News Roundup

On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced it is planning to drop investigations into nearly two dozen police departments accused of civil rights violations. These include departments in Memphis, TN, Pheonix, AZ, Oklahoma City, OK, Trenton, NJ, Mount Vernon, NY, and the Louisiana State Police. The Department also announced it will drop consent decrees setting requirements for police training and establishing outside monitoring reached after incidents of police violence in Minneapolis, MN and Louisville, KY. The head of the Department’s civil rights division, Harmeet K. Dhillon, said the Department is reviewing consent decrees and federal oversight arrangements in place with nearly a dozen other cities to determine if they should be abandoned as well. This is following an executive order signed last month directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to review all federal consent decrees and to “modify, rescind, or move to conclude” them within 60 days. Read on for more criminal law news. Arrest made in New Orleans jailbreak. Authorities made their first arrest of an accomplice in the case of ten inmates who escaped from a New Orleans jail. On Friday last week, the inmates escaped custody by climbing through a hole in the wall behind a toilet, scaling a fence, and crossing an interstate. Since then, five have been apprehended, and a Sheriff’s Office employee has been arrested for aiding their escape. The employee, a maintenance worker, turned off the water in the cell from which the inmates escaped, and later told investigators the inmates said they would “shank him [...]