Washington
Judge orders Meta to pay $10.5M in legal fees to state
SEATTLE (AP) — Facebook parent company Meta has been ordered to pay $10.5 million in legal fees to Washington state atop a nearly $25 million fine for repeated and intentional violations of campaign finance disclosure laws.
King County Superior Court Judge Douglass North issued the legal-fee order Friday, two days after he hit the social media giant with what is believed to be the largest campaign finance fine in U.S. history, The Seattle Times reported.
North ordered the company to pay by wire transfer, check or money order within 30 days. The money is to go to the state Public Disclosure Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws.
North imposed the maximum fine allowed for more than 800 violations of Washington’s Fair Campaign Practices Act, passed by voters in 1972 and later strengthened by the Legislature. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson argued that the maximum was appropriate considering his office previously sued Facebook in 2018 for violating the same law.
Meta, based in Menlo Park, California, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, the newspaper reported.
The company previously said it was assessing its options with respect to the ruling.
Washington’s transparency law requires ad sellers such as Meta to keep and make public the names and addresses of those who buy political ads, the target of such ads, how the ads were paid for and the total number of views of each ad. Ad sellers must provide the information to anyone who requests it. Television stations and newspapers have complied with the law for decades.
But Meta has repeatedly objected to the requirements, arguing unsuccessfully in court that the law is unconstitutional because it “unduly burdens political speech” and is “virtually impossible to fully comply with.” While Facebook does keep an archive of political ads that run on the platform, the archive does not disclose all the information required under Washington’s law.
In 2018, following Ferguson’s first lawsuit, Facebook agreed to pay $238,000 and committed to transparency in campaign finance and political advertising. It subsequently said it would stop selling political ads in the state rather than comply with the requirements.
Nevertheless, the company continued selling political ads, and Ferguson sued again in 2020.
Meta, one of the world’s wealthiest companies, reported quarterly earnings Wednesday of $4.4 billion, or $1.64 per share, on revenue of nearly $28 billion, in the three month period that ended Sept. 30.
California
DNA evidence frees man imprisoned for decades
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man who spent more than 38 years behind bars for a 1983 murder and two attempted murders has been released from a California prison after long-untested DNA evidence pointed to a different person, the Los Angeles County district attorney said Friday.
The conviction of Maurice Hastings, 69, and a life sentence were vacated during an Oct. 20 court hearing at the request of prosecutors and his lawyers from the Los Angeles Innocence Project at California State University, Los Angeles.
“I prayed for many years that this day would come,” Hastings said at a news conference Friday, adding: “I am not pointing fingers; I am not standing up here a bitter man, but I just want to enjoy my life now while I have it.”
“What has happened to Mr. Hastings is a terrible injustice,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “The justice system is not perfect, and when we learn of new evidence which causes us to lose confidence in a conviction, it is our obligation to act swiftly.”
The victim in the case, Roberta Wydermyer, was sexually assaulted and killed by a single gunshot to the head, authorities said. Her body was found in the trunk of her vehicle in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood.
Hastings was charged with special-circumstance murder and the district attorney’s office sought the death penalty but the jury deadlocked. A second jury convicted him and he was sentenced in 1988 to life in prison without possibility of parole.
Hastings has maintained he was innocent since the time of his arrest.
At the time of the victim’s autopsy, the coroner conducted a sexual assault examination and semen was detected in an oral swab, the district attorney’s statement said.
Hastings sought DNA testing in 2000 but at that time the DA’s office denied the request. Hastings submitted a claim of innocence to the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit last year and DNA testing last June found that the semen was not his.
The DNA profile was put into a state database this month and was matched to a person who was convicted of an armed kidnapping in which a female victim was placed in a vehicle’s trunk as well as the forced oral copulation of a woman.
That suspect, whose name was not released, died in prison in 2020.
The district attorney’s office said it is working with police to further investigate the involvement of the dead person in the case.
New Jersey
Jurors: Police didn’t violate rights of man who died
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A federal court jury has decided that New Jersey police did not violate the civil rights of a man who died shortly after a physical altercation during his arrest 7 1/2 years ago.
After a trial, jurors in federal court in Camden sided with the city Oct. 19 in a lawsuit filed by relatives of 32-year-old Vineland resident Phillip White, according to court records.
Officers had responded in March 2015 to reports of a man “freaking out” on the street and eventually subdued White after a struggle captured on video by a bystander. The video showed an officer hitting White and a police dog being used during the arrest.
White died on the way to the hospital, and an autopsy cited a toxic level of the drug Phencyclidine, or PCP, in his system. Injuries from the K9’s actions were noted but deemed superficial by a medical examiner.
Cumberland County prosecutors said in 2016 that a grand jury had declined to indict the two Vineland officers involved. White’s relatives filed a $10 million lawsuit against the city and the two officers, one of whom was later dismissed as a defendant.
“We believe very strongly in our client and our client’s cause, but the jury didn’t see it that way,” said Michael Galpern, an attorney for White’s mother, Pamela, told NJ Advance Media for NJ.com. He said the defense was considering whether to appeal.
An attorney for Vineland and its police department declined comment, NJ.com reported.
Arizona
Man convicted in clash over school COVID mandates
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A Tucson man who showed up at an elementary school with zip ties and threatened to arrest the principal over COVID-19 quarantine measures has been convicted of several misdemeanor offenses.
Kelly Walker was found guilty Wednesday in Tucson City Court of two charges of disrupting an educational institution, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
He was also found guilty of intentionally or knowingly remaining on property of an educational instruction so as to interfere with its lawful use, refusing to obey lawful order to leave educational property and disorderly conduct.
Walker will be sentenced Nov. 17.
A second man involved in the September 2021 incident, Frank Tainatongo, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of criminal trespassing, Vail Unified School District Superintendent John Carruth said. Online Tucson City Court records show Tainatongo paid $250 in fines Friday. He did not have any children enrolled in the school district either, Carruth said.
Walker, Tainatongo and a father of a child attending Mesquite Elementary School were seen in social media videos at the campus threatening the school principal. The trio were upset because the child would miss a school field trip because of possible exposure to COVID-19. They stated they intended to make a “citizen’s arrest” of Principal Diane Vargo.
Vargo called police.
Shortly after the incident, the principal released a video statement through the school district. Vargo described how they had “military, large, black zip ties” and that she tried to de-escalate things first.
Carruth said the father of the Mesquite Elementary student is due to go to trial in December on the same misdemeanor charges as Walker.
At the time, the incident was one of multiple confrontations nationwide between parents and school administrators over pandemic mandates such as masks and quarantining.
Indiana
Death sentence sought for man accused of killing officer
RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) — A prosecutor wants the death penalty for a man charged with killing an Indiana police officer.
Wayne County Prosecutor Mike Shipman made the request Friday in the case of Phillip Matthew Lee, 47, of Richmond, who’s now charged with murder in the death of Richmond Police Department Officer Seara Burton.
Burton, 28, died Sept. 18 from her gunshot wound to the head after she was taken off life support Sept. 1. She was shot Aug. 10 after other officers stopped Lee, and Burton was called to the scene to assist with her police dog.
Court documents allege Lee pulled out a gun and fired shots toward the officers, striking Burton. Other officers returned fire, and Lee was apprehended following a foot chase.
Online court records do not show Lee entering a plea on the murder charge. He earlier pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder as well as drug and weapons charges. Lee is being held at the Miami Correctional Facility in Bunker Hill on a parole violation.
Shipman filed court documents Friday that amended a previously filed attempted murder charge in Burton’s shooting to murder and that requests a death sentence if Lee is convicted, the Palladium-Item reported.
Shipman’s filing indicates that two aggravating circumstances would justify the death sentence: that Lee intentionally killed Burton while she was acting in the course of her duty and that the killing occurred while Lee was free on parole after being convicted of possession of a syringe and possession of a narcotic drug.
The prosecutor also requests Lee now be held without bond. Wayne Circuit Judge April Drake previously had set a $1.5 million bond for Lee. His trial is currently scheduled for Dec. 27.
Shipman also filed documents that accuse Lee of being a habitual offender and for an enhancement to two remaining attempted murder charges because Lee used a firearm. The habitual offender allegation against Lee is based on four previous cases that resulted in felony convictions for burglary, possession of cocaine, attempted burglary, auto theft and resisting law enforcement, and possession of a syringe and possession of a narcotic.
The prosecution and Lee’s court-appointed defense attorney, Andrew Maternowski, jointly filed a motion Friday for a gag order in the case.
