Alaska
Grand jury indicts illustrator on threat charges
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A grand jury has indicted an Alaska children’s book illustrator on charges of terroristic threatening after authorities said he posted around the capital city transphobic notes that referenced shooting children.
Thursday’s indictment against Mitchell Thomas Watley, 47, was announced by the state Department of Law on Friday. Watley is scheduled for arraignment in state court on April 25. A phone message seeking comment was left for Watley’s attorney.
Watley is accused of leaving business card-size notes at a grocery store, state office building and a Costco store with an image of an assault rifle, the colors of the transgender flag and the text “Feeling Cute Might Shoot Some Children,” according to the complaint filed in the case.
He was arrested April 2, after several notes were found at a Costco and officers reviewed security footage that showed a man, later identified as Watley, leaving a note in the store, the complaint alleged.
Terms of his release on bond approved by a judge earlier this month include electronic monitoring, being restricted from parks and schools and not having access to firearms and other weapons.
Missouri
Hospital sues state’s top prosecutor over trans care data
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City hospital is suing Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey over what it calls his “burdensome” requests for records on gender-affirming care.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in Jackson County, attorneys for Children’s Mercy Hospital asked a judge to deny Bailey’s 54 investigative demands for records and testimony despite the hospital facing no allegations of wrongdoing, The Kansas City Star reported.
Bailey has demanded that the hospital provide records on any prescriptions for hormone blockers as well as surgeries for transgender patients, the lawsuit said. He’s also asking for information on when the hospital has reported child abuse.
Bailey’s spokeswoman, Madeline Sieren, questioned the hospital’s contention that its gender transition practices are evidence-based and said the facility is refusing to provide “even a single document” to explain its practices.
“That is very concerning,” Sieren said. “We look forward to prevailing in this request for information and learning what is truly going on with Children’s Mercy in connection with gender transition issues.”
In February, Bailey, a Republican who was appointed attorney general in November, announced he was investigating the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after an employee alleged the center was providing children with gender-affirming care without informed consent.
Bailey has since expanded the investigation to other health care providers in Missouri.
On Thursday, Bailey introduced an emergency rule that will impose several restrictions before adults and children can receive drugs, hormones or surgeries “for the purpose of transitioning gender.”
Republican lawmakers across the country, including Missouri, have proposed hundreds of laws aimed at transgender people, with a particular emphasis on health care.
At least 13 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors.
Children’s Mercy argues in its lawsuit that releasing the information sought by Bailey would violate state and federal laws, including those involving private medical decisions made between patients and doctors.
The hospital also contends Bailey doesn’t have the jurisdiction to investigate health care companies and physicians, which are regulated by the Missouri Board of Healing Arts.
The lawsuit also argues many of Bailey’s requests are “poorly disguised interrogatories” that have nothing to do with gender-affirming care.
The hospital acknowledges the attorney general has the authority to investigate deceptive business practices under the state’s merchandise protection act but said the authority to use the law as an investigative tool has its limits.
The demand letter sent to Children’s Mercy “far exceeds those limits,” the lawsuit said. The facility also contends that hospitals are not regulated under that law, and said the hospital “cannot in good faith attempt to comply.”
Earlier this month, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri sued over Bailey’s document demands to that organization as part of its investigation.
Planned Parenthood also argued in its lawsuit that Bailey has no authority to investigate its clinic, which is inspected by the state health department.
Indiana
Suspect in murder of teen girls wins prison transfer
DELPHI, Ind. (AP) — A judge has ordered a man charged with killing two teenage girls in Indiana transferred to a different state correctional facility after the suspect’s attorneys argued that his physical and mental health is deteriorating after months in isolation.
Richard Matthew Allen, 50, will be moved to another facility that will accommodate his medical, physical and psychological needs, the Journal & Courier reported, citing a court order signed Friday.
Since shortly after his arrest in the 2017 killings of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, Allen has been held in isolation at the maximum-security Westville Correctional Facility for his protection. It’s unclear where he’ll be sent next, but the order suggests it will have different medical facilities.
In an April 5 request for Allen’s transfer, his defense team said he sleeps on a pad on a concrete floor, hasn’t received visits from his wife or family for the past five months, and is forced to wear the same clothes for “days and days on end, all of which are soiled, stained, tattered and torn.” The attorneys’ request cited a change in “his overall mental status.”
The judge’s order does not specify where Allen will be moved, but it asks officials to follow the guidance of physicians and psychiatrists. Gull has scheduled a June 15 hearing on a defense request to allow Allen to be released on bail.
Allen, of Delphi, Indiana, has maintained his innocence.
He was arrested in October and charged with two counts of murder in the February, 2017, killings of the girls, known as Libby and Abby. They had gone hiking on a trail just outside of their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. Their bodies were found the next day in a rugged, heavily-wooded area near the trail.
Police say the teens’ deaths are homicides but have not revealed how they died in the case that has haunted the Indiana city of about 3,000 residents.
