Massachusetts
Former foster children win $7 million settlement
BOSTON (AP) — Four former foster children who were allegedly abused by a Massachusetts couple will be paid $7 million under a settlement with the state.
Lawyers for the four announced the settlement Friday afternoon. One of the four died before the settlement was concluded.
The plaintiffs sued the Department of Children and Families Services and 17 DCF workers in Middlesex Superior Court, claiming their constitutional rights were violated by the organization’s indifference to the children’s treatment by Raymond and Susan Blouin.
The lawsuit alleged the children were locked in dog crates, forced to perform sex acts, submerged in ice baths to the point of drowning and threatened with death while under the couple’s care. The plaintiffs also allege that DCF — then known as the Department of Social Services — ignored multiple reports of abuse and was deliberately indifferent to the abuse allegedly occurring in the home.
The four lived with the couple in Oxford, Massachusetts, at various times from the late 1990s to 2004.
The Blouins and Susan Blouin’s boyfriend, Philip Paquette, were charged with child abuse in 2003 and 2004, according to The Boston Globe. Raymond Blouin pleaded guilty and received two years’ probation. Susan Blouin received pre-trial probation and the case was dismissed within a year.
In 2019, after two of the victims came forward, the couple was charged again, the Globe reported. The Blouins are now facing one count of assault and battery on a child.
The Blouins have denied the charges.
Lawyers for the four former foster children said they hope the settlement will encourage those who have suffered abuse to come forward.
“Our clients have suffered unimaginably, first as survivors of torture and then because they weren’t believed,” Erica Brody, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said in a statement. “We hope that this case shows other mistreated foster children that if they come forward, their voices will be heard, and people will be held accountable.”
The Department of Children and Families could not be reached for comment.
Utah
Prosecutors decline to charge officer who shot and wounded autistic teenager
Prosecutors in Utah on Friday declined to file charges against a Salt Lake City police officer who shot and badly wounded an unarmed 13-year-old boy with autism after responding to his mother’s 911 call for help when the boy had a breakdown.
The September 2020 shooting drew widespread scrutiny and was one of several around the U.S. that fueled questions about how police respond to calls involving people with mental illness.
The family of victim Linden Cameron reached a $3 million settlement with Salt Lake City last year in a civil lawsuit over the life-changing injuries and emotional trauma the boy suffered from the shooting.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sam Gill called the shooting “unjustified” in a letter sent to the city’s police department. But Gill declined to charge the officer in part because two use-of-force experts who reviewed the case came to opposite conclusions regarding the officer’s conduct.
“We cannot say that the shooting of an unarmed 13-year old child suffering a mental health crisis — who never presented even a facsimile of a weapon or an object which could have been mistaken for a weapon, and who did not act in a manner in which fair inference would suggest a weapon — was reasonable,” wrote Gill.
“However, given the inherent conflict of experts which would introduce doubt, we believe we are not likely to meet our burden of proof,” he wrote.
The officer is still employed at the Salt Lake City Police Department on “modified duty,” said agency spokesperson Brent Weisberg. The department is reviewing the district attorney’s findings and an internal review is ongoing, he said.
In a public statement, Linden Cameron wrote that “Mr. Gill’s decision represents a miscarriage of justice and contributes to the steady erosion of trust by the public due to many documented instances of police violence and brutality.”
The family’s attorney in the previously settled civil case said Friday that the Camerons believed there was enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.
Attorney Nathan Morris added that Salt Lake prosecutors were using a double standard for the officer and would have pursued charges against a civilian based on similar evidence.
“When it comes to police, if there’s a scintilla of doubt they decide not to prosecute,” Morris said. “Clearly it was an unjustified shooting.”
It happened Sept. 4, 2020, when the boy’s mother called 911 and requested officers trained in crisis intervention to help her son who has autism and sensory issues.
Outside Linden’s house, officers first spoke to his mother who warned them police were a trigger for her son: “He sees the badge and he automatically thinks, like, you’re going to kill him, or he has to defend himself in some way,” according to Gill’s letter.
When officers knocked on the front door to confront Linden, he fled, leading to a foot chase. Eventually, one officer said he saw Linden’s hand go toward his waistband and, fearing he was reaching for a gun, fired 11 shots, six of which hit Linden.
He was hospitalized, and no weapon was found.
In an interview with a detective, the officer who shot Linden was asked if he’d seen a weapon in the boy’s hand. “I did not. I do not recall,” the officer replied, according to Gill’s letter.
After the shooting, Salt Lake City began providing training for police, fire and dispatch officers about how to best engage with people who have sensory needs like Cameron.
Nebraska
Judge allows restrictions on gender-affirming surgery and abortion limits
A Nebraska judge on Friday rejected an effort to block a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and restrictions on gender-affirming surgery.
Lancaster County District Court Judge Lori Maret sided with the state and allowed a law approved by the Nebraska Legislature earlier this year to remain in effect.
The law outlaws abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. As of Oct. 1, it also will prevent people under 19 from receiving gender-affirming surgery and restricts the use of hormone treatments and puberty blockers for minors.
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland had filed a lawsuit arguing legislators violated a constitutional requirement that bills not contain more than one subject. Lawmakers added the abortion ban to an existing bill dealing with gender-related care.
The attorney general contended the issues didn’t violate the rule because they were both health related.
“I am grateful for the court’s thorough decision,” Gov. Jim Pillen said in a statement. “I was proud to sign into law a measure that protects kids and defends the unborn, and I am pleased that it has been upheld.”
Mindy Rush Chipman, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, which helped represent Planned Parenthood, said they would appeal the decision.
“State senators combined unrelated restrictions into a single bill in their rush to take away Nebraskans’ rights,” Rush Chipman said in a statement. “That tactic violated the text of the Nebraska Constitution, which plainly says that ‘no bill shall contain more than one subject.’ As a result, Nebraskans are being seriously harmed.”
Ruth Richardson, CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, called the decision a “devastating blow to Nebraskans’ fundamental right to make what should be private decisions between them and their doctors.”
Richardson said the organization would continue to provide abortions before 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Legislators added the abortion restrictions to a transgender-related bill as an amendment after a separate bill to ban abortions at about six weeks failed to overcome a filibuster.
New York
Top lawyer at Fox Corp. to resign after settlement in Dominion defamation case
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox Corp. said Friday that its chief legal officer who oversaw a $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over defamation allegations is leaving the company.
Viet Dinh, Fox’s chief legal and policy officer, will step down effective Dec. 31, the New York-based company said in a statement.
He will remain a “special advisor” to Fox Corp., it added.
Fox News, a unit of Fox Corp., agreed to settle the case brought by the voting machine producer in mid-April following weeks of pretrial disclosures that revealed the network had aired false claims about the 2020 U.S. presidential election, even though many within the company knew they were not true.
The company did not say why Dinh was leaving Fox Corp. Brian Nick, a spokesman for Fox, said the company had no comment beyond the statement.
Records released as part of the lawsuit showed Fox aired the claims in part to win back viewers who were fleeing the network after it correctly called hotly contested Arizona for Democrat Joe Biden on election night. One Fox Corp. vice president called the claims “MIND BLOWINGLY NUTS.”
During a deposition, Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch testified that he believed the 2020 election was fair and had not been stolen from former President Donald Trump.
Massachusetts
Woman sues after slipping on a piece of prosciutto and fracturing ankle
BOSTON (AP) — A woman who fractured her left ankle during a trip with her husband to the Italian food emporium Eataly in Boston last year is blaming her injury on a piece of ham.
Alice Cohen was heading to an area where food samples are distributed to customers on Oct. 7 when she slipped on a piece of prosciutto and fell, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.
“Alice Cohen sustained bodily injuries, a loss of enjoyment of life, pain and suffering, and incurred necessary medical expenses for medical care and attention,” the lawsuit says.
Her medical expenses, including a hospital visit and physical therapy, have resulted in more than $7,500 in bills, according to court papers.
Cohen and her husband Ronald, of Gilford, New Hampshire, are seeking a jury trial and at least $50,000 in damages.
The lawsuit claims Eataly was negligent for not properly cleaning the floor. The lawsuit also claims loss of consortium.
The restaurant “had a duty to ensure that the surface of the floors were free from unnecessary dangers, a duty to use ordinary care to maintain the premises in a reasonably safe condition and a duty to warn of such dangerous conditions,” the lawsuit says.
Eataly is a gourmet Italian restaurant and food market with eight locations in the U.S. and eight overseas, according to the company’s website. Prosciutto is a type of thinly sliced, cured ham that originated in Italy.
An email seeking comment was left with Eataly’s corporate headquarters.
Voicemails seeking comment were left with the Cohens and their attorney.
