Court Digest

Alaska
Felony jury trial suspension due to virus creates backlog
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The suspension of Alaska’s felony jury trials for more than six months has created a backlog of cases and left some Alaskans in limbo awaiting court dates.

Misdemeanor trials are set to resume in November, but there is no schedule for resuming felony trials with larger juries and less room for social distancing, Alaska Public Media reported  Monday.

Alaska’s court officials say they are trying to balance a responsibility to public health versus an obligation to timely resolutions for defendants and victims.

“Those are very, very serious constitutional and statutory rights,” state Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger said. “They’re something that should be seriously weighed when we consider whether to restart jury trials, even though the coronavirus is still present in our community.”

Anchorage District Attorney Brittany Dunlop said moving to trial as quickly as possible is preferred, and delays in trying murder cases tend to help the defense.

“Our evidence doesn’t usually get better over time,” Dunlop said. “It’s as good as it’s going to get when people’s memories are fresh and we recently seized and tested the thing, the weapon or whatever.”

The hold on felony jury trials has created a massive backlog and clearing those cases may require more plea agreements, Dunlop said.

A common complaint from defense attorneys recently is that coronavirus restrictions on jails have created difficulties for lawyers trying to discuss deals with their jailed clients, while some inmates have complained about their cases being prolonged while they are incarcerated.

As cases pile up, the right to a speedy trial before a jury puts added pressure on the courts to restart trials, Bolger said.

“I don’t want to leave the impression that we would make a hasty decision, but definitely those are important things to consider, and we are taking that into consideration,” Bolger said.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some — especially older adults and people with existing health problems — it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.

Pennsylvania
Court battle erupts over voters’ signatures on mail ballots
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s top election official has asked the state’s highest court to back her up in a new legal dispute with President Donald Trump’s campaign over whether counties should count mail-in ballots when a voter’s signature doesn’t necessarily match the one on their registration.

The filing, at midnight Sunday by Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, comes several days after Trump’s campaign raised the matter in its wider, election-related federal court case in the presidential battleground state.

In guidance last month to counties, Boockvar told them that state law does not require or permit them to reject a mail-in ballot solely over a perceived signature inconsistency.

Her guidance comes amid a surge in mail-in voting and rising concerns that tens of thousands of mail-in ballots will be discarded in the presidential election over a variety of technicalities.

In federal court, Trump’s campaign asked a judge to declare that Boockvar’s guidance is unconstitutional and block counties from following that guidance.

In that case, Trump’s campaign is also trying to remove a county residency requirement on certified poll watchers and ban counties from using drop boxes to collect mail-in ballots.

The fight over signatures is one of many partisan battles being fought in the state Legislature and the courts over mail-in voting in Pennsylvania.

Virginia
2 officers face charges stemming from protests
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two Virginia police officers were indicted on misdemeanor charges stemming from actions during the civil unrest this summer, officials said.

Richmond police officers Mark Janowski and Christopher Brown were charged Monday with misdemeanor assault and battery, news outlets reported.

The Richmond Grand Jury initially deliberated on 18 indictments but moved forward on only two of the charges.

Details surrounding the charges weren’t immediately released.

Janowski has been with the department since 2014 and Brown joined in 2015.

“These events are unfortunate,” said Chief Gerald Smith in the statement. “However, we must allow the legal process to work. The officers will be placed on administrative assignment until a verdict is reached.”

Protests began in May after the death of George Floyd.

Massachusetts
Salamander and turtle smuggler avoids prison time
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who pleaded guilty to smuggling salamanders and turtles in and out of the U.S. in violation of federal law and international agreements has avoided prison time, authorities say.

Nathan Boss, 27, of Worcester, was sentenced Monday to two years of probation, the first five months of which must be served in home confinement, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. Boss pleaded guilty in June and had faced a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in prison.

Authorities started investigating in 2017 when officials intercepted a package from Hong Kong intended for Boss that was found to contain four black-breasted leaf turtles, a species included in the Convention for Trade in Endangered Species and Wild Fauna, an international agreement that governs the importation of certain wildlife, prosecutors said.

The shipment had been identified as toy trucks.

Black-breasted leaf turtles imported into the U.S. must be declared and approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before any shipment can be received.

Boss was also found to have illegally imported a species of salamander that can carry a fungal disease, and on multiple occasions, had illegally exported undeclared wildlife to Hong Kong and Sweden, federal authorities said.

California
Judge throws out EPA decision on salt ponds
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Monday blocked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from allowing the dredging and filling of salt ponds near San Francisco without going through a permitting process that could stall redevelopment of the area.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that the vast Redwood City ponds are “waters of the United States” entitling them to protection under the Clean Water Act.

The judge said the EPA — which last year ruled the ponds weren’t protected — ignored its own regulations and misinterpreted legal precedent. He vacated that decision and ordered the agency to go back and reconsider.

The 1,365-acre area near San Francisco Bay has been used for commercial salt harvesting since the early 1900s. Dikes and levees produced evaporation ponds for saltwater.

Cargill, the corporation that owns the former wetlands, had planned to develop housing there. Conservationists want to see the salt marshes and wetlands restored.

In 2009, Cargill announced plans to build more than 12,000 housing units on the site but later withdrew the plan in the face of public opposition.

In 2016, the EPA tentatively ruled that most of the pond acreage should be considered “waters of the United States” but under the Trump administration, the EPA issued a final decision last year that the ponds didn’t qualify for Clean Water Act protection, potentially fast-tracking development.

California’s attorney general and conservation groups sued to challenge the ruling.

The Clean Water Act protections mean that California can review proposed development projects “and impose conditions on federal dredge and fill permits to ensure projects comply with state laws,” said a statement from the attorney general’s office.

“This is an important victory for protecting clean water in our communities. And it’s a good reminder to the Trump Administration that it can’t use the San Francisco Bay as its political playground,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in the statement. “The EPA can’t ignore its own scientists and come up with an arbitrary rule that opens the door for development of a vital ecosystem.”

Washington
Court reinstates police wrongful death lawsuit
SEATTLE (AP) — The widow of a Tulalip tribal member who died in 2015 has won a new trial over allegations that police officers used excessive force on Cecil Lacy Jr. when they held him down as he told them he couldn’t breathe.

The Washington Court of Appeals overturned a trial judge’s 2018 decision to grant a so-called “directed verdict” against Lacy’s widow, Sara, after a 2018 civil wrongful-death trial in King County Superior Court, The Seattle Times reported.

The three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals Division I unanimously concluded that Sara Lacy can pursue a civil battery claim against the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and Deputy Tyler Pendergrass.
Pendergrass confronted the 46-year-old Lacy the night of Sept. 18, 2015, walking along Marine Drive on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

Lacy appeared intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, and Pendergrass called for other officers with the intent of taking Lacy home or to the hospital, according to reports and court documents.

Instead, Lacy died lying on his stomach in a ditch with three officers pinning him down — Pendergrass across his back — as Lacy gasped for air and then went still.

Pendergrass said he tried to calm Lacy down, and one officer offered Lacy a ride home. They handcuffed Lacy with his hands in front — he was not under arrest — but after he got into the car, he became agitated and fled. Pendergrass and the other officers wrestled him to the ground and pinned him facedown.

Other officers at the scene acknowledged to detectives Lacy said words to the effect of “I’m freaking out ... I can’t breathe” just before he died, according to reports and information gathered by Sara Lacy’s attorney, Gabriel Galanda. Galanda on Monday praised the decision to reinstate significant portions of the lawsuit and send it back for a new trial.

Jason Cummings, the chief of the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Civil Division, praised the judges for upholding the lower court’s decision to dismiss a series of negligence claims against Pendergrass and the county, alleging the deputy failed to provide timely medical care to Lacy and approached the obviously agitated man in a manner that foreseeably resulted in the use of excessive force.

While upholding the dismissal of the negligence allegations, the Court of Appeals concluded that King County Superior Court Judge Karen Donohue erred when she granted Snohomish County’s motion for a verdict in its favor on Sara Lacy’s allegations of battery against Pendergrass following a 10-day civil trial in late 2018.

The appeals court concluded that Sara Lacy and her police and forensic evidence had raised significant issues of fact that should have been sent to a jury rather than dismissed on the county’s motion.


Oklahoma
Ex-jail employees charged for playing ‘Baby Shark’ on repeat
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two former Oklahoma jail employees and their supervisor face misdemeanor cruelty charges after investigators found they forced inmates to stand handcuffed for hours and listen to the children’s song “Baby Shark” on repeat, a prosecutor said Monday.

At least four inmates were secured to a wall with their hands cuffed behind them while the song played on a loop at a loud volume for hours, The Oklahoman reported. The separate incidents occurred in November and December, according to court records.

The misdemeanor charges were filed Monday against former Oklahoma County jail employees Gregory Cornell Butler Jr. and Christian Charles Miles, both 21, and their supervisor, Christopher Raymond Hendershott, 50.

“It was unfortunate that I could not find a felony statute to fit this fact scenario,” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said. “I would have preferred filing a felony on this behavior.”

Butler and Miles are accused of imposing the discipline and Hendershott is accused of knowing about it but not stopping it, the newspaper reported. Court records do not list an attorney for any of them.

Sheriff P.D. Taylor said Monday that Butler and Miles resigned during an internal investigation and that Hendershott retired.

“We don’t tolerate it,” Taylor said of the mistreatment. “We always did an excellent job policing ourselves.”

The “Baby Shark” song gained huge popularity two years ago after the company Pinkfong released its first video online. The video has since been viewed more than 6.5 billion times.