After he refused to go to court the next morning, several police officers struggled with Coleman inside a cell, and police used a stun gun on him, court records said. In an incident caught on video, an officer dragged a motionless Coleman by his handcuffs.
Coleman later died at a hospital, according to court records. The Chicago Tribune reported that an autopsy showed he died of a reaction to an antipsychotic drug and also had bruises and abrasions on his body. Reuters was not able to confirm the cause of death.
Ed Fox, an attorney for the family, said that Coleman’s family and the city of Chicago had reached a settlement in the family’s civil rights lawsuit, but declined to confirm media reports that it was for $4.9 million. The city’s law department declined to comment.
— Reuters
CALIFORNIA
Court takes a stand on employee seating
The California Supreme Court made it more difficult Monday for companies to deny employees a seat while they work.
In response to class-action lawsuits against retail stores and a bank, the state high court said employers should offer workers a chair when some of their duties can be performed sitting. Employers argued that workers could be denied a seat if portions of their job required them to stand.
“There is no principled reason for denying an employee a seat when he spends a substantial part of his workday at a single location performing tasks that could reasonably be done while seated, merely because his job duties include other tasks that must be done standing,” Justice Carol A. Corrigan wrote for a unanimous court.
The ruling came in a request from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which must decide three class-action cases on the issue. The suits were filed by workers against CVS Pharmacy, Wal-Mart Stores and JPMorgan Chase Bank.
— Los Angeles Times
LOUISIANA
Alleged candy bar thief faces 20 years to life
A Louisiana man accused of stuffing $31 worth of candy bars into his pockets faces a possible sentence of 20 years to life in prison, prompting a judge to question whether the sentence was “over the top.”
Orleans Parish prosecutors chose to charge Jacobia Grimes, 34, under a statute that boosts the alleged candy theft to a felony. The law applies to people who have been convicted of “theft of goods” at least twice. Grimes has five prior theft convictions, making him a “quad” offender under the state’s habitual-offender law.
Grimes, 34, pleaded not guilty Thursday, the New Orleans Advocate reported. The possible sentence raised questions from Judge Franz Zibilich, who was overseeing Grimes’s arraignment last week. “Isn’t this a little over the top?” Zibilich asked. “Twenty years to life for a Snickers bar, or two or three or four.”
Grimes’s attorneys, Miles Swanson and Michael Kennedy, said his prior guilty pleas were for similar shoplifting attempts, including stealing from Rite Aid and Sav-A-Center stores.
Grimes, who also faces a charge of drug paraphernalia possession, is free on $5,000 bond, court records show. His attorneys say he has a heroin problem.
— Associated Press
TENNESSEE
Five killed in crash
of sightseeing copter
Five people were killed Monday when a sightseeing helicopter crashed and burned in the Smoky Mountains area of eastern Tennessee, authorities said.
No one on the ground was injured in the crash, said Dean Flener, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. He confirmed that five people were killed, but had no further information.
The owner of Smoky Mountain Helicopters said the crash occurred in Sevier County, about 200 miles east of Nashville, TV station WVLT reported.
“[It’s] just a burnt mess. . . . There’s not much left,” Jack Baldwin, the chief of police in Pigeon Forge, was quoted as saying by TV station WBIR.
Police and the helicopter company could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Federal Aviation Administration said local authorities notified them that a Bell 206 sightseeing helicopter crashed near Sevierville at 3:30 p.m. The helicopter was destroyed by fire, local authorities told the FAA.
The FAA did not have details on fatalities and was awaiting information from the scene.
The helicopter company has been offering sightseeing flights of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and surrounding areas since 1964, according to its website.
—Reuters
