New York
Lawsuit alleges CIA got phone contents from Assange visitors
NEW YORK (AP) — Two lawyers and two journalists are suing the CIA, saying the agency violated their constitutional rights when it obtained copies of the contents of their electronic devices and helped enable the recording of their meetings with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the latter part of his seven-year stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
The plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages in a lawsuit filed Monday in Manhattan federal court.
New York lawyers Margaret Ratner Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, along with journalists John Goetz, who lives in Germany, and Charles Glass, who lives in England, alleged that the CIA got the information through a deal with UC Global, a private security company that was based in Spain and provided security at the embassy.
The lawsuit said they suffered considerable emotional distress and anxiety from the uncertainty and concerns about how their personal and privileged information was being used.
They said the illegal spying may have violated the rights of over 100 Americans who visited Assange at the embassy.
The CIA declined to comment.
Two years ago, two anonymous witnesses who worked for the Spanish firm that provided the embassy’s security testified at a London court that Assange faced an intensifying bugging operation from 2017 onwards after Donald Trump became U.S. president.
Assange, 51, lived in the embassy beginning in 2012 after seeking refuge there while fearing his potential extradition to the U.S. He was evicted in April 2019 and has been in a London prison since.
U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret American military documents a decade ago. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.
Assange’s lawyers say he is protected by the First Amendment for the publication of leaked documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. They also have said he suffers from wide-ranging mental health issues, including suicidal tendencies.
In June, the British government ordered Assange’s extradition to the U.S. He has appealed that ruling.
Assange’s lawyers have asked President Joe Biden to drop the charges against him.
Washington
Anti-psychotic drugs ordered for man charged with murder
RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — The man accused of fatally shooting a man inside Richland’s Fred Meyer store was ordered to take mental health medications.
Superior Court Judge Joe Burrowes ruled Tuesday that Eastern State Hospital can require Aaron Kelly, 40, to take the anti-psychotic Abilify to treat an unspecified schizophrenia spectrum or other psychotic disorder, Tri-City Herald reported.
The treatment is scheduled to last until late September when he will return to court to determine if he is competent to stand trial for murder and attempted murder.
If he has not improved, his treatment could be extended. Kelly objected to the ruling. He has refused any medications stronger than a multivitamin during his four months at the Medical Lake facility.
Kelly is accused of shooting two strangers on Feb. 7 — Instacart worker Justin Krumbah and Fred Meyer employee Mark Hill. Krumbah died in the store, and Hill was wounded three times but survived.
He was charged with murder and attempted murder. Legal proceedings have been on hold since Feb. 23 when defense attorneys asked to have his competency evaluated.
After months of waiting, psychologist Brooke England returned with an opinion that Kelly wasn’t mentally healthy enough to stand trial.
As part of the diagnosis, she said the hospital would need to administer medication. It still remains unclear why he doesn’t want medication, he argued that he has participated in other therapy since a June order was entered to restore his competency.
Pennsylvania
Kids-for-cash judges ordered to pay more than $200M
Two Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds of children who fell victim to their crimes.
U.S. District Judge Judge Christopher Conner awarded $106 million in compensatory damages and $100 million in punitive damages to nearly 300 plaintiffs in a long-running civil suit against the judges.
In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Mark Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.
Ciavarella ordered children as young as 8 to detention, many of them first-time offenders convicted of petty theft and other minor crimes. The judge often ordered youths he had found delinquent to be immediately shackled, handcuffed and taken away without giving them a chance to say goodbye to their families.
“Ciavarella and Conahan abandoned their oath and breached the public trust,” Conner wrote Tuesday in his explanation of the damages award. “Their cruel and despicable actions victimized a vulnerable population of young people, many of whom were suffering from emotional issues and mental health concerns.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out some 4,000 juvenile convictions after the scheme was uncovered.
Ciavarella is serving a 28-year prison sentence. Conahan, who was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, was released to home confinement in 2020 — with six years left on his sentence — because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Florida
Court: Parentless girl, 16, not ‘mature’ enough for abortion
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — An appellate court has upheld a lower court ruling that a parentless 16-year-old girl in the Florida Panhandle was not “sufficiently mature” to end her pregnancy while seeking a waiver from a state law that requires minors to get parental consent for an abortion.
The teen, known as Jane Doe 22-B in court papers, had told the lower court that she wasn’t ready to have a baby, didn’t have a job and the father was unable to assist her. She was pursuing a GED and living with a relative. The teen also told the lower court that her appointed guardian was “fine” with her decision to have an abortion.
But the juvenile court judge in Pensacola found that the teen didn’t adequately articulate her request. Judge Jennifer Frydrychowicz left open the option for re-evaluating her decision if the teen, who was 10 weeks pregnant at the time, could return to juvenile court to eliminate any lingering doubts, according to an order filed Monday from Florida’s First District Court of Appeal.
It was unclear when the lower court ruling took place. Juvenile records are not made public online.
The appeals court, in its decision, said it appeared the lower court anticipated a renewed application.
“Reading between the lines, it appears that the trial court wanted to give the minor, who was under extra stress due to a friend’s death, additional time to express a keener understanding of the consequences of terminating a pregnancy,” Judge Scott Makar wrote in the appellate court order. “This makes some sense given that the minor, at least at one point, says she was open to having a child, but later changed her view after considering her inability to care for a child in her current station in life.”
Florida law bars abortions after 15 weeks, under a new law passed ahead of the overturning of Roe v Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court. The new ban after 15 weeks, down from 24 weeks previously, is being challenged on state constitutional grounds.
Under Florida’s “Parental Notice of and Consent for Abortion Act,” physicians must get written consent from a parent or legal guardian before performing an abortion on a minor. Exceptions are made in medical emergencies or with a waiver from the parents or guardian.
Minnesota
Pakistani doctor pleads guilty to terror charge
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Pakistani doctor and former Mayo Clinic research coordinator pleaded guilty Tuesday to a terrorism charge, more than two years after he was arrested for telling paid FBI informants that he pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State group and that he wanted to carry out lone wolf attacks in the U.S.
According to online court records, Muhammad Masood pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. A sentencing date has not been set.
Prosecutors say Masood was in the U.S. on a work visa. They alleged that starting in January of 2020, Masood made several statements to paid informants — whom he believed were members of the Islamic State group — pledging his allegiance to the group and its leader.
Prosecutors said Masood expressed his desire to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS and a desire to carry out lone wolf attacks in the U.S.
The Mayo Clinic has previously confirmed that Masood was a former employee at the medical center in Rochester, Minnesota, but was not employed by the clinic at the time of his arrest.
Illinois
Man guilty in Christmas Day slayings of wife, son, neighbor
PONTIAC, Ill. (AP) — A central Illinois jury found a man guilty Tuesday of killing his wife, son and neighbor on Christmas Day 2019.
The Livingston County jury convicted Clifford Brewer, 55, of Cullom, of murder in the three slayings. returning the verdicts a few hours after receiving the case.
Brewer told police he woke up to find his wife, Shirley Brewer, 48; his son, Christian Brewer, 27; and his neighbor, Norman Walker, 51, dead in his home. They were all found with single gunshot wounds to their heads.
Prosecutors described Brewer’s deteriorating relationship with his wife and his desire for a divorce.
Walker was invited to the house by Shirley Brewer, and the two drank and played loud music in an upstairs bedroom, court documents said. Clifford Brewer told police he fell asleep and a few hours later, discovered the bodies and a gun near his wife’s body.
Prosecutors said the Brewers’ washing machine was running when officers arrived at the scene, and it was set to sanitize on extra high heat. A raincoat, hat, blanket and pair of slippers were later removed from the washing machine.
The defense argued Shirley Brewer was responsible for her son’s and Norman Walker’s death before a struggle between her and Clifford led to her death.
Brewer could be sentenced to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Cullum is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Chicago.
