Court Digest

New Jersey
Court narrows rules on police stops for obscured plates
Police won’t be allowed to conduct stops of cars whose license plate frames obscure only part of the plate, New Jersey’s Supreme Court ruled Monday in a case that could have far-reaching implications for drivers around the state.

The court’s ruling in the cases of two drivers stopped in 2014 and 2016 addresses a violation that is issued about 100,000 times per year in New Jersey and often is used as a pretext for police searches, the court wrote.

Defendants Darius Carter and Miguel Roman-Rosado were each stopped because their license plates had frames that obscured the words “Garden State.” The officer who stopped Roman-Rosado testified he was seeking to stop cars for motor vehicle infractions to try to develop criminal investigations.

In each case, after the stops, the men were found to have outstanding arrest warrants. Officers found drugs on Carter and an unloaded handgun on Roman-Rosado. Both men sought to suppress the evidence based on an unlawful search.

Monday’s ruling held that Roman-Rosado’s 2016 stop and search was unlawful because the frame obscured only about 10 to 15% of the words “Garden State.” A lower court had held the search was legal and cited a state law prohibiting frames that obscure any part of any marking imprinted on the plate.

The Supreme Court upheld the stop of Carter, however, on the grounds that his license plate frame completely covered the words. But it agreed with both defendants that a broad reading of the law raises constitutional questions since most people would have no idea they were in violation.

“Frames supplied by dealerships, booster organizations, non-profit groups and others often cover the bottom of ‘Garden State’ or the top of ‘New Jersey,’” Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote for a unanimous court. “Simply driving a car off the dealer’s lot with that type of license plate frame would amount to a violation of the law and give officers a basis to stop the car.”

The state argued that even if an officer’s interpretation of the law were in error, the stop should be considered lawful, because the mistake was objectively reasonable. It cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a North Carolina case that upheld a stop even though the officer may have misinterpreted an ambiguously worded state law used to justify the stop.

New Jersey won’t adopt that exception, Rabner wrote, adding that while officers “suffer no penalty if they make a reasonable mistake,” individuals who are stopped or searched based on a mistaken interpretation of the law suffer real harm.

Through a spokesperson, the state attorney general’s office said it is reviewing the court’s opinion and “is committed to ensuring that all law enforcement quickly implement the Court’s holding.”

The ACLU New Jersey, which argued as a friend of the court on behalf of the defendants, said the ruling will benefit people of color who are disproportionately affected by traffic stops.

Tennessee
Chinese espionage retrial sought for researcher
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Federal prosecutors are seeking to retry a former University of Tennessee researcher accused of hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from the federal government.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey Arrowood filed a one-page notice in U.S. District Court in the case against Anming Hu, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported on Tuesday.

Hu was an associate professor in the university’s Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering when he was charged in February 2020 with three counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements.

A federal judge declared a mistrial in June after deliberating jurors said they had reached an “impasse.”

Hu’s attorney, Phil Lomonaco, asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing the government’s evidence of fraud is too weak.

The Justice Department has cracked down on university researchers who conceal their ties to Chinese institutions. A Harvard chemistry professor was arrested on similar charges. Federal officials have warned schools to be on alert for espionage attempts, asserting that Beijing is intent on stealing intellectual property from America’s colleges and universities.

Prosecutors say Hu defrauded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by failing to disclose that he also was a professor at the Beijing University of Technology in China. Under federal law, NASA cannot fund or give grant money to Chinese-owned companies or universities.

Hu’s defense presented testimony that university officials told faculty the NASA restriction didn’t apply to them.

South Dakota
Unruly air passenger from Florida facing multiple charges
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — A Florida woman is facing multiple charges after police say they took her off a plane at the Rapid City Regional Airport for exposing herself and becoming unruly.

According to police, an officer at the airport was notified Friday night of a disruptive passenger who was exposing herself to others on the plane. The officer says he could smell that she had been drinking. The officer told the 41-year-old Daytona Beach Shores woman he would escort her off the plane.

Police say when she pulled away and kicked the officer, additional officers arrived to take her out of the airport. She is facing charges of disorderly conduct, indecent exposure, assaulting a law enforcement officer and unlawful occupancy, the Rapid City Journal reported.

The Federal Aviation Administration, there have been 3,615 unruly passenger reports in a year-to-date analysis, many of which are related to wearing face masks.
Washington

Union Gospel Mission seeks high court ruling on hiring case

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission filed a petition Monday asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide a case in which the Washington Supreme Court ruled in favor of a bisexual lawyer who sued the mission over its anti-LGBTQ hiring policy.

Attorney Matt Woods sued Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission in 2017 when the nonprofit refused to hire him to its free legal aid clinic after he disclosed he was in a same-sex relationship, the Seattle Times reported.

The mission, one of the largest homeless services nonprofits in the Seattle area, argued it was exempt from the state’s anti-discrimination law as a religious employer. A King County Superior Court judge agreed, dismissing Woods’ lawsuit.

The Washington Supreme Court overturned the judge’s decision, kicking Woods’ case back to the lower court and questioning whether the exemption applied to a staff attorney at a legal aid clinic within a religious organization. Monday’s petition argues this ruling showed hostility to the mission’s religious beliefs.

“Churches and religious organizations have the First Amendment right to hire those who share their beliefs without being punished by the government,” said John Bursch, a mission lawyer.

Lawyers for Woods said the services provided at a legal aid clinic, which helps homeless clients resolve issues like old warrants and immigration problems, weren’t covered by the state’s exemption for religious employers.

Florida
Man gets life in prison for murder in deal with prosecutors
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A man accused of torturing a Florida man to death and robbing him has avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty just days before his a trial was set to begin.

Keith Earl Davis, 47, pleaded guilty to murder in Hillsborough County court on Monday in exchange for a life sentence, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty if the case went before a jury.

William Leslie McGoff, a 53-year-old registered nurse, was found dead in his Tampa home in December 2016 after friends called the police because he didn’t show up for work at LifePath Hospice.

Police found the home ransacked and McGoff’s naked body in a bedroom. Investigators said his neck, wrists and ankles were bound with wire. He had been stabbed, and a pillowcase had been shoved in his throat. McGoff’s wallet, cellphone and car were gone.

Cellphone records revealed that Davis was one of the last people McGoff connected with. His credit cards were used to buy gas in northern Florida and Mississippi. His car was abandoned in east Texas.

Davis was eventually arrested by police in Sulphur, Louisiana. His DNA and fingerprints were found in McGoff’s house and car.

Washington
Court declines to hear church’s attack on COVID restrictions
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear a lawsuit by a Maine church that sought to take a preemptive strike against future restrictions associated with a variant of the virus that’s spreading across the country.

Calvary Chapel in Orrington asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop Democratic Gov. Janet Mills from enforcing or reinstating any pandemic-related restrictions due to the delta variant of the coronavirus.

The request was denied by Justice Stephen Breyer without even asking the other side to respond or asking his colleagues to get involved.

The Maine attorney general’s office previously said that the governor’s civil emergency already expired, making the lawsuit unnecessary.

But church officials were worried that restrictions could be reinstated, violating their religious liberties protected by the Constitution. The church’s attorneys described Mill’s previous restrictions as a 14-month “reign of terror.”

The injunction was important because the Supreme Court won’t be meeting until late September to consider cases that will be heard in the coming year, according to Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which is representing Calvary Chapel.


Vermont
US dismisses suit against hospital over abortions
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has dismissed a lawsuit against the University of Vermont Medical Center alleging it forced a nurse to participate in an abortion procedure she objected to on religious grounds.

The one-page notice filed by the Justice Department in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Friday gave no reason for its decision. The action was first reported by the online news site VTDigger.org.

The lawsuit, filed last December in the waning days of former President Donald Trump’s administration, alleged the Burlington hospital violated the “ Church Amendments,” which prevent hospitals from discriminating against health care workers who refuse to perform or assist with abortions.

In a Monday statement, UVM Medical Center CEO Dr. Steve Leffler said officials were pleased by the Justice Department’s decision.

“We are committed to meeting the medical needs of our patients, while respecting the religious and moral beliefs of our employees,” Leffler said in a statement. “Our opt-out policies and practices for employees who object to participating in certain medical procedures, including abortion, are strong and in full compliance with federal law, and we have only strengthened them over the past two years.”

In August 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights filed a notice of violation against the hospital alleging it had forced a nurse to participate in an abortion against her will.

At the time, a federal official told reporters the nurse believed she would be participating in a procedure after a patient suffered a miscarriage. The nurse asked to be relieved, but was told no.

A year later the nurse, who has since left the hospital, filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights.

Iowa
Man gets 10 years in prison for cyberstalking woman
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man was sentenced to a decade in federal prison for cyberstalking a Minnesota woman with conduct the judge likened to a form of mental torture.

U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams also ordered Michael Shawn McGuire, 58, of Cresco, Iowa, during a sentencing hearing Friday to pay a $15,000 fine and $17,500 in restitution to the woman. The U.S. attorney’s office said in a news release Monday that McGuire pleaded guilty in December to four counts of cyberstalking.

The woman met McGuire on an online dating website in 2017 and the two dated for several months before she broke up with him, the U.S. attorney’s office said. McGuire then began sending harassing texts and emails. She obtained a no-contact order in 2018, but prosecutors say he continued to torment her for two years.

The judge described McGuire’s conduct toward the woman as “a form of public terrorism in a way.”

McGuire created fake Facebook profiles containing her name or photo and sexually explicit messages, then sent more than 80 friend requests to her friends and family.

He also made flyers and yard signs with her name, phone and address that contained sexually explicit messages and delivered them to her children, extended family members, neighbors, friends, her employer, a priest, and businesses.