Lawsuit challenges Forest Service timber targets

A lawsuit filed last month in a Washington, D.C., federal court alleges the U.S. Forest Service’s practice of setting “timber targets” puts the climate at risk, undermines the Biden administration’s climate goals and violates federal law. 

Trial term set in police shooting lawsuit

A man who was severely injured in a 2022 police shooting at his home in Cherokee County won’t see a resolution to his civil suit until August 2025 at the earliest, according to a recent filing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. 

Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office answers police shooting lawsuit

In a 65-page answer to an extensive lawsuit  filed in response to the December 2022 police shooting of Jason Harley Kloepfer in Cherokee County, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office emphasized that it was officers with the Cherokee Indian Police Department, not CCSO deputies, who fired the shots, and denied allegations that its deputies and supervisors mishandled the case from the beginning. 

Judge rules on motion to dismiss claims in police shooting suit

The court has made its decision in the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office’s request to dismiss  many of the complaints in a lawsuit stemming from the 2022 shooting of Jason Harley Kloepfer at his home near Murphy.

Police shooting case could test limits of sovereign immunity

As police shooting victim Jason Harley Kloepfer’s sprawling federal lawsuit  makes its way through court, where he’s seeking millions of dollars in damages, some attorneys are speculating that it has the potential to spur a first-of-its-kind ruling on the limits of sovereign immunity, a defense that often protects Native American tribes from lawsuits. 

Police shooting defendants reply to lawsuit

Tribal officers in Cherokee County shooting say they thought victim was armed

Waynesville company sues Labor Department

Waynesville’s USA Farm Labor is suing the federal government in hopes of changing a new rule it claims will cost the company hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of dollars per year. 

Police shooting victim alleges attempted murder, seeks millions in damages

In an explosive federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina, the victim of a December 2022 police shooting in Cherokee County seeks millions of dollars in damages while laying out the sequence of alleged violations of policy and law that led to what he says was an attempted murder by police. The shots were fired by members of the Cherokee Indian Police Department, which had been called to assist the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.

Suit against district attorney challenging Giglio order dismissed

A lawsuit filed by a former deputy against District Attorney Ashley Welch and Assistant District Attorney John Hindsman has been entirely dismissed.

After two weeks in court, a hung jury leads to mistrial in Knibbs case

There’s some truth to the old cliché that one readily recognizable sound is the ultimate deterrent against a would-be home intruder.

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