NEW KENT, Va. (AP) — The former longtime medical director of a Virginia hospital that serves vulnerable children used physical examinations as a “ruse” to sexually abuse two teenage patients, a prosecutor said Monday, while the physician’s attorney “adamantly” denied any inappropriate conduct.

The trial of Daniel N. Davidow of Richmond, who for decades served as the medical director of the Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents, opened Monday morning in New Kent County, where a judge will weigh the charges against him.

Davidow, along with the hospital and its parent company, faces a separate civil proceeding in which dozens of former patients have accused him of inappropriate touching, allegations he also has denied. He was criminally charged in December 2022 with four felony counts in connection with allegations made by two of those former patients.

The young women, who were teenagers when they were admitted to Cumberland, both testified Monday, saying Davidow groped their breasts and genitals during a physical examination as part of the admissions process.

“I teared up. I was in shock,” one woman told the court.

One woman said the abuse continued in subsequent exams, and the other said she had addition encounters in which Davidow touched her inappropriately or made her uncomfortable.

T. Scott Renick, the top prosecutor in New Kent County east of Richmond, where the hospital is located, said in his opening statement that the girls were in extremely vulnerable conditions, living without their parents or other caregivers at the residential facility that specializes in complex cases and sometimes takes patients from other states under court order.

“The truth is that the so-called exams were a ruse” to touch the two girls inappropriately, Renick said, adding that as the medical director for the facility, Davidow “had complete control over them.”

Defense attorney Craig Cooley said Davidow “adamantly” denies the allegations. He said other clinicians who had been in the room with Davidow during exams as a chaperone will testify that they never saw any inappropriate touching of either former patient, and he described Davidow as a dedicated physician committed to helping even the most difficult or medically complex children.

Cooley also raised concerns about the former patients’ motivations, noting that they are each seeking many millions of dollars in the pending civil matter.

“They have an interest in the outcome of this case,” he said.

One of the former patients told Cooley during a pointed exchange that she was unfamiliar with the legal system and never set out to win compensation. She engaged with the attorneys representing her in the civil case because she thought they could help her “by getting justice,” she testified.

The Associated Press is not naming either woman because it generally does not identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted.

Near the end of Monday’s hearing, after the prosecution rested its case, Cooley — a well-known Virginia defense attorney — made an unsuccessful motion to strike the charges, raising concerns about the women’s credibility and discrepancies between various accounts they had given about the alleged misconduct.

“We have these accusations, but they change,” he said.

Renick responded that Cooley was trying to “get us all off in the woods” by noting what he characterized as minor differences in accounts they’d given. Inconsistencies or additions to the testimonies of victims are normal, he said.

“When kids come forward and they disclose in these situations it’s not always all at once,” he said.

Davidow, 71, pleaded not guilty to two counts of a felony indecent liberties charge and two counts of object sexual penetration, also a felony.

Cumberland, located about a half-hour’s drive, east of Richmond, treats children and young adults with complex medical needs, including chronic illnesses, brain injuries and neurobehavioral disorders. Cooley described it as unique in the country for the type of cases it takes on, accepting patient referrals from around the world, he said.

Cooley, who listed nearly three dozen witnesses who may be called, was expected to begin presenting his defense Tuesday.

He declined to comment after Monday’s hearing, as did attorneys representing the former patients in the civil case.

Virginia State Police began investigating staff at the hospital in October 2017, a spokeswoman has said, and Davidow is at least the third former Cumberland staffer to be charged with a crime in connection with a patient.

One, a psychotherapist, was charged with sexually abusing a patient and died by suicide the same day he was due in court for a plea hearing. The other, a behavioral technician, was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading no contest to an allegation that she intentionally burned a disabled child with scalding water.

Five plaintiffs in the civil case, which has survived an attempt by the defendants to have it dismissed and another attempt to have its claims pared back under the state’s medical malpractice law, are set for trial in September.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The chair of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on Monday asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to provide documents and information about its raid at the home last month of the Little Rock airport director who died after a shootout with agents serving a search warrant.

Rep. Jim Jordan made the request as state police said it’s sending the findings of its investigation of the shooting to the local prosecutor to determine whether it was justified.

Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport Executive Director Bryan Malinowski died days after he was shot when ATF agents were were executing a warrant March 19 at his home in Little Rock. The ATF said agents returned fire after Malinowski shot at the agents, striking and injuring one of them.

An affidavit released after the shooting said Malinowski bought over 150 guns between May 2021 and February 2024 that he resold without a dealer’s license. In his letter to the agency, Jordan questioned whether ATF’s protocols were followed during the pre-dawn raid.

“Mr. Malinowski exercised his Second Amendment rights and was a firearms enthusiast,” Jordan wrote in the letter. “Even if, as ATF has alleged, Mr. Malinowski violated federal law, it does not justify ATF’s actions that ultimately lead to the use of deadly force.”

An ATF spokesperson confirmed it had received Jordan’s letter but said the agency could not comment further, noting the shooting was being reviewed by Arkansas authorities.

Arkansas State Police said it would forward the case file on its investigation Tuesday to the local prosecutor to determine whether the shooting was justified. Such investigations don’t include a recommendation, state police said, and wouldn’t review the agency’s tactics.

“We do not have the authority to address methods and tactics used or whether agency protocols and policies were followed,” Col. Mike Hagar, the head of state police, said in a statement. “Any administrative oversight of tactics would fall to that agency’s — in this case, the U.S. Department of Justice — internal review and is not part of the scope of what ASP is authorized to review.”

The Malinowski family has called the ATF’s tactics in the raid “completely unnecessary” and have said the airport director was awakened by the sound of his door crashing. An attorney for Malinowski’s family has said he was a gun collector and wasn’t aware he was under investigation for his reselling firearms at gun shows.

Malinowski’s death has prompted criticism from some Republican lawmakers in Arkansas who have called for more information from the ATF. Jordan’s letter comes days after Arkansas Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman said the Justice Department confirmed to them that agents executing the search warrant weren’t wearing body cameras.

Jordan’s letter seeks all documents and communications related to the planning and execution of the search warrant at Malinowski’s home. The congressman’s letter also seeks documents related to the agency’s implementation of a 2021 memo from the deputy attorney general related to “no-knock” warrants. The letter asked the agency provide the information by May 6.

DALLAS (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is dropping a request for a Seattle hospital to hand over records regarding gender-affirming treatment potentially given to children from Texas as part of a lawsuit settlement announced Monday.

Seattle Children’s Hospital filed the lawsuit against Paxton’s office in December in response to the Republican appearing to go beyond state borders to investigate transgender health care. Paxton, a staunch conservative who has helped drive GOP efforts that target the rights of trans people, sent similar letters to Texas hospitals last year.

The Seattle hospital said in a statement that it had “successfully fought” the “overreaching demands to obtain confidential patient information.” A judge in Austin dismissed the lawsuit Friday, saying the parties had settled their dispute.

Texas is among states that have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.

The hospital’s lawsuit included a copy of the letter from Paxton’s office, which among other requests asked the hospital to produce records identifying medication given to children who live in Texas; the number of Texas children who received treatment; and documents that identified the “standard protocol or guidance” used for treatment.

As part of the settlement, according to court records, the parties agreed that Seattle Children’s Hospital would withdraw its registration to transact business in Texas. But a hospital spokesperson said in a statement that they don’t operate health care facilities or provide gender-affirming care in Texas.

In court records, the hospital had previously stated that it had a “limited number” of people who work remotely and live in Texas but that none were involved in gender-affirming care. It also said it did not advertise its services in Texas.

“When we merely began asking questions, they decided to leave the State of Texas and forfeit the opportunity to do business here,” Paxton said in a news release Monday. He said Texas will “vigorously protect” children from gender-affirming treatment that he called “damaging.”

The Texas law prevents transgender minors from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and transition surgeries, even though medical experts say such surgical procedures are rarely performed on children.

In Washington, Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee has signed a law that aims to protects minors seeking gender-affirming care there, part of a wave of legislation in Democratic-led states intended to give refuge to those seeking gender-affirming treatment.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma City police called to a home on the city’s southwest side Monday discovered the bodies of five people, including at least two children, authorities said.

All five victims had injuries consistent with homicide, said police Sgt. Gary Knight.

“This wasn’t a carbon monoxide situation or anything like that,” Knight said. “These are five people who were killed.”

Knight said a man and woman were among those who were found dead, but he didn’t know the gender or ages of all the victims.

He said officers who arrived on the scene backed out of the home after determining all the victims were deceased and that investigators were obtaining a search warrant before they started combing through the scene for evidence.

MODESTO, Calif. (AP) — California will open its first new state park in a decade this summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state officials announced Monday, as the state sets targets for cutting planet-warming emissions on natural lands.

The 1,600-acre (648-hectare) Dos Rios tract in the state’s crop-rich Central Valley is set to open June 12 as California’s 281st state park. Located near the confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers, it is surrounded by vast almond orchards and dairy pastures. Californians will be able to use the park for hiking and picnicking, with plans for swimming and boating access in the future.

Ali Manzo, a Central Valley native and California State Parks interpreter, said the new park will help bring people together and allow them to develop a deeper respect for nature.

“Dos Rios is not just a park,” Manzo said. “It’s a community treasure that offers peace, adventure and a vital connection to nature.”

Manzo joined the governor, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta to announce the new park.

The Earth-Day announcement comes as Newsom unveiled new targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions on natural lands. The plan sets out to reduce the risks of wildfires, expand forest cover and restore wetlands. Newsom said the targets would move the state closer toward achieving its mandate of carbon neutrality, meaning it will remove as many carbon emissions from the atmosphere as it emits, by 2045.

“These are stretch goals, unquestionably,” the Democratic governor said. “The good news is we’re making real progress.”

Newsom did not say what success would look like for implementing the targets. His administration did not release an estimate for how much the plan would cost the state, which is facing a massive projected budget deficit.

The targets come out of a law Newsom signed in 2022 requiring the state Natural Resources Agency to work with other agencies to create a plan to reduce emissions from natural lands.

The plan aims to reduce the risks of wildfires across nearly 53,000 square miles (138,000 square kilometers) of land by 2045 through methods that include burning vegetation that can make wildfires more intense. The state also plans to plant 4.2 million trees, manage and restore 1.6 million acres (647,000 hectares) of grasslands, and protect more than 233,000 acres (94,000 hectares) of wetlands and seagrasses along that timeline.

California has spent about $9.6 billion since 2020 on efforts address climate change using the state’s natural lands.

Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot called the plan “a big deal” because the state has focused much of its climate policy on reducing emissions from other areas, such as the energy sector, and less so from natural lands.

“We know we have to reduce pollution significantly, but we also need to improve the health of our landscapes to actually remove carbon dioxide from the air,” Crowfoot said.

In recent years, the state has approved the eventual phasing out of the sale of new fossil fuel-powered cars, lawn mowers, large trucks that transport goods through ports and trains powered by diesel.

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Sophie Austin reported from Sacramento. Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: @sophieadanna

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi legislators advanced bills Monday to give voting rights back to 32 people convicted of felonies, weeks after a Senate leader killed a broader bill that would have restored suffrage to many more people with criminal records.

The move is necessary due to Mississippi’s piecemeal approach to restoring voting rights to people convicted of felony offenses who have paid their debts to society. It also reflects the legacy of the state’s original list of disenfranchising crimes, which springs from the Jim Crow era. The attorneys who have sued to challenge the list say authors of the state constitution removed voting rights for crimes they thought Black people were more likely to commit.

To have voting rights restored, people convicted of any of the crimes must get a pardon from the governor or persuade lawmakers to pass individual bills just for them, with two-thirds approval of the House and Senate. Lawmakers in recent years have passed few of those bills, and they passed none in 2023.

“I certainly don’t think this is the best way to do it,” said Republican Rep. Kevin Horan of Grenada, who chairs the House Judiciary B Committee. “There comes at a point in time where individuals who have paid their debt to society, they’re paying taxes, they’re doing the things they need to do, there’s no reason those individuals shouldn’t have the right to vote.”

Despite lawmakers’ dismay with the current process, some are trying to restore suffrage for select individuals. On Monday, lawmakers on House and Senate Judiciary committees passed a combined 32 bills. The bills were introduced after a House hearing on Wednesday highlighted the difficulties some former felons face in regaining the right to vote.

Mississippi is among the 26 states that remove voting rights from people for criminal convictions, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Under the Mississippi Constitution, people lose the right to vote for 10 felonies, including bribery, theft and arson. The state’s previous attorney general, a Democrat, issued a ruling in 2009 that expanded the list to 22 crimes, including timber larceny and carjacking.

In 1950, Mississippi dropped burglary from the list of disenfranchising crimes. Murder and rape were added in 1968. Attorneys representing the state in one lawsuit argued that those changes “cured any discriminatory taint,” and the conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court agreed in 2022.

Two lawsuits in recent years have challenged Mississippi’s felony disenfranchisement. The U.S. Supreme Court said in June that it would not reconsider the 2022 5th Circuit decision. The same appeals court heard arguments on the other case in January and has not issued a ruling.

In March, the Republican-controlled Mississippi House passed a bill that would have allowed automatic restoration of voting rights for anyone convicted of theft, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, forgery, bigamy or “any crime interpreted as disenfranchising in later Attorney General opinions.” But the bill died after Senate Constitution Committee Chairwoman Angela Hill, a Republican from Picayune, refused to bring it up.

Horan said the Republican House majority would only bring up individual suffrage bills for those who committed nonviolent offenses and had been discharged from custody for at least five years. Democratic Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson said she appreciated the House and Senate committees for passing the individual bills, but decried the the death of the larger House bill.

“That failed action plus the testimony we received during last week’s hearing are proof the system is broken,” Summers said. “We should right this historic, oppressive wrong by passing legislation that fully restores all who have been disenfranchised despite the conviction.”

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Associated Press reporter Emily Wagster Pettus contributed to this report. Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him at @mikergoldberg.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Defense attorneys for a man charged in the deaths of four University of Idaho students can resume phone surveys of potential jurors in the case, a judge has ruled.

Bryan Kohberger faces four murder charges in connection with the November 2022 stabbing deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. A judge has entered a not guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf, and prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

Kohberger’s defense team hired a consultant to survey potential jurors living near the university about things they might have seen, heard or read about the case. The phone survey included questions about Kohberger’s arrest, the type of car he owns, DNA evidence and a knife sheath found near one of the bodies. It also included questions about whether the person being surveyed had watched true crime-style shows about the case or other things they might have heard.

When prosecutors became aware of the survey earlier this year, they asked 2nd District Judge John Judge to order the defense team to stop, arguing that the surveys violated a broad gag order the judge had issued in the case. Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson said some of the questions could prejudice people who could be called to serve as jurors when the case goes to trial.

In a ruling issued Friday, Judge said the surveys could continue as long as the questions do not violate his gag order. Most of the questions included information already publicly available through court documents, the judge wrote in the ruling, and so did not violate the order.

Other questions about rumors people might have heard or crime documentaries they might have seen about the case were not part of the public record when the surveys began, but they have since been debated and discussed in open court — which means they, too, are now part of the public record and can be included in future surveys, Judge said.

The bodies of the four University of Idaho students were found at a rental home near campus on Nov. 13, 2022. Police arrested Kohberger, 29 and then a graduate student at nearby Washington State University, more than six weeks later at his parents’ home in eastern Pennsylvania, where he had gone for winter break.

HOUSTON (AP) — A legal battle over a lack of air conditioning in Texas prisons is bringing together advocates on the issue and one current inmate who says his health is being endangered by the state’s hot prisons — the former mortician whose murder case inspired the movie “Bernie.”

Advocates for Texas prisoners on Monday asked to join a federal lawsuit filed last year by Bernie Tiede, who has alleged his life is in danger because he was being housed in a stifling prison cell without air conditioning. He was later moved to an air-conditioned cell.

Tiede, 65, who has diabetes and hypertension, alleges he continues to have serious health conditions after suffering something similar to a ministroke because of the extreme heat in his cell. Only about 30% of Texas’ 100 prison units are fully air conditioned, with the rest having partial or no air conditioning. Advocates allege temperatures often go past 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius) inside Texas prisons. Tiede is housed in the Estelle Unit, which has partial air conditioning.

Attorneys for several prisoners’ rights groups, including Texas Prisons Community Advocates and Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, filed a motion in federal court in Austin asking to join Tiede’s lawsuit and expand it so that it would impact all Texas prisoners.

The groups and Tiede are asking a federal judge to find that the Texas prison system’s current policies to deal with excessive heat are unconstitutional and require the prison system to maintain temperatures in its housing and occupied areas between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit (18 and 29 degrees Celsius).

“Bernie and the tens of thousands of inmates remain at risk of death due to heat related sickness and being subjected to this relentless, torturous condition,” Richard Linklater, who directed the 2011 dark comedy inspired by Tiede’s case, said during a virtual news conference Monday.

Tiede is serving a sentence of 99 years to life for killing Marjorie Nugent, a wealthy widow, in Carthage. Prosecutors say Tiede gave himself lavish gifts using Nugent’s money before fatally shooting her in 1996 and then storing her body in a freezer for nine months.

Amanda Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or TDCJ, said her agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Hernandez said two recently created web pages highlight TDCJ’s efforts to install more air conditioning and explain the different measures the agency takes to lessen the effects of hot temperatures for inmates and employees. TDCJ said that includes providing fans and cooling towels and granting access to respite areas where inmates can go to cool down.

“Core to the mission of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is protecting the public, our employees, and the inmates in our custody,” according to the web page detailing air conditioning construction projects.

TDCJ has said there have been no heat-related deaths in the state’s prisons since 2012.

On Monday, advocacy groups pushed back against those claims, saying that increasingly hotter temperatures, including last summer’s heat wave, have likely resulted in prisoner deaths or contributed to them.

A November 2022 study by researchers at Brown, Boston and Harvard universities found that 13%, or 271, of the deaths that occurred in Texas prisons without universal air conditioning between 2001 and 2019 may be attributed to extreme heat during warm months.

“As summer approaches in our state, the threat of extreme heat once again appears, reminding us of the urgent need for action,” said Marci Marie Simmons, with Lioness: Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance, and who has endured the stifling prison heat as a former inmate.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The decision came after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision after more than two full days of deliberation in trial of George Alan Kelly, 75, who was charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea.

“Based upon the jury’s inability to reach a verdict on any count,” Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink said, “This case is in mistrial.”

The Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office can still decide whether to retry Kelly for any charge, or drop the case all together.

A status hearing was scheduled for next Monday afternoon, when prosecutors could inform the judge if they plan to refile the case. Prosecutors did not immediately respond to emailed requests for additional comment.

Kelly was charged with second-degree murder in killing of Cuen-Buitimea, 48, who lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico.

Prosecutors said Kelly recklessly fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle toward a group of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 100 yards (90 meters) away on his cattle ranch. Kelly has said he fired warning shots in the air, but he didn’t shoot directly at anyone.

Court officials took jurors to Kelly’s ranch as well as a section of the border. Fink denied news media requests to tag along.

After Monday’s ruling, Consul General Marcos Moreno Baez of the Mexican consulate in Nogales, Arizona, said he would wait with Cuen-Buitimea’s two adult daughters on Monday evening to meet with prosecutors from Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office to learn about the implications of a mistrial.

“Mexico will continue to follow the case and continue to accompany the family, which wants justice.” said Moreno. “We hope for a very fair outcome.”

Kelly’s defense attorney Brenna Larkin did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment after the ruling was issued. Larkin had asked Fink to have jurors keep deliberating another day.

Kelly had earlier rejected an agreement with prosecutors that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.

Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault that day against another person in the group of about eight people, including a man from Honduras who was living in Mexico and who testified during the trial that he had gone into the U.S. that day seeking work.

The other migrants weren’t injured and they all made it back to Mexico.

Cuen-Buitimea lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. He had previously entered the U.S. illegally several times and was deported, most recently in 2016, court records show.

The nearly monthlong trial coincided with a presidential election year that has drawn widespread interest in border security.

Fink had told jurors that if they could not reach a verdict on the second-degree murder charge, they could try for a unanimous decision on a lesser charge of reckless manslaughter or negligent homicide. A second-degree murder conviction would have brought a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.

The jury got the case Thursday afternoon, deliberated briefly that day and then all of Friday and Monday.

SOUTH MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man charged with killing and mutilating a woman whose body parts washed up on a beach along Lake Michigan pleaded not guilty during a court appearance Monday.

Maxwell Anderson, 33, of Milwaukee, entered the plea to charges of first-degree intentional homicide, mutilating a corpse and arson in the death of Sade Robinson, 19.

Anderson waived his right to a preliminary hearing. He’s due back in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on May 16, local news outlets reported.

The court appearance was Anderson’s first since his arrest on April 4, two days after a leg believed to belong to Robinson was found by a passerby down a bluff at Warnimont Park along Lake Michigan in Cudahy. The leg had been severed just below the hip.

A torso and an arm believed to belong to Robinson were found Thursday morning along a remote stretch of tree-lined beach in South Milwaukee about a quarter of a mile (400 meters) from an apartment complex, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said.

Anderson is being held on a $5 million bond.

A phone message seeking comment was left Monday evening for one of his attorneys, Anthony Cotton.

Robinson was reported missing April 2 by a friend. An employee of the building where Robinson lived told police that Robinson was excited about a date she had planned for April 1, according to the complaint.

Surveillance video from a restaurant showed Robinson and Anderson sitting together at the bar on the evening of April 1. Her burned car was found the next morning.