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Ga. Court Shooting Trial Resumes in July
Court Watch |
2008/03/11 07:44
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The murder trial of accused courthouse shooter Brian Nichols will resume July 10, a judge decided Monday even as he considered hearing the three-year-old case at another courthouse. The trial was suspended during jury selection in October because of problems funding Nichols' defense. Those problems have not been completely resolved, but Judge James Bodiford has sought to move the case along. The case will resume with the same jury pool on a date roughly midway between what prosecutors and defense attorneys had sought. At the hearing Monday, prosecutors asked that the trial resume June 16 while the defense wanted a Sept. 8 date. "This case needs a start date, a real start date," Bodiford said. Now, the question is where to hold the trial. Up until now, the plan was to hold the trial in the Fulton County Courthouse complex, where the March 11, 2005, shooting spree began. Defense lawyers had previously asked that the trial be moved to another location in the county, but that request was denied by the previous judge overseeing the case because no other courthouse was suitable or was willing to host the trial. |
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Court Officer Guilty Of Taking Cash
Court Watch |
2008/03/08 01:11
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A state court security officer on Friday admitted taking cash payments from bail bondsmen, the latest development in a continuing investigation of the Connecticut bail bond industry. Jill D'Antona, a judicial marshal employed at the Superior Court on Elm Street in New Haven, pleaded guilty in federal court to soliciting and accepting a gratuity. In her position, which her superiors said she is in the process of resigning, D'Antona, 37, of Seymour, was assigned to courthouse security and prisoner transportation duties. D'Antona is accused of taking thousands of dollars over at least five years from Robert and Philip Jacobs, two of the three principals in a family-owned bail bond business operating in greater New Haven. The Jacobses, who were charged earlier in connection with the same investigation, have admitted paying D'Antona for using her official position to get them business.
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Investor Pleads Not Guilty in Conspiracy
Court Watch |
2008/03/07 08:34
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An associate of indicted Rep. Rick Renzi pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he conspired with the congressman to use his office for financial gain. Real estate investor James W. Sandlin is accused in a 27-count indictment along with Renzi with extortion and conspiring to promote a land swap. The charges include wire fraud, extortion and money laundering and conspiracy. Sandlin, 56, of Sherman, Texas, was released without bail after his arraignment in U.S. District Court in Tucson. He and his lawyer declined to comment. Renzi pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday. Both are due back in court April 29. The indictment accuses Renzi of telling groups seeking to get the surface rights to an Arizona copper deposit that they would have to buy land owned by Sandlin to win required congressional approval for the land exchange. After an investment group agreed to buy the land, Renzi received $733,000 from Sandlin, the indictment said. Sandlin had owed Renzi money from a previous land deal. Renzi and another co-defendant are also charged with eight other counts. Renzi will stay in office, his lawyer Reid Weingarten said. Renzi, a three-term Republican whose 1st Congressional District covers most of northeastern Arizona, announced last year that he would not seek re-election. |
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Court Order Sought in E-Mail Controversy
Court Watch |
2008/03/07 08:31
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A private group told a federal court that the Bush administration made apparently false and misleading statements in court about the White House e-mail controversy. The group asked the judge on Thursday to demand an explanation regarding alleged inconsistencies between testimony at a congressional hearing last week and what the White House told a federal court in January. "This evidence demonstrates defendants' blatant disregard for the truth and the processes of this court," Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy in court papers. CREW wants the judge to compel the Executive Office of the President to explain why it should not be held in contempt of court. In a sworn declaration, White House official Theresa Payton told the court on Jan. 16 that "substantially all" e-mails from 2003 to 2005 should be contained on back-up computer tapes. However, at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Feb. 26, the panel's Democrats released a White House document that called that claim into question. E-mail was missing from a White House archive for the period of Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2003 from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, the White House document states. The backup tape covering that seven-day period was not created until Oct. 21, 2003, raising the possibility that e-mail was missing from the earlier period. That time span was in the earliest days of the Justice Department's probe into whether anyone at the White House leaked the CIA identity of Valerie Plame. Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was eventually convicted by a jury of four felonies in the leak probe. The congressional panel also released written statements by a former White House technical supervisor saying that a 15-person team conducted an extensive multi-phase assessment that resulted in a final 250-page analysis on the problem of missing White House e-mail. In her sworn declaration to the federal court in January, the White House official said she was aware of a chart created by a former employee regarding missing e-mails, but said nothing about the 250-page analysis. |
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Man Pleads Guilty in Missing Girl Case
Court Watch |
2008/03/06 04:36
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A man has pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Connecticut girl found at his home after a yearlong disappearance. Prosecutors are recommending a 30-year prison sentence for 42-year-old Adam Gault of West Hartford. Judge David Gold indicated Wednesday that he will order at least 20 years in prison. Gault pleaded guilty to eight charges, including second-degree sexual assault and kidnapping. Authorities say the girl was 14 when she ran away from home to live with Gault in 2006. Police, who feared she was dead, found her hiding in a small storage area during a search of Gault's home last June. Gault's wife and another woman living with him were also arrested. |
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'Elvis' Shows Up at Kentucky Court Drunk
Court Watch |
2008/03/06 03:35
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One central Kentucky Elvis Presley impersonator may be singing "Jailhouse Rock" after showing up for court drunk and dressed like Presley. A Jessamine County District Court judge says 64-year-old David Blaisdell of Lexington must spend three days in jail for contempt of court. Blaisdell was wearing sunglasses and dressed in a rhinestone-studded shirt with a scarf draped around his neck when he was sentenced. County Attorney Brian Goettl said Blaisdell was in court for a pretrial conference on misdemeanor charges of stalking and violating a protective order. Goettl says the judge had Blaisdell tested for intoxication. The result was nearly twice the .08 level at which a person is considered legally drunk in Kentucky. Goettl says Blaisdell told the judge he had had a few drinks the night before his court appearance Tuesday. |
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Man Who Punched His Lawyer Sent to Jail
Court Watch |
2008/03/05 05:44
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A man who punched his lawyer in a Kentucky courtroom last month has been sentenced to six months in jail. Peter Hafer also has a new lawyer. Mark Bubenzer said his client is sorry and didn't mean to disrespect the court. But Scott County Circuit Judge Rob Johnson reprimanded Hafer as he sentenced him for contempt of court Monday. The judge said courts would be in chaos if every defendant behaved that way. Attorney Doug Crickmer got two black eyes when Hafer hit him Feb. 4. Crickmer said he thought his client was just frustrated about being in jail. The 30-year-old Hafer was initially in court for a burglary charge. That case is still pending. |
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