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ByDeniseLavoie The Associated Press FAIRHAVEN, MASS. Atfirst glance, the text messages appear to show a disturb- ing case of cyberbullying: one teen urging another to kill himself. But the texts were not sent by a school bully. They were from a 17-year-old girl to her boyfriend, whom she called the love of her life. "You can't think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were gonna do it. Like I don't get why you aren't," Michelle Carter allegedly wrote to Conrad Roy III the day he parked his truck out- side a Fairhaven Kmart and killed himself through car- bon monoxide poisoning. Prosecutors have charged Carter with involuntary manslaughter in Roy's 2014 death. They say that in the week before Roy killed him- self, Carter assisted by urg- ing him to overcome his doubts about taking his own life, pressuring him to do it and even telling him to get back in his truck after becoming frightened that the plan was working. Carter's lawyer has stren- uously denied that she pushed him to kill himself and has asked a judge to dismiss the case. In their written re- sponse, prosecutors in- cluded text exchanges be- tween Carter and Roy that they say support their claim that Carter caused her boy- friend's death by "wantonly and recklessly" helping him poison himself. Roy, 18, had a history of depression and had at- tempted suicide two years earlier, taking an overdose of the painkiller acetamin- ophen. "You can't keep living this way. You just need to do it like you did the last time and not think about it and just do it, babe," Carter texted him. Carter's lawyer, Joseph Cataldo, said her texts amount to speech pro- tected by the First Amend- ment. He said it's clear from the exchanges that Roy had made up his mind to take his own life and Carter, now 18, did not cause his death. "He got the generator, he devised the plan and he had to go find a spot. He parked, he had to get the gas for the generator, he had to turn the generator on, he had to sit in that car for a long pe- riod of time. He caused his own death," Cataldo said. "He had thought this out. He wanted to take his own life. It's sad, but it's not manslaughter." After his earlier suicide attempt, Roy spent time in a psychiatric hospital and received counseling, said his aunt, Becki Maki. In the weeks before his death, he was excited about gradu- ating from high school and receiving his sea captain's license, she said. "He did not have the signs of someone who was considering that," Maki said. TEXT MESSAGES JANICEROY—THEASSOCIATED PRESS Conrad Roy III celebrates his high school graduation at Old Rochester Regional High School in Mattapoisett, Mass. He killed himself the following month. Teen charged in boyfriend's suicide Texts reveal she encouraged him to kill himself Carter By Kristen Wyatt The Associated Press DENVER Colorado's un- usual tax law is forcing the state to suspend taxes on recreational marijuana for one day. The sales-tax break on Sept. 16 will shave $20 off the price of a mid-grade ounce of pot in the Den- ver area, where ounces this summer sell for about $200 before tax. It's unusual for a state that has many times re- jected sales-tax holidays on things like school supplies, clothing or energy-efficient appliances. Officials say it could cost the state $3 mil- lion to $4 million. "At first I was in disbelief we were doing this," said Cheri Hackett, who owns Botanacare, a dispensary in the Denver suburb of Northglenn. "Once our law- yer said, 'No, we really are doing this,' we started get- ting ready. We're thinking there will be huge crowds." Hackett is printing signs to alert customers to the holiday and is trying to boost inventory for a one- day crush of business. Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights requires voter ap- proval for new taxes. In 2013, a year after legaliz- ing recreational pot, vot- ers approved the 25 per- cent taxes. But the law re- quires that any new taxes be waived and refunded if overall state collections ex- ceed projections given to voters when they approved the new taxes. In this case, the pot taxes were projected to raise $70 million in 2014. They actu- ally raised $58 million, but because overall tax collec- tions that year exceeded projections, Colorado must ask voters for permission to keepthemoney.Andtocom- ply with the requirement that the taxes revert to zero, lawmakerssettledonashort one-day tax waiver. That day is Sept. 16, one day after the state's books for the previous fiscal year are made final. MARIJUANA By Juliet Linderman The Associated Press BALTIMORE A city board approved on Wednesday a $6.4 million settlement with the family of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died a week af- ter he was critically in- jured while in police cus- tody. The settlement, an- nounced Tuesday, could play a role in whether a judge decides to move the trials for the six officers charged in Gray's death out of the city. Mayor Stephanie Raw- lings-Blake and other members of the Board of Estimates unanimously approved the settlement the day before Judge Barry Williams will hear argu- ments on whether the tri- als should be moved. De- fense attorneys have asked for a change of venue, cit- ing pre-trial publicity and concern that the officers will not receive fair trials in Baltimore. The settlement appears to be among the larg- est such payments in po- lice death cases in recent years. It was reached be- fore Gray's parents and his estate filed a lawsuit, although they had filed claims with the city and its police department. Deputy City Solicitor David Ralph said the set- tlement payout will have no impact on city oper- ations or budgeted pro- grams. City Solicitor George Nilson said the settlement "spares us from having the scab of April of this year being picked over and over and over for five or six years to come. That would not be good for the city," he said. Rawlings-Blake ac- knowledged at a news con- ference that a settlement before criminal proceed- ings were resolved was un- usual but said it was in the best interest of protecting taxpayers. She said nego- tiations lasted for months. "I again want to extend my most sincere condo- lences to the family of Mr. Freddie Gray," Rawlings- Blake said. "I hope that this settlement will bring some measure of closure to his family and to his friends." Although the city said in a statement that the set- tlement does not resolve any factual disputes, and expressly does not consti- tute an admission of lia- bility on the part of the city, its police department or any of the officers, ex- perts say the city's willing- ness to pre-empt a lawsuit could have an effect on the officers' ability to receive an impartial trial in Balti- more — an issue Williams will likely decide Thurs- day. "If I was an attorney for a defendant I'd be revis- ing my motion right now to say the settlement was made to persuade the jury pool that the officers did something wrong," said David Harris, a law pro- fessor at the University of Pittsburgh. Douglas Colbert, a pro- fessor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey Law School, said the settlement is a step in restoring the public's faith in local government and mending the broken relationship between the citizens of Baltimore and elected officials. "It's a big step toward a different type of policing," Colbert said. The mayor said offi- cers in the Western Dis- trict neighborhood, where Gray was arrested, will be the first to start wearing body cameras as part of a pilot program. Billy Mur- phy, the attorney for the Gray family, applauded the move and said the set- tlement brought civil jus- tice to the family. "Lengthy litigation puts the grieving family through hell. It could have taken three years. No fam- ily wants that," Murphy said. Other settlements have varied widely. In July, New York City settled for $5.9 million with the family of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died af- ter being put in a white police officer's chokehold. The city of Chicago set- tled in 2001 a wrongful death lawsuit by the fam- ily of LaTanya Haggerty, a black woman who was shot to death by a police officer who thought her cellphone was a weapon, for $18 million. Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at John Jay Col- lege of Criminal Justice, said such settlements are damaging for communi- ties and self-serving for governments. DIED AFTER INJURY IN POLICE CUSTODY Baltimore approves $6.4M settlement in Freddie Gray case DAVID ZALUBOWSKI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Buyers make their purchases at the counter as a contingent of lawmakers, their staffers and a handful of lobbyists tour one of two retail and grow operations for both medical and recreational marijuana in northeast Denver. Tax quirk forces Colorado to waive pot taxes for a day EVAN VUCCI — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Family members of Freddie Gray, sister Fredricka Gray, le , mother Gloria Darden, center, and stepfather Richard Shipley listen during a news conference a er a day of unrest following the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. 1/8Pg.................$199.00 1/4 Pg.................$325.00 Half Pg...............$485.00 Full Pg................$765.00 Inside Front........................$1150.00 Inside Back........................$1015.00 Back Cover........................$1275.00 Center Double Truck..........$2175.00 New features on the wonders of fall, winter and spring in "the Tehama Country," for residents and visitors. Things to do, see . . . and experience." Advertising deadline: Monday, October 5, 2015 Format : Glossy full-color magazine high-quality stock, with high-weight cover. Published twice yearly. Print Distribution : 10,000 distribution through pre-promoted insertion in the full run Daily News edition of Thursday, October 29, 2015. 3,000 copies distributed through Spring of 2016 through Chambers of Commerce, hotels and visitor information centers. Published online for 12 months on www.redbluffdailynews.com. Tehama County's most visited local website receives between 30,000 and 60,000 visits per month from internet users from outside the Shasta-Tehama- Butte County region. Visitors can click through directly from ads in the digital edition to advertisers' own websites. This is the only home delivered magazine dedicated to supporting pride in place on the part of local residents, while promoting visitors from near and far to come taste, climb, ride, explore, fish, hunt, float and "Reach their Peak the in Tehama Country." Be a part of it! Ask about 10% discount for commitment to advertise in the magazine's next edition, published May, 2016 "Base Camp Red Bluff" Gayla Eckels: (530) 737-5044 geckels@redbluffdailynews.com Suzy Noble: (530) 737-5056 snoble@redbluffdailynews.com Whypaymoreforlessdistribution? | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 4 B