NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
➊ Surgery allegations: Congressional Democrats reacted furiously Tuesday to lightly substantiated claims that immigrants held at a detention center in Georgia are undergoing questionable hysterectomies. In a complaint filed Monday, a nurse alleges that the Irwin County Detention Center performed questionable hysterectomies, refused to test detainees for COVID19 and shredded medical records. A top medical official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released a statement “vehemently” disputing the claims, saying only two women have been referred for hysterectomies from the facility since 2018.
➋ Bolton book: The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton unlawfully disclosed classified information when he published a memoir this summer, a case that the department opened after it failed to stop the book’s publication, according to three people familiar with the matter. The department has convened a grand jury, which issued a subpoena for communications records from Simon & Schuster, publisher of Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” In the book, Bolton delivered a highly unflattering account of his 17 months working in the Trump administration. Bolton has denied that he published classified information.
➌ Uber case: The backup Uber driver involved in the first selfdriving vehicle fatality has been charged with negligent homicide for being distracted on her cell phone in the moments before fatally striking a woman in suburban Phoenix. Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel’s office said on Tuesday that Rafaela Vasquez, 46, was charged on Aug. 27 in the 2018 crash in Tempe that killed 49yearold Elaine Herzberg. She pleaded not guilty during a hearing on Tuesday.
➍ Police chief fired: The mayor of Rochester, N.Y., a city reeling since the disclosure that a Black man died after officers placed him in a hood, lashed out at the Police Department, saying that it “views everything through the eyes of the badge,” and calling for a federal civil rights investigation into the man’s death and other arrests going back three years. The mayor, Lovely Warren, abruptly fired the police chief, La’Ron Singletary on Monday. The man, Daniel Prude, died in March, days after being handcuffed and restrained by officers. The mayor said a preliminary investigation into Prude’s death “has shown what so many have suspected, that we have a pervasive problem in the Rochester Police Department.”
➎ Law enforcement misconduct: Hiding evidence that could prove innocence. Planting drugs or guns at a crime scene. Forcing witnesses to falsely identify a defendant. An analysis on wrongful convictions put a spotlight Tuesday on “alarming” rates of police and prosecutor misconduct. The National Registry of Exonerations examined the cases of 2,400 innocent people who were exonerated from 1989 to 2019, finding that 54% were sent to prison because of intentional or negligent mistakes by police, prosecutors and other law enforcement officials.