Court Digest

New Hampshire
Fraternity and bar sued over death of college student
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The mother of a University of New Hampshire student who died in an icy swamp two years ago filed a wrongful death lawsuit Thursday against the Durham bar and fraternity her son visited that night.

Vincenzo Lirosi, 22, was found dead Dec. 5, 2021, partially submerged in a small body of water in the woods. An autopsy concluded the sophomore’s cause of death was drowning and acute intoxication.

Robin Lirosi, of Whitman, Massachusetts, filed the lawsuit against Scorpion’s Bar & Grill, the UNH chapter of Sigma Chi and its national organization, and several individual members of the fraternity.

“Scorpion’s, the frat, and the frat brothers have gone on with life as if nothing has changed, but Vinny’s family have been robbed of that luxury,” attorney Leah Cole Durst said in a statement.

The lawsuit alleges the bar served Vincenzo Lirosi “in a matter that was so continuous and excessive” that it created a risk of death, and that the fraternity violated numerous safety policies and its duty to prevent further harm.

The executive director of Sigma Chi’s national office did not respond to a phone message Thursday. No one answered the phone at Scorpion’s Bar & Grill, and there was no response to a message sent to the bar’s Facebook account.

At the time of Lirosi’s death, police said he had been out drinking with friends before he went to a Sigma Chi fraternity party and got into a fight.

Citing a New Hampshire Liquor Commission investigation, the lawsuit states that Lirosi purchased 17 alcoholic drinks at the bar and grill in less than four hours and that he consumed at least nine of them. According to the lawsuit, a friend then invited him to the fraternity, though the fraternity said at the time that he did not have permission to be there.

Lirosi resisted efforts by fraternity members to remove him, according to the lawsuit. A “full-out brawl” ensued, and Lirosi was punched in the head, pushed to the ground and kicked in the ribs, the lawsuit states.

“Lirosi was forced to stumble into the woods, visibly intoxicated, battered, and dazed from repeated blows to his head and body without a phone,” the lawsuit states, “and no person from Sigma Chi took any steps to ensure his safety.”

Texas
Man sentenced to life for killing 2 hospital workers
DALLAS (AP) — A man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after being convicted of fatally shooting two workers at a Dallas hospital last year as he argued with his girlfriend, who had just given birth to their child.

Nestor Hernandez, 31, was found guilty of capital murder in the October 2022 shooting deaths of Jacqueline Pokuaa, 45, a social worker, and Katie Annette Flowers, 63, a nurse, at Methodist Dallas Medical Center. He received an automatic sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors didn’t seek the death penalty.

Defense attorneys had asked jurors to consider a lesser charge, acknowledging that Hernandez opened fire but saying he didn’t mean to kill anyone. Taking the stand at the trial, Hernandez admitted to shooting the two women but said it was an accident.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot told jurors that Hernandez went to the hospital that day with “rage, resentment, anger and a plan to kill.” Prosecutor George Lewis said Hernandez was motivated by a belief that his girlfriend had cheated on him and he wasn’t the baby’s father. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he was.

Hernandez’s girlfriend, Selena Villatoro, testified that he accused her of infidelity and hit her with a pistol. She said he threatened to kill her, himself and anyone who came into the room, and when Pokuaa then entered, Hernandez shot her.

Hernandez testified that as he and Villatoro fought, Pokuaa tried to intervene and the gun misfired. He said he then shot into the hallway in a panic, striking Flowers.

Hernandez was shot in the thigh by a hospital police officer who arrived on the scene.

At the time of the shooting, Hernandez was on parole for aggravated robbery and had been granted permission to be at the hospital while wearing an ankle monitor.


California
Apple to pay $25 million to settle allegations of discriminatory hiring practices
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple has agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that it engaged in a pattern of discriminatory hiring practices when filling some of its jobs during 2018 and 2019.

The deal announced Thursday resolved a lengthy investigation by the Department of Justice into alleged violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Federal regulators said an inquiry that began in 2019 determined that Apple’s hiring practices discriminated against U.S. candidates for jobs that were awarded to some immigrant workers seeking to be granted permanent resident status in the country. In some instances, Apple also discriminated against non-U.S. residents, according to the settlement.

Apple vehemently denied any wrongdoing in the formal seven-page settlement defended its hiring record in a statement to The Associated Press.

“Apple proudly employs more than 90,000 people in the United States and continues to invest nationwide, creating millions of jobs,” the Cupertino, California, company said. “When we realized we had unintentionally not been following the DOJ standard, we agreed to a settlement addressing their concerns.”

The $25 million represents a paltry amount for Apple, which generated $383 billion in revenue during its last fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Most of the settlement amount — $18.25 million — will be funneled into a fund to compensate victims of Apple’s alleged discrimination. The rest of the money covers the fine that Apple is paying for its hiring practices during the timeframe covered in the settlement.

Alabama
DOJ: State can’t prosecute people who help women leave the state for abortions
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday said Alabama cannot use conspiracy laws to prosecute people and groups who help women leave the state to obtain abortions.

The Justice Department filed a statement of its position in consolidated lawsuits against Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, arguing that such prosecutions would be unconstitutional. The lawsuits, filed by an abortion fund and former providers, seek a court ruling clarifying the state can’t use conspiracy statutes to prosecute people who help Alabama women travel elsewhere to obtain an abortion. Marshall has not prosecuted anyone for providing such assistance, but he has made statements saying that his office would “look at” groups that provide abortion help.

The Justice Department argued in the filing that the U.S. Constitution protects the right to travel. The department said that just as Marshall cannot stop women from crossing state lines to obtain a legal abortion, “neither can he seek to achieve the same result by threatening to prosecute anyone who assists that individual in their travel.”

Alabama is one of several states where abortion is almost entirely illegal after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a decision known as Dobbs, handed authority on abortion law to the states. Alabama bans abortion at any stage of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape and incest. The only exemption is if it’s needed because pregnancy seriously threatens the pregnant patient’s health.

“As I said the day Dobbs was decided, bedrock constitutional principles dictate that women who reside in states that have banned access to comprehensive reproductive care must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

The Justice Department asked a federal judge to consider its view as he decides the issue. Marshall indicated he welcomed the fight.

“Attorney General Marshall is prepared to defend our pro-life laws against this most recent challenge by the Biden Administration and, as always, welcomes the opportunity,” Marshall’s office said in a statement Thursday evening.

The legal dispute in Alabama comes as several Texas counties have enacted ordinances, which would be enforced through private lawsuits, seeking to block travel on local roads to get to where abortion is legal. The measures would not punish women who are seeking an abortion but would present legal risks to people who help transport them to get the procedure.

The two Alabama lawsuits seek a ruling clarifying that people and groups can assist women leaving the state for an abortion. One lawsuit was filed by the Yellowhammer Fund, a group that stopped providing financial assistance to low-income abortion patients because of prosecution concerns. The other was filed by an obstetrician and two former abortion clinics that continue to provide contraception and other health services.


California
Man who spent 25 years in prison for murder exonerated
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man who has spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit was exonerated and ordered released by a judge on Thursday after prosecutors agreed he had been wrongly convicted.

Miguel Solorio, 44, was arrested in 1998 for a fatal drive-by shooting in Whittier, southeast of Los Angeles, and eventually sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Superior Court Judge William Ryan overturned Solorio’s conviction during a Los Angeles court hearing that Solorio attended remotely.

When the hearing concluded, Solorio thanked his attorneys with the Northern California Innocence Project, calling them his “dream team.”

“It’s like a dream I don’t want to wake up from,” he said. “This day finally came.”

The attorneys who petitioned for Solorio’s release argued that his conviction was based on faulty eyewitness identification practices.

In a letter last month, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said it had “confidently and definitively” concluded that Solorio is entitled to be released.

His attorneys said the case against Solorio relied heavily on a now-debunked method of identifying a suspect that results in contaminating the witnesses’ memory by repeatedly showing photos of the same person over and over.

In Solorio’s case, before it was in the news four eyewitnesses shown his photo did not identify him as the suspect, and some even pointed to a different person. But rather than pursue other leads, law enforcement continued to present the witnesses with photos of Solorio until some of them eventually identified him, his lawyers said.

“This case is a tragic example of what happens when law enforcement officials develop tunnel vision in their pursuit of a suspect,” said Sarah Pace, an attorney with the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Clara University School of Law. “Once a witness mentioned Solorio’s name, law enforcement officers zeroed in on only him, disregarding other evidence and possible suspects, and putting their own judgment about guilt or innocence above the facts.”

The district attorney’s letter noted that “new documentable scientific consensus emerged in 2020 that a witness’s memory for a suspect should be tested only once, as even the test itself contaminates the witness’s memory.”

The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has up to five days to process Solorio’s release from Mule Creek State Prison southeast of Sacramento.