California
Former deputy who pleaded guilty to manslaughter indicted on two federal charges
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A former San Diego sheriff’s deputy who already pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the 2020 fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect has been indicted on two federal charges that could bring a life sentence, federal prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment Friday charging Aaron Russell with depriving Nicholas Bils of his right to be free from officers using excessive force and with discharging a firearm in a violent crime, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Bils, 36, was arrested in May 2020 at Old Town State Park in San Diego where he had been pitching balls to his off-leash dog. He brandished a golf club at a ranger before running away and was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.
Bils was in a State Parks patrol car heading to the downtown jail when he managed to slip out of his handcuffs, reached out a window to open the car door, then jumped out and ran.
Aaron Russell, a jail deputy with 18 months on the force, chased Bils and shot him four times, including once in the back. Surveillance video captured the shooting.
Russell was charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years of probation. If convicted of the federal charges, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, the Justice Department said.
Contact information for Russell could not be found Sunday. He resigned from the sheriff’s department shortly after the shooting.
Bils’ mother, Kathleen Bils, told NBC 7 her son was a paranoid schizophrenic who was afraid of law enforcement, which may have played a role in his flight.
The shooting led to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Bils’ relatives, which was settled in 2022 with San Diego County agreeing to pay the family $8.1 million.
New York
NFL rookie sued by apparel maker for breach of $1 million contract
NEW YORK (AP) — Apparel manufacturer Fanatics has filed a lawsuit against Arizona Cardinals rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., alleging breach of contract.
The lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on Saturday claims Harrison did not fulfill his obligations and estimated the damage in “millions of dollars.”
Harrison was a star receiver at Ohio State when he signed the deal in 2023 and the Cardinals used the No. 4 overall pick to select him in last month’s NFL draft. Details of the contract were redacted and Harrison has publicly denied its existence.
ESPN reported the deal was for at least $1 million for autographs, signed trading cards, game-worn apparel and other marketing opportunities.
Harrison does not have an agent and has been represented by his father, Hall of Fame receiver Marvin Harrison. Harrison Jr. has yet to sign the NFL Players Association’s group licensing agreement, which would allow the association to market his name, image and likeness.
Missouri
Gubernatorial candidate with ties to the KKK can stay on the Republican ballot, circuit judge rules
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A longshot Missouri gubernatorial candidat e with ties to the Ku Klux Klan will stay on the Republican ticket, a judge ruled Friday.
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker denied a request by the Missouri GOP to kick Darrell McClanahan out of the August Republican primary.
McClanahan is running against Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, state Sen. Bill Eigel and others for the GOP nomination to replace Gov. Mike Parson, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection.
McClanahan’s lawyer, Dave Roland, said the ruling ensures that party leaders do not have “almost unlimited discretion to choose who’s going to be allowed on a primary ballot.”
“Their theory of the case arguably would have required courts to remove people from the ballot, maybe even the day before elections,” Roland said.
McClanahan, who has described himself as “pro-white” but denies being racist or antisemitic, was among nearly 280 Republican candidates who officially filed to run for office in February, on what is known as filing day. Hundreds of candidates line up at the secretary of state’s Jefferson City office on filing day in Missouri, the first opportunity to officially declare candidacy.
The Missouri GOP accepted his party dues but denounced him after a former state lawmaker posted photos on social media that appear to show McClanahan making the Nazi salute. McClanahan confirmed the accuracy of the photos to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
In his decision, Walker wrote that the Republican Party “has made clear that it does not endorse his candidacy, and it remains free to publicly disavow McClanahan and any opinions the plaintiff believes to be antithetical to its values.”
“I’m not sure they ever actually intended to win this case,” said McClanahan’s lawyer, Roland. “I think the case got filed because the Republican Party wanted to make a very big public show that they don’t want to be associated with racism or anti-Semitism. And the best way that they could do that was filing a case that they knew was almost certain to lose.”
The Associated Press’ emailed requests for comment to the Missouri GOP executive director and its lawyer were not immediately returned Friday. But Missouri GOP lawyers have said party leaders did not realize who McClanahan was when he signed up as a candidate back in February.
McClanahan has argued that the Missouri GOP was aware of the beliefs. He previously ran as a Republican for U.S. Senate in 2022.
In a separate lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League last year, McClanahan claimed the organization defamed him by calling him a white supremacist in an online post.
In his lawsuit against the ADL, McClanahan described himself as a “Pro-White man.” McClanahan wrote that he is not a member of the Ku Klux Klan; he said received an honorary one-year membership. And he said he attended a “private religious Christian Identity Cross lighting ceremony falsely described as a cross burning.”
Illinois
Chicago Tribune staffers’ unequal pay lawsuit claims race and sex discrimination
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Tribune is being sued by some of its staffers, who say they and other women and Black journalists are being paid less than their white male counterparts.
The complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Chicago also names Tribune Publishing Co. and Alden Global Capital, which took control of the Tribune in 2021.
Attorneys for the seven plaintiffs want class-action status, a jury trial and a permanent injunction against unequal pay based on sex and race discrimination. It also seeks all the back pay that affected employees should have received had they been paid the same as white males in similar jobs.
“This isn’t just about reporters wanting more money,” said Michael Morrison, an attorney representing the Tribune reporters. “This is about equality and fairness.”
The lawsuit says the Tribune employs highly-regarded journalists with individualized talents, experiences, and contributions, but across each section of the company’s news operation, “women and African American employees are underpaid by several thousands of dollars a year compared to their male and white counterparts.”
The lawsuit also accuses the newspaper of relying on diversity recruitment programs “as a source of cheap labor to depress the salaries of women and minority journalists.” It says talented, mostly women and minority journalists are hired into temporary year-long positions where they are paid significantly less than colleagues performing the same work.
“White employees, particularly white male employees, on the other hand, are more often recruited from other major news organizations and are offered higher salaries as a means to induce them to accept employment with defendants,” it says.
Earlier this year, 76 Tribune reporters, photographers and editors joined staff at six other newsrooms around the nation in a 24-hour strike demanding fair wages and protesting what they called the slow pace of contract negotiations.
Mitch Pugh, the Chicago Tribune’s executive editor, responded to an email by directing all inquiries to Goldin Solutions, a New York-based public relations firm. Goldin Solutions did not comment Friday on the lawsuit.
Delaware
Judge rejects former trooper’s discrimination lawsuit against state police
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday in favor of the Delaware State Police in a lawsuit filed by a former trooper who said she was subjected to years of discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation as she rose through the ranks.
Police sergeant Nicole Oldham, 49, said she endured harassment and discrimination from 2002 to 2018. She received a termination letter from former state police Col. Nathaniel McQueen Jr. in October 2018, months after being placed on medical leave and a week after filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
An attorney for Oldham, now known as Nicole Hantz, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
During her career, Oldham became the first female to be voted president of a police academy class, and the first to be assigned as an investigator in the fatal crash reconstruction unit, according to the lawsuit. A trooper-of-the year nominee in 2004, she later became the first woman to be named officer in charge of the governor’s executive protection unit, according to the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews said many of Oldham’s hostile work environment claims were barred by the passage of time because she failed to demonstrate a continuing pattern of similar conduct by the same individuals. Instead, many of the claims targeted different conduct by different troopers over a period of several years.
Other complaints of a hostile work environment failed to show discrimination and harassment that was “severe and pervasive,” Andrews added.
The judge also rejected Oldham’s discrimination claims based on her transfer from a “super troop” in Georgetown to a “less desirable” troop in Bridgeville in 2018, and her subsequent termination.
Andrews said Oldham failed to demonstrate that her transfer, which police said was done to resolve “intrapersonal issues,” was an adverse employment action or retaliation for her sexual harassment complaints.
The judge also said McQueen was justified in relying on documents submitted by medical providers to determine that Oldham suffered from “permanent disability” that warranted her termination. The medical providers suggested it was unlikely that she would be able to return to full duty.
Oldham’s lawsuit described a police agency that she said turned a blind eye toward sexual harassment, misogyny, extramarital affairs and hostile working conditions, and retaliated when misconduct was called out.
Oldham’s allegations included sometimes lurid details of the abuse she said she suffered at the hands of fellow officers. Oldham alleged among other things that she was targeted with false rumors that she had sex with male subordinates, and that she performed oral sex on a state lawmaker to gain a lead spot on former Gov. Jack Markell’s executive protection unit. She also said she was targeted for retaliation after spurning sexual advances by other troopers.
Former deputy who pleaded guilty to manslaughter indicted on two federal charges
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A former San Diego sheriff’s deputy who already pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the 2020 fatal shooting of an unarmed suspect has been indicted on two federal charges that could bring a life sentence, federal prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment Friday charging Aaron Russell with depriving Nicholas Bils of his right to be free from officers using excessive force and with discharging a firearm in a violent crime, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
Bils, 36, was arrested in May 2020 at Old Town State Park in San Diego where he had been pitching balls to his off-leash dog. He brandished a golf club at a ranger before running away and was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.
Bils was in a State Parks patrol car heading to the downtown jail when he managed to slip out of his handcuffs, reached out a window to open the car door, then jumped out and ran.
Aaron Russell, a jail deputy with 18 months on the force, chased Bils and shot him four times, including once in the back. Surveillance video captured the shooting.
Russell was charged with murder, but pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years of probation. If convicted of the federal charges, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison, the Justice Department said.
Contact information for Russell could not be found Sunday. He resigned from the sheriff’s department shortly after the shooting.
Bils’ mother, Kathleen Bils, told NBC 7 her son was a paranoid schizophrenic who was afraid of law enforcement, which may have played a role in his flight.
The shooting led to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Bils’ relatives, which was settled in 2022 with San Diego County agreeing to pay the family $8.1 million.
New York
NFL rookie sued by apparel maker for breach of $1 million contract
NEW YORK (AP) — Apparel manufacturer Fanatics has filed a lawsuit against Arizona Cardinals rookie receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., alleging breach of contract.
The lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on Saturday claims Harrison did not fulfill his obligations and estimated the damage in “millions of dollars.”
Harrison was a star receiver at Ohio State when he signed the deal in 2023 and the Cardinals used the No. 4 overall pick to select him in last month’s NFL draft. Details of the contract were redacted and Harrison has publicly denied its existence.
ESPN reported the deal was for at least $1 million for autographs, signed trading cards, game-worn apparel and other marketing opportunities.
Harrison does not have an agent and has been represented by his father, Hall of Fame receiver Marvin Harrison. Harrison Jr. has yet to sign the NFL Players Association’s group licensing agreement, which would allow the association to market his name, image and likeness.
Missouri
Gubernatorial candidate with ties to the KKK can stay on the Republican ballot, circuit judge rules
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A longshot Missouri gubernatorial candidat e with ties to the Ku Klux Klan will stay on the Republican ticket, a judge ruled Friday.
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker denied a request by the Missouri GOP to kick Darrell McClanahan out of the August Republican primary.
McClanahan is running against Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, state Sen. Bill Eigel and others for the GOP nomination to replace Gov. Mike Parson, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection.
McClanahan’s lawyer, Dave Roland, said the ruling ensures that party leaders do not have “almost unlimited discretion to choose who’s going to be allowed on a primary ballot.”
“Their theory of the case arguably would have required courts to remove people from the ballot, maybe even the day before elections,” Roland said.
McClanahan, who has described himself as “pro-white” but denies being racist or antisemitic, was among nearly 280 Republican candidates who officially filed to run for office in February, on what is known as filing day. Hundreds of candidates line up at the secretary of state’s Jefferson City office on filing day in Missouri, the first opportunity to officially declare candidacy.
The Missouri GOP accepted his party dues but denounced him after a former state lawmaker posted photos on social media that appear to show McClanahan making the Nazi salute. McClanahan confirmed the accuracy of the photos to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
In his decision, Walker wrote that the Republican Party “has made clear that it does not endorse his candidacy, and it remains free to publicly disavow McClanahan and any opinions the plaintiff believes to be antithetical to its values.”
“I’m not sure they ever actually intended to win this case,” said McClanahan’s lawyer, Roland. “I think the case got filed because the Republican Party wanted to make a very big public show that they don’t want to be associated with racism or anti-Semitism. And the best way that they could do that was filing a case that they knew was almost certain to lose.”
The Associated Press’ emailed requests for comment to the Missouri GOP executive director and its lawyer were not immediately returned Friday. But Missouri GOP lawyers have said party leaders did not realize who McClanahan was when he signed up as a candidate back in February.
McClanahan has argued that the Missouri GOP was aware of the beliefs. He previously ran as a Republican for U.S. Senate in 2022.
In a separate lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League last year, McClanahan claimed the organization defamed him by calling him a white supremacist in an online post.
In his lawsuit against the ADL, McClanahan described himself as a “Pro-White man.” McClanahan wrote that he is not a member of the Ku Klux Klan; he said received an honorary one-year membership. And he said he attended a “private religious Christian Identity Cross lighting ceremony falsely described as a cross burning.”
Illinois
Chicago Tribune staffers’ unequal pay lawsuit claims race and sex discrimination
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Tribune is being sued by some of its staffers, who say they and other women and Black journalists are being paid less than their white male counterparts.
The complaint filed Thursday in federal court in Chicago also names Tribune Publishing Co. and Alden Global Capital, which took control of the Tribune in 2021.
Attorneys for the seven plaintiffs want class-action status, a jury trial and a permanent injunction against unequal pay based on sex and race discrimination. It also seeks all the back pay that affected employees should have received had they been paid the same as white males in similar jobs.
“This isn’t just about reporters wanting more money,” said Michael Morrison, an attorney representing the Tribune reporters. “This is about equality and fairness.”
The lawsuit says the Tribune employs highly-regarded journalists with individualized talents, experiences, and contributions, but across each section of the company’s news operation, “women and African American employees are underpaid by several thousands of dollars a year compared to their male and white counterparts.”
The lawsuit also accuses the newspaper of relying on diversity recruitment programs “as a source of cheap labor to depress the salaries of women and minority journalists.” It says talented, mostly women and minority journalists are hired into temporary year-long positions where they are paid significantly less than colleagues performing the same work.
“White employees, particularly white male employees, on the other hand, are more often recruited from other major news organizations and are offered higher salaries as a means to induce them to accept employment with defendants,” it says.
Earlier this year, 76 Tribune reporters, photographers and editors joined staff at six other newsrooms around the nation in a 24-hour strike demanding fair wages and protesting what they called the slow pace of contract negotiations.
Mitch Pugh, the Chicago Tribune’s executive editor, responded to an email by directing all inquiries to Goldin Solutions, a New York-based public relations firm. Goldin Solutions did not comment Friday on the lawsuit.
Delaware
Judge rejects former trooper’s discrimination lawsuit against state police
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday in favor of the Delaware State Police in a lawsuit filed by a former trooper who said she was subjected to years of discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation as she rose through the ranks.
Police sergeant Nicole Oldham, 49, said she endured harassment and discrimination from 2002 to 2018. She received a termination letter from former state police Col. Nathaniel McQueen Jr. in October 2018, months after being placed on medical leave and a week after filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
An attorney for Oldham, now known as Nicole Hantz, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
During her career, Oldham became the first female to be voted president of a police academy class, and the first to be assigned as an investigator in the fatal crash reconstruction unit, according to the lawsuit. A trooper-of-the year nominee in 2004, she later became the first woman to be named officer in charge of the governor’s executive protection unit, according to the lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Richard Andrews said many of Oldham’s hostile work environment claims were barred by the passage of time because she failed to demonstrate a continuing pattern of similar conduct by the same individuals. Instead, many of the claims targeted different conduct by different troopers over a period of several years.
Other complaints of a hostile work environment failed to show discrimination and harassment that was “severe and pervasive,” Andrews added.
The judge also rejected Oldham’s discrimination claims based on her transfer from a “super troop” in Georgetown to a “less desirable” troop in Bridgeville in 2018, and her subsequent termination.
Andrews said Oldham failed to demonstrate that her transfer, which police said was done to resolve “intrapersonal issues,” was an adverse employment action or retaliation for her sexual harassment complaints.
The judge also said McQueen was justified in relying on documents submitted by medical providers to determine that Oldham suffered from “permanent disability” that warranted her termination. The medical providers suggested it was unlikely that she would be able to return to full duty.
Oldham’s lawsuit described a police agency that she said turned a blind eye toward sexual harassment, misogyny, extramarital affairs and hostile working conditions, and retaliated when misconduct was called out.
Oldham’s allegations included sometimes lurid details of the abuse she said she suffered at the hands of fellow officers. Oldham alleged among other things that she was targeted with false rumors that she had sex with male subordinates, and that she performed oral sex on a state lawmaker to gain a lead spot on former Gov. Jack Markell’s executive protection unit. She also said she was targeted for retaliation after spurning sexual advances by other troopers.
