October 31, 2003
A supermarket tabloid is publishing the name and picture of the woman who has accused NBA star Kobe Bryant of rape.
Confirming an open secret, The Globe is running a prom picture of the 19-year-old woman on its cover along with the headline, "Did she really say no?"
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02:06 AM
MODESTO, Calif. The lawyer for Scott Peterson fought Thursday to have a small hair thrown out as evidence against him in the slaying of his wife Laci and their unborn son, grilling an FBI lab expert on DNA identification techniques.
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02:05 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. As William Franklin loaded a shelf into his car outside a Home Depot, his wife, Linda, stood by the open trunk to make sure their shopping cart did not roll away. Then, he heard a loud noise he thought was wood smacking concrete and felt something hit the side of his face.
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02:04 AM
SEATTLE (AP) - The man suspected of being the Green River Killer has agreed to plead guilty next week to the murders of 48 women in a deal that would spare him from execution, a source told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Gary Leon Ridgway, a 54-year-old truck painter arrested in the serial killer case in 2001, will admit to murdering 42 women on investigators' list of Green River Killer victims, as well as six women not on the list.
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02:03 AM
October 30, 2003
MODESTO, Calif. A hair found in a pair of pliers on the boat Scott Peterson took fishing the day his wife disappeared matched a genetic sample from Laci Peterson's mother, an FBI expert testified Wednesday, as prosecutors sought to have him tried in the slaying of his wife and unborn son. For much of the day inside a packed courtroom, FBI lab supervisor Constance Fisher testified about the disputed method of DNA analysis she specializes in that can show a genetic match between a mother and child.
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12:32 AM
MODESTO, Calif. Prosecutors in the case against accused double murderer Scott Peterson decided not to introduce wiretap evidence at the preliminary hearing, which opened Wednesday. The development sparked speculation over whether the much-publicized taped phone conversations between Peterson and his extramarital girlfriend Amber Frey would be played in court if he is forced to stand trial.
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12:31 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Oct. 29 Iran Brown had been kicked off the school bus for eating candy, so his aunt drove him to Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie, Md., that Monday morning last fall. Moments after he got out of her car, he fell to the ground, a gunshot wound in his chest. "I put my book bag down and I got shot," he testified matter-of-factly on Wednesday before a jury here.
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12:30 AM
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 A federal judge in Texas has thrown out the 1983 conviction there of Edwin P. Wilson, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, for selling tons of explosives to Libya, ruling that prosecutors knowingly used false testimony to undermine his defense. The ruling by Judge Lynn N. Hughes of Federal District Court in Houston was scathing in its condemnation of the government's conduct in a case that was one of the most prominent of its time.
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12:23 AM
HARTFORD, Conn. -- A 12-year-old city boy has been charged with shooting a 12-year-old friend. The wounded boy was taken to St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center with bullet wounds to his arm and neck Tuesday, police said. The hospital would not release his condition, citing privacy laws.
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12:22 AM
PASADENA, Calif. -- A Pasadena man, who allegedly was caught setting a fire in a canyon filled with dry brush and large trees in the Angeles National Forest as wildfires raged through Southern California, was charged Wednesday with arson.
Dikran Armouchian, 23, remained jailed pending arraignment Thursday in Pasadena Superior Court.
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12:21 AM
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. -- Two Plattsburgh State students pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges stemming from the death of a student police say was forced to drink pitchers of water through a funnel while pledging a fraternity.
The guilty pleas came as officials at Plattsburgh State planned to announce that some of the 21 students involved in the hazing death of Walter Dean Jennings will be permanently dismissed from the school.
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12:19 AM
October 29, 2003
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nearly one year after a pregnant Laci Peterson disappeared from her California home, prosecutors on Wednesday will finally lay out evidence they say shows Scott Peterson killed his wife and unborn son. The eagerly-anticipated preliminary hearing in Modesto is expected to last up to five days after which Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami will decide whether there is enough evidence to merit a trial for the 31-year-old salesman.
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12:21 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Prosecutors in the trial of sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad presented testimony Tuesday from witnesses to other Washington-area shootings because they must prove multiple killings to convict him of one of the death-penalty charges against him. Muhammad, 42, is on trial in only one of the killings, the shooting of Dean Harold Meyers at a gas station in Manassas, Va.
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12:20 AM
WACO, Texas Former Baylor University basketball player Carlton Dotson was returned to Texas from Maryland on Tuesday to face charges in the shooting death of a former teammate. Dotson, sitting in the back seat of an unmarked police cruiser, looked toward the floor when reporters clustered around the car outside the McLennan County Jail in Waco.
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12:19 AM
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A terror defendant accused of plotting to cut through the cables that support New York's Brooklyn Bridge was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday by a judge who refused to let him withdraw his guilty plea. Iyman Faris was sentenced to 15 years for aiding and abetting terrorism, plus five years for conspiracy.
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12:18 AM
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - Actress-singer Courtney Love was charged with two felony drug counts Tuesday in a complaint that specified she illegally possessed painkillers. The two painkillers, hydrocodone and oxycodone, can be prescribed legally. Love surrendered voluntarily and was booked by Beverly Hills police, district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.
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12:17 AM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Jury selection started Tuesday in a bribery trial that will determine whether two Salt Lake City bid leaders broke the law to bring the 2002 Winter Games to Utah. The jury will be selected from about 80 prospects who filed into the federal courtroom past tight security Tuesday.
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12:15 AM
San Jose police on Tuesday evening arrested a nanny with a history of traffic violations who allegedly killed two children when her car jumped a curb in Danville. A man in a downtown San Jose restaurant called police after he spotted Jimena Barreto, 45, at the restaurant. Police found her walking down a street, and she was taken into custody without incident.
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12:09 AM
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal grand jury has indicted a Los Angeles podiatrist on fraud charges for billing Medicare for procedures on patients that turned out to have no feet or to have been dead.
Prosecutors said on Friday that Robert Ken Kasamatsu, 41, used the names and numbers of about 100 Medicare beneficiaries, some of whom he had never seen, to create and submit bogus claims totaling more than $600,000 between 1996 and 2000.
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12:08 AM
October 28, 2003
The body of a 7-year-old boy found in a box in a Newark basement nearly a year ago prompted a shake-up at New Jersey's child welfare agency. The agency reviewed all open cases, hired 366 more employees and received $30 million in emergency aid.
Despite those changes, four adopted boys - one of them 19 - were found earlier this month malnourished and weighing less than 50 pounds each.
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01:47 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Weeks before the sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington area, John Allen Muhammad showed a cousin in Louisiana a rifle and claimed he was on a covert military operation, the cousin testified Monday at Muhammad's murder trial.
Charlene Anderson said she let Muhammad and fellow sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo stay in her Baton Rouge, La., home for a few days in late summer 2002.
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01:46 AM
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Tom Sizemore on Monday was sentenced to six months in jail for beating up his former girlfriend, the one-time "Hollywood Madam," Heidi Fleiss.
Sizemore, best known for his parts in "Saving Private Ryan" and "Black Hawk Down," was convicted in August of domestic violence, making criminal threats and harassing Fleiss during their stormy one-year relationship.
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01:46 AM
Ten months after Laci Peterson disappeared from her Modesto home, Stanislaus County prosecutors will start laying out the reasons Wednesday why they believe her husband, Scott, killed the mother-to-be and the couple's unborn son. The long-awaited preliminary hearing is expected to last at least five days, after which Superior Court Judge Al Girolami will determine whether there is enough evidence to try Scott Peterson in a case that has drawn national attention.
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01:45 AM
Prosecutors believe Laci Peterson's body was in her husband's warehouse and boat before it was dumped in San Francisco Bay, according to court documents filed late Friday.
According to a report by the dog's handler, the cadaver dog showed "mild interest" in the boat and displayed some interest in containers in the warehouse during a search.
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01:44 AM
CHICAGO -- A pediatrician was arrested after thousands of images of child pornography were found on his computers, federal prosecutors said Monday.
Dr. H. Marc Watzman, 37, also had a hidden panel in his car that contained drugs such as morphine, compounds used to induce unconsciousness and a substance used to induce temporary muscular paralysis. Some drugs also were found in the apartment.
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01:43 AM
WASHINGTON (AP)--Women now make up a bigger slice of all those arrested in the United States, according to an FBI report released Monday that also found crime overall remained essentially level last year.
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01:42 AM
A 41-year-old wrecker driver has been charged with four counts of capital murder in connection with a string of sexually related murders in the Houston area over the past 18 years.
Police said Anthony Allen Shore confessed to the strangulations of a woman and three girls since 1986 and may be responsible for others.
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01:42 AM
MUNCIE - A former Ball State University student accused of posing as a cancer victim was described by her attorney Monday as "a very sick young lady" with "a significant, long-term psychological condition."
Brookelyn Walters, 24, from Culver in northwestern Indiana, is charged with three counts of forgery and two counts of theft. The charges stem in part from fund-raising activities conducted by people who believed Walters's claims of serious illness.
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01:41 AM
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Two men charged with murder in the deaths of three Texas men pleaded innocent on Monday in Fayette County District Court.
Audencio Alkabala-Sanchez, 37, and Luis Alberto Alkabala-Sanchez, 22, both of Lakewood, N.J., were arrested Sept. 19, in New Jersey and brought to Kentucky on Friday. According to court documents, they each face one count of murder.
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01:40 AM
October 27, 2003
MODESTO - The preliminary hearing date for Scott Peterson was delayed a day in court today and is now expected to begin Wednesday. The delay will allow a lawyer for the man accused of killing his wife Laci and their unborn son to wrap up another trial in Los Angeles.
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03:07 AM
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Two convicted murderers who disappeared after allegedly beating another inmate to death at a prison ice plant were found Sunday, still inside the Missouri State Penitentiary.
Inmates Christopher Sims and Shannon Phillips were discovered in the same building where they are believed to have killed convicted murderer Toby Viles four days earlier, corrections department spokesman John Fougere said.
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03:07 AM
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A New Jersey couple on Sunday faced charges of starving their four adopted sons, aged 9 to 19, authorities said, in a case that has raised fresh questions about the state's child welfare system.
The boys, who suffered from stunted growth, rotten teeth and distended bellies, were surviving by supplementing their meager diet of uncooked pancake batter and oatmeal with chips of paint and pieces of wall insulation, authorities said.
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03:06 AM
LOS ANGELES There are tens of thousands of male sex offenders in U.S. prisons, and only 1,200 female offenders. But sex offenses by women are more common than most people would think, according to one study. Psychologist Katherine Peterson of the Kentucky Department of Corrections began studying female sex offenders a few years ago and found that the problem is much more prevalent than people realize because the majority of men who are sexually assaulted by women never report it.
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03:02 AM
A 39-year-old Wisconsin man was cited for drunken driving, after he arrived at the Hartland Police Department to pick up his 39-year-old wife, who had also been cited for drunken driving.
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03:01 AM
Authorities were searching for an Oklahoma prisoner who was mistakenly released from a Kansas jail. Law officers were searching for Loyd Wilson after he was released from the Cherokee County Jail. Wilson, 37, of Peoria, must complete a 20-year prison sentence in Oklahoma on methamphetamine charges.
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03:00 AM
YORK, S.C. (AP) - Two U.S. Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., were arrested after authorities say they were caught with $25,000 worth of stolen government weapons and ammunition.
Marines John David Stocks and Charles Anthony Rohrl, both 19, had been stationed at the base in Jacksonville, N.C.
Federal charges against the men are pending, authorities said.
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02:59 AM
ROCK HILL, S.C. -- A trooper with the Highway Patrol is out on bond after he and his father were arrested on drug charges Friday night. Tony Caldwell, 37, was arrested after a York County drug task force raided his father's home, finding crack cocaine, alcohol and stolen goods within the home.
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02:58 AM
A woman accused of kidnapping her 18-month-old granddaughter in Illinois turned herself in today in St. Petersburg. The FBI says 39-year-old Nancy Bebout faces federal kidnapping charges for the abduction of Mackenzie Bryant in Dolton, Illinois.
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02:57 AM
In a bizarre four-day ordeal, a Swissvale man was chained to a pole in the basement of his home by the woman with whom he lives and fed only a small bowl of soup, Swissvale police said. Balvantbhai Khalasi's plight came to light when he broke free and fled to his next-door neighbor's house.
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02:56 AM
October 25, 2003
NEW YORK (AP) - Adding heft to a safety investigation, a judge late Friday ordered the captain of a crashed Staten Island ferry to appear in federal court to explain why he has not complied with a subpoena from investigators.
U.S. District Judge Frederic Block ordered Michael Gansas to appear Nov. 5 to explain why a National Transportation Safety Board subpoena should not be enforced.
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03:52 AM
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Kobe Bryant told everyone he loved them. For another night, at least, everyone loved him back. Cheered from the moment he stepped off the team bus, Bryant got in some much needed work with his All-Star teammates Friday night as the Los Angeles Lakers lost 93-87 to the Sacramento Kings in the final exhibition game for both teams.
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03:51 AM
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge declared a mistrial Friday in the obstruction of justice trial of Frank Quattrone, one of the nation's leading technology bankers during the Internet stock craze.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Owen came after jurors reported they were deadlocked on all three charges against the former financial star - two counts of obstruction and one count of witness tampering.
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03:50 AM
October 24, 2003
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - A judge Thursday rejected a request to delay the trial of sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo to give prosecutors more time to let a mental health expert examine him. "This really is almost an unstoppable train at this point," said Circuit Judge Jane Marum Roush, noting that 250 potential jurors had been subpoenaed as well as about 35 out-of-state witnesses.
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03:33 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. A power outage at the courthouse forced officials to cancel Thursday's testimony in the trial of sniper shooting suspect John Allen Muhammad (search), one day after he gave up acting his own attorney and rehired his lawyers.
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03:32 AM
GALVESTON, Texas Accused murderer Robert Durst testified yesterday that he "must have been out of my mind" when he ran away to Galveston, Texas, donned a wig and posed as a mute woman. Taking the witness stand, the cross-dressing millionaire said his "life became hell" on Oct. 31, 2000, when he learned there was a new probe into the 1982 disappearance of his first wife, Kathie.
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03:31 AM
SAN ANTONIO - Nearly three dozen undocumented workers were arrested early Thursday in federal raids on Wal-Mart stores around Texas, according to immigration officials. The Houston area yielded 13 of the arrests, while another 11 occurred in the Dallas area and nine more in San Antonio.
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03:30 AM
LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. (AP) -- A man arrested Thursday in Pennsylvania is believed to be the gunman who wounded two people last week during a dance at Rider University here, authorities said. Tarik J. Reid, 20, of Brooklyn, N.Y., was taken into custody at a relative's home in Tobyhanna, Pa., based on information from witnesses at the dance, police said.
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03:30 AM
PORTLAND - After arresting a man suspected of exposing himself to a parent at Portland school Wednesday, police said recent possible sex offenses reflect the need to increase the safety of children.
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03:29 AM
A man aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Nevada to California threatened to "take this aircraft down" and became so unruly that flight attendants and passengers had to subdue him with plastic restraints, officials said.
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03:28 AM
The husband of a newspaper photographer was convicted Thursday of murdering his estranged wife. Raymond Houston, 41, had been jailed since his arrest two years ago after the body of Luci Houston, 43, was found in the back seat of her car, shot in the head and stomach.
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03:21 AM
October 23, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The captain of the Staten Island ferry that crashed last week killing 10 people refused again to talk to investigators on Wednesday, frustrating officials and angering New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who called for his dismissal. Michael Gansas, who failed to comply with a subpoena from the National Transportation Safety Board for a second day, was under medical supervision and was unable to talk about the accident, his attorney said.
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12:33 AM
Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett showed Monday that he is enjoying his share of the spotlight when he issued a nine-page opinion in the matter of The People of Colorado v. Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers' superstar accused of raping a 19-year-old woman who worked as a concierge at an upscale Colorado lodge and spa.
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12:32 AM
BOSTON Gerald Amirault is considered by some to be a heinous child molester who raped scores of kids at a day care center he owned, and by others to be an innocent man persecuted in a modern-day witch hunt. Seventeen years ago, Amirault, his sister, Cheryl, and his mother, Violet, were found guilty of repeatedly molesting children in their family-owned Fells Acres Day Care. The conviction was based largely on the testimony of kids as young as 3 years old.
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12:31 AM
A West Hempstead man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to charges he videotaped himself engaging in sexual activities with his 6-year-old daughter.
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12:31 AM
A 15-year-old student at Concord High School was arrested after police said Wednesday they found his alleged plans to blow up the school and a list of students and teachers he wanted to die in the attack.
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12:30 AM
A former church youth leader has been arrested for allegedly soliciting sex from a teenage boy online with the intent, he said, of preaching to him after gaining his trust. Hewart Lee Bennett, 46, of West Palm Beach, told deputies he was on a mission to tell young people about Jesus after gaining their trust by talking to them about sex in chat rooms.
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12:29 AM
A female guard for the Nevada Department of Corrections has been arrested for allegedly engaging in a sex act with a prison inmate. Ann Marie Weaver, 35, of Dayton, was booked Monday on suspicion of voluntary sexual conduct with a male convict at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center.
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12:28 AM
October 22, 2003
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad on Wednesday fired himself as his own counsel after two days. Standby lawyers Jonathan Shapiro and Peter Greenspun once again took over as his attorneys.
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10:21 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - In a dramatic encounter that will be echoed throughout his trial, John Allen Muhammad cross-examined a restaurant owner Tuesday who was wounded and robbed in a shooting linked to last year's sniper spree, telling him "I understand how you feel when your life is on the line." Paul J. LaRuffa's testimony came a day after Muhammad was allowed to represent himself on murder charges related to the killing of Dean Harold Meyers outside a Virginia gas station on Oct. 9, 2002.
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12:36 AM
His questions are unfailingly polite, if occasionally ungrammatical. His objections are quick, if rarely sustained. His cross-examinations are dogged, if sometimes meandering. John A. Muhammad sits almost alone at the defense table, chin in hand, separated from his former lawyers by several feet so they cannot whisper directions in his ear. He is his own lawyer now and his life is in his own hands. In his methodical, disciplined, often awkward way, he seems determined to save it.
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12:35 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. safety investigators on Tuesday subpoenaed the captain of the Staten Island ferry boat that crashed into a pier last week in New York, killing 10 and injuring 30 others. The National Transportation Safety Board also said in a statement that steering, engine and navigation equipment aboard the Andrew J. Barberi worked properly in post-crash tests, putting clearer emphasis on actions of the crew.
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12:34 AM
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - A 15-year-old boy accused of plotting with two friends to wipe out their enemies in a shooting rampage struck a plea bargain Tuesday. Cody Jackson pleaded guilty to carjacking, and prosecutors recommended he get five years without parole in a juvenile detention center. He is to be sentenced Dec. 12.
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12:33 AM
One of three people involved in an attack on two African-American brothers was convicted Tuesday of a hate crime in Fulton County Superior Court. Judge Marvin Arrington called Christopher Botts, 26, "reprehensible" for brutally attacking Idris Golden in Little Five Points in April 2002.
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12:32 AM
WICHITA FALLS (AP) -- A Wichita Falls man accused of stealing a car with a 4-year-old boy inside has been nabbed in Oklahoma. The vehicle was later found abandoned and the youngster wasn't hurt.
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12:31 AM
AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas running back Cedric Benson was charged Tuesday with forcing his way into an apartment to look for a television he says was stolen from him. Benson was charged with criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted.
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12:29 AM
Mukwonago - A 16-year-old boy who brought a rifle to school may not be charged with a crime because of an exception in state law, but he could still face expulsion, officials said Tuesday.
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12:29 AM
October 21, 2003
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad won the right to serve as his own lawyer Monday in a surprise, last-minute request at his murder trial. He broke a year of stony silence by proclaiming his innocence in a rambling opening statement and asking a witness: "Have you ever seen me shoot anyone?"
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03:47 AM
EAGLE, Colo. (AP) - NBA star Kobe Bryant must stand trial on a charge of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old resort worker, a judge ruled Monday, clearing the way for a celebrity trial the likes of which hasn't been seen since O.J. Simpson. Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett chided prosecutors for presenting "a minimal amount of evidence," but said it was enough to order the trial.
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03:45 AM
BALTIMORE (AP) - A college student who allegedly hid box cutters and other banned items on four airliners to expose weaknesses in U.S. security was charged with a federal crime Monday, and a prosecutor said he committed a "very serious and foolish action." The banned items were not discovered on two of the planes until a month after Nathaniel Heatwole, 20, had alerted authorities about his scheme via e-mail.
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03:44 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) - While the Bush administration complains that judges are too often soft on crime, the Supreme Court agreed Monday to look at the other end of the spectrum - cases in which judges reject guidelines and hand out extra-long sentences. The court said it would consider whether judges alone can decide to tack on additional prison time or whether a jury must make that call.
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03:43 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) - A defense lawyer who told jurors his client might be a "stinking thief jail bird" did not fall down on the job, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The high court reinstated a conviction in the case of Lionel Gentry, a California man convicted of stabbing his pregnant, drug-addicted girlfriend during an argument.
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03:42 AM
DURHAM -- A 20-year Durham police officer was arrested Sunday and charged with assault, police reported. Officer Stanley Harris, 45, was released on a $2,500 unsecured bond after police charged him with assault on a female.
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03:41 AM
October 20, 2003
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad will represent himself at his trial. Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. approved the motion Monday morning granting Muhammad's request as the trial began its second week.
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11:09 AM
Who pulled the trigger? In capital murder trials in Virginia, the answer to that question means the difference between life in prison or death by execution for a convicted killer. But what happens under the state's "triggerman rule" when two individuals allegedly participate in a series of random, fatal shootings that terrorize an entire region, yet there is evidence that only one of them fired the rifle?
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08:20 AM
Virginia Beach, Va. - The lawyers prosecuting John Allen Muhammad and those defending him agree on at least one thing - there is no direct evidence linking Muhammad to any of last fall's sniper shootings. No eyewitnesses place the sniper rifle in his hands. No surveillance photographs show him taking a shot. He has never admitted doing anything wrong.
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08:16 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. Opening statements are expected today in John Allen Muhammad's capital murder trial in the sniper slaying of Dean Harold Meyers, a Vietnam veteran. Meyers was gunned down outside a northern Virginia gas station last October, the seventh victim of a three-week shooting spree that left 10 people dead in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
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12:49 AM
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - The jury of suburbanites, many with ties to the military, that will hear the case against sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad is likely to lean toward the prosecution, jury experts said. "In general, Virginia juries are going to be prosecution juries," except in more urban areas, said Donald H. Smith, an Old Dominion University sociology professor who studies jury behavior.
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12:47 AM
MODESTO, Calif. The preliminary hearing for accused wife-killer Scott Peterson has been delayed again and now is set to take place on Oct. 28. Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Al Girolami agreed to postpone the hearing by a week because Petersons chief defense attorney, Mark Geragos, was still involved with an unrelated murder trial in Los Angeles.
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12:45 AM
The Kobe Bryant case has become a tawdry media circus, complete with possibly jury- tainting assertions that the alleged victim was promiscuous and the repeated use of her name despite Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett's orders against revealing her identity at this point.
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12:44 AM
LAMAR, Colo. (AP) - A woman accused of drowning her two young children in a bathtub before a failed attempt on her own life was arrested on murder charges. Rebekah Amaya faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Grace Headlee, 4, and Gabriel Amaya, 5 months, according to Lamar Police Cpt. Rick Copess.
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12:42 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) - Legal proceedings were expected Monday in a federal court in Baltimore against a college student who the FBI believes hid box cutters and other banned items aboard two Southwest Airlines (LUV) planes, the agency said. Government prosecutors still were trying to determine what charges they might bring against Nathaniel T. Heatwole. The 20-year-old student had warned officials he would try to bring forbidden articles onto commercial flights to expose holes in security, an official said.
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12:41 AM
LIVINGSTON, La. (AP) - One of two men who escaped from jail by slipping under a chain-link fence and then scaling a ladder over razor wire was captured Sunday after a motorist spotted him walking along a highway. The second escaped inmate remained at large. The two men, accused in separate killings, broke out of jail Saturday while they were out of their cells for an hour of exercise, Sheriff Willie Graves said.
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12:36 AM
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - The sun had yet to rise over Miami Shores, Fla., but the Oklahoma lawman at H. Paul Rico's front door wasn't waiting any longer. After 22 years, it felt good to interrupt the retired FBI agent's sleep with a knock. "I'm Sgt. Mike Huff," the detective told Rico before informing him he was under arrest for the 1981 murder of a Tulsa businessman.
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12:34 AM
DENVER (AP) - A judge sentenced an Arizona woman to 60 days home detention for intercepting her husband's ex-wife's e-mail, saying the penalty is a warning to others who might be tempted to do the same. "Privacy is still a cherished value," U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch said in sentencing Angel Lee, 28, of El Mirage, AZ.
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12:31 AM
HOUSTON - A Houston father and his two adult sons were arrested on charges of sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl, police said. Martin Borrego, 77, and his son Roger O. Borrego, 54, were both charged with indecency with a child. The other son, Tony Charles Borrego, 41, was charged with aggravated sexual assault.
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12:28 AM
October 17, 2003
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Reuters) - Even before the first witness is called in the murder trial of accused sniper John Muhammad, lawyers focused on the death penalty, the ultimate punishment for crime that has a four-century history in Virginia. Muhammad, on trial for one of 10 sniper-style killings that terrorized the Washington area a year ago, could face the death sentence if convicted. The only other possibility if he is found guilty is life in prison without parole.
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12:33 AM
MODESTO, Calif. -- On the eve of a court hearing, Scott Peterson's defense team submitted a filing late Thursday claiming that an investigator 'willfully omitted' evidence that allegedly proved the body of Laci Peterson was never in her husband's boat. According to the filing, the defense believes that the prosecution's claim that Laci Peterson's lifeless body was placed in Scott Peterson's boat and dumped in the San Francisco Bay off the Berkeley Marina on Christmas Eve day is pivotal to the case against the Modesto fertilizer salesman.
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12:32 AM
Prosecutors contend a single hair found attached to pliers in Scott Peterson's boat broke in an evidence package and was not mishandled by investigators, according to documents filed in court Tuesday. The hair could be a key piece of physical evidence linking Peterson's pregnant wife to the boat he said he took fishing Christmas Eve, the day she was reported missing. The hair is part of a collection of evidence the defense is seeking to bar from court, including information from scent-tracking dogs, GPS tracking devices, wiretaps and a hypnotized witness.
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12:31 AM
Nearly half of Americans think it is fair for Kobe Bryant's (search) attorneys to discuss his accuser's sex life in court, and opinion remains mixed on the NBA player's guilt or innocence. The latest FOX News poll shows that about a third of the public (31 percent) think Bryant is guilty of the sexual assault charge and almost a third (31 percent) think he is innocent, with 38 percent reserving judgment.
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12:30 AM
HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (AP) - A man convicted of killing three women in Kansas pleaded guilty Thursday to five more murders in Missouri, where some of the victims' bodies were found stuffed into barrels in a rented storage locker. John E. Robinson Sr., 59, avoided trial and a possible death sentence in Missouri by admitting that he killed the two women and teenage girl whose bodies were found in the storage locker, as well as two other women whose bodies were never found.
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12:29 AM
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A man accused Minneapolis police of sodomizing him with the handle of a plunger during a drug raid, and two officers were suspended while the FBI investigated. Speaking publicly for the first time since Monday's alleged attack, Stephen Porter buried his head in his hands Wednesday after telling reporters he had feared for his life.
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12:28 AM
HANFORD, Calif. - A Hanford High School band director has been arrested on suspicion of videotaping a 17-year-old student changing her clothes, police said. Scott Atchison, 26, was arrested this week on a misdemeanor warrant that charged him with disorderly conduct/peeping, according to Kings County prosecutors.
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12:24 AM
Arne Soreide and Donna Sotille thought they had concocted the perfect plan. The executives of Boca Raton-based company, Accutel Communications, alleged scam cunningly switched customers service without their consent and billed them for nonexistent service a heist that raked in $26 million.
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12:23 AM
October 16, 2003
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Potential jurors in the trial of sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad were questioned about their views on the death penalty Wednesday and asked whether they were terrorized by the crimes. Defense lawyers had predicted jury selection would be difficult because of the heavy publicity surrounding last October's Washington-area killing spree, in which 10 people were killed. However, the first eight people questioned were all held to be qualified to serve as jurors.
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12:32 AM
EAGLE, Colo. (AP) - Kobe Bryant's accuser showed up for her rape exam wearing panties containing another man's sperm, a startling discovery that defense lawyers called "compelling evidence" the NBA star is innocent. But Bryant's preliminary hearing ended Wednesday with prosecutors telling a judge there was "uncontradicted" evidence that the Los Angeles Lakers' guard raped the 19-year-old woman at a mountain resort.
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12:30 AM
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a couple charged with fatally beating a 7-year-old boy and collecting welfare for the child during the 17 months that his body went undiscovered. Dauphin County District Attorney Edward M. Marsico said his office would seek to have the victim's mother, Ann J. Daw, 31, and her boyfriend, Vincent V. Huntley, 41, tried together for Onyx Daw's death.
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12:29 AM
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - An 11-year-old girl apparently hanged herself in her bedroom after being raped by her father earlier in the day, police said. Valerie Charlene Lucie was found dead on Sept. 30. Timothy Lucie, 46, was arraigned Tuesday on charges of rape and sodomy and released Wednesday on $35,000 bond.
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12:27 AM
SEBRING -- Highlands County sheriff's deputies have made an arrest in the Oct. 9 death of 2-year-old Chance Thunder Kilakai of Lorida. Highlands County Detective Sergeant John Murray arrested the youngster's father, 47-year-old Kenneth Duane Kaplan, at his Raccoon Lane home.
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12:26 AM
A Carson City mother was arrested after she lost track of her toddler and he wandered across U.S. Highway 395. Cheryl Gomes, 42, called authorities Sunday to report her 3-year-old son had been missing for about 90 minutes.
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12:20 AM
LYNWOOD, Calif. - Eight family members of a Lynwood city councilman were charged with voter fraud for allegedly filing false registration forms for an address that did not exist. The district attorney's office arrested seven of the eight relatives of Councilman Ramon Rodriguez on Wednesday and the eighth, the councilman's sister, was expected to be arrested in Northern California later in the day.
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12:17 AM
October 15, 2003
EAGLE, Colo. (Reuters) - With Kobe Bryant's lawyers claiming to have "compelling evidence" of his innocence, a police detective testified on Wednesday that semen and pubic hair belonging to someone other than Bryant was found in the underwear of the woman who accuses him of rape.
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02:44 PM
EAGLE, Colo. (Reuters) - What does the Kobe Bryant defense team have up its sleeve next? When the Los Angeles Lakers star finds himself back at his preliminary hearing on Wednesday all eyes will be on attorney Pamela Mackey to see if she has any more "Perry Mason" moments like the one that stunned a Colorado courtroom last week.
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03:49 AM
EAGLE, Colo. Prosecutors accused Kobe Bryant's attorneys of deliberately smearing the reputation of his accuser Tuesday as they asked a judge to make sure any evidence about her sexual history is heard behind closed doors. In a sharply worded court filing, prosecutors said defense attorney Pamela Mackey stepped over the line last week when she asked a detective at the preliminary hearing whether injuries to the 19-year-old woman were "consistent with a person who had sex with three different men in three days."
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03:48 AM
Newly released phone records belonging to accused double murderer Scott Peterson offer a very different account of his extramarital relationship than what his lawyers and family have discussed publicly, Fox News has learned. Though Peterson's defense team and family have suggested that 28-year-old massage therapist Amber Frey was a temptress who doggedly pursued him, the records show Peterson called Frey hundreds of times, even after his wife Laci had been reported missing.
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03:47 AM
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A judge on Tuesday refused to delay the state's murder trial against Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols despite claims that the federal government is not cooperating in making witnesses available to defense attorneys. But District Judge Steven Taylor issued a Feb. 13 deadline for the government to make witnesses available for interviews, saying the delay was jeopardizing Nichols' right to a fair trial.
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03:46 AM
RIALTO, Calif. (AP) - Rodney King has been arrested for allegedly punching his girlfriend, less than two months after he was sentenced for driving under the influence. King, whose videotaped beating by police officers sparked the Los Angeles riots of 1992, was booked for investigation of domestic violence on Saturday and released Monday on $50,000 bail.
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03:45 AM
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A man shot his girlfriend and three of her children early Tuesday, killing two teenagers and leaving the mother and the remaining child in critical condition, police said. Wilson Cherenfant, 55, apparently acted because the woman had a new boyfriend.
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03:44 AM
October 14, 2003
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - John Allen Muhammad entered innocent pleas Tuesday as the death-penalty trial of the 42-year-old sniper suspect got under way a year after a series of deadly shootings terrified the Washington area. Muhammad pleaded innocent to capital murder and firearms charges. He initially remained silent when asked a routine question by Circuit Judge Roy F. Millette Jr., but later answered after whispering with an attorney.
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10:55 AM
DENVER Kobe Bryant's defense team may have more surprises in store when the preliminary hearing in Bryant's sexual assault case resumes Wednesday, analysts said. When the hearing resumes, some suggest his attorney may have another surprise -- a rare subpoena for witnesses to testify. Typically, only the prosecution calls witnesses at a preliminary hearing.
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01:09 AM
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - With the first trial in the Washington sniper case set to begin on Tuesday, the court-appointed lawyers for the two defendants have submitted nearly $900,000 in bills so far for reimbursement by Virginia taxpayers. The attorneys appear to be on their way to racking up the most expensive court-appointed defenses in Virginia history, though nobody keeps statistics on such matters.
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01:08 AM
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - A murder suspect who escaped from jail surrendered to police Monday night after three days on the run, a state police spokesman said. Hugo Selenski, who escaped Friday night from the Luzerne County Correctional Facility by climbing down a 60-foot line of knotted bedsheets, was taken into custody at his home in rural Kingston Township.
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01:07 AM
LEBANON, Ind. (AP) - The mother of a long-missing girl has filed a lawsuit against a woman charged with falsely portraying herself as the child. Donna Walker, 35, of Topeka, Kan., was served with the suit in her Boone County jail cell over the weekend. She is accused of claiming to be Shannon Marie Sherrill, a 6-year-old who disappeared in 1986.
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01:07 AM
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. (AP) - A man has escaped the state treatment center for sex offenders where he was committed 19 years ago after being charged with child rape, officials said. John McIntyre apparently left the building through a second-story window, lowering himself by an electrical cord or wire, and then had scaled an 18-foot perimeter fence topped with razor wire.
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01:06 AM
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. A woman was charged with child abuse after "nanny cams" showed her bashing a baby on the kitchen floor and forcefully shaking the 5-month-old girl, police said. One clip shows Claudia Muro, 29, raising the baby above her head and "slamming her on the floor three or possibly four times," according to a police report.
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01:04 AM
Seven people, one of them a 15-year-old boy, were arrested during a dog fighting raid near Fulshear in Fort Bend County. Sheriff's Dept. spokeswoman Jeannie Gage said 13 pit bull dogs, some of them with wounds, were found at the location.
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12:59 AM
AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University police officials arrested Nicholas Lloyd Burch, 19, on charges of child pornography. Burch faces three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Each count carries a maximum sentence of two years incarceration and a fine of $5,000.
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12:57 AM
October 13, 2003
MANASSAS, Va. (AP) - Perhaps the biggest mystery remaining before trial begins Tuesday for sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad is the true nature of his relationship with his teenage companion, fellow suspect Lee Boyd Malvo. The men's relationship has become a key and complex element in each case, with all sides painting different portraits of the dynamic.
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02:11 AM
EAGLE, Colo. Prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant case asked a judge to close at least part of the preliminary hearing when it resumes next week, after defense attorneys questioned the sexual history of the woman who accused the NBA star of rape.
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02:09 AM
Legal observers say the move was vintage Pamela Mackey - a carefully crafted line of questioning designed for maximum impact and backed up by a thorough knowledge of the prosecution's evidence. Critics say she violated the spirit of laws designed to protect the disclosure of the sexual history of rape victims.
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02:07 AM
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - An inmate who escaped down a 60-foot long rope of bedsheets removed a seventh-floor jail window without the aid of any tools and similar windows are also vulnerable, the warden said Sunday. Hugo Selenski, suspected in the murders of five people found buried in his yard, escaped by climbing down a rope assembled from 12 prison-issue bedsheets.
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02:06 AM
A Sept. 27 teen drinking party has resulted in charges against 33 juveniles, nine people age 18 to 20 and two adults suspected of hosting the party.
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02:06 AM
October 10, 2003
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) - Lee Boyd Malvo's lawyers said Thursday they will mount an insanity defense at his murder trial in the Washington sniper case, arguing that the teenager was a victim of "indoctrination" by the older John Allen Muhammad. "This case is so bizarre in its facts, and the degree of indoctrination is so severe, that we would be remiss if we failed" to put the sanity issue before a jury, said Craig Cooley, a lawyer for the 18-year-old Malvo.
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01:41 AM
EAGLE, Colo. (AP) - The woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape told police a flirtatious encounter quickly turned ugly when he grabbed her by the neck, bent her over a chair and attacked her, repeatedly asking, "You're not going to tell anybody about this, right?" She said she told Bryant "no" at least twice and he ignored her, pulling her dress up and her underwear down and raping her from behind.
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01:37 AM
CARTERET, N.J. (AP) - Two men suspected of kidnapping a senator's wife in Virginia and forcing her to withdraw money at knifepoint were captured in New Jersey after they stumbled into an undercover drug-surveillance operation. Police in Carteret spotted the suspects' stolen car in a known drug trafficking area after Virginia police put out an alert for the vehicle.
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01:30 AM
A former F.B.I. agent who worked with underworld informants here was arrested and charged with helping arrange the 1981 gangland-style killing of a wealthy Oklahoma businessman, lawyers and law enforcement officials said. The former agent, H. Paul Rico, 78, was arrested at his home near Miami on a murder charge brought by a grand jury in Tulsa, Okla., in the death of Roger Wheeler, the president of the Telex Corporation and owner of World Jai Alai, a company with a major gambling business.
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01:27 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it charged the former chief accounting officer of Enron North America with securities fraud and he agreed to pay $500,000 in a settlement. Wesley Colwell, without admitting or denying wrongdoing, agreed to be barred from serving as officer or director of a public company and to pay $200,000 in penalties and $300,000 in disgorgement, the SEC said.
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01:25 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania teenager hacked into another person's online brokerage account to trade options, U.S. officials charged on Thursday, raising questions about the security of online trading accounts. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston and the Securities and Exchange Commission said they filed criminal and civil securities fraud charges against Van Dinh, a 19-year-old resident of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
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01:24 AM
Authorities say two men wanted in a New Jersey slaying turned themselves in and were arrested by Greenville County sheriff's deputies Thursday night. The men are wanted in connection with a homicide in Patterson, N.J., where they both live, said Master Deputy Michael Hildebrand.
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01:23 AM
NEW YORK -- A New York City Corrections officer was indicted Thursday on charges he raped a female inmate at the Rikers Island jail. A Bronx grand jury indicted Jerome Reyes, of Queens, on charges of rape,sex abuse and falsifying business records, tampering with public records and offering a false instrument for filing. Reyes was also accused of tampering with a logbook in order to conceal his whereabouts at the time of the rape.
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01:22 AM
DES MOINES, Iowa -- A federal grand jury in Des Moines issued an indictment charging Leslie Ulric Beal of Green Mountain with possession of child pornography. The charge carries a prison term of up to five years and a $250,000 fine. Beal, 52, is employed as a custodian for an elementary school.
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01:20 AM
October 09, 2003
EAGLE, Colo. (Reuters) - One day before Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was due in court on charges that he raped a 19-year-old Colorado woman, court officials said it was still not clear if a hearing to decide if he must stand trial would take place. Bryant's attorneys could decide to waive that hearing and proceed to trial, said Karen Salaz, spokeswoman for the Colorado State Judicial Department, but "we will not know until you know -- when they stand up in court and say they're waiving."
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01:01 AM
NEW YORK -- Investigators arrested a priest on suspicion of harassing staff at a Catholic school and found at his home an unlicensed pistol, pornography, Nazi paraphernalia and thousands of dollars that may have been stolen from collection plates, police said. John Johnston, 64, was awaiting arraignment in Queens on Wednesday on charges of aggravated harassment, weapon possession and possession of stolen property.
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01:01 AM
WEATHERFORD, Texas - A professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center in Houston was arrested by investigators with a special task force who accused him of arranging on the Internet to have sex with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. Andrew Spicer, 35, was released from the Parker County Jail in Weatherford, west of Fort Worth, on Wednesday morning after posting $35,000 bail, authorities said.
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01:00 AM
INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indianapolis police detective accused of hitting a paraplegic man at a strip club last week was charged Wednesday with a misdemeanor count of battery. A warrant was issued Wednesday for the arrest of Detective Frank Hittel. Information on whether he was in custody wasn't available.
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12:59 AM
Winter Springs police arrested Brenda Adair on Tuesday, 15 months after sons Jerry, 15, and Terry, 10, died one week apart in their apartment. Both had taken their mother's prescription methadone and other medication.
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12:58 AM
COLONIE -- A teacher's assistant at Schenectady High School was arrested Monday for allegedly carrying on a sexual relationship with a student when she was 15 years old. Charles Mondun, 28, of Valleyview Apartments in Watervliet, has been charged with two counts of second-degree rape and two counts of third-degree sodomy, both felonies, as well as endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
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12:57 AM
COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. -- The first man released from a state program meant to ease convicted sex predators back into the community after they've served their sentences was arrested for allegedly using his computer to access pornography. Joseph Aqui, 51, was arrested at his home and returned to the Special Commitment Center at McNeil Island, where sexual predators receive mental health treatment if deemed likely to re-offend after serving prison terms.
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12:56 AM
CLEVELAND - A White County grand jury has returned an indictment charging a fifth grade teacher in White County with ten counts of child molestation, according the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Joey Wilson, 47, faces the charges for allegedly fondling and inappropriately touching some fifth grade female students at Mount Yonah Elementary School.
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12:55 AM
A man with 24 drunken-driving convictions on his record says he deserves to be let out of prison early. Curtis Sears isn't scheduled to be released until 2006, but with his long history of convictions, the line was long Tuesday as many waited for their chances to convince a Warren County judge to keep Sears behind bars.
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12:54 AM
October 08, 2003
Attorneys in the Kobe Bryant case huddled with the judge Tuesday but didn't answer the biggest question: Will the NBA star waive his preliminary hearing to keep potentially damaging evidence from being heard publicly? That decision might not be made until minutes before Thursday's hearing, where prosecutors will present evidence they say proves Bryant raped a young hotel worker in his room at a mountain lodge on June 30.
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03:41 AM
MODESTO, Calif. (AP) - Scott Peterson's lawyers have asked a judge to exclude strands of hair and other evidence in the murder case, accusing two detectives of mishandling items. In documents filed Monday, Peterson's defense also wanted to exclude testimony from a neighbor who had been hypnotized, and evidence retrieved through tracking devices hidden in vehicles used by Peterson.
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03:40 AM
MANASSAS, Va. (AP) - Prosecutors at least temporarily withdrew their motion Tuesday to summon sniper suspect Lee Boyd Malvo to testify in the case against fellow suspect John Allen Muhammad. At a hearing in Prince William County Circuit Court, Commonwealth's Attorney Paul Ebert said it's still possible that they will change their minds and call Malvo to testify. Muhammad goes on trial next week.
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03:39 AM
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - An armed man who said he was "disturbed about the world's religions" used lighter fluid to set fire to the pulpit and bishop's chair in a historic Roman Catholic cathedral Tuesday, then surrendered after a brief standoff with police, authorities said. Nobody was injured. The flames charred the pulpit but caused no structural damage to the twin-spired Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which dates to 1873 and is a popular tourist stop.
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03:38 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) - The wife of New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg was abducted at knifepoint Tuesday from the couple's suburban home and forced to withdraw money from a local bank, police said. She was released unharmed. Kathleen Gregg, 52, said she found two men inside her McLean, Va., home when she arrived about 9:30 a.m. EDT. One pulled a knife and demanded money, said Jacqi Smith, a spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department.
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03:37 AM
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP)--An employee on leave opened fire in an office at the Veterans Affairs medical complex Tuesday, but no one was hit, authorities said. Michael Gardner, 50, was taken into custody after he fired three shots inside the personnel office of Alvin C. York Veterans Affairs Medical Center, left the building and fired again outside, said Brian Celatka, an investigator with the Office of Inspector General.
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03:35 AM
October 07, 2003
The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a ruling by a federal appeals court allowing Arkansas officials to force a convicted murderer to take drugs that would make him sane enough to be executed.
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12:36 AM
WASHINGTON -- Opening its new term, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal Monday from a drug addict who was sent to prison for murdering her stillborn child, a case with implications for future rulings on abortion. Regina McKnight is serving 12 to 20 years in South Carolina for killing her daughter. McKnight tested positive for cocaine in the hospital and acknowledged that she had used crack cocaine while pregnant. The dead child had drugs in her system.
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12:34 AM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Martha Stewart's lawyer urged a judge on Monday to dismiss the most serious criminal charges against the lifestyle trend-setter, calling the government's accusations "as unusual as they are unfair." Stewart is due to face trial early next year for securities fraud, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and making false statements to investigators looking into suspicious stock trades of a company -- ImClone Systems.
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12:33 AM
DENVER (Reuters) - Kobe Bryant's lawyers will not be allowed to see notes detailing what the woman who has accused the basketball star of rape told a counselor at a rape crisis center, a judge ruled on Monday. The defense wanted to see records of what took place when the 19-year-old woman spoke to a counselor at a rape crisis center, the Resource Center of Eagle County, after she said she was raped on June 30 at a Colorado resort where she worked.
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12:32 AM
DENVER The woman accusing Kobe Bryant of rape attempted suicide twice this year, but feels emotionally strong as the case against the NBA superstar proceeds, a friend said. In an interview to be aired Saturday on CBS's "48 Hours Investigates," Johnray Strickland confirmed the 19-year-old woman attempted suicide twice this year.
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12:31 AM
A woman was convicted Monday of contributing to the suicide of her 12-year-old son, who hanged himself in his closet with a necktie after being picked on for months at school over his bad breath and body odor. Judith Scruggs, 52, was found guilty of one count of risk of injury to a minor for creating a filthy home that prosecutors said prevented J. Daniel Scruggs from improving his hygiene. She faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced next month.
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12:29 AM
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) - A convicted bank robber was charged with murder Monday in the deaths of two of five people whose bodies were found buried in his yard. Prosecutors said one-time bank robber Hugo Selenski, 30, and a friend, Patrick Russin, 33, shot the pair of men last May as part of a plot to make money by kidnapping and robbing drug dealers.
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12:28 AM
ATLANTA (AP) - Friends and family of an Atlanta minister fatally shot at his church said Monday they hold no bitterness for the woman who opened fire shortly before the weekend service, killing him, her mother and herself. Church members said Shelia Chaney Wilson, 43, seemed agitated when she came to Turner Monumental AME Church Sunday morning to help prepare for its upcoming 104th anniversary celebration. Police said Wilson pulled out a gun and fatally shot the Rev. Johnny Clyde Reynolds and her mother, 67-year-old Jennie Mae Robinson, before killing herself.
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12:26 AM
The mothers of the five young children who died in a house fire overnight in Mississippi are now facing criminal charges. Officials say the five children, and another who survived the fire, had been left alone. They ranged in age from one and a-half to ten years.
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12:26 AM
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A joint task force investigating three sniper-style shootings in West Virginia announced Monday it is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification of the killer. The task force's announcement came nearly two months after three Kanawha County residents were fatally shot outside convenience stores late at night.
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12:25 AM
October 06, 2003
A Fresno attorney has been making the interview rounds with a story that his client has crucial information linking Scott Peterson to the murder of his wife and unborn son. During the last two weeks Frank Muna has appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" and Fox News' "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren and been interviewed by the press about his version of the Laci and Conner Peterson deaths -- that they were victims of one of several contract kidnap and killing scenarios.
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08:08 AM
Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad no longer are laughing and, instead, have turned on each other with just days before the first trial on murder charges from 10 sniper slayings that paralyzed the region a year ago.
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08:07 AM
ATLANTA (AP) - A woman opened fire at an Atlanta church before services started Sunday morning, killing her mother and the minister before committing suicide. Congregants of Turner Monumental AME Church said Shelia W. Chaney Wilson, 43, was agitated when she came to the church. Wilson apparently shot the Rev. Johnny Clyde Reynolds after he greeted her and was walking away with his back to her. Police believe Wilson then shot Jennie Mae Robinson once in the head before turning the gun on herself.
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01:48 AM
Political commentator Rush Limbaugh returned to his popular radio program Friday and said he was "frustrated" about allegations that he was involved in the sale and use of illegal drugs. Limbaugh was back on the air one day after his name surfaced as the possible target of a criminal probe into the sale and use of illegal drugs in south Florida.
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01:47 AM
SAN FRANCISCO A federal appeals court has declared a 3-year-old law that requires federal inmates and parolees to give blood samples for the FBI's DNA database (search) to be an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. In a 2-1 decision the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 on grounds that the routine sampling denied inmates and parolees of their Fourth Amendment protection against illegal searches.
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01:45 AM
EAGLE, Colo. (AP) - When the television trucks roll into town this week to cover Kobe Bryant's court hearing, Daysi Spath will be ready. In a black sport utility vehicle with "Bonjour Bakery" written on the windows, Spath is offering to deliver breakfast, lunch and lattes to news media crews in a lot across the street from the Eagle County Courthouse. "The only good thing is that Kobe Bryant is bringing business to this town," she said.
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01:44 AM
KENT - The Green River Task Force was back out Sunday looking for more victim remains.
This time investigators knew exactly where they wanted to look.
They were not trying to find one of the missing women. Instead, they were trying to find more of Tracy Winston's remains. She disappeared at age 19.
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01:44 AM
ST. PAUL, Minnesota -- A 14-year-old girl who was found to have given birth after she was hospitalized with stomach pains was arrested when paramedics found a dead newborn inside a shoe box at her home. Police said the girl secretly gave birth at home, then strangled the full-term infant with a sock. The medical examiner's office was working to determine the cause of death.
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01:43 AM
ROANOKE, Va. -- A woman was charged with felony abduction after an Amber Alert search was issued for her stepdaughter Saturday night, police said. Barbara Joanne Scott Parker, 31, was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.
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01:42 AM
Five years ago, graphic artist John Zuccarini was working for a failing computer-parts company when he began to study traffic patterns on the Internet.
Zuccarini noticed that Web users often make typographical errors. The insight led to what he later called a $1 million-a-year income _ not to mention federal criminal charges, two years on the lam and a long line of alleged victims from Nicole Kidman to the Walt Disney Co. to the Wall Street Journal.
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01:41 AM
A Talladega County AL grand jury has indicted two former Lincoln police officers on murder charges in the beating death of a Louisiana man. Kenneth G. Pollard, 34, and Kevin Wade Jung, 37, both of Gadsden, will be arraigned Oct. 21 in the death of a Wayne Earl Ellis, 54, of West Hammond, La., who died after an encounter with the officers this summer.
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01:40 AM
A New Hampshire man accused of trying to stab his girlfriend to death will argue he was too drunk to know what he was doing, according to court records. Raymond Paul Thomas, 51, is charged with attempted murder and first-degree assault, accused of repeatedly stabbing Rebecca McKenzie, and then attacking a woman who came to help McKenzie and thwarted his attack.
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01:39 AM
October 03, 2003
NEW YORK (Reuters) - One day after he resigned as a football commentator for making comments many saw as racist, radio host Rush Limbaugh was embroiled in a new controversy, this time over a report that he regularly used painkillers bought illegally. New York's Daily News newspaper reported that Limbaugh was under investigation by the state attorney's office in Palm Beach County, Fla., where he lives. Limbaugh said he did not know of such a probe.
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12:15 AM
DURHAM, N.C. -- Jurors listened again to a 911 tape of Michael Peterson sobbing and pleading for help for the wife he is accused of murdering, as the defense made its final argument Thursday in Peterson's trial. Defense attorney David Rudolf, wrapping up about 3 1/2 hours of closing arguments, used the moment to emphasize that the novelist and former mayoral candidate was genuinely grief-stricken by his wife's death.
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12:14 AM
In a setback for Kobe Bryant, the judge in the rape case Thursday refused to force the basketball star's accuser to testify at a preliminary hearing and said the proceedings will probably be kept open to the public. The decision to keep the hearing open could prompt Bryant's defense team to waive the Oct. 9 proceeding and head straight to trial. Either way, Bryant still must appear next week for a bail hearing, Judge Frederick Gannett said.
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12:13 AM
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - A federal judge dealt a severe setback to the only U.S. prosecution arising from the Sept. 11 attacks, ruling Thursday that the government cannot seek to execute Zacarias Moussaoui or introduce trial evidence linking the al-Qaida loyalist to the suicide hijackings. U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema punished the government for refusing court orders to make three high-level al-Qaida prisoners available to Moussaoui.
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12:12 AM
CHICAGO -- Seven former federal employees and nine contractors were charged Thursday in an investigation of alleged payoffs for maintenance contracts at Chicago's federal courthouse. Five General Services Administration employees were charged with bid rigging and making out false invoices after an undercover operation found they were setting up contracts that guaranteed work to favored contractors.
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12:12 AM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Prosecutors dropped kidnapping charges Thursday against a couple who fled Utah with their 12-year-old son to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy for the boy. In exchange, Daren and Barbara Jensen pleaded guilty to custodial interference. The couple will receive no jail time or fines under the deal, and the misdemeanor conviction will be erased in a year if they stay out of trouble with the law.
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12:11 AM
On Thursday, the Feds picked up two more civilian employees of the Memphis police department, indicted along with several others in connection with the property room thefts and a drug ring that reached to Atlanta, one of them an employee for 21 years. Luxury cars line the FBI's lot in East Memphis -- Mercedes, Lexus, Jaguar, a boat, even a Prowler. They're part of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in seized vehicles in connection with a local and federal investigation into thefts from the Memphis police department's property and evidence room.
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12:10 AM
Waukesha - A former school bus driver with a law degree from an elite California university was charged Thursday with amassing a house full of child pornography discovered by a real estate agent tidying up the home for sale. Mark J. Kroening was arrested after the agent arrived at the Dousman house.
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12:09 AM
Two Madison County, AL teenagers have been indicted on capital murder charges in the shooting death of Grant Police Chief Verlon Lemaster. Brian Alan Butler of Gurley and Jerid Eldridge of New Hope, both 17, were indicted Wednesday and are being held in jail without bond. Lemaster was killed Aug. 15 while accompanying sheriff's deputies who were looking for Butler and Eldridge, who had run away from home, in Grant at the home of a girl the boys knew, police said.
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12:08 AM
October 02, 2003
Oklahoma City -- More than 400 witnesses could be called during the state murder trial of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols. Prosecutors have filed a list of 414 potential witnesses with the Oklahoma County court clerk. The list could grow if more victims' relatives want to testify. Nichols faces 161 state counts of first-degree murder for his role in the 1995 bombing. His trial is to begin March first in McAlester and the state is seeking the death penalty. The state trial is for the deaths of 160 others and that of an unborn child. Nichols is serving life in prison on federal convictions for conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of eight federal agents.
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06:36 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Robert Kardashian, a businessman and lawyer who was a key figure in the O.J. Simpson saga and part of his legal "dream team," has died. He was 59. Kardashian died Tuesday night at his Los Angeles home eight weeks after being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, said his former wife, Kris Jenner.
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12:33 AM
MANASSAS, Va. (AP) - Lee Boyd Malvo took the Fifth Amendment on Wednesday at a hearing for John Allen Muhammad that brought the sniper suspects together for the first time since their arrests 11 months ago. Malvo spent about five minutes on the witness stand