June 30, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — In what may be a major coup for the prosecution in Scott Peterson's murder trial, a police detective testified Tuesday that the defendant had talked about how to dispose of a dead body.
However, during cross examination, the detective added that his source was not very credible.
Detective Allen Brocchini said Peterson, 31, had told a friend in 1995 that he would attach weights to a corpse, throw it into the ocean and allow fish to eat the remains.
Peterson said "said he would tie a bag around the neck with duct tape," Brocchini testified.
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06:29 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Faced with a barrage of pointed questions about his investigation, Detective Allen Brocchini has often appeared off-guard, answering many with the response, "Can I look in my report."
Near the end of his fourth day on the witness stand, Brocchini watched the clock hanging on a wall above the jury.
Defense attorneys in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial have attacked his investigation as shoddily executed and designed from the start to implicate Peterson.
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06:27 AM
A teacher at St. Dominic Salvo Middle School in Niagara falls is charged with possessing child pornography.
Thirty-seven-year-old Christian M. Butler of Tonawanda is accused of using his school laptop computer to download pictures of child pornography.
Butler is also accused of sending and receiving these images to others, using the internet.
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06:23 AM
An assistant director of the Solano County Special Olympics was arrested Monday morning for allegedly sexually assaulting a mentally disabled female athlete.
Lt. Gary Rodgers said 58-year-old Robert Bernhardt Jacobsen of Suisun City was arrested on two charges of sexual assault and one charge of exhibitionism. He is in the Solano County jail under $35,000 bail.
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06:21 AM
HAMILTON - The caseworker assigned to a Middletown-area mother whose 7-month-old son died in a February trailer fire was fired Tuesday by the Butler County Children Services Board.
Victoria Baldrick was terminated for alleged neglect of duty on the recommendation of the hearing officer and Jann Heffner, agency director.
Baldrick was assigned to Aimee Leonard, 29, who has been charged with intentionally setting the Feb. 4 fire in the Catalina Manufactured Home Community in Madison Township, north of Middletown, which killed Justin Johnson Jr.
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06:18 AM
Dennis John Rochester, 42, of Yellville and Crystal Marie Decker, 21, of Harrison face drug charges, including introduction of a foreign substance into the body of another person, after Decker's baby tested "positive" for methamphetamine, according to a press release from Marion County Sheriff Carl McBee.
According to McBee, Rochester was arrested Friday after a routine traffic stop that turned up a partial meth lab in the truck he was driving.
When Marion County officers made the stop, Rochester fled, but was caught within a few minutes, the release said.
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06:16 AM
Two Carle Place High School students accused of illegally accessing confidential information from the district's computer network have been arrested, Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon said Tuesday.
Christopher Kabacinski, 18, of 37 Byrd Ave., is charged with computer trespass, a felony that could bring up to four years in prison if he is convicted. He is also charged with one count each of fourth-degree computer tampering and unauthorized use of a computer. Both charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in jail.
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06:14 AM
Orlando Magic television color analyst Jack "Goose" Givens was arrested on charges that he molested a 14-year-old girl.
Givens, 47, was released on $25,000 bail in Orlando, hours after deputies arrested him at his home late Monday on charges of sexual battery and lewd molestation.
Givens denied the charges Tuesday
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06:12 AM
Miami Dolphins tight end Randy McMichael was arrested yesterday for allegedly hitting his pregnant wife.
McMichael was charged with aggravated battery on a pregnant woman, a second-degree felony that is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, Broward County, Fla., sheriff's officials said.
His wife, Cawanna McMichael, also was arrested on a domestic-battery charge stemming from the fight early yesterday morning at their home. Officials said she is 6 months' pregnant.
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06:10 AM
June 29, 2004
Less than one month after Laci Peterson's disappearance, the home she shared with her husband Scott Peterson was the scene of another crime -- a burglary committed by a woman who had worked in the Laci Peterson search volunteer center and who has a history of bipolar disorder.
Detective Al Brocchini testified under cross-examination that the woman, Kim McGregor, drank the Petersons' whiskey, stole a camera and jackets, and even laid down in Scott and Laci's bed.
McGregor is now in prison.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos is trying to paint the woman and her friends as possible suspects in Laci's disappearance.
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12:50 AM
REDWOOD CITY -- Superior Court Judge Alfred A. Delucchi this morning issued a sharp rebuke to the Modesto Police Department for violating a gag order in the Scott Peterson double-murder trial.
The violation came Friday when Sgt. Ed Steele, in an interview with The Associated Press, defended Detective Al Brocchini’s conduct in the investigation. Brocchini took the witness stand Tuesday of last week; cross-examination started Wednesday and continued this morning.
Thursday, Brocchini testified that he removed key information from a police report.
“The information he’s alluding to was not omitted,” Steele told the AP. “The information is actually documented in a report by another detective. That’s why (Brocchini) left it out of his report.”
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12:47 AM
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a law outlawing marijuana applies to medical use by two seriously ill California women whose doctors recommended cannabis for their pain.
The high court said it would review a ruling that the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 cannot be applied constitutionally to the manufacture, possession and distribution without charge of marijuana for medical use.
The ruling by a U.S. appeals court in San Francisco found the two women had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on their claim that the federal law, as applied to them, is an unconstitutional use of Congress's power to regulate commerce among the states.
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12:42 AM
CHICAGO -- Three people arrested for allegedly assaulting police officers during a fight near the annual Gay Pride Parade Sunday were scheduled to appear for a bond hearing Monday.
Jeremy Hammond, Neal Rysdahl and Robert Bernstein were all scheduled to appear at 1 p.m. in Central Bond Court, according to police News Affairs Officer Amina Greer.
Police arrested the three men near the parade at 12:20 p.m. Sunday, when gay rights and anti-gay groups clashed near Clark and Halsted streets, according to Town Hall District Lt. Robert Stasch.
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12:37 AM
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A Jaguars offensive lineman was arrested early Sunday morning after what was described as a shouting match at a Jacksonville Beach nightclub. Chris Naeole was charged with disorderly conduct after police said he was involved in a shoving match with several employees at the Ritz.
An off-duty officer was called and reportedly asked Naeole to stop several times. When he didn't, the officer used his Taser gun.
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12:36 AM
Arlington County police have arrested a 41-year-old man on charges he molested a teenager. Detectives say Thomas Koucky -- a convicted sex offender in Maryland and Florida -- has lived in several places in northern Virginia and it is likely there are more victims. "Our detectives have developed information during the course of the investigation that he's done this to many other children possibly," said Matt Martin, an Arlington police spokesman.
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12:34 AM
GADSDEN, Ala. (AP) -- A 17-year-old Gadsden boy was charged as an adult Monday with the attempted murder of a Calhoun County girl of the same age who was shot in a Gadsden parking lot. The victim, whose name was not released, had surgery to remove a bullet from her nasal passage Sunday. She was listed in stable condition at UAB Hospital on Saturday night, hours after the shooting, but her condition Monday was not immediately available.
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12:32 AM
SHELBY — Police arrested a Shelby man Sunday night after they say he slashed his 80-year-old great-uncle’s throat.
And Shelby Police are investigating whether the crime is connected to the slashing death of another elderly Shelby man in January.
Raythaniel Hopper, 39, of 602 E. Marion St., was arrested on charges of attempted murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon. He remains at the Cleveland County jail with secured bond set at $75,000.
His great-uncle, Howard Jackson of Steeple Street, remained in good condition at Cleveland Regional Medical Center Monday.
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12:27 AM
June 26, 2004
Scott Peterson's fondness for fishing was among the topics of testimony in a Redwood City courtroom.
Detective Allen Brocchini was back on the stand for a third day, this time fielding questions about Scott Peterson's fishing habits. Prosecutors have pointed out that Peterson bought only a two-day fishing license in December 2002, which covered the day his wife disappeared.
Lead defense attorney Mark Geragos contends that Peterson was an avid hunter and fisherman who often bought two-day licenses. He questioned Brocchini about a two-day license from 1999 found during searches of Peterson's home and car.
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02:07 AM
EAGLE, Colo. — A judge scheduled NBA star Kobe Bryant's sex assault trial for Aug. 27, more than a year after he allegedly assaulted a 19-year-old woman in a luxury hotel.
The trial is expected to take three to four weeks, including the process of questioning and choosing jurors.
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02:05 AM
EAGLE, Colo. — Transcripts from closed-door testimony in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault hearings were mistakenly sent to seven media outlets on, including FOX News, prompting the case's judge to swiftly order that none of the sensitive material be published.
Michelle Goodbee is a long-time court reporter serving on the NBA star's hearings. Goodbee was supposed to e-mail transcripts of the proceedings to prosecutors and the defense teams. While doing so, it was also distributed to the media outlets.
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02:04 AM
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - A lawyer for news organizations covering the Michael Jackson child molestation case urged the court on Friday to lift a "blanket of secrecy" over the proceedings, prompting a sharp rebuke from the judge.
The exchange came during a hearing in which Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville sealed another series of documents in the sensational case and said he would not even consider making grand jury transcripts public until mid-July.
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01:50 AM
LOS ANGELES — For the first time, ABC News has learned how Michael Jackson could respond to some of the most explosive charges against him --charges that he provided liquor to a minor (in soda cans) and conspired to silence and make them virtual prisoners at Neverland and, for a week, in a hotel room. ABC News has learned the focus will be on the accuser's mother, questioning her motives and also her credibility.
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01:48 AM
BOISE -
An Air Force officer was among ten men arrested this week in an Internet sex sting conducted by Ada County detectives.
Thirty-seven year-old Major Perry Morrison was arrested on Wednesday. He's accused of trying to solicit sex from a teenager through an online chat room. Authorities say he made arrangements to meet the teen and then showed up at the meeting place.
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01:45 AM
Authorities say a Fruit Cove man frequently beat his four stepsons with a belt over two months -- a situation that left a 13-year-old dead.
As Henry Ked Marcum stepped off the plane in Seattle on Thursday morning, he was handcuffed and hauled to King County Jail in Washington.
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01:38 AM
NAPLES, Fla. June 26, 2004 — A man who walked into a Wal-Mart covered in blood and bought garbage bags Friday was charged with murder after authorities found a stabbed body in a trash bin.
Wal-Mart workers called deputies after a blood-soaked man walked into the store and bought some clothes, bandages and trash bags around 4 a.m. He paid with a $100 bill that also appeared to be bloodstained, they said, and drove off in a pickup.
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01:36 AM
June 25, 2004
REDWOOD CITY -- Modesto Police Detective Al Brocchini used a news report in The Modesto Bee to plant the “seeds of suspicion” in the minds of Scott Peterson’s friends, according to his own testimony Thursday morning.
The detective also palmed a gun found in the glove compartment of Peterson’s truck shortly after Laci Peterson disappeared, without asking permission or getting a search warrant.
And he never showed a picture of Laci Peterson and her dog McKenzie to a witness who said he saw a pregnant lady walking a golden retriever in Dry Creek Park about 9:20 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2002.
Those were the key points made by defense attorney Mark Geragos during a second day of cross-examination.
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03:35 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — In a blow to prosecutors, a police investigator conceded Thursday that he deliberately failed to mention a witness who contradicts crucial elements of the murder case against Scott Peterson.
Detective Allen Brocchini admitted that he excluded from his reports any reference to a woman who recalled seeing Laci Peterson at the warehouse where her husband stored his small boat.
Prosecutors have claimed that Peterson hid the recently purchased boat from his pregnant wife as part of his plan to kill her and dispose of the body in San Francisco Bay.
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03:33 AM
An Apple Valley, Minnesota man has been arrested for drunken driving for the 23rd time in 20 years after allegedly leading state troopers on chase through the southern metro area early Thursday.
State Patrol Captain Jay Swanson said troopers arrested 41-year-old Raymond Sherman after using stop sticks to deflate Sherman's tires on state Highway 77 in Eagan. The chase allegedly started about 3:00 a.m. near the Bloomington-Richfield border.
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03:28 AM
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Fayetteville police arrested a man Thursday who is accused of distributing child pornography.
Officers say they are trying to determine whether Dudley Beckers, 50, of Fayetteville, used photographs of local children for a pornographic Web site. Beckers was arrested Wednesday and charged with distributing child pornography.
Officers said they believe most of the photos used on the site, which depict children performing sexual acts, are from outside northwest Arkansas. According to police, Beckers allegedly operated the site from his north Fayetteville apartment.
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03:25 AM
NEW YORK (AP) _ The rapper DMX was arrested on charges that he and another man tried to steal a car in a parking lot at Kennedy Airport, authorities said.
DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, and Jackie Hudgins were arrested at about 8:10 p.m. Thursday, authorities said.
Port Authority police interrupted a dispute between Simmons, Hudgins and another man whose car they allegedly tried to steal, the Port Authority said.
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03:23 AM
June 24, 2004
The juror who was removed from Scott Peterson's trial said Wednesday that he would have voted to acquit the double-murder defendant based on testimony thus far and thinks prosecutors are doing a poor job presenting a convincing case.
Justin Falconer, 28, said in an interview with The Associated Press that in his view, the state hasn't demonstrated a clear motive or method for Peterson to kill his pregnant wife, Laci.
"With all the testimony, I have no reason to believe Scott didn't love her," Falconer said. "The prosecution showed me no other reason to vote any other way" than not guilty.
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01:27 AM
REDWOOD CITY -- The judge in Scott Peterson’s murder trial removed one of the 12 jurors this morning and denied a defense motion for a mistrial.
After being dismissed, Justin Falconer, who had been Juror No. 5, issued a pointed critique of the prosecution’s case to date, calling one witness “a joke” and saying prosecutor Rick Distaso bounced around too much in his questioning.
“It’s difficult to follow what he’s saying,” Falconer said. “I’m not getting a story out of him.”
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01:21 AM
BEAVERTON, Ore. — A Beaverton softball coach and a teenage girl who played on his team have been found near Knoxville, Tenn., after being missing since September, Beaverton Police said Wednesday.
The two were found Wednesday afternoon in an auto accident in which neither was injured.
Police had been searching for Andrew James Garver, 38, and Michelle "Mimi" Smith, who was 15 when she vanished. She has since turned 16.
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01:16 AM
Two Philadelphia teens are under arrest, charged with allegedly gang-raping an 18-year-old mentally challenged woman.
Police have arrested a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old in the alleged crime. A third suspect is still on the loose.
According to investigators, the alleged victim went to the RiverView Plaza Theater in south Philadelphia Monday night with a girlfriend. After the movie, the girl and her friend separated. Then the alleged victim met the three boys, who she knows from school. They walked to a house on Christian Street where the girl said she was sexually assaulted.
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01:10 AM
BOISE -
A warning for parents, watch your kids while they're on the Internet.
The Ada County Sheriff's Office reports nine men were arrested over the past week in separate incidents for enticing a child over the Internet. The men range in age from 19 to 66 and are from Nyssa, OR, Boise, Meridian and Nampa. Investigators say each of the perpetrators believed they were eliciting sexual contact with a minor child.
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01:08 AM
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- An Allendale Correctional Institution employee has been charged with smuggling in a gun used in April to shoot two inmates.
Kezia Fennell of Brunson is charged with criminal conspiracy.
Officials would not release information about Fennell's job or her status with the Department of Corrections.
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01:06 AM
ATLANTA -- A former majority leader of Georgia's state Senate has been indicted on 142 felony counts, including conspiracy, mail fraud and filing false tax returns, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Charles Walker is charged with blocking funding for an Atlanta hospital until executives agreed to exclusively use workers from Walker's temporary employment agency.
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01:04 AM
A 24-year-old software engineer at America Online Inc. was arrested yesterday on federal charges that he hacked into the company's computers to steal 92 million e-mail addresses that were later sold and used to bombard AOL members with spam.
Jason Smathers, who worked at the company's Dulles headquarters, is accused of illegally obtaining the e-mail addresses of nearly all of the Internet provider's customers in May 2003. Smathers allegedly sold the names for $100,000 to Sean Dunaway, 21, who ran an Internet gambling business in Las Vegas, prosecutors said.
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01:02 AM
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12:05 AM
June 23, 2004
REDWOOD CITY – Jurors heard for the first time Scott Peterson's own account of what he did the day his pregnant wife disappeared, as prosecutors played a videotaped police interview Tuesday at his double-murder trial. Appearing tired but calm, Peterson recounted what happened after he left home for a Christmas Eve day fishing trip – expecting that his wife, Laci, would have walked their dog and baked gingerbread cookies in his absence.
During a Christmas day interview that had the tone of an interrogation, and climaxed with police testing his hands for gunpowder residue, Peterson gave often-muffled responses to Detective Allen Brocchini.
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01:09 AM
The first detective called to the home of Scott and Laci Peterson for a "suspicious missing person" report recalled a husband who did not appear distraught that his wife was nowhere to be found.
"Calm, cool, relaxed," was how Detective Allen Brocchini described Scott Peterson that Christmas Eve during testimony Tuesday in Peterson's double-murder trial.
The testimony came the day after a string of Laci Peterson's friends testified that she had stopped walking her dog weeks before she vanished, countering the defense theory that she was abducted from the Modesto street.
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01:05 AM
Attorneys wrapped up closed-door arguments Tuesday over whether the sex life of the woman accusing Kobe Bryant of rape can be introduced at the NBA star's trial.
More written arguments are due next week. That means Judge Terry Ruckriegle will not make his decision until next month.
Bryant left Colorado after a two-day hearing without learning his trial date. But attorneys said they could be ready for trial by late August.
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01:01 AM
EAGLE, Colo. - A pair of prominent forensic scientists appeared as expert witnesses for the prosecution Tuesday, concluding the closed pretrial hearing regarding Colorado's rape-shield statute in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case.
Henry Lee, the former director of the Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory, and Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City medical examiner (1960-1985), both provided key testimony in the O.J. Simpson and the JonBenet Ramsey murder cases.
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12:58 AM
URBANA -- Police arrested a pair of Rockford teens they believe were involved in a hate crime attack Sunday morning.
Keith L. Jones, 17, and a 15-year-old juvenile were taken into custody along with a 26-year-old Champaign man shortly after they allegedly attacked a 41-year-old woman inside a public restroom in the 1600 block of Cunningham Avenue.
According to police reports, the three shouted racial slurs at the woman, who is black, and one of the three punched her.
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12:54 AM
LUDINGTON -- A 30-year-old ex-convict has been charged with kidnapping and murdering a 12-year-old Ludington girl.
More than 200 firefighters, police officers and volunteers searched for Sabrina Dalzell over the weekend.
Before dawn Monday, David W. Mears led authorities to her body in Mason County's Amber Township.
Investigators said Mears is an acquaintance of the family of Sabrina, who disappeared Friday night from her home while her mother was out.
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12:52 AM
CHICAGO -- A woman was charged Tuesday with drowning her two young children in a bathtub and setting fire to their home, apparently believing they would be better off dead, authorities said.
"She told detectives that she drowned the children because the children would not have a good life with her," Police Commander Dean Andrews said in announcing first-degree murder and arson charges against 23-year-old Abby Grason.
Isaac Younan, 2, and Sandra Younan, 4, were found unresponsive in the bathroom Monday by firefighters and pronounced dead at a hospital, authorities said.
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12:50 AM
Thomas and Debra Schmitz have been featured in local newspapers for dedicating their lives to caring for kids. But tomorrow's article with not be so positive. Gibson County investigators searched this home on Old Trenton Old Eaton Road after removing 22 children and placing them into protective custody.
"The children range from 1 to 17 years of age that we took out of the home," said Gibson County Sheriff Joe Shepard.
The husband and wife caring for the kids, Debra and Thomas Schmitz ,have been charged with several counts of aggravated child abuse.
"It's my understanding that they have adopted a lot of these kids," said Sheriff Shepard who added that many of the children are disabled.
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12:48 AM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- An inmate and two relatives were accused of plotting to kill two witnesses in his upcoming assault trial.
Thomas Tribunella, 37, his mother, Sandra, 58, and brother, Arthur, 39, were charged with conspiracy to commit murder. All three share a home in Spencerport, 10 miles west of Rochester. Authorities say Thomas Tribunella, already facing a possible life sentence, asked his brother to hire some Hell's Angels to kill the alleged assault victim and a witness so they couldn't testify against him.
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12:46 AM
NEWARK, N.J. -- The owner of an aircraft supply business in Texas was arrested Tuesday and charged with trying to sell parts for sophisticated military fighter jets to Iran without a license.
Hamid M. Butt, 71, formerly of Humble, Texas, was arrested Tuesday in Houston after getting off a flight from Malaysia, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Christie said.
A Pakistan native, Butt had been living in Malaysia several years and was arrested on his return to the United States. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen, authorities said.
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12:44 AM
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12:00 AM
June 22, 2004
EAGLE, Colo. (Reuters) - Lawyers for Kobe Bryant want to ask prospective jurors in his rape trial their views on interracial dating, injecting race into the already highly charged case, prosecutors said on Monday.
The issue surfaced as lawyers for both sides hammered out questions for jury selection in the Eagle, Colorado trial of the NBA star.
Bryant, who is black, is accused of raping a 19-year-old white woman last summer at the Colorado resort where she worked.
"This was not a relationship. This was not a date," Deputy District Attorney Dana Easter told Judge Terry Ruckriegle as she argued against allowing the defense to ask potential jurors about their views on interracial dating.
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12:48 AM
A string of Laci Peterson's friends testified Monday that pregnancy had forced her to stop exercising, as prosecutors tried to discredit her husband's story of what happened the day she vanished.
Scott Peterson claims his wife planned to walk the couple's dog the morning he left for a solo fishing trip and returned to an empty home.
Prosecutors who charge Peterson murdered his wife and their fetus contend she stopped walking the dog weeks before, at her doctor's urging. They have called other witnesses who suggested that Peterson lied constantly starting as soon as his wife disappeared.
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12:45 AM
Redwood City, CA, Jun. 21 (UPI) -- The California judge in the Scott Peterson trial ruled Monday that a juror who spoke briefly with a relative of the victim would remain on the case.
Judge Al Delucci decided after a brief hearing in Redwood City, Calif., that the exchange that was captured by television cameras did not constitute misconduct.
Legal analysts told the Modesto Bee that while the encounter between Juror No. 5 and Laci Peterson's brother appeared awkward, there were no laws in California prohibiting exchanges of greetings between jurors and other parties in a trial.
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12:38 AM
A judge decided Monday to allow two caregivers charged with aggravated child abuse to retain custody of their four children.
But authorities are still accusing Arthur and Lori Allain of child abuse a month after a 10-year-old girl in their care was removed from their home weighing only 29 pounds.
The couple are non-relative caregivers for the girl, who was living with the Allains and their children, ages 10 to 15, and her brother.
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12:27 AM
A serial rapist, who was California's second graduate of a mandatory treatment program for sex offenders, won't be charged for failing to register with the state, a district attorney's office spokeswoman said Monday.
Cary Verse, 33, was arrested Thursday at a San Jose motel for failing to update his registration every 90 days as required. Police said he was three days late.
But Karyn Sinunu with the Santa Clara County district attorney's office, said Monday that Verse "followed the spirit of the law" when he told police on April 19 his room had been assigned a new number. Apparently, the motel renumbered its rooms.
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12:21 AM
(AP) A 12-year-old girl who disappeared from her home has been found dead, and authorities made an arrest, police said Monday.
The Ludington Police Department refused to elaborate before an afternoon news conference, and did not give the cause of death. Dozens of federal, state and local law enforcers and volunteers had been searching a rural area for Sabrina, who was last seen at her home near Lake Michigan late Friday. Police have been holding a 30-year-old ex-convict known by the child's mother for questioning, and they obtained warrants and searched property belonging to the man or his family over the weekend, Undersheriff Laude Hartrum said.
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12:17 AM
Parents and students reacted in disbelief Monday, after learning a second student was arrested in a plot to bring guns to school.
"It kind of feels like a scared feeling, going back in there, like you're going to get shot," said Daniel Lopez, a student at the school.
Police said the 13-year-old boy from Haymarket was involved with the planning, but backed out before Friday.
"That's scary, that he did not come forward. I don't know what he's thinking, that he would not come forward," said Kim Griffin, a Bull Run parent.
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12:13 AM
WEST PALM BEACH — A local man helped police chase down and arrest a homeless man Saturday night who allegedly snatched a tip jar from a trolley in CityPlace.
Peter Harmon, 36, jumped onto a passing trolley in front of the Publix on Rosemary Avenue shortly before 10 p.m. and snatched a jar containing $8, according to an arrest report.
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12:11 AM
June 21, 2004
At one time, not long ago, Scott Peterson was an ordinary man. He lived on a leafy suburban street in a ranch home with a kidney-shaped pool and a built-in barbecue. He belonged to the Rotary Club. He had a golden retriever.
Now he sits in a Redwood City courtroom, accused of murdering his wife, Laci, and their unborn son and dumping her body off the Berkeley marina. With his pale gray suit and calm attentiveness, Peterson looks like a juror who mistakenly took a seat at the defendant's table.
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01:50 AM
EAGLE, Colo. (Reuters) - Kobe Bryant's lawyers will go on the offensive on Monday when they argue that police did a sloppy job of collecting evidence from a hotel room where a 19-year-old woman said the National Basketball Association star raped her.
Besides attacking the stability and credibility of the young Colorado woman who has claimed that the Los Angeles Laker raped her last June 30 after she visited his hotel room at a Vail-area resort where she worked, the defense has attacked a number of aspects of the prosecution's case.
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01:46 AM
Eagle, Colorado-AP -- NBA star Kobe Bryant may get a trial date in his rape case in a two-day hearing that begins tomorrow.
The Colorado judge will also hear arguments on core issues of consent and submission. Legal experts say the technicalities could decide if a conviction is upheld or not. The judge will be deciding what instructions are given to the jury.
Many issues in the case haven't arisen in Colorado courts and may set precedents if upheld by higher courts.
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01:44 AM
Georgia Insurance Commissioner John W. Oxendine announced that an investigation by his Fraud Unit resulted in a Valdosta insurance agent being arrested and charged with defrauding one of his clients.
Dustin Ty Arnold, 24, has been charged with one count each of insurance fraud, forgery and computer forgery, Oxendine said. Arnold was arrested by deputies from the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office.
Arnold allegedly attempted to take out a $4,700 loan on a life insurance policy held by one of his clients.
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01:42 AM
CARLISLE, Ind. -- A guard at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility has been charged with producing and distributing child pornography and sexually exploiting a minor on the Internet.
Craig MacPherson, 39, of Carlisle, was arrested Wednesday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said they found a computer in MacPherson's basement that had about 100 images of minors having sex, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court.
MacPherson was being held Sunday in the Marion County Jail.
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01:37 AM
Sampson County, NC deputies charged 22-year old Kenneth Hartley with killing his mother and two siblings.
Investigators say he stabbed and strangled the victims, but they aren't sure why he did it.
The bodies were found Friday in a mobile home on Jernigan Trail in Sampson County.
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01:35 AM
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Investigators think a fight led to a fatal shooting at a horse training facility in St. Matthews, SC.
Jesus Pineda, 20, of St. Matthews was charged with murder in the shooting death Saturday of a 22-year-old co-worker, Calhoun County Sheriff Thomas Summers said.
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01:33 AM
HYDEN, Ky. - The Leslie County Judge-Executive is in the Perry County Jail, charged with threatening his ex-wife and firing a state police officers.
Kenneth R. Witt, 36, was arrested Saturday night along U.S. 421. He is charged with DUI, carrying an concealed deadly weapon, two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment on a police officer and 10 counts of first-degree wanton endangerment.
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01:30 AM
June 19, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, CA, Jun. 18 (UPI) -- Scott Peterson's defense attorney Mark Geragos has produced a ticket from a California pawn shop for a watch similar to one owned by Laci Peterson.
Geragos told the court at the Redwood City, Calif., trial of Scott Peterson the pawn ticket dated Dec. 31, 2002 -- seven days after the pregnant Laci Peterson was reported missing -- listed a Croton watch and contains a thumbprint of the person pawning the item, CNN reports.
Laci Peterson's aunt, Robin Rocha, has testified the Croton watch and a pair of diamond earrings had been missing from the jewelry police showed her following her niece's disappearance.
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12:57 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Prosecutors tried to establish a monetary motive for Scott Peterson to want his pregnant wife dead through testimony about valuable jewelry Laci Peterson inherited in the months before she disappeared.
Laci Peterson, with other family members, had inherited more than $100,000 worth of jewelry from her grandmother before she vanished Dec. 24, 2002, witnesses have testified. On Thursday, prosecutors in Scott Peterson's murder trial questioned a jewelry store clerk who said she remembered Laci Peterson bringing in various items to be appraised.
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12:55 AM
DENVER (Reuters) - Prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant rape case have abandoned plans to retest key DNA evidence in the case after the basketball's stars lawyers accused them of bad faith in the way an independent laboratory was chosen, according to a court filing made public on Friday.
Earlier this week, Bryant's lawyers asked a judge to punish the prosecution for choosing a laboratory to retest DNA that would not allow the defense to have an expert present, as had been agreed in court last month.
The defense and prosecutors have been bickering over the issue of DNA retesting of four swabs taken from the 19-year-old Colorado woman who has accused Bryant of raping her last summer.
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12:51 AM
SAN FRANCISCO -- A convicted rapist who was released in March has been arrested for failing to update his registration as a sex offender - a potential "third strike" that could put him back in prison for life.
Cary Verse, 33, was arrested Thursday at a San Jose motel and booked on one felony count of failing to update the registration, which he is required to do every 90 days, police said.
San Jose Police Sgt. Ron Helder said Verse had been due to register Monday, but told police he forgot.
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12:41 AM
It was a deposition that escalated into a brawl. The fight was punctuated with words unfit to air on TV.
Lawyer Jim Brewer lunges at the opposing council, Joe O'Brien. The lieutenant in the stars and stripes tie jumped up to protect his attorney and in the scuffle allegedly broke a rib.
Now Brewer is charged with assault on a police officer. His lawyer, Norm Pattis, takes issue with that.
"This bar room behavior is not deposition behavior. Jim lost his cool," Pattis said. "There will be consequences but there won't be a felony here."
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12:39 AM
SOLEDAD, Calif. -- A 17-year-old mother faces charges of attempted murder after a newborn girl was found abandoned in a portable toilet near Soledad Thursday.
Authorities say Rosa Cruz gave birth to the baby girl Thursday, and despite being left in the toilet for more than an hour, the girl survived. She's at Stanford Hospital, where her condition was upgraded Friday afternoon from critical to serious.
Rosa Cruz, of Greenfield, is an undocumented field worker who just recently came to the Central Coast from Mexico, according to authorities.
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12:33 AM
A father has been charged with child neglect in the death of his three-month old son.
Police say 31-year-old Christopher Bluhm of Portage, Indiana placed his son Samuel face-down on a pillow.
He was charged Thursday, one day after the boy died.
Bluhm allegedly told police that he knew that a child should not be allowed to lie face-down because of the risk of suffocation.
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12:30 AM
Five people, including three longtime employees of North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, bilked the hospital out of almost $6 million by billing the health care organization for fictitious purchases, Nassau police said Friday.
Hospital officals were tipped off to the scam last July, after an accounts payable clerk received phone calls demanding payment for outstanding invoices from two of the three companies police say were set up to defraud the hospital. The clerk asked both companies to send the invoices again and noticed that the handwriting on both documents were similar and both were sent from the same fax number, said hospital spokesman Terry Lynam.
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12:27 AM
MIAMI -- Three generations of a family were blamed by federal prosecutors Friday for $14.5 million in Medicare fraud that routed false claims through medical suppliers, billing companies and a clinic.
Investigators tracked some of the money to real estate, six banks in the Dominican Republic, wire transfers to Costa Rica and a Porsche Boxster. Money also went for jewelry including Rolex, Cartier and Philippe Patek watches, diamond rings and gold earrings.
The scam was detected in Medicare claims for durable medical equipment, a favorite target for fraud in South Florida. About $30 million in false claims, using actual patients names, were filed for custom-made hip, knee and shoulder braces, oxygen tanks and hospital beds.
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12:23 AM
June 18, 2004
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Beleaguered pop star Michael Jackson on Thursday criticized the unknown person who leaked details of his reported $23 million settlement of a 1990s child molestation case to the media.
"These kind of attacks and leaks seek to try the case in the press rather than to a jury who will hear all of the evidence and show that I did not and would not, ever, harm a child," the singer said in a statement posted on his Web site.
CourtTv reported earlier this week that it had obtained confidential documents from the settlement, which showed that Jackson in 1994 agreed to set up a $15.3 million trust fund for the boy who had accused him of child molestation.
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12:48 AM
REDWOOD CITY - Laci Peterson had recently inherited a small fortune in jewelry, jurors learned Wednesday.
During testimony at Scott Peterson's murder trial, MaryAnna Felix, a former saleswoman at Edwards Jewelers in Modesto, said Laci had become a frequent customer in the fall of 2002. She had recently inherited valuable jewelry from her grandmother.
Laci's wedding ring was at the jewelers when she disappeared from her Modesto home on Christmas Eve 2002.
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12:45 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — An unusual verbal exchange took place Thursday in the hallway between Juror No. 5 and Laci Peterson's brother in the double-murder trial of husband Scott Peterson
The exchange was caught on tape by media who make up the press pool in the courthouse. The audio on the tape is garbled but the juror can be heard saying to Brent Rocha"you are going to lose today."
It was unclear exactly what the juror was talking about.
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12:42 AM
DENVER — Cell phone text messages could some day be as important in criminal trials as DNA evidence is now — and the Kobe Bryant rape case might be the first major test.
A private cell-phone text message exchange between the basketball star’s accuser and her ex-boyfriend has been ruled “relevant for discovery” in the case, and Judge Terry Ruckriegle has ordered it released to the defense and prosecution.
The judge also told attorneys not to talk about the contents of the messages, which were subpoenaed by the defense last October.
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12:39 AM
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Three police officers at a reputed "crack house" to make an arrest were shot to death Thursday, and at least two people were in custody.
Gunfire erupted shortly after the officers arrived at the single-story dwelling converted into apartments in a low-income neighborhood, Birmingham Police Chief Annetta Nunn said.
"This is something that seems unimaginable," Nunn said.
Four officers had gone to the house to arrest Nathaniel Lauell Woods, 27, on a misdemeanor domestic assault warrant, Nunn said. The fourth officer was not hurt.
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12:35 AM
LUFKIN, Texas - An assistant principal at an East Texas high school has resigned after being accused of sending nude pictures of himself to a 16-year-old female student, authorities said Thursday.
Charles Dexter Lewis, 35, was arrested early Thursday on the Class A misdemeanor of displaying harmful material to a minor. Lewis was released Thursday on $1,500 bond, according to jail officials.
A statement released by Lufkin schools Superintendent David Sharp said that Lewis resigned as 11th grade assistant principal at Lufkin High School Tuesday after being confronted with the accusation.
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12:34 AM
Melvya Newsome, 27, of Madison, was charged Thursday in Madison County Circuit Court with endangering the life of a child after authorities said her negligence led to the death last year of her 5-month-old son.
On Feb. 9, 2003, Newsome left her son, Frederick R. Evans, asleep in his car seat on a bed while she took a nap on a couch in another room, authorities said.
When Newsome returned five hours later to check on the baby, she found the car seat overturned and her son wedged between the bed and the wall, authorities said. An autopsy determined that he had suffocated.
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12:32 AM
A seventh person was charged today in connection with the June 4 beating death of 16-year-old Malik McCoy of Silver Spring, according to a Montgomery County Police news release.
Sovannary Yoeun, 22, of the 9800 block of Hollow Glen Place in Silver Spring turned himself in at the 1st District Station at 3 p.m. today. He was charged with second-degree murder, second-degree assault and conspiracy to commit first-degree assault.
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12:30 AM
ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (AP) -- A Tennessee couple who authorities say plotted to collect on a life insurance policy by faking a drowning in Lake Michigan were indicted by a federal grand jury.
Joel and Patricia Johnson of Selmer, Tenn., were charged this week with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud and making a false communication to the Coast Guard.
Joel Johnson hid while Patricia Johnson called police to report that he had fallen off an icy pier into Lake Michigan in January, the indictment alleges.
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12:27 AM
SWEETWATER, Fla. -- Two police officers were charged Thursday with beating an 18-year-old man so severely that he needed emergency surgery.
The officers suspected Peter Daniel of stealing a personal watercraft from another officer's home last June, according to an affidavit, and took him to the police station, where he was repeatedly hit and kicked.
At one point, one of the officers allegedly picked Daniel off the floor so the other could punch him in the stomach. Daniel's spleen and liver were lacerated, requiring emergency surgery.
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12:26 AM
June 17, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — A police officer described in painstaking detail Wednesday the search for Laci Peterson after her husband, now charged in her murder, reported her missing.
Modesto police Sgt. Ron Cloward was put in charge of the search efforts on Dec. 26, two days after Scott Peterson said he last saw his pregnant wife.
Searchers first scoured a park near the couple's home looking through "bushes ... piles of leaves, anything at all" and checked with registered sex offenders and recent parolees in the area, Cloward testified Wednesday at Peterson's double-murder trial.
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02:31 AM
SARASOTA, Fla. — The father of an 11-year-old girl whose kidnapping was caught on a surveillance camera has asked a judge to restrict who gets to see photos of his slain daughter.
The crime scene photographs may become public record as part of the 2,000 pages of evidence in the case against Joseph P. Smith, who is accused of killing Carlie Brucia in February.
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02:28 AM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A government witness pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges that he lied during testimony in the criminal trial of Martha Stewart, the lifestyle trendsetter convicted of conspiracy.
In entering the plea, Larry Stewart, a U.S. Secret Service laboratory director, denied committing perjury at the trial, where he testified as an expert witness about ink on a worksheet kept by Martha Stewart's stockbroker. He is currently on leave from his job.
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02:24 AM
LINCOLN, Neb. -- A woman faces felony child abuse charges for allegedly leaving her 22-month-old son alone for more than two days in a bedroom, where police found his electrocuted body, police reports said.
Brandy Blair, 22, wedged a towel in the door to make sure the boy could not get out, and apparently had asked another resident of the house to watch the child, according to an arrest warrant.
Lincoln police said when they found Christian Reifler's body last Wednesday, he was starved and his diaper had not been changed for three days.
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02:21 AM
MIDDLETOWN, N.J. -- An inmate about to be released from jail has been charged with the 1968 slaying of a 13-year-old girl. Investigators said DNA evidence linked Jerry Lee Bellamy, 53, to the death of Jane Durrua, who was raped and bludgeoned on an isolated path near her home.
"We've never solved one before that's been this old," prosecutor Robert A. Honecker Jr. said.
In 2001, prosecutors reviewed unsolved cases to determine whether new technology could help. They learned there was DNA available to test in the Durrua case and spent the next two years trying to gather more evidence after Bellamy was identified as a suspect.
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02:18 AM
NEW IBERIA -- Iberia Parish Sheriff Sid Hebert said Wednesday he believes his office has picked up the "pivot point" of an Acadiana counterfeiting operation.
Hebert said his deputies arrested Willie Ray Griggs, 46, 90 N. Luke Drive, Apt. 102E, Lafayette, about noon Wednesday for monetary instrument abuse and resisting an officer. The arrest followed, and was based on, the Tuesday arrest of Jonathan Hopes, 29, 1018 Pellerin St., Jeanerette, after Hopes was allegedly found in possession of $20,000 in counterfeit $100 bills.
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02:14 AM
ANN ARBOR -- The ex-wife of rapper Eminem, wanted by authorities after skipping out on a court-ordered drug treatment program, was arrested in a hotel, police said Wednesday.
Police arrested Kim Mathers in an Ann Arbor hotel room Tuesday afternoon after a caller reported that she was staying there, police Sgt. Brad Hill said. She was turned over to the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department, he said.
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02:12 AM
Dozens of parents who owe thousands of dollars in back child support have been arrested in the last two days.
El Paso County constables have been showing up on people's doorsteps. They're looking for those whose debt in child support back pay now exceeds more than $5,000.
Constable Robert White says an arrest is a last resort, but some just continue avoiding their responsibility.
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02:10 AM
June 16, 2004
Michael Jackson paid out approximately $25 million to settle a civil suit by a boy who accused him of molesting him in 1993, according to the confidential agreement which was exclusively obtained by Court TV's Diane Dimond. The pop star, according to the agreement, maintained the settlement did not signify an admission of any wrongdoing against the boy or his parents.
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12:49 AM
DENVER (Reuters) - Lawyers for basketball star Kobe Bryant asked a judge on Tuesday to reduce a rape charge against their client because prosecutors will not allow a defense expert to observe key DNA re-testing. The defense and prosecutors have been bickering over the issue of DNA re-testing on four swabs taken from the 19-year-old Colorado woman who has accused the Los Angeles Laker of raping her last summer. The DNA testing is important for the defense because it contends that the woman had consensual sex with another man hours after she said Bryant raped her and before she reported the crime.
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12:47 AM
The singer of the classic song "Wichita Lineman" will soon be an inmate of the county for 10 nights. That was the sentence handed down by a judge in in Phoenix Tuesday to country music legend Glen Campbell. The singer pleaded guilty in May to charges of extreme driving under the influence and leaving the scene of the accident. He was also sentenced to 75 hours of community service.
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12:46 AM
Police said Tuesday they still don't know the name of a woman arrested for abandoning her newborn behind a San Jose bar this weekend. Investigators say the woman does not speak English very well, and goes by several different names. The District Attorney's Office has set her arraignment for Wednesday, and say she could be arraigned as a "Jane Doe" if positive identification is not made by that time. Meantime, the child was in stable condition at Valley Medical Center.
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12:45 AM
ALBANY, N.Y. -- A former heavyweight boxer once considered a rising star was indicted Tuesday on first-degree murder charges accusing him of raping and beating a woman to death in a city park. A grand jury indicted Jo-el Scott, 33, of Albany, on two counts of first-degree murder, three for second-degree murder and one for attempted rape and one for sexual abuse.
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12:44 AM
A Pocatello man is accused of raping two teenage girls. Twenty-five-year-old Patrick Carringer allegedly gave his victims muscle relaxants and alcohol. According to police the crime happened last May, when one girl was 16 and the other was 17-years-old. Police say the girls weren't together at the time of the alleged crimes.
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12:43 AM
A Hamlin man, who is a registered Level 1 sex offender, has been charged with abusing two children who are under the age of 11. The Brockport Police Department arrested 39-year-old Bryon Sells last week and charged him with two counts of 1st degree sex abuse, one count of course sexual contact with a child, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
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12:27 AM
A 39-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly stranding an 82-year-old woman in a desert canyon. Roland Dombi was taken to a hospital by a neighbor on Sunday, saying he was suffering from mental problems. He reportedly told hospital staff he thought he had taken his grandmother to a desert canyon but wasn't sure if he killed her, said Bullhead City police spokeswoman Carrie Conner.
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12:27 AM
A man wanted on charges of raping an ex-girlfriend four years ago was arrested Sunday in Perth Amboy, N.J., a James City County police spokesman said. Police investigating a domestic situation arrested Edgar E. Munoz, 32, on assault and battery charges, said Maj. Stan Stout. Munoz was using a different name, but his fingerprint record revealed his true identity, Stout said.
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12:26 AM
More than a year after an accident that killed a 5-year-old boy, the South Carolina Highway Patrol has charged a Gaffney woman in his death. Troopers charged Shera Sarrat Lee with reckless homicide. They say Lee was speeding when her car hit Francisco Banda.
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12:25 AM
A teenager wanted in connection with a fatal weekend shooting inside a Colorado Springs, Colo., Wal-Mart store has been arrested in Oklahoma. State Patrol troopers pulled over Jerry Rosas Junior, 19, on a traffic stop Monday near Clinton, Okla. A records check found he was wanted in Saturday's death of ReShaun Jones, 17, of Colorado Springs.
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12:24 AM
June 15, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., (Reuters) - The attorney for Scott Peterson angrily asked for a mistrial on Monday after two policemen said the accused double murderer muttered a curse word and threw a flashlight after officers questioned him about his missing pregnant wife, Laci.
Defense attorney Mark Geragos complained that the officers fabricated the testimony and that the prosecutor did not tell him such statements were coming.
"It's nothing but a cheap shot in a never-ending series of cheap shots by this prosecution and it's absolutely beyond dispute that I'm entitled to that," Geragos complained to San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi.
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01:33 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — One of the first police officers to search Scott Peterson's (search) house in the hours after his wife vanished described a "model home" with little out of place and a husband whose fishing story didn't quite catch.
Officer Derrick Letsinger testified Monday that the Petersons' Modesto home was very much well ordered, though several dirty white rags placed on top of the washing machine did stand out.
"The rest of the room was almost like a model home," Letsinger said as the third week of Peterson's capital murder trial began.
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01:32 AM
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California judge on Monday refused to reduce Michael Jackson's $3 million bail pending his trial on child molestation charges, saying the pop star could clearly afford that amount.
Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau asked Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville during a May 28 hearing to reduce the singer's bail, saying it was "grossly excessive" compared to other defendants and suggesting $70,000.
Prosecutors objected, saying that Jackson was a potential flight risk and could easily spend $70,000 "in a weekend in Las Vegas."
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01:27 AM
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A homeless man was arrested on Monday for murdering two people, including a 91-year-old screenwriter who wrote Abbott and Costello comedies before being blacklisted, police said.
Keven Lee Graff, 27, was taken into custody near the gates of the Paramount Pictures studio in Hollywood as Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton was holding a press conference several miles away to announce a search for the suspect.
Though Graff was not immediately charged in the murders of screenwriter Robert Lees or his neighbor, Morley Engelson, Bratton said he was the prime suspect.
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01:25 AM
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Entertainer James Brown told prosecutors in a letter received Monday that he would forgo a jury trial and not contest a domestic violence charge because he wanted to keep his family matters private.
The 71-year-old Godfather of Soul was arrested in January and accused of pushing his wife, Tommie Rae Hynie, to the floor and threatening to kill her.
Prosecutor Anthony Odom said Monday that Brown had pleaded guilty to the charge. However, no plea was entered by Brown.
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01:24 AM
Police in Daytona Beach, Fla., arrested two men in connection with a weekend shooting in Indiana that killed two people and injured another, according to Local 6 News.
Police said Hobert "Albert" Alan Pittman, 23, of Maukport, Ind., and John Michael Naylor, 20, were arrested in Daytona Beach, Fla. Monday.
Investigators believe Pittman shot his father, his stepmother and his stepgrandmother Saturday in his father's Maukport home.
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01:20 AM
http://www.newsreview.info/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040614/NEWS/106140045
ROSEBURG: A Roseburg, Oregon man was arrested Friday on suspicion of five counts of first-degree sex abuse for allegedly molesting a 10-year-old child in 2000.
The allegations against 38-year-old Aaron Avery Snell, formerly of Yoncalla, were reported to police about two weeks ago, said Roseburg Police Sgt. Aaron Dunbar. Snell was arrested after being interviewed by police around 11 a.m.
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01:18 AM
Honesty may be the best policy. But for one alleged thief, it became the quickest way to jail. Police say Peter Shelley, 24, punched a convenience store clerk and stole a pack of cigarettes June 6 after he refused to show the clerk his identification.
But last Saturday, police say Shelley returned to the gas station and apologized to the clerk -- twice.
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01:11 AM
A day after a one-month-old baby girl died at the hospital, police charged the girl's 17-year-old father with murder.
The charges against Keith Long were filed after the medical examiner performed an autopsy on Korin Long. Police in DeKalb County said they received a call to respond to the family's home in Ellenwood on Sunday.
The caller said the baby girl had been hurt accidentally. The baby was found unconscious. Paramedics transported the baby to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
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01:08 AM
STEVENSON, Wash. -- A 39-year-old mother who confessed to shooting her two young daughters and leaving their bodies in an abandoned rock quarry was charged Monday with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder.
Charlene Dorcy of Vancouver was expected to return to court Thursday to enter a plea.
Aggravated murder is punishable in Washington by death or life in prison without parole. Prosecutors will have a month to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
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01:04 AM
A caretaker at a Titusville assisted-living home was charged Monday with injuring a patient who died in an Orlando hospital six days later.
Jesse Elliott See, 27, of Titusville is being held at the Brevard County Detention Center in Sharpes without bail on charges of aggravated manslaughter. He worked at the Washington Square assisted-living facility.
The victim, 41-year-old John Davis, had been a patient at Washington Square since 1983. He had Down syndrome and osteoporosis.
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01:03 AM
Federal officials yesterday accused a Somali man living in Ohio of plotting with al Qaeda terrorists to blow up a Columbus, Ohio-area shopping mall. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said that Nuradin M. Abdi, 32, a cell phone company employee in Columbus, was charged with conspiring with al Qaeda operatives, including Ohio truck driver Iyman Faris, who was convicted last year of plotting to sever cables on the Brooklyn Bridge.
A four-count indictment, unsealed yesterday in Ohio, said Abdi obtained and used fraudulent travel documents and conspired to provide material support to al Qaeda. Abdi, in custody since the day after Thanksgiving, had lost his political asylum status and was facing deportation that is now stayed by the indictment.
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01:00 AM
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12:59 AM
June 14, 2004
Redwood City, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Jurors in the Scott Peterson double murder trial heard testimony from the Petersons' neighbors and police, with prosecutors continuing to build a case on Peterson's suspicious behavior following his pregnant wife's disappearance.
Susan Medina, a neighbor, testified Thursday that homeless people used the neighborhood as a shortcut to get to a nearby park. Medina had installed a locking mailbox at her residence, due to her nervousness about the frequent presence of suspicious characters.
The Medina's home had been broken into a few days after Christmas, within two days of Laci Peterson's disappearance. Medina's admission aided the defense's efforts to sow seeds of doubt that someone else could have kidnapped Laci.
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01:42 AM
HOUSTON -- A California forensic DNA expert and one-time head of the Harris County medical examiner's office DNA laboratory who helped reveal problems that led to the police lab's shutdown is in the spotlight after being hired by Kobe Bryant's defense team to monitor the prosecution's retesting of evidence in the basketball star's sexual assault trial. Elizabeth Johnson worked for the Harris County Medical Examiner's DNA lab from 1992 until 1996 and was a vocal critic of the facility's operations.
Plans for the retests in the Bryant case were announced recently after reports that Johnson's DNA tests for the defense indicated that some of the evidence was from someone other than Bryant.
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01:36 AM
Milford Public Schools Superintendent Douglas Eicher has been arrested in Lincoln on suspicion of third-degree sexual assault.
Police say Eicher was arrested Friday in Wilderness Park in Lincoln after he allegedly initiated sexual contact with an undercover officer.
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01:22 AM
NEW KENSINGTON, PA — An off-duty police officer in Pennsylvania was arrested for pulling a gun on a man and threatening to kill him, authorities said.
Michael Adams, 41, a full-time Wilkinsburg officer who lives in New Kensington, and another man forced their way into a home Friday night, looking for a man who they claimed had damaged Adams' car, New Kensington Police Chief Chuck Korman said.
Adams identified himself as a police officer, pulled out a revolver and shoved the gun in a man's face, Korman said.
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01:18 AM
A disgruntled customer who could not exchange an exotic fish he bought was accused of killing more than 350 marine creatures by intentionally contaminating an aquarium at an exotic fish store.
Jeremy Armstrong, 27, was arrested Thursday and charged with animal cruelty for allegedly tossing chlorine powder into the coral display tank at Exotic Aquatics.
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01:15 AM
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. -- A 13-year-old Newport boy has been charged with drunken driving, authorities said.
Lt. Barry Smith said police received several calls Saturday of an erratic driver on West Main Street in Middletown. Smith said the boy turned onto Rogers Lane and struck several cars.
Smith told The Providence Journal that the boy appeared extremely intoxicated. He was charged with drunken driving and refusing to take a breath test.
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01:11 AM
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01:04 AM
June 13, 2004
IRVINE, Calif. — A sniper opened fire Saturday at a rural Southern California recycling center, wounding a worker and a deputy, then fled before being killed hours later in a shootout after deputies spotted him from a helicopter. The helicopter pilot was wounded in the leg, but all three victims were expected to survive, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.
The sniper, a middle-aged man wearing green, Army-style fatigues, began firing at employees at the Baker Canyon Green Recycling Center about 11:10 a.m., Amormino said.
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02:51 AM
June 12, 2004
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) - Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols was again spared the death penalty Friday when jurors who convicted him of 161 murder counts deadlocked over his sentence, denying state prosecutors the execution that was the main reason for bringing the case.
Just as a federal jury deadlocked six years earlier, state jurors could not agree on Nichols' punishment for helping executed bomber Timothy McVeigh blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people.
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04:08 AM
REDWOOD CITY, California (CNN) -- Defense attorneys in Scott Peterson's double murder trial have sought to portray their client's Modesto neighborhood as an area prone to robberies and homeless people in an effort to raise doubts that the defendant killed his pregnant wife, Laci.
Neighbor Susan Medina, police officers who first responded to a missing person report in the case and a mail carrier were among witnesses who testified Thursday in the high-profile case.
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04:01 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Courtney Love surrendered to police Friday for allegedly assaulting a 32-year-old woman with a liquor bottle at the home of her former manager, authorities said. Love, 39, was booked on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon. She posted $55,000 bail and was released.
Prosecutors have said the charge stems from an April 25 incident at the Los Angeles home of former manager Jim Barber.
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03:58 AM
The dayslong manhunt for the person accused of shooting a Houston police officer ended Friday with his capture, as well as the surprising arrest of black activist Quanell X, who said he was trying to arrange for the man's safe surrender.
The activist, also known as Quanell Evans, 33, was forced off the road and charged with felony evading arrest after he was accused of failing to stop for officers who had activated their emergency lights and sirens, police officials said. In the car with him was Derrick Forney, 24, who had been the focus of a manhunt since Houston police officer Matthew V. Richard was shot four times early Wednesday
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03:57 AM
An off-duty police officer has been arrested after allegedly being caught in the act of sodomizing a 13-year-old boy in a Bronx park.
Luis Delgado, 38, a 12-year veteran of the Police Department, was arrested Thursday afternoon on charges of sodomy. A passerby called 911 after spotting a man engaged in a sexual act with a child at the French Charley Playground in a park in the Norwood section of the Bronx, police said.
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03:55 AM
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. -- A Middletown police officer was arrested Friday following a state police investigation into the disappearance of four bags of marijuana from the town police department's evidence locker.
Michael Braley was charged with larceny, obstruction of justice and possession of marijuana. The officer was released on $10,000 personal recognizance.
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03:53 AM
A man and woman from Pittsburgh's West End were arrested yesterday on charges they held a Carnegie woman captive for two days after luring her to their home.
Police declined to identify the victim, other than to say she is 27.
Clinton W. Brewer, 36, and Sabrina Saunders, 37, of the 3500 block of Mazette Road, were charged with robbery, criminal conspiracy, unlawful restraint and possession of drug paraphernalia. Brewer was also charged with simple assault.
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03:51 AM
June 11, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Police determined Scott Peterson's home was suspicious within hours of responding to his report that his pregnant wife Laci was missing, an officer testified Thursday. Police Sgt. Byron Duerfeldt testified during Peterson's murder trial that he was briefed by officers who had been inside the Peterson house on Christmas Eve 2002.
"Based on what they told me I felt it was necessary to have a detective respond," Duerfeldt said.
Duerfeldt was stopped from explaining what the officers told him they saw in the home because he is not allowed to testify about what others said.
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01:24 AM
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lifestyle trendsetter Martha Stewart has asked a federal judge for a new trial because her guilty verdict was "corroded" by a government witness who lied on the stand, court papers revealed on Thursday.
The demand for a new trial came a day after a grand jury indicted U.S. Secret Service laboratory director Larry Stewart on charges of falsely testifying that he carried out tests on a key document in the trial.
Larry Stewart is no relation to Ms. Stewart, who was convicted on March 5 of conspiring with her stockbroker to lie about a suspicious stock trade.
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01:21 AM
MCALESTER, Okla. (Reuters) - The state jury that convicted Terry Nichols of murder deliberated for a second day on Thursday without reaching a decision on whether to execute the Oklahoma City bombing conspirator or spare his life.
The jury has the option of sending Nichols to die by lethal injection or sentencing him to life in prison for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 168 people. They will resume deliberations on Friday morning.
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01:20 AM
BOISE, Idaho — A Saudi graduate student was acquitted Thursday of charges that he used his computer expertise to foster terrorism. The case against Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, 34, was seen as an important test of a provision of the Patriot Act that makes it a crime to provide expert advice or assistance to terrorists. First Amendment advocates called the verdict a victory for free speech.
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01:18 AM
A Hudson, Wis., man has been charged with stabbing his former girlfriend's two cats to death in a jealous rage and leaving one on the bed in her Rosemount home.
The Dakota County attorney charged Joseph Donald Leier with felony burglary and animal cruelty Tuesday in the November 2003 slayings. It's the third time the Dakota County attorney has filed charges of felony animal cruelty since legislators created the felony statute in 2001, according to the prosecutor's office.
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01:15 AM
A Virgina couple is facing felony child neglect charges after authorities said they left their 4-year-old daughter alone in a motel room early Tuesday and went shopping.
Bryan C. Perkins, 34, and Patricia Ann Perkins, 26, of Brandy Station were charged after police said a witness said she heard a child crying for about a half-hour. She found the child alone and brought her to the front office, where deputy Alex Smith and others were waiting with the child when the parents returned at about 1:30 a.m.
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01:12 AM
NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (AP) _ A 39-year-old music teacher in two western New York schools is accused of raping a student.
Michael Solomon is charged with first-degree rape, sexual abuse and using a child in a sex act. School officials said it's unlikely the child attended St. John's School in Tonawanda or Holy Ghost School in Wheatfield, the Lutheran schools where Solomon is popular among students.
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01:10 AM
An Orangeburg County, SC sheriff's deputy was terminated after he was arrested Thursday following an investigation into claims of sexual misconduct involving a North High School student.
Sheriff Larry Williams said Winston Leonard, Jr., 36, of 131 Lombardi St., Orangeburg, was arrested and charged with assault with intent to commit second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He has been terminated as of his arrest, Williams said.
"Those who don't follow the law can't be a part of my office," Williams said.
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01:08 AM
An Indiana man convicted of molesting a 13-year-old girl was sentenced today to 100 years in prison.
A Johnson County jury found Alan Wayne Jenkins, 42, guilty May 7 of two counts of child molesting. He was found not guilty of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and another molesting allegation.
Johnson Superior Court 1 Judge Kevin Barton told Jenkins he could not find any mitigating circumstance to lighten the sentence of 35 years on each molestation charge and another 30 years for being a habitual offender.
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01:00 AM
June 10, 2004
REDWOOD CITY – In an apparent attempt to establish when Laci Peterson died, prosecutors focused Thursday on the clothing she wore during the last day that anyone besides her husband – and alleged killer – reported seeing her alive.
Meanwhile, defense lawyers assailed what they characterize as a botched investigation that culminated in two murder charges against Scott Peterson.
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03:03 AM
The day before she vanished, Laci Peterson spent what appeared to be a routine day preparing to host Christmas dinner with her family -- she went grocery shopping, visited a local spa and made sure the house was clean.
A series of prosecution witnesses on Thursday reconstructed her comings and goings on Dec. 23, 2002, what authorities say was the last day anyone besides her husband -- and alleged killer -- saw her alive.
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03:01 AM
McALESTER, Okla. — Jurors began deliberating Wednesday whether Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols should live or die after a defense attorney made an impassioned plea to spare his life. "This case is about one person, this man, Terry Lynn Nichols, and whether you will take his life," attorney Creekmore Wallace said after standing behind his Nichols and putting his hands on his shoulders. "It's about whether you will kill Terry Lynn Nichols, the man."
Jury deliberations concluded for the evening and were to resume Thursday morning.
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02:58 AM
McALESTER, Okla. -- A man was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly pulled down his pants on the steps of the Pittsburg County Courthouse during a break in Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' state murder trial.
Yusef Samad, 26, was arrested for indecent exposure after he dropped his pants in front of dozens of bombing survivors, victims family members and others who walked out of the courthouse for the lunch break about 12:30 p.m., Chief Sheriff's Deputy Richard Sexton said.
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02:57 AM
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer-actress Courtney Love faces an assault charge stemming from an altercation with another woman at the home of her ex-boyfriend in April, prosecutors said on Wednesday, only two weeks after she pleaded guilty to a drug offense.
A judge last week issued an arrest warrant for Love on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, and the performer is expected to surrender to Los Angeles police sometime next week, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
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02:55 AM
BRUNSWICK, Ga. - A local man initially accused of making threats against President Bush during this week's Group of Eight summit was arrested Tuesday on weapons charges.
Robert Lloyd Hicks Jr., 25, of Brunswick was arrested Tuesday for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. The arrest came during an investigation into a report that Hicks had made some sort of threat against the president, said Malcolm Wiley, a G-8 information center spokesman and special agent with the Secret Service
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02:49 AM
A Round Rock, Texas teacher has been charged with attempted sexual assault of a child.
Todd Cline, 41, of Hutto was arrested as part of an operation by the Attorney General's Cyber Crimes Unit.
Cline is a special education teacher for the Round Rock school district.
Round Rock school officials say Cline has been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.
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02:46 AM
OMAHA, Neb. -- A man charged with leaving threatening messages at an Islamic center said Wednesday he made the calls in anger after learning last month that Islamic terrorists beheaded an American in Iraq.
"I just lost my temper over Michael Berg being beheaded," George M. Doyle II said in an interview. "It just hurt so bad."
Doyle, who appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, is charged with obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs.
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02:29 AM
NEWARK, N.J. -- Federal agents on Wednesday charged six Continental Airlines employees with smuggling hundreds of pounds of cocaine into the country through Newark Liberty International Airport.
The workers were baggage handlers at the airport who used their positions to divert suitcases of cocaine from customs inspections, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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02:26 AM
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12:00 AM
June 09, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - The stepfather of Laci Peterson, whose Christmas Eve 2002 disappearance riveted the nation, told a jury at her husband's murder trial on Tuesday that he was suspicious of her husband, Scott Peterson, as soon as he heard she had gone missing.
Ron Grantski said he confronted Peterson about his story of being on a fishing trip in the San Francisco Bay the day his eight-month pregnant wife disappeared because he knew that Peterson seldom went fishing.
As people gathered to search for Laci on Dec. 24, 2002, Grantski said he told Peterson: "I think your Berkeley fishing trip is a fishy story. Did you have a girlfriend that you visited? If you did, you better talk now because it's going to come out."
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01:18 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Though prosecutors in Scott Peterson's double-murder trial have said that his Christmas Eve morning fishing trip seemed unusual, and was simply a cover-up to dispose of his wife's body, Laci Peterson's stepfather acknowledged Tuesday that he, too, went fishing that morning. "Almost exactly the time that Scott Peterson went, correct?" defense lawyer Mark Geragos (search) asked.
"That is correct. Ninety miles closer," Ron Grantski (search) replied tersely from the witness stand.