Court Digest

Washington
Former Fox News reporter claims he was fired after challenging Jan. 6 coverage in suit
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Fox News reporter says in a lawsuit he was targeted and fired for pushing back against false claims about the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the suit moved to federal court Monday, producer Jason Donner said he was part of a “purge” of employees who refused to only report information that would “appease” former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

Donner was inside the Capitol when the mob of Trump supporters breached the building. When he heard Fox News reporting that rioters were “peaceful” and “severely disappointed,” he called the control room, using expletives as he said, “you’re gonna get us all killed,” the suit states.

Donner also debunked Tucker Carlson’s “Patriot Purge,” a program on the Fox Nation streaming service that argued Jan. 6 was used as a pretext for persecution of conservative Americans.

Fox managers, though, were focused on wooing viewers who supported Trump, and as Donner pressed his complaints he was eventually targeted by a manager who accused him of being irresponsible for calling in sick once while he was recovering from a COVID-19 vaccine, the lawsuit claimed. He was fired in 2022.

A longtime Republican who affiliated with Democrats more recently, Donner said he was illegally discriminated and retaliated against because of his political views. He is seeking unspecific damages.

The lawsuit was first filed in Washington’s Superior Court Sept. 27 and subsequently moved to federal court.

Fox also faced a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems and paid nearly $800 million this year to settle the case alleging that Fox knowingly promoted false conspiracy theories about the security of its voting machines. It is also facing a suit from a second voting-machine company.

The network also paid $12 million to settle with Abby Grossberg, another former producer who claimed that she faced a discriminatory workplace and that the network coerced her into giving false or misleading testimony in the Dominion suit.

A former Trump supporter who became the center of a conspiracy theory about Jan. 6 has also sued the network, claiming the network made him a scapegoat for the riot.


California
Man accused of killing his wife and her parents
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles man was charged Monday with murder for allegedly killing his wife and her parents, then stuffing dismembered body parts into a trash bag, prosecutors announced Monday.

Samuel Haskell, 35, was charged with three counts of murder with special circumstances of committing multiple murders and could face life in prison without the chance of parole if convicted, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

During a court appearance, Haskell’s arraignment was postponed and he was ordered held without bail. An email seeking comment from Joseph Gutierrez, an attorney who represented him in court Monday, wasn’t immediately returned.

Haskell lived in the Tarzana neighborhood of the San Fernando Valley with his wife, their three young children and her parents.

He was arrested last week after a human torso was found in a bag in a dumpster, police said.

Mei Li Haskell, 37, and her parents, Gaoshan Li, 72, and Yanxiang Wang, 64, were last seen on or about Nov. 6, the DA’s office statement said.

“On Nov. 7, Haskell allegedly hired four day-laborers to take away several heavy black plastic trash bags from his home in Tarzana,” the statement said. “One of the laborers opened one of the bags and allegedly observed human body parts. They called 911 and reported the incident.”

They returned the bags and money, but the bags weren’t there when police arrived, authorities have said.

The same day, Haskell was caught on video dumping something in a dumpster in nearby Encino, authorities said. He was arrested the next day after someone rummaging through trash in that dumpster found a woman’s torso in a trash bag and called 911, prosecutors said.
The torso is suspected to be that of Haskell’s wife, police have said. However, they haven’t been officially identified, the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s department told KNBC-TV.

“We suspect that the torso ... is the body of Mei Haskell,” Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said Monday. “No other bags containing body parts or remains have been recovered to date but I don’t need a body to charge a murder.”

“There were items of evidence in the house that indicated he dismembered the bodies,” Silverman said.

South Dakota
Hotel owner sued for discrimination to apologize, step down for 4 years
A South Dakota woman who said she would ban Native Americans from her hotel cannot manage the establishment for four years and must publicly apologize under agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.

The federal agency announced the apology last week as part of a consent decree with owners of Rapid City’s Grand Gateway Hotel.

Hotel co-owner Connie Uhre in March 2022 posted on social media that she would no longer allow American Indians on the property because of a fatal shooting at the hotel involving two teenagers who police said were Native American.

“We will no long(er) allow any Native American(s) on (our) property,” Uhre wrote in a Facebook post, while offering a “very special” hotel rate to travelers and ranchers.

Members of the Indigenous-led activist group NDN Collective were denied hotel rooms shortly after Uhre’s posts.

After months of boycotts and protests against the hotel and its owners, the Justice Department stepped in and sued, alleging racial discrimination against American Indians.

In a statement announcing the consent decree, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke described Uhre’s behavior as “hateful,” saying it “invokes a long and painful history of negative stereotypes against and exclusion of the Native American community.”

“We applaud the Tribal elders, local officials, and advocates who took a stand against this shameful conduct,” Clarke said. “Our settlement should send a message to public establishments across the country that their doors must be open to all communities regardless of race.”

A lawyer for the Uhres did not respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press. Email and voice message requests for comment to NDN Collective were not immediately returned Monday.

The hotel shut down for about a month because of the protests. Uhre was arrested May 31, 2022, accused of spraying a cleaning product at NDN Collective demonstrators outside the hotel.

As part of the consent decree, which still needs approval from a U.S. District Court judge, the company must apologize for Uhre’s posts in letters to tribal leaders and in newspapers throughout South Dakota.

Arizona
Legal action is sought against breeding company
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Two humane societies are considering legal action against an Arizona breeding company after as many as 260 small animals that were supposed to be placed for adoption were instead frozen and fed to reptiles at a metro Phoenix farm.

“I’m heartbroken for our organization whose mission it is to protect and save animals,” Humane Society of Southern Arizona board chair Robert Garcia said at a news conference last week.

Garcia, who is a Tucson attorney, didn’t immediately return a phone call Monday seeking an update on the situation.

But on the society’s website, Garcia said the breeder clearly intended “to use these animals as feed instead of finding them adoptive homes.”

Garcia said he wants to “ensure this tragedy never happens again and that those who are responsible are held accountable.”

Authorities said that due to overcrowding, the San Diego Humane Society asked the southern Arizona nonprofit chapter in July for help with finding homes for a large group of “pocket pets” that included rabbits and guinea pigs.

Garcia said 323 small animals were transferred to Tucson and then Phoenix in August. They were supposed to be in the hands of a man who facilitated animal adoptions, but authorities said they wound up with his brother who operated the reptile farm.

Garcia said 62 small animals were returned after the Tucson agency began asking questions about the whereabouts of the others.

They later learned about the breeder and that part of his business included selling both live and frozen animals for reptile feed.

The Humane Society of Southern Arizona fired its CEO last month and also accepted the resignation of its chief operating officer.

Its board reportedly did not learn of the reptile farm owner’s involvement until weeks after the animal transfer.

Pennsylvania
Escaped murderer charged with burglary and theft while on the run
A convicted murderer who escaped from a southeastern Pennsylvania prison earlier this year and eluded a massive two-week search before he was recaptured is now facing new theft, burglary and other charges in connection with alleged crimes committed while he was on the run.

Danilo Cavalcante, 34, convicted of the murder of an ex-girlfriend before his Aug. 31 escape from Chester County Prison, is now formally charged with having stolen a transit van and burglarizing homes in southeastern Pennsylvania, where a rifle and ammunition, clothing, a sleeping bag and other items were stolen.

“The defendant used all means necessary to escape from prison and stay hidden from authorities. These offenses aided his efforts and elevated his threat to the public,” Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a statement.

Cavalcante was charged Monday with felony counts of burglary, criminal trespass, theft and possession of a firearm as well as a number of misdemeanor charges including theft and receiving stolen property. The county public defender’s office, which is representing him, declined immediate comment Monday.

Authorities said a resident of a Pennsbury township home reported a burglary Sept. 1 but said nothing appeared to be missing, but after Cavalcante was recaptured he identified a knife, backpack, sleeping bag, shirt and razor found with the fugitive as having been taken from the residence.

On Sept. 9, Cavalcante was reported to be driving a white van, and a trooper later confirmed that a transit van had been taken from Pocopson Township, authorities said. The stolen van was found abandoned the next day, when a resident of a South Coventry Township, about two miles away (3 kilometers) and roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, reported that a man resembling the fugitive had entered his garage and stolen a .22 caliber long rifle loaded with 10 rounds. The resident said he fired three or four rounds from a pistol as the man fled up a hill and into the woods.

Cavalcante, 34, had been sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted of killing Deborah Brandao in front of her children in 2021. Prosecutors say he wanted to stop her from telling police he was wanted in a 2017 killing in Brazil. He was awaiting transfer to a state prison when he scaled a wall and then jumped from a roof to escape.

Cavalcante was captured Sept. 13 after a two-week search that left residents on edge and led to school closures right at the start of the academic year, as well as warnings for residents to lock their doors and blocked roads over the busy Labor Day weekend.

Law enforcement’s big break came when a plane fitted with a thermal imaging camera picked up Cavalcante’s heat signal, allowing teams on the ground to secure the area, surround him and move in with search dogs.