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U.S. NEWS Saturday 31 auguSt 2019

This June 9, 2019, file photo shows the TSA security checkpoint in
Pittsburgh International's Landside terminal in Imperial, Pa.
Associated Press

Judges say travelers

can sue TSA over

screener mistreatment

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A U.S. perform searches for viola- In this Dec. 11, 1998 file photo, shows Jim Leavelle in Stafford, Kansas holding the iconic 1963 pho-
appeals court says travelers tions of federal law. tograph, as he escorted Lee Harvey Oswald moments before he is shot in Dallas.
Associated Press
can sue the government The court majority noted
over mistreatment by fed- that TSA calls the screeners
eral airport screeners be- officers, they wear uniforms Jim Leavelle, lawman at Lee
cause the agents can act with badges including that
like law enforcement offi- title, and hold positions of Harvey Oswald's side, dies at 99
cers, including when they authority.
conduct invasive searches. The judges also rejected
The 9-4 decision Friday by the government's argu- DALLAS (AP) — Jim day while visiting her sister "He really felt a need to ad-
the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of ment that airport screening Leavelle, the longtime Dal- in Colorado. He fell earlier dress the theories," Evers
Appeals overturned earlier is different from a search las lawman who was cap- this week and broke his hip, said. "He wanted to make
rulings and is a setback for because airline passengers tured in one of history's requiring surgery at a Den- sure that people knew
the Transportation Secu- consent to it. They said it's most iconic photographs ver hospital, Evers said Fri- there was no conspiracy
rity Administration and its indeed a search — noting as he escorted President day. He responded well to and that one misguided
screeners. that screeners can explore John F. Kennedy's assassin the surgery, she said, but person could take a shot at
The government is gener- a passenger's entire body as he was fatally shot, has then later suffered a heart a president and succeed."
ally immune from lawsuits, including sensitive areas. died. He was 99. attack. Leavelle joined the Dallas
but a federal law lets peo- A Florida woman, Nadine Leavelle, distinctive in his In the decades after the police force in 1950 and
ple sue over the actions of Pellegrino, sued over a light-colored suit and white assassination, Leavelle reg- retired from active service
officers who can conduct search at the Philadel- Stetson, is seen in the photo- ularly spoke at schools and in 1975. He was among the
searches and arrest peo- phia airport in 2006, say- graph with his hand on Lee before various groups be- lead detectives assigned
ple. ing screeners damaged Harvey Oswald, Leavelle's cause he believed "he had to investigate Kennedy's
A district court and a three- her property and falsely body stiffening as nightclub a responsibility to share his Nov. 22, 1963, assassina-
judge panel of the same claimed she hit them with a owner Jack Ruby shot the story," said Evers, who lives tion.
appeals court said TSA offi- bag. She was arrested but handcuffed presidential in San Antonio. In 2013, Dallas police com-
cers are just screeners who found not guilty at trial. assassin at close range on Her father through the de- manders honored Leavelle
inspect passengers and Pellegrino and her husband live TV in 1963. Leavelle ap- cades received mail nearly with the Police Commen-
bags. asked the TSA for $951,200 pears shocked as Oswald every day from people ask- dation Award and an-
The full appeals court said, in damages. When their grimaces in pain. ing questions about the as- nounced the department's
however, that screeners claim was rejected, they Leavelle's daughter Tanya sassination or invoking any Detective of the Year
aren't entitled to immunity sued the TSA and three TSA Evers told The Associated one of several conspiracy Award would be named
from lawsuits because they employees.q Press her father died Thurs- theories, she said. for him. q