Court Digest

Nebraska
Lawsuit claims restriction on carrying guns in Omaha, Lincoln violate state law
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s two largest cities are violating a new state gun law by prohibiting them from public places such as parks, according to two recent lawsuits.

The Liberty Justice Center filed lawsuits Dec. 18 challenging executive orders issued by the mayors of Omaha and Lincoln. The lawsuits allege that the orders are in violation of a new state gun law. The suits were filed on behalf of the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association.
State lawmakers in April passed a bill allowing people to carry concealed guns across the state without a permit and without the need to complete a gun safety course. It also said that it overrides stricter local laws, like those in Omaha and Lincoln.

The lawsuits state that despite the new law, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert and Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird issued executive orders banning all firearms from city property, including parks and sidewalks. The suits said the Omaha City Council also banned “ghost gun” parts and manufacturing, and the Lincoln City Council has not repealed ordinances regulating weapons.

Jacob Huebert, president of the Liberty Justice Center, said the state law is direct: Local governments can’t regulate firearms.

“The mayors of Omaha and Lincoln have defied state law with their executive orders, and we look forward to seeing those orders and other city firearms regulations struck down,” Huebert said in a statement.

Yohance Christie, Lincoln’s city attorney, said in a statement that actions taken by the city “to protect the safety and quality of life of our residents and visitors are in compliance with the law.”

Omaha City Attorney Matt Kuhse told the Omaha World-Herald that the state law allows cities to prohibit concealed firearms “on the premises and places under its control with conspicuous notice.”

Kuhse said the city “will defend this lawsuit and defend the ability of municipalities, such as Omaha, to protect the safety and health of its citizens within the bounds of the law.”

The lawsuits were filed days after Nebraska Attorney General Michael Hilgers published an opinion stating that state law preempts executive orders from the mayors. The opinion also stated that the executive orders violate residents’ Second Amendment rights, and are in violation of the Nebraska Constitution.

Connecticut
Students at now-closed nursing school sue state
Students at a for-profit nursing school in Connecticut that abruptly closed in February filed a federal class-action lawsuit against state officials on Tuesday, arguing their actions and defamatory statements have prevented the students from moving on with their training and careers.

“They’re literally stuck,” said attorney David A. Slossberg, who is part of a team of lawyers representing what could potentially be more than 1,200 former Stone Academy students.

The lawsuit, which focuses on the state’s conduct after the school’s closure, argues the students’ constitutional rights have been violated because they have been deprived of property rights to earned academic credits. After the school’s three campuses were shuttered, a state audit declared thousands of credit hours retroactively invalid, something Slossberg argues officials did not have the authority to do.

“You really have state agencies who weren’t authorized to behave this way, who really went rogue in many respects,” he said. “And instead of making things better, they multiplied the harm to these hard-working students exponentially.”

The plaintiffs also argue they have been deprived of their “liberty rights to their good name, reputation, honor, and integrity” by state officials. The students claim they have been “stigmatized” and unable to transfer any credits, audited or otherwise, to other Connecticut nursing schools because they are now seen as “ill prepared to practice as practical nurses.”

“Unfortunately, all the people in positions of trust failed these students,” said Slossberg, who is working with attorneys Kristen L. Zaehringer, Erica O. Nolan and Timothy C. Cowan on the case. The lawsuit names the commissioners of the Connecticut Office of Higher Education and Connecticut Department of Public Health, as well as two other state officials, as defendants in the case.

It follows an earlier lawsuit filed by the students in May against Stone Academy’s parent company, the academy’s part-owner and other people. Earlier this month, a judge decided at least $5 million must be set aside for the students.

In July, the state of Connecticut also sued the for-profit nursing school, accusing it of aggressively using marketing to recruit students, many of them Black and Hispanic women who took out loans and used their life savings to pay the more than $30,000 in tuition and other costs to become licensed practical nurses. But Attorney General William Tong said the school provided an inadequate education and left them ineligible to take licensing exams and obtain state nursing licenses.

Tong has also claimed nearly $1 million year was funneled from Stone Academy to subsidize another school, to the detriment of Stone Academy students.

The state’s lawsuit seeks millions of dollars in restitution for the students and penalties for alleged violations of the state’s unfair trade practices laws. Stone Academy, in a statement, has called the state’s lawsuit baseless and blamed other state agencies for forcing the school to close.

Asked about the lawsuit filed by the students against state officials on Tuesday, Tong’s office said in a statement: “While we are reviewing this lawsuit, we will continue to hold Stone and its owners accountable for their greedy, self-serving decisions which cost Stone’s students years of time and money.”

Florida
Tampa settles lawsuit with feds over parental leave for male workers
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The city of Tampa has reached an agreement with the federal government to resolve a discrimination lawsuit alleging that male workers didn’t receive the same parental leave as female workers.

Under the proposed settlement reached Thursday, Tampa will pay $300,000 and credit 240 hours of additional leave time to male workers who were denied the same amount of parental leave as female workers in 2017 and 2018.

According to the lawsuit, female workers were allowed up to 320 hours of leave time for the purpose of serving as the primary caregiver for a new child, while male workers were permitted only 80 hours as “secondary” caregivers, even if they were the primary caregiver.

At least 10 male workers requested primary caregiver leave and were denied because of their sex, and as many as 150 male workers were discouraged from applying for primary caregiver leave by their supervisors or human resources officials, according to the complaint.

The proposed consent decree, which requires approval from a judge, also requires Tampa to adopt a new parental leave policy that does not discriminate based on sex.

“This agreement sends a clear message that in providing paid or unpaid parental leave, employers must guarantee that those benefits are provided without reliance on presumptions about which parent can be the primary caregiver,” U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement.

The Tampa City Council passed a resolution Thursday denying that the city unlawfully discriminated against male employees. Both the city and the federal government reached a settlement to “avoid the risk and burdens of protracted litigation,” according to the resolution.
The lawsuit, which alleges excessive force, says an officer began firing into the car after the traffic stop.

Police have not confirmed whether Harris was shot by an officer, NBCNews.com reported.

The officers have said the car Harris was in fled after they exited their patrol vehicle and that they heard gunshots coming from the car as they gave chase, court records show. One of the officers fired at the vehicle and it crashed into a curb.

The driver exited and began running on foot, according to the records. Officers said they saw a black object in his hands and shot him. After arresting him, they discovered the black object was a cell phone. The officers never found a gun, but later claimed in a court hearing that the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which examines police shootings, recovered a weapon elsewhere.

After arresting the driver, the officers said they found Harris slumped over in the passenger seat of the car. She was transported to a hospital, where she required surgery to remove bullet fragments from her head, the lawsuit says. Harris still suffers with her speech, gait and cognitive abilities, the lawsuit says.

She has not been charged with a crime, but the driver was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, according to NBCNews.com.

The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office is reviewing the episode for potential violations that could result in charges for the officers involved. The officers have been cleared to return to work while the office conducts its review.

Carlos Moore, Harris’ attorney, has called for federal prosecutors to investigate the case. The lawsuit seeks $3 million in damages.

New York
Gov. commutes sentence of rapper G. Dep
NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Travell “G. Dep” Coleman, who walked into a New York police precinct in 2010 and admitted to committing a nearly two-decade-old cold case murder to clear his conscience, has been granted clemency by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Now 49, Coleman has served 13 of a 15-year-to-life sentence. With his sentence being commuted by the Democratic governor, he will now be allowed to seek parole earlier than his original 2025 date.

Coleman is one of 16 individuals granted clemency by Hochul in an announcement made Friday. They include 12 pardons and four commutations. It marked the third time Hochul has granted clemency in 2023.

“Through the clemency process, it is my solemn responsibility as governor to recognize the efforts individuals have made to improve their lives and show that redemption is possible,” Hochul said in a written statement.

The rapper earned an associate’s degree while in prison and facilitated violence prevention and sobriety counseling programs, while also participating in a variety of educational and rehabilitative classes, according to Hochul’s office. His clemency application was supported by the prosecutor in the case and the judge who sentenced him.

As G. Dep, Coleman had hits with “Special Delivery” and “Let’s Get It” and helped popularize a loose-limbed dance called the Harlem shake in the early 2000s. The rapper was one of the rising stars of hip-hop impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy Records label in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But his career slumped after his 2001 debut album, “Child of the Ghetto,” and the rapper became mired in drug use and low-level arrests, his lawyer said in 2011.

Attorney Anthony L. Ricco said at the time that Coleman “had been haunted” by the 1993 fatal shooting of John Henkel and decided to confess to shooting someone as a teenager during a robbery in East Harlem. Henkel was shot three times in the chest outside an apartment complex.

His brother, Robert Henkel, had demanded Hochul reject the urgings by prosecutor David Drucker to release Coleman, calling it a “farce.” He told the New York Post that “it is one thing to seek (clemency) for drug crimes — but not murder.”