The Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced today that they filed a statement of interest to explain the application of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to lenders relying on discriminatory home appraisals. The statement of interest was filed in Connolly, et al. v. Lanham, et al., a lawsuit currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland alleging that an appraiser and a lender violated the FHA and ECOA by lowering the valuation of a home because the owners were Black and by denying a mortgage refinancing application based on that appraisal.
A federal grand jury in the Western District of Texas returned a three-count indictment that was unsealed today, charging a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer with deprivation of rights under color of law and the falsification of a document in a federal investigation.
Former New Orleans Police Officer Sentenced for Sexually Assaulting a 15-Year-Old Girl
A former police officer with the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) was sentenced in federal court to 14 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old crime victim in violation of her constitutional rights.
Justice Department Files Sexual Harassment Lawsuit Against Michigan Rental Property Owner
The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit under the Fair Housing Act against the owner and manager of rental properties in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.
After a six-day trial, a federal jury convicted former Bureau of Prisons Lieutenant Kevin Pearce, 38, on two counts of obstruction for writing false reports about the assaults of two federal inmates by corrections officers under Pearce’s command. The defendant is a former supervisor at U.S. Penitentiary Big Sandy in Inez, Kentucky. Two former officers, Samuel Patrick and Clinton Pauley previously pleaded guilty for their roles in the two assaults and testified for the government at trial.
A federal jury convicted a local woman on Friday of mailing communications containing threats to injure others in November and December 2020.
A federal grand jury in Gainesville, Florida, returned a six-count indictment charging David Emanuel, 61, with committing hate crimes for his racially motivated attack on a group of Black men who were surveying land along a public road in Cedar Key, Florida.
The Justice Department today announced a settlement agreement with the Twin Valley School District in Vermont to resolve its investigation into complaints of student-on-student harassment based on race and sex.
Georgia White Supremacist Sentenced for Federal Hate Crime for Racially-Motivated Shootings
A federal judge in Atlanta today sentenced Larry Edward Foxworth, 48, of Jonesboro, Georgia, to 240 months in prison for shooting into two convenience stores attempting to kill those inside because he believed they were Black or Arab.
A federal grand jury in the Western District of Wisconsin returned a superseding indictment charging a Wisconsin man with labor and sex trafficking, production of child pornography and money laundering.