Mississippi
Former student sues university and Omega Psi Phi over alleged hazing incident
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A former Omega Psi Phi pledge who alleges he was so severely beaten during the Nu Eta chapter’s “Hell Night” that he had to relearn how to walk is now suing the fraternity, the University of Southern Mississippi, multiple other people and organizations.
According to the federal lawsuit, Rafeal Joseph and other pledges were struck repeatedly with a wooden paddle made from a two-by-four plank on April 16, 2023. Afterward, Joseph went to the hospital where he underwent a blood transfusion and emergency surgery while being treated for bruised ribs, a hematoma, posterior compartment syndrome and rhabdomyolysis, a severe muscle injury.
The lawsuit alleges Joseph suffered severe emotional distress and could not walk for months. He ultimately dropped out of the University of Southern Mississippi.
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity declined to comment on the litigation. The University of Southern Mississippi was not immediately available for comment.
“We see violent incidents like these time and again across the nation but, instead of taking action, fraternity leaders and university officials alike sweep it under the rug and write it off as ‘boys will be boys,’ “ civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, who is representing Joseph, said in a press release. “It’s criminal violence and abuse and it needs to end.”
The lawsuit alleges fraternity members began hazing Joseph in December 2022 by stealing his food and money, preventing him from sleeping and threatening him.
It also lays out a second case of alleged abuse, claiming Nu Eta hazing left another student with a torn ACL in the fall of 2022. According to the lawsuit, the University of Southern Mississippi did not investigate the incident or take action against the fraternity.
California
Man gets $25M for wrongful conviction after 38 years in prison
An innocent man who spent 38 years behind bars in California was awarded $25 million in what his lawyers called the largest wrongful conviction settlement in state history.
The settlement was reached in August, according to court documents made public on Monday.
Maurice Hastings, 72, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole in connection with the 1983 sexual assault and murder of Roberta Wydermyer, who was killed by a single gunshot to the head.
The lawsuit accused two Inglewood Police Department officers and the Los Angeles District Attorney investigator at the time of framing Hastings.
“No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me,” Hastings said in a statement. “But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road, and I look forward to moving on with my life.”
Lawyers for the defendants and a spokesperson for the City of Inglewood did not respond to emailed requests for comment on Tuesday. Other details in the settlement were not made public.
The settlement comes after decades of legal battles where Hastings pled his innocence.
At the time of the victim’s autopsy, the coroner conducted a sexual assault examination and collected bodily fluids of the perpetrator, according to the district attorney’s office.
Hastings sought DNA testing of that evidence in 2000, but at that time, the DA’s office denied the request. Hastings submitted a claim of innocence to the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2021, and DNA testing found that the semen was not his. In 2022, when he was 69, Hastings conviction was vacated at the request of prosecutors and his lawyers.
The DNA profile was put into a state database and matched to a person who was convicted of a separate armed kidnapping and forced copulation of a female victim who was placed in a vehicle’s trunk — harrowing details that closely resembled Wydermyer’s killing.
Law enforcement apprehended the suspect, Kenneth Packnett, less than three weeks after the 1983 murder in connection with an unrelated car theft, Hastings lawyers said. When Packnett was arrested, police found jewelry and a coin purse that matched the items Wydermyer had when she was murdered. Packnett wasn’t investigated for Wydermyer’s murder at the time.
Packnett died in 2020 in prison where he was serving a separate sentence, prosecutors said.
In 2023, a California judge ruled that Hastings was “factually innocent,” which means the evidence proves conclusively that Hastings did not commit the crime.
Hastings now lives in Southern California, where he is active in his church, his attorneys said.
“Police departments throughout California and across the country should take notice that there is a steep price to pay for allowing such egregious misconduct on their watch,” Nick Brustin, an attorney for Hastings, said.
California
Man who fired a gun into ABC affiliate office had note to ‘do the next scary thing,’ prosecutors say
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A man suspected of firing a gun into the ABC affiliate’s office in California’s capital had written notes in his car that were critical of Donald Trump’s administration and a calendar reminder on his fridge to “do the next scary thing,” prosecutors said Monday.
Nobody was hurt in the shooting Friday into the lobby of the studios of ABC10 near downtown Sacramento. Local authorities arrested Anibal Hernandez Santana, 64, on Friday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into an occupied building. He was released hours later on $200,000 bail.
Hernandez Santana was rearrested Saturday night by the FBI and will also face federal charges related to interfering with a federally licensed station and discharging a firearm within a school zone. His defense attorney, Mark Reichel, said Hernandez Santana would plead not guilty in both the state and federal cases. He’s next due back in court on Thursday.
“He is innocent unless and until he is found otherwise,” Reichel said in a statement.
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho said investigators found a calendar note on Hernandez Santana’s refrigerator stating “Do the next scary thing” and dated Sept. 19, the day of the shooting.
A search of the suspect’s car turned up an anti-Trump book, Ho said Monday. Authorities also found a handwritten note that said “For hiding Epstein and ignoring red flags,” Ho said. The note mentioned FBI Director Kash Patel, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying they were “next,” prosecutors said.
Evidence points to a politically motivated crime and “it appears that he was also looking at other places, other people,” Ho said. But he didn’t say why prosecutors believe Hernandez Santana targeted the ABC affiliate specifically or whether it might have been related to ABC’s suspension of late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel over comments made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
ABC10 is an affiliate of ABC but not owned by the network. It is owned by Tegna.
The district attorney said his office will seek to hold Hernandez Santana with no bail.
Hernandez Santa first shot into the air in the direction of the TV station and then drove to the front of the building and fired three shots into the lobby, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Bill Essayli, acting U.S. attorney in Southern California, criticized Hernandez Santana’s quick release on bail before he was later arrested by the FBI.
“Welcome to California, where someone can commit attempted murder and be back on the streets the same day,” Essayli posted Saturday on X.
Reichel, the suspect’s defense attorney, said he believes the federal government will use the case to make a political point. ABC10 reported the suspect had social media posts critical of the Trump administration.
“I am certain the Trump administration and his DOJ dislikes his political posts on social media, and they will take any opportunity to take a state crime committed by someone who is considered ‘liberal’ and make it a federal offense to use it as political fodder for their never ceasing attempts to demonize those who disagree with the President’s policies,” Reichel said in an email.
Reichel said Hernandez Santana had a career as a lobbyist in the state Legislature and he had just retired in the past few years.
Georgia
Inmate gets 80 years for making bombs, mailing them to U.S. courthouse, DOJ
STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) — A person already in prison has been sentenced to 80 years in federal custody after authorities said the inmate built two bombs while behind bars and mailed them to a federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced the sentence for the inmate authorities identified as David Dwayne Cassady, 57, who was incarcerated in a state prison in Georgia when the devices were made, authorities said. The inmate pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted malicious use of explosive materials.
The inmate has severe anxiety and gender dysphoria, defense lawyer Tina Maddox wrote in a sentencing memo to the court. The crimes were “acts of desperation born out of unrelenting abuse, hopelessness, and mental distress,” Maddox wrote. The defendant is a transgender woman and now goes by the name Lena Noel Summerlin, the lawyer said in the July 8 court document.
The indictment says both bombs were made at a state prison in Tattnall County, Georgia, and mailed from the prison. The document does not detail how the bombs were built or where the materials were obtained.
The bombs were functional and had the capabilities to explode, a plea agreement states. The inmate admitted to mailing them “in retaliation for prison conditions,” it said.
Since the early 1990s, the inmate has been held in a variety of Georgia prisons after being convicted of more than a dozen crimes including kidnapping and aggravated sodomy, according to records from the Georgia Department of Corrections.
“This defendant’s devices were not only a threat to the recipients, but to every individual that unknowingly transported and delivered them,” U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said in a statement.
The defendant “intended to incite fear” in the targets and among the public, said Rodney Hopkins, the inspector in charge of the Atlanta division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Former student sues university and Omega Psi Phi over alleged hazing incident
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A former Omega Psi Phi pledge who alleges he was so severely beaten during the Nu Eta chapter’s “Hell Night” that he had to relearn how to walk is now suing the fraternity, the University of Southern Mississippi, multiple other people and organizations.
According to the federal lawsuit, Rafeal Joseph and other pledges were struck repeatedly with a wooden paddle made from a two-by-four plank on April 16, 2023. Afterward, Joseph went to the hospital where he underwent a blood transfusion and emergency surgery while being treated for bruised ribs, a hematoma, posterior compartment syndrome and rhabdomyolysis, a severe muscle injury.
The lawsuit alleges Joseph suffered severe emotional distress and could not walk for months. He ultimately dropped out of the University of Southern Mississippi.
Omega Psi Phi Fraternity declined to comment on the litigation. The University of Southern Mississippi was not immediately available for comment.
“We see violent incidents like these time and again across the nation but, instead of taking action, fraternity leaders and university officials alike sweep it under the rug and write it off as ‘boys will be boys,’ “ civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, who is representing Joseph, said in a press release. “It’s criminal violence and abuse and it needs to end.”
The lawsuit alleges fraternity members began hazing Joseph in December 2022 by stealing his food and money, preventing him from sleeping and threatening him.
It also lays out a second case of alleged abuse, claiming Nu Eta hazing left another student with a torn ACL in the fall of 2022. According to the lawsuit, the University of Southern Mississippi did not investigate the incident or take action against the fraternity.
California
Man gets $25M for wrongful conviction after 38 years in prison
An innocent man who spent 38 years behind bars in California was awarded $25 million in what his lawyers called the largest wrongful conviction settlement in state history.
The settlement was reached in August, according to court documents made public on Monday.
Maurice Hastings, 72, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole in connection with the 1983 sexual assault and murder of Roberta Wydermyer, who was killed by a single gunshot to the head.
The lawsuit accused two Inglewood Police Department officers and the Los Angeles District Attorney investigator at the time of framing Hastings.
“No amount of money could ever restore the 38 years of my life that were stolen from me,” Hastings said in a statement. “But this settlement is a welcome end to a very long road, and I look forward to moving on with my life.”
Lawyers for the defendants and a spokesperson for the City of Inglewood did not respond to emailed requests for comment on Tuesday. Other details in the settlement were not made public.
The settlement comes after decades of legal battles where Hastings pled his innocence.
At the time of the victim’s autopsy, the coroner conducted a sexual assault examination and collected bodily fluids of the perpetrator, according to the district attorney’s office.
Hastings sought DNA testing of that evidence in 2000, but at that time, the DA’s office denied the request. Hastings submitted a claim of innocence to the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit in 2021, and DNA testing found that the semen was not his. In 2022, when he was 69, Hastings conviction was vacated at the request of prosecutors and his lawyers.
The DNA profile was put into a state database and matched to a person who was convicted of a separate armed kidnapping and forced copulation of a female victim who was placed in a vehicle’s trunk — harrowing details that closely resembled Wydermyer’s killing.
Law enforcement apprehended the suspect, Kenneth Packnett, less than three weeks after the 1983 murder in connection with an unrelated car theft, Hastings lawyers said. When Packnett was arrested, police found jewelry and a coin purse that matched the items Wydermyer had when she was murdered. Packnett wasn’t investigated for Wydermyer’s murder at the time.
Packnett died in 2020 in prison where he was serving a separate sentence, prosecutors said.
In 2023, a California judge ruled that Hastings was “factually innocent,” which means the evidence proves conclusively that Hastings did not commit the crime.
Hastings now lives in Southern California, where he is active in his church, his attorneys said.
“Police departments throughout California and across the country should take notice that there is a steep price to pay for allowing such egregious misconduct on their watch,” Nick Brustin, an attorney for Hastings, said.
California
Man who fired a gun into ABC affiliate office had note to ‘do the next scary thing,’ prosecutors say
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A man suspected of firing a gun into the ABC affiliate’s office in California’s capital had written notes in his car that were critical of Donald Trump’s administration and a calendar reminder on his fridge to “do the next scary thing,” prosecutors said Monday.
Nobody was hurt in the shooting Friday into the lobby of the studios of ABC10 near downtown Sacramento. Local authorities arrested Anibal Hernandez Santana, 64, on Friday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into an occupied building. He was released hours later on $200,000 bail.
Hernandez Santana was rearrested Saturday night by the FBI and will also face federal charges related to interfering with a federally licensed station and discharging a firearm within a school zone. His defense attorney, Mark Reichel, said Hernandez Santana would plead not guilty in both the state and federal cases. He’s next due back in court on Thursday.
“He is innocent unless and until he is found otherwise,” Reichel said in a statement.
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho said investigators found a calendar note on Hernandez Santana’s refrigerator stating “Do the next scary thing” and dated Sept. 19, the day of the shooting.
A search of the suspect’s car turned up an anti-Trump book, Ho said Monday. Authorities also found a handwritten note that said “For hiding Epstein and ignoring red flags,” Ho said. The note mentioned FBI Director Kash Patel, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying they were “next,” prosecutors said.
Evidence points to a politically motivated crime and “it appears that he was also looking at other places, other people,” Ho said. But he didn’t say why prosecutors believe Hernandez Santana targeted the ABC affiliate specifically or whether it might have been related to ABC’s suspension of late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel over comments made about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
ABC10 is an affiliate of ABC but not owned by the network. It is owned by Tegna.
The district attorney said his office will seek to hold Hernandez Santana with no bail.
Hernandez Santa first shot into the air in the direction of the TV station and then drove to the front of the building and fired three shots into the lobby, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Bill Essayli, acting U.S. attorney in Southern California, criticized Hernandez Santana’s quick release on bail before he was later arrested by the FBI.
“Welcome to California, where someone can commit attempted murder and be back on the streets the same day,” Essayli posted Saturday on X.
Reichel, the suspect’s defense attorney, said he believes the federal government will use the case to make a political point. ABC10 reported the suspect had social media posts critical of the Trump administration.
“I am certain the Trump administration and his DOJ dislikes his political posts on social media, and they will take any opportunity to take a state crime committed by someone who is considered ‘liberal’ and make it a federal offense to use it as political fodder for their never ceasing attempts to demonize those who disagree with the President’s policies,” Reichel said in an email.
Reichel said Hernandez Santana had a career as a lobbyist in the state Legislature and he had just retired in the past few years.
Georgia
Inmate gets 80 years for making bombs, mailing them to U.S. courthouse, DOJ
STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) — A person already in prison has been sentenced to 80 years in federal custody after authorities said the inmate built two bombs while behind bars and mailed them to a federal courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, and the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced the sentence for the inmate authorities identified as David Dwayne Cassady, 57, who was incarcerated in a state prison in Georgia when the devices were made, authorities said. The inmate pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted malicious use of explosive materials.
The inmate has severe anxiety and gender dysphoria, defense lawyer Tina Maddox wrote in a sentencing memo to the court. The crimes were “acts of desperation born out of unrelenting abuse, hopelessness, and mental distress,” Maddox wrote. The defendant is a transgender woman and now goes by the name Lena Noel Summerlin, the lawyer said in the July 8 court document.
The indictment says both bombs were made at a state prison in Tattnall County, Georgia, and mailed from the prison. The document does not detail how the bombs were built or where the materials were obtained.
The bombs were functional and had the capabilities to explode, a plea agreement states. The inmate admitted to mailing them “in retaliation for prison conditions,” it said.
Since the early 1990s, the inmate has been held in a variety of Georgia prisons after being convicted of more than a dozen crimes including kidnapping and aggravated sodomy, according to records from the Georgia Department of Corrections.
“This defendant’s devices were not only a threat to the recipients, but to every individual that unknowingly transported and delivered them,” U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said in a statement.
The defendant “intended to incite fear” in the targets and among the public, said Rodney Hopkins, the inspector in charge of the Atlanta division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
