New York
JPMorgan reaches settlement with victims of Epstein
JPMorgan Chase has reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit with victims of financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal charges accusing him of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York. He was found dead in jail on Aug. 10 of that year, at age 66. A medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court in November sought to hold JPMorgan financially liable for Epstein’s decades-long abuse of teenage girls and young women. A related lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
“We all now understand that Epstein’s behavior was monstrous, and we believe this settlement is in the best interest of all parties, especially the survivors, who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of this man,” JPMorgan Chase said in a written statement early Monday.
Litigation is still pending between the U.S. Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase, as well as JPMorgan Chase’s claims against former executive, Jes Staley.
According to the lawsuits, JPMorgan provided Epstein loans and regularly allowed him to withdraw large sums of cash from 1998 through August 2013 even though it knew about his sex trafficking practices.
“Any association with him was a mistake and we regret it,” the bank said in a prepared statement. “We would never have continued to do business with him if we believed he was using our bank in any way to help commit heinous crimes.”
Both lawsuits were filed after New York state in November enacted a temporary law letting adult victims of sexual abuse to sue others for the abuse they suffered, even if the abuse occurred long ago.
The bank has denied the allegations and sued Staley, saying he hid Epstein’s crimes to keep him as a client.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has testified that he never heard of Epstein and his crimes until the financier was arrested in 2019, according to a transcript of the videotaped deposition released last month.
The settlement is subject to court approval.
Shares of JPMorgan rose slightly before the market open.
Mississippi
Attorney; Civil rights lawyer arrested filming traffic stop
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi civil rights lawyer was arrested Saturday after filming a traffic stop conducted by officers from a police department she is suing in federal court, her attorney says.
Jill Collen Jefferson is the president of JULIAN, the civil rights organization that filed a federal lawsuit last year against the Lexington Police Department on behalf of a group of city residents. Michael Carr, Jefferson’s attorney, told The Associated Press she was arrested late Saturday evening after she filmed officers after they pulled someone over.
The Lexington Police Department did not immediately respond to request for comment in voicemails and phone calls.
Jefferson was arrested nine days after Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division traveled to Lexington to meet with community members about allegations of police brutality in the small town.
Jefferson’s lawsuit claims police have subjected Lexington residents to false arrests, excessive force and intimidation.
“As an advocate for her clients, Jill Jefferson believes that this pattern and practice has happened to citizens in Lexington,” Carr said. “Through this experience, she is showing the state, the area and possibly the nation the corrupt practices of this city.”
Carr said Jefferson complied with a request to produce identification and questioned why the officers had approached her as she filmed on a public street. She was arrested and charged with three misdemeanors: failure to comply, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Jefferson was booked in the Holmes County Jail, where she remains pending a court hearing, which hadn’t been scheduled as of Sunday morning.
Carr said Police Chief Charles Henderson eventually agreed to release her without posting bond. But Jefferson refuses to pay a $35 processing fee levied by the jail for her release because she believes her arrest was unlawful.
New Mexico
Officer accused of sexually assaulting a female officer
LAS VEGAS, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico State Police officer has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a female officer last year when he was employed by the Grants Police Department, authorities said.
Officials said 30-year-old Isaiah Cheromiah was arrested at the State Police Office in Milan and booked into jail Friday on suspicion of criminal sexual contact and giving alcoholic beverages to a minor.
It was unclear Sunday if Cheromiah had a lawyer yet who could speak on his behalf.
State Police said a 22-year-old woman told officers in Gallup that she was sexually assaulted by another officer.
The woman had been on a two-week New Mexico National Guard deployment in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in July 2022.
She said Cheromiah was with the Grants Police Department at the time.
The woman said she and Cheromiah had been hanging out and drinking together before she was allegedly sexual assaulted while she slept. However, she did not report the alleged incident until last month.
Cheromiah was hired by State Police last November as part of a lateral recruit academy.
After learning of the allegations, State Police placed Cheromiah on administrative leave and began an internal and criminal investigation.
State Police Chief Tim Johnson said in a statement that he was “deeply disturbed” that one of the agency’s officers had been arrested over sexual assault allegations, adding, “any breach of public trust is entirely unacceptable.”
Connecticut
Man paralyzed in police van reaches $45M settlement
New Haven, Connecticut, has agreed to a $45 million settlement with Randy Cox, who was paralyzed while being transported handcuffed and without a seat belt in the back of a police van following his arrest last year, the city’s mayor and attorneys said Saturday.
The agreement was reached Friday evening following a daylong conference with a federal magistrate judge, Mayor Justin Elicker said. It came two days after the city fired two police officers who authorities said treated Cox recklessly and without compassion.
“The city’s mistakes have been well documented,” a statement by attorneys Ben Crump, Louis Rubano and R.J. Weber, who represented Cox, said. “But today is a moment to look to the future, so New Haven residents can have confidence in their city and their police department.”
Cox, 36, was left paralyzed from the chest down June 19, 2022, when the police van he was riding in braked hard, sending him head-first into a metal partition while his hands were cuffed behind his back. Cox had been arrested on charges of threatening a woman with a gun, which were later dismissed.
“I can’t move. I’m going to die like this. Please, please, please help me,” Cox said minutes after the crash, according to police video.
Once at the police station, officers mocked Cox and accused him of being drunk and faking his injuries, according to surveillance and body-worn camera footage. Officers dragged Cox by his feet out of the van and placed him in a holding cell prior to his eventual transfer to a hospital.
Five officers, including those who were fired, face criminal charges in the case. All have pleaded not guilty.
Cox last year sued the officers and the city for $100 million. His attorneys called the settlement the largest ever in a police misconduct case.
Cox did not plan to make any public comments over the weekend, Rubano said.
“He kind of relived what happened to him throughout the day yesterday, so it was a very emotional day,” the attorney said by phone. “He’s unwinding now.”
The case drew outrage from civil rights advocates like the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Cox is Black, while all five officers who were arrested are Black or Hispanic. Gray, who also was Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a city police van.
New Haven police have since adopted reforms that include making sure all prisoners wear seat belts. The state Senate on June 5 gave final approval to legislation that would require seat belts for all prisoners being transported.
“Randy entered a police transport vehicle being able to walk, and now he’s not able to walk,” Elicker said at a news conference Saturday. He said he had spoken with Cox’s mother earlier in the day.
“What I shared with her is that while this settlement cannot bring Randy back to his original state when he entered that police transport vehicle, that my hope is that it provides Randy the future medical support and other support that he will need,” Elicker said. “Randy’s 36 years old, and we hope he has a long life ahead of him with the kind of support and care that he deserves.”
Texas
Court dismisses GOP donor’s defamation suit against O’Rourke
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas appeals court on Friday dismissed a billionaire’s defamation lawsuit against Democrat Beto O’Rouke that was brought after O’Rourke criticized a $1 million campaign contribution to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
The ruling by the Third Court of Appeals in Austin comes more than a year after O’Rourke repeatedly made critical remarks about the donation during a failed run for governor, at one point saying that it “looks like a bribe to me.”
The contribution came from Kelcy Warren, chairman of pipeline company Energy Transfer, which reported about $2.4 billion in earnings related to the catastrophic February 2021 winter storm that sent natural gas prices soaring in Texas.
Warren, a major Republican donor, accused O’Rourke of trying to humiliate him and discourage other Abbott supporters from making campaign donations.
In the court’s opinion, Chief Justice Darlene Byrne wrote that a reasonable person would view O’Rourke’s statements as “the type of rhetorical hyperbole that is commonplace in political campaigns.”
Dean Pamphilis, an attorney for Warrren, said the decision would be appealed to the Texas Supreme Court.
Abbott’s campaign said at the time that it was not involved in the lawsuit. The governor went on to easily beat O’Rourke and win a third term.
