Court Digest

Alabama
Lawsuit saysstate blocking solar power with unfair fees
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The fees imposed by the Alabama Power company on customers who generate their own electricity with rooftop or on-site solar panels are now the subject of a federal lawsuit against the state’s regulators.

Environmental groups argue that punishing fees are purposely discouraging the adoption of solar power in the sun-rich state.

Alabama Power maintains that the fees are needed to maintain the infrastructure that provides backup power to customers when their solar panels don’t provide enough energy.

The Southern Environmental Law Center and Ragsdale LLC filed the lawsuit on Monday against the Alabama Public Service Commission on behalf four Alabama Power customers who installed solar panels on their properties and the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, or GASP.

“We’re asking the court to require the Commission to follow the law so that Alabama Power will stop unfairly taxing private solar investments,” said Keith Johnston, director of SELC’s Alabama office.

“Alabama is being left behind by other Southern states when it comes to solar generation, and the jobs, bill savings and other benefits that come with it,” SELC’s statement said. “These charges are a significant roadblock to our state’s success.”

A telephone message seeking comment was left with a Public Service Commission spokeswoman.

Alabama Power charges a $5.41-per-kilowatt fee, based on the capacity of the home system, on people who use solar panels or other means to generate part of their own electricity. That amounts to a $27 monthly fee on a typical 5-kilowatt system. The average solar panel setup for a home costs about $10,000, according to the law center, and the fees add another $9,000 or so over a system’s 30-year lifespan, dramatically increasing costs and reducing any financial benefit for the homeowner.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected the groups’ request to take enforcement action last month against the Public Service Commission.

However, two members of the five-member panel issued a separate statement expressing concern that Alabama regulators may be violating federal policies designed to encourage the development of cogeneration and small power production facilities and to reduce the demand for fossil fuels.

Indiana
Judge appoints attorney for man in Gary bank guard’s killing
HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — A federal magistrate appointed a public defender for a man during his first court appearance in the June killing of a security guard shot to death outside a Gary bank during a robbery.

Hailey Gist-Holden, 26, is charged along with James A. King Jr., 24, of Miami, with killing bank security guard Richard Castellana outside the First Midwest Bank branch during a June 11 holdup.

During Monday’s hearing in Hammond, a magistrate judge appointed Gist-Holden a public defender and set a July 22 hearing at which the Gary man will be formally arraigned on murder, armed bank robbery and drug charges.

The hearing was the first since Gist-Holden was returned to Indiana after police arrested him last month near Valdosta, Georgia, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.

The charges make Gist-Holden and King, who was arrested shortly after Castellana’s killing, eligible for a capital murder charge, if U.S. Justice Department officials approve such a prosecution.

Police say the pair, armed with a handgun and rifle, stormed the bank and ambushed Castellana — a 55-year-old from Tinley Park, Illinois — before he saw them coming. They allegedly fled with $9,771.

The government alleges Gist-Holden carried out the bank robbery to bail out his semipro football team, the Illini Panthers.

Authorities said Gist-Holden needed money to pay his players, their hotel bills and rent on his Gary home. They allege Gist-Holden enlisted King, one of his football players, to assist in the robbery.

Illinois
Chicago banker convicted in loans-for-Trump job scheme
NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan jury on Tuesday convicted a Chicago banker of criminal charges for enabling Paul Manafort to get $16 million in loans before the former campaign manager for ex-President Donald Trump helped him get an interview for a job in the Trump administration.

The jury returned its verdict in federal court, convicting Stephen Calk of financial institution bribery and conspiracy charges. Calk’s lawyers had maintained their client did nothing illegal in the weeks after Trump won the presidential election in November 2016.

But prosecutors said Calk cleared the path for Manafort to receive loans he was not entitled to in the hopes that Calk could secure a high-level post with the Trump administration. Although Calk eventually got an interview at Trump Tower, he was not hired.

Sentencing was set for Jan. 10 for Calk, who was the former chief executive of The Federal Savings Bank.

During the trial, Anthony Scaramucci testified that he never would have enabled Calk to get the interview for the administration post if he had know that Calk was helping Manafort to get millions of dollars in loans for his real estate ventures.

Scaramucci had testified that Manafort, who served as Trump’s campaign manager for a key stretch from June to early August 2016, reached out to him in mid-to-late December 2016 to encourage him to consider Calk for an important position.

At the time, Scaramucci was working on Trump’s presidential transition team.

Although Calk had hoped to become Secretary of the Army, he eventually interviewed for other positions when it became clear he could not secure that position, testimony showed.


Massachusetts
Not nice: Baron Cohen sues Massachusetts cannabis dispensary
BOSTON (AP) — Actor Sacha Baron Cohen has sued a Massachusetts cannabis dispensary he says used an image of his character Borat on a billboard without his permission, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston.

The billboard for Somerset-based Solar Therapeutics Inc. showed Baron Cohen posing as Borat with two thumbs up and the words “It’s nice!” — one of Borat’s catchphrases.

“By use of the billboard, the defendants falsely have conveyed to the public that Mr. Baron Cohen has endorsed their products and is affiliated with their business,” according to the complaint filed Monday. “To the contrary, Mr. Baron Cohen never has used cannabis in his life. He never would participate in an advertising campaign for cannabis, for any amount of money.”

The billboard along a Massachusetts interstate highway was taken down in April, three days after Baron Cohen’s attorneys sent a cease-and-desist order to the dispensary, according to the suit.

“Mr. Baron Cohen is highly protective of his image and persona, and those of his characters. Mr. Baron Cohen is very careful with the manner in which he uses his persona and his characters to interact with his fans and the general public,” the complaint says.

Baron Cohen and his California-based company Please You Can Touch LLC are seeking $9 million in damages.

No attorney for Solar Therapeutics Inc. was listed in court records. Email and telephone requests for comment were left with the company Tuesday.


Washington
City countersues newspaper in case of public records
SEATTLE (AP) — Lawyers for the city of Seattle are denying that it broke the state’s public records law after the mayor’s text messages were missing from a time that included large protests in the city following George Floyd’s murder.

And the city is countersuing The Seattle Times in response to a lawsuit alleging the city mishandled reporters’ requests for top officials’ text messages during that tumultuous period last summer.

The Seattle Times reports that in a 25-page formal answer filed Friday to the newspaper’s lawsuit, started in June, the city denied most legal contentions, including claims directly based on a city ethics investigation into a whistleblower’s complaint that found Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office violated the public disclosure law after discovering the mayor’s texts were missing for a 10-month period.

Under state law and guidelines, local elected officials’ texts and other communications about public business must be kept for at least two years before being transferred to the state archives.

Although it concedes the mayor’s texts are lost, the city’s response, filed in King County Superior Court, includes a counterclaim against the newspaper and seeks a legal judgment that it “complied with all relevant provisions of the Public Records Act.”

Katherine George, the newspaper’s lawyer, said the city’s countersuit is highly unusual.

“Governments ordinarily don’t file countersuits against public records requesters who are trying to enforce the public’s right to know,” she said in an email.

Dan Nolte, a spokesman for City Attorney Pete Holmes, said Monday he wasn’t able to expound on the city’s legal strategy, adding, “We look forward to further responding to these claims as the litigation progresses.”

The counterclaim seeks to recover the city’s legal costs, expenses and private attorneys’ fees. Nolte said Monday the city has agreed to pay Pacifica Law Group, a private Seattle firm contracted to handle the matter, an amount “not to exceed $75,000 in legal services without prior approval.”

Seattle Times Executive Editor Michele Matassa Flores said Durkan “already acknowledged the city ‘fell short’ of the state’s public-records law — after the city’s own ethics commission and Durkan’s own independent review reached that conclusion.

“Given that, we’re extremely surprised and disappointed at the extent of denial shown in this countersuit,” Matassa Flores said. “What will it take for the mayor and her staff to give more than lip service to transparency and the importance of independent journalism?”

The newspaper filed its lawsuit in June, about a month after a Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission investigation report revealed that Durkan’s texts from late August 2019 to late June 2020 had not been retained.

Triggered by a whistleblower complaint made by one public records officer, Stacy Irwin, and supported by another, Kimberly Ferreiro, the investigation determined the mayor’s legal counsel, Michelle Chen, engaged in “improper governmental action” and broke the records law when she decided to exclude Durkan’s missing texts from certain requests.


Missouri
Judge approves settlement in Columbia Waffle House shooting
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A judge has approved a settlement between two companies and the family of a man who was shot and killed by a security guard at a Waffle House in Columbia three years ago.

The settlement approved Monday was between Waffle House, security company Signal 88 and the family of Anthony Warren. The agreement’s terms are confidential but a motion filed in the case says it includes structured settlements for Warren’s three children, KMIZ reported.

Warren was shot by a private security guard, Robert Moses, on New Year’s Day 2018. Investigators said Moses was breaking up a fight between two other men. Moses fired one shot at Warren, who was standing nearby but was not involved in the fight, investigators said.

Matthew McMillan was convicted of felony murder because McMillan and another man began the fight that led to Warren’s death. Moses was not charged in the shooting.

Waffle House and Signal 88 denied liability as part of the settlement.

Warren’s family argued that Moses was incompetent as an armed security guard, noting he failed a shooting test several times before getting his license from the city of Columbia.


Missouri
Man sentenced to life in prison for killing fiancé
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting death of a woman he planned to marry, despite already having a wife and child.

James Addie, of Sante Fe, Missouri, was sentenced Monday in Cole County Circuit Court for the 2018 death of his fiancé, 35-year-old Molly Watson, station KOMU reported. Addie had faced a possible death sentence.

Addie was convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the case.

Watson’s body was found in April 2018 along a gravel road in southern Monroe County. Prosecutors said Addie and Watson had a seven-year affair and planned to marry the month she was killed. But Addie was still married to his wife of 23 years, Melanie Addie, at the time.

At Monday’s sentencing hearing, Addie asked the judge for a new trial, arguing that his attorney did not present all the evidence available in the case.