trial and procedure – Michmutters

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Gabby Petito’s family seeks $50 million from Utah police department for inadequate response to Brian Laundrie’s abuse

Gabby Petito's family seeks $50 million from Utah police department for inadequate response to Brian Laundrie's abuse



CNN
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The family of Gabby Petito has submitted a $50 million claim against the Moab, Utah, Police Department, arguing the 22-year-old may not have been killed last year by her fiancé if officers had recognized he was the “true primary aggressor” in a domestic dispute about two weeks before her death.

Petito’s parents are seeking $50 million in damages, claiming Moab officers were negligent in failing to investigate Brian Laundrie, 23, and his “self-evidently false claims” and the department was negligent in failing to train officers to investigate domestic violence incidents, according to their notice of claim sent to the department Monday, the first step in initiating a lawsuit against it.

Additionally, Petito’s family claims her killing was caused by the wrongful acts or neglect of the police department and its officers.

Moab officers “failed to recognize the serious danger (Petito) was in and failed to investigate fully and properly,” Brian Stewart, an attorney for the family said Monday in a news conference, referencing the moment Moab police stopped Petito and Laundrie after a witness said he saw them involved in a domestic incident.

“They did not have the training that they needed to recognize the clear signs that were evident that morning: that Gabby was a victim and that she was in serious need of immediate help,” Stewart said.

A Moab city spokesperson declined to comment, saying, “The City does not comment on pending litigation.”

Petito, an aspiring travel influencer, vanished last summer on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie. As a nationwide search ensued, attention also turned to Laundrie, who returned home to Florida and vanished in a nature reserve.

Days into the search for Laundrie, Petito’s body was found in Grand Teton National Forest, and a coroner ruled she died by strangulation. Ella’s Laundrie’s body was found in mid-October in the nature reserve, along with a notebook in which she claimed responsibility for her death. A medical examiner determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The notice of claim against Moab police comes months after Petito’s mother and father, along with their respective spouses, sued Laundrie’s family, alleging his parents knew their son had killed Petito and were aware of “the whereabouts of her body.”

At the heart of Petito’s family’s claim is the traffic stop last August, which officers executed after being informed the witness “had seen Brian assault Gabby.”

Police pulled over their vehicle – a white Ford van – after it exceeded the speed limit, abruptly left its lane and struck a curb, according to a police report.

Footage recorded by police body cameras shows Moab police officers talking to Petito and Laundrie, who admitted to having a fight in which Petito said she struck her fiancé first. Officers noticed Petito had cuts on her face and her arm, and she “demonstrated how Brian had violently grabbed her face during their altercation,” telling police Laundrie “gets frustrated with me a lot.”

But Petito also “displayed the classic hallmarks of an abused partner,” the notice says, taking blame for the incident. The officers “did not press further,” the notice says.

According to the family’s claim, a photo taken at the time, which has not been made public, “shows a close-up view of Gabby’s face where blood is smeared on her cheek and left eye, revealing the violent nature of Brian’s attack.”

Laundry told police the couple had been under increasing stress. He has admitted to pushing Petito away from her when she tried to slap him and also to taking her phone from her, claiming he did not have one from her and was afraid that she would leave him. However, later in the interview, he took out his own phone and gave officers his number, the notice says.

Despite the cuts and Laundrie’s inconsistencies, one of the officers said Petito must be booked into jail since, under the domestic violence statutes of Utah, she was considered the primary aggressor and Laundrie the victim.

Both Petito and Laundrie objected, and the officers eventually agreed not to charge Petito as long as she and Laundrie agreed to spend the night apart.

“Roughly two weeks later, Brian brutally murdered Gabby,” the notice says, “leaving her body in the woods of Grand Teton National Forest.”

A review of the Moab Police Department’s handling of the incident by an independent investigator – a captain with the police department in Price, Utah, about 115 miles away – recommended the two officers who responded be placed on probation, saying they made “several unintentional mistakes ” – namely failing to cite anyone for domestic violence, though there appeared to be only sufficient evidence to charge Petito.

The investigative report, released in January, recommended new policies for the department, including additional domestic violence training and legal training for officers.

The city at the time did not address any potential discipline for the two officers but said it “intends to implement the report’s recommendations” on new policies for the police department, including additional domestic violence training and legal training for officers.

“Based on the report’s findings, the City of Moab believes our officers showed kindness, respect and empathy in their handling of this incident,” the city’s statement said.

Petito’s parents and stepparents did not comment on the litigation during Monday’s virtual news conference at the direction of their lawyers. But her mother de ella acknowledged the footage of the Moab incident was “very painful.”

“I wanted to jump through the screen, rescue her,” Nicole Schmidt said, encouraging victims of domestic violence to reach out for help.

Asked what the family wants the public to remember from Petito’s story, her father Joseph Petito, said people should learn there’s always a way out.

“Her legacy is to help people that don’t see a way out, and there are,” he said.

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Grand jury declines to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham in connection with kidnapping of Emmett Till

Grand jury declines to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham in connection with kidnapping of Emmett Till



CNN
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A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict the White woman who accused 14-year-old Emmett Till of making advances toward her nearly 70 years ago, allegations that led to the Black teen’s brutal death.

A Leflore County grand jury last week heard seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses but said there was insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter, according to a statement from District Attorney Dewayne Richardson.

The grand jury heard the testimony from witnesses detailing the investigation of the case from 2004 to the present day and considered both charges, according to the statement.

“After hearing every aspect of the investigation and evidence collected regarding Donham’s involvement, the Grand Jury returned a ‘No Bill’ to the charges of both Kidnapping and Manslaughter,” the statement said. “The murder of Emmett Till remains an unforgettable tragedy in this country and the thoughts and prayers of this nation continue to be with the family of Emmett Till.”

Carolyn Bryant, shown in September 1955 sitting in the office of her husbands' lawyer.

Family members of Emmett, whose killing in the Jim Crow-era South spurred the civil rights movement in America, said earlier this summer that they had unearthed an unserved arrest warrant for Bryant Donham, her late husband and his brother.

The warrant is dated August 29, 1955, and signed by the Leflore County clerk. The image of the warrant shows the current clerk certified the document as authentic on June 21.

A note on the back of the warrant says Bryant Donham was not arrested because she could not be located at the time, according to the New York Times, which cited filmmaker Keith A. Beauchamp, who was part of the team that discovered the warrant. CNN reached out to Bryant Donham at the time but didn’t hear back.

Emmett’s family had hoped the warrant would lead to charges and, ultimately, justice.

“Justice has to be served,” Emmett’s cousin Deborah Watts told CNN in late June, adding, “Emmett led us to it. I know that in my heart.”

CNN reached out Tuesday to Emmett’s family for comment but did not hear back.

While Emmett’s killing remains a touchstone moment in the United States’ long struggle with racial injustice and inequality, to this day, no one has been held criminally responsible.

Emmett, who lived in Chicago, was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he had his fateful encounter with then-20-year-old Carolyn Bryant in the summer of 1955. Accounts from that day differ, but witnesses alleged Emmett whistled at the woman at the market she owned with her husband in the town of Money.

Four days later, Roy Bryant and JW Milam later took Emmett from his bed in the middle of the night, ordered him into the back of a pickup and beat him before shooting him in the head and tossing his body into the Tallahatchie River.

But they were both acquitted of murder by an all-White jury following a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett grabbed and verbally threatened her. The jury deliberated for barely an hour.

The men later admitted to the killing in a 1956 interview with Look magazine.

Emmett’s death captured attention far beyond Mississippi after a photo of his mutilated body was published in Jet Magazine and spread around the world. Her mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, had demanded he have an open-casket funeral so the entire world could see her son’s injuries and the results of racial terrorism – a decision that helped fuel the civil rights movement.

Milam died in 1980 and Bryant died in 1994. Bryant Donham is in her late 80s.

In 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict Bryant Donham on charges. And according to archived FBI documents, Milam and Roy Bryant were arrested on a kidnapping charge in 1955, but a grand jury failed to indict them. “The original court, District Attorney, and investigative records related to the 1955 investigation have apparently been lost,” the FBI said in a 2006 report.

Bryant Donham testified in 1955 that Emmett grabbed her hand, her waist and propositioned her, saying he had been with “White women before.” But years later, when professor Timothy Tyson raised that trial testimony in a 2008 interview with Bryant Donham, he claimed she told him, “That part’s not true.”

The prospect that the woman at the center of Emmett’s case had recanted her testimony – which the US Justice Department said in a memo would contradict statements she made during the state trial in 1955 and later to the FBI – sparked calls for authorities to investigate the case anew.

The DOJ, which had already re-examined and closed the case in 2007, reopened the probe into Emmett’s killing in 2018. But the case was closed in December after the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division concluded it could not prove Bryant Donham had lied. When questioned directly, Bryant Donham adamantly denied to investigators that she had recanted her testimony from her.

Emmett’s legacy, however, lives on: In March, President Joe Biden signed into law the landmark Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which made lynching a federal hate crime.

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Alex Jones on trial: Jury finds Infowars founder should pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to Sandy Hook parents

Alex Jones on trial: Jury finds Infowars founder should pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to Sandy Hook parents


New York
CNN Business
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A Texas jury has decided to penalize Alex Jones with $45.2 million in punitive damages in a lawsuit filed by the parents of Sandy Hook shooting victim Jesse Lewis.

The award, which the judge could reduce, came one day after the jury settled on $4.1 million in compensatory damages.

The jurors began deliberating around 12:30 pm CT on Friday, after Judge Maya Guerra Gamble reminded them that in a default judgment against him Jones was already found liable for defamation and “intentional infliction of emotional distress” against Lewis’ parents, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Hesslin.

In an emotional closing argument Friday, Lewis and Heslin’s attorney Wesley Todd Ball said to the jury, “We ask that you send a very very simple message, and that is, stop Alex Jones. Stop the monetization of misinformation and lies. Por favor.”

Ball urged the jurors to “deter Alex Jones from ever doing this awfulness again” and “to deter others who may want to step into his shoes.”

Jones’ attorney, Federico Andino Reynal, argued for a far lower sum, suggesting that the jurors should multiply Jones’ purported earnings per hour of $14,000 and the 18 hours that he said Jones talked about Sandy Hook on Infowars, for a sum of around a quarter million dollars.

On Thursday, in the first phase of the trial, the jury awarded the parents $4.1 million in compensatory damages, a far smaller amount than the $150 million the parents’ attorneys had sought. In his closing argument, Ball thanked the jury for their decision to award the $4.1 million, saying it had already made a huge difference in the parents’ lives, and asked them to award enough in punitive damages to bring the total to $150 million.

Bernard Pettingill testifying on August 5.

Punitive damages are a form of punishment for a defendant’s behavior. Jones, the head of the conspiratorial media outlet Infowars, repeatedly lied about the Sandy Hook massacre. I have stoked conspiracy theories about the victims and their families, prompting multiple defamation lawsuits. He has since acknowledged that the mass shooting occurred.

Jones claimed in his testimony that a jury award of just $2 million would destroy him financially. But on Friday morning the jurors heard testimony about Jones’ wealth from an economist, Bernard Pettingill, Jr., who estimated Jones has a net worth of between $135 million and $270 million.

Pettingill, Jr., who examined several years of records for Jones and Infowars’ parent Free Speech Systems, said Jones used a series of shell companies to hide his money.

Jones used two large loans to make it appear he was broke when in fact he was not, Pettingill, Jr. testified.

“Alex Jones knows where the money is, he knows where that money went and he knows that he is going to eventually benefit by that money,” Pettingill, Jr. said.

After one of the jurors asked about the difference between Jones’ money and his company’s money, Pettingill, Jr. said “you cannot separate Alex Jones from the companies. He is the companies.”

Jones “monetized his shtick,” he added, even suggesting that Jones could teach a college course about his techniques.

Jones’ fear-mongering rants on Infowars have, for many years, been paired with ads for supplements, documentaries, and other products Infowars sells. Pettingill, Jr. said the money poured in, identifying nine different companies that are owned by Jones.

“He is a very successful man, he has promulgated some hate speech and some misinformation, but he made a lot of money and he monetized that,” Pettingill, Jr. said on the stand. “My thinking about him is he didn’t ride a wave, he created the wave.”

Jones testified earlier in the week about his alleged financial troubles after social media giants like Facebook and Twitter banned his content from their platforms.

“I remember him saying that, but the records don’t reflect that,” Pettingill, Jr said.

During closing arguments, Ball asserted that Jones has even more money hidden away in other places and argued that $4.1 million was a drop in Jones’ proverbial bucket. “He’s probably already made it back in donations” from fans, Ball said.

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Parkland shooting trial: Jurors to visit Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School today

Parkland shooting trial: Jurors to visit Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School today



CNN
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Jurors from the sentencing portion of the trial for the gunman who killed 17 people are expected to visit the scene of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s 1200 building in Parkland, Florida, on Thursday.

The building on the school’s campus has remained sealed since the February 2018 shooting to preserve it for the trial. A new building that opened in 2020 has taken on the role of the structure, which officials have said will be torn down.

The visit is meant to help jurors analyze the evidence presented in the trial so far, Judge Elizabeth Scherer explained.

The judge instructed jurors Wednesday to “avoid touching, manipulating or moving anything.” She also told them to explore the scene on their own and at their own pace, moving as a group from floor to floor.

“Nothing will be explained or pointed out to you,” the judge’s instructions said. Jurors have also been told to avoid speaking to anyone until the viewing is complete.

Jurors will not be allowed to have a smart phone, smart watch or any type of camera, during the jury view. In court, attorneys encouraged the judge to ask jurors to wear closed-toe shoes because they could encounter glass on the floor.

The current phase of the trial is to determine gunman Nikolas Cruz’s sentence: Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, while Cruz’s defense attorneys are asking the jury for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. To recommend a death sentence, jurors must be unanimous. If they do so, the judge could choose to follow the recommendation or sentence Cruz to life instead.

Cruz is not expected to be at the crime scene.

Following the visit, some impact statements are expected in court, the judge said.

Wednesday was the third day of victim impact testimony in the trial of Cruz, who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the shooting.

Much of the testimony in the Broward County court – particularly from the parents of the 14 students killed – has focused on all the things the victims and their families will never get to do and the irreparable damage to their everyday lives.

“Our family is broken. There is this constant emptiness,” said Max Schachter, the father of 14-year-old Alex, who loved chocolate chip cookies, playing the trombone and video games.

“I feel I can’t truly be happy if I smile,” Schachter said Wednesday. “I know that behind that smile is the sharp realization that part of me will always be sad and miserable because Alex isn’t here.”

The loss of her daughter Meadow Pollack, 18, has “destroyed” Shara Kaplan’s life, she told the jury Tuesday, “and my capability of ever living a productive existence.” To articulate how her daughter’s death de ella impacted her de ella, she said, she would have to rip out her heart de ella and show them how it had shattered into a million pieces.

And the Hoyer family will never be the same. “We were a family unit of five always trying to fit into a world set up for even numbers,” said Tom Hoyer, whose 15-year-old son Luke – the youngest of three – was killed. “Two-, four-, six-seat tables in a restaurant. Two-, four-, six-ticket packages to events. Things like that.”

But the Hoyers are no longer a family of five, and “never again will the world feel right, now that we’re a family of four,” Hoyer said.

“When Luke died something went missing in me,” he said. “And I’ll never, never get over that feeling.”

To make their sentencing decision, jurors will hear prosecutors and defense attorneys argue aggravating factors and mitigating circumstances – reasons Cruz should or should not be executed.

The victim impact statements add another layer, giving the families and friends of the victims their own day in court, though the judge told the jury the statements are not meant to be weighed as aggravating factors.

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Alex Jones on trial: Sandy Hook parents testify about the ‘hell’ he has caused

Alex Jones on trial: Sandy Hook parents testify about the 'hell' he has caused


New York
CNN Business
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The parents of a child who was murdered during the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting delivered emotional testimony in a Texas court on Tuesday, telling a jury that the lies pushed by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones have stained the legacy of their son and tormented them for years.

The jury hearing the case will determine how much in damages Jones will have to pay the parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, who won a default judgment against him earlier this year. An attorney representing Heslin and Lewis asked the jury last week to award Heslin and Lewis $150 million.

Fighting back tears at times, Heslin told the jury that Jones, through his conspiratorial media organization Infowars, “tarnished the honor and legacy” of his son. Heslin said that he couldn’t “even begin to describe the last nine-and-a-half years of hell” he has endured because of Jones.

“There’s got to be a strong deterrent that shall prevent him from peddling this propaganda,” Heslin said, adding that through his testimony he wanted “to restore my credibility, my reputation, and Jesse’s legacy that he so much deserves.”

As Heslin testified, a television screen in the court showed a photograph of his murdered son, six-year-old Jesse Lewis. Jones, who is expected to testify in his own defense later on Tuesday, was absent from the courtroom during Heslin’s testimony and the first part of Lewis’ testimony. Heslin called that absence “a cowardly act.”

“I’ve been here for a week and a half and [during] my final testimony Mr. Alex Jones does not have the courage to sit in front of me or face me,” Heslin said.

An attorney representing Heslin and Lewis told CNN the two have needed to be in isolation and under the protection of professional security during the trial.

Heslin also said on the stand that the lie pushed by Jones “resonates around the world” and that he has realized “how dangerous” it is.

Heslin described being repeatedly confronted by those who believed Jones over the last ten years, saying such interactions occur “right up to this day.”

“My life has been threatened,” Heslin said. “I fear for my life. I fear for my safety and my family’ safety and their life.”

Lewis also testified in court that she has been harassed and received death threats, including at her own home, all of which she said reopens the wounds surrounding her son’s murder.

“The fear and anxiety and unsafeness … keeps me from healing,” Lewis said. “It definitely negatively impacts the healing process.”

Lewis described the conspiracy theories about Sandy Hook as “deeply unsettling.”

“I feel compromised,” Lewis said, describing how she feels about her own personal safety.

Roy Lubit, a forensic psychiatrist who was hired to conduct an examination of Heslin and Lewis, testified to the court on Monday how terrified and worried for their personal safety the two parents are.

Neil Heslin, the parent of a Sandy Hook victim, took the stand today in the Alex Jones defamation trial taking place in Texas.

Lubit told the court that Lewis and Heslin “are very, very frightened.” When asked to specify who they are frightened of, Lubit responded, “Some follower of Jones trying to kill them.”

Lubit elaborated that Lewis sleeps with a gun, a knife, and pepper spray on her night stand. Lubit added she won’t even turn on the air conditioning during hot days for fear of not being able to hear an intruder possibly coming to hurt her.

Lewis testified Tuesday that she owns a gun to keep her other son safe, telling the jury that she failed to keep one son safe and will do everything in her power to ensure that no harm happens to her other child.

Jury selection for a similar trial involving Jones and Sandy Hook families commenced on Tuesday in Connecticut, where Jones was also found liable for damages earlier this year.

Jones has lashed out at the judicial proceedings taking place, baselessly claiming last week that he was being tried in Texas before a “kangaroo court.” Infowars has also published content attacking the judges overseeing the cases in viscous terms.

Jones’ media company, Free Speech Systems, which is the company that operates Infowars, filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday.

Attorneys representing some Sandy Hook families have accused Jones of having drained Free Speech Systems of assets in recent years as part of an effort to protect himself from potential judgments he may be ordered to pay.

One of the attorneys, Avi Moshenberg, told CNN on Tuesday that the bankruptcy filing made by Free Speech Systems indicated that $62 million in assets had been withdrawn from the company in 2021 and 2022.

“If you look at the bankruptcy filing, leading up to the declaration of bankruptcy, Alex Jones, the sole owner [of Free Speech Systems], took $62 million in draws in 2021 and 2022,” Moshenberg told CNN. “Just straight up draws. That’s why the company has few assets.”

A lawyer representing Jones did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday morning. But a hearing is scheduled on Wednesday in which W. Marc Schwartz, the chief restructuring officer for Free Speech Systems, is expected to testify.

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Brittney Griner: Exam of substance in vape cartridges violated Russian law, defense expert says

Brittney Griner: Exam of substance in vape cartridges violated Russian law, defense expert says



CNN
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Examination of the substance in vape cartridges WNBA star Brittney Griner’s carried in February at a Moscow airport did not comply with Russian law, a defense expert testified Tuesday as her drug-smuggling trial in Russia continues amid US efforts to negotiate a prisoner swap for her release .

Among the violations is that results of the examination do not contain the amount of THC in the substance investigators tested, Griner’s lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, said after the hearing.

“The examination does not comply with the law in terms of the completeness of the study and does not comply with the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” forensic chemist Dmitry Gladyshev testified for the defense during the roughly two-hour session.

The defense also interrogated prosecution expert Alexander Korablyov, who examined Griner’s cartridges taken from her luggage.

Griner’s appearance in the Khimki city courthouse marked her seventh hearing as Russian prosecutors accuse her of trying to smuggle less than 1 gram of cannabis oil in her luggage. She has pleaded guilty to drug charges – a decision her lawyers hope will result in a less severe sentence – even as the US State Department maintains she is wrongfully detained, and she faces up to 10 years in prison.

Supporters of the two-time Olympic gold medalist and Phoenix Mercury center who plays in Russia during the WNBA offseason have called for her release over fears she is being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s war on Ukraine. US officials face immense pressure from Griner’s family, lawmakers and the professional basketball community to bring her home, and Griner wrote to President Joe Biden pleading with him to do everything in his power to facilitate her release from her.

The 31-year-old sat Tuesday inside the defendant’s cage in the courtroom. The charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, attended Tuesday’s hearing and afterward said the US would “continue to support Miss Griner through every step of this process and as long as it takes to bring her home to the United States safely.”

Griner’s next hearing is set for Thursday.

At trial, Griner has testified that she has a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis and had no intention of bringing the drug into Russia. Following her arrest of her in February, she was tested for drugs and was clean, her lawyers previously said.

Amid public pressure and after months of internal debate, the Biden administration proposed a prisoner swap with Russia, offering to release a convicted Russian arms trafficker in exchange for Griner and another American detainee, Paul Whelan, people briefed on the matter have told CNN.

Russian officials countered the US offer, multiple sources familiar with the discussions have said, requesting in addition to arms dealer Viktor Bout the US also include a convicted murderer who was formerly a colonel with the Russian spy agency, Vadim Krasikov.

US officials did not accept the request as a legitimate counteroffer, the sources told CNN, in part because the proposal was sent through an informal backchannel. Krasikov’s release would also be complicated because he is in German custody.

“It’s a bad faith attempt to avoid a very serious offer and proposal that the United States has put forward and we urge Russia to take that offer seriously,” Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby told CNN, later adding, “We very much want to see Brittney and Paul come home to their families where they belong.”

Meantime, Griner’s trial carries on, with her legal team expected to continue questioning more witnesses before moving to closing arguments, during which the lawyers will elaborate on why they believe Griner’s detention was handled improperly. Closing arguments are expected in coming weeks.

Griner’s attorneys have already laid out some arguments claiming the basketball player’s detention was not handled correctly after she was arrested February 17 by personnel at the Sheremetyevo International Airport.

Her detention, search and arrest were “improper,” Alexander Boykov, one of her lawyers, said last week, noting more details would be revealed during closing arguments.

After she was stopped in the airport, Griner was made to sign documents that she did not fully understand, she testified. At first, she said, she was using Google translate on her phone from her but was later moved to another room where her phone from her was taken and she was made to sign more documents.

No lawyer was present, she testified, and her rights were not explained to her. Those rights would include access to an attorney once she was detained and the right to know what she was suspected of. Under Russian law, she should have been informed of her rights within three hours of her arrest.

In her testimony, Griner “explained to the court that she knows and respects Russian laws and never intended to break them,” Blagovolina – a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin & Partners – said after last week’s hearing.

The detained player testified she was aware of Russian laws and had no intention of bringing the cannabis oil into the country, noting she was in a rush and “stress packing.”

Griner confirmed she has a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis, Blagovolina said, which she uses to treat knee pain and joint inflammation.

“We continue to insist that, by indiscretion, in a hurry, she packed her suitcase and did not pay attention to the fact that substances allowed for use in the United States ended up in this suitcase and arrived in the Russian Federation,” Boykov, of Moscow Legal Center, has said.

Griner’s family, supporters and WNBA teammates continue to express messages of solidarity and hope as they wait for the conclusion of the trial and look forward to the potential of her release.

Before trial proceedings last week, the WNBA players union tweeted, “Dear BG … It’s early in Moscow. Our day is ending and yours is just beginning. Not a day, not an hour goes by that you’re not on our minds & in our hearts.”

This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

correction: A prior version of this story missed Brittney Griner’s first name.

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