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French court to try Church of Scientology
International | 2008/09/09 03:13
The Church of Scientology and seven of its top members are to stand trial in Paris on fraud charges after an investigation into allegations by a former member that the church swindled her out of more than $28,000.

French judicial officials said Monday that the church — considered a sect in France — and the seven members are to face charges of "fraud in an organized group" and "illegally acting as a pharmacy." They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. A trial date has not yet been set.

The Paris prosecutor's office had recommended the charges be dropped.

The charges stemmed from a 1998 complaint by a woman who joined the church after she was recruited at a subway station. The woman, 33 at the time, invested thousands of mostly borrowed euros in Scientology courses and so-called purification packs containing vitamins and other pills.

The woman's lawyer, Olivier Morice, hailed the decision to hold a trial as "courageous," saying the case will strengthen France's fight against sects.

France has had a contentious relationship with the Church of Scientology. In 2002, a French court fined the Paris regional branch of the church for a data protection violation but acquitted it of attempted fraud and false advertising charges.

Established in 1945 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology teaches that technology can expand the mind and help solve problems. It claims 10 million members around the world, including celebrity devotees Tom Cruise and John Travolta.



Sentencing begins in Clemson student strangling
Criminal Law | 2008/09/09 02:16
A convicted sex offender facing execution for raping and strangling a Clemson University student feels so guilty for his crimes that life in prison would be harder on him, his lawyer argued in a South Carolina court on Monday.

Jerry Buck Inman, 37, of Tennessee, pleaded guilty last month to murdering 20-year-old engineering student Tiffany Marie Souers in May 2006 in her apartment about three miles from the South Carolina college's campus. A judge will decide whether Inman is executed or sentenced to life in prison.

"He is filled with guilt and shame," Inman's attorney Jim Bannister said. "That eats him from the inside out on a daily basis. ... It leads him to the conclusion that he is an animal and that he deserves to die."

But Bannister argued during the first day of the sentencing hearing that his client should not be executed. He said Inman "came into this world impaired to start with," living in a home where his father molested him and his mother suffered from mental illness.



Court overturns $49M patent infringement award
Intellectual Property | 2008/09/08 10:48

A $49 million infringement ruling in favor of 800 Adept against Targus Information Corp. was overturned Aug. 29 by the U.S. Court of Appeals due to faulty claim construction and other trial-court errors.

In 2006, Vienna, Va.-based Targus lost an infringement case filed by Orlando-based 800 Adept for technology used to route calls to 800-numbers that the Orlando company says was patented technology.

The initial verdict included the $49 million award in damages against Targus, in addition to nearly $6 million in attorney fees.

"We always believed that there was never any basis for this lawsuit and that the jury verdict was totally misguided. We refused to settle and had the courage of our convictions to see it through to the appeals court," said George G. Moore, CEO of Targus Information Corp., in a prepared statement.

Orlando law firms Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, Milbrath & Gilchrist and Maher Law Firm co-represented 800 Adept.



Court refuses to dismiss Pa. pathologist's charges
Breaking Legal News | 2008/09/08 08:47
A federal appeals court Friday refused to dismiss fraud and theft charges against celebrity pathologist Cyril Wecht and said he can be tried again — but ordered the judge replaced to help ease the "rancor in the courtroom."

The judge at Wecht's first trial did not follow proper procedure in declaring a mistrial after jurors said they couldn't unanimously agree on a verdict, but that wasn't enough to dismiss the 41 counts against him, the appeals court ruled.

Wecht, 77, has earned millions investigating deaths, including those of JonBenet Ramsey, Elvis Presley and Vince Foster.

He was accused of using his former Allegheny County coroner's staff to benefit his private business and trading unclaimed county morgue cadavers for office and lab space at a university where he taught. Wecht was also charged with mail fraud for allegedly overbilling his private clients for bogus travel expenses.

His first trial lasted seven weeks and jurors deliberated for more than 50 hours before telling U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab on April 8 that they were "essentially deadlocked." Schwab then declared a mistrial.



Georgia seeks emergency decision from World Court
International | 2008/09/08 07:49
Georgia accused Russia on Monday of a "campaign of harassment and persecution" in its two separatist regions and called on the International Court of Justice to impose emergency measures to halt killings and forced expulsions.

But, in a blunt demonstration of who is in charge in the tense zone around South Ossetia, Russian soldiers turned back a United Nations convoy. And the Georgian government said Russia reinforced its positions on the outskirts of the Black Sea port city of Poti over the weekend.

The World Court case opened a new legal front in the battle between Georgia and Russia for control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and began as French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Moscow with a European Union delegation for talks aimed at easing the standoff.

But Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said Monday just before the EU delegation sat down for talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that Moscow was against an autonomous EU monitoring mission.

He said such a force would lead to unnecessary "fragmentation" of international monitoring efforts by the U.N. and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.



Judge: Pa. mass killer too unstable to be executed
Breaking Legal News | 2008/09/08 07:46
A Pennsylvania judge says mass murderer George Banks is too mentally ill to be executed.

Banks killed 13 people in a 1982 shooting rampage in northeastern Pennsylvania. Five of the victims were his own children.

Judge Michael Conahan agrees with defense attorneys that Banks is psychotic and unable to comprehend his death sentence or participate in his defense.

Conahan issued the ruling Monday, several weeks after a hearing on Banks' mental state.

The judge had decided once before that Banks couldn't be put to death. But the state Supreme Court ordered a fresh hearing after finding that Conahan improperly barred a prosecution psychiatrist from testifying.

Prosecutors concede Banks is mentally ill but maintain the execution should go forward.



Judge limits questioning of O.J. Simpson jury
Court Watch | 2008/09/08 07:46
The judge in O.J. Simpson's Las Vegas robbery-kidnap trial has rejected a bid by Simpson's lawyers to ask prospective jurors if they consider him a murderer.

Clark County District Court Judge Jackie Glass turned down the request Monday during a hearing on motions before prospective jurors were summoned for questioning.

The judge says questionnaires filled out by prospects asked whether they were familiar with Simpson's other trials, and she is not going to relitigate those cases.

Simpson and a co-defendant are accused of robbing two sports memorabilia dealers in a hotel last year.

Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 slayings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman, but was found civilly liable for their deaths.



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