National Roundup

Connecticut
Ex-corrections officer wins suit against police

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - A jury has awarded a former state corrections officer $160,000 in his federal civil rights lawsuit alleging malicious prosecution by a New Haven police officer.

The New Haven Register reports (http://bit.ly/1APHFq7 ) that Tavares Mazyck lost his job as a state corrections officer after being arrested during an argument with his girlfriend eight years ago.

The jury in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport decided the 38-year-old Mazyck is entitled to $60,000 in compensatory damages and $100,000 in punitive damages.

Mazyck's lawyer accused officer Anthony Holloman of lying in his testimony and report.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Michael Wolak, who represented the defendants, said jurors chose to believe one side over the other and it doesn't mean one side wasn't telling the truth.

Wolak said city officials Holloman is "devastated" about the decision.

Kansas
Prosecutors drop charges in university rape

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Prosecutors have dropped charges against two men accused of raping two women in a University of Kansas residence hall during homecoming weekend.

The Douglas County prosecutor's office said in a written statement that evidence initially suggested a crime occurred. But the statement said there was no longer sufficient evidence to proceed after more people were interviewed and cell phone and medical records were reviewed.

One former suspect is from Lawrence and the other from Olathe (oh-LAY'-thuh). Police said one of the men is a KU student.

Court documents had said the 21-year-old men knew the victims and had sex with them without consent. The charges had stated that the victims were incapable of giving consent because of either mental deficiency or the effect of alcohol or drugs.

Louisiana
Lawyer sues city of Crowley over 911 response

CROWLEY, La. (AP) - A Crowley attorney claims that police held his two children at gunpoint and shocked him repeatedly with a stun gun when responding to a call from a neighbor who mistakenly thought she heard someone in distress.

The Advocate reports the lawsuit against the city of Crowley, its police chief and four officers was filed Friday. That's two days after a grand jury indicted the attorney, 45-year-old Clay LeJeune, (le JOON') and his wife, 40-year-old Mitzi LeJeune, for threatening and arguing with police during the May 25 incident.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages for civil rights violations, also alleges Crowley Police Chief K.P. Gibson might have had a vendetta against LeJeune and his wife because "they knew of certain personal indiscretions" of the chief.

The couple's attorney in the civil case, Clay Burgess, declined to elaborate on the allegation.

Gibson wrote in an email that he did not know what "indiscretions" were being referenced.

"He hasn't addressed anything with me," Gibson said.

Police were responding to a report that someone in the backyard might have been screaming "help me," said Barry Sallinger, the couple's defense attorney in the criminal case.

Sallinger said the neighbor likely heard the couple's teenage daughter yelling "daddy," calling her father to help her capture the family's Yorkshire terrier after the dog escaped from an electronic fence.

"The indictments come on the heels of a home invasion and how a good family reacted to it," Sallinger said Thursday.

The lawsuit alleges that officers made no effort to speak to the 911 caller but instead kicked in the door to the home with guns drawn, and in the confrontation that followed, officers took LeJeune to the ground and shocked him with a stun gun at least three times while he was being held face down on his front porch, with one officer yelling a string of profanities.

Gibson said he stands by his officers, but he declined comment on the allegations.

In the indictment returned Wednesday, LeJeune faces three counts of public intimidation, accused of threatening the officers, and two counts of resisting a police officer with force or violence. Mitzi LeJeune is charged with public intimidation.

Clay LeJeune works as a contract defense attorney for the 15th Judicial District Public Defender's Office. Mitzi LeJeune, also known as Mitzi Mayeaux, is an attorney and works as a law clerk for 15th Judicial District Judge Thomas Duplantier.

The state attorney general's office is prosecuting the case.

Attorney G. Paul Marx, who oversees the public defender's office, said Friday he did his own review of the May 25 incident and has come to the conclusion the police chief "seems to have lost command and control" of his officers.

"Unlike the chief, I took the time to investigate the matter, but having done so, I'm backing up this talented attorney and his family because the facts show his anger at a home invasion was justified, and arresting people for their words in response to illegal action is nonsense," Marx said. He said LeJeune will continue to work as a public defender.

California
Judge dismisses suit by family saved at sea

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against a satellite phone company by a California couple rescued with their sick 1-year-old from a disabled sailboat that was attempting to circle the world.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Judith Hayes ruled that a provision in the contract between Eric Kaufman and Whenever Communications requires any lawsuit to be filed in Florida, where the company's headquarters are located, U-T San Diego reported Saturday.

The Kaufmans sued the phone company in July claiming that they would not have lost their boat had they not lost satellite service, which impeded their ability to get medical advice over the phone when one of their two daughters fell ill.

Instead, they were forced to sound an alarm to the Coast Guard, which set off a huge rescue effort hundreds of miles off the Mexican coast involving skydiving National Guardsmen, three U.S. agencies, a plane, a frigate and scores of personnel.

A Navy ship took them to shore, while their boat was left at sea and sank.

After the ruling, family attorney Dan Gilleon said the Kaufmans will file their lawsuit in Florida.

Matthew Herron, a lawyer for Whenever Communications, said the company had been in the process of switching SIM card providers for months, and it was a different company that shut off the family's service.

The Kaufmans' decision to sail around the world with their children, ages 1 and 3, drew accusations of reckless foolishness from some observers and praise from others for their courageous spirit.

Published: Tue, Dec 23, 2014