Louisiana
Lawsuit alleges police killed fleeing Black man
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — Family members of Alonzo Bagley, a Black man who was killed as he tried to flee police responding to a disturbance call, have filed a $10 million lawsuit against the officer who shot him.
The federal lawsuit was filed last week in Shreveport by his wife, mother and stepdaughter of Bagley, 43. He was fatally shot on Feb. 3. The lawsuit said he had run from his apartment after refusing to talk to the officers.
State police are investigating and said last week that no weapon was found on or near Bagley. The lawsuit says Bagley was unarmed and had his hands up when Officer Alexander Tyler shot him.
“The lethal force used against Mr. Bagley was unjustified, unreasonable, excessive, and in violation of Mr. Bagley’s rights under the United States Constitution and the laws of the State of Louisiana,” the lawsuit said.
An email to police seeking comment from Tyler or the department did not receive an immediate response. The department has referred all questions to state police.
Authorities said Bagley was killed after two officers responded to a call around 10:50 p.m. on Feb. 3. Col. Lamar Davis, the superintendent of Louisiana State Police, said during a news conference last week that it was a “domestic disturbance” call but no details have been released.
Bagley went through a bedroom onto a balcony, jumped to the ground and ran, Davis said. The officers chased him.
“Upon rounding a corner of the building, Officer Tyler observed Mr. Bagley and fired one shot from his service weapon, which struck Mr. Bagley in the chest,” Davis said. He added that both officers rendered immediate first aid but Bagley was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Davis said the state police investigation would include interviews of witnesses and reviews of officers’ body camera and car camera video — none of which has yet been made public. The lawsuit says Bagley’s stepdaughter, a plaintiff in the suit, is among the witnesses to the shooting.
Massachusetts
Judge affirms placing tribal lands into trust
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled against a group of Taunton residents who sued the federal government in an effort to prevent the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe from building a casino in the city.
The judge’s decision in U.S. District Court in Boston on Friday granted summary judgment to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which had placed 321 acres of land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust. The tribe, which has about 2,600 enrolled citizens, was an intervenor-defendant in the suit.
Although establishment of the reservation returned only a small fraction of the tribe’s ancestral territory, Tribal Chair Brian Weeden said in a statement Monday that “this reservation is crucial to our ability to exercise our sovereign right to self-governance, to preserve our language and culture, and to provide for our people.”
The anti-casino plaintiffs argued in the suit filed in February 2022 that the Biden administration’s decision affirming the tribe’s reservation was arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful because the tribe isn’t eligible for a reservation since it wasn’t an officially recognized tribe in 1934, the year the federal Indian Reorganization Act became law. The Mashpee Wampanoags were not federally recognized until 2007.
They also said that Taunton was not part of the Cape Cod-based tribe’s historical domain.
The judge’s decision, however, said that the “historical record indicates that the Mashpee have had a robust connection to the designated lands for over four centuries,” and have called the area of southeastern Massachusetts home for thousands of years long before their first contact with Europeans, including the Pilgrims in 1620.
A voicemail seeking comment was left Monday with an attorney for the anti-casino Taunton residents.
The decision was the latest in a yearslong legal battle spanning three presidential administrations over tribal land and whether the tribe has the right to build a casino.
Plans to build a $1 billion resort casino remain on hold. The tribe in 2016 broke ground on what was to be called the First Light casino, which was to include a hotel and shopping, dining and other entertainment options.
But the gambling landscape in the region is much different now. Massachusetts has two Las Vegas-style resort casinos as well as a slots parlor, and the state last month started allowing sports betting.
Detroit
Former Michigan State star pleads guilty in 2021 murder case
DETROIT (AP) — A former Michigan State University basketball star pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder and a firearm charge in the fatal 2021 shooting of a Detroit man.
Keith Damon Appling, 31, pleaded guilty in Wayne County Circuit Court to one count each of second-degree murder and felony firearm in the killing of Clyde Edmonds, 66, county Prosecutor Kym Worthy said.
Appling pleaded guilty to the charges on the same day his trial in Edmonds’ death was set to begin.
The Detroit Pershing prep star played at Michigan State from 2010 to 2014. Appling also played pro basketball overseas and had two brief contracts with the NBA’s Orlando Magic.
He was charged in Edmonds’ murder in June 2021. Prosecutors said Appling fatally shot Edmonds on May 22, 2021, after the men argued over a handgun. Edmonds was pronounced dead at a hospital. His wife and Appling’s mother are first cousins, authorities said.
Appling’s plea agreement calls for 18 to 40 years in prison on the second-degree murder charge and two years to be served consecutively on the firearm charge. The remaining charges Appling faced — first-degree murder, felony in possession of a firearm and a second count of felony firearm — will be dismissed at his sentencing hearing, which is set for March 3, Worthy said in a news release.
Prosecutors said Appling’s girlfriend, Natalie Bannister, drove Appling from the shooting scene, The Detroit News reported.
She pleaded guilty last year to one count of lying to a police officer and was sentenced to 18 months of probation. A charge of accessory after the fact and a second count of lying to police were dropped under Bannister’s plea agreement.
North Dakota
Polygamy kidnapping suspect will be returned to Utah
MINOT, N.D. (AP) — The nephew of imprisoned Utah polygamous leader Warren Jeffs will be returned to Utah to face charges that he kidnapped his niece, as he waived extradition at a court hearing Monday following his arrest in North Dakota.
Heber Jeffs was arrested by federal agents on Saturday after he was tracked to the town of Minot, but authorities don’t know why he was there, said Sheriff Marty Gleave of Piute County, Utah. He was arrested after a search warrant at a home, Gleave said.
The 10-year-old niece, the daughter of Heber Jeffs’ sister, was apparently unharmed, Gleave said.
“Homeland Security is trying to arrange to get her back here and reunite with her mother,” he said.
Heber Jeffs is jailed at the Ward County Jail, the county’s Sheriff Bob Roed said. It wasn’t immediately clear if he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
Kidnapping charges were filed out of Utah against Heber Jeffs in December. Authorities said at the time that he and his niece had gone missing, apparently to keep the girl from her mother on orders issued by Warren Jeffs from prison in Texas.
Court documents say Heber Jeffs had kept the girl in his home in Kingston, Utah, since his uncle said months earlier that he received a revelation from God directing his followers to “gather” the community’s women “and prepare to move to a location or locations as directed by Warren Jeffs,” or his son, Helaman Jeffs.
Warren Jeffs is president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The faith is an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church, and espouses polygamy. It has historically been based in a small town that straddles the Utah-Arizona line. The mainstream church disavowed polygamy more than a century ago.
Since being found guilty on child sexual abuse charges stemming from underage marriages, Warren Jeffs has continued to serve as the group’s prophet from a federal prison in Texas where he’s serving a life sentence.
Prosecutors said that Heber Jeffs and his wife Sarah have cared for their niece since her parents split up when the girl was an infant. Rose Jeffs, the girl’s mother who is no longer an FLDS member, was allowed regular visitation and full access to her daughter until August. At that time, Heber Jeffs told her he would no longer allow visitation. The court documents point to the revelation as a primary reason.
Court documents say Rose Jeffs then demanded to take her daughter back, at which point Heber Jeffs said he planned to cut off communication. Later, when law enforcement began pursuing Heber Jeffs, they couldn’t find him at his home or places he had worked, prompting a warrant for his arrest.
Alabama
Appeals court reinstates charges against former sheriff
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An appellate court has reinstated an indictment against a former Alabama sheriff, clearing the way for him to go to trial on campaign finance and ethics charges.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday reversed a judge’s decision dismissing an 11-count indictment against William Ray Norris, the former Clarke County sheriff. The court ruled that a judge erred in dismissing the charges based on Norris’ understanding that a state official promised he would not be prosecuted if he resigned from office.
Norris’ attorney has said the former sheriff had reached a verbal agreement with the attorney general’s office that Norris would not be prosecuted if he resigned.
The attorney general’s office disputed that characterization, but a circuit judge ruled Norris and his attorney “reasonably believed the agreement existed and that Norris had relied on that belief to his detriment by resigning as sheriff,” appellate judges wrote in the Friday opinion.
The appellate court ruled that the “mere belief that he had been granted immunity” was not sufficient to dismiss the case against Norris.
California
County to pay $1.3M to man mauled by sheriff’s K-9
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Sonoma County will pay $1.35 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by a man who was mauled by a sheriff’s K-9 three years ago.
Sheriff’s deputies used a stun gun on Jason Anglero-Wyrick and then unleashed a police dog on him in April 2020, following an unsubstantiated report that he had pointed a gun at another person.
No gun was ever found and charges were never filed against Anglero-Wyrick.
He sued in 2021, claiming the two deputies used excessive force during the encounter, which Anglero-Wyrick’s teen daughter recorded on video. The settlement, first reported by KTVU-TV on Friday, was reached Jan 6.
“It’s definitely not justice,” Anglero-Wyrick told the news station. “But it’s some financial compensation for my daughters.”
The video shows Angelero-Wyrick raising his hands outside his home as deputies shout at him to get on the ground.
The dog attacked him for 90 seconds, according to the lawsuit, ultimately tearing a chunk out of his calf. Angelero-Wyrick put his hands on the small of his back and crossed his ankles in an effort to show deputies he wasn’t a threat, the lawsuit said.
County officials didn’t immediately comment on the settlement.
