Michigan
Former hockey players at U-M sue, say they were sexually abused decades ago
DETROIT (AP) — More than a dozen former hockey players are suing the University of Michigan, alleging their coach and other staff were aware of sexual hazing that included the forced shaving of their genitals and other abuse by teammates decades ago.
“The abuse was ritualized, meticulously planned, and sadistic. ... Enduring sexual abuse was required to be a member of the Michigan Men’s Ice Hockey team,” attorney Michael Pitt said in a sex discrimination lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Detroit.
The plaintiffs are 16 men who played at Michigan between 1984 and 2001. The lawsuit apparently grew out of conversations among several former teammates in 2024.
The university said the allegations are “disturbing,” but denies responsibility.
“To the extent any former student athlete engaged in hazing or other misconduct, they were violating university policy,” spokesperson Paul Corliss said in a written statement.
“The university first adopted an official anti-hazing policy in 1982. It was one of the first universities in the country to do so, and it has earned its standing as a leader in this area,” he said.
The 72-page document describes players being forced to consume excessive amounts of alcohol and eat live fish. A common allegation: They were forced to have hair around their genitals shaved by teammates. A player identified as John Doe 7 said he was taunted with a blowtorch while on a table.
The lawsuit says Red Berenson, who was coach from 1984 to 2017, was aware of the abuse and did not intervene.
John Doe 3 said he told Berenson that he didn’t want to participate in the hazing. The coach coerced him by telling him to be a “Michigan Man” and a “good teammate,” according to the lawsuit.
Berenson announced the end of “freshman hazing” in 2012, mostly referring to first-year players being forced to carry equipment and eat team meals last. He made no mention of physical abuse but acknowledged “captains that got too carried away,” according to news reports at the time.
Berenson, 86, declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.
“Give me a chance to absorb what’s going on,” the former NHL player said.
The university could argue that the hockey players waited too long to file a lawsuit, a position it took in 2020 when former athletes sued over sexual misconduct committed decades earlier by a campus sports doctor. The university ultimately agreed to pay $490 million to settle claims by more than 1,000 people.
Ohio
Man whose 16 grandchildren found living in filthy conditions is incompetent to stand trial
McARTHUR, Ohio (AP) — A man whose 16 grandchildren were discovered living in squalid conditions at a rural southern Ohio home was found mentally incompetent to stand trial Wednesday.
A judge in Vinton County accepted the findings of an evaluation report for Gary Siders Sr. Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer did not object to the findings.
The 73-year-old Siders appeared in court in a wheelchair. His attorney, Dorian Baum, said after the hearing that Siders’ mental health has been declining for years and is “not restorable.”
“It’s not really a surprise to any of us that he’s not been found competent at this point,” Baum said. “He doesn’t fully understand or appreciate what’s going on.”
Siders was charged with 16 counts of child endangerment related to the children, who were rescued June 30 from a home in Hamden about 80 miles (129 kilometers) south of Columbus.
Siders’ wife, Christina Siders; son Gary Siders Jr., and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Siders, the children’s mother, have pleaded not guilty.
Investigators said the children remained mostly confined to a small room in the house under deplorable conditions. The children weren’t enrolled in school, the family moved around over the past two decades, and neighbors said they’d never spotted the kids.
At the time they were found, the children ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years, with some described as “feral” and unable to speak. Authorities said their medical conditions varied.
The eldest was born in May 2008, two months after Gary Siders Jr., then 18, and Elizabeth, then 15, crossed into West Virginia to marry at the Mason County Courthouse with her parents’ consent, according to court records. She has been pregnant most years since then, the records show.
California
Surrogate asks Supreme Court to intervene over care for sick baby
A California couple’s surrogate who refused their wishes to have an abortion has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a custody dispute over the 4-week-old child who was born with a serious heart defect.
McKenna West filed the emergency order Wednesday, widening a legal battle over surrogacy and abortion that has won the support of Republican officeholders and anti-abortion groups. West, who lives in Alaska, traveled to Dallas to give birth in August. Most abortions are banned in Texas.
West is asking the nation’s highest court to halt a California court order that recognizes Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the parents of the child whom she calls Gabriel and they call Rumi. West wants final custody or conservatorship because she believes the couple will not provide life-saving care, citing their request for an abortion at 23 weeks.
The boy was born Aug. 12 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a life-threatening condition that prevents normal blood flow to the organ. He underwent surgery soon after he was born. The couple’s attorney said in August that the newborn was in critical condition and appeared to be “suffering from potential complications.”
Surrogacy is not regulated on a federal level. Each state has its own laws, which can leave room for gaps in interpretation. The Supreme Court is not obliged to hear the case.
West is barred from any contact with the baby
Ahmed and Gilkar have not responded to the Supreme Court filing and attorneys for the couple did not respond to phone or email requests for comment. They have previously said West violated the surrogacy contract, and obtained a restraining order preventing West from seeing or holding the child.
Gilkar called West unstable during a hearing Aug. 25 in Dallas, telling the court she was trying to take their baby away.
“He’s our child,” Gilkar said, wiping away tears.
West and her attorneys argue Gilkar and Ahmed are not committed to guaranteeing the baby will undergo surgeries or “life-saving care.”
Both sides were publicly silent after the hearing last month and the case file was sealed, but West’s Supreme Court filing says she lost her plea in Texas to win conservatorship of the child.
The Texas court granted full credit to the California judgment on Sept. 2, according to the filing.
West believes the baby’s life is in danger
“The stakes of the decisions below are enormous,” the document says, adding that West should be recognized as the mother under Texas law. “But because of the unlawful California judgment, she has been dismissed with prejudice from the Texas proceedings and denied any information about or control over the medically fragile child.”
West believes Ahmed and Gilkar plan to put the baby into hospice care in California rather than let him undergo surgery that could save his life, according to the filing.
Without treatment, hypoplastic left heart syndrome can lead to death within days or weeks. Surgical repairs are not necessarily cures and additional surgeries or heart transplants may be needed, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The couple has said they will not provide any updates to West about the child’s condition, the filing states.
Massachusetts
Judge accused of enabling immigrant to escape ICE gets a rare public reprimand
BOSTON (AP) — The highest court in Massachusetts on Thursday issued a public reprimand against a district court judge who was accused of allowing an immigrant to escape U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
The case dates back to 2018 when Judge Shelley Joseph was accused of colluding with the immigrant’s attorney and a court officer to allow him to escape out a back door of the courthouse after a hearing on charges that included drug possession.
The decision by the Supreme Judicial Court follows a recommendation for the reprimand by a hearing officer for the Commission on Judicial Conduct. It concluded that Joseph created the appearance of impropriety and failed to comply with the law.
“The respondent’s statements during that conversation, including her proposal to detain (the immigrant) overnight in State custody, and her conduct in instructing the clerk to turn off the court room audio recording system, created an appearance of impropriety in violation of her duties,” according to the Supreme Judicial Court ruling.
Joseph’s attorney, Elizabeth Mulvey, argued at the commission hearing last year that the case had been distorted over time and that everyone had come to believe that her client “let an illegal immigrant out of the door” with half the public believing she should be jailed and the other half calling her a “folk hero.”
Mulvey also argued that Joseph had been vilified in the media and people were giving the impression that “dozens of people” had seen Joseph “get off the bench, escort the defendant to the door, give him a hug and wish him God speed.”
On Thursday, Mulvey acknowledged that it had been an “incredibly long and difficult eight years for Judge Joseph.”
“We are grateful to the hearing officer who undertook this monumental task and pleased that his efforts have shown that this was a baseless federal prosecution from the beginning and solely the work of the defense lawyer involved,” Mulvey said in a statement. “Judge Joseph is thankful for everyone who stood by her and looks forward to rejoining her colleagues.”
The case is similar to that of a former Wisconsin judge who was convicted in December of felony obstruction for helping a man evade immigration authorities. The case has escalated a clash between the Trump administration and local authorities over the Republican president’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Last year, Hannah Dugan escorted a man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest. The man was taken into custody outside the courthouse after agents chased him on foot.
Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened “the independence of our judiciary.” Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, had urged authorities to “lock her up.”
Then in July, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman fined Dugan $5,000, describing the case as a situation where an otherwise good person, upset by immigration policies in this country, made a bad decision in the moment. She was spared prison time.
In the Massachusetts case, federal obstruction of justice charges against Joseph were dropped in 2022 after she agreed to refer herself to a state agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench.
That agency, the Commission on Judicial Conduct, concluded that Joseph “engaged in willful judicial misconduct that brought the judicial office into disrepute, as well as conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and unbecoming a judicial officer.”
Former hockey players at U-M sue, say they were sexually abused decades ago
DETROIT (AP) — More than a dozen former hockey players are suing the University of Michigan, alleging their coach and other staff were aware of sexual hazing that included the forced shaving of their genitals and other abuse by teammates decades ago.
“The abuse was ritualized, meticulously planned, and sadistic. ... Enduring sexual abuse was required to be a member of the Michigan Men’s Ice Hockey team,” attorney Michael Pitt said in a sex discrimination lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in Detroit.
The plaintiffs are 16 men who played at Michigan between 1984 and 2001. The lawsuit apparently grew out of conversations among several former teammates in 2024.
The university said the allegations are “disturbing,” but denies responsibility.
“To the extent any former student athlete engaged in hazing or other misconduct, they were violating university policy,” spokesperson Paul Corliss said in a written statement.
“The university first adopted an official anti-hazing policy in 1982. It was one of the first universities in the country to do so, and it has earned its standing as a leader in this area,” he said.
The 72-page document describes players being forced to consume excessive amounts of alcohol and eat live fish. A common allegation: They were forced to have hair around their genitals shaved by teammates. A player identified as John Doe 7 said he was taunted with a blowtorch while on a table.
The lawsuit says Red Berenson, who was coach from 1984 to 2017, was aware of the abuse and did not intervene.
John Doe 3 said he told Berenson that he didn’t want to participate in the hazing. The coach coerced him by telling him to be a “Michigan Man” and a “good teammate,” according to the lawsuit.
Berenson announced the end of “freshman hazing” in 2012, mostly referring to first-year players being forced to carry equipment and eat team meals last. He made no mention of physical abuse but acknowledged “captains that got too carried away,” according to news reports at the time.
Berenson, 86, declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.
“Give me a chance to absorb what’s going on,” the former NHL player said.
The university could argue that the hockey players waited too long to file a lawsuit, a position it took in 2020 when former athletes sued over sexual misconduct committed decades earlier by a campus sports doctor. The university ultimately agreed to pay $490 million to settle claims by more than 1,000 people.
Ohio
Man whose 16 grandchildren found living in filthy conditions is incompetent to stand trial
McARTHUR, Ohio (AP) — A man whose 16 grandchildren were discovered living in squalid conditions at a rural southern Ohio home was found mentally incompetent to stand trial Wednesday.
A judge in Vinton County accepted the findings of an evaluation report for Gary Siders Sr. Vinton County Prosecutor William Archer did not object to the findings.
The 73-year-old Siders appeared in court in a wheelchair. His attorney, Dorian Baum, said after the hearing that Siders’ mental health has been declining for years and is “not restorable.”
“It’s not really a surprise to any of us that he’s not been found competent at this point,” Baum said. “He doesn’t fully understand or appreciate what’s going on.”
Siders was charged with 16 counts of child endangerment related to the children, who were rescued June 30 from a home in Hamden about 80 miles (129 kilometers) south of Columbus.
Siders’ wife, Christina Siders; son Gary Siders Jr., and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Siders, the children’s mother, have pleaded not guilty.
Investigators said the children remained mostly confined to a small room in the house under deplorable conditions. The children weren’t enrolled in school, the family moved around over the past two decades, and neighbors said they’d never spotted the kids.
At the time they were found, the children ranged in age from 18 months to 18 years, with some described as “feral” and unable to speak. Authorities said their medical conditions varied.
The eldest was born in May 2008, two months after Gary Siders Jr., then 18, and Elizabeth, then 15, crossed into West Virginia to marry at the Mason County Courthouse with her parents’ consent, according to court records. She has been pregnant most years since then, the records show.
California
Surrogate asks Supreme Court to intervene over care for sick baby
A California couple’s surrogate who refused their wishes to have an abortion has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a custody dispute over the 4-week-old child who was born with a serious heart defect.
McKenna West filed the emergency order Wednesday, widening a legal battle over surrogacy and abortion that has won the support of Republican officeholders and anti-abortion groups. West, who lives in Alaska, traveled to Dallas to give birth in August. Most abortions are banned in Texas.
West is asking the nation’s highest court to halt a California court order that recognizes Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar as the parents of the child whom she calls Gabriel and they call Rumi. West wants final custody or conservatorship because she believes the couple will not provide life-saving care, citing their request for an abortion at 23 weeks.
The boy was born Aug. 12 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a life-threatening condition that prevents normal blood flow to the organ. He underwent surgery soon after he was born. The couple’s attorney said in August that the newborn was in critical condition and appeared to be “suffering from potential complications.”
Surrogacy is not regulated on a federal level. Each state has its own laws, which can leave room for gaps in interpretation. The Supreme Court is not obliged to hear the case.
West is barred from any contact with the baby
Ahmed and Gilkar have not responded to the Supreme Court filing and attorneys for the couple did not respond to phone or email requests for comment. They have previously said West violated the surrogacy contract, and obtained a restraining order preventing West from seeing or holding the child.
Gilkar called West unstable during a hearing Aug. 25 in Dallas, telling the court she was trying to take their baby away.
“He’s our child,” Gilkar said, wiping away tears.
West and her attorneys argue Gilkar and Ahmed are not committed to guaranteeing the baby will undergo surgeries or “life-saving care.”
Both sides were publicly silent after the hearing last month and the case file was sealed, but West’s Supreme Court filing says she lost her plea in Texas to win conservatorship of the child.
The Texas court granted full credit to the California judgment on Sept. 2, according to the filing.
West believes the baby’s life is in danger
“The stakes of the decisions below are enormous,” the document says, adding that West should be recognized as the mother under Texas law. “But because of the unlawful California judgment, she has been dismissed with prejudice from the Texas proceedings and denied any information about or control over the medically fragile child.”
West believes Ahmed and Gilkar plan to put the baby into hospice care in California rather than let him undergo surgery that could save his life, according to the filing.
Without treatment, hypoplastic left heart syndrome can lead to death within days or weeks. Surgical repairs are not necessarily cures and additional surgeries or heart transplants may be needed, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The couple has said they will not provide any updates to West about the child’s condition, the filing states.
Massachusetts
Judge accused of enabling immigrant to escape ICE gets a rare public reprimand
BOSTON (AP) — The highest court in Massachusetts on Thursday issued a public reprimand against a district court judge who was accused of allowing an immigrant to escape U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
The case dates back to 2018 when Judge Shelley Joseph was accused of colluding with the immigrant’s attorney and a court officer to allow him to escape out a back door of the courthouse after a hearing on charges that included drug possession.
The decision by the Supreme Judicial Court follows a recommendation for the reprimand by a hearing officer for the Commission on Judicial Conduct. It concluded that Joseph created the appearance of impropriety and failed to comply with the law.
“The respondent’s statements during that conversation, including her proposal to detain (the immigrant) overnight in State custody, and her conduct in instructing the clerk to turn off the court room audio recording system, created an appearance of impropriety in violation of her duties,” according to the Supreme Judicial Court ruling.
Joseph’s attorney, Elizabeth Mulvey, argued at the commission hearing last year that the case had been distorted over time and that everyone had come to believe that her client “let an illegal immigrant out of the door” with half the public believing she should be jailed and the other half calling her a “folk hero.”
Mulvey also argued that Joseph had been vilified in the media and people were giving the impression that “dozens of people” had seen Joseph “get off the bench, escort the defendant to the door, give him a hug and wish him God speed.”
On Thursday, Mulvey acknowledged that it had been an “incredibly long and difficult eight years for Judge Joseph.”
“We are grateful to the hearing officer who undertook this monumental task and pleased that his efforts have shown that this was a baseless federal prosecution from the beginning and solely the work of the defense lawyer involved,” Mulvey said in a statement. “Judge Joseph is thankful for everyone who stood by her and looks forward to rejoining her colleagues.”
The case is similar to that of a former Wisconsin judge who was convicted in December of felony obstruction for helping a man evade immigration authorities. The case has escalated a clash between the Trump administration and local authorities over the Republican president’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Last year, Hannah Dugan escorted a man and his lawyer out of her courtroom through the jury door after learning that immigration authorities were seeking his arrest. The man was taken into custody outside the courthouse after agents chased him on foot.
Dugan resigned the Milwaukee County circuit judgeship she had held for nine years in January amid threats of impeachment from Republican state lawmakers who labeled her an activist judge. In her resignation letter, she said her prosecution threatened “the independence of our judiciary.” Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor, had urged authorities to “lock her up.”
Then in July, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman fined Dugan $5,000, describing the case as a situation where an otherwise good person, upset by immigration policies in this country, made a bad decision in the moment. She was spared prison time.
In the Massachusetts case, federal obstruction of justice charges against Joseph were dropped in 2022 after she agreed to refer herself to a state agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by members of the bench.
That agency, the Commission on Judicial Conduct, concluded that Joseph “engaged in willful judicial misconduct that brought the judicial office into disrepute, as well as conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and unbecoming a judicial officer.”
