Civil Rights Violations

Members of a charity group threatened with arrest while trying to feed homeless people at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point have filed a federal lawsuit against state parks officials, claiming interference with their constitutional rights. The faith-based organization Welcome INN provided meals in the park's picnic area on two consecutive evenings in February without incident, according to the legal complaint filed this week by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Justice Department officials who prosecuted hundreds of illegal immigrants arrested at an Iowa meatpacking plant in May used a government-created manual to speed through guilty pleas, a potential violation of the rights of those detained in the raid, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday. The manual was assembled before the workers were arrested or their lawyers were appointed.

China's human rights environment deteriorated significantly across a broad range of areas in 2006 as the government imposed stricter controls over the media, academia, the legal community and civic groups, Human Rights Watch says in a report released Thursday. The New York-based group adds that hopes of President Hu Jintao emerging as a reformer have been dashed.

A federal immigration judge has dismissed the government's attempt to deport two men who were arrested along with six other U.S. residents because of their alleged ties to Palestinian terrorists and who fought relentless efforts to force them to leave the country for 20 years. Judge Bruce E. Einhorn of Los Angeles, in a ruling made public Tuesday, said the government had violated the constitutional rights of Khader M. Hamide and Michel I.

In a manufactured house in the pine forests of central Oregon, where the glassy Deschutes River winds through the landscape like a musical theme, Michel Shehadeh counts the days. Twenty more, and, assuming the United States government takes no further action, his 20-year ordeal will end. Seven hundred miles to the south, amid tract houses and dry pasture lands near Chino Hills, Khader Hamide counts, too.

The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday honored the federal agents and prosecutors involved in convicting four members of a Latino street gang in Highland Park last year for violating the civil rights of African Americans with a campaign of threats and violence, including murder. The group noted that the case against the Avenues gang "broke new ground as the first time a street gang was convicted of violating federal hate crime laws."

A second former employee of an Anaheim vocational academy has been charged in the alleged beatings of two disabled adults -- an incident that was recorded on his cellphone, officials said Friday. Michael Douglas Rama, 24, a former employee of the Jossen Vocational Academy, was charged with felony violation of civil rights and false imprisonment of a dependent adult in connection with the alleged beatings in March and April 2006.

A federal judge has ruled that some Los Angeles police tactics in patrolling downtown are unconstitutional, raising questions about the city's successful campaign to dramatically reduce the number of crimes and homeless people. U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson found that officers question -- and at times search -- parolees and probationers without evidence that they might have committed a crime, which the judge said was unconstitutional. He ordered the LAPD to change its practices.

A Middle Eastern man jailed for nearly four years must be released by June 8 because the government, which wants to deport him, has taken too long to find a country that will take him, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Friedman said in his order issued Friday that the government violated Majed Talat Hajbeh's constitutional rights and that he must be released within 14 days of the order.

Just hours after a San Bernardino County jury's acquittal Thursday of a former sheriff's deputy in the videotaped shooting of an Air Force enlisted man, the airman's family called on the U.S. attorney's office to pursue civil rights violation charges against Webb. But a number of legal experts said the swift acquittal of Ivory John Webb Jr., coupled with the absence of allegations of racism, made federal charges unlikely.