Court Digest

Alaska
Federal appeals court rejects Alaska offshore drilling plan
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal court blocked an Alaska offshore drilling prospect, while the Trump administration announced plans to auction drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain.

An appeals court on Monday overturned approval for the Liberty Project, a Hilcorp Alaska LLC offshore drilling prospect located in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska Public Media reported.

The government granted the Liberty Project approval in Oct. 2018 to become the first oil and gas production well in federal Arctic waters.

But the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday agreed with environmental groups that said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management review was inadequate.

The judges said the agency should have quantified the well’s greenhouse gas emissions, including the impact of oil produced and sent overseas.

They also faulted the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for not estimating the non-lethal impact drilling would have on polar bears.

Hilcorp became the sole owner of Liberty Project after purchasing BP’s oil and gas production assets in Alaska earlier this year.

Separately, the government released a document Monday detailing terms of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge sale set for Jan. 6 and the timeline for drilling rights bids, Alaska’s Energy Desk reported.

The document said oil companies and other interested parties can bid on tracts covering the nearly 2,500 square miles (6,475 square kilometers) of the coastal plain owned by the federal government.

Supporters including Alaska’s Congressional delegation have said the auction is good for jobs and the economy. Conservation groups and some tribal groups raised concerns about impacts to wildlife, the climate and Indigenous people.

The federal government on Monday also announced plans to consider a request from the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation to conduct seismic testing in the coastal plain as early as Jan. 21.

The proposal would allow the “harassment” of up to three polar bears that could occur during the seismic exploration program, including possible disruption to migration, breathing, nursing, breeding, feeding or sheltering.

Environmental groups criticized the proposal.

Washington
Police settle wrongful-death lawsuit for $1.5M
SEATTLE (AP) — The City of Seattle will pay the family of Che Taylor $1.5 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed after two police officers shot and killed Taylor outside a Wedgwood neighborhood home.

A federal judge two months ago ordered the case to trial, after evidence raised questions about whether Taylor was actually armed when he was shot, The Seattle Times reported.

The police department found the Feb. 21, 2016 shooting fell within department policy and King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg declined to file criminal charges against Michael Spaulding and Todd Miller, saying the officers had perceived their lives were in danger as they tried to arrest Taylor for being a felon in unlawful possession of a handgun.

An inquest jury also found the two white officers believed Taylor, who was Black, posed a threat of death or serious injury when he was shot.

Taylor’s family has publicly criticized the police and prosecutor and has since successfully backed efforts to change both the inquest process and the state’s deadly-force law.

The two officers were conducting an undercover operation in search of another man when Taylor arrived in a car, according to police and testimony at the inquest hearing into Taylor’s death.

Spaulding and Miller said they recognized the 47-year-old Taylor as a felon and career criminal with convictions for rape and robbery. As a felon, he was barred from having a gun, but Miller told Spaulding he saw a handgun in a holster on Taylor’s hip when Taylor exited the car.

However, a ruling in September issued by U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly noted the officers said they lost track of Taylor for as long as a half-hour before seeing him return to the area, riding in the front seat of another car. As Taylor exited that vehicle, the two officers — Miller armed with a shotgun and Spaulding with a rifle — approached and ordered Taylor to show his hands and get on the ground, according to the court file.

According to Zilly’s ruling, five seconds elapsed from when the officers first approached Taylor to when the fatal shots were fired. Both officers said they believed they saw Taylor reaching for a gun on his hip, where they had seen the holster.

However, the only weapon found was under the passenger seat of the car Taylor had exited, beneath debris, making it difficult to grab, the judge concluded.

“The key issue is whether the officers involved had probable cause to believe Taylor had a gun at the time” they shot him, Zilly said. Taylor’s lawyers had contended the officers were acting on “stale” information and that their probable cause was dated. Zilly found that argument compelling.

But before setting a trial date, the judge urged the parties into mediation, where the settlement was reached last week, according to the court document and James Bible, one of Taylor’s attorneys. According to the settlement, $500,000 will go to Taylor’s mother, Joyce Dorsey, with the remaining $1 million split between his son and young daughter.

Che Taylor’s sister, DeVitta Briscoe, the named executor of his estate, said Monday that the family was pleased with the settlement, which assures Taylor’s family will be taken care of.

Andre Taylor said his brother’s death had an impact on police accountability, and while the settlement agreement says the city is not admitting liability, he said that the $1.5 million “seems like an admission of guilt to me.”

Florida
State court to hear appeal from  killer of young girl
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Supreme Court will hear an appeal Wednesday from a man convicted of abducting, raping and murdering an 8-year-old girl he lured with promises to buy her impoverished family food and clothing.

Donald Smith was sentenced to death in 2018 for the murder of Cherish Perrywinkle. The jury took less than 15 minutes to convict the now 64-year-old Smith and unanimously recommended that he be executed for the crimes.

Perrywinkle was abducted from a Walmart in Jacksonville in 2013 after Smith, who had befriended the girl’s mother, promised to buy cheeseburgers for her family. The child’s body was later found in a nearby creek.

Smith’s attorney said the trial should have been moved out of Duval County due to heavy media publicity and said the judge made a mistake denying the defense’s change of venue request.

But state prosecutors noted there were four years between the crime and the jury selection, as well as a pool of hundreds of thousands of eligible jurors to choose from.

Smith’s appeal also argues that graphic autopsy photos of the little girl should not have been allowed during trial and only served to shock the jury.

During Smith’s sentencing phase, experts testified that he is a psychopath who lacks control over his impulses. Doctors also described Smith as callous, uncaring, manipulative and lacking empathy.

The appeal has outraged some of the jurors that found Smith guilty.

“It angers me because I felt like when we went through our trial like I said, I thought it was a done deal,” juror Juanita Klasel told News4Jax.

The girl’s mother Rayne Perrywinkle said in a statement that taxpayers shouldn’t bear the responsibility of paying for life in prison.

“He is where he needs to be. He needs to stay there until he’s executed,” she said. “Death should mean death. Not a life sentence.”

New Mexico
State seeks court’s protection from business lawsuits
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s governor and top health officials are trying to fend off a flurry of lawsuits by businesses owners who say financial losses caused by the state’s pandemic health orders amount to a regulatory taking and should be compensated.

In a Monday night court filing, the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham urged the state Supreme Court to intervene and defuse the lawsuits.

“Under well-established law, harms caused by the exercise of the state’s police power to protect public health are not compensable,” attorneys for the governor’s office and the state attorney general’s wrote.

Oral arguments are scheduled in January as the Supreme Court weighs the fate of at least 14 lawsuits filed in district court that describe the pandemic-related health orders as a regulatory “taking” that merits just compensation to businesses under provisions of the state Constitution and health-emergency statutes.

The original lawsuits were filed by businesses running the gamut from an oxygen healing bar in downtown Santa Fe to a florist in Farmington and an auction house in rural Portales that have been adversely affected by the state’s pandemic response.

“This specter of liability would hobble the State’s ability to take emergency action — whether destroying a burning building or prohibiting activity known to spread a pandemic — that is necessary to protect health and safety,” the governor’s office stated. A reply brief from businesses is due in late December.

In an August ruling, the state Supreme Court has upheld the authority of the state health secretary to restrict or close businesses because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In that decision, the high court rejected assertions by the restaurant industry that a ban on indoor dining service was arbitrary and capricious. It invoked recent statements by U.S Chief Justice John Roberts that the judiciary should not normally second-guess decisions regarding health emergencies.

The state’s public health orders have evolved dramatically in recent months amid a major surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths since October. A $320 million aid package was approved by lawmakers in November that provides grants to small businesses, underwritten by federal relief funds. That comes on top of more than $75 million in federally sponsored small-business aid that is being funneled through local governments this year.

On Dec. 2, the state shifted to a county-by-county system for reopening the businesses and relaxing restrictions on public gatherings. Lujan Grisham says that color-coded rating system provides incentives for local businesses and communities to limit their exposure to the disease.

Missouri
Suspect in Chinese wife’s disappearance denied bond
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Columbia man charged with killing his Chinese wife, who has been missing for more than a year, will remain in jail without bond, a judge ruled Monday.

Joseph Elledge, 25, has been held without bond since being charged last year  with first-degree murder in the death of Mengqi Ji, who hasn’t been since since October 2019. He is also charged with abusing the couple’s young daughter. He has pleaded not guilty.

Elledge’s attorney, Scott Rosenblum, requested a $750,000 bond. He argued that his client is not a risk to the public and has no prior criminal record, The Columbia Missourian reported.

Boone County Prosecutor Dan Knight argued against bond. He said Elledge is a “narcissist” who was “horribly abusive” to Ji. He also said he will prove that Elledge killed his wife, even though her body has not been found.

Knight said the murder case could go to trial in April or May next year. The defense and prosecution agreed it should be tried before the domestic assault and child abuse cases filed in October 2019.

Boone County Circuit Court Judge Brouck Jacobs denied the request for setting bond. He set a status hearing in Elledge’s first-degree murder case for Jan. 15.


Indiana
Man gets 43 years for shooting 5 at Legion post
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — A southwestern Indiana man convicted of shooting five people last year outside an American Legion post has been sentenced to 43 years in prison for the attack.

Keymo Johnson, 38, was sentenced Monday in the shooting, which authorities said came shortly after the Evansville man got into a fight with one of the later shooting victims inside the American Legion post’s bar, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.

A Vanderburgh County jury convicted Johnson in November on six felony counts, including aggravated battery and battery by means of a deadly weapon, and two misdemeanors in the shooting early on Oct. 6, 2019, at the legion hall near downtown Evansville.

Prosecutors said Johnson was told to leave the Legion post’s bar after he got into a fight with one of the people he later shot. He was in the post’s parking lot when that person exited the bar with several others and Johnson allegedly drew a gun from his waistband and began firing.

Five people were wounded, with three of them suffering serious injuries. The two others had minor injuries and refused medical care.