Washington
DOJ expands anti-profiling rules to cover thousand more in judicial system
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department issued new guidance Thursday emphasizing that investigations must be free from bias involving race and gender or against people with disabilities. Anti-profiling rules were also expanded to include thousands more people who are part of the justice system.
The guidelines obtained by The Associated Press are the first updates in nearly a decade and now cover thousands more people than before, including prosecutors, lawyers, analysts and contractors. They already applied to agents for Justice Department agencies such as the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration and local officers who work with them on task forces.
The update also requires, for the first time, more extensive data collection measures that are intended to ensure the guidance is being followed.
The effort is intended to root out biased work, practices condemned as unfair, likely to create mistrust and violate civil rights. The guidelines aim to bar bias based on the use of race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, and now, disability.
“Fair and unbiased law enforcement practices are smart and effective law enforcement practices,” according to the guidance.
Details about those characteristics can be used, though, if investigators obtain such information along with additional, detailed context that shows it’s reliable and linked to a specific incident or investigation.
For example, investigators could not single out people of a certain race or faith based on a tip about a possible attack without any specifics about date, time or a full description of a suspect.
Training on the new guidelines will be required to start within a year for people newly covered by the guidelines, as well as local law enforcement deputized to work with federal agencies on task forces.
To make sure the rules are being carried out, the law enforcement agencies must begin tracking complaints alleging bias within six months and create data-driven research projects to track how the guidelines are playing out and report on that research within a year.
South Carolina
Murdaugh’s friend admits helping to steal $4 million wrongful death settlement
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A longtime friend of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh admitted Thursday he helped his old college roommate steal more than $4 million meant for a wrongful death settlement after Murdaugh’s housekeeper died in a fall.
Cory Fleming, 54, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in federal court. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced at a later date.
After Murdaugh’s maid, Gloria Satterfield, died following a fall at the family’s home, Murdaugh convinced Satterfield’s sons to hire Fleming as their lawyer, saying they could help get the family money for a wrongful death settlement.
Fleming got $4.3 million from Murdaugh’s insurers, according to an indictment.
But Fleming and Murdaugh never sent any money to Satterfield’s sons, instead splitting it among themselves, prosecutors said.
Satterfield’s sons later hired different attorneys who have managed to get millions for them.
Fleming’s plea came a day after federal prosecutors charged Murdaugh with 22 financial crimes for stealing money from the Satterfield family as well as other clients and committing bank and wire fraud.
Murdaugh’s lawyers said in a statement he is cooperating with federal investigators and suggest the charges will be resolved with a guilty plea.’
Murdaugh, 54, is currently serving a life sentence without parole in protective custody at an undisclosed state prison after being convicted in March of the shooting deaths of his 22-year-old son, Paul and 52-year-old wife, Maggie, at their home. Prosecutors said he decided to kill them because his millions of dollars of theft was about to be discovered, and he was hoping their deaths would buy him sympathy and time to figure out a cover-up.
The once prominent South Carolina attorney is also awaiting trial on around 100 other state charges including insurance fraud, tax evasion and theft.
Fleming is the second person affiliated with Murdaugh’s schemes to be convicted in federal court. In November, Murdaugh’s banker friend, Russell Laffitte, was convicted of six wire and bank fraud charges.
Prosecutors said Murdaugh and Laffitte worked together to take settlement money out of clients’ accounts.
Laffitte is appealing and has not been sentenced.
Illinois
Judge dismisses city of lawsuit against Indiana gun store over straw gun sales
CHICAGO (AP) — A judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit the city of Chicago filed against a northwestern Indiana store that alleged it sold hundreds of guns in straw purchases that ended up in the hands of felons or at crime scenes in the city.
The city sued Westforth Sports Inc. of Gary in April 2021, alleging the store repeatedly violated federal gun laws and that store owner Earl Westforth ignored warnings from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about suspicious purchases at the store.
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Clare Quish dismissed the lawsuit. Straw gun sales refer to those that someone purportedly purchases for their own use but actually are bought for others.
Attorneys for Westforth Sports argued the lawsuit should be dismissed because the city of Chicago’s allegations concerned transactions between Westforth and residents of Indiana, the Chicago Tribune reported.
In a statement issued after the dismissal, Westforth attorney Timothy Rudd said that the court “properly found that Constitutional due process does not allow an out-of-state firearms retailer to be hauled into court in Illinois unless the claims against it arise out of or relate to the retailer’s own contacts with the state.”
Alla Lefkowitz, an attorney representing the city, said in a statement that officials have “not yet had an opportunity to review the decision” but that the city “fully intends to press on with its case against Westforth.”
A 2017 Chicago police report said Westforth Sports was the third-largest supplier of guns used in crimes in the city. It said that from 2013 to 2016, 2.3% of all crime guns recovered in Chicago originated at Westforth.
Tennessee
Man killed 4 children before setting fire and shooting self, prosecutor says
LUTTRELL, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee man who complained of having “a devil in his head” fatally shot four children in his home before setting the residence ablaze and shooting himself, a prosecutor said in written findings about the investigation into the fire.
District Attorney General Jared Effler, of Union County, said in a memorandum filed on Monday that a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe found that all four children had been shot by Charles Damon Aljumaily in January before the fire in the Luttrell home was set, news outlets reported.
Each child — Briseis Aljumaily, 15; Gabriella Aljumaily, 5; Audrie Quinn Cooper-Fortner, 9; and Evelyn Rose Cooper-Fortner, 5 — had been shot multiple times while Charles Aljumaily was shot just once, according to the findings.
While processing the scene, TBI agents interviewed Aljumaily’s wife, who said he had been paranoid lately and had complained about having “a devil in his head attacking him and that he wanted to harm himself, but was afraid to because of how that would affect his salvation.”
His wife had been visiting an adult daughter in Knoxville when she got a call that her home was on fire, the memo said.
No criminal charges will be filed because Aljumaily is dead, Effler wrote.
New Jersey
Officer charged in shooting of man who called 911
MANTUA, N.J. (AP) — A police officer who fatally shot a homeowner who had called 911 to report intruders outside his southern New Jersey home has been indicted on a manslaughter charge.
The count against Mantua Township Police Officer Salvatore Oldrati was handed up Tuesday by a state grand jury and was made public Wednesday night. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
The charge stems from the Sept. 14, 2021, death of Charles Sharp III, 49, who called 911 around 1:30 a.m. to report he had spotted two burglars in his backyard and that one of them had a handgun. Oldrati and another Mantua officer, Cpl. Robert Layton, soon responded to the home in different vehicles.
Sharp, who had remained on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, was standing in his front yard when the officers arrived. Layton got their first, with Oldrati arriving a short time later.
As Oldrati got out of his police vehicle, Layton yelled, “He’s got a handgun on him, right there,” the attorney general’s office said in a press release. Oldrati then fired his service weapon multiple times, hitting Sharp several times. Sharp was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead there a short time later.
Layton did not discharge his service weapon, authorities said, and neither he nor Oldrati were injured. A replica .45-caliber firearm was recovered near Sharp, authorities said.
Investigators determined that Oldrati gave no verbal commands or warnings before shooting Sharp.
“When residents call 911 for service, they are concerned, they need assistance, they seek protection — and they trust the officers responding to their calls will respond accordingly and help them,” state Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement. “Tragically, that did not happen here.”
The case was reviewed by the grand jury, which is mandated in cases where a civilian dies during an encounter with a law enforcement officer. The Office of Public Integrity and Accountability investigated the incident and presented their findings to the grand jury.
“Less than five seconds elapsed between when Officer Oldrati stepped out of his police vehicle and when he began firing at Mr. Sharp,” Thomas Eicher, the office’s executive director, said in the statement. “... The grand jury determined that his conduct was not justified and warranted the return of an indictment for manslaughter.”
Oldrati’s attorney, Christopher St. John, said he was surprised and disappointed by the indictment, and his client was “extremely disappointed.”
“However, I’m very confident that once an actual jury, a petit jury, is able to view all of the evidence in its entirety, that Sal will be exonerated,” St. John said.
