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Accused nude doorbell ringer pleads not guilty
Breaking Legal News | 2009/08/15 10:18
A man suspected of appearing nude at homes and ringing doorbells is being held on $60,000 bail after pleading not guilty to a series of charges.


Peter Allen Steele, who is 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 250 pounds, entered his not guilty pleas Tuesday after being charged with seven counts, including driving under the influence, evading a peace officer, indecent exposure and entering a house without permission.

Authorities say the 38-year-old Steele led San Mateo County sheriff's deputies on a car chase on July 11 that ended with him streaking into a home and then into woods near Redwood City.

Deputies say it took a Taser and two shots from a bean bag gun to bring him down.



Ship operator pleads guilty in SF Bay oil spill
Environmental | 2009/08/15 10:14
The Hong Kong-based company that operates the cargo ship that caused a 2007 oil spill in San Francisco Bay pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal charges.

Fleet Management Ltd. pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction, making false statements and negligent discharge of oil, and agreed to pay a $10 million fine under a deal reached with prosecutors. A federal judge still must approve the deal.

The Cosco Busan sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on a foggy morning on Nov. 7, 2007. The ship spilled 53,000 gallons of oil into the water, killing thousands of birds and other wildlife and fouling miles of shoreline.

The ship's pilot, John Cota, was sentenced in July to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor charges.

Company director Aga Nagarajan appeared in court Thursday with lawyer Marc Greenberg, who entered the guilty pleas. They declined comment outside court.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston scheduled a Dec. 11 hearing to decide whether the $10 million is enough punishment.

Court documents showed the company acknowledging its crew was poorly trained and the master failed to stop the pilot from leaving port in thick fog. The master admitted he could "suffer adverse personnel consequences" if he delayed departure, according to the court filing.



Swiss court says Haitian money can be given as aid
International | 2009/08/14 10:12
A Swiss court has backed the government's plan to give aid agencies 7 million Swiss francs ($6 million) seized from bank accounts linked to Haiti's former dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

In a ruling published Friday, the Federal Criminal Tribunal rejected an appeal by the Duvalier family, which wants to reclaim the money. It can now appeal the case to Switzerland's highest court.

The government says the Duvalier family has failed to prove that the money stashed in Swiss accounts is of legitimate origin.

Many in Haiti consider that money stolen from public funds before Duvalier was ousted in 1986. Duvalier, who is believed to be living in exile in France, has always denied that.

The court said the Duvalier family had diverted public funds into Swiss accounts through a Liechtenstein foundation that amounted to a "criminal organization."

The accounts in Switzerland have been blocked since 2002.

Switzerland has traditionally been a favorite location for dictators' money because of its banking secrecy rules. But reforms over the past two decades have made it harder to hide money in Switzerland and the country has returned hundreds of millions of francs (dollars) to countries in Africa, the Philippines and elsewhere.



Federal court OKs suit alleging illegal J&J sales
Court Watch | 2009/08/13 10:11
A federal appeals court has revived a multibillion-dollar Medicare fraud case brought by whistle-blowers alleging Johnson & Johnson paid doctors kickbacks to wrongly prescribe an expensive drug.

Two former salespeople for the health care giant allege J&J illegally marketed its blockbuster anemia drug Procrit. They claim the company got doctors to prescribe it for unapproved uses and sometimes at high doses that could be dangerous.

Federal regulators have since put restrictions on which patients can get the drug and how much they can take, hurting Procrit sales.

A federal appeals court in Boston has revived the case and sent it back to the District Court in Boston.

Johnson & Johnson officials say they will comment later today.



Obama, Sotomayor note her ascendancy to high court
Law Center | 2009/08/12 08:33
President Barack Obama rejoiced Wednesday in the ascendancy of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, saying her achievement will be an inspiration for generations.

"When Justice Sotomayor put her hand on that Bible and took that oath ... we came yet another step to the more perfect union that we all seek," Obama told a White House reception for Sotomayor.

The ceremony was packed with family and friends of Sotomayor, who has become the first Hispanic and third woman on the high court bench. Lawmakers, issue advocates, Hispanic community leaders and others who helped shepherd her confirmation through the Senate came to watch as she appeared with the president for remarks.

"While this is Justice Sotomayor's achievement, the result of her ability and determination," Obama said, "this moment is not just about her. It's about every child who will grow up thinking to him- or herself, `If Sonia Sotomayor can make it, then maybe I can too.' "

Following Obama at the lectern, Sotomayor spoke emotionally about wending her way from a modest background to the highest court in the land. She grew up in public housing projects in South Bronx, N.Y., before getting an Ivy League education and starting her legal career.

"It is our nation's faith in a more perfect union that allows a Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx to stand here now," she said, a line that earned her huge applause and a standing ovation from the audience.



Qualcomm: court grants motion to dismiss lawsuit
Breaking Legal News | 2009/08/11 12:03
Qualcomm Inc. said Tuesday that a California court has granted its motion to dismiss a consumer class-action lawsuit that accused the chip maker of antitrust violations and unfair competition.

Judge William Q. Hayes of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California rejected plaintiff Christopher Lorenzo's arguments in his amended complaint, standing by his previous ruling that Lorenzo lacked standing on the antitrust allegations.

The court also manintained that Lorenzo's claims did not give him the right to be compensated by Qualcomm under California's unfair competition law.



Animal groups in court over Helmsley fortune
Breaking Legal News | 2009/08/11 12:03
Leona Helmsley's dog, Trouble, may be living quietly enough in Florida, but there's a lot of barking about the way the late hotel queen's millions are being given away.

Three of the country's largest animal welfare groups on Monday accused the trustees of Leona Helmsley's estate of a "scheme to deprive dog welfare charities" of their stake in the real estate baroness' fortune. They filed a petition in Manhattan Surrogate Court arguing that Helmsley, who died in 2007, specified in her will that her multibillion-dollar estate should be used to help dogs, and the trustees disregarded those wishes.

The groups — the Humane Society of the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Maddie's Fund — want the court to throw out a judge's February decision that gave the trustees for the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust sole authority to determine which charities would benefit from her estate.

In April, the trustees gave away $136 million to hospitals, foundations and the homeless. They gave $1 million to animal charities, including $100,000 to the ASPCA and groups that train guide dogs for the blind.

The trust, in a statement posted on its Web site, said Helmsley never wanted her fortune just to go to dogs.

"Did Leona Helmsley intend for this charitable trust to focus on the care and help of dogs, rather than people? Absolutely not," the statement said. "Have the trustees of this vast fortune acted improperly and ignored Mrs. Helmsley's instructions? Again, absolutely not."

The hotel heiress, whose fortune had been estimated at $5 billion to $8 billion after her death at age 87, also named her dog as a beneficiary in her will, leaving a $12 million trust fund for the little white Maltese. But a judge whittled that amount down to $2 million.



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