Court Digest

Massachuetts
Ex-clothing store owner settles discrimination suit
BOSTON (AP) — The former owner of a high-end footwear and clothing store in Boston accused of discriminating against a Black man, a woman of Middle Eastern descent and other customers has been permanently barred from operating a retail business in the state and ordered to pay $220,000 under an agreement with the attorney general’s office announced Friday.

The consent judgment settles a lawsuit filed in 2018 against Hicham Ali “Sam” Hassan, who owned The Tannery in Boston’s Back Bay, that alleged he violated state law by engaging in discriminatory behavior that included making derogatory comments and denying service to customers based on their actual or perceived race, national origin, or immigration status.

The store has since closed.

“We have strong laws in Massachusetts to put an end to the kind of unlawful, unacceptable, and racist behavior that this business owner blatantly displayed in his store,” Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement. “This settlement provides relief to the customers that were harmed and makes clear that everyone should be welcome and respected in businesses across our state.”

The $220,000 will be used to pay restitution to victims and to fund anti-discrimination and racial justice programs.

Hassan denies ever discriminating against any customer, his attorney, Dan Conley, said in an emailed statement.

“Mr. Hassan is an immigrant to our country from the Middle East and has been the victim of discrimination himself many times over the years,” the statement said.

He is now in his 70s and managing serious health issues.

“He settled this lawsuit to avoid unnecessary litigation costs, to put an end to the case and to fully focus on his health and recovery,” Conley said.

According to the attorney general, Hassan in 2017 told a Black customer he didn’t want his “kind” at the store, implied he didn’t have enough money to shop there, and told him to leave.

On another occasion, when a woman of Middle Eastern descent entered the store with her husband and 8-year-old child, Hassan mocked her accent, and told her to “go back to your country and clean and cook mgadara,” a traditional Middle Eastern dish.

The attorney general’s office also chronicled other instances of Hassan’s alleged discriminatory behavior.

Washington
Man found guilty of hate crime, murder in trans teen’s death
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A 27-year-old man has been convicted of second-degree murder and a hate-crime offense in the death of a transgender teen in Washington state two years ago.

A Clark County Superior Court jury returned the verdict Friday against David Bogdanov, The Columbian newspaper reported.

Prosecutors said Bogdanov met 17-year-old Nikki Kuhnhausen in downtown Vancouver in June 2019, and that he strangled her with a phone charger cable after engaging in sexual contact in the back seat of his car and discovering she was transgender.

Kuhnhausen’s family and supporters exclaimed “Yes!” quietly and tearfully as the hate-crime verdict was read in court.

“We were all holding hands while we were awaiting the verdict to be read and that was really powerful,” said Linden Walls, a member of the group Justice for Nikki. “It felt like we were all together … and the sense of relief that came that we got justice for Nikki, that we were able to push this and the jury could see it and did the right thing.”

Bogdanov, of Vancouver, claimed self-defense, testifying that he wrapped the cord around her shoulder to prevent her from reaching a gun he had near the driver’s seat after he ordered her to get out of the car. The cord slipped to her neck, he said.

He faces a range of 11 to 19½ years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 9, prosecutors said. His attorneys declined to comment until after the sentencing.

After Kuhnhausen’s death, Bogdanov dumped her body down the side of Larch Mountain, booked a one-way flight to Ukraine and called a friend to “get rid” of his car, according to trial testimony. He returned to the U.S. about six weeks later.

In a Facebook post following the verdict, the group Justice for Nikki applauded the findings.

“The long buildup to this trial, and the defense’s attempts to somehow paint Nikki, who was a 17-year-old girl, as being ‘responsible’ for the defendant’s violent actions, were excruciating for us, and particularly for Nikki’s mother Lisa,” the group wrote. “There’s no excuse for what happened to Nikki. This hate crime wounded our community.”

In March 2020, Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law House Bill 1687 — dubbed the Nikki Kuhnhausen Act — that prevents a criminal defense based on discovery of a victim’s actual or perceived gender identity or sexual orientation.


Arkansas
Retrial set for ex-lawmaker on corruption charges
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge has scheduled the retrial of a former Arkansas state senator on bribery and fraud charges for the first week of October.

Court records, first reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, show U.S. District Judge Judge Price Marshall on Friday scheduled the trial for Gilbert Baker, a Republican former senator and one-time state GOP chairman, to begin Oct. 4.

A federal jury earlier this month acquitted Baker of conspiracy in the case in which he allegedly conspired to bribe an ex-judge who admitted to lowering a jury’s award in a negligence lawsuit in exchange for campaign contributions.

The jury, however, deadlocked on charges of bribery and wire fraud against Baker and prosecutors on Thursday filed notice of their intent to retry those counts.

Baker’s attorney did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press for comment on Saturday.

Baker was accused of conspiring with former state Judge Michael Maggio, who admitted to accepting campaign donations from a nursing home operator, then reducing a judgment against that company by $4.2 million.

Michael Morton, the nursing home operator, has not been charged with any crimes and has denied wrongdoing. Maggio was sentenced in 2015 to 10 years in prison.


Arizona
Lawsuit challenges law on gambling expansion
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona tribe that didn’t sign a revised gambling compact with the state earlier this year, has filed a lawsuit alleging that a new state law is unconstitutional and left some rural tribes in the cold by excluding them from negotiations hammering out the legislation.

The suit filed  by the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe on Thursday asks the court  to prevent the Department of Gaming from issuing sportsbook licenses and allowing sports betting, the Arizona Republic reported.

The lawsuit said the state presented the tribe with an amended compact “as a non-negotiable, ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ proposition.”

The lawmaker who sponsored the gambling legislation defended it as fair and equitable.

The timing of the lawsuit “at the dawn of selection rather than during the legislative session or upon the bill’s enactment, amount to an end-around on that qualifications-based awarding process,” state Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, said Friday.

The legislation signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey last spring expands the types of gambling allowed at tribal casinos, lets tribes and pro sports teams take bets on sport evenings and licenses six operators to sign up players for betting on fantasy virtual games.

A judge scheduled an emergency hearing next Friday on the suit.

Florida
Sugar growers sue US over state reservoir water levels
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Sugar growers in Florida are suing the U.S, Army Corps of Engineers over proposed reservoir water levels they say will be far too low.

The federal lawsuits filed this week by Florida Crystals’ Okeelanta Corp., U.S. Sugar and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative say the current Corps plan won’t supply enough water for their fields.

“Farmers need a secure supply of water, and all farmers need certainty as we plan and manage our planting schedules and crop rotation,” said Jaime Vega, vice president of agriculture at Florida Crystals.

Jacksonville Commander Col. Andrew Kelly defended the Corps’ work, saying the agency will balance water supply for both the environment and farmers.

“We go through a very, very deliberate process, not only with our (environmental) analysis, but with all of the analysis it takes to figure out the best infrastructure to be put in the ground in the right place,” he said. “So we’re pretty confident that the infrastructure plan that we have going forward is a good one.”

The project in question is the Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir intended to cleanse tainted water so more can flow south as crucially needed toward Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.

In the lawsuits, Sugar Growers say the still-under-construction reservoir should be kept at higher water levels than what is currently envisioned in a Corps of Engineers plan.

Everglades restoration advocates say the growers are simply putting their priorities ahead of others.

“They have always been at the front of the line and now they are not happy with how the lake and the reservoir will be operated in a more equitable way,” said Eric Eikenberg, chief executive officer at the Everglades Foundation.

The lawsuits are pending in West Palm Beach federal court. They ask a judge to order the Corps to return to a reservoir plan guaranteeing a greater water supply.

Maine
Father sues school system over mask mandate
BANGOR, Maine (AP) — A father is suing in federal court over a mask mandate imposed on his 12-year-old daughter in the Winslow school system.

The lawsuit names the town of Winslow, school board, public schools and Superintendent Peter Thiboutot as defendants, and accuses them of “aggrandizing” the risk COVID-19 poses to children.

In the lawsuit, filed Friday, Scott Fortuna contends the mask mandate violates his rights under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution “to make decisions concerning the medical care of his child.” The lawsuit said COVID-19
poses “little, if any, health risk to children.”

Fortuna, who lives in Penobscot County, could not be reached immediately for comment. His attorney didn’t immediately return a message.

Face masks have been a flashpoint in pandemic politics since the earliest weeks of the government response to the virus.

Mask mandates were eased in the spring, but they’re coming back with a COVID-19 resurgence caused by the delta variant.

Masks are currently recommended in 15 of the state’s 16 counties by the Maine Center for Disease Control.


Maine
Man falsely accused in 2016 is awarded $90K in damages
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine man who was falsely accused of reckless conduct and criminal threatening five years ago has been awarded $90,000 in damages from the lawsuit filed against his accusers.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock ruled John Charron was a victim of “classic malicious prosecution.”

Two men, identified as Christopher Moss and Eric Pilvelait, submitted false statements that led to Charron’s arrest, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Deputies investigated the scene and determined Charron drove his tow truck at the Pontiac Sunfire the two men were in after an altercation.

Judge Woodcock’s decision cleared the deputies of any wrongdoing while acknowledging the failures in the investigation.

“The utter falsity and extreme seriousness of these allegations establish Mr. Moss and Mr. Pilvelait acted with malice and without probable cause,” Woodcock wrote. “Mr. Moss and Mr. Pilvelait’s intent to shift criminal responsibility for the Sunfire’s demise onto Mr. Charron and away from their own acts, which they may have committed while under the influence of alcohol, further supports the Court’s finding that they acted with malice.”

Woodcock found that the men “weaponized the legal process to deprive” Charron of his right to due process.

Charron said Thursday that he’s pleased with the judgment even though there is no guarantee he will see any of the money if the men cannot pay.

Charron’s attorney, Greg McCullough, is appealing the part of the decision that granted the sheriff’s deputies qualified immunity.

“The police were supposed to be the check here and they failed miserably,” he said.

John Wall, an attorney for the York County deputies who were named in the lawsuit, declined to comment.