Utah’s system of handling mentally ill criminal defendants appears to be failing, a federal judge said in allowing a civil rights lawsuit to proceed against the state. Because of a persistent backlog at the Utah State Hospital, people judged to be mentally incompetent to stand trail are stacked up in county jails awaiting treatment to restore their competency, the Disability …
Jefferson County leaders call Lowe’s a good corporate citizen, but they are lining up to oppose a lawsuit filed by the home improvement store to lower their tax rate. “We were expecting this to happen. We were expecting them to file a lawsuit,” said Tony Petelos, the Jefferson …
Circuit Judge Steven Ohmer on Monday set a March 27 trial date for a civil lawsuit in which a Lincoln County teenager and her family accused St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson of knowing a priest was a danger to children before the cleric was charged with molesting the teen in 2012. The lawsuit was filed the following year in Lincoln County by the girl’s parents against Carlson and …
COLUMBIA — The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday that Ryan Ferguson’s $100 million lawsuit against six people in the Columbia Police Department should not go forward because the defendants have qualified immunity. Ferguson was convicted for the murder of Columbia Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt in 2005. He spent nearly 10 years of his 40-year sentence behind …
The State of Oregon has filed lawsuits against people it says were responsible for starting two forest fires. The state filed one lawsuit against a man who is accused of napping while his campfire sparked a 200-acre Southern Oregon blaze, according to the Oregonian/OregonLive. In that case filed against Joe Thurmond Askins, his wife and step-daughter, the state is seeking almost …
Yanicka Parker, a Florida woman, was a longtime employee of the Broward County Clerk of Courts. She worked there for 12 years until she says she was suddenly fired when she told her bosses she wouldn’t issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. She’s has now filed a federal lawsuit against Howard C. Forman, the Clerk of Courts for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County, Florida.
A federal lawsuit claims Georgia’s voter registration process violates the Voting Rights Act and has prevented tens of thousands of people from being able to register to vote – many of them minorities. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in Gainesville says a state policy causes voter registration applications to be rejected if the submitted information doesn’t exactly match that in …
Madison County government is a unique place, maybe the only set of offices in the nation where there’s no jealousy, no backbiting, no water-cooler rumors and no intrigue. Amazing for a place that at its foundation is political, right? The county’s standing as a “no gossip zone” is the only conclusion one can reach based on the fact that no one claims to have known what corrupt, disgraced and …
A woman who worked as Multnomah County’s wellness manager is suing her former employer on allegations she was fired after she raised questions about fiscal mismanagement. Tanya Barham’s lawsuit seeks $600,000 on claims of gender discrimination and whistleblower retaliation, among others, arguing Barham suffered anxiety, pain and distress over losing her job. According to the suit, Barham and …
MANY QUESTIONS. RAMONE COLEMAN WAS AN APARTMENT AWAY FROM THE ARMED STANDOFF BALTIMORE COUNTY OFFICERS LAST MONTH. IT STARTED WHEN POLICE KICKED IN GAINES’ DOOR TO SERVE WARRANTS.