New York
Judge: Trump must sit for deposition in defamation suit
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump will have to sit for a deposition next week in a defamation lawsuit filed by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s, a judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers that the planned testimony be delayed. The deposition is now scheduled for Oct. 19.
The decision came in a lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, who says Trump raped her in an upscale Manhattan department store’s dressing room. Trump has denied it. Carroll is scheduled to be deposed Friday.
A lawyer for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump’s legal team has tried various legal tactics to delay the lawsuit and prevent him from being questioned by Carroll’s attorneys, but Kaplan wrote that it was time to move forward.
“The defendant should not be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong,” he wrote.
Carroll’s lawsuit claims that Trump damaged her reputation in 2019 when he denied raping her. Trump’s legal team has been trying to squash the suit by arguing that the Republican was just doing his job as president when he denied the allegations.
That’s a key question because if Trump was acting within the scope of his duties as a federal employee, the U.S. government would become the defendant in the case.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a split decision last month that Trump was a federal employee when he commented on Carroll’s claims. But asked another court in Washington to decide whether Trump’s public statements occurred during the scope of his employment.
Kaplan said Trump has repeatedly tried to delay the collection of evidence in the lawsuit.
“Given his conduct so far in this case, Mr. Trump’s position regarding the burdens of discovery is inexcusable,” he wrote. “As this Court previously has observed, Mr. Trump has litigated this case since it began in 2019 with the effect and probably the purpose of delaying it.”
Ohio
Court to hear birth certificate gender correction case
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case in which a probate judge rejected a transgender woman’s request to correct her birth certificate, leading to a split in court rulings and guidance on the issue.
Attorneys for the Clark County woman argue the judge’s ruling, upheld by the 2nd Ohio District Court of Appeals, runs counter to a federal court decision, an Ohio Department of Health certificate change process, a Supreme Court probate form allowing for gender corrections, and procedures in more than a dozen other Ohio probate courts.
The Clark County judge improperly ruled that nothing in state law gives probate judges authority to correct gender on a birth certificate unless it was originally made in error, according to an Aug. 1 court filing by the woman’s attorneys asking the high court to hear the case.
The attorneys also noted that the state Health Department updated its process to allow for birth certificate corrections after a federal court in 2020 found unconstitutional Ohio’s rule prohibiting changes to gender on birth certificates.
In addition, the state Supreme Court issued a form in August 2021 allowing probate courts to correct gender under state law, the attorneys said.
The Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Tuesday to accept the Clark County case.
Montana
U.S. sued for pollution from retardant drops on wildfires
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — An environmental group filed a lawsuit Tuesday against U.S. Forest Service officials that alleges they polluted waterways during their campaigns against wildfires by inadvertently dropping large volumes of chemical flame retardant into streams.
Government data released earlier this year found aircraft operated or contracted by the Forest Service dropped more than 760,000 gallons (3.5 million liters) of fire retardant directly onto streams and other waterways between 2012 and 2019.
The main ingredients in fire retardant are inorganic fertilizers and salts that can be harmful to some fish, frogs, crustaceans and other aquatic species.
The lawsuit alleges the continued use of retardant from aircraft violates the Clean Water Act.
It requests a judge to declare the pollution illegal, and was filed in U.S. District Court in Montana by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.
“It’s simply too toxic at the levels used fighting fires,” said Andy Stahl, the Eugene Oregon-based group’s executive director.
Forest Service officials in recent years have sought to avoid polluting streams during their fights against wildfires by imposing buffer zones around waterways where drops are restricted. Under a 2011 government decision, fire retardant may only be applied in designated “avoidance areas” where human life or public safety is threatened and retardant could help.
Officials in February proposed continuing the aerial retardant program with minor changes. A final decision is pending.
A government study accompanying the proposal determined that misapplied retardant landing n avoidance areas was likely to adversely affect dozens of imperiled species, including crawfish, spotted owls and fish such as shiners and suckers. The study was done in response to new data about retardant that’s misapplied, changes in the status of some affected species and changes in avoidance areas.
Forest Service spokesperson Wade Muehlhof said it was agency practice not to comment on active litigation.
Maine
Worker charged with taking dozens of checks from ex-employer
WESTBROOK, Maine (AP) — A former administrative assistant in Maine faces four charges of wire fraud after authorities charged her with stealing more than $400,000 from her employer by depositing more than 200 checks into her own account.
The worker, who is a former employee of a Westbrook engineering firm, is charged with intercepting checks the firm had written to vendors and received from clients, the Bangor Daily News reported on Wednesday.
An FBI affidavit states the worker stole the checks between April 2018 and September 2021. Several vendors contacted the engineering firm about unpaid bills.
The worker was released from custody on Oct. 6. An attorney for the worker declined to comment.
