National Roundup

New Hampshire
Bill would make employers pay for any required COVID-19 test
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Employers who require COVID-19 tests for applicants or workers would be required to pay for them under a bill heard by a House committee Wednesday.

The bill would prohibit employers from requiring that an employee or job applicant pay the cost of a COVID-19 test as a condition of employment.

Sen. Suzanne Prentiss, D-West Lebanon, said she and other sponsors of the legislation had heard from constituents who had been required to be tested before returning to work after a quarantine period but did not have insurance or the means to pay.

According to the state Department of Health and Human Services, most health insurance plans cover COVID-19 tests without a copay or deductible. Those without insurance or those with plans that do not fully cover the cost of testing can apply to have the state pay for the test through a limited testing benefit.

Passing the bill would bolster businesses that promote themselves as safe workplaces, Prentiss told the House committee on labor, and industrial and rehabilitative services.

No one spoke against the bill, which passed the Senate in March.

Georgia
Firing of officer who shot Black man in parking lot reversed
ATLANTA (AP) — The firing of the former Atlanta police officer who’s charged with murder in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks has been reversed.

Garrett Rolfe was fired in June, a day after he shot Brooks in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant. The Atlanta Civil Service Board on Wednesday released its decision on Rolfe’s appeal of his firing.

“Due to the City’s failure to comply with several provisions of the Code and the information received during witnesses’ testimony, the Board concludes the Appellant was not afforded his right to due process,” the board said in its decision, according to news outlets. “Therefore, the Board grants the Appeal of Garrett Rolfe and revokes his dismissal as an employee of the APD.”

Police responded June 12 to complaints that Brooks had fallen asleep in his car in the drive-thru lane of a Wendy’s restaurant. Police body camera video shows the 27-year-old Black man struggling with two white officers after they told him he’d had too much to drink to be driving and tried to arrest him. Brooks grabbed a Taser from one of the officers and fled, firing it at Rolfe as he ran. An autopsy found that Brooks was shot twice in the back.

Rolfe, who was fired after the shooting, faces charges including murder. The other officer, Devin Brosnan, was charged with aggravated assault and violating his oath. Lawyers for both officers have said their clients acted appropriately, and they are free on bond.

The case still has not been indicted.

Former Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard brought the charges against Rolfe and Brosnan less than a week after the shooting. His successor, Fani Willis, who took office in January, has twice asked  Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr to reassign the case, saying actions by Howard made it inappropriate for her office to continue handling the case. Carr has refused, saying the potential problems she cited were specific to Howard, so the responsibility for the case remained with her office.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Christopher Brasher last month asked  Willis to provide evidence showing why she should not be involved by this past Monday so that he can make a decision on the matter.

Delaware
Disgraced police chief can’t serve as town commissioner
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has ruled that a former small-town police chief who was convicted of official misconduct is ineligible to hold public office.

Superior Court Judge Jan Jurden concluded in a potentially precedent-setting ruling Tuesday that official misconduct, although a misdemeanor, is an “infamous crime” under Delaware’s constitution, and that former Newport police chief Michael Capriglione is therefore unable to serve as a Newport town commissioner.

Jurden’s ruling came in response to a court filing by Attorney General Kathleen Jennings last month seeking to nullify Capriglione’e election on April 5. Capriglione was elected to a two-year term by receiving 32 votes in a town with roughly 1,000 residents.

Barely an hour before he was to be sworn in on April 15, Jurden issued an order barring him from taking the oath of office until she could issue a ruling.

Jurden wrote in her 20-page ruling that the case presented a “difficult question.” She noted the Delaware Supreme Court has found that certain felonies qualify as infamous crimes but has not decided whether a misdemeanor can rise to that level.

Drawing on previous court cases involving both felonies and misdemeanors, Jurden concluded that a decision should be based on the circumstances of a particular case.

“In the court’s view, whether a crime is ‘infamous’ does not depend on the felony-misdemeanor distinction but rather on the totality of the circumstances in each case,” the judge wrote. “Having examined the totality of the circumstances surrounding Capriglione’s conviction, the court concludes that official misconduct, in Capriglione’s case, is an infamous crime.”

Capriglione was sentenced to probation and ordered to surrender his police certification in 2019 after crashing his car into another vehicle in the police department parking lot and trying to cover it up.

Authorities said he lied to other officers about how the other car was damaged and ordered the destruction of video footage that captured the 2018 incident. The footage was recovered, however, by state police computer technicians.

Capriglione was charged with inattentive driving, failing to report the incident, official misconduct and tampering with physical evidence, a felony. He pleaded guilty to careless driving and official misconduct.

Jurden noted that Capriglione was not merely a public servant at the time of his crime, but the town police chief, “a position of extensive authority.” She also said Capriglione exercised an official function in ordering the deletion of the surveillance video, knowing that such an act was unauthorized.

“Capriglione’s official misconduct offense amounts to a breach of the public trust,” Jurden wrote. “It calls into question the character of a person in whom so much trust was vested by virtue of his position.”

In a separate case, Newport officials are asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit in which Capriglione claims that the town owes him more than $170,00 in non-salary benefits in the form of vacation accruals, sick leave and uncompensated overtime.

The judge in that case indicated last week that she will rule on the motion to dismiss without holding a hearing.