threatening phone calls. Vandals spray-painted Stars of David and a swastika on the windows of a Rhode Island store.

Some lawmakers, including Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, called for boycotts of Starbucks.

“If you go to Starbucks, you are supporting killing Jews,” Florida state Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican, tweeted on Oct. 11.

Starbucks’ official statements on the war have expressed sympathy for innocent victims in both Israel and Gaza.

“Starbucks unequivocally condemns acts of hate, terrorism and violence,” Starbucks Executive Vice President Sara Kelly wrote in a letter to employees last week.

Workers United hasn’t issued its own statement. But its parent, the SEIU, said Tuesday that it has many members with family on both sides of the conflict and believes “all Israelis and Palestinians deserve safety, freedom from violence, and the opportunity to thrive.”
Starbucks Workers United has been operating under that name since August 2021, a few months before it unionized its first Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York. Since then, at least 366 U.S. Starbucks have voted to unionize. The campaign helped kick off a wave of labor protests by Amazon workers, Hollywood writers and actors and auto workers.

But Starbucks doesn’t support unionization and hasn’t yet reached a labor agreement at any of its unionized stores. The process has been contentious, with workers organizing multiple strikes. Federal district judges and administrative judges with the National Labor Relations Board have issued 38 decisions finding unfair labor practices by Starbucks, the NLRB said, including delaying negotiations and withholding benefits from unionized workers.

Michigan
Republican charged in false elector plot agrees to cooperation deal
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan Republican accused of participating in a fake elector plot had all criminal charges dropped Thursday after the state Attorney General’s office said a cooperation deal was reached.

The defendant, James Renner, was one of 16 Republicans who investigators say met following the 2020 presidential election and signed a document falsely stating they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified electors.” Michigan was one of seven states where supporters of then-President Donald Trump signed certificates that falsely stated he won their states.

President Joe Biden won Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes, a result confirmed by a GOP-led state Senate investigation in 2021.

In July, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that each of the 16 would face eight criminal charges, including multiple counts of forgery. All 16 had pleaded not guilty.

But on Thursday, the attorney general’s office announced during a court hearing in Ingham County that it would be dropping its case against Renner, who is 77 years old, based on “an agreement between the parties.”

Renner’s lawyer, Clint Westbrook, said in court that he and his client “were excited with this result.” Westbrook did not immediately return a phone call seeking further comment on the agreement.

In a statement sent to The Associated Press, the state Attorney General’s office said they “dismissed the case against James Renner under a cooperation agreement,” but did not elaborate on the deal.

The dropped charges come after Nessel, a Democrat, told a liberal group during a virtual event that the false electors had been “brainwashed” and “genuinely” believed Trump won in Michigan. Simmons dismissed requests from two defendants earlier this month to dismiss charges due to Nessel’s comments.


Washington
Government secures a $9M settlement with Ameris Bank over alleged redlining in Florida
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has secured a $9 million settlement with Ameris Bank over allegations that it avoided underwriting mortgages in predominately Black and Latino communities in Jacksonville, Florida, and discouraged people there from getting home loans.

The bank denied violating fair lending laws and said it wanted to avoid litigation by agreeing to the deal, which does not include civil monetary penalties.

It’s the latest settlement over a practice known as redlining, which the Biden administration is tackling through a new task force that earlier this year reached the largest agreement of its kind in the department’s history.

Between 2016 and 2021, the Atlanta-based Ameris Bank’s home lending was focused disproportionately on mostly white areas of Jacksonville while other banks approved loans at three times the rate Ameris did, the government said.

The bank has never operated a branch in a majority Black and Hispanic neighborhood, and in one-third of those areas it did not receive a single application over the six-year period, even though other banks did, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

“Redlining has a significant impact on the health and wealth of these communities. Homeownership has been one of the most effective ways that Americans have built wealth in our country. When families can’t access credit to achieve homeownership, they lose an opportunity to share in this country’s prosperity,” Garland said at a news conference in Jacksonville announcing the settlement.

CEO Palmer Proctor of Ameris Bank, which federal officials say has nearly $25 billion in assets and operates in nine states across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic, said in a statement, “We strongly disagree with any suggestion that we have engaged in discriminatory conduct.” Proctor said the bank cooperated with the investigation and reached the agreement in part “because we share the Department’s goal of expanding access to homeownership in underserved areas.”

Garland has prioritized civil rights prosecutions since becoming attorney general in 2021, and the current administration has put a higher priority on redlining cases than before. The anti-redlining effort has now secured $107 million in relief, including the Ameris settlement, which a judge must approve.

A $31 million settlement with Los Angeles-based City National in January was the largest for the department.

The practice of redlining has continued across the country and the long-term effects are still felt today, despite a half-century of laws designed to combat it. Homes in historically redlined communities are still worth less than homes elsewhere, and a Black family’s average net worth is a fraction of a typical white household’s.

The Ameris case is the first brought by the department in Florida, said Roger Handberg, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida. “For far too long, redlining has negatively impacted communities of color across our country,” he said.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said combating redlining “is one of the most important strategies for ensuring equal economic opportunity today.”

Ameris Bank will invest $7.5 million in a loan subsidy fund made available to people in majority-minority neighborhoods under the settlement and spend a total of $1.5 million on outreach and community partnerships, as well as open a new branch in those neighborhoods, along with other requirements as part of the settlement.