A federal judge ruled that Chelan County deputies plausibly alleged a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress in their complaint alleging that they were forced by two sheriff candidates to declare their allegiance during the election and were later demoted after the sheriff they did not support was elected. The deputies sufficiently alleged that using law enforcement officers for personal political gain could constitute “extreme and outrageous” conduct. However, the judge deferred deciding whether to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state-law claim.

An asylum-seeker sent to an immigration detention center in California City after being arrested and released on bond for shoplifting bananas from a store – which he says was due to a mistake at a self-checkout register after he twice asked for assistance – must be immediately released from custody. Immigration authorities violated the asylum-seeker’s procedural due process rights by detaining him for nearly seven months without providing him with a hearing, a federal judge in California ruled.

The parents of a football player who died after collapsing during a college freshmen conditioning workout on the first day of training camp in 2024 can pursue most of their claims against Bucknell University. The parents have provided sufficient facts to support their contention that the workout was “brutal,” especially for athletes like their son who were known to have sickle cell trait, and may have constituted illegal hazing under Pennsylvania law, a federal judge ruled.

An appeals court in Texas upheld a criminal defendant’s conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child, finding the trial court did not abuse its discretion in proceeding with the trial even though defendant could not be there for the first day because he was in the hospital after attempting suicide. There was sufficient evidence to support the trial court’s finding that he waived his Sixth Amendment right to be present at trial by voluntarily absenting himself from the proceedings.

A federal court in Alabama denied Walmart’s motion to dismiss vicarious liability claims brought by a customer who spent four days in jail when an off-duty police officer working as a security guard arrested him for attempting to pay $500 on his Walmart credit card with five $100 bills he thought were counterfeit. The 1996 series of $100 bills were merely old, not counterfeit, and he was acting in his capacity as a cop and not as Walmart security when he arrested the man. The court is “narrowly persuaded” the claim against Walmart should not be dismissed “at this stage of the litigation.”