FLORIDA
Sergeant fired in school shooting response to get job and pay back
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida sheriff's sergeant fired because he sat in a parked car during a 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School will get his job back along with back pay, according to a statement from the union that represents deputies.
The arbitrator dismissed the case against Brian Miller after finding that his due process rights were violated when Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony terminated him, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.
Miller earned around $137,000 a year in 2018.
A former student gunned down 17 people and injured 17 others when he entered the Parkland, Florida, school on Valentine's Day with an assault-style rifle. He is currently awaiting trial in Broward County.
On the day of the shooting, the deputy assigned to the high school, Scot Peterson, took cover while the gunman was inside the building shooting students, an investigation found. He was later fired and charged with multiple counts of child neglect.
The shooting exposed widespread failures at the sheriff's office, and eventually led to the ouster of Sheriff Scott Israel.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced Israel with Tony, who fired Miller and deputies Joshua Stambaugh and Edward Eason.
Miller was the first supervisor on the scene of the shooting, arriving in time to hear three or four shots, records show. A state commission assembled to investigate the shooting found that Miller took his time putting on a bulletproof vest and hid behind his car.
"Miller failed to coordinate or direct deputies' actions and did not direct or coordinate an immediate response into the school," a report from the commission said.
LOUISIANA
Court: Suit against LSU in frat pledge's death can continue
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal appeals court said the parents of a Louisiana State University freshman who died during a hazing ritual can pursue a lawsuit that accuses the university of committing sexual discrimination when disciplining sororities and fraternities.
Stephen and Rae Ann Gruver filed a lawsuit in 2018 on behalf of their son Maxwell Gruver, who died from alcohol poisoning after a Phi Delta Theta fraternity party.
The university claimed sovereign immunity seeking to nullify the suit but on Tuesday the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that because LSU accepts federal funding, it waives immunity from lawsuits claiming sexual discrimination, The Advocate reported.
The lawsuit, which seeks $25 million, alleges that LSU responded with "deliberate indifference" to allegations of hazing at fraternities. It also said Phi Delta has "a long history of dangerous misconduct at universities across the country."
The suit said LSU committed discriminatory disciplinary actions by policing sorority hazing incidents stricter than fraternity hazing. It said the university committed intentional discrimination that forces males to seek benefits of Greek life with greater risk of injury, the newspaper reported.
LSU did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Max Gruver, from the Atlanta suburb of Roswell, Georgia, had been at LSU for a month when he died of alcohol poisoning in 2017.
Matthew Naquin, 21, of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas was convicted of negligent homicide and sentenced in November 2019 to five years in prison, but a judge suspended all but 2½ years.
Witnesses said Naquin didn't like Gruver and singled him out during a hazing ritual at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house. Naquin ordered Gruver to chug a bottle of 190-proof liquor in September 2017. Gruver died the following morning. His blood-alcohol level was 0.495%, which is more than six times the legal limit to drive in Louisiana.
Phi Delta Theta is banned from the LSU campus until at least 2033 as a result of the events leading to Gruver's death.
GEORGIA
DOJ: Reality star spent emergency loan on Rolex, Rolls Royce
ATLANTA (AP) — A reality TV star in Atlanta used an emergency loan from the federal government to lease a Rolls Royce, make child support payments and purchase $85,000 worth of jewelry, authorities said Wednesday.
Maurice Fayne, who goes by Arkansas Mo on the VH1 show "Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta," was arrested Monday on a charge of bank fraud, the Department of Justice said in a news release.
Fayne, 37, is the sole owner of transportation business Flame Trucking and in April he applied for a loan that the federal government was offering to small businesses decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. In his application, Fayne stated his business employed 107 employees with an an average monthly payroll of $1,490,200, the release said.
Fayne requested a Paycheck Protection Program loan for over $3 million and received a little over $2 million, officials said.
He used more than $1.5 million of the loan to purchase jewelry, including a Rolex Presidential watch and a 5.73 carat diamond ring, the release said. Fayne also leased a 2019 Rolls Royce Wraith and paid $40,000 in child support.
"At a time when small businesses are struggling for survival, we cannot tolerate anyone driven by personal greed, who misdirects federal emergency assistance earmarked for keeping businesses afloat," said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta.
When he met with investigators last week, Fayne denied spending the loan on anything besides payroll and business expenses. But on Monday, federal agents searched Fayne's home and seized the jewelry and around $80,000 in cash, including $9,400 Fayne had in his pockets, the release said.
It's unclear whether Fayne had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Fayne appeared on several episodes of "Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta" as the love interest of Karlie Redd, a longtime cast member, news outlets reported.
