Court Digest

New Hampshire
Judge considering $1.25 million settlement for SNHU students
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge is considering a proposed settlement of $1.25 million in a lawsuit filed on behalf of some Southern New Hampshire University students for tuition reimbursement during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 3,067 students were enrolled in in-person classes for the spring 2020 semester at SNHU. Their instruction was switched to online that March because of COVID-19.

The lead plaintiff is a recent SNHU graduate with a bachelor of science in justice studies. The lawsuit argued the program relies “extensively on in-person instruction, peer collaboration, and access to SNHU’s facilities,” and that those resources were not available to her. The lawsuit said the in-person courses cost more than the online ones and that the students should be compensated.

During a hearing Thursday, lawyers for both sides had no objection to the proposed settlement, which they said averages out to several hundred dollars to each student. Chief Judge Landya McCafferty questioned the process that lawyers used to arrive at their fees. She delayed her ruling to give them more time to respond.

Kansas
Court: Man who killed woman not a sex offender
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man who beat an Ottawa woman and then left her to die does not have to register as a sex offender, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday.

Korrey Raine White Rinke was sentenced i n December 2019 to life in prison with a chance of parole in 25 years for the death of Julianna Pappas, 46, of Overland Park, in 2016. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender.

Pappas’ body was found in a park in Overland Park after she had been missing for more than a week.

Prosecutors initially charged him with capital murder and rape and planned to seek the death sentence but Pappas later agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping.

The state Supreme Court’s order said Rinke gave investigators differing accounts of whether sex between the two was consensual before Pappas was killed. The justices ruled the state had not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Rinke kidnapped and killed Pappas for his sexual gratification, meaning he did not commit a sexually violent crime and was not required under state law to register as a sex offender.

California
$20 million awarded in deadly dog attack
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) — A jury on Thursday awarded $20 million to the family of a man killed in a California dog attack and to his neighbor, who was injured.

A jury hearing a lawsuit in San Luis Obispo County awarded $7 million to the children of David Fear while his neighbor, Betty Long, will receive $13.8 million.

Long, then 86, was walking her dog outside her Grover Beach home and Fear, 64, had greeted her when they were attacked by a retired police dog, a Belgian Malinois that had broken through a fence and escaped a backyard, authorities said.

Fear died three days later.

The dog, Neo, was euthanized. He was a retired police dog from the San Joaquin Valley community of Exeter, which was named in the lawsuit along with the former police chief and K-9 supervisor.

The owner, Alex Geiger, was a former Exeter officer who bought the dog before joining the Grover Beach police force.

The lawsuit argued that the Exeter department failed to properly train Geiger in how to safely secure the animal, which was supposed to be kenneled whenever he wasn’t around.

Geiger resigned from the Grover Beach police force several months after the attack. He was named in the suit but settled earlier.

Geiger also was criminally charged with manslaughter but acquitted.

California
Johansson sues Disney over ‘Black Widow’ release
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scarlett Johansson is suing the Walt Disney Co. over its streaming release of “Black Widow,” which she said breached her contract and deprived her of potential earnings.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the “Black Widow” star and executive producer said her contract guaranteed an exclusive theatrical release. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news of the lawsuit.

Johansson’s potential earnings were tied to the box office performance of the film, which the company released simultaneously in theaters and on its streaming service Disney+ for a $30 rental.

“In the months leading up to this lawsuit, Ms. Johansson gave Disney and Marvel every opportunity to right their wrong and make good on Marvel’s promise,” the lawsuit said. “Disney intentionally induced Marvel’s breach of the Agreement, without justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Marvel.”

Disney said the lawsuit has “no merit whatsoever.”

“The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Disney said in a statement. “Disney has fully complied with Ms. Johansson’s contract and furthermore, the release of Black Widow on Disney+ with Premier Access has significantly enhanced her ability to earn additional compensation on top of the $20M she has received to date.”

After its release was delayed more than a year because of COVID-19, “Black Widow” debuted to a pandemic-best of $80 million in North America and $78 million from international theaters three weeks ago, but theatrical grosses declined sharply after that. In its second weekend in release, the National Association of Theater Owners issued a rare statement criticizing the strategy asserting that simultaneous release lends itself only to lost profits and higher quality piracy.

Once taboo, hybrid theatrical and streaming releases have become more normal for many of the biggest studios during the pandemic, with each adopting its own unique strategy. This weekend, Disney is employing the same strategy with “Jungle Cruise,” and next weekend Warner Bros. big budget “The Suicide Squad” opens both in theaters and on HBO Max.

The revised hybrid release strategies over the 16 months have occasionally led to public spats from not just theater owners, but stars, filmmakers and financiers who are unhappy with the potential lost revenues and the alleged unilateral decision-making involved.

The WSJ said Warner Media, for instance, paid over $200 million in “amended agreements” with talent over its decision to release its entire 2021 slate simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max.

But none have been as public as Johansson’s lawsuit. The actor, who has been in nine Marvel movies going back to 2010’s “Iron Man 2,” quickly became a trending topic on Twitter on Thursday after news of the lawsuit broke.


Alaska
Constitution bars attorney general case, judge says
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A lawsuit by Alaska’s attorney general against the Legislative Affairs Agency is really an action by the governor against the Legislature that is barred by the Alaska Constitution, a state court judge ruled Thursday.

Superior Court Judge Herman Walker Jr. cited comments by Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Attorney General Treg Taylor in reaching his decision.

The state constitution allows a governor to take legal action “in the name of the State” to enforce compliance with laws but says that the authority “shall not be construed to authorize any action or proceeding against the legislature.”

Taylor sued the Legislative Affairs Agency on June 21, after the House failed to adopt effective date provisions for a state spending package. Dunleavy said the budget was “constitutionally impaired if the goal was for it to take effect on July 1.”

A week after the lawsuit was filed, and days before the new fiscal year started on July 1, the House passed the effective date provisions. Attorneys for the Legislative Affairs Agency, in court filings, said that action itself rendered the lawsuit moot.

But they also argued the lawsuit “in substance” was “brought in the name of the state against the Legislature,” and barred by the constitution.

Margaret Paton Walsh, an attorney for the state, argued the attorney general has independent authority to bring actions in the public interest.

“The fact that the governor wanted him to do it doesn’t change the fact that he has that independent authority,” she argued last week.

Walker, in his ruling, noted a June 18 letter Dunleavy sent the chief justice of the Alaska Supreme Court. In the letter, Dunleavy said that given the “consequences flowing from the lack of an effective date” he had asked Taylor “to seek a determination of the issue” through the courts.

“This belies the assertion that Attorney General Taylor brought the present suit under his common-law powers as Attorney General,” Walker wrote.

Despite having independent powers, the attorney general “serves under the supervision of the Governor and at this pleasure,” Walker wrote.

The judge also said public statements by Dunleavy and Taylor had “consistently framed the suit as a vehicle to resolve a dispute between the executive and legislative branches.”

He said he concluded the lawsuit was an action by Dunleavy “‘in the name of the state’ directed ‘against the legislature,’” and prohibited by the constitution.

Grace Lee, a state Department of Law spokesperson, said the department, which Taylor leads, was disappointed that the decision did not resolve “the underlying issue on the effective date clause, an important question that still needs to be answered.”

A decision on a possible appeal has not yet been made, Lee said by email.

Idaho
Man sues Boy Scouts over alleged childhood sex abuse
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho man is suing the Boy Scouts of America for failing to warn children that took part in the youth program that they could be exposed to sex abusers.

The man, who uses the name Mark Doe 14 in the federal lawsuit because he was a victim of child sex abuse, said an assistant troop leader raped and sexually abused him when he was 11 or 12 years old and threatened to kill his family if he reported the abuse.

Doe was a member of the Mountain West Council of the Boy Scouts for a troop in Gooding, Idaho, in the 1970s and 1980s, the lawsuit said. A spokesperson for the Mountain West Council was out of the office and couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

The trauma of the abuse left Doe with permanent and progressive pain, suffering and disability, he said. A phone number for the assistant scout leader could not be located and it wasn’t clear if he was still living or in Idaho.

Doe said in the lawsuit that by the time he joined, the BSA was well aware of the danger boys faced because there was a longstanding and internally documented problem with volunteers sexually abusing them. Still, Doe said, BSA kept that knowledge from parents and children who participated in the organization and failed to take effective steps to root out abusers and keep the children safe.

The Boy Scouts of America has faced hundreds of lawsuits across the country from adults who said they were molested as children by scout leaders and other volunteers. Last year the BSA filed for bankruptcy, hoping to halt the lawsuits and create a compensation fund for victims.

Earlier this month, the BSA reached an $850 million agreement with attorneys representing some 60,000 victims of child sex abuse as part of the organization’s bankruptcy case. The bankruptcy filing includes the BSA, abuse victims, local Boy Scouts councils and lawyers appointed to represent victims who might file future claims.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the new lawsuit from Doe would be affected by the agreement.

At least 13 other people have brought similar lawsuits against the BSA and Mountain West Council in Idaho’s federal courts in recent years. The BSA has filed a motion in asking that those claims be put on hold until the bankruptcy proceedings are finalized.

Iowa
Man sentenced to 50 years for shooting death
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A teen has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for the shooting death of a woman at a New Year’s Eve party in Sioux City.

Anthony Bauer, 18, of Sioux City, was sentenced Friday morning after pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder, station KTIV reported. In his plea, Bauer admitted that he and others fired several shots into a home where people were gathered for a New Year’s Eve party, killing 18-year-old Mia Kritis and wounding three others.

In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped his original charge of first-degree murder. Under the plea deal, Bauer must serve 35 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

Bauer was one of four people charged in the shooting. Christopher Morales, 20, was sentenced earlier this month to 55 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and three counts of reckless use of a firearm in the fatal shooting.
Morales’ brother, 18-year-old Carlos Morales, is set to face trial on Aug. 24 on a charge of first-degree murder.

Liliana Gutierrez, 20, faces trial in August on charges of reckless use of a firearm and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. Police say she drove the other defendants to and from the house.