A New York writer has pleaded not guilty in an alleged scheme to lure young women from overseas into forced labor.

Joseph Yannai (YAH'-nay) of Pound Ridge entered the plea Thursday in federal court in Brooklyn. He'll remain in jail pending an Aug. 9 bail hearing.

The 66-year-old Yannai wrote a reference guide to the world's top chefs called "The International Who's Who of Chefs 2004-2005."

Federal prosecutors allege he used au pair websites to try convince his victims that he was in the publishing business and looking for an assistant. He also is facing similar state charges, including labor trafficking and sexual abuse of women from Hungary, France and Brazil.

If convicted in the federal case, he could be sentenced to life in prison and lose his home.

Six gay couples in Hawaii are filing a lawsuit Thursday asking for the same rights as married couples, three weeks after Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a same-sex civil unions measure.

The lawsuit doesn't seek the titles of "marriage" or "civil unions" for gay partners. Instead, it requests that the court system extend them the benefits and responsibilities of marriage based on the Hawaii Constitution's prohibition against sex discrimination.

"We continue to be discriminated against," said plaintiff Suzanne King, who has been in a relationship with her partner for 29 years. "We're a family unit, and we live our lives just like everyone else, but we aren't treated the same."

The legal action in state court comes as a response to the Republican governor's veto July 6, when she said voters should decide whether to reserve marriage for couples of a man and a woman.

Five other states and the District of Columbia permit same-sex marriage. Five more states essentially grant the rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself.

Hawaii passed the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment in 1998, giving the state's legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples. The amendment is silent on civil unions and rights for same-sex couples.

Most Hawaii residents don't want the government to endorse equal rights for gay couples, said Garret Hashimoto, chairman for the Hawaii Christian Coalition.

A woman convicted of luring a Peruvian to the United States with promises of job then confiscating her travel documents and forcing her to work for no pay was sentenced to six years in prison Wednesday.

Maribel de la Rosa Dann was found guilty of forced labor and related charges for keeping Zoraida Pena-Canal enslaved as a household servant from summer of 2006 to the spring of 2008. Dann, a real estate agent in the affluent suburb of Walnut Creek, was also ordered to serve three years of supervised released, and ordered to pay $123,740 in restitution for back wages not paid.

Pena-Canal has a civil case pending in which she is seeking to recover the costs of her labor, emotional distress and other damages.

The victim did not want to speak in court, but in a written statement she told others who might be enduring similar circumstances, "Do not be afraid and do not be ashamed. Seek help and fight for the justice you deserve."

Attorneys and advocates said that while the public may be more familiar with human trafficking victims who are forced into prostitution, cases of forced labor like Pena-Canal's are also widespread.

New York's top court on Thursday rejected a Christian legal group's challenge to some government benefits provided to gay couples legally married elsewhere and now living in New York.

The court rejected an argument that same-sex marriage was akin to incest and polygamy but avoided declaring that gay couples are entitled to all the rights of other married couples.

In a 4-3 decision on the narrow question of benefits, the Court of Appeals did not address whether the state must recognize same-sex marriage but encouraged the Legislature to settle the issue. The case was pushed by the Alliance Defense Fund of Scottsdale, Ariz.

A law to allow same-sex marriage in New York is hung up in the state Senate but could come to a vote before the end of the year. One judge warned that failing to address the larger question of recognizing same-sex marriages will create a problem.

"The effect of the majority's rationale in affirming these orders will be to permit an unworkable pattern of conflicting executive and administrative directives ... (at the) individual discretion of each agency head," Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick warned in an otherwise concurring opinion.

Under intense pressure from both sides in the debate over same-sex marriage, the California Supreme Court will hear arguments Thursday on the ballot initiative passed by voters last November that outlawed such unions.


For opponents of the measure, Proposition 8, the three-hour hearing is a critical legal test. But it is also, they say, a prime moment to rally their forces and demonstrate resilience after a stinging election loss that many among them believe could have been avoided.

“It’s a need for the community to show that we will not be passive participants to our own struggle,” said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “I think it goes to the heart of what we’ve seen since Nov. 5, and what we’ve come to appreciate as the critical importance of everyone stepping up and stepping out.”

To that end, Thursday’s hearing is being treated by some activists as a combination of election night and Super Bowl. In San Francisco, for example, Proposition 8 opponents have erected a Jumbotron screen in front of the courthouse for spectators unable to squeeze into the courtroom.

“This is our lives on the line,” said Molly McKay, media director of the volunteer group Marriage Equality USA. “We don’t want them to have to worry about getting in.”

Ms. McKay’s organization, one of several grass-roots groups that have taken a larger role in the debate on same-sex marriage since the election loss, also organized candlelight vigils around the state for Wednesday night. But more established gay rights groups like Equality California are using the hearing as a rallying point as well, having begun a television campaign on Tuesday with advertisements depicting the quest for same-sex marriage as part of a long-term civil rights campaign.

Supporters of Proposition 8, meanwhile, have taken a quieter tack. Frank Schubert, the campaign manager for Protect Marriage, the leading group behind the initiative, said supporters held a day of prayer on Sunday, asking that the justices “be granted wisdom and for our opponents to understand that our support of Proposition 8 is to affirm traditional marriage, not denigrate gays.”

Mr. Schubert also said his side had asked that supporters who choose to show up outside the courthouse on Thursday not provoke confrontations and not carry signs unless they bear positive language.

While the fall campaign was heated — and expensive, with each side spending more than $40 million — the hearing is bound to seem somewhat anticlimactic to many. The court will only hear oral arguments on Thursday, and has 90 days to come to a decision.

But the court allowed Phill Kline, a Republican who's now a local prosecutor pursuing a case against Planned Parenthood's clinic in Overland Park, to retain some of the material.

Kline obtained copies of the patient records while serving as Kansas attorney general in 2003-07. After he lost his bid for re-election in 2006, he was appointed Johnson County district attorney.

Before he gave up the state job, he transferred copies of the medical records to Johnson County. Then, as county prosecutor, he filed 107 criminal charges against the Planned Parenthood clinic, alleging it falsified documents and performed illegal late-term abortions.

The clinic denies the allegations and questioned Kline's right as a county prosecutor to keep the records. It asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

The court ordered Kline to deliver a full set of the medical records and other material he gathered as district attorney to state Attorney General Steve Six by 5 p.m. Dec. 12.

The effects of the order on Kline's prosecution of Planned Parenthood weren't certain because the court declined to order Kline to turn over "each and every copy" of all the materials he's gathered, just a "a full and complete and understandable set."

The court rejected the clinic's request to hold Kline in contempt but criticized "an obvious and sorry" pattern of behavior in his handling of the records and his dealings with the court as it reviewed Planned Parenthood's request. The court's majority said it is forwarding its ruling to the state official in charge of handling disciplinary cases against attorneys because Kline's conduct may merit sanctions, including the loss of his law license.

"Kline exhibits little, if any, respect for the authority of this court or for his responsibility to it and to the rule of law it husbands," Justice Carol Beier wrote for the majority. "His attitude and behavior are inexcusable, particularly for someone who purports to be a professional prosecutor."

The seven-member court unanimously ordered Kline to turn over the documents, but only five of the justices said the order should be considered a sanction.

Kline will leave office as Johnson County DA in January; he lost his bid for a full term in the Republican primary.

Kline declined to comment on the ruling, saying he was still studying it.

At least three same-sex couples have obtained marriage licenses since the Nov. 4 passage of the measure overturning the state Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage.

As California wrestled with the issue, a gay-rights activist on Thursday filed a complaint accusing the Mormon church of failing to report the full value of the work it did campaigning for the ban. And nationwide, gay marriage advocates planned dozens of rallies this weekend to speak out against the Election Day setback.

Despite California Attorney General Jerry Brown's declaration that the state wouldn't recognize any gay unions after Election Day, confused clerks kept handing out licenses for days.

Complicating matters further, some couples who signed their paperwork before Nov. 4 and have yet to say "I do" will be requesting civil marriage ceremonies, gay-rights attorneys say.

County officials who inquired with Brown's office about how to handle the situation were told to ask the state's 58 county attorneys. That puts local authorities in the uncomfortable position of interpreting the law for themselves, said Merced County Clerk Stephen Jones, whose office allowed a male couple to fill out marriage forms on Nov. 5.