North Carolina
Justices weigh whether more felons can vote
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s Supreme Court is deciding whether people convicted of felonies should be permitted to vote if they aren’t serving prison time but are on probation or parole or have to yet pay fines.
The justices scheduled oral arguments on Thursday in a lawsuit filed by several civil rights groups and ex-offenders in 2019.
By last year, a panel of trial judges agreed with the plaintiffs that a law laying out when felony offenders get voting rights restored violated the state constitution and disproportionately harmed Black residents. These and other judges’ decisions affected roughly 56,000 people.
The law was approved in the early 1970s. Current legislative leaders defending the law say it treats all felony offenders the same and sets a bright line for voting once all punishments are completed.
This week marks the first in which the Supreme Court has heard arguments since Republicans took a majority of seats after the November elections.
California
PG&E to face manslaughter trial over deadly fire
REDDING, Calif. (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric will face trial for manslaughter over its role in a 2020 wildfire in Northern California that killed four people, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The judge in Shasta County ruled after a preliminary hearing that there was enough evidence for the nation’s largest utility to face trial on 11 felony and misdemeanor charges, including involuntary manslaughter and recklessly starting a fire. Twenty other charges were dismissed.
The company, which is the nation’s largest utility, pleaded not guilty to the charges last June and was scheduled for arraignment on Feb. 15.
The Zogg Fire that began in September 2020 tore through the forested county south of the Oregon border. The blaze burned 88 square miles (228 square kilometers) of land and destroyed more than 200 homes before it was brought under control.
Four people died, including an 8-year-old girl and her mother who were caught by the flames while trying to drive away from their home.
State fire officials said the fire began when a pine tree fell into a PG&E distribution line. The California Public Utilities Commission last year proposed fining PG&E more than $155 million, saying it had failed to take down the tree, one of two that had been marked for removal.
Company executives do not face criminal charges, while the company could be fined and ordered to take corrective measures.
In a statement, PG&E said the loss of life was tragic and while it accepts the conclusion its equipment caused the blaze, “we believe PG&E did not commit any crimes.”
“We continue our work to make it safe and make it right, both by resolving claims from past fires and through our work to make our system safer every day,” the utility said.
PG&E has an estimated 16 million customers in central and Northern California. The company has been blamed for starting some of California’s worst wildfires through neglect of its aging power grid.
All told, PG&E has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires since 2017 that wiped out more than 23,000 homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people.
Last year, former executives and directors agreed to pay $117 million to settle a lawsuit over 2017 and 2018 California wildfires, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and destroyed much of the town of Paradise in Butte County.
The complaint was an offshoot of a $13.5 billion settlement that PG&E reached with wildfire victims while the utility was mired in bankruptcy from January 2019 through June 2020.
PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter for causing the Camp Fire and was fined $4 million, the maximum penalty allowed.
Also last year, PG&E agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution in a settlement with prosecutors in six counties ravaged by the 2021 Dixie Fire and the 2019 Kincade Fire.
The Dixie Fire burned more than 1,300 homes and other buildings. The blaze was caused by a tree hitting electrical distribution lines west of a dam in the Sierra Nevada.
New York
Judge jails ex-gynecologist who abused 100s of women
NEW YORK (AP) — An ex-gynecologist convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of patients was ordered to spend the next two months in jail as he awaits sentencing, a federal judge in New York City ruled Wednesday.
After hearing statements from some of the victims during the bail hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman tersely shot down defense attorneys seeking to allow the doctor, Robert Hadden, to remain free while awaiting an April sentencing hearing.
“I’m done, and you’re done,” Berman was quoted by the New York Daily News as saying. Afterward, Hadden’s attorneys filed papers appealing the judge’s detention order.
Hadden had worked at two prestigious Manhattan hospitals — Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital — until complaints about his attacks shut down his career a decade ago.
Hadden, 64, of Englewood, New Jersey, was convicted last week after less than a day of deliberations at a two-week trial, in which nine former patients described how he sexually abused them during examinations, when they were most vulnerable.
One of his victims was Evelyn Yang, the wife of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who also ran unsuccessfully for New York City mayor.
Hadden’s conviction in federal court on four counts of enticing victims to cross state lines so he could sexually abuse them carries a potential penalty of decades in prison.
After the verdict, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams issued a statement calling Hadden “a predator in a white coat.”
At the time, the judge declined to to send Hadden immediately to jail, but suggested that he was “mystified” that Hadden had avoided prison.
At Wednesday’s hearing, the judge heard from nine women victimized by the doctor, as well as written statements from 43 other victims — all of whom urged the judge to immediately remand Hadden into custody.
He had been under electronic monitoring and had been free on $1 million bail.
Hadden’s attorneys argued that he was not a flight risk, but federal prosecutors urged the judge to consider the severity of his crimes.
For Hadden’s accusers, the federal case represents a second chance for a harsher punishment for the doctor. In his 2016 plea deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Hadden surrendered his medical license but wasn’t required to serve any jail time.
The district attorney at the time, Cyrus Vance Jr., defended his decision. Because a conviction wasn’t assured, he argued, his office sought a plea deal to prevent Hadden from practicing medicine and from victimizing additional women.
