Oregon
U.S. judge suspends state ban on homebuyer ‘love letters’
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge last week issued a preliminary injunction blocking Oregon’s ban on so-called real estate “love letters” — the nickname for personal notes from prospective homebuyers to home sellers.
In his court order issued last Friday, U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernández said the law violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by restricting free speech too broadly, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
The conservative Pacific Legal Foundation filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of the Bend-based Total Real Estate Group against Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Real Estate Commissioner Steve Strode, alleging that forbidding the letters violated First Amendment rights.
The letters, often written to appeal to a seller to accept a potentially less-competitive offer, were outlawed as of Jan. 1 by lawmakers seeking to ensure that sellers couldn’t make decisions based on race, national origin, marital or family status, sex, sexual orientation or other protected classes.
The judge’s injunction was a “major victory for free speech and economic opportunity,” said Daniel Ortner, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which says it defends “Americans from government overreach and abuse.”
The ruling “preserves the opportunity of home-buyers to speak freely to sellers and make the case why their purchase offers should win out,” Ortner said in a statement.
The Oregon Real Estate Agency on its website said it will not enforce the law unless a further court order allows it to go into effect. Rosenblum’s office didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Democratic Gov. Kate Brown signed the bill prohibiting the letters last year after it unanimously passed the House of Representatives and passed the state Senate on a mostly party-line vote.
Oregon State Rep. Mark Meek, a Democrat who is also a real estate agent, proposed the legislation. He has said he started to reconsider the practice of personal letters as he became more involved in work to combat housing discrimination.
It’s believed to be the first such law in the country.
The National Association of Realtors has said the letters raise fair housing concerns because they often contain personal information and could reveal a potential buyer’s race, religion or familial status. “That information could then be used, knowingly or through unconscious bias, as an unlawful basis for a seller’s decision to accept or reject an offer,” according to a post on the association’s website.
The lawsuit said lawmakers provided no proof that such discrimination was taking place and that state and federal laws already prohibit housing discrimination.
Hernández said Oregon’s goal was laudable, given its “long and abhorrent history of racial discrimination in property ownership and housing” that for decades explicitly blocked people of color from owning property.
But the bill was overly inclusive, the judge said, banning significant amounts of innocuous speech in love letters beyond references to a buyer’s personal characteristics.
Hernández said the state “could have addressed the problem of housing discrimination without infringing on protected speech to such a degree.”
The preliminary injunction will remain in effect until Hernández makes a final decision in the case.
California
FBI impersonator convicted of defrauding immigrants
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal jury has convicted an Arizona man of impersonating an FBI agent to defraud immigrants in California, officials said Monday.
Ivan Isho, 44, of Peoria, Arizona, faces up to five years in prison after he was convicted Friday of stalking, wire fraud and false impersonation of a federal officer following a four-day trial.
He pretended to be an FBI agent as he told members of the Assyrian community in Ceres, near Modesto, in 2016 and 2017 that he could help them get immigration visas for their family members living outside the United States, according to trial evidence.
Isho showed them counterfeit FBI credentials and a gun to back up his story.
They gave him thousands of dollars along with family documents, federal prosecutors said.
But Isho never was employed by the FBI, and never had any ability to help anyone get visas.
He also harassed a woman by pretending to be an FBI special agent in phone calls and voicemail messages to the victim and her husband in 2017 and 2018.
Isho testified that he had the false FBI credentials as part of a Halloween costume, although prosecutors produced voicemails in which he claimed to be with the FBI.
Washington
Deputy prosecutor pleads not guilty in sex assault case
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — A Yakima County deputy prosecutor is accused of sexually assaulting a former intimate partner multiple times.
Alvin Lee Guzman, Jr. pleaded not guilty Monday to four counts of fourth-degree assault and two counts of indecent liberties — all domestic violence-related and with an allegation of sexual motivation, news outlets reported.
According to court documents, the reported incidents of sexual assault took place in July 2021 against a woman with whom Guzman previously had been in a relationship.
The woman was granted a protection order last August in Yakima County Superior Court. A judge reissued it in January.
At that time, Guzman was part of the special assault unit, working to prosecute people accused of sexual assault, among other charges. Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Brusic said he transferred Guzman to the general felony unit while a police investigation continued.
Once the investigation concluded, Brusic sent it to the Kittitas County Superior Court, which he said does not have a conflict of interest.
Brusic placed Guzman on unpaid administrative leave Feb. 22 after he learned charges had been filed. Guzman is not in custody while his case proceeds.
Florida
Dunkin’ worker sentenced for fatal punch of customer
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida Dunkin’ employee accused of fatally punching a customer who used a racial slur against him pleaded guilty to felony battery and was sentenced to two years of house arrest.
A Tampa judge on Monday also ordered Corey Pujols, 27, to complete 200 hours of community service and attend an anger management course.
Vonelle Cook was irate when he entered the Dunkin’ store last May and began yelling about customer service, police and prosecutors said. When Pujols, who is Black, asked him to leave, Cook called him a racial slur, and Pujols punched him.
Cook, 77, fell to the floor and knocked his head. He died three days later.
Pujols was initially charged with manslaughter.
In agreeing to a plea deal, prosecutors considered the “totality of the circumstances,” including Pujols’ youth, his lack of criminal history and the fact that he did not intend to cause Cook’s death, Grayson Kamm, a spokesman for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, told the Tampa Bay Times. He said they also considered the behavior of Cook and what he said.
“Two of the primary factors were the aggressive approach the victim took toward the defendant and everyone working with the defendant, and that the victim repeatedly used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language,” Kamm told the newspaper.
Darrin Johnson, an attorney for Pujols, declined to comment after the hearing.
According to court records, Cook was a regular customer who tried to order coffee at the drive-thru on May 4. But the employees had trouble hearing him, and he began berating them for their poor customer service. He was asked to leave, but he parked his car and went inside the store.
When Cook appeared inside the store, Pujols asked a coworker to call police. Prosecutors said Cook began arguing with Pujols. Once Cook said the racial slur, Pujols walked around the counter and told him not to say that again. When he repeated it, Pujols hit him in the jaw and Cook fell to the floor.
An autopsy said he suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions.
Court records show Cook was a registered sex offender. No one from Cook’s family spoke at Monday’s hearing.
New Mexico
Woman accused in fatal pursuit due in court
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico woman accused of causing a crash that killed a police officer and a retired firefighter after lying about having been kidnapped is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Tuesday on murder and other charges.
Jeannine Jaramillo, 46, appeared in court Monday on a separate drug charge. A criminal complaint stated she was concealing methamphetamine in a body cavity when she was booked over the weekend on charges related to the deadly pursuit.
Jaramillo faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Santa Fe police Officer Robert Duran, 43, and Frank Lovato, 62. Lovato was a retired firefighter from the northern New Mexico city of Las Vegas who was driving a pickup truck and not involved with last Wednesday’s pursuit.
Jaramillo also faces charges of receiving or transferring a stolen motor vehicle, aggravated fleeing and tampering with evidence in the First Judicial District in Santa Fe.
“There is, without question, sufficient cause to assert that Jaramillo was driving the stolen vehicle willfully and freely from any kind of duress,” District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said during a news conference Saturday. “I am confident in saying that Jaramillo acted on her own accord and in a manner that is consistent with her recent criminal behavior of deceit and disregard for public safety.”
Carmack-Altwies said her office will seek to keep Jaramillo behind bars until trial.
Jaramillo’s public defender, Richard Pugh, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Court records show Jaramillo has a lengthy criminal record that includes two instances last fall in which she was pursued by Cibola County authorities while driving stolen vehicles. She told officers then, too, that she was held at knifepoint, but authorities never found the alleged attacker.
Prosecutors asked the court to dismiss the charges from the first incident in September, pending further investigation. Records show Jaramillo was arrested again in October by a Cibola County sheriff’s detective investigating the theft of a work truck. That case was dismissed in November to allow for more investigation.
Jaramillo also has been arrested over the years for receiving or transferring stolen motor vehicles, auto burglary, shoplifting and attempted aggravated battery upon a peace officer.
In the latest case, authorities reported the car that Jaramillo crawled out of after crashing into another vehicle had been reported stolen in northern New Mexico days earlier. Court documents also say DNA found on the airbag belonged to Jaramillo, and evidence from the vehicle’s computer showed there was only one person inside at the time of the crash.
During an interview with police, Jaramillo told investigators that her boyfriend hit her, poured gasoline on her and tried to kidnap her at knifepoint. Authorities noted inconsistencies in her story, including that she had no physical marks, her clothing did not smell of gasoline and she could not provide information to identify the boyfriend, according to court documents.
A police officer reported that he saw only a woman get out of the car. The officer also said the keys to the stolen car were found in the back seat of the police patrol unit where Jaramillo was seated after the crash.
