Pennsylvania
Group sues mayor, officials over statue removal efforts
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A group that fought in court to keep a statue of Christopher Columbus in a south Philadelphia park and to have a wooden box covering it removed has now filed suit against Mayor Jim Kenney and members of the city’s historical commission over their roles in the effort to remove the statue.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the Friends of Marconi Plaza allege in the complaint filed late last month that officials conspired to abuse the legal process in trying to remove the 146-year-old statue from Marconi Plaza after it became the scene of tense standoffs during demonstrations and unrest over racial injustice in the summer of 2020.
George Bochetto, the lead attorney for the group, said he sees the suit as holding government officials accountable.
“Frankly, it’s shocking what took place here, and it’s a shocking disregard for their responsibilities,” Bochetto said.
Representatives of the mayor and the historical commission declined comment last week on the lawsuit.
The 1876 statue was presented to the city by the Italian American community to commemorate the nation’s centennial. Many Italian Americans have embraced the 15th century explorer — once hailed as the discoverer of America — as a cultural hero and emblem of the city’s deep Italian heritage. But Kenney has said that despite centuries of veneration, Columbus had a “much more infamous” history, enslaving Indigenous people and imposing harsh punishments.
In May 2020, during protests across the nation in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, some in Philadelphia turned their focus to the Columbus statue, arguing the explorer should not be celebrated. In response, supporters of the statue began gathering around it — some carrying guns or baseball bats — and said they intended to protect it from vandals. Around that time, statues of the Italian explorer were removed in nearby Camden, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware, while protesters in Richmond, Virginia, tore down a Columbus statue, set it on fire and threw it into a lake.
Kenney called for the Philadelphia statue’s removal, arguing it was a matter of public safety. A city arts panel and historical commission both agreed and a plywood box was erected to cover the statue. A judge, however, reversed the city’s decision, saying it had failed to provide evidence that the statue’s removal was necessary to protect the public.
In December, the plywood box covering the statue was removed at the order of a state judge who said that if the city disagrees with its “message” officials can add a plaque with their message. Before its removal, the box had been painted in the green, white and red bands of the Italian flag at the request of the city council member who represents the district.
The Friends of Marconi Plaza also filed a lawsuit over the mayor’s renaming of the city’s Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, something the suit alleges discriminated against Italian Americans. A court dismissed the suit and a federal appeals court upheld that dismissal; Bochetto’s firm has appealed the U.S. Supreme Court.
California
City and school district to pay $52M to settle sex abuse case
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sacramento and the city’s school district will pay more than $52 million to settle lawsuits alleging negligence by officials after an aide pleaded guilty to sexually abusing at least eight elementary school students nearly a decade ago.
Joshua Vasquez was sentenced to 150 years to life in prison in 2016 after admitting he molested children as young as seven in a classroom at Mark Twain Elementary School. Vasquez worked as program leader for the city’s START after-school program and also as a part-time employee with the Sacramento City Unified School District.
A settlement agreement finalized last week calls for a $40 million payout for five of the victims, with the city paying about 60% and the district the rest, the Sacramento Bee reported Sunday. A separate deal for a sixth victim resulted in a $12.5 million payout.
As part of the settlement, the city also provided one-page letters to the victims lauding their courage for coming forward.
“Please accept our sincere apologies for what you suffered due to Vasquez’s conduct and we hope our settlement of this matter will help you in your efforts to heal from this horrible and most regrettable experience at the hands of our former employee,” said the letter, signed by Jackie Beecham, the city’s director of youth, parks and community enrichment.
Officials said since the cases were brought to light, the district has implemented a series of policy and procedure changes, including additional training and stricter requirements for how and when a staff member can be alone with students.
New York
Judge: 3 women can testify at sex assault trial of Cuba Gooding, Jr.
NEW YORK (AP) — Three women who claim Cuba Gooding Jr. sexually abused them — including one upset she never got her day in court when Gooding resolved criminal charges without trial or jail — can testify at a federal civil trial this week to support a woman’s claim that the actor raped her in 2013, a judge ruled Friday.
Judge Paul A. Crotty said the allegations by the women were relevant for a jury deciding if the Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” star raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room after they met at a bar. He also ruled in a separate order that the plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe in the lawsuit seeking $6 million in damages, must reveal her name at trial.
He said the claims by the three women who can testify “are sufficiently similar” to the claims at stake in the trial because “all involve sudden sexual assaults or attempted sexual assaults” connected to Gooding and stemmed from the presence of the women and Gooding in social settings such as festivals, bars, nightclubs and restaurants.
Lawyers for Gooding, a #MeToo defendant in multiple courts, have said Gooding had consensual sex with the woman who accused him of rape after they met in the VIP lounge of a Greenwich Village restaurant and she joined him at a nearby hotel bar, agreeing to proceed to his hotel room so the actor could change his clothing. The lawyers did not respond to an email request for comment Friday.
The three women include Kelsey Harbert, who said in tears after Gooding pleaded guilty last year that never getting her day in court was “more disappointing than words can say.”
Harbert told police Gooding fondled her without her consent at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge near Times Square in 2019.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, as Harbert has done.
The judge disallowed the testimony of a fourth woman on the grounds that her proposed testimony that Gooding groped her breast without her consent in 2011 was so similar to Harbert’s expected testimony that it would be “needlessly cumulative” and would increase the chance of improper bias. The trial is scheduled to start Tuesday.
Gooding, a star in films including “Boyz n the Hood” and “Radio,” was permitted to plead guilty in April 2022 to a misdemeanor, admitting that he forcibly kissed a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018.
After staying out of trouble and completing six months of alcohol and behavioral counseling, Gooding was permitted to withdraw his guilty plea and instead pleaded guilty to a non-criminal harassment violation, eliminating his criminal record and preventing further penalties.
The deal was criticized by some of at least 30 women who prosecutors say have made sexual misconduct allegations against him, many citing encounters at New York City nightspots that resulted in groping, unwanted kissing and other inappropriate behavior.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents the plaintiff, declined to comment except to say that her client will be going forward with the trial on Tuesday.
Prospects for a settlement, which sometimes occur in civil cases on the eve of trial, seemed dim at a pretrial conference Thursday as trial attorneys were in such sharp disagreement that the judge warned in ruling Friday that “counsel will act with the utmost courtesy and professionalism towards one another and the Court going forward.”
Washington
Lawsuit alleging ex-deputy falsified arrest report settled for $250K
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — A lawsuit filed by a Washington oyster farmer accusing a former county deputy of falsifying an arrest report and urging a person to lie during a domestic-violence investigation has been settled for $250,000.
Gerardo Rodarte, the owner of Samish Gold Seafoods, sued Skagit County and former deputy Joseph Gutierrez in 2020, after Rodarte was acquitted by a jury of domestic-violence assault charges, The Seattle Times reported.
The charges were based on the deputy’s sworn statement and reports. Court documents show Gutierrez, who was fired in 2018 over allegations of having sex while on duty and failing to aid other officers during a jail escape, refused to testify at trial.
Rodarte’s lawsuit alleged that Gutierrez conspired with Rodarte’s niece, who was also an oyster farm employee, to falsely accuse her uncle of assaulting her in exchange for help with her immigration status.
The niece called the Sheriff’s Office on June 7, 2017, and claimed she had been assaulted by Rodarte. Gutierrez responded and arrested Rodarte, despite his claims and statements from his wife that the niece attacked him, biting his thumb and hitting him in the head with a telephone handset, according to the lawsuit and other documents filed in U.S. District Court.
Rodarte claimed in his lawsuit that, while taking him to jail, Gutierrez met his niece and told her “they needed to change their story because it did not fit the evidence, and that they had to fix it so it looked real,” according to the documents.
He claimed Gutierrez took pictures of the niece’s neck, which showed bruising and marks that weren’t there previously. U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein in a 2021 ruling denied Gutierrez’s motion to dismiss the fabrication and false-evidence claim and ordered it to proceed to trial.
Rodarte’s wife, Fabiola Higareda Hernandez, also signed a sworn affidavit claiming Gutierrez had falsified statements attributed to her in his arrest report.
Gutierrez appealed Rothstein’s decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. An appeals court panel in January upheld Rothstein’s trial decision.
As for damages, the appeals judges wrote, “We have held that it ‘is virtually self-evident’ that ‘there is a clearly established constitutional right not to be subjected to criminal charges on the basis of false evidence deliberately fabricated by the government.’”
Rodarte’s lawsuit alleges a clam harvest worth $500,000 he had farmed the day of his arrest spoiled while he was incarcerated.
The Skagit County Attorney’s Office, which represented Gutierrez, didn’t respond to a phone message from the newspaper seeking comment on the settlement.
