Colorado
Appeals court says ban on gun sales to those under 21 can take effect
DENVER (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Colorado law raising the age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21 can take effect while the legal battle over it continues.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said that lawyers for one of the young men who challenged the law with a gun rights group, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, did not meet the legal burden for having the law blocked while the lawsuit played out. It sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
The law was one of four gun control bills signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in 2023 following the lead of other states trying to confront a surge in violent crime and mass shootings.
U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer issued a preliminary injunction against it before it could take effect. His ruling frequently referenced a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded Second Amendment rights, and concluded that the lawsuit would likely succeed. That 2022 Supreme Court decision in a New York case changed a test lower courts had used for evaluating challenges to gun laws.
Colorado’s law effectively sought to prevent those between 18 and 20 from buying rifles and shotguns. A federal law already prevents licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to those under 21 but that ban has also been challenged in light of the Supreme Court decision.
A Polis spokesperson, Shelby Wieman, said in a statement that the law was “commonsense gun safety legislation.”
New York
Law clerk disparaged by Trump, is elected as a judge
NEW YORK (AP) — Allison Greenfield, the law clerk whom Donald Trump assailed with falsehoods during his civil fraud trial last year, has been elected as a New York City judge.
Greenfield, 38, was one of six candidates for six seats on Manhattan’s civil court, which handles small claims and other lesser-stakes lawsuits. A local Democratic committee unanimously endorsed her candidacy in February, avoiding a primary and clearing the way for her to run unopposed in Tuesday’s general election.
As a principal law clerk to Judge Arthur Engoron, Greenfield was a frequent target of Trump and his lawyers during the former president’s civil fraud trial.
Trump made a disparaging social media post about Greenfield on the trial’s second day, leading Engoron to impose a limited gag order barring participants in the case from smearing court staff.
Engoron fined Trump $15,000 for twice violating the order and subsequently expanded it to include Trump’s lawyers after they complained in court about Greenfield passing notes to Engoron.
They accused Engoron of letting Greenfield act as “a de facto co-judge,” and questioned whether her political leanings were influencing what they perceived as a “demonstrable” anti-Trump bias.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said he felt like he was “fighting two adversaries.” Engoron responded that he had “an absolutely unfettered right” to Greenfield’s advice.
Trump’s lawyers later asked for a mistrial, which Engoron rejected, after conservative news site Breitbart News highlighted a citizen complaint that accused Greenfield of violating court rules by making monetary donations to Democratic causes. Many of those contributions were made during Greenfield’s prior, unsuccessful run for the bench in 2022.
Election to the civil court can be a pathway for judges to eventually join New York’s main trial court, known as the State Supreme Court. Engoron joined the bench as a civil court judge and was appointed to the trial court a decade later.
Greenfield studied economics and politics as an undergraduate at New York University and received her law degree from Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan in 2010. She started working for Engoron in 2019. Before that, she was a lawyer for the city.
New Jersey
Atlantic City mayor charged with asking daughter to say he didn’t hurt her
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City’s mayor, already accused of abusing his teenage daughter, now faces a new charge that he asked her to lie about how she sustained a head injury.
Marty Small Sr., 50, was charged Monday with witness tampering involving the girl, whom he and his wife, La’Quetta — the New Jersey seaside gambling resort city’s superintendent of schools — were previously charged with assaulting and abusing.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said Marty Small, a Democrat, asked his daughter to “twist up” a statement she had given to investigators regarding his alleged abuse of her on occasions in December and January.
Specifically, the mayor is accused of asking his daughter to falsely say that a head injury occurred when she tripped and fell in her room.
Small’s lawyer, Edwin Jacobs, called the latest charge “sheer nonsense,” adding that Small asked his daughter to tell the truth about what happened.
“When a parent encourages a child to be accurate and truthful in statements to investigators, that parent is not witness tampering,” he said Wednesday. “That parent is doing what a good, responsible parent should do. And that is precisely what Marty Small has done.”
Jacobs called the charge “one more effort by the prosecuting authority to second-guess my client’s parenting and corrupt his relationship with his daughter.”
The attorney did not say whether the teen is still living at home with her parents. As recently as last month, Small said she was doing so.
Prosecutors allege that Small asked his daughter to contradict her previous claim of being abused while knowing he was about to be indicted on the original child abuse charge. The alleged request was made two days before a grand jury indicted Marty and La’Quetta Small.
They say both parents hit and emotionally abused the girl, who was 15 to 16 years old, on occasions last winter. The couple deny the allegations.
Prosecutors said that on Jan. 13, Marty Small hit his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness. Ten days earlier, they said, Small argued with his daughter, grabbing her head, throwing her to the ground and threatening to throw her down the stairs. The mayor also is accused of punching his daughter in the legs, causing bruising.
La’Quetta Small, 47, is accused of punching her daughter multiple times on the chest, leaving bruising. She is also accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks.
The couple pleaded not guilty to the original charges last month. Marty Small has a court date on the witness tampering charge set for Dec. 3.
Appeals court says ban on gun sales to those under 21 can take effect
DENVER (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Colorado law raising the age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21 can take effect while the legal battle over it continues.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals said that lawyers for one of the young men who challenged the law with a gun rights group, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, did not meet the legal burden for having the law blocked while the lawsuit played out. It sent the case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
The law was one of four gun control bills signed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis in 2023 following the lead of other states trying to confront a surge in violent crime and mass shootings.
U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer issued a preliminary injunction against it before it could take effect. His ruling frequently referenced a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded Second Amendment rights, and concluded that the lawsuit would likely succeed. That 2022 Supreme Court decision in a New York case changed a test lower courts had used for evaluating challenges to gun laws.
Colorado’s law effectively sought to prevent those between 18 and 20 from buying rifles and shotguns. A federal law already prevents licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to those under 21 but that ban has also been challenged in light of the Supreme Court decision.
A Polis spokesperson, Shelby Wieman, said in a statement that the law was “commonsense gun safety legislation.”
New York
Law clerk disparaged by Trump, is elected as a judge
NEW YORK (AP) — Allison Greenfield, the law clerk whom Donald Trump assailed with falsehoods during his civil fraud trial last year, has been elected as a New York City judge.
Greenfield, 38, was one of six candidates for six seats on Manhattan’s civil court, which handles small claims and other lesser-stakes lawsuits. A local Democratic committee unanimously endorsed her candidacy in February, avoiding a primary and clearing the way for her to run unopposed in Tuesday’s general election.
As a principal law clerk to Judge Arthur Engoron, Greenfield was a frequent target of Trump and his lawyers during the former president’s civil fraud trial.
Trump made a disparaging social media post about Greenfield on the trial’s second day, leading Engoron to impose a limited gag order barring participants in the case from smearing court staff.
Engoron fined Trump $15,000 for twice violating the order and subsequently expanded it to include Trump’s lawyers after they complained in court about Greenfield passing notes to Engoron.
They accused Engoron of letting Greenfield act as “a de facto co-judge,” and questioned whether her political leanings were influencing what they perceived as a “demonstrable” anti-Trump bias.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise said he felt like he was “fighting two adversaries.” Engoron responded that he had “an absolutely unfettered right” to Greenfield’s advice.
Trump’s lawyers later asked for a mistrial, which Engoron rejected, after conservative news site Breitbart News highlighted a citizen complaint that accused Greenfield of violating court rules by making monetary donations to Democratic causes. Many of those contributions were made during Greenfield’s prior, unsuccessful run for the bench in 2022.
Election to the civil court can be a pathway for judges to eventually join New York’s main trial court, known as the State Supreme Court. Engoron joined the bench as a civil court judge and was appointed to the trial court a decade later.
Greenfield studied economics and politics as an undergraduate at New York University and received her law degree from Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan in 2010. She started working for Engoron in 2019. Before that, she was a lawyer for the city.
New Jersey
Atlantic City mayor charged with asking daughter to say he didn’t hurt her
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City’s mayor, already accused of abusing his teenage daughter, now faces a new charge that he asked her to lie about how she sustained a head injury.
Marty Small Sr., 50, was charged Monday with witness tampering involving the girl, whom he and his wife, La’Quetta — the New Jersey seaside gambling resort city’s superintendent of schools — were previously charged with assaulting and abusing.
The Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office said Marty Small, a Democrat, asked his daughter to “twist up” a statement she had given to investigators regarding his alleged abuse of her on occasions in December and January.
Specifically, the mayor is accused of asking his daughter to falsely say that a head injury occurred when she tripped and fell in her room.
Small’s lawyer, Edwin Jacobs, called the latest charge “sheer nonsense,” adding that Small asked his daughter to tell the truth about what happened.
“When a parent encourages a child to be accurate and truthful in statements to investigators, that parent is not witness tampering,” he said Wednesday. “That parent is doing what a good, responsible parent should do. And that is precisely what Marty Small has done.”
Jacobs called the charge “one more effort by the prosecuting authority to second-guess my client’s parenting and corrupt his relationship with his daughter.”
The attorney did not say whether the teen is still living at home with her parents. As recently as last month, Small said she was doing so.
Prosecutors allege that Small asked his daughter to contradict her previous claim of being abused while knowing he was about to be indicted on the original child abuse charge. The alleged request was made two days before a grand jury indicted Marty and La’Quetta Small.
They say both parents hit and emotionally abused the girl, who was 15 to 16 years old, on occasions last winter. The couple deny the allegations.
Prosecutors said that on Jan. 13, Marty Small hit his daughter multiple times in the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness. Ten days earlier, they said, Small argued with his daughter, grabbing her head, throwing her to the ground and threatening to throw her down the stairs. The mayor also is accused of punching his daughter in the legs, causing bruising.
La’Quetta Small, 47, is accused of punching her daughter multiple times on the chest, leaving bruising. She is also accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders, leaving marks.
The couple pleaded not guilty to the original charges last month. Marty Small has a court date on the witness tampering charge set for Dec. 3.
