Connect with us

Louisiana

Former Louisiana trooper seeks $200K from state for excessive force defenses

Published

on

Former Louisiana trooper seeks 0K from state for excessive force defenses


BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – A former Louisiana state trooper argues that the state government owes him more than $200,000 in attorneys fees he spent defending himself against criminal charges related to his time on the force.

Former Trooper Jacob Brown racked up a $210,813.40 legal fee after hiring lawyers to defend him, according to a complaint filed in the 19th Judicial District earlier this month.

According to the Associated Press (AP), Brown, who patrolled in north Louisiana, was involved in 23 use-of-force incident between 2015 and 2021. Nineteen of those incidents targeted Black people, the AP reported.

In one case involving the violent arrest of a Black motorist, Brown told fellow troopers “it warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.”

Advertisement

In 2021, he resigned after being arrested for hitting a Black man 18 times in the head with a flashlight. Last year, a federal jury acquitted Brown of violating the civil rights of the man. The incident, captured on video, left the man with a broken jaw and ribs. Brown said the blows were used as “pain compliance” as he tried to detain the motorist, the AP reported.

A state charge brought against Brown in the 5th Judicial District tied to yet another matter was also dismissed, according to Brown’s lawsuit.

Attorney Russell Woodard Jr. represents Brown. In the lawsuit seeking reimbursement, Woodard cites state law which allows for law enforcement officers to collect reimbursement for attorney fees in criminal cases where the crime occurred while the suspect was working on behalf of the state and the incident did not end with a conviction.

The law also requires that the officer be “acting in good faith” at the time.

Brown attorney says his client was indeed acting in good faith during the incidents that landed him in court.

Advertisement

Click here to report a typo.



Source link

Louisiana

17 states, including Louisiana, file lawsuit challenging Section 504

Published

on

17 states, including Louisiana, file lawsuit challenging Section 504


Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a national law that protects qualified individuals from discrimination based on their disability.

The nondiscrimination requirements of the law apply to employers and organizations that receive financial assistance from any Federal department or agency, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Now a lawsuit filed by 17 states, including Louisiana, challenges the Biden administration’s 2024 update to Section 504, which includes gender dysphoria in the definition of disability.

KATC spoke with Charlotte Cravins and her one-year-old son Landry, who has Down syndrome and is blind in one eye. We asked her how she felt about lawmakers trying to declare Section 504 unconstitutional in the lawsuit.

Advertisement

“I was honestly shocked by it. People like Landry and other disabled people need protections more than anyone. Prior to these protections, they were institutionalized and sent to the margins of society. Without these protections, I’m really scared that could happen again,” Cravins said.

Copy of the lawsuit
KATC

KATC

KATC asked Cravins about Landry’s portable oxygen machine.

“One side effect of Down syndrome is something called a floppy airway, which is caused by low muscle tone. This helps him get some oxygen support and keep his airway open,” Cravins says.

The states have now submitted a joint status report saying that they do not wish to have all of Section 504 deemed unconstitutional, but this does not ease Landry’s mother’s worries.

Advertisement

“I think Louisiana should withdraw from the lawsuit because you’re willing to gamble disability protections for this one part of the law you’re objecting to,” Cravins said.

According to a statement from Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill,

“I support Section 504 protections for people with disabilities. I do NOT support continuing with that particular part of the lawsuit. The case is in the process of settling, and I believe that particular claim will ultimately be dropped out of the lawsuit.”

For Cravins, lawsuit or not, she is prepared to advocate for her son and ensure his future is secure.

“I’m here to fight for Landry and people like him,” Cravins said.

Advertisement
Charlotte Cravin's son, Landry

Charlotte Cravins

That statement by the Attorney General also states:

“We are actively seeking a resolution with the Trump administration that would withdraw these rules while still protecting The Americans with Disabilities Act’s traditional coverage and interpretation. The Biden administration’s rule would threaten federal funding for disabled Louisianans and take away healthcare options for those covered by Medicaid if Louisiana did not comply with its radical agenda.”

To read the lawsuit in full, click here.





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Louisiana

Louisiana’s oldest death row inmate dies less than month before execution date

Published

on

Louisiana’s oldest death row inmate dies less than month before execution date


A terminally ill man who spent over 30 years on death row in Louisiana for the killing of his stepson died days after a March date was scheduled for his execution by nitrogen gas.

Christopher Sepulvado, 81, died Saturday at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, “from natural causes as a result of complications arising from his pre-existing medical conditions,” according to the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

He was the oldest of the 57 inmates on death row as the state weighed resuming executions after a 15-year pause, CBS affiliate WWL-TV reported.

Sepulvado was charged with the 1992 killing of his 6-year-old stepson after the boy came home from school with soiled underwear. Sepulvado was accused of hitting him on the head with a screwdriver and immersing him in scalding water. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1993.

Advertisement

His attorney, federal public defender Shawn Nolan, said in a statement Sunday that doctors recently determined Sepulvado was terminally ill and recommended hospice care. Nolan described his client’s “significant” physical and cognitive decline in recent years.

“Christopher Sepulvado’s death overnight in the prison infirmary is a sad comment on the state of the death penalty in Louisiana,” Nolan said. “The idea that the state was planning to strap this tiny, frail, dying old man to a chair and force him to breathe toxic gas into his failing lungs is simply barbaric.”

According to Nolan, Sepulvado had been sent to New Orleans for surgery earlier in the week but was returned to the prison Friday night. According to WWL-TV, Sepulvado’s health had sharply declined, and COPD and gangrene led to a recent leg amputation.

Louisiana officials decided to resume carrying out death sentences earlier this month after a 15 year pause driven by a lack of political interest and the inability to secure legal injection drugs. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry pushed to proceed with a new nitrogen gas execution protocol after the state’s GOP-dominated Legislature last year expanded death row execution methods to include electrocution and nitrogen gas.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement that “justice should have been delivered long ago for the heinous act of brutally beating then scalding to death a defenseless six-year-old boy.”

Advertisement
Louisiana Nitrogen Death Penalty
Death Row building at the Louisiana State Penitentiary Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, in Angola, La.

Judi Bottoni / AP


Murrill added that Louisiana failed to deliver justice in his lifetime “but Christopher Sepulvado now faces ultimate judgment before God in the hereafter.”

Sepulvado’s execution was scheduled for March 17. Another man, Jessie Hoffman, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and slated for execution on March 18. Hoffman initially challenged Louisiana’s lethal injection protocol in 2012 on the grounds that the method was cruel and unusual punishment. A federal judge on Friday reopened that lawsuit after it was dismissed in 2022 because the state had no executions planned.

The country’s first execution using nitrogen gas was carried out last year in Alabama, which has now executed four people using the method.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Louisiana

Louisiana man with execution date next month dies at Angola

Published

on

Louisiana man with execution date next month dies at Angola


A federal appellate court this week refused to throw out a ban on housing incarcerated youth at Angola. (Photo credit: Jarvis DeBerry/Louisiana Illuminator)

Christopher Sepulvado, the 81-year-old man who was facing execution next month for the 1992 murder of his stepson, died overnight at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, according to his attorney.

Shawn Nolan, who had represented Sepulvado, said was sent to a New Orleans hospital last week for a leg amputation. Doctors instead sent him back to Angola, and it is believed the infection ultimately claimed Sepulvado’s life, according to Cecelia Kappel, another attorney representing death row clients.

Doctors had previously determined Sepulvado, who had multiple serious ailments, was terminally ill and recommended hospice care at the time a judge set his execution date for March 17, according to Nolan.

Advertisement

“Christopher Sepulvado’s death overnight in the prison infirmary is a sad comment on the state of the death penalty in Louisiana,” Nolan said in a statement. “The idea that the State was planning to strap this tiny, frail, dying old man to a chair and force him to breathe toxic gas into his failing lungs is simply barbaric.”

Sepulvado would have the first person Louisiana put to death using nitrogen hypoxia, a method state lawmakers and Gov. Jeff Landry approved last year. The death penalty hasn’t been carried out in Louisiana since 2010, when Gerald Bordelon, 47, received a lethal injection for the kidnapping and murder of his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Courtney LeBlanc, in Livingston Parish.

Next on Louisiana’s execution calendar is Jessie Hoffman, 46, who was sentenced to die for the 1996 rape and murder of 28-year-old Mary “Molly” Elliot. Authorities said Hoffman abducted Elliot in downtown New Orleans and brought her to St. Tammany Parish, where he raped and murdered her, leaving her body in a remote area near the Pearl River.   

Hoffman is scheduled to die March 18, though attorneys are challenging Louisiana’s new execution method in court on behalf of 10 death row inmates. There are currently 57 people facing the death penalty in the state.

DeSoto Parish Judge Amy Burford McCartney issued a death warrant Feb. 12 for Sepulvado for the killing of  6-year-old Wesley Allen Mercer. Police said the boy was beaten and scalded to death. His mother, Yvonne Jones, was convicted of manslaughter and served more than seven years in prison. 

Advertisement

Sepulvado was previously scheduled to die by lethal injection in 2013, but his attorney successfully argued that Louisiana officials could not provide enough information on the drugs being used to execute him. The lack of those details constituted cruel and unusual punishment, a federal judge ruled.

Multiple execution dates for Sepulvado have since been handed down and subsequently suspended as lawyers for him and other death row inmates have challenged the use of lethal injection.

Sepulvado’s motion for reconsideration was denied in November 2022, but U.S. District Judge Shelley Dick, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, agreed Friday to reopen the case. 

This is a developing story.

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending