Police whistleblower Michael Erwine, a Nevada sheriff’s deputy featured in USA TODAY’s “Behind the Blue Wall” investigation, has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his civil case against his former employers, Churchill County and its former sheriff. Erwine claims he was wrongly fired and that false statements the sheriff put into his employment file prevented him from being hired by other law enforcement agencies, including the Las Vegas Metro police. Here's what we know:
Erwine, 26, was hired as a jail deputy in 2015 Churchill County, Nevada. He was fired in October 2016 after documenting what he said was abusive behavior against detainees.
In court filings and in a 2021 interview with USA TODAY, Erwine said he saw a sergeant mop up urine and spray it on sleeping inmates. He said another guard told a female prisoner to drop her pants and then watched her urinate.
Erwine said he reached his breaking point in October 2016, 10 months after he joined the sheriff’s department.
He arrived at the jail to find Andrew Beaulieu bleeding in what was known as the drunk tank – a 4X4 padded cell with a drain in the middle of the floor that served as a toilet. Beaulieu told Erwine that for two hours he’d begged the other deputies for water and they responded by flushing the floor drain to drown out his cries.
Erwine gave Beaulieu some water and bandaged his bleeding hand, which he had injured before his arrest. Then...
A California mobile PET scan provider is resolving a long-running U.S. healthcare fraud case tied to physician referral payments. The settlement covers allegations that compensation paid to cardio...