Afternoon Briefs: Purdue Pharma will plead guilty; lawyers can't find parents of 545 immigrant children
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Purdue Pharma agrees to plead guilty over opioid marketing
Purdue Pharma has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges for misleading doctors, patients and the government about OxyContin and for promoting the drug through kickbacks. The charges are for defrauding federal health agencies and violating anti-kickback laws. The company will also pay more than $8 billion in civil and criminal penalties. The Washington Post called the penalties “largely symbolic” because Purdue Pharma is facing bankruptcy and owes money to many creditors, including state and local governments. The Sackler family that owns Purdue Pharma will pay $225 million in civil penalties, an amount that some critics deemed to be an insufficient punishment. (The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Associated Press, Department of Justice press release)
Lawyers can’t find parents of 545 immigrant children separated by Trump administration
Lawyers are unable to find the parents of 545 immigrant children who were separated from their parents under a Trump administration pilot program in 2017, implemented before the announcement of a “zero tolerance” policy for unauthorized border crossing. Under the policy, prosecutors filed criminal charges against immigrants who were here illegally, resulting in family separations when the parents were detained. About two-thirds of the missing parents were deported without their children, according to the lawyers, who were appointed by a federal judge to find separated family members. (NBC News, the New York Times)
Grand juror in Breonna Taylor case says homicide charges were not presented
Grand jurors were never given the option of bringing homicide charges against Louisville, Kentucky, police officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor in a botched raid, according to an anonymous member of the grand jury who released a statement Tuesday. The grand juror said the grand jury was only allowed to consider a wanton endangerment charge against one of the three officers. The grand juror spoke out after a judge granted permission to do so. (WDRB, the Louisville Courier Journal, the Associated Press, the New York Times)
Third probate judge in Georgia dies from COVID-19
A third probate judge in Georgia has died from COVID-19. Judge Karen Batten of Brantley County, Georgia, died Monday at age 62. The other judges who died are Judge Jon Payne of Chattooga County, Georgia, and Judge Nancy Stephenson of Dougherty County, Georgia. (Law360, Law.com)
