National Roundup

Washington
Man charged with threatening a Palestinian rights group
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Utah man has been charged with threatening a Palestinian rights organization in Washington in a case that was unsealed Monday as tensions rise in the U.S. from the devastating war between Israel and Hamas.

Kevin Brent Buchanan, 62, of Tooele, Utah, called the unidentified group at least five times in three days and left profanity-laced messages such as “You’re the enemy,” “you’re being tracked” and “dead person walking,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.

The organization reported the messages with the help of another anti-discrimination group. FBI agents tracked the phone number to Tooele, located about 34 miles or 55 kilometers west of Salt Lake City, and linked him to the phone through purchase records, prosecutors said. No attorney was immediately listed for Buchanan. A message seeking comment left at a phone number associated with him was not immediately returned.

The threats began Oct. 31 and continued through Nov. 2, two days before the group had a public demonstration planned. Buchanan was charged with making an interstate threat, which is punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Threats against Jewish, Muslim, and Arab American communities in the U.S. have increased since the war began with an attack by Hamas in early October.

New York
Lawmaker accused of rape in lawsuit filed under state’s expiring Adult Survivors Act
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A state lawmaker from Brooklyn has been accused in a lawsuit of raping a woman early in his legislative career when he went to her home to discuss disaster relief efforts for Haiti.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, accuses Sen. Kevin Parker of assaulting her in 2004, during his first term. The woman said she had been working with Parker to coordinate the delivery of items and donations to Haiti after a devastating flood that affected the country and other neighboring Caribbean Islands.

The suit was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a special state law that created a yearlong suspension of the usual time limit for accusers to sue. The law is set to expire after Thanksgiving.

A spokesperson for Parker, a Democrat, did not immediately comment when asked about the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for the Senate’s top Democrat, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, said the allegations were “extremely disturbing and we take them very seriously.”

The woman said in the lawsuit that the assault happened after Parker came to her apartment to pick up photos from a visit she had made to Haiti. Parker represents part of Brooklyn with a large Caribbean and Haitian community.

After they finished discussing her work, the woman stood up to say goodbye when Parker grabbed her wrists, took her down a hallway to her bedroom, made a sexual comment, and then raped her, the lawsuit said.

The woman’s lawyer, Bob Hilliard, said in a statement that she “survived unspeakable sexual abuse perpetrated by Senator Parker— and continues to suffer from the trauma that only survivors of unwanted sexual assault can fully understand.”

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly.

In 2005, Parker was arrested and charged with third-degree assault after punching a traffic agent who gave him a ticket for double-parking, according to news reports from that time. In that same year, a former aide accused Parker of threatening her after she publicly complained that he shoved and hit her when she worked for him.

Parker was also convicted of misdemeanor criminal mischief charges in 2010 after he chased a New York Post photographer and damaged their camera.

New York state government has struggled for years with allegations about sexual harassment and misconduct by politicians.

In 2021, former governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, resigned over a barrage of sexual assault allegations, in which one of his accusers had claimed he had groped her, though the criminal charges were later dropped.

In 2013, former Assemblymember Vito Lopez, a Brooklyn Democrat, resigned over sexual harassment allegations that Assembly leadership had been covering up with secret payments.


New Mexico
Governor makes interim head of state’s child welfare agency permanent
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The temporary head of the New Mexico’s embattled foster care and child welfare agency has officially been given the job, the governor said Monday.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Teresa Casados has been appointed permanently as secretary of the Children, Youth and Families Department. Casados has been interim secretary since April.

The Democratic governor said in a statement Casados has “left an indelible mark” at the agency in the past few months.

Casados said she was honored to take on the role. She took on the position after the departure of Barbara Vigil, a former state Supreme Court justice who started in October 2021.

New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department has faced controversy in recent years. In September, the department reached a $650,000 settlement in a whistleblower lawsuit brought by two former agency officials.

Former CYFD public information officer Cliff Gilmore and his wife, Debra Gilmore, who headed the agency’s office of children’s rights, were fired in 2021. They said it happened after raising concerns about the agency’s practice of conducting official business through an encrypted messaging app and automatically deleting messages in potential violation of New Mexico’s public records law, according to their lawsuit.

CYFD admitted no wrongdoing or liability in agreeing to settle.

New Mexico’s repeat rate of reported child abuse cases is among the worst in the country, amid chronic workforce shortages in the child welfare system and high turnover among employees in protective services.

The state has responded in recent years with increased investments in services aimed at preventing abuse.

Republicans say they have been frustrated by Vigil’s departure and rejection of legislative proposals on child welfare.