Louisiana
Vaccine litigation lingers after lifting of military mandate
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lawyers for a group of Navy SEALS and other Navy personnel who oppose a COVID-19 vaccination requirement on religious grounds want a federal appeals court to keep alive their legal fight against the Biden administration, even though the requirement has been lifted,
The Pentagon formally dropped the requirement in January following a December vote in Congress to end the mandate. However, vaccine opponents note that commanders can still make decisions on how and whether to deploy unvaccinated troops, under a memo signed last month by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
In a case to be argued Monday afternoon at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, government lawyers say the issue is moot. They want the appeals court to lift injunctions blocking the vaccine requirements, saying they intend to have the whole case dismissed in a lower court.
Attorneys for the unvaccinated Navy personnel argue in briefs to the 5th Circuit that Austin’s memo and other Defense Department actions show that the Navy still intends to treat unvaccinated personnel “like second-class citizens because of their religious beliefs.”
Government lawyers argue the policy is in line with “well-established principles of judicial noninterference with core military decision making,” in their briefs.
The Navy SEALS filed their lawsuit in November of 2021, describing what they saw as a cumbersome 50-step process to apply religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine. Their lawyers have called a “sham” with applications being “categorically denied.”
The Defense Department denied the process was onerous and said the Navy has a compelling interest in requiring vaccinations for personnel who often operate for long periods in “confined spaces that are ripe breeding grounds for respiratory illnesses.”
In January of last year, a federal judge in Texas barred the Navy from taking any action against the Navy plaintiffs for being unvaccinated. A 5th Circuit panel rejected the Biden administration’s request to block the judge’s order.
But the administration won at least a temporary, partial victory last March when the Supreme Court approved a “partial stay.” The order allowed the Navy to consider the sailors’ vaccination status in making decisions on deployment, assignment and other operational issues while the case plays out.
Nevada
Victims to speak in court in Chasing Horse’s sex abuse case
NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Victims, police detectives and federal agents are expected to speak in court Monday before a judge decides whether to grant bail to a former “Dances With Wolves” actor accused of sexually abusing Indigenous girls and leading a cult during a period spanning two decades.
Nathan Chasing Horse, 46, faces charges of sex trafficking, sexual assault and child abuse after his arrest last Tuesday near the North Las Vegas home he shares with his wives. He has not been formally charged in the case.
He appeared briefly in court Thursday in North Las Vegas for the first time but did not speak as his public defenders invoked on his behalf his right to a detention hearing, citing Nevada case law that requires prosecutors to present convincing evidence as to why a defendant should remain in custody.
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Jessica Walsh told the judge Thursday that she expected Las Vegas police detectives, FBI special agents and victims to speak at Monday’s hearing.
North Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Natalie Tyrrell could also hear from Chasing Horse’s relatives, who attended his first court hearing last week and filled up an entire row in the courtroom gallery in a show of support.
Known for his role as young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in Kevin Costner’s Oscar-winning film, Chasing Horse built a reputation for himself among tribes across the United States and in Canada as a “medicine man” who performed healing ceremonies. He was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
In a 50-page search warrant obtained by The Associated Press, police described Chasing Horse as the leader of a cult known as The Circle, whose followers believed he could communicate with higher powers.
Police said he abused his position, physically and sexually assaulted Indigenous girls and took underage wives over two decades.
According to the warrant, Chasing Horse trained his wives to use firearms and instructed them to “shoot it out” with police officers if they tried to “break their family apart.” If that failed, or if he was ever to be arrested or die unexpectedly, he told his wives to take “suicide pills,” the document said.
SWAT officers and detectives took Chasing Horse into custody last week and cleared the family’s home without incident.
Detectives who searched the property found guns, 41 pounds (18.5 kilograms) of marijuana and psilocybin mushrooms, and a memory card with multiple videos of sexual assaults, according to an arrest report released Wednesday.
Additional charges could be filed related to the videos, the report said.
Las Vegas police said in the search warrant that at least six victims had been identified, including one who was 13 when she says she was abused and another who says she was offered to him as a “gift” when she was 15.
Police said the crimes date to the early 2000s and span multiple states, including South Dakota, Montana and Nevada, where he has lived for about a decade.
His arrest came nearly a decade after he was banished from the Fort Peck Reservation in Poplar, Montana, amid similar allegations.
Wisconsin
Man given 16 years for shooting at kids throwing snowballs
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man convicted of shooting at a group of children who threw snowballs at his car in 2020 received a 16-year prison sentence on Friday.
WITI-TV reports that prosecutors had asked for a 25-year prison sentence after jurors found William Carson guilty of two counts of first-degree reckless injury and five counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety in November.
According to court records, seven children were throwing snowballs at passing cars on Milwaukee’s north side in January 2020. A driver later identified as Carson turned his car around, got out and fired a gun at the group.
Prosecutors have said two of the children were hurt after being shot in the thigh and arm. A third child’s jacket was grazed by a bullet.
Judge Michael Hanrahan also included 10 years of extended supervision in Carson’s sentence.
“There is this other side of you that is impulsive, reckless, violent – I think self-centered,” Hanrahan said during a sentencing hearing on Friday in Milwaukee.
