Migration Category: NCWP Old Site

New Jersey will pay $5 million to settle a race discrimination lawsuit filed by 13 African-American state troopers who claimed they were harassed and denied promotions. The settlements, which were negotiated separately for each officer, cover back pay and emotional distress, as well as $1 million in attorney fees. The lawsuit alleged that while the state police increased its representation of minority officers after a 1975 consent decree was implemented, the officers who were hired as a result were harassed and intimidated. The plaintiffs in the case also accused the New Jersey State Police of a pattern and practice of racial profiling, nearly a decade before the issue caught national headlines when two white troopers fired on a van occupied by four minority men, wounding three of the men. Racial profiling was determined to have been involved, and the case settled for $12.95 million.

A federal judge has ordered a new trial in a civil rights suit brought by relatives of Marcus Wayman, who committed suicide after a police officer allegedly threatened to tell his family that he was gay. The judge indicated that the jury’s decision went against the “credible weight of the evidence.” According to the suit, on April 17th, 1997, Officer Scott Willinsky of the Minersville, Pennsylvania Police Department discovered Wayman, then 18, and Matthew Adamick, then 17, in a parked car. Both men were arrested for underage drinking, and when confronted by police officers, admitted to have been having sex. The two men were brought to the police station where they were lectured about the Bible’s writings on the evils of homosexuality. Officer Willinsky allegedly told Wayman that if he didn’t tell his grandfather that he was gay, Officer Willinsky would do so himself. Wayman then told Adamick that he was going to kill himself. Wayman was released from custody that night, and committed suicide in his home. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has already reviewed this case once and stated that the police “should have known” that forcing Wayman to disclose his sexual orientation would violate his constitutional rights since it was “a matter of private concern.” In motions after the jury verdict, attorneys for the plaintiff urged the court to take the rare step of setting the verdict aside because it was “against the weight of the evidence.” The judge agreed, and has granted a new trial. A date has not yet been set. LEARN MORE Visit the Marcus Wayman Memorial Website

Major Carlos Jackson of the Denver Sheriff’s Office has been charged with misdemeanor domestic violence and assault for four attacks on his wife. Jackson was arrested June 17th and was later released on $2500 bail. Jackson has been placed on paid administrative leave. Jackson’s wife is from the Philippines and had communicated with Jackson for a year via the Internet before agreeing to marry him in April of this year and move to the United States. According to the police report, Jackson beat her with a belt, choked her, hit her several times on the head, threatened to kill her, and raped her. In response to concerns that Jackson would be treated lightly due to his high-ranking police position, the local District Attorney has promised that the case will be fully investigated.

Prosecutors filed additional charges last week against Officer Ronald VanRossum, a San Bernadino, California police officer accused of raping more than a dozen women while on patrol. The number of women he is accused of sexually assaulting has reached 16. VanRossum has been charged with 43 felony counts, including rape, kidnapping and assault for alleged on-duty attacks between April 2000 and November 2001. His accusers claim that VanRossum used his badge as a weapon, threatening his victims, most of who were drug addicts, with arrest if they didn’t cooperate. His bail has been set at $2 million.

A second King County, Washington sheriff’s deputy has been fired because of a permanent protection order against him that prohibits the carrying of a firearm. David Hick, a 10-year veteran of the King County Sheriff’s Office, attempted to appeal the judge’s verdict, arguing that his livelihood was at stake if he could not carry a weapon. Hick’s ex-girlfriend requested a protection order in May 2002, shortly after her relationship with Hick ended. She claimed that Hick threatened to kill her and her children, and had once forced her to place his gun against his temple, urging her to pull the trigger and kill him. King County District Court Judge Mary Ann Ottinger denied Hick’s motion to appeal. Hick was subsequently fired earlier this month on the grounds that the protection order prohibited him from holding his job because he couldn’t carry a weapon. Another King County deputy was fired in December under similar circumstances.

The Sheriff’s decision to fire the two men, and the judge’s denial of the appeal, is being praised by the domestic violence community, which has watched with aghast as the legal system frequently protects law enforcement officers who are domestic abusers, thus putting their victims and the community at risk. Studies have documented a high rate of domestic violence in police families , with most estimates suggesting a rate as high as 40%. With domestic violence so prevalent among police officers, a woman calling for police response to domestic violence is at substantial risk of having an abusive police officer respond to her call. The National Center for Women & Policing advocates for an increase in the number of women officers as a strategy to improve police response to violence against women.

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department in California has agreed to pay a record million dollar settlement to the family of Maria Teresa Macias in the landmark federal civil rights lawsuit Maria Teresa Macias vs. Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Ihde. This is the first ever monetary settlement awarded due to a police department’s negligence in protecting a domestic violence victim. The announcement came mid-trial last week at the close of dramatic testimony by Sara Rubio Hernandez detailing more than twenty attempts by her daughter, Maria Teresa Macias, to seek police protection from her violent estranged husband, Avelino Macias, who was never arrested or cited on the charges. After deputies ignored more than twenty reports in just the last few months of her life, which included accounts of sexual assault, stalking, death threats, and restraining order violations, Avelino Macias fatally shot Teresa, and then shot and seriously wounded her mother, Sara, on April 15, 1996. This landmark federal civil rights lawsuit, filed in October 1996, claimed that the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department violated Teresa’s constitutional right to equal protection of the laws. A July 2000 9th Circuit Appellate Court decision in the Macias case established for the first time and in the most unambiguous language to date, a woman’s rights to sue law enforcement when they fail to act.

Washington County, Oregon has agreed to pay over $60,000 in two lawsuits that alleged that the county did not do enough to stop a former sheriff’s deputy from sexually abusing two young girls. The County had received a child sexual assault complaint in 1991 against then-Deputy Robert Morrissey but did not properly investigate, according to the lawsuit. In addition to failure to investigate, both lawsuits alleged that the county failed to report the charge or to take steps to stop future abuse. Morrissey was arrested in April 1999 on child molestation charges, and was fired from the sheriff’s office in June 1999. In 2000, Morrissey was convicted on 4 counts of first-degree sexual abuse. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Washington County has admitted no wrong doing in the case, stressing the fact that Morrissey was off-duty when the abuse occurred. The County says it is settling only to avoid future legal fees. The settlement is substantially less than the over $2 million that had been requested by the victims’ families.

Tom Green, a convicted Utah polygamist, was convicted yesterday of raping his 13-year-old “wife,” Linda Kunz, in 1986. Green will be sentenced on August 16 and could face life in prison for a conviction of felony child-rape. Green was found guilty in 30 minutes by Fourth District Judge Donald Eyre during a non-jury trial that lasted about an hour. Prosecutors submitted Kunz’s 1973 birth certificate and the 1986 birth certificate of the couples’ first child, Melvin, who is now 15. “Basically, this case comes down to math,” Eyre told Fox News. “We know a normal human gestation takes nine months.” While Green admitted to having sexual intercourse with Kunz in 1986, Green’s defense attorneys claimed that Utah authorities had no jurisdiction in the case because the couple conceived their son while vacationing in Mexico.

Green, 54, is currently serving up to five years in prison after he was convicted last year of being married to five women at the same time – a practice he claims adheres to the original tenets of the Mormon Church. The state of Utah decided to prosecute Green after he took his five wives and 33 children on national television to promote the idea of polygamy. He was also charged with failing to pay back the state for child support that was given for 30 of his children. The five women and 29 of their children continue to live in a compound on the Utah-Nevada border where they support themselves by selling magazine subscriptions. More than 100,000 people currently practice polygamy in the United States, according to Tapestry Against Polygamy, an organization that works to help women out of polygamist situations.

With the passage of a new California state law, the battered women’s syndrome may now be used to seek the reversal of convictions of women serving time for killing their abusers before 1992, when the argument was deemed lawful. Many of the 442 women currently incarcerated for pre-1992 murder or attempted murder convictions may benefit from this law, according to battered women supporters. Through a pro-bono legal project operated by the California Women’s Law Center, the University of Southern California’s Post-Conviction Justice Project, and the California Coalition for Battered Women in Prison, two-dozen volunteer attorneys will seek re-examination for the cases of a group of 26 inmates. Encouraged by the law’s potential reach beyond California, staff attorney with the battered women coalition Olivia Wang said: “What happens here in California very likely is going to start a trend nationwide.”

In addition to its potential to overturn convictions, the law also influences parole determinations. Unfortunately, its impact there has been less promising. Last week, Gov. Gray Davis rejected parole for Maria Suarez, incarcerated since 1981 for killing Anselmo Covarrubias who purchased her as a sex slave when she was 16. Suarez’s niece Patricia Valencia told the San Francisco Chronicle: “I don’t have any comprehensionÉ For women who are caught in situations similar to my aunt’s, how can they feel protected by our government?” The state’s parole boardÑappointed by DavisÑis presently reviewing 100 claims by women requesting consideration of domestic violence evidence, according to David McAuley, chief investigator for the California’s Board of Prison Terms. Thus far, battered women’s syndrome has been named as a factor in 14 of those cases. Davis has opposed his board’s recommendations calling for the women’s release in seven of nine board hearings involving battered women convicted of killing their abusers before 1992.

Virginia’s House Speaker resigned yesterday after a growing number of Virginia Republicans, led by state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, denounced him for several sexual harassment allegations. S. Vance Wilkins Jr., who led the GOP to a majority in the state’s House of Delegates, resigned six days after The Washington Post reported that he had paid $100,000 to a 26-year-old woman who claims Wilkins made repeated improper sexual advances toward her last summer. According to the Post, Wilkins admitted to paying Jennifer Thompson an out-of-court settlement “to protect the caucus” but denies that he sexually accosted her several times in her office. Two other woman have come forward with allegations since the Post’s report was published.

“I don’t blame anyone for my troubles. Most of them I brought on myself,” Wilkins said in a statement that he read to reporters yesterday during a 45-minute telephone conference. “But times have changed and the rules have changed and what was accepted in the era in which I was raised is strictly off limits today.” Wilkins also said that he was sure that other women were on the verge of going public with harassment complaints against him. He said that colleagues had warned him some years ago to stop what he called his “huggy” ways. Wilkins resigned after members of the Republican caucus, which includes eight women, said they were entirely unsatisfied by Wilkin’s incomplete answers to their questions regarding the accusations. Wilkins met with the caucus for three hours on Monday; the group had scheduled an emergency meeting Tuesday to decide his political fate. “The Virginia Speaker’s resignation shows a pervasive change in our culture,” said Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal. “People in high places can’t get away with sexual harassment.”

The Los Angeles Police Department has officially begun its search for a new chief. Public meetings commenced last week to offer the community an opportunity to express opinions on the matter, and the Los Angeles Police Commission will soon be releasing its criteria for the position. The National Center for Women & Policing and the Feminist Majority Foundation have a long history of calling for reform of the troubled LAPD, and have challenged city leaders to seize this opportunity to choose a leader who will truly make change in the department. The two groups reminded the City Council and the Police Commission of the motions unanimously approved by the City Council in 1992 and 1993 that urged the LAPD to move towards gender balancing the department and set guidelines for outreaching to women candidates for the position of chief, and for evaluating a candidate for chief’s record on recruiting and retaining women and responding to domestic violence crimes. Rumors that Mark Kroeker, the current Chief of the Portland Police Bureau and a former LAPD officer, is in the running for the position have prompted objections from the gay and lesbian community and domestic violence advocates. While Kroeker worked for the LAPD he was a member of what was known inside the Department as the ‘God Squad’ and preached to other officers about the evils of a homosexual lifestyle and a woman’s need to be submissive to her husband. In an audiotape made in 1989 Kroeker stated that one of the reasons for the downfall of American society is that women don’t understand their submissive role in the family.

Last week, a federal judge declared Michigan’s Sex Offender Registration Act unconstitutional, thereby striking down not only the controversial internet site that posted a list of 29,000 convicted sex offenders, but also the more detailed confidential list that was used by police departments to keep track of sex offender’s whereabouts. The Michigan Attorney General’s office has asked the Court to delay enforcement of the decision, arguing that the Judge did not understand that the police list would technically be illegal as well. The appeal will come before the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in the coming months. However, until the judge clarifies her ruling, the police have stopped tracking sex offenders. Opponents of the sex offender registry were taken aback that the police list applied to the judge’s ruling, having only objected to the public posting of the information on the Internet. The Michigan ruling comes two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear a Connecticut case which could result in requiring states to evaluate each offender’s potential threat before posting the offender’s name on a public registry. Michigan’s registry was created in 1994 for law enforcement use, and became public in 1999.

Senate Republicans thwarted passage of legislation yesterday that would strengthen federal hate crime laws and broaden them to include offenses motivated by gender, sexual orientation and disabilities. Senate Democrats pulled the legislation (S 625) off the floor after a cloture vote aiming to move the bill ahead failed by 54 to 43 – 60 votes were needed to force action. “Senate Republicans made clear that they will not take action to fight terrorism at home,” co-sponsor Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), told the Associated Press. “Today’s vote is a clear sign of the lack of commitment by Senate Republicans on this basic civil rights issue.”

All but four Republicans voted against limiting debate on the bill, saying that Democrats did not allow enough time to make amendments. Senate Democrats claim that the 40 to 50 amendments planned by Republicans on issues ranging from human cloning to defense authorization were meant to kill the bill. The bill has passed the Senate twice in the past three years, but has failed in the House twice in recent years. Despite this latest defeat, however, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) vowed yesterday to bring the bill back to the Senate floor.

Senate Democrats are forcing a vote today to limit debate on a bill that would provide federal assistance to states and local authorities prosecuting hate crimes. This bill (S 625) would also expand the federal definition of hate crimes to include those motivated by a person’s gender, sexual orientation or disability and would apply regardless of when or where a hate crime is committed.

Senate Democrats are bringing the bill to a cloture vote in an effort to stave off Republican attempts to kill the bill with 40 to 50 amendments on issues ranging from human cloning to defense authorization. “Everybody is going to say they’re against hate crimes,” said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT). “But if we’re against them, then let’s pass laws that give our law enforcement the teeth to go after hate crimes. Let’s not go through the fiction of trying to amend this bill to death.”

Republicans have admonished Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) for bringing up the hate crimes bill when the nation is at war and the defense authorization measure (S 2514) is waiting in the wings. However, Republican Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, one of the bill’s most outspoken supporters, told Capitol Spotlight that the nation’s war on international terrorism shouldn’t block efforts to protect individuals from “domestic terrorism.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has decided against proceeding with a federal civil rights probe into the Miami-Dade County Police. However, the Department will continue with its investigation of the municipal Miami Police Department and the allegations of racially motivated shootings that have prompted outrage in the African-American Miami community. Representative Carrie Meek expressed concern over the Department’s decision to investigate one agency and not the other, claiming that mistrust in the minority communities exists for both departments. The Coalition Against Police Brutality and Harassment noted that the County Police have shot and killed four suspects this year, three of whom were African-American men, and that misconduct is being alleged in each instance. Miami is still reeling over the indictment of 13 Miami PD officers who were involved in what was determined to be racially motivated fatal shootings of three African-American men. Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas stated that the Department of Justice’s decision gives further credibility to his desire to create a civilian oversight panel for both of the county’s police departments. Penelas’ proposal will be voted on in a countywide referendum this Fall.

The NYPD Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association has defeated a motion to change its name to the Police Benevolent Association. The modernization of the association’s name would have accurately reflected the composition of its members, which include over 3,000 women. Many felt the change was not only long overdue, considering women have been in the NYPD since the 19th century, but was certain to be passed in special consideration of the death of Officer Moira Smith on September 11th. Although receiving a majority of votes, the motion needed a two-thirds majority for passage. For many women of the NYPD, the vote sadly makes clear they are not accepted by all of their male colleagues. Others have argued that the defeat was not surprising considering the NYPD’s history, one in which women weren’t allowed to take promotional exams until the 1960’s and weren’t allowed to go on patrol until the 1970’s. The current status of women certainly reflects that history, with no women board members in the police union, and no women appointed to top positions by the new commissioner. A high-ranking female NYPD officer, who asked that her name not be used, commented, “It bothers me because it isn’t representative. Times have changed, but they are not willing to change their name.”

Anti-abortion extremist James Charles Kopp was extradited from France yesterday before appearing in federal court where he pled not guilt to charges that he violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) and illegally used a firearm to commit a crime. Kopp, formerly on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, allegedly murdered Amherst, NY obstetrician/gynecologist and abortion provider Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998. According to law enforcement authorities, Dr. Slepian was killed in his home by a rifle shot. The shooter fired the rifle from a wooded area outside the home, and then fled. Investigators discovered a strand of hair at the scene that was linked to Kopp through DNA testing. Kopp’s vehicle had also been seen in Slepian’s neighborhood in the weeks before the shooting.

Eleven days after this sniper-style murder, Kopp disappeared and remained a fugitive for over two years, moving around Ireland before being captured in Dinan, France. Kopp was arrested at a post office where he was picking up money sent to him by fellow anti-abortion extremists Dennis Malvasi and Loretta Marra. Both Malvasi and Marra have been charged with harboring a fugitive.

Kopp now faces life without parole on the federal charges against him. Today, he will appear in state court on a second-degree murder charge as well as charges of reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon. Kopp – facing 25 years to life on the state charges – is expected to plead innocent. As a condition of his extradition, Kopp is not eligible for the death penalty, which is still legal in New York.

In addition to crimes in the US, Kopp is also wanted in Canada for the 1995 attempted murder of abortion provider Dr. Hugh Short and the shootings of two other abortion providers in 1994 and 1997.