Judge Blocks Texas Investigation of Trans Teen's Parents

A Texas judge on Wednesday blocked the state from investigating the parents of a transgender teenager over gender-confirmation treatments but stopped short of preventing the state from looking into other reports about children receiving similar care.

District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary order halting the investigation by the Department of Family and Protective Services into the parents of the 16-year-old girl. The parents sued over the investigation and Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s order last week that officials look into reports of such treatments as abuse.

Meachum wrote that the parents and the teen “face the imminent and ongoing deprivation of their constitutional rights, the potential loss of necessary medical care, and the stigma attached to being the subject of an unfounded child abuse investigation.”

Meachum set a March 11 hearing on whether to issue a broader temporary order blocking enforcement of Abbott’s directive.

‘Unfathomably cruel’

The lawsuit marked the first report of parents being investigated following Abbott’s directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton labeling certain gender-confirmation treatments as “child abuse.” The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal sued the state Tuesday on behalf of the teen.

“We appreciate the relief granted to our clients, but this should never have happened and is unfathomably cruel,” Brian Klosterboer, ACLU of Texas attorney, said in a statement. “Families should not have to fear being separated because they are providing the best possible health care for their children.”

Spokespersons for Abbott’s and Paxton’s offices did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday night. A spokesperson for DFPS said there would be “deliberate discussions” about next steps.

The ruling came as President Joe Biden’s administration announced new steps to protect transgender children and their families in response to Abbott’s order. Biden condemned state laws targeting transgender people in his State of the Union address Tuesday.

“Like so many anti-transgender attacks proliferating in states across the country, the governor’s actions callously threaten to harm children and their families just to score political points,” the president said in a statement Wednesday night. “These actions are terrifying many families in Texas and beyond. And they must stop.”

Meachum issued the order hours after attorneys for the state and for the parents appeared before her via Zoom in a brief hearing.

Paul Castillo, Lambda Legal’s senior counsel, told Meachum that allowing the order to be enforced would cause “irreparable” harm to the teen’s parents and other families.

“It is unconscionable for DFPS to still pursue any investigation or inflict more trauma and harm,” Castillo said in a statement after the judge’s ruling.

The groups also represent a clinical psychologist who has said the order will force her to choose between reporting her clients to the state or facing the loss of her license and other penalties.

Ryan Kercher, an attorney with Paxton’s office, told Meachum that the governor’s order and the earlier opinion don’t require the state to investigate every transgender child receiving gender-confirmation care.

Restrictions meet opposition

Abbott’s directive and the attorney general’s opinion go against the nation’s largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed Republican-backed restrictions filed in statehouses nationwide.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday encouraged anyone targeted by a child welfare investigation because of Abbott’s order to contact the agency’s civil rights office. The department also released guidance saying that despite the order in Texas, health care providers are not required to disclose private patient information regarding gender confirming care.

Arkansas last year became the first state to pass a law prohibiting gender confirming treatments for minors, and Tennessee approved a similar measure. A judge blocked Arkansas’ law, and the state is appealing.

The Texas lawsuit does not identify the family by name. The suit said the mother works for DFPS on the review of reports of abuse and neglect. The day of Abbott’s order, she asked her supervisor how it would affect the agency’s policy, according to the lawsuit.

The mother was placed on leave because she has a transgender daughter, and the following day, she was informed her family would be investigated in accordance with the governor’s directive, the suit said. The teen has received puberty-delaying medication and hormone therapy.

DFPS said Tuesday that it had received three reports since Abbott’s order and Paxton’s opinion but would not say whether any resulted in investigations.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Castillo said he was aware of at least two other families being investigated. He also said some medical providers have stopped providing prescriptions for gender confirming care because of the governor’s order.

Metro de Medellín reported progress in the investigation of the death of workers - Medellín - Colombia

The Medellin Metro reported that it has already delivered to the authorities the internal report on the possible causes of the accident that occurred on February 3 at the Sabaneta station and in which the workers assigned to the company Carlos Mario López Correa and Gustavo Adolfo Atehortúa died.

According to the mass transportation company, this investigation was carried out 15 days after the incident occurred and will be input for the investigations carried out by the corresponding entities.

(You may be interested in: Video: shooting between police and cable thieves in El Retiro, Antioquia)

Although it did not report the results in detail, the Medellín Metro clarified that the signaling modernization process that it recently carried out and that came into operation in November 2021, “did not affect the accident, since this technology is not related to the safe development of visual inspections on the railway”.

It should be remembered that The incident occurred when a commercial train, with passengers, ran over two Metro workers who were carrying out work on the railway at that station, located in the south of the Aburrá Valley.

(In context: ‘Protocols failed’: Metro manager on death of two workers)

Gustavo Adolfo Atehortúa and Carlos Mario López Correa, the workers who died.

Photo:

courtesy citizenship

Until now, the only hypothesis is that there were flaws in the protocol established in this road inspection work that both workers carried out.

“Normally they are welds that are checked during the day to intervene at night. But it is not an unusual procedure, it is totally normal and that is precisely why it gives more impact to experience this situation, ”explained the manager of the Metro, Tomás Elejalde.

For now, the investigations of this fact that shocked the inhabitants of the capital of Antioquia continue and it is expected that in the next few days there will be an official statement from the authorities that analyze the causes of this accident.

MEDELLIN

More news from Colombia

-San Pablo Municipality, Nariño, on high alert after an avalanche

-Coastal protection works in Cartagena would affect heritage

-Alert for rains and growing in Río Las Ceibas, in Neiva

Metro de Medellín reported progress in the investigation of the death of workers - Medellín - Colombia

The Medellin Metro reported that it has already delivered to the authorities the internal report on the possible causes of the accident that occurred on February 3 at the Sabaneta station and in which the workers assigned to the company Carlos Mario López Correa and Gustavo Adolfo Atehortúa died.

According to the mass transportation company, this investigation was carried out 15 days after the incident occurred and will be input for the investigations carried out by the corresponding entities.

(You may be interested in: Video: shooting between police and cable thieves in El Retiro, Antioquia)

Although it did not report the results in detail, the Medellín Metro clarified that the signaling modernization process that it recently carried out and that came into operation in November 2021, “did not affect the accident, since this technology is not related to the safe development of visual inspections on the railway”.

It should be remembered that The incident occurred when a commercial train, with passengers, ran over two Metro workers who were carrying out work on the railway at that station, located in the south of the Aburrá Valley.

(In context: ‘Protocols failed’: Metro manager on death of two workers)

Gustavo Adolfo Atehortúa and Carlos Mario López Correa, the workers who died.

Photo:

courtesy citizenship

Until now, the only hypothesis is that there were flaws in the protocol established in this road inspection work that both workers carried out.

“Normally they are welds that are checked during the day to intervene at night. But it is not an unusual procedure, it is totally normal and that is precisely why it gives more impact to experience this situation, ”explained the manager of the Metro, Tomás Elejalde.

For now, the investigations of this fact that shocked the inhabitants of the capital of Antioquia continue and it is expected that in the next few days there will be an official statement from the authorities that analyze the causes of this accident.

MEDELLIN

More news from Colombia

-San Pablo Municipality, Nariño, on high alert after an avalanche

-Coastal protection works in Cartagena would affect heritage

-Alert for rains and growing in Río Las Ceibas, in Neiva

Trump Must Testify in New York Investigation, Judge Rules

NEW YORK — 

A judge ruled Thursday that former President Donald Trump must answer questions under oath in New York state’s civil investigation into his business practices.

Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his two eldest children, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., to comply with subpoenas issued in December by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Trump and his two children must sit for a deposition within 21 days, Engoron said.

Engoron issued the ruling after a two-hour hearing with lawyers for the Trumps and James’ office.

“In the final analysis, a State Attorney General commences investigating a business entity, uncovers copious evidence of possible financial fraud, and wants to question, under oath, several of the entities’ principals, including its namesake. She has the clear right to do so,” Engoron wrote in his decision.

FILE – Ivanka Trump, left, and Donald Trump Jr. arrive on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2017.

Spokespeople for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling, which is likely to be appealed.

James, a Democrat, said her investigation has uncovered evidence Trump’s company used “fraudulent or misleading” valuations of assets like golf courses and skyscrapers to get loans and tax benefits.

Trump’s lawyers told Engoron during the hearing that having him sit for a civil deposition now, while his company is also the subject of a parallel criminal investigation, is an improper attempt to get around a state law barring prosecutors from calling someone to testify before a criminal grand jury without giving them immunity.

“If she wants sworn testimony from my client, he’s entitled to immunity. He gets immunity for what he says, or he says nothing,” Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, Ronald Fischetti, said in the hearing, which was conducted by video conference.

If Trump were to testify in the civil probe, anything he says could be used against him in the criminal investigation being overseen by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Trump could invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in a deposition — something he’s criticized others for doing in the past.

A lawyer for the attorney general’s office, Kevin Wallace, told the judge that it wasn’t unusual to have civil and criminal investigations proceeding at the same time.

“Mr. Trump is a high-profile individual, yes. That’s unique,” Wallace said. “It’s unique that so many people are paying attention to a rather dry hearing about subpoena enforcement. But the legal issues that we’re dealing with here are pretty standard.”

Another Trump son, Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization’s finance chief Allen Weisselberg, have previously sat for depositions in the civil investigation — and invoked their Fifth Amendment rights hundreds of times when they were questioned by investigators in 2020.

Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., both of whom have been executives in their family’s Trump Organization, said during the court hearing that so far he had no reason to believe either is a target of the district attorney’s criminal investigation.

In a statement Tuesday, Trump railed against what he called a “sham investigation of a great company that has done a spectacular job for New York and beyond” and a racially motivated “continuation of a Witch Hunt the likes of which has never been seen in this Country before.”

Wallace noted the state attorney general’s office was investigating Trump-related matters as far back as 2013, including probes into his charitable foundation and a Trump University real estate training program that started long before James was elected.

In a court filing this week, James included a letter from Trump’s longtime accounting firm advising him to no longer rely on years of financial statements it prepared based on his company’s valuations, given the questions about their accuracy.

The Buga massacre: questions and investigation after a year - Cali - Colombia

the five friends, Sara Maria Garcia Rodriguez, Valentina Arias Gonzalez, Juan Pablo Marin, Nicolas Suarez Valencia Y Jacobo Alberto Perez Vasquez they had laughed, played frog and had bathed in the pool and in the jacuzzi.

They were on that weekend of January 23 and 24, 2021, at Jacobo’s farm, where they used to meet, as they did on other days off. They saw each other in that or in some other of the houses of the other young people in Buga, his native land.

Santiago Tascón came to the meeting because he was a friend of Sara María.

And it was in the early hours of January 24 that death surprised the five young people, in that property, half an hour from the town of Buga, in the Cerro Rico village of the Chambimbal district, after bursts of gunfire that took away their dreams of fall in love, be professionals and form families.

Santiago Tascón and the butler Ramiro Martínez, 61, were injured and survived the attack.

(Also read: Controversy returns for murals painted on the bridge: now by Cali fans)

Sara María, Valentina, Juan Pablo and Nicolás died at the scene. Jacobo died the following Sunday at the San José hospital due to an impact on the head.

The families point out that there are still no convictions, despite findings of evidence and arrests last year.

“We don’t want it to be just another piece of news without action,” the parents and other relatives and relatives of the young victims in this raid that shook the entire country have been repeating since last year, submerged in a simple question: Why what?

That is the same question that the families ask themselves today, which is why they undertook a crusade with two objectives: first, that the five murdered young people are not forgotten and second, that there be justice.

Carlos Alberto Arias, Valentina’s father, pointed out that despite the clamor to the National Government and the announcements and measures, this crime He is unpunished, although the authorities offered a reward of up to 250 million pesos.

The father recalled the words of President Iván Duque and Defense Minister Diego Molano last year, between television cameras and photographs from dozens of media outlets with journalists who gathered in Buga due to the shock of a slaughter that years before had never lived in this population that does not exceed 130,000 inhabitants.

The families consider that the crime was more than a mistake and that it would have been a planned armed raid.

Funeral moments, a year ago.

Photo:

Santiago Saldarriaga. Archive THE TIME

(You may be interested: Tin Tin Deo ran out of ‘la salsa’ and closed its doors)

They have the information that the judicial process continues. In 2021 there were 12 captured, the first three were identified as allegedly responsible for the attack on a humanitarian demining unit of the army and the ambush of a patrol Police, time ago.

Despite the hypotheses that were raised at the time as an attempted theft, this was discarded, because the area of ​​the farm has not been characterized as a robbery area.

The hypothesis of an attempted kidnapping of Jacobo Pérez was also raised, and an extortion of 12 million pesos from his father remains in the pipeline.

In addition, complaints that landowners made a year ago about threats and possible extortions in the region before the Buga Personería increased the alert among inhabitants of the high mountainous area, in Havana and in El Placer, added to the murder of former Buga councilor Carlos Erlid González Cortés, of the Cambio Radical party.

That crime happened on January 10, 2021, that is, 14 days before the massacre. The politician was in a farm in the La Carolina site, in the same Cerro Rico village.

Given these facts and despite the fact that the murder of the former lobbyist and the massacre were not related, there are peasants who fear the return of armed groups, such as paramilitaries that 20 years ago were the authors of one of the largest massacres in Colombian history.

At that time, members of the Calima Bloc of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia assassinated 24 peasants in Havana, in Buga, and provoked a gigantic exodus of other plot owners.

According to the authorities, although in the urban area of ​​Buga there are armed groups dedicated to distributing drugs and committing other crimes, such as robbery, the discovery of a cell phone from an older model and a suitcase with a cord with adhesive tape fed the hypothesis of an attempted kidnapping of Jacobo, who was 18 years old.

In turn, according to the Police and the Army, the residual group of the Farc ‘Left Adam’ It has a presence in the upper part of where the farm is located.

At the time of the massacre, Jacobo’s father and some friends from the same family were present, and they were unharmed. Jacobo’s mother was not at the time.

Two hours after the event, at about 4 in the morning on Sunday, January 24, the Police called the families of Sara, Juan Pablo and Nicolás to inform them of the tragedy.

This explains the prosecution

The Prosecutor’s Office spoke about the case and what has been done in the last year and indicated: “Continuing with the investigation against this organization, it is possible to obtain from a guarantee control judge, 12 arrest warrants, among which was that of the second ringleader alias Hugo or Camilo”.

The investigative body adds: “In order to materialize and make effective the aforementioned orders, coordination is carried out with the Military and Police Forces, for which there is knowledge of several military operations in the rural area of ​​the department of Valle, mainly between the municipalities of Seville and Tuluá”.

“In an operation carried out by the National Army, on November 5, 2021, Leiton García Uragama or alias Kevin was neutralized, on whom it was possible to establish the quality of material author of the act,” they say in the Prosecutor’s Office.

Likewise, it was reported that on the 9th of the same month and year, in the village of Ceilán, in the municipality of Bugalagrande, two presumed members of the company ‘Adan Izquierdo’ were neutralized, among them the second ringleader alias Camilo or Hugo, who for the investigation was determinative of the unfortunate event.

“On the part of the Prosecutor’s Office, a response has been given to various letters sent by the relatives of the five victims, as well as meetings with some of them, who have been informed of these results and of the investigative actions carried out” , they argued in the body, in a statement.

They celebrated farewell and the beginning of a new stage of life

The five young people, aged between 17 and 18, have known each other since they were very young, most of them since kindergarten.

As on other occasions, the meeting of these friends between January 23 and 24, 2021 was organized for a special reason.

They were celebrating their high school degrees, but above all, they were saying goodbye to Juan Pablo Marín, because the following week he was going to Medellín, in love, because his girlfriend was in the capital of Antioquia, with whom he had a relationship of two and a half years.

I was going to study law there. Although Juan Pablo, 18, had already started this career, in the second semester and under the virtual modality at the Santiago de Cali University, he enrolled at a university in Medellín.

His mother, Gabriela Pérez, who is a dentist with the Artillery Battalion No. 3 Battle of Palacé de Buga, was proud of the person who told her that he wanted to be the best lawyer in Colombia and that is why she supported him in this dream of making his way in other land.

He was Jacobo Pérez Vásquez.

They were children and members of professional families.

Juan Pablo was the son of a civil engineer and planned to follow in his father’s footsteps. His dream of entering the first semester at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana was frustrated.

Nicolás, for his part, wanted to be a mechanical engineer. Nicólas and Jacobo graduated from the same school, the Liceo de los Andes, and then undertook study trips abroad.

Nicolas Suarez Valencia.

Jacobo was in 2020 in an exchange in Canada, and Nicolás, who had turned 18, had returned to Buga, after a stay in Australia. His fondness for hockey on skates he also united these two youngsters and they did so since they were in kindergarten, representing Buga in departmental and national tournaments as members of the Hurricanes Sports Club.

Valentina Arias was the youngest of the group.

Sara was an animal lover and, like the other friends, had values, said relatives of the young woman.

She was Sara María García Rodríguez.

(Also read: What is behind the crime of indigenous leader Albeiro Camayo?)

Nicolás, also the son of a dentist, was very close to Valentina, who was the youngest of the group at 17 years old and was the last to receive her bachelor’s degree.

Valentina and Nicolás arrived at around 7 pm on Saturday, January 23, at Jacobo’s meeting to go down to Buga again on Sunday night.

(Also: Camayo, a man who gave his life to defend his territory and his people)

Juan Pablo Marin was 18 years old.

Valentina dreamed of being an architect at the University of San Buenaventura, in Cali.

She was the niece of businessman Nicanor González, founder in 1954 of the company Transportes González, in Sincelejo, Sucre.

Although Valentina and Juan Pablo Marín were initially at the Liceo de los Andes de Buga, they finished their studies at other schools in that city.

Juan Pablo graduated from Las Marianas, from Buga.

In the case of Sara María García, she was the daughter of the doctor César Iván García.

Sara was going to start her second semester of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics at the Technological University of Pereira in the first week of February 2021.

(You may be interested in: Know where to apply the third dose against covid in Cali)
​
CALI