Page 6 - ATODAY

A6

U.S. NEWSWednesday 14 October

Gun shop ordered to pay millions to injured police officers

Patrick Dunphy, an attorney for two Milwaukee police officers who were shot and seriously ficers, ruling that the store The officers’ lawyer, Patrick
wounded by a gun purchased at a Wisconsin gun store, speaks to the media after jurors ordered was negligent. Dunphy, said Tuesday that
the gun store to pay nearly $6 million in damages, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Milwaukee. Officer Bryan Norberg and he said his clients “feel very
former Officer Graham relieved,” though he antici-
(Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP) Kunisch were both shot in pates years of appeals.
the face after they stopped Defense attorneys declined
GREG MOORE a gun purchased at the scenes. The lawsuit said the Julius Burton for riding his to comment. The owners
Associated Press store. shop ignored several warn- bike on the sidewalk in the and operators of the gun
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jurors The ruling came in a negli- ing signs that the gun used summer of 2009. shop weren’t in court to
ordered a Wisconsin gun gence lawsuit filed by the to shoot the officers was Investigators said Burton hear the verdict.
store to pay nearly $6 mil- officers against Badger being sold to a so-called got the weapon, a Tau- The liability issues raised in
lion on Tuesday in a lawsuit Guns, a shop in suburban straw buyer who was ille- rus .40-caliber handgun, a the case gained attention
filed by two Milwaukee po- Milwaukee that authorities gally purchasing the weap- month before the confron- in the U.S. presidential cam-
lice officers who were shot have linked to hundreds on for someone else. tation, after giving $40 to paign, when Democratic
and seriously wounded by of firearms found at crime Jurors sided with the of- another man, Jacob Col- front-runner Hillary Rodham
lins, to make the purchase Clinton recently said she
at the store in West Milwau- would push for a repeal of
kee. the George W. Bush-era
One bullet shattered eight gun law that Badger Guns’
of Norberg’s teeth, blew lawyers said shielded the
through his cheek and store from such claims.
lodged into his shoulder. The gun shop’s attorneys
He remains on the force denied wrongdoing and
but said his wounds have said the owner at the time
made his work difficult. of the sale, Adam Allan,
Kunisch was shot several couldn’t be held financially
times, resulting in him los- responsible for crimes con-
ing an eye and part of the nected to a weapon sold
frontal lobe of his brain. He at his shop and that the
said the wounds forced him clerk who sold the weapon
to retire. didn’t intentionally commit
Jurors ordered the store to a crime. Rather, they said
pay Norberg $1.5 million the salesman had been
and Kunisch $3.6 million. duped by Collins and Bur-
The jury also ruled the store ton, who went out of their
must pay $730,000 in puni- way to deceive him.q
tive damages.

Lawsuit: Court illegally jails people who can’t pay fines

JEFF AMY Similar suits have been filed people a free pass or giv- All of the plaintiffs owed city be barred from jail-
Associated Press in Alabama, Louisiana and ing poor folks a get-out- at least $1,200 in fines and ing people without check-
JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) Missouri. All accuse court of-jail-free card,” said Cliff fees. The lawyers said none ing defendants’ ability to
— Seven people have systems of ignoring U.S. Su- Johnson, a lawyer for the had a job or any significant pay. They also want a ban
sued Mississippi’s capital preme Court decisions that MacArthur Justice Center. assets when they were ar- on forcing people to work
city, saying its municipal say courts must determine “This is about not punish- rested. All faced orders to while in jail. The suit also asks
court illegally jailed them whether people have the ing people for the fact that pay at least 65 percent of a judge to order the city to
because they couldn’t pay ability to pay fines before they’re poor, in a way other fines immediately or be pay damages to people
court fines. jailing them for nonpay- people don’t experience.” jailed at the Hinds County who were jailed.
The federal lawsuit against ment. The lawyers say in- Mississippi law already Detention Center or the The city released a state-
Jackson, spearheaded by digent people must be of- states, “The defendant shall Hinds County Penal Farm. ment saying it had been
two nonprofit legal groups, fered a chance to perform not be imprisoned if the de- There, inmates can “work talking to the lawyers
is a prong in a nationwide community service or else fendant is financially un- off” their debt at $58 a day, about their concerns, but
fight over how poor people jail equals a “debtors’ pris- able to pay a fine.” It was or be credited at $25 a day will now “vigorously defend
should be treated by the on.” affirmed in a 1984 state Su- if they can’t or won’t work. against these unfounded
criminal justice system. “This is not about giving preme Court decision. The plaintiffs ask that the claims.”q