National Roundup

South Carolina
Man who killed roommates, fled to Connecticut, sentenced
AIKEN, S.C. (AP) —  A South  Carolina man who admitted to killing his roommates and fleeing to Connecticut in their car will spend 50 years in prison.

Jeremie Tobey was sentenced Monday for the shooting deaths of Cody Diminovich, 25, and Pamela Lawson, 38, news outlets reported.

Tobey’s relatives helped authorities capture him in Connecticut days after the killings, Aiken Standard reported. He had family in the state and had checked into a hospital there, said Ashley Hammack of the Second Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

The shooting  happened inside a home in Aiken in January 2018. Lawson and her boyfriend, Diminovich, had been living there with Lawson’s 14-year-old son, according to the newspaper.

The 14-year-old told authorities he heard the shooting and then saw Tobey leave the home in Lawson’s car with multiple guns that had belonged to the couple, according to the newspaper.

Tobey said he tossed one gun out of the car in South Carolina, put another gun in a dumpster in North Carolina and threw the third gun out of the car in Connecticut, according to law enforcement. Authorities were only able to locate the gun thrown out in Connecticut, the Standard reported.

The 14-year-old said Tobey had recently moved in with the trio. After the shooting, Tobey told officers he shot the couple because he was still mad after an argument with Lawson.

Tobey pleaded guilty to two counts of murder. He was sentenced to 50 years on each count to be served concurrently.

Kansas
District to pay $165K to settle student’s sex crimes suit
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has approved a $165,000 settlement between a large suburban Kansas City school district and a student who was sexually assaulted by a middle school classmate.

The Shawnee Mission School District in Johnson County, Kansas, agreed to settle  in September, but the amount wasn’t disclosed until it was approved this week.

The lawsuit alleged that school officials didn’t act when a male student was repeatedly accused of sexual offenses before he assaulted the victim in 2017 in an eighth-grade study hall at Westridge Middle School.

The district says in court documents that it was investigating the reports of unwanted advances when it learned about the assault. The student then was expelled, and the school resource officer filed a police report.

The boy was convicted later that year of three counts of battery and one count of aggravated liberties with a child.


North Dakota
Court halts online access to documents over privacy concerns
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Supreme Court has suspended newly expanded online access to court documents after dozens of people complained about the potential loss of privacy.

In September, the high court changed its system to begin allowing online access to spare people the burden of having to go to a courthouse to request records. The change took effect Jan. 1.

State Supreme Court Justice Jon Jensen, who is now chief justice, had told The Bismarck Tribune  the rule change was in line with national state court groups’ best practices to eliminate physical barriers to public court documents. But State Court Administrator Sally Holewa said Tuesday that remote access remote access is “on hold while we evaluate the situation.”

More documents than expected don’t comply with a 2009 privacy rule for redacting information such as Social Security numbers, birth dates, minors’ names and financial account numbers. It is the filer’s responsibility to follow the rule, Holewa said.

“As far as protecting private information, out of an abundance of prudence, we want to take a step back, try to evaluate where we’re at, try to look where we can go in the future,” Holewa said. She said the court remains “very much committed to removing these artificial barriers” to public documents.

“If something’s public, we shouldn’t have artificial barriers that say we’re going to make it really uncomfortable for you to go get something you’re entitled to,” Holewa told the Tribune. “We’re still looking at the right balance and how do we achieve that.”

Louisiana
FBI: Police arrest man who robbed 2 banks
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana man accused of trying to rob  two banks in one day and fleeing the scenes on a bicycle has been arrested, according to a release from the FBI New Orleans Field Office.

Bernell Breaux, 57, was booked into the St. Bernard Parish jail Monday on two counts of bank robbery.

Breaux was accused of entering the Gulf Coast Bank and Trust Company on Thursday and brandishing a gun. He handed a teller a note demanding cash before bicycling away empty handed, according to an FBI statement. He entered a Capital One Bank about 30 minutes later, brandished the gun again and presented a note demanding money. He then fled on the bicycle with just over $300 in cash.

Tennessee
U.S. judge rules survivors can sue over deadly fire
GATLINBURG, Tenn. (AP) — Survivors of a historically deadly Tennessee wildfire that killed 14 people can sue the National Park Service for failing to warn them of the danger, a federal judge has ruled.

The fire began in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg over Thanksgiving week in 2016. Greg Salansky, the park’s fire management officer, decided to try to contain the fire rather than attack it directly despite forecasts of high winds and dry conditions.

The blaze ultimately left more than a dozen people dead, damaged more than 2,500 homes and caused an estimated $2 billion in losses.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which is representing the Park Service, has argued that citizens don’t have the legal right to challenge how government workers chose to handle the fire because those decisions are “discretionary.” But the survivors’ attorney, Gordon Ball, argued the Park Service’s own fire management plan required Salansky to notify local leaders and those living nearby about the blaze. He argues Salansky didn’t do this, and instead announced the fires posed “no immediate threat” to the community.

Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips agreed with Ball, ruling the Park Service’s own plan made warning residents and leaders mandatory, not discretionary. Victims can sue on the grounds that the Park Service is liable for failing to warn them, Phillips ruled.