Mississippi: Lawyer sues sheriff over bribery arrest
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — A Hattiesburg attorney claims his arrest on a bribery complaint in 2009 was in retaliation for past disputes with the Pearl River County sheriff.
The Picayune Item reports Glenn White filed the complaint this past week in U.S. District Court. Named as defendants were Sheriff David Alison, three deputies and the county.
White had been arrested in March 2009 for allegedly bribing a county jail inmate to influence testimony related to the investigation of a Picayune bonding company. The attorney general’s office dropped the charges in July 2009.
In his lawsuit, White contends he was arrested without probable cause and for retaliatory reasons. White seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
No trial date has been set.
Alison told the newspaper that the district attorney’s office was contacted about the evidence against White before making the arrest.
“We acted in good faith. We’re not worried about it, and we did our job, and we will continue to do our job,” Alison said.
Saucier said White’s arrest was made after evidence collected in an investigation was presented to a judge who found probable cause and issued the arrest warrant.
Washington, D.C.: High court takes unusual case on corporate privacy
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is getting involved in an unusual freedom of information dispute over whether corporations may assert personal privacy interests to prevent the government from releasing documents about them.
The court on Tuesday agreed to a request from the Obama administration to take up a case involving claims made by telecommunications giant AT&T to keep secret the information gathered by the Federal Communications Commission during an investigation.
The administration wants the high court to rule that corporations may not claim a personal privacy exception contained in the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Pennsylvania: Pastor charged in wife’s ‘08 death faces court
TANNERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A retired Pennsylvania pastor accused of killing his wife and staging a car accident to cover it up is scheduled to be in court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.
Prosecutors will ask a judge to order 62-year-old Arthur Burton “A.B.” Schirmer to stand trial. Schirmer was charged earlier this month with homicide and evidence-tampering in the death of his 56-year-old wife, Betty.
Betty Schirmer’s death was initially ruled an accident, but police reopened the investigation after the November 2008 suicide of a man whose wife was having an affair with A.B. Schirmer.
Police are also re-examining the 1999 death of Schirmer’s first wife, Jewel, who was reported to have died in a fall down a flight of stairs.
Schirmer denies harming either of his wives.
Louisiana: Former state senator’s law license suspended
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Louisiana Supreme Court has suspended the law license of former state Sen. Charles Jones after his conviction last month on federal income tax evasion charges.
The News-Star reported Monday that the Supreme Court granted a request by the state Attorney Disciplinary Board to suspend Jones’ license in the interim following his conviction on two counts of filing false tax returns and one count of tax evasion.
If Jones’ guilty verdict withstands appeals, he could be disbarred for at least five years or permanently disbarred, depending on how egregious the court finds the offenses. He did not return a Monday call to his Monroe law office seeking comment.
Sentencing is set for Dec. 6.
South Dakota: ACLU lawsuit seeks information on pregnancy care
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit against the Indian Health Service to obtain information about whether pregnant women on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation are being pressured to have labor induced against their wishes.
Robert Doody, executive director of the ACLU of South Dakota, said there is no obstetric care available on the reservation and many women are being told they must have their labor induced on a particular day without being given information about the risks and benefits of induction.
For nearly a decade, women on the Cheyenne River reservation have had to travel at least 90 miles to St. Mary’s Healthcare Center in Pierre to have their babies, he said.
“There is no opportunity to give natural birth on the Cheyenne River reservation,” Doody said. “They have to go to St. Mary’s and be induced, or they have to face the possibility of severe complications.”
National IHS spokesman Thomas Sweeney said he could not comment on a pending lawsuit.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York after the IHS failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests the ACLU filed in November seeking documents about forced inductions, Doody said.
The ACLU began looking into the issue of forced inductions in March 2009 after hearing stories from 10 to 15 women, Doody said.
“This has been going on for 10 years,” he said. “It’s been the practice and custom. We don’t know if it’s a written policy or not.”
As part of treaties signed by the Sioux Nation in the late 1800s, the federal government agreed to provide medical care on Native American reservations. The government-run IHS runs hospitals and clinics on most reservations. Critics long have complained of insufficient financial support that has led to constant turnover among doctors and nurses, understaffed hospitals, sparse specialty care and long waits to see a doctor.
