New York
Judge lets columnist amend defamation claim
NEW YORK (AP) — A columnist who recently won a $5 million sexual abuse and defamation jury award against Donald Trump can update a similar lawsuit with his more recent public comments in a bid for over $10 million more in damages from the ex-president, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in another legal loss for Trump.
The ruling by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan gave new life to a defamation lawsuit by writer E. Jean Carroll that was stalled by appeals after the U.S. Justice Department supported a request by Trump’s attorneys to substitute the United States for him as the defendant on the grounds that he cannot be held personally liable for comments made while carrying out presidential duties.
The 2020 defamation lawsuit was originally filed after Carroll wrote in a 2019 book that Trump raped her in a midtown Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman store after he turned a friendly and flirtatious chance encounter between the pair into a violent encounter once behind a closed dressing room door.
Trump, she maintained, disparaged her afterward, spoiling her career and reputation, as he denied ever meeting her at the store located across the street from Trump Tower, where Trump resided before assuming the presidency as a Republican in January 2017.
The Associated Press typically does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.
Nine jurors agreed in a civil trial last month that Carroll had failed to prove that she was raped in the spring 1996 encounter, but they agreed there was sufficient evidence to conclude Trump had sexually abused her. They also agreed he defamed her by making false statements last October in a deposition and in public comments that damaged her reputation.
Since the jury awarded $5 million in damages, Trump’s attorneys have filed arguments asking to reduce the award to less than $1 million or grant a new trial on damages. They say the jury proved Trump was not lying when they rejected Carroll’s rape claim.
Trump, 76, who did not attend the trial, has continued to insist he didn’t really know Carroll, 79. In his fall deposition, he misidentified her in a photograph as his ex-wife Marla Maples.
The day after the verdict at a CNN town hall, Trump repeated his longstanding claims that he didn’t know Carroll, called her a “whack job” and repeated his claims that she made up the story that he attacked her.
Days later, Carroll’s lawyers asked the judge if she could amend her defamation lawsuit to add Trump’s latest comments and demand at least $10 million and “very substantial” punitive damages.
In his two-page order Tuesday, Kaplan noted that Justice Department lawyers say they’ll have to reevaluate whether the United States should be substituted for Trump as a defendant based on new events affecting the lawsuit, including the new claims made by Carroll that are based on statements he made while no longer president. He’s allowed submissions to be made on the issue through Aug. 3.
Trump’s attorney did not immediately comment.
Attorney Roberta Kaplan, who represents Carroll and is not related to the judge, said in a statement: “We look forward to moving ahead expeditiously on E Jean Carroll’s remaining claims.”
Mississippi
Police officer who shot 11-year-old boy suspended without pay
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi police officer who shot and wounded an unarmed 11-year-old Black boy in the child’s home has been suspended without pay, a city official said Tuesday.
The Indianola Board of Aldermen voted Monday night to immediately stop paying Sgt. Greg Capers, board member Marvin Elder said Tuesday. Capers, who is Black, had previously been suspended with pay, according to Carlos Moore, the attorney representing the family of the boy, Aderrien Murry.
Moore said the family is still pushing to get Capers fired. “He needs to be terminated and he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Moore said.
Aderrien Murry was hospitalized for five days with a collapsed lung, lacerated liver and fractured ribs after Capers shot him in the chest May 20, Moore said. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is examining the case, as is customary with shootings involving law enforcement, but Capers has not been charged with any crime.
Capers’ attorney, Michael Carr, said the Board’s 4-1 vote was cast during a “closed-door, unnoticed” meeting without informing him or his client.
“This is very disturbing to Sgt. Capers, and he should have been allowed due process,” Carr said. “They have no evidence Sgt. Capers intentionally shot this young man, which he didn’t. Everything that happened was a total and complete accident.”
Carr added that body camera footage would prove Capers did nothing wrong. “I thank God that Sgt. Capers was wearing a bodycam,” Carr said.
The shooting happened in Indianola, a town of about 9,300 residents in the rural Mississippi Delta, about 95 miles (153 kilometers) northwest of Jackson.
Nakala Murry asked her son to call police about 4 a.m. when the father of one of her other children showed up at her home, Moore said. Two officers went to the home, and one kicked the front door before Murry opened it. She told them the man causing a disturbance had left the home, but three children were inside, Moore said.
According to Murry, Capers yelled into the home and said anyone inside should come out with their hands up, Moore said. He said Aderrien walked into the living room with nothing in his hands, and Capers shot him in the chest.
Murry has filed a federal lawsuit against Indianola, the police chief and Capers. The lawsuit, which seeks at least $5 million, says Indianola failed to properly train the officer and that Capers used excessive force. Murry also filed an affidavit, reviewed by The Associated Press, calling for criminal charges against Capers. That affidavit will be considered at an Oct. 2 probable cause hearing in the Sunflower County Circuit Court.
“This is only the beginning,” Murry said in a written statement. “I look forward to seeing Greg Capers terminated, and never allowed to work for law enforcement again.”
