Judge who ridiculed lawyer on livestream is off the bench
CHICAGO — Cook County Judge William Raines has been taken off the bench of his felony courtroom after he was caught on a YouTube livestream last week mocking an attorney who had argued before him earlier that day.
According to an order signed Tuesday by Chief Judge Timothy Evans, Raines has been reassigned to “restricted duties or duties other than judicial duties,” which generally focus on paperwork. He also must undergo sensitivity training and gender bias counseling, and the matter will be referred to the Judicial Inquiry Board.
Raines appeared with an attorney before the Circuit Court’s executive committee Tuesday and “expressed contrition,” according to the order.
The subject of the ridicule, attorney Jennifer Bonjean, said last week she would make a complaint against Raines to the Judicial Inquiry Board, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing by Illinois judges and can file formal charges against those judges with the Illinois Courts Commission.
Bonjean had participated in animated arguments Jan. 11 regarding the case of Roosevelt Myles, who is trying to get his decades-old murder conviction dismissed.
Later that day, at the end of Raines’ livestreamed court call, the judge mentioned Bonjean to two Cook County prosecutors and an assistant public defender who remained on the video conference. The attorneys who participated in the conversation were not involved in the Myles case.
“Can you imagine waking up next to her every day? Oh, my God,” Raines said.
Raines also went on to call Bonjean’s colleague a “man-child,” and ridiculed her demeanor earlier that day.
—Chicago Tribune
2nd suspect in Haiti president’s murder extradited to US
MIAMI — A key suspect in the murder investigation of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was arrested Wednesday by federal agents in Miami after being extradited to the United States.
Rodolphe Jaar, a Haitian businessman who had been convicted of U.S. cocaine-trafficking charges a decade ago, was detained by Dominican authorities earlier this month after crossing into the country following months of hiding in neighboring Haiti.
The arrest of Jaar, known as “Dodof,” in the Dominican Republic came six months to the day after a hit squad allegedly made up of Colombian commandos, Haitian police officers and others piled into vehicles from Jaar’s home in Petionville and drove to the president’s nearby residence to carry out his assassination.
Jaar is expected to have his first appearance in Miami federal court on Thursday. A criminal complaint and affidavit charging him in the conspiracy case targeting Haiti’s president has not been unsealed.
In early January, U.S. authorities had arrested a former Colombian sergeant, Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, who had fled to Jamaica after months of hiding in Haiti and was deported back to Colombia by a Jamaican judge. During a layover in Panama, he was detained and told there was an arrest warrant for him in the U.S.
U.S. investigators have their sights on a third suspect who is currently in custody in Jamaica.
—Miami Herald
India’s Congress party pins revival on women in state poll
NEW DELHI — An actress jailed for protesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s controversial citizenship law, the mother of a rape survivor, and a beauty pageant winner. These are the women leading India’s once-dominant Congress party as it seeks to reinvent itself in a hotly contested state election.
The slew of female candidates in India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh is part of a new campaign led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a scion of India’s once-powerful Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. With a catchy slogan “I’m a girl and I can fight” in Hindi, the campaign underscores the growing importance of women voters in the world’s largest democracy.
Vadra has pledged 40% of Congress party’s candidates for the 403-seat state assembly will be women. She has met that promise in the first list of candidates her party announced for the state polls that will be carried out in seven phases beginning Feb. 10. The election results will be released March 10.
“If you have suffered in the past, you have to fight and grab power to fight for your rights,” Vadra said in a video posted on Twitter last week. Congress party’s list of candidates is a new kind of politics, she added.
—Bloomberg News
Alleged shooter didn't display bullets at school, district says
DETROIT — School officials did not discover ammunition on display by Ethan Crumbley the day before the Nov. 30 Oxford High School shooting, the district's superintendent wrote in a statement disputing multiple accusations made in a lawsuit against the district.
Oxford School District's Superintendent Tim Throne blasted the lawsuit, filed by attorney Geoffrey Fieger on behalf of a student injured in the shooting, in his statement posted Tuesday on the school website.
"The school district will respond in detail to the false allegations and reckless statements made by Mr. Fieger," Throne wrote to community members. "Your many questions will be answered in short order as the criminal prosecution moves forward and the school district responds to the inaccurate filing by Mr. Fieger."
Namely, the statement takes issue with recent accusations made in an updated complaint filed by Fieger's firm in the suit. The complaint claims that Crumbley, accused of shooting classmates and killing four, brought bullets to class the day before the shooting and displayed them. Throne wrote that the district has "no record or report of live ammunition ever being reported at any school and we have strict protocols and procedures in place when it comes to weapons on school grounds."
Fieger's suit also claims Crumbley brought a bird's head to school in a mason jar filled with yellow liquid. An attorney with his office said video surveillance showed Crumbley to be the student responsible for the head.
—Detroit Free Press
