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A former Kentucky police officer with the Providence (Ky.) Police Department was charged by federal grand jury indictment with two counts of willfully violating the civil rights of an arrestee and one count of obstructing justice by filing a false report.
A Kansas man was charged with hate crime and firearm offenses in the shooting of three men, including two Indian nationals, at an Olathe bar on February 22, 2017. The grand jury indictment accuses the defendant of shooting and killing one Indian national and attempting to kill another due to the victims’ actual and perceived race, color, religion, and national origin. It also alleges the defendant violated a federal firearms statute by discharging a firearm during those crimes of violence.
Four current and former Florida police officers were charged with using excessive force against an arrestee, filing false reports, and obstructing justice during the investigation. The indictment alleges that while serving as patrol officers and conducting a traffic stop of a vehicle, three of the officers assaulted a passenger in the vehicle. They further aided and abetted one another in falsifying a report of the incident.
A New Jersey husband and wife were convicted on charges arising from a scheme to smuggle a young Kenyan woman into the United States and harbor and exploit her for domestic labor in their New Jersey home. Both defendants were convicted of alien harboring for financial gain and conspiracy. The wife was also convicted of fraudulently obtaining naturalization as a United States citizen by falsely denying involvement in the criminal scheme, and was acquitted on one count of making false statements in connection with the investigation.
The Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with the City of Des Plaines, Illinois, to resolve allegations that the City violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) when it denied a rezoning application to allow The Society of American Bosnians and Herzegovinans (SABAH), a Bosnian Muslim religious organization, to use a vacant building as a mosque. The agreement resolves a lawsuit the Department filed in September 2015, after conducting an investigation into the City’s zoning and land use practices.
A prisoner-transport officer was arrested in Stockton, California on charges related to sexually assaulting females in his custody, and threatening them with a firearm while doing so. According to the complaint and probable cause affidavit, the defendant operates a company that contracts with local jails throughout the country to transport individuals who have been arrested on out-of-state warrants. He allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct in his vehicle with three different female prisoners during three different transports. He threatened each victim with his firearm and warned that he would get away with his conduct because no one would believe the victims.
A Mississippi corrections officer was sentenced to 5 years of probation with 12 weeks of weekend confinement for conspiring to cover up the beating of an inmate. The defendant acknowledged that he submitted false reports and lied to the FBI in order to prevent knowledge of the beating from reaching outside authorities. A second defendant was sentenced to 5 years of probation, 14 weeks of weekend confinement, and a $500 fine for failing to protect the victim during the beating.
The Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with Pierce County Transportation Benefit Area Corporation of Pierce County, Washington. The settlement resolves allegations that Pierce Transit violated the employment rights of a Washington Army National Guard Member guaranteed by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).
The Justice Department reached a settlement with the city of Jacksonville, Florida, to resolve allegations that the city violated the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act when it refused to allow the development of permanent supportive housing for individuals with disabilities in its Springfield neighborhood. The settlement, which must still be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, resolves a lawsuit the department filed in December 2016. That lawsuit was consolidated with similar ones brought by Ability Housing, Inc. and Disability Rights Florida, which were resolved in a separate settlement with the city.
The Justice Department reached a settlement with the City of Jackson, Mississippi to resolve allegations that the city violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by preventing people in recovery from alcohol and substance abuse from living in group homes in most residential areas. The settlement, which must still be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, resolves a lawsuit the department filed in September 2016.
A North Carolina man was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $19,200 in restitution after pleading guilty on November 9, 2016, to one count of interstate transportation for prostitution and one count of using an interstate facility to promote a prostitution business enterprise.
The Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with Bernards Township, New Jersey, to resolve allegations that the Township violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) when it denied zoning approval to allow the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge to build a mosque. The agreement also resolves allegations that, while the zoning application was pending, the Township revised its zoning code to unreasonably limit any house of worship from building in the Township.
The Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with Carrillo Farm Labor, LLC (Carrillo Farm), an onion farm in Deming, New Mexico. The settlement resolves the department’s investigation of complaints that Carrillo Farm discriminated against U.S. citizens due to a hiring preference for foreign visa workers.
The Justice Department obtained a $37,000 verdict against a Montana landlord for charging a tenant with physical and psychiatric disabilities $1,000 to have a service animal. The verdict included $11,043 in compensatory damages and $20,000 in punitive damages for the tenant. It also included $6,300 for Montana Fair Housing, Inc., which assisted the tenant with her fair housing complaint.
The Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with Washington Potato Company and Pasco Processing, LLC, which operate a fruit and vegetable processing facility located in Pasco, Washington. The agreement resolves an immigration-related discrimination lawsuit the Justice Department filed against the companies on Nov. 14, 2016.
A Mississippi man was sentenced in the Southern District of Mississippi to 49 years in prison for assaulting and murdering a transgender woman. The defendant pleaded guilty to a one-count information that charged him with a violation of the Matthew Shepard, James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act involving a victim targeted because of gender identity.
A former Kentucky deputy jailer has been convicted for his role in violently assaulting a pre-trial detainee and willfully failing to provide necessary medical attention that led to his death. The defendant was convicted of using excessive force against the detainee, resulting in bodily injury, and of deliberately ignoring the detainee’s serious medical needs, also resulting in bodily injury. The jury returned the verdict after 90 minutes of deliberation, following four days of trial.
Four Texas men were indicted on federal hate crime and conspiring to cause bodily injuries to victims because of their sexual orientation. According to the indictment, from January 17 to February 7, 2017, the defendants committed home invasions in Plano, Frisco, and Aubrey, Texas. They used a social media platform for gay men to falsely identify as being gay and arrange to meet at the victim’s home. Upon entering, they assaulted the victim and made derogatory statements about the victim being gay. They have been charged with conspiracy, kidnapping, carjacking and possession of a firearm in furtherance of these crimes.
The Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with Provisional Staffing Solutions (Provisional), a temporary staffing agency located in Cranston, Rhode Island. The agreement resolves the department’s investigation into whether Provisional discriminated against non-U.S. citizens when checking their work authorization documents, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
A former Alabama corrections officer cadet with the Elmore Correctional Facility in Elmore, Alabama, pleaded guilty in federal court to a civil rights violation for assaulting a handcuffed man. The defendant admitted that, while on duty as a corrections officer trainee, he got into an argument with an inmate, who was later handcuffed and placed in a holding cell. He entered the cell and punched the inmate in the head several times causing injury.
A former Puerto Rico police officer with the Carolina Drug Unit pleaded guilty in federal court to a civil rights violation of a juvenile arrestee. According to an indictment unsealed in September 2016, the defendant and co-defendants, all Puerto Rico police officers, used excessive force against C.C., a minor arrested for drug possession, during a police operation on Nov. 15, 2014. They inflicted extreme physical pain on the victim which required him to seek treatment at a local hospital.
Three former Arkansas Juvenile Detention Center officers have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a conspiracy to assault juvenile inmates. The seven-count indictment charges that the three assaulted the detainees and then tried to cover up their misconduct. The indictment charges that, in some instances, the defendants used pepper spray on juveniles and then, rather than decontaminate them, shut them in their cells to “let them cook.”
The Justice Department reached a settlement agreement with Superior Asphalt Enterprises, Inc., DBA Frontier Roofing Supply (“Frontier”), a business with its principal location in El Paso, Texas. The settlement agreement resolves allegations that Frontier violated the employment rights of Texas Army National Guard Member Alejandro S. Booth under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).
A former Florida police detective was sentenced to 36 months in prison for stealing money from migrant workers and obstructing justice. According to evidence presented during the two-week trial, in 2013, he stopped two separate motorists, both undocumented migrant workers, in order to steal their money, in violation of their rights under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to be free from unreasonable seizures of their property. He subsequently obstructed justice by making misleading statements in order to prevent the communication of information about his crimes to federal law enforcement officers.
Three former Louisiana law enforcement officers were sentenced for abuses of inmates. The convictions of these three defendants and seven others who were sentenced in February stemmed from several incidents of abuse at the Iberia Parish Jail in 2011. During the course of an expansive investigation, 10 former Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office officials pleaded guilty to federal criminal civil rights violations. They admitted to various incidents in which deputies willfully assaulted inmates, without legal justification for doing so.
The Justice Department announced the result of an independent federal investigation into the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling on July 5, 2016, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Department found insufficient evidence to support federal criminal charges against Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD) officers. The Department reached this conclusion based on a ten-month, comprehensive, and independent investigation of the events surrounding Sterling’s death.
A former North Charleston, South Carolina, Police Department (NCPD) officer pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights offense for his fatal shooting of Walter Scott, Jr. on April 4, 2015. According to documents filed in connection with the guilty plea, the defendant, while acting as an NCPD officer, willfully used deadly force on Walter Scott, Jr. even though it was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances.
An Idaho man was sentenced to 336 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release based on his guilty plea to violently assaulting a gay man, resulting in the man’s death. The defendant was indicted by a federal grand jury on Jan. 10, 2017, with one count of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act. He pleaded guilty to the charge on Feb. 7, 2017.
Two former Arkansas Juvenile Detention Center supervisors pleaded guilty to conspiring to assault juvenile inmates. According to the guilty pleas, the defendants assaulted and physically punished juvenile detainees who posed no threat, by means that included spraying them in the face with pepper spray.
A federal judge found that the Town of Colorado City and the City of Hildale engaged in a decades-long pattern or practice of police misconduct and housing discrimination, and ordered expansive relief to remedy the violations and prevent further violations in the future. In addition to its verdict on the police-misconduct claim, the jury found that the defendants engaged in a pattern or practice of housing discrimination against persons who were not members of Warren Jeff’s faction of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS).
A Mexican man was convicted for his role in Georgia-based Mexican sex trafficking ring. He is the fourth defendant who pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking and admitted his participation in the sex trafficking of three victims. The defendants used violence, threats, intimidation, and other means to compel the young women to engage in prostitution in Georgia and Alabama for the defendants’ profit.
The Department of Justice reached a settlement agreement with BioFusion Health Products Inc., based in Rapid City, South Dakota. The settlement resolves claims that BioFusion violated USERRA when it failed to reemploy South Dakota Air National Staff Sgt. Amber Ishmael following an extended military leave and when it eventually terminated her employment.
A jury has convicted a Kentucky deputy jailer of charges related to his role in an unprovoked violent assault of a detainee at a detention center. He was convicted for deprivation of civil rights under color of law and obstruction of justice.
A California man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for federal hate crimes for firing a shotgun while yelling racist slurs at a Latino man. He was convicted in December 2016 of interfering with a person’s housing rights because of race, color, or national origin by use of force or threat of force; use of a firearm during a crime of violence; and making a false statement to a special agent of the FBI.
A California man was sentenced to 15 years in prison for federal hate crimes for firing a shotgun while yelling racist slurs at a Latino man. He was convicted in December 2016 of interfering with a person’s housing rights because of race, color, or national origin by use of force or threat of force; use of a firearm during a crime of violence; and making a false statement to a special agent of the FBI.
The Civil Rights Division partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s U.S. Fire Administration on this year’s Arson Awareness Week, May 7-13, with a focus on Preventing Arson at Houses of Worship.
A Michigan man was sentenced to 235 months in prison after being convicted by jury of one count of sex trafficking and three counts of interstate transportation for prostitution. According to evidence and testimony presented at trial, the defendant prostituted three women for his profit at various times between October 2014 and April 2015. He transported them from Michigan to Kentucky and other states for the purpose of prostitution.
The Justice Department reached an agreement with Brickell Financial Services Motor Club, Inc., d/b/a Road America Motor Club, Inc. (Road America), headquartered in Miami, Florida. The settlement resolves the department’s investigation into whether the company violated the INA by discriminating against work-authorized immigrants when verifying their work authorization.
Two Ohio men were sentenced to 7 and 2 years in prison, respectively, for beating an African-American stranger they saw on the street. Both men pleaded guilty in November to violating the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
A Florida man pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring with others to threaten, intimidate, and interfere with an interracial couple’s enjoyment of their housing rights. According to court documents, the defendant joined others in using racial slurs against, making derogatory statements against, and placing a gasoline-soaked cross in the yard of, an interracial couple who had recently moved in to the neighborhood.
The Justice Department cautioned employers petitioning for H-1B visas not to discriminate against U.S. workers. The warning came as the federal government began accepting employers’ H-1B visa petitions for the next fiscal year.
A Florida man was ordered to pay $1,179,000.00 in restitution to six victims of his sex trafficking and interstate prostitution enterprise. Last month, the court sentenced the defendant to serve 482 months’ imprisonment and a lifetime of supervised release.
A Tennessee man was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by 3 years of supervised release for sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and related drug offenses. An investigation revealed that the defendant threatened – and did – withhold Oxycodone from a woman addicted to the drug as a means to compel her to prostitution for his profit. He also assaulted and threatened physical harm against the woman. The defendant pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to commit commercial sex trafficking and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances.
A Florida man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex trafficking and related violations. The court’s sentence arose from the defendant’s scheme to recruit foreign students on false promises of legitimate summer jobs, and then to advertise them to customers of his prostitution and erotic massage enterprise.