California
Jury awards $3.2 million to ex-Tesla worker for racial abuse
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal jury has awarded nearly $3.2 million in damages to a Black former worker at a Tesla factory in California that has been at the epicenter of racial discrimination allegations hanging over the automaker run by billionaire Elon Musk.
The verdict reached Monday marks the second time former Tesla employee Owen Diaz has prevailed in trials seeking to hold Tesla liable for allowing him to be subjected to racial epithets and other abuses during his brief tenure at the pioneering maker of electric vehicles.
But the eight-person jury in the latest trial, which lasted five days, arrived at a dramatically lower damages number than the $137 million Diaz won in his first trial held in San Francisco federal court. U.S. District Judge William Orrick reduced that award to $15 million, prompting Diaz and his lawyers to seek a new trial rather than accept the lower amount.
“If you had just looked at this verdict without knowing the verdict in the first trial, you would say this is a big win. So, it’s still a big win,” Lawrence Organ, Diaz’s attorney, said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press.
Even so, Organ is still vying for a third trial under a motion he filed last week before the jury reached its verdict. The request for a mistrial is based on assertions that Tesla’s legal team prejudiced the jury by asking improper questions that raised doubts about Diaz’s mental state and cast him as a sexual harasser.
Tesla lawyers did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
If the motion for a mistrial is rejected, Organ told the AP he will file an appeal of the latest verdict that will also raise legal questions about Orrick’s decision to slash the damages awarded by the jury in the first trial.
The case, which dates back to 2017, centers on allegations that Tesla didn’t take action to stop a racist culture at its Fremont, California, factory, located about 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast from San Francisco. Diaz, 53, alleged he was called the “n-word” more than 30 times, shown racist cartoons and told to “go back to Africa” during his roughly nine-month tenure at Tesla that ended in 2016.
The same Tesla plant, where the company has manufactured tens of thousands of cars, is in the crosshairs of a wide-ranging racial discrimination case brought last year by California regulators. The lawsuit field by the California Civil Rights Department (formerly known as California Department of Fair Employment and Housing) alleges Tesla turned “a blind eye” to rampant abuses that included likening Black employees to slaves and monkeys.
Tesla has adamantly denied the allegations made in state court and lashed back by accusing the agency of abusing its authority.
Musk, Tesla’s CEO and largest shareholder, moved the company’s headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, in 2021, partly because of tensions with various California agencies over the practices at the Fremont factory. Despite the strife, Musk, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom by his side, in February announced that an office complex in Palo Alto, California, will be Tesla’s engineering hub.
Nebraska
Judge rejects death penalty challenge in 4 killings
A Nebraska judge has rejected a challenge to the death penalty in the case of a man charged in the killings of four people last summer in a small town in the northeastern corner of the state.
Judge Bryan Meismer said in a ruling late last week that the lawyers representing Jason Jones, 42, didn’t prove that Nebraska’s death penalty law is unconstitutional, and it’s too soon to determine if that penalty is appropriate in this case because it is still early in the process. Jones has yet to officially enter a plea in the case.
Prosecutors said in January that they intend to seek the death penalty in this case because the killings were done at the same time other felonies were committed and at least two of the killings were carried out to conceal the other two. Plus, prosecutors said Jones set fire to the victims’ homes in an effort to help conceal his identity.
Jones is charged with arson, weapons counts and four counts of first-degree murder in the August killings of Gene Twiford, 86, and his wife, Janet Twiford, 85; their daughter, Dana Twiford, 55; and Michele Ebeling, 53.
Jones was arrested after officers found him with severe burns hiding in his wife’s house, which sits across the street from Ebeling’s home in Laurel. He was hospitalized for two months before being released and moved to a prison in Lincoln.
Jones is being held without bond. He is now scheduled to appear in court May 22. His lawyer declined to comment on the case Tuesday.
Jones’ wife, 43-year-old Carrie Jones, has also been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Gene Twiford as well as tampering with evidence and being an accessory for reportedly hiding her husband as authorities searched for him. Prosecutors said she told investigators that she wanted her husband to kill Twiford because she says he had been verbally harassing her with sexual comments and other remarks for a couple years. Prosecutors said at a February hearing that Carrie Jones either encouraged the killing or participated in it herself.
Carrie Jones has also not yet entered a plea to the charges against her because she is in the process of challenging them. She is being held on $1 million bail. Her attorney didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to a message about the case.
Laurel is a community of less than 1,000 people, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Omaha.
California
Ex-San Diego detective pleads guilty to running sex parlors
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A former San Diego police detective who used his badge and his knowledge to run a string of massage sex parlors in California and Arizona pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges.
Peter Griffin and three other defendants entered pleas in San Diego federal court to racketeering-related conspiracy, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and other crimes, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.
The wire fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Prosecutors said that between 2013 and 2022, Griffin and the others owned and operated five massage spas that employed women to perform sexual services that were advertised online.
The businesses were located in and around San Diego and in Tempe, Arizona, according to a grand jury indictment.
Griffin, 78, was with the San Diego Police Department from 1975 to 2002, including time with the Vice Operations Unit that investigates prostitution, authorities said.
“According to his plea agreement, throughout the course of the scheme, Griffin used the experience and skills he acquired through his work as a vice detective – and in at least one instance, his badge – to help the businesses evade law enforcement; thwart regulatory inspections, investigations and any official action against the businesses; conceal evidence and maintain a façade of legitimacy,” the U.S. attorney’s office statement said.
“No one is above the law. I’m appalled that someone who once took an oath to protect our community could prey on the vulnerable,” San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said in a statement.
“This is an important step toward justice for the survivors of these crimes,” he said.
Detroit
Man gets 2 years for buying gun used to kill police officer
DETROIT (AP) — A 27-year-old man accused of buying a gun used in the fatal shooting of a Detroit police officer was sentenced Tuesday to two years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Sheldon Avery Thomas, 27, of Detroit pleaded guilty in December to making a false statement in buying the weapon that was used to kill Officer Loren Courts, 40, during a July ambush on Detroit’s west side.
Court documents and statements made in court showed Thomas on June 7, 2022, bought a pistol in Eastpointe, Michigan, and falsely certified he was the buyer of the firearm when he knew he was purchasing it for Ehmani Davis, prosecutors said. Thomas gave Davis the gun that same day.
Davis, 19, was not allowed to purchase a weapon because of his criminal history.
Police said Davis, 19,fatally shot Courts on July 6 during an ambush as Courts and his partner were responding to a report of a man firing a weapon. Davis opened fire through the closed window of his apartment unit and a bullet struck Courts in the neck as he sat in a squad car, police said.
Another officer fatally shot Davis.
New Jersey
Ex-military couple faces 4th sentencing in child abuse case
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A former U.S. Army major and his wife accused of routinely beating their young foster children and denying them food and water as punishment will be sentenced for a fourth time. But, the sentencing will be handled by a different judge, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Federal prosecutors have argued that the sentences U.S. District Judge Katharine Hayden gave to John and Carolyn Jackson were too lenient. In a ruling issued Monday, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Hayden failed to follow its directions to consider the children’s multiple injuries “holistically and in the context of the jury’s findings of guilt” in determining causation.
Noting the repeated sentencings, the panel also concluded that Hayden — who presided over the Jackson’s 2015 trial — would have “substantial difficulty in putting out of her mind her previously expressed views of the evidence,” so they ordered that the matter be reassigned to another jurist. However, it’s not yet known when that will happen or when the new sentencing will be held.
The last sentencing in the case occurred in October 2021. Carolyn Jackson, who had already served a 40-month prison term in two stretches, was sentenced to time served and given an additional year of supervised release. John Jackson, who had finished a probationary term, was sentenced to 18 months’ home confinement.
At the time, Hayden concluded that imposing more prison time “is more punishment than is necessary.” Prosecutors, who had recommended a sentencing range of between nine and 11 years, called the sentences insufficient and accused Hayden of not following guidelines set by the appeals court.
In 2015, the U.S. attorney’s office had sought prison sentences of 15 years or more after the couple was convicted on multiple counts of child endangerment. After the first sentencing was struck down, Hayden extended their sentences in 2018, but that was rejected on appeal as well.
Sentencing in the case has been complicated by the fact that the trial took place in federal court since the Jacksons lived at Picatinny Arsenal, a New Jersey military facility, during the time in question. Because child endangerment is not a federal crime, state endangerment charges were merged into the federal indictment to go along with a conspiracy count and two federal assault counts.
The Jacksons were acquitted of the assault counts, but prosecutors argued Hayden should sentence them under assault guidelines anyway because the nature of the child endangerment counts made them “sufficiently analogous” to assault. Defense attorneys argued prosecutors didn’t connect specific acts by the Jacksons to injuries the children suffered.
The Jacksons’ trial produced testimony that their three foster children suffered broken bones and were severely underweight and had other health problems when they were removed from the home in 2010. The couple’s biological son testified the couple forced the children to eat hot pepper flakes and drink hot sauce as punishment.
A fourth foster child in their care died, but the Jacksons weren’t charged with his death. At trial, the Jacksons’ lawyers argued that the children had pre-existing health problems, and said the couple’s child-rearing methods may have been unconventional but weren’t criminal.
