August 30, 2004
Parents of the soon-to-be-married couple now are taking comfort in memories as they mourn the loss of their children, slain two weeks ago by gunshots to the head as they lay in sleeping bags on a remote stretch of California coast. Police are struggling to solve the baffling murder.
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04:49 AM
Attorneys for convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad will argue before Fairfax Circuit Judge Jonathan C. Thacher that he should not be tried October 4 for the murder of FBI analyst Linda Franklin, because such a trial would violate his constitutional right against being tried twice for the same crime.
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04:48 AM
Last week's testimony in the Scott Peterson double-murder trial ended with a cross-examination of Detective Lydell Wall of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department about information that investigators found on the hard drives of Peterson's computers showing his searches for used boats and information on currents in the San Francisco Bay.
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04:47 AM
Wichita police have release a 25-year-old poem written by the BTK Strangler and sent to one of his intended victims in hopes the public might recognize the poem and it's author.
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04:46 AM
Delaware State Police charged a Wrightsville Borough Council member with rape, alleging he had sex with his best friend's teenage daughter on a camping trip. Fred C. Smeltzer Jr., 32 — who is also the deputy chief for Wrightsville Fire Company — gave the 15-year-old girl alcohol and then raped her at a Delaware campground July 15, police said.
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04:45 AM
A 20-year-old North Philadelphia woman and her boyfriend have been charged with murder in what authorities say was the beating death of the woman's 3-year-old son. Desiree Pizarro was ordered held without bail in the death of her son, Luis Rivera Junior, who was declared dead shortly after arriving at Temple Children's Medical Center.
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04:45 AM
When Donna Pulsifer Prentice moved to Chicago's suburbs in 1969, she told her new neighbors her 3-year-old daughter had stayed behind in California with relatives, authorities say. Thirty-five years later, investigators are alleging that Prentice and her boyfriend actually killed the child, disposed of her body and then quickly fled their Huntington Beach, Calif., home so they would never have to explain the girl's disappearance.
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04:44 AM
A teenager shot in the head by an off-duty police officer he allegedly tried to rob died of his injuries Saturday, and his mother claimed police had been trying to pin a crime on her son for weeks.
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04:43 AM
August 28, 2004
Michael Skakel's lawyers have filed their latest brief in support of a bid to overturn the Kennedy cousin's 2002 murder conviction for the 1975 death of 15-year-old Martha Moxley. Skakel's appeal attorneys Hope Seeley and Hubert Santos urged the Connecticut Supreme Court to throw out the murder conviction on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct and an expired statute of limitations, which they say should have prevented Skakel's prosecution more than 20 years after the crime occurred.
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02:04 AM
The boyfriend of a woman charged with locking her 7-year-old son in the trunk of her car while celebrating her birthday at a bar was arrested as he attempted to visit the boy, police said. Police say that Jake Faria has in the past helped his girlfriend, Sara Powell, lock her son in her 1985 Volvo.
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02:02 AM
Evidence from 8,000 criminal cases has been mislabeled and improperly stored in the Houston Police Department's property room, police said Thursday. Police Chief Harold Hurtt blamed the situation on "poor work habits" and "sloppy efforts" by crime lab personnel.
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02:00 AM
Baltimore Ravens star running back Jamal Lewis was not in the court room for his arraignment on Friday, but pleaded not guilty through his lawyers on drug charges. In February, federal drug conspiracy charges were issued against Lewis, and an additional charge of attempting to possess cocaine surfaced in August.
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01:58 AM
San Diego County Sheriff's deputies have arrested two juveniles accused of assaulting a black student outside of a high school in what authorities are calling a hate crime. The two 15-year-olds were arrested Thursday and charged with battery causing serious injury, making violent threats and civil rights violations for allegedly participating in the Aug. 20 attack on the 17-year-old victim as he left football practice.
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01:56 AM
A four-time-convicted rapist arrested on suspicion of assaulting two women in an elevator was charged with 11 felonies, including four counts of assault. Prosecutors said that if he's convicted, it's probable that Curtis S. Thompson — released after more than 17 years in prison when a jury refused to send him to a special-treatment center for chronic sexual offenders last year — will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
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01:55 AM
A New York man was charged with disorderly conduct after authorities said he made a false bomb threat at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the Broward Sheriff's Office said. Philip J. Baloun, 58, became upset about around 8 p.m. when told he was not going to make his American Airlines flight to New York because the plane was full.
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01:54 AM
Two adults arrested in a feces-filled house will face formal felony charges of neglect of a dependent. Animal control officers called police to the house after they found the floors were covered in feces and urine and kitchen walls were covered with cockroaches. The couple's 11-month-old daughter was placed in the custody of Child Protection Services.
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01:52 AM
August 27, 2004
A frustrated Judge Terry Ruckriegle chastised prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case for waiting until the last minute to request a hearing to challenge some of the DNA evidence that the defense plans to introduce during the trial.
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04:28 AM
While cross-examining the district attorney investigator who oversaw the wiretaps on Scott Peterson's telephones, defense attorney Mark Geragos tried to reveal that the system used by the investigator was unreliable, sometimes not recording all calls and not properly dating the calls.
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04:27 AM
A Wisconsin man was questioned in last week's slayings of two camp counselors in Jenner and after passing a polygraph exam is not considered a suspect in the case, authorities said Wednesday. "We are done with Mr. Scarseth," Sonoma County Sheriff's Lt. Dave Edmonds said of Nicholas Edward Scarseth, 21, of Chippewa Falls, Wis., a drifter who had emerged as "a person of interest" in the case.
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04:25 AM
The FBI seized computers, software and equipment as part of an investigation into illegal sharing of copyrighted movies, music and games over an Internet "peer-to-peer" network, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced. Search warrants were executed at residences and an Internet service provider in Texas, New York and Wisconsin as part of the first federal criminal copyright action taken against a P2P network.
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04:24 AM
William Kennedy Smith is accused of sexually assaulting his former employee. Kennedy Smith, who lives in Chicago, faces a civil lawsuit in the case. A former personal assistant claimed that Kennedy Smith attacked her nearly five years ago. He calls the accusations outrageous, untrue, and without merit.
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04:24 AM
Lethal Weapon star Danny Glover was arrested on Wednesday outside the Sudan Embassy in Washington during a protest over Sudan's humanitarian crisis. Glover was speaking to a crowd who were calling for a peacekeeping force to stop violence in western Sudan.
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04:23 AM
A 28-year-old man accused of decapitating his mother because he believed she was Satan was acquitted of murder by reason of insanity. Judge John Scotillo ruled that Karl Sneider suffered from mental illness and "lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality" of killing his 49-year-old mother.
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04:22 AM
A construction worker accused of being one of the executioners who slaughtered some 1,200 Bosnian Muslim men in 1995 was charged yesterday with entering the United States illegally by claiming refugee status and not revealing his role in a notorious Bosnian Serb Army.
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04:20 AM
August 26, 2004
It is usually the defense which tries to argue that DNA evidence in criminal cases has been contaminated at the lab, but the Colorado prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case have requested a hearing to question the reliability of DNA evidence introduced by the defense team's experts.
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04:16 AM
Wiretapped telephone messages played in the Scott Peterson double murder trial reveal a pattern of deceit shortly after the disappearance of his pregnant wife Laci that extended to his closest family, friends and supporters.
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04:15 AM
Music producer Phil Spector has hired an attorney who used to work for mob boss John Gotti to defend him on murder charges after his previous attorney resigned from the case. Leslie Abramson said Tuesday that she and her co-counsel resigned as Spector's attorneys but were taken by surprise when Bruce Cutler filed a motion to take over the case while Abramson was out of the country.
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04:14 AM
Federal and state law enforcement agencies have quietly arrested or charged dozens of people with crimes related to junk e-mail, identity theft and other online scams in recent weeks, according to several people involved in the actions. The cases, which have been brought by law enforcement offices around the country, are expected to be announced by Attorney General John Ashcroft at a news conference in Washington on Thursday.
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04:13 AM
A mother pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in the heat death of her 2-year-old son, who was left locked in the family's van. A Sonoma County judge scheduled a Sept. 9 preliminary hearing for Rena Corban, who kept her face covered during the brief hearing. Her bail was set at $250,000.
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04:11 AM
Mark Koenig, the former head of Enron's investor relations section, pleaded guilty this afternoon to a charge of aiding and abetting securities fraud and agreed to cooperate with the government. U.S. Judge Ewing Werlein asked Koenig if he was "just shaving it" when he misrepresented the financial health of several Enron divisions to investors and analysts.
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04:10 AM
A New Jersey youth soccer coach has been charged with sexually assaulting one of his players, Bergen County authorities said. Keith Ildefonso, 34, of Waldwick, was arrested Tuesday and charged with sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.
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04:09 AM
August 25, 2004
CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. -- A skateboarder with a history of run-ins with police in this northwestern Wisconsin town left home about a month ago to roam around California - where he was questioned regarding the killings of two camp counselors. Nicholas Edward Scarseth, 21, contacted authorities in Sonoma County on Tuesday after learning from a radio that he was sought as a "potential witness" in the killings, Sonoma County Sheriff's Lt. Dave Edmonds said. Edmonds said investigators wanted to determine what Scarseth knows about the case, adding that "he has not been charged. This is consensual contact. We're not holding him."
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04:11 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Scott Peterson's former mistress acknowledged at his murder trial Tuesday that Peterson never tried to stop her from going to police about their affair. In his cross-examination of Amber Frey, defense attorney Mark Geragos also noted Peterson never said anything incriminating in his wiretapped phone conversations with Frey. In addition, Frey admitted Peterson never told her he loved her — apparently refuting prosecutors' allegations of Peterson's motive for killing his pregnant wife.
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04:10 AM
DENVER (Reuters) - Television cameras will be limited to closing arguments in the rape case against professional basketball star Kobe Bryant, the judge presiding over the trial ordered on Tuesday. District Judge Terry Ruckriegle cited the potential for intimidation and reluctance on the part of witnesses in the high-profile case. Court TV, which broadcasts trials on cable television, asked the judge to allow it to air the trial, which begins on Friday when potential jurors show up in an Eagle, Colorado courtroom to fill out a questionnaire.
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04:09 AM
LOS ANGELES -- Robert Blake was afraid his wife-to-be would expose their child to a life of drugs and crime -- so he plotted a year before her murder to gain custody, a private investigator testified. William Jordan said Friday he was trying to get Bonny Lee Bakley to leave her infant daughter in California in a plan hatched with Blake four years ago. "He didn't think Bonny was a good mother for Rosie," Jordan said Friday. "He wanted the baby. ... It was constantly on his mind, I think."
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04:08 AM
HAMILTON, Ohio (AP) — A truck driver accused of fatally shooting two men and wounding three others during a rampage at a trucking company office pleaded guilty Monday in an agreement with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. After a three-judge panel determined he was fit to stand trial, Tom West entered his pleas and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole on two counts of aggravated murder, and another 40 years to be served consecutively on four counts of attempted aggravated murder.
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04:07 AM
SOUTHFIELD — Tarajee Maynor, whose two children died after she left them inside a hot car for four hours, will avoid trial on felony murder charges and the risk of a mandatory life sentence when she pleads guilty today under a deal arranged by her attorney and prosecutors. Maynor, a 27-year-old former college student, was charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse in the deaths of her 3-year-old son, Adonnis, and 10-month-old daughter, Acacia. Authorities said the children were left alone in her parked Dodge Neon while she sat in an air-conditioned hair salon.
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04:06 AM
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A former Hooters manager who pleaded no contest to secretly filming women as they changed into the restaurant's signature orange shorts and tank tops was sentenced on Tuesday to five years in prison. Prosecutors say Juan Aponte filmed the women -- some under the age of 18 - with a digital camera as they undressed in a construction trailer while applying for jobs with a new Hooters restaurant in the Los Angeles suburb of West Covina.
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04:06 AM
West Memphis, AR - The Jail Administrator of the Crittenden County Jail was arrested Monday for trying to smuggle drugs into his jail. Reginald Abram was busted by West Memphis Police for trying to accept money from an undercover cop so he could sneak cocaine into the jail. Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby couldn't be reached for comment Monday night.
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04:05 AM
August 24, 2004
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A federal judge on Monday gave attorneys for alleged serial bomber Eric Rudolph more time to draft a plan for fighting charges in a fatal attack on an abortion clinic. U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith gave Rudolph's legal team until Sept. 15 to reveal their defense against charges that Rudolph planted a bomb outside a Birmingham women's clinic on Jan. 29, 1998, killing a police officer and critically injuring a nurse.
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02:15 AM
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - The judge in the Michael Jackson child molestation case tentatively ruled on Monday that more than three dozen items of evidence seized at the pop star's Neverland Valley Ranch and at a private investigator's office could be admitted at trial. Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville said he intended to suppress other items of evidence but deferred a final decision on the material until September, giving attorneys for both sides time to file written arguments. Though much of the evidence discussed in court remains sealed by Melville, who has clamped a tight lid of secrecy on the case, authorities are known to have seized computers, cameras, documents and video and audio tapes from Neverland.
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02:14 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Scott Peterson's lawyers sought Monday to portray his former mistress Amber Frey as a calculated seductress and liar who was more obsessed with him than he was with her. Under defense questioning, Frey insisted she taped and turned over to police all telephone calls she had with Peterson after being prompted to do so by authorities investigating the disappearance of Peterson's pregnant wife, Laci. During cross-examination Monday, defense attorney Mark Geragos prodded Frey about the taped calls, implying she did not fully cooperate with police.
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02:13 AM
JENNER, Calif. (AP) — Authorities in this picturesque coastal town continued searching for clues Saturday in the shooting deaths of a young couple, and some residents said they feared for their own safety. "I'm terrified," said Julia Bechtold, 27, a waitress in nearby Duncans Mills. "It's just that we're so small, so anytime something happens, it seems so out of place." Police have identified no suspects and no motive in the deaths of Lindsay Cutshall, 23, and Jason Allen, 26, a devoutly religious couple who were to be married next month. Their bodies were discovered Wednesday on a remote beach, two days after they were reported missing.
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02:11 AM
ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) — Zach Randolph of the Portland Trail Blazers might face a criminal charge for misleading police officers investigating the shootings of three men on a nightclub dance floor, a prosecutor said Monday. The NBA forward's brother, Roger Randolph, 22, faces preliminary charges of criminal recklessness for the Sunday shootings.
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02:10 AM
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A man suspected of killing two people, including the mother of his four children, was apprehended after he was spotted in church during services, police said. Lyndell Swinson, 28, was attending Sunday services at the Mount Airy Church of God in Christ, where the minister is also a police lieutenant. When a member of the congregation alerted the Rev. Norman Davenport, the clergyman "switched roles back to the lieutenant role" and notified other officers, police Capt. Richard Ross of the homicide unit said.
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02:09 AM
A Slaughter Elementary School teacher was charged this week with driving drunk while she was on her way to work on the first day of school. Authorities say Sherry Bartlett, 45, had a blood-alcohol content of .20 percent, more than twice the legal limit of .08, when she was arrested Tuesday morning. Bartlett, a fifth-grade teacher, pleaded not guilty yesterday during an arraignment in Jefferson District Court.
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02:08 AM
August 23, 2004
Not naming Kobe Bryant's accuser is becoming almost pointless. It's like handing her a tiny origami umbrella to shelter her from a shower of mud. As Bryant's trial is scheduled to begin this week in Eagle County, Colo., every major newspaper, newsmagazine, network and cable outlet still is keeping it taboo to release the name of the woman who reported the basketball star raped her. Even when bumblers in the courthouse inadvertently keep disseminating it to reporters covering the pending case and even when she filed a civil suit seeking monetary damages from Bryant under the name "Jane Doe."
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01:31 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - In 12 weeks of trial, prosecutors have presented scant hard evidence linking Scott Peterson to the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, and the couple's fetus - no murder weapon, no cause of death, no bloody crime scene and no witnesses to the killing. However, the trial has taken a turn over the last two weeks as jurors heard hours of recorded telephone calls between Peterson and his former lover, Amber Frey. "I think the tapes changed the mood of the trial and has the jury thinking, 'We certainly understand now why police were so suspicious of Scott,'" said Loyola University Law School Professor Laurie Levenson.
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01:30 AM
Pretrial hearings in the Michael Jackson child molestation case resume Monday as prosecutors and defense continue their battle over still-secret evidence that might make or break the case. The defense has been waging a campaign to suppress evidence from two searches. They claim one sweep of Jackson's Neverland ranch was overbroad and unjustified, and another at a private investigator's office invaded the attorney-client privilege of confidentiality.
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01:29 AM
A former coach of a travelling girls' basketball team is back in the state to face serious charges. Thirty-six year-old Rick Lopez made his first appearance in a Douglas County court on Friday. He's accused of sexually assaulting at least one player.
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01:29 AM
CHICAGO - A man accused of killing his girlfriend's 14-month-old daughter by stomping on the toddler's chest has been charged with murder. Twenty-four-year-old Jose Dircio of Chicago was charged with first-degree murder yesterday in the death of Leslie Uristegui. Chicago police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak says Dircio admitted to stomping on the baby's chest at their home in the Humbolt Park neighborhood.
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01:28 AM
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — With 26 drunken driving convictions since the late 1970s, a 56-year-old Tuscaloosa man awaits a court date on still another DUI arrest. Lee Roy Barger was held in the Tuscaloosa County Metro Jail on $50,000 bond, with a Sept. 7 hearing set on a July 31 charge.
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01:27 AM
August 20, 2004
PONCA CITY, Okla. — Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols will not appeal his state murder convictions for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, his attorney said Thursday. Nichols' attorneys had been advising him against appealing the 161 convictions because an appeal could mean a new trial and another opportunity for prosecutors to seek the death penalty. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison Aug. 9 because his state jury had deadlocked on whether he should be executed.
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05:11 AM
WINCHESTER, Tenn. -- After 15 years of tending to her disabled daughter, a woman is charged with injecting a lethal dose of drugs into the girl's feeding tube. An investigator said he arrested Margaret Mignano because an autopsy report on her daughter showed toxic levels of phenobarbital, a barbiturate used to control the girl's seizures.
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05:10 AM
JARRATT, Va. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty to killing three neighbors in a long-running dispute over a shared driveway was executed Wednesday night. James Bryant Hudson, 57, died by lethal injection at the Greensville Correctional Center. When asked if he had any final words, Hudson said in a clear voice, "No sir." The inmate did not meet with any family or his attorneys beforehand.
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05:09 AM
Between the time Roman Catholic Church officials first learned in 1997 of allegations that the Rev. Joseph Byrns had molested two altar boys 30 years ago and finally removed him in June, the cleric allegedly abused another altar boy, law enforcement officials said Thursday. Byrns, 61, was ordered held on $10,000 bail after being arraigned in Brooklyn on 22 counts of sexual abuse and sexual conduct against a child.
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05:07 AM
NEW YORK -- A state judge who was heavily criticized for helping a robbery suspect avoid arrest in her courthouse has been charged by a state panel with violating judicial procedures, the head of New York's police union said Thursday. Police and union officials demanded an investigation after the judge had a court officer escort a robbery suspect out a rear door and to an elevator normally reserved for judges while a detective was waiting for him on June 10.
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05:06 AM
ROANOKE, Va. -- A former director of the National D-Day Memorial pleaded innocent Thursday to fraud charges over his fund-raising efforts for the monument. Richard B. Burrow, 57, is accused of manipulating banks and the state of Virginia as part of an aggressive scheme to build the $25 million monument before the foundation that runs it had enough money to pay for it.
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05:05 AM
A 15-year-old boy was charged with murder Thursday in the shooting death of a high school football star in Richmond last week. Darren Ray Pratcher was expected to be arraigned Friday in Contra Costa Superior Court for the shooting of Terrance Kelly, according to Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Tom O'Connor. Kelly was shot four times -- twice in the face, once in the back of the head and once in the back, O'Connor said. Prosecutors said Pratcher was angry at Kelly over a perceived slight on the basketball court.
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05:05 AM
August 19, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - A judge in the Scott Peterson murder trial abruptly canceled court on Wednesday, for reasons he did not make public, and postponed the cross-examination of star prosecution witness Amber Frey.
After meeting behind closed doors for about an hour with prosecutors and Peterson's defense lawyers, Superior Court Judge Alfred Delucchi emerged to tell jurors that they would be sent home for the day. "I just had a conference in chambers and there is a potential development in this case that has to be checked out," Delucchi said. "Because of the nature of this case, stuff like this happens and there is nothing I can really do about it."
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04:52 AM
First, people want to know what she was doing in Bryant's hotel room if she didn't go there to have sex. Her visit may have been completely innocent, but it's hard to convince jurors you were raped if they question your role in the encounter.
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04:51 AM
MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Nearly two and half years after little Rilya Wilson disappeared without a trace, police have charged her main caregiver with kidnapping and child abuse. Geralyn Graham is already in prison for both identity fraud and Medicaid fraud for accepting payments on behalf of Rilya after she no longer had the child in her care.
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04:51 AM
REDONDO BEACH, Calif. A paroled sex offender has been arrested and booked for sexual assault, robbery and kidnapping in an alleged attempted rape of two boys. 23-year-old James Marcus Russell of Los Angeles was arrested yesterday in Long Beach. Court records show Russell was released from prison less than two years ago. He was charged in 2001 with kidnapping to commit robbery or rape, forced sodomy, and lewd conduct with minors.
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04:50 AM
PALMER -- Horrified, neighbors watched a 50-year-old man scream for mercy as his wife allegedly used her minivan to run him over five times in the parking lot of their apartment building, police and witnesses said yesterday. Starleen A. Rutkowski, 46, was arrested at the scene late Tuesday and arraigned yesterday in Palmer District Court on one count of murder in the death of her husband, Richard J. Rutkowski, whom police found severely injured outside the Country Manor apartment complex in the town's Three Rivers section. Medical officials later pronounced him dead at the nearby Wing Memorial Hospital.
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04:48 AM
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Clyde Vaughan, an assistant men's basketball coach at Connecticut, was among more than a dozen people arrested Wednesday in a prostitution sting run by Hartford police. Vaughan, 42, was charged with patronizing a prostitute and interfering with police after authorities said he tried to pay an undercover officer $10 for oral sex. Police said he struggled with officers when he learned he was part of a sting.
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04:47 AM
August 18, 2004
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - Police had "probable cause" to believe Michael Jackson had committed a crime when they raided his Neverland Valley Ranch looking for evidence, a judge in the pop star's child molestation case ruled on Tuesday. Rejecting a challenge by Jackson's attorneys during a pretrial hearing in the case, Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville said sexual abuse accusations by a 13-year-old boy were sufficient grounds for police to search Neverland last November. "There was probable cause to believe that Mr. Jackson had committed criminal offenses based on the statements of the minor witnesses," Melville said, referring to Jackson's young accuser and his siblings.
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02:01 AM
SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- The judge in the Michael Jackson child molestation case fined one of the pop star's lawyers $1,000 Tuesday after he refused to back off a line of questioning the judge had told him was off-limits. The issue concerned repeated attempts by Brian Oxman, a Jackson family attorney, to get Dr. Stan Katz, the psychologist who interviewed the alleged victim and concluded that molestation had taken place, to acknowledge that a private investigator in the case was also his patient.
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02:00 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) — After hours of wiretapped calls between Scott Peterson and his mistress, the former fertilizer salesman appears to become aware he is being taped, according to recordings played for jurors Tuesday at his murder trial. The jury spent a fifth day listening to calls between Peterson and Amber Frey that were made after Peterson's wife, Laci, disappeared in December 2002. In the recordings, Peterson often sounded apologetic for lying to Frey about being married, but he also was evasive. Frey made the tapes at the request of police.
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02:00 AM
SALT LAKE CITY -- Salt Lake City police and cadaver dogs are taking a three-day break in the search for Lori Hacking's body. Officials said they've found nothing significant after spending most of the month excavating the Salt Lake County landfill. Police and dogs spent several hours overnight digging through 4,600 tons of trash looking for Hacking's body and the murder weapon. Officials said the search will be suspended until Friday so the dogs and search teams can rest.
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01:59 AM
MILWAUKEE — A church elder was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for abusing an 8-year-old autistic boy who died in what prosecutors called an exorcism at a storefront church. Prosecutors say Ray Hemphill lay on Terrance Cottrell Jr.'s chest for at least an hour while trying to release "demons" from him, before the boy died Aug. 22, 2003.
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01:58 AM
GILMORE, Ark. -- A family friend was charged with kidnapping a 7-year-old girl who disappeared after riding her bicycle to a grocery store. As many as 120 police officers and volunteers searched Tuesday for Patricia Ann Miles, who vanished Sunday morning. Her pink bicycle and shoes were found Monday in a cornfield, police said. A family friend who occasionally baby-sat for the girl, Jo Ann Buchanan, was arrested, but she has refused to speak to investigators, Crittenden County sheriff's investigator Thomas Martin said.
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01:58 AM
August 17, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Reuters) - The mistress of accused double-murderer Scott Peterson did not succeed in getting him to confess to killing his pregnant wife in taped phone calls played on Monday for jurors in his closely watched murder trial. Despite Amber Frey's persistent and creative efforts, Peterson, 31, never even admitted to having an unhappy marriage. "I can't tell you these things," Peterson repeatedly tells Frey, a 29-year-old massage therapist and mother of two who dated Peterson for a month before his eight-months-pregnant wife, Laci, disappeared on Dec. 24, 2002, setting off a massive search that captivated the nation.
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07:26 AM
SANTA MARIA, Calif., Aug. 16 -- Michael Jackson came to court on Monday to smack back at the prosecutor who seeks to have the fading pop star convicted of sexually molesting a young cancer patient. In a pretrial hearing, Jackson's defense attorney charged that Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon trampled the musician's rights, violating the sanctity of attorney-client privilege, when sheriff's deputies raided the offices of a Beverly Hills private investigator with ties to Jackson who had been hired by the singer's legal team.
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07:25 AM
EAGLE, Colo. Aug. 16, 2004 — In another setback to the prosecution in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case, the Colorado Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal of a key ruling that allows the NBA star's attorneys to tell jurors about the accuser's sex life. District Judge Terry Ruckriegle ruled last month that the defense can use information about the woman's sexual activities in the three days before her hospital exam, which occurred 15 hours after her encounter with Bryant.
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07:24 AM
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The last of five people accused in the deaths of two college students during a carjacking was sentenced Monday to four consecutive life prison terms plus 30 years. Kenneth Day, 25, was convicted in June of nine counts of murder, robbery, carjacking and conspiracy for the murders of Amy Shute, 21, and Jason Burgeson, 20, in June 2000.
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07:23 AM
FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) - The state has agreed it will not seek to execute a Mexican man whose attorneys say he is mentally retarded, and in return the inmate will drop appeals of his murder conviction. A federal judge approved the agreement Thursday between state prosecutors and attorneys for Raphael Camargo, 39, who was convicted of killing a young mother and her son.
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07:23 AM
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Police said Monday they believe a former Olympic athlete killed his neurosurgeon wife before jumping to his death from a 10th-story dormitory window. Investigators identified the man as Robert Howard, a University of Arkansas medical student who competed in track and field in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics but did not make the U.S. team this year, said University of Arkansas medical school police Capt. Bryan Patterson.
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07:22 AM
Without a hint of protest, Terry Jess Dennis allowed himself to be escorted into the death chamber Thursday night, laid back on the white sheet and stared at the ceiling as an intravenous tube carried a lethal dose of drugs into his bloodstream, killing him at 9:08 p.m. Dennis, 57, who pleaded guilty to the murder of Ilona Straumanis by strangling her with a belt and then his hands in 1999, was pronounced dead by the medical staff at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City about eight minutes after the IV was inserted into his arm. He had stopped all appeals in his case, saying he would rather die than become "a doddering old man in prison."
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07:21 AM
BOWLING GREEN, Va. -- A woman was sentenced Thursday to 10 days in jail for defying a court order not to smoke around her children. Tamara Silvius was banned last year from smoking around the youths, now ages 8 and 10, as part of a custody arrangement with her ex-husband. She allegedly violated the order during a trip to South Carolina for Thanksgiving. For that, Silvius was fined $500 and was given a 10-day suspended sentence on the condition she not do it again. But Silvius was back in court Thursday for violating the order a second time in June. Silvius, a pack-a-day smoker, claims the restriction violates her rights.
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07:20 AM
August 14, 2004
The judge in the Kobe Bryant rape case on Friday denied a prosecution request to delay the trial of the National Basketball Association star from its scheduled Aug. 27 start, saying the district attorney failed to present a valid reason to do so. But the judge granted the prosecution a victory by also ruling that the defense will not be allowed to present at trial evidence about the woman's purported suicide attempts, information about medication she has taken or about other drug and alcohol use.
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01:32 AM
DENVER Aug. 13, 2004 — Prosecutors in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case have joined the NBA star's accuser in arguing that a strict gag order imposed by the judge makes it impossible for them to rebut rumors on the Web or allegations in released transcripts. The woman's attorneys, John Clune and Lin Wood, say a defense witness has distributed derogatory information about their client on the Internet for months. "Unrebutted, this `garbage' is allowed to be elevated in the mind of the public to the undeserved status of fact," they wrote in a filing released Thursday.
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01:31 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — After weeks of swallowing Scott Peterson's lies, Amber Frey angrily lashed out at her deceitful lover, telling him in tape-recorded phone calls that she suspected he was involved in his pregnant wife's disappearance. In the calls played Thursday at his double-murder trial, the mistress confronted Peterson about a conversation they had weeks before his wife, Laci, vanished in which the fertilizer salesman said he had "lost" his spouse recently and would be spending his first holiday without her.
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01:31 AM
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Two convicted murderers on Kentucky's Death Row claim the state's methods of execution, chemical injection or electrocution, amount to torture and should be declared unconstitutional. Their lawsuit to prevent the state from setting execution dates for them says the state is legally obliged to devise an execution method "that does not inflict unnecessary pain and suffering." Inmates Thomas Clyde Bowling and Ralph Baze "will ... be tortured to death" if the state executes them under current procedures, the lawsuit alleges.
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01:29 AM
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The serial "snuggler" will have to keep his hands to himself. The man who sneaked into women's apartments just to cuddle with them has been sentenced to five years' probation. Before pleading guilty earlier this year to 12 counts of unauthorized entry, Steve Danos, 26, led a commendable life, a judge said Wednesday before sentencing him.
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01:29 AM
A mother has been arrested on charges she used a barbiturate to kill her teenage daughter afflicted with cerebral palsy, an allegation her lawyer denounced. Franklin County investigators Thursday arrested Margaret Mignano, who moved to Estill Springs from New Jersey days before the July 4 death of her 15-year-old daughter, Ashley.
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01:28 AM
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A man accused of using phony identities to bilk car owners and dealers across the Midwest of about $2 million has been arrested. Edward Raifsnider, 45, of Joplin, was arrested Thursday on a warrant charging him with theft by deception. Raifsnider is suspected of writing false checks totaling about $2 million to buy used vehicles from their owners and collecting cash when he sold the cars and trucks to dealerships. He is wanted in about 11 states, and has used more than 50 aliases and more than 20 Social Security numbers, Spray said.
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01:27 AM
August 13, 2004
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - Michael Jackson has decided to come to court Monday to hear the testimony of the man prosecuting him on child molestation charges, according to sources. Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon will be testifying in an unusual pretrial proceeding. Reliable sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press Thursday that Jackson will be on hand for the session. Also expected to attend are his parents, sisters Janet and LaToya and brother Jermaine.
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12:30 AM
In one of the last of hundreds of recorded telephone calls between Scott Peterson and his mistress, Amber Frey confronted him about the disappearance of his wife, Laci, and he confessed he had been lying to her about his marital status and whereabouts. "The media has been telling everyone that I had something to do with her disappearance," Peterson said in the Jan. 6 call. "So the past two weeks I've been hunted by the media... I know that I am, you know, I'm destroyed."
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12:29 AM
DENVER (Reuters) - Lawyers for basketball star Kobe Bryant and his accuser exchanged barbs in documents released on Thursday over whether her attorneys were defending her in recent TV interviews or making inflammatory remarks to influence jurors at his upcoming rape trial. Last week lawyers for the 20-year-old woman went on national television and one of them, Lin Wood, said she was not "the slut that's she's been made out to be by the defense." At the request of defense attorneys, District Judge Terry Ruckriegle expanded an existing gag order, ordering all people involved in the case not to make any public statements.
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12:28 AM
DENVER — Pressure is mounting on the judge overseeing Kobe Bryant's sexual assault case, with prosecutors citing courthouse gaffes as a reason for seeking the indefinite delay of the NBA star's criminal trial and the father of his accuser blasting the bench for bias against the prosecution. Prosecutors requested the delay even as they made moves to appeal a key ruling in the case, arguing to the Colorado Supreme Court that the accuser's sexual activities should not be admitted as evidence. If accepted, the appeal could delay the trial for weeks. The legal moves came as the father of Bryant's accuser wrote a blistering letter to District Judge Terry Ruckriegle saying his family had "lost trust that we can obtain a fair trial in your court."
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12:27 AM
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Relatives and supporters of a condemned Texas killer who sells his art on the Internet pleaded that his life be spared, saying he has been a model prisoner and poses no threat to anyone. James Vernon Allridge III is scheduled to die Aug. 26 for the 1985 shooting death of a convenience store clerk. His lawyers have asked the state Pardon and Parole Board to recommend life in prison. On Wednesday, his relatives joined supporters at a news conference, pleading that he be granted life in prison. If the request is granted, Gov. Rick Perry would have to agree.
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12:16 AM
CHICAGO -- A judge declined to throw out conspiracy and fraud charges against former Gov. George Ryan and rejected a co-defendant's request for a separate trial. In the opinion Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer also declined to dismiss charges against the co-defendant, Lawrence Warner. Ryan has pleaded innocent to racketeering conspiracy, mail fraud, tax fraud, filing false tax returns and making false statements. A former lobbyist, Warner has pleaded innocent to charges alleging he pocketing about $3 million from contracts steered to his clients by Ryan.
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12:14 AM
August 12, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — Only days after Laci Peterson disappeared, Scott Peterson told his mistress "we could be wonderful together ... for the rest of our lives," according to a taped phone conversation played in court Wednesday. Amber Frey, resuming her testimony at Peterson's murder trial, confirmed that she recorded the calls at the request of police after discovering that her lover was not only married, but suspected in the disappearance of his pregnant wife, Laci, on Christmas Eve in 2002. On Dec. 31, the same day he attended a vigil in Modesto for his missing wife, Peterson called Frey "sweetie" and lied that he was standing near the Eiffel Tower, hearing fireworks in the middle of a huge New Year's crowd, according to a tape played for the jurors Tuesday.
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01:05 AM
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A death row inmate who spent 22 years in prison before a DNA test exonerated him in a rape and murder case filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing detectives and prosecutors of withholding evidence that could have set him free. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for the time Nicholas Yarris spent behind bars before genetic testing cleared him in the 1981 death of a Delaware County woman. Yarris' attorney earlier indicated he was seeking $22 million.
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01:04 AM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The woman accused in the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping is still not competent to stand trial and must receive another year of treatment, a judge has ruled. Wanda Barzee, 58, who first was ruled incompetent in January, remains incompetent, but there is a "substantial probability she may become competent in the foreseeable future," Third District Judge Judith Atherton said Tuesday. She ordered another evaluation on Aug. 10, 2005.
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01:02 AM
SALT LAKE CITY -- A search warrant in the case of a missing Salt Lake City woman revealed a handwritten letter suggesting marital trouble between the woman and the husband accused of killing her. "I hate coming home from work because it hurts to be home in our apartment," the police document, released Wednesday, quotes from the letter. "I can't imagine life with you if things don't change. I got someone I don't know I want to spend the rest of my life with unless changes are made." The search warrant does not make clear who wrote the letter, but Mark Hacking's first name was handwritten on the outside of the folded paper.
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01:02 AM
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against a man charged with shooting nine of his children in his Fresno home. The announcement was made Tuesday after "a careful review of the facts and applicable law," according to a news release from the office of Fresno County District Attorney Elizabeth Egan.
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01:01 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. -- A day care owner who gave a 1-year-old boy an overdose of allergy medicine pleaded guilty to negligent homicide. Prosecutors said Sabine Bieber gave Benadryl to children at the Tiny Tots Day Care to put them to sleep. The medicine killed Dane Jordan Heggem in January 2003, and Bieber also pleaded guilty to criminal endangerment for giving three other children the medicine.
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01:00 AM
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A woman was arrested after attempting to board a flight en route to Syria with more than $24,000 in cash hidden in her clothes, officials said. Amneh Ahmad Abbas, 49, a Syrian citizen who lives in New Orleans, was charged Monday with trying to evade currency reporting requirements, the U.S. Attorney's office said. She was ordered held without bail.
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01:00 AM
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Actor Tom Sizemore was arrested Wednesday on a probation violation and released after posting $10,000 bail, authorities said. Sizemore, 42, was arrested for a narcotics violation when probation officers conducting random visits discovered drugs at his residence, said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Vance Duffy.
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12:59 AM
August 11, 2004
PORT ALLEN, La. (AP) - A jury took less than two hours Tuesday to find a suspected serial killer guilty of second-degree murder in the 2002 beating and stabbing death of a 21-year-old woman. Derrick Todd Lee, 35, faces a mandatory life sentence in Geralyn DeSoto's death, and still faces two first-degree murder charges carrying possible death sentences in other cases. DeSoto was found stabbed and beaten to death and her neck slashed in her home in the town of Addis the day she registered for graduate school at Louisiana State University in January 2002.
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01:49 AM
DENVER (AP) - The woman accusing Kobe Bryant of rape filed a federal civil lawsuit against the NBA star Tuesday, a move legal experts said could cripple the criminal case less than three weeks before the trial begins. Attorneys for the 20-year-old woman asked for a jury trial and compensatory damages of at least $75,000, with punitive damages to be determined. Attorneys John Clune and Lin Wood said their client was owed money for pain, "public scorn, hatred and ridicule" she has suffered as a result of the alleged attack last summer.
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01:48 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) - Scott Peterson's one-time mistress testified Tuesday that their first night together included slow-dancing to karaoke and a hotel-room tryst - but no mention of the pregnant wife who prosecutors say he later murdered. Amber Frey, the government's star witness, described a relationship that quickly developed from sex to a serious relationship. A single mother, she almost immediately trusted Peterson with her young daughter and said he discussed a future with them.
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01:47 AM
SALT LAKE CITY — After arguing with his wife, Mark Hacking played video games, did some packing, "came across" his .22 caliber rifle and shot Lori Hacking in the head as she lay sleeping, according to an alleged confession he made to his brothers. "Lori's dead and I killed her," Hacking told his brothers, according to documents prosecutors filed Monday charging him with first-degree felony murder. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years to life in prison.
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01:46 AM
GRETNA, La. (AP) — A man sentenced to death as a teenager was freed Monday by DNA evidence, and said he had been certain from the beginning that he would be vindicated. For more than seven years, Ryan Matthews has said he had nothing to do with the 1997 robbery and murder of a grocer. He said he knew that someday he would be freed.
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01:45 AM
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Three children found dead in the ruins of their burned Rock Hill home had their throats slashed before one of their parents set the fire, authorities said Tuesday. Autopsies revealed both parents died from smoke inhalation and burns from the blaze early Monday, said York County Sheriff's Capt. Glenn Williams. Investigators did not know which parent started the fire. "We have our ideas of how it occurred but we're waiting for the results of some further tests and the results of some further investigation before we say which of those two," Williams said. "We do believe the person that's responsible died in the fire."
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01:43 AM
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A federal appeals court has thrown out a lawsuit that claimed conditions on Florida's death row were unconstitutional because temperatures routinely topped 100 degrees. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Constitution "does not mandate comfortable prisons," rejecting a class-action lawsuit that claimed the heat on death row forced inmates at Union Correctional Institution in Raiford to stand in toilets, drape themselves in wet towels and sleep naked on concrete floors.
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01:43 AM
August 10, 2004
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The lead attorney for alleged serial bomber Eric Rudolph unexpectedly withdrew from the case Monday, and a judge appointed a lawyer who represented the Unabomber to take his place.
Richard Jaffe, a death penalty specialist appointed to represent Rudolph shortly after his arrest last year, was granted permission to withdraw from the defense along with two members of his firm and a third local lawyer.
Federal Judge Lynwood Smith said Jaffe would be replaced by Judy Clarke, who had already been working on the case, but had not been lead counsel.
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04:43 AM
PORT ALLEN - Accused serial killer Derrick Todd Lee's son was called to the stand Monday to give unwilling testimony that may have linked his father to the scene of the crime.
Prosecutors rested their case Monday after a day of testimony highlighted by that of Lee's 15-year-old son.
Lee's attorneys are expected to begin presenting evidence in his defense today as trial continues in the January 2002 death of 21-year-old Geralyn DeSoto of the West Baton Rouge Parish community of Addis, one of seven women Lee is accused of killing.
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04:35 AM
The case against Kobe Bryant may end before it begins. Anyone surprised? The prosecution has lost its bid to exclude evidence of the accuser's sexual history from the trial. The courthouse in Eagle, Colo., is more porous than a sea sponge. And the accuser is no longer certain she wants to testify. (Death threats will do this to a girl.) Underlying the entire mess is one simple, largely unacknowledged fact: The legal system is inadequate to the task of resolving acquaintance rape cases, and the media actually exacerbates the original injustice - be that a rape, or a false accusation of rape.
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04:33 AM
A 27-year-old West Paterson man was charged with sexually assaulting a teen girl at a Bergen County motel after arranging a meeting with her on the Internet, officials said Monday The 13-year-old girl was in the front seat of Jose Casallas' car when he was arrested Sunday, police said. He was being held Monday in the Bergen County Jail on $250,000 bail.
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04:29 AM
The father of a 16-month-old girl was charged yesterday with shooting the toddler hours earlier in her North Philadelphia home.
Kenneth Saunders, 18, of the 200 block of Shedaker Street in East Germantown, told investigators he was unloading a semiautomatic handgun while in the toddler's family home in the 800 block of Warnock Place when the weapon discharged about 12:30 a.m. yesterday.
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04:27 AM
A Wichita police captain was charged Monday with a felony count of falsifying payroll records nearly two years ago.
Gary Tabor was commander of the Patrol East bureau when he was put on paid administrative leave last month.
Chief Norman Williams said Tabor was suspended without pay late last week after the felony charge was approved by a judge. Tabor, who joined the department in 1980, was paid $64,896 a year as a police captain.
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04:25 AM
DENVER (AP) — Current and former employees of the sheriff's office began appearing Friday before a state grand jury trying to determine if police documents connected to the Columbine High shooting attack were stolen or destroyed.
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04:20 AM
Florida prison officials fired a probation officer and three supervisors Monday for allegedly failing to keep custody of the lead figure in the beating and stabbing deaths of six people in Deltona last week.
Corrections Secretary James Crosby said the probation officials missed two key opportunities to put Troy Victorino in jail, including one Thursday before the killings that night.
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04:18 AM
August 09, 2004
McALESTER, Okla. - Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols was sentenced Monday to life without the possibility of parole for his role in the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. He issued a statement citing God and asking forgiveness. District Judge Steven Taylor ordered Nichols to serve the life term on each of 161 counts of first-degree murder and that the sentences run consecutively. The state charges were for the 160 victims and one victim's fetus. Jurors could not consider a death sentence on the count involving the fetus and sentenced Nichols to life without the possibility of parole for that count.
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12:44 PM
Three weeks to the day since Mark Hacking called police to report his wife's disappearance, the 28-year-old Salt Lake City man awaits a murder charge - expected to be filed by 5 p.m. today - from his cell at the Salt Lake County Jail. Hacking was arrested and booked into the jail's mental health unit on Aug. 2 based on evidence gathered in the disappearance and presumed death of his wife, Lori Hacking. On Sunday, he was moved from the unit, where he had been placed on suicide watch, to a maximum security pod.
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08:27 AM
REDWOOD CITY -- Amber Frey could come face to face Tuesday with the man prosecutors say fabricated tales of Brussels and wooed her with Russian poetry after his pregnant wife and unborn son were killed. Frey is expected to take the stand Tuesday in Scott Peterson's murder trial and offer insight into her former lover's behavior in the weeks surrounding his wife's disappearance.
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08:24 AM
PORT ALLEN, La. -- Testimony was set to continue Monday in the trial against serial killings suspect Derrick Todd Lee with questions about who would defend Lee after he accused his court-appointed attorney of lying and inadequate representation. State District Judge Robin Free told Lee and his lawyers to work out their problems over the weekend and determine who would lead Lee's defense in his trial on second-degree murder charges in the stabbing and beating death of Geralyn DeSoto, 21. Lawyers in the case are prohibited from talking to the media.
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08:23 AM
FORT MYERS, Fla. -- When Donald Moringiello told his niece that her aunt had been missing a month but he hadn't notified police, she became suspicious and decided to record one of their phone conversations, according to her testimony Friday in Moringiello's murder trial. "At first it was just, 'Hello how are you ... how are the kids," Lorri Seibert told jurors about Moringiello's Aug. 13, 2002, phone call to her Alabama home. "When I asked him, 'How are you?' he said, 'Well I'm OK. However, have you seen your aunt? Is she there with you?'"
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08:23 AM
Kobe Bryant's attorneys are telling him to be "cautiously optimistic" after lawyers for his 20-year-old accuser raised the possibility that she may not participate in the criminal case and instead pursue a civil one. "There's a long sigh of relief," says a close associate of the basketball star.
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08:22 AM
LACONIA - The police arrested a 34-year-old man yesterday morning on charges of aggravated felonious sexual assault after an 18-year-old Laconia woman was raped in her Spring Street apartment, Sgt. Chris Adams of the Laconia Police Department said. Yasser Hassan of Manchester was arrested following an investigation after the incident. The police believe Hassan is an acquaintance of the victim's roommate and was in the apartment before the alleged rape occurred, Adams said.
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08:21 AM
ATLANTA -- The judge in the Martha Stewart case on Saturday spoke out against the televising of criminal trials because people, including jurors, witnesses and lawyers, are "weak, vain creatures" who cannot ignore cameras. U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum made her comments during a panel discussion over conflicts between the courts and media over the coverage of high-profile trials. The panel was held at the American Bar Association annual meeting in Atlanta.
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08:20 AM
August 06, 2004
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Scott Peterson's murder trial will be delayed until early next week so the defense can investigate recently discovered evidence, the judge announced today after a closed-door session with the lawyers. Defense lawyer Mark Geragos said outside court that the evidence is "potentially exculpatory" and was "reluctantly" turned over by the prosecution. No details about the evidence were announced. Trial testimony is expected to resume on Tuesday.
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07:05 PM
With the gruesome facts surrounding Lori Hacking's death finally revealed, her father on Friday lashed out against prime suspect Mark Hacking, calling his son-in-law's alleged actions "disrespectful," "gutless" and "monstrous." Eraldo Soares, of Fullerton, Calif., called on the criminal justice system to afford "appropriate justice" for Mark Hacking, who confessed to his brothers that he killed Lori in her sleep and disposed of her body in a Dumpster.
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07:05 PM
When prosecutors file expected charges against the husband who reportedly confessed to killing his missing pregnant wife, they will signal whether they intend to accuse Mark Hacking of double or aggravated murder - a crime that would warrant the death penalty. But without a body, legal experts say, the district attorney will find it difficult to prove the elements of aggravated murder. Whether Lori Hacking was five weeks' pregnant, as she reportedly told friends before being reported missing July 19, is one element of that charge.
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07:04 PM
The judge in the Kobe Bryant case has expanded a gag order after lawyers for his accuser spoke on national television. According to a report, the lawyers said she is rethinking her participation in the criminal trial, which is fast approaching. Comments like that could sway the public one way or the other, which would not be beneficial when it times to pick the jurors. Terry Ruckriegle, the District Judge, issued the order Wednesday, saying he is concerned about the process of a "fair trial."
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07:03 PM
PORT ALLEN, La. - The husband of a woman who authorities say was slain by a serial killer described a grisly scene for jurors Friday, recounting how he found his wife in their mobile home with her throat cut. Darren DeSoto's testimony came in the first trial for Derrick Todd Lee, who is suspected of seven killings in south Louisiana. DeSoto said he arrived at the couple's mobile home on Jan. 14, 2002, and found his wife, Geralyn, in a pool of blood. He saw a shotgun on the bed next to her body and did not know whether she had committed suicide or if there had been an accident.
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07:02 PM
PORT ALLEN – Derrick Todd Lee, the man accused of being the south Louisiana serial killer, told a judge Friday that he’s unhappy with the case being presented by his public defender. “This ain’t no fame and fortune to me,” Lee said in court Friday. “My life is on the line.” Lee made his complaint to District Judge Robin Free during Lee’s second-degree murder trial in connection with the January 2002 death of Geralyn DeSoto, 21, of Addis. Lee brought up his unhappiness again in court Friday afternoon. After the jury was taken from the courtroom, Lee said Thompson hasn’t subpoenaed witnesses who could support Lee’s alibi. The defendant referred to John and Melanie Barr, DeSoto’s parents. ”I want these people to find out the truth about what happened to their daughter,” he told Free. “Things I asked Tommy to do to prove my alibi, he didn’t do it. … He’s not giving me a fair deal.”
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07:02 PM
Convicted felon Daniel Bruner told jurors Thursday he was in jail with a worried Donald Moringiello when the man admitted killing his wife. Bruner said he and another inmate “nagged” Moringiello after he was jailed on Aug. 14, 2002, until he finally shared the details of his wife’s death. Hattie “Fern” Bergeler-Moringiello, 57, was found shot to death, tied to cinder blocks and floating face down in Estero Bay near her Fort Myers Beach home on July 18, 2002. Her husband is charged with second-degree murder.
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07:01 PM
FORT MYERS, Florida -- A neighbor who testified Thursday in the trial of a Florida man accused of murdering his wife said she sometimes heard loud arguments coming from the couple's home. Neighbor Alice Plaatje testified outside of the jury's presence that she would sometimes talk with the victim, Hattie "Fern" Bergeler, about the fights she and her husband had over his children from a previous marriage. After one of the children, Doug Moringiello, moved in with his father and stepmother briefly in 1996, Plaatje recalled hearing "loud arguing and a loud slamming of a door" one day when the couple fought about him.
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07:01 PM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Mark Hacking "just snapped" and killed his pregnant wife after she learned he had been lying for years about his education and career plans, his father declared Thursday. "I think it's clear that this whole house of cards he had built, all this deception, had come to an end. He had been found out. His wife discovered his deception and confronted him with it, and I just think he just saw his whole world collapsing and broke down," the father, Douglas Hacking, told The Associated Press. "He just snapped, and did something there's no explanation for. That's the only way I can envision it," he said.
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02:05 PM
SALT LAKE CITY -- The attorney for Mark Hacking said he will raise the issue of mental illness and challenge his client's confession to relatives that he killed his wife, Lori, and dumped her body in a garbage bin. Hacking, 28, reportedly made the statement to his brothers when he was a psychiatric patient in the hospital, said defense lawyer Gil Athay.
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02:04 PM
August 05, 2004
The woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape will have to discuss with prosecutors whether she will go ahead with the criminal case because she fears the release of court documents about her sex life threatens her chance of getting a fair hearing, one of her lawyers said Wednesday.
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06:57 AM
SALT LAKE CITY -- Police and cadaver dogs returned to the county landfill Wednesday night in the search for the body of Lori Hacking, whose husband is suspected of slaying her and dumping her body in a trash bin. They have 3,000 tons of trash to search through.
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06:57 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Prosecutors in Scott Peterson's murder trial worked Wednesday to show he began planning to kill his pregnant wife several weeks before she vanished. Lydell Wall of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department testified that he examined five hard drives from computers seized from Peterson's home and office.
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06:56 AM
PORT ALLEN, La. (AP) -- Opening arguments in the first trial against serial killings suspect Derrick Todd Lee were set to begin Thursday afternoon. The jury, sworn in Wednesday evening, consists of five white women, five white men, a black man and a Hispanic woman. The two alternates are white men. Lee faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of Geralyn DeSoto - one of seven women Lee is suspected of killing.
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06:55 AM
Donald Moringiello’s wife was mad at him, packed a bag and left on her own, three days before her body was found floating in Estero Bay, defense attorneys said Wednesday during opening statements in her husband’s murder trial. Hattie “Fern” Bergeler-Moringiello, 57, was found dead, shot four times in the chest, in July 2002.
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06:55 AM
Among the five people held responsible for last year's Staten Island ferry disaster is the city's ferries director, who faces manslaughter charges for what prosecutors called slipshod management that led to the boat's captain passing out at the wheel. In announcing his indictment Wednesday, prosecutors said years of mismanagement under Patrick Ryan was "a tragedy waiting to happen," leading to the crash that killed 11 people and injured dozens. Ryan and two others were scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal court.
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06:54 AM
LISBON FALLS -- A Korean woman faces charges of interstate prostitution following a raid on her Lisbon Falls massage parlor, and investigators say she has information about a prostitution and smuggling ring in New Jersey involving illegal immigrants. Doo Ri Kim, 39, is being held in the Cumberland County Jail without bail after being indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges of interstate travel to facilitate prostitution and to distribute the proceeds of prostitution.
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06:54 AM
August 04, 2004
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The husband of a missing pregnant woman told a "reliable citizen" witness at a psychiatric ward that he killed his wife as she slept and then threw her body in a trash bin, according to a court filing released Tuesday by prosecutors. The police affidavit also says investigators found human blood on a knife in the bedroom of Mark Hacking's apartment and on the couple's headboard and bed rail.
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04:33 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Modesto Bee) - A customer who identified himself as "Scott" ordered hard-core pornography channels for Scott Peterson's satellite television account less than three weeks after his pregnant wife disappeared, a company executive testified this morning. The customer disconnected the service Feb. 18, 2003 - the day police executed a second search warrant of the Peterson home - saying he was moving overseas, testified Donald Toy, an employee of satellite television provider EchoStar.
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04:33 AM
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Florida waitress who claims that Kobe Bryant groped her at the home of his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate, Shaquille O'Neal, could be called as a witness in his upcoming rape trial, a published report said on Tuesday. Prosecutors plan to subpoena the 22-year-old woman -- and possibly O'Neal -- to testify at Bryant's rape trial in August, Sports Illustrated magazine reported on its Web site.
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04:32 AM
Troubled singer Michael Jackson's defense team has accused a prosecutor in his child molestation case of breaking a gag order. Santa Barbara, California District Attorney Tom Sneddon last month told a Canadian conference of fellow DAs that witnesses had been contacted "to keep them off TV." Now the "Beat It" star's lawyers have asked Santa Barbara Superior Court to decide if Sneddon's actions are a violation of the order.
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04:31 AM
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors will unseal an indictment against the captain and pilot in last year's Staten Island ferry crash on charges that include 11 counts of manslaughter, law enforcement sources said Tuesday. Richard Smith, an assistant captain who piloted the Staten Island ferry that crashed last year and killed 11 people, is expected to plead guilty Wednesday, when prosecutors announce the results of their 10-month investigation.
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04:31 AM
SEATTLE (AP) - Mary Kay Letourneau, the one-time grade school teacher convicted of having sex with a student, is getting out of prison but keeping mum about whether she plans to reunite with her former pupil and father of two of her children. Letourneau was scheduled to be released Wednesday from the women's state prison near Gig Harbor, after serving a seven-year sentence for child rape. State Department of Corrections officials were divulging no details about the notorious sex offender's discharge.
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04:30 AM
August 03, 2004
A Utah man who two weeks ago told police his pregnant wife was missing was arrested today on a charge of aggravated murder, as police narrowed their search for her to a city landfill.
"We believe that Mark Hacking is responsible for her disappearance and her death," Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse said at a news conference today. On Sunday, Lori Kay Hacking's parents abruptly ended a search effort involving more than 4,000 volunteers after Mark Hacking had given investigators "substantive new information" on her whereabouts.
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01:12 AM
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - A witness in Scott Peterson's murder trial presented evidence Monday that might support a motive - he was going broke and getting deeper into debt in the months before his wife was killed.
In 2002, Peterson was paying out nearly 70 percent of his average monthly take-home pay of $3,694 to cover credit cards bills and other fixed debt, not including everyday expenses, said Gary Nienhuis, an internal auditor for the city of Modesto.
"The payments ... were high in relation to the cash flow," Nienhuis told jurors.
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01:08 AM
DENVER (AP) - In a glimpse inside the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case, closed hearing transcripts released Monday show that a month before the judge cleared the way for the accuser's sex life to be used as evidence, prosecutors told him such a ruling would force them to re-evaulate their chances of winning a conviction.
District Judge Terry Ruckriegle in late July said he would allow the NBA star's defense team to introduce details about the accuser's sexual activities during the three days surrounding her encounter with Bryant to help determine the source of her injuries, DNA evidence and evaluate her credibility.
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01:07 AM
PORT ALLEN, La. (AP) — More than 300 potential jurors gathered in makeshift courtrooms at a convention center Monday as jury selection began in the first murder trial of the man suspected in a series of killings of women in Louisiana. Derrick Todd Lee is charged in the beating and stabbing death of Geralyn DeSoto, 21, who was found in her home with her neck slashed in January 2002, on the day she registered for graduate school at Louisiana State University. If convicted, he would face a mandatory life prison sentence.
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01:05 AM
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to settle whether long-standing federal rules for sentencing criminals violate the Constitution, a question that has thrown federal courthouses into disarray this summer.
The high court said it will hear two cases suggested by the Bush administration. The Justice Department had rushed the appeals just weeks after the court ruled major portions of a state sentencing system unconstitutional.
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01:00 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Gene therapy pioneer Dr. William French Anderson was arrested Friday on charges he sexually molested a girl he had coached in karate, authorities said.
Anderson, 67, an internationally prominent University of Southern California scientist, was arrested at his San Marino home one day after prosecutors filed a criminal complaint, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
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12:57 AM
August 02, 2004
SALT LAKE CITY — Through a family emissary, Mark Hacking gave police a new lead on his wife's whereabouts that has police turning again to a municipal landfill, detectives said Sunday.
Police said they were acting on the tip offered by the family Saturday in a media statement saying that Hacking had provided them with some information that made a community-wide search unnecessary. That information was relayed to police, Detective Dwayne Baird confirmed Sunday.
Baird characterized it as "additional substantive information" and said police would follow up on it. He also said police planned to renew a search at a municipal landfill for clues to the missing assistant stockbroker.
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01:01 AM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Police did a thorough job of collecting evidence that could prove useful in helping solve the disappearance of Lori Hacking, the pregnant woman reported missing by her husband, the head of the state's crime lab said Thursday.
Much of the evidence consists of everyday items taken from the couple's apartment that shows no obvious connection to foul play, said Maj. Stuart Smith, chief of the state Bureau of Forensic Services.
But that evidence, including such routine items as scissors, knives, tape and rope, may be needed later to match evidence uncovered from other places, including a municipal landfill where police have been diligently searching.
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12:59 AM
EAGLE, Colo. — With the parents of the alleged victim in the courtroom, the judge in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case apologized Friday for court mistakes that led to the release of sealed information.
During the brief public hearing, District Judge Terry Ruckriegle told the parents he would treat the mistakes as a learning experience. "For all of those who come through these doors, victims and defendants alike, whose names are never known and never sought, I can only assure you I have learned lessons from these mistakes, and that we will give our best human effort not to let it happen again," he said.
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12:57 AM
REDWOOD CITY Jurors in Scott Peterson's murder trial will be back in court Monday after the judge denied a defense motion for a mistrial and outright dismissal of the charges.
It is unclear who will take the stand when the trial enters its tenth week. The witness list is sealed and attorneys are bound by a gag order.
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12:54 AM
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The former head of bankrupt Enron Corp.'s broadband division pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud on Friday.
Kenneth Rice, 45, agreed at a hearing to pay a forfeiture of $13.7 million. He could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
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12:44 AM
WOONSOCKET, R.I. -- A man was charged Friday with murdering three women with histories of drug abuse and prostitution and discarding their remains in commercial trash bins throughout town.
Jeffrey S. Mailhot, who police said had no previous criminal record, was jailed without bail on three counts of first-degree murder. He did not enter a plea and a message left for his attorney was not immediately returned.
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12:41 AM
NEW YORK -- Bonanno crime boss Joseph Massino was convicted Friday of orchestrating a quarter century's worth of crimes including murder, racketeering, arson and extortion, becoming the last of New York's mob dons to lose his freedom.
Jurors took less than four days to weigh two months of evidence, including testimony from a parade of turncoat mobsters. They delivered what prosecutors called a devastating blow to organized crime.
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12:39 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former prison guard who allegedly held racist views was arrested Thursday after being indicted on charges of aiding a violent inmate gang known as the Nazi Low Riders.
Shayne Allyn Ziska, who was placed on paid administrative leave from the prison in 2000, was an associate of the gang who instructed inmates on racist ideology and had a tattoo on his arm with Nazi imagery, federal prosecutor Adam D. Kamenstein said.
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12:35 AM
The former police officer who said he found a backpack before it exploded in a New York subway station has been arrested in connection with the blast.
Police said Joseph Rodriguez, who was injured in the explosion, is facing charges that include arson and reckless endangerment. Authorities said Rodriguez had been part of the 9/11 rescue efforts, and that he had been traumatized by the experience.
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12:31 AM
HAGERSTOWN, MD- A Hagerstown man is accused of stabbing his elderly parents. His father is in a local hospital and now the man is behind bars. Police and rescue workers were at the crime scene around 9:30 Sunday morning. They found two victims, both 80-years old, stabbed by their own 55-year-old son. Police found the father with so much blood puddled around his neck, they thought someone slashed his throat.
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12:27 AM