Incest porn found in home of child-sex case suspect
Magazines with titles of "Family Taboo," "Best of Family Secrets" and "Best of Family Touch" were found in a locked file cabinet in the home of Burrell Mohler Sr., who's in jail in Lexington, Mo., on charges of rape, sodomy and bestiality. His four sons, aged 53 to 47, also are in jail. | 11/18/09 13:21:31 By - Donald Bradley
Alleged 9/11 plotters 'stoic' about trial in New York
The alleged 9/11 conspirators neither greeted with joy nor trepidation the news that they would be taken to New York City to face a civilian trial for the Sept. 11 attacks. | 11/17/09 17:54:25 By - Carol Rosenberg
Sacramento principal seriously injured breaking up fight
The principal of West Sacramento's River City High School is recovering at home from serious injuries he suffered while trying to break up a fight involving a number of students outside the cafeteria Oct. 28. | 11/17/09 17:08:38 By - Hudson Sangree
Questions rise after death of North Carolina child
A little more than a week before Shaniya Davis vanished, her mother told Carey Lockhart, the aunt who helped raise the 5-year-old, that she'd never see Shaniya again. | 11/17/09 16:09:50 By - Mandy Locke
New charges against family in Missouri child-rape case
Authorities of Lafayette County, east of Kansas City, last week accused six Mohler men of 16 counts, alleging a torrent of rape, sodomy and bestiality against children barely in elementary school. On Monday, a new victim alleged more past sexual atrocities against the children of the Mohler family and 15 more counts were lodged. | 11/16/09 19:39:38 By - Donald Bradley
Condits have a new reason they ducked service in a lawsuit
Former California congressman Gary Condit and his family members avoided being served legal papers in 2006 because they feared U.S. deputy marshals were actually reporters on the prowl, Condit's son Chad has now explained. In a handwritten statement filed in federal court, Chad Condit says his family had no idea marshals were trying to serve them legal documents in their long running lawsuit with Baskin-Robbins. | 11/16/09 18:33:34 By - Michael Doyle
'In Cold Blood' murders changed the way Kansans thought
The four shotgun blasts that killed the Clutter family of tiny Holcomb, Kan., 50 years ago Sunday changed the way Kansans felt about their safety. For years afterward, farm families would lock their doors and take note if they saw car lights going down a country road late at night. Poeple who were children then remember how their parents were gripped with fear. | 11/16/09 15:31:13 By - Beccy Tanner
After 20 years, former life catches up with Arizona fugitive
A knock on the door last week resurrected a past Robert Andrew LaRoche spent two decades burying. A U.S. marshal flashed him a faded photo of Bobby Rea Irwin Jr. Irwin was a fugitive, wanted since 1991 for violating the terms of a probation a judge ordered after he gunned down a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist group. Irwin says he was avenging a brutal kidnapping he endured the month before. | 11/16/09 13:56:40 By - Mandy Locke
Potential changes in the 4th Circuit court provoke angst
George Holding, the Republican-appointed U.S. attorney for North Carolina's eastern district, expressed some angst over changes in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which includes North Carolina. | 11/16/09 12:58:58 By - Mark Johnson
California woman jailed in drowning of 3-year-old daughter
Police said they received a call at 1:19 a.m. Sunday from a father asking for a welfare check on his two children, a 7-year-old son and the daughter. Both had been picked up from his home by their mother, his estranged wife, police said. When police arrived at the mother's apartment, they found the girl unresponsive. | 11/16/09 12:32:39 By - Loretta Kalb and Ryan Lillis
Asylum seekers' tales of rape, abuse turned out to be lies
As many as 700 immigrants told phony stories of torture and rape to immigration judes and asylum officers, under the coaching of Sacramento's Sekhon and Sekhon law firm. Now three of the law firm's attorneys have been convicted of fraud for manufacturing those stories, and the medical records to back them up, and the immigrants are facing deportation. | 11/16/09 12:24:04 By - Stephen Magagnini
Miami has new mayor, but indictments empty city commission
In the space of a few days last week, a new mayor was sworn in, a nationally recognized police chief stepped down and two commissioners -- Angel Gonzalez and Michelle Spence-Jones -- were forced out by corruption charges. | 11/16/09 11:58:29 By - Andres Viglucci
Lots of evidence but father fears no justice in girl's murder
Marissa Elan Karp was a 17-year-old runaway who'd wandered into circumstances far more horrific than those often imagined by parents worried that a wayward child might fall in with the wrong crowd. She was battered, shot in the chest, and her body was crammed into a plastic garbage bag, hauled to the Everglades and dumped into a canal. Investigators know details. They know names. But in seven years, there've no arrests, no indictments. Officially, the death remains an unsolved murder. Enough, says her father. | 11/16/09 11:45:07 By - Fred Grimm
Armed intruders sneak through doggy door — into wrong house
Four intruders armed with shotguns and pistols came in through a doggy door and apparently left in a hurry after they realized they came to the wrong house. None of the nine people in the home was injured, and police arrested two of the suspects. | 11/13/09 19:51:16 By - Tim Potter
Memories of 'In Cold Blood' killings still haunt victims' family
It's been 50 years since Diana Selsor Edwards found a note from police informing her that four of her relatives had been killed in Kansas, a brutal slaughter made famous by Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood." Edwards, however, remains bitter about what she calls the book's depiction of her family as "cardboard figures." | 11/13/09 16:28:09 By - Mike Hendricks
FBI seeks information on developers with tied to ex-N.C. Gov. Easley
Federal investigators are seeking information about possible payoffs to North Carolina officials, as well as four major coastal developments assembled by businessmen with ties to former Gov. Mike Easley. | 11/13/09 07:30:59 By - J. Andrew Curliss
Florida alleged Ponzi scheme could exceed $1 billion
The alleged investment scam by Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein could top $1 billion, making it one of the biggest fraud cases in South Florida history, the head of the FBI in Miami said Thursday morning at a news conference. | 11/12/09 15:49:30 By - Jay Weaver, Scott Hiaasen and Amy Sherman
Trial of Fort Hood shooting suspect could be lengthy affair
Complicated by a federal investigation into possible terrorist ties and the prospect of mental issues, the prosecution of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan will likely be a lengthy and intricate process. A former Army staff judge advocate and military law expert at Texas Tech University suggests that it could take about two years to go to the military equivalent of a trial. And the outcome of the case would likely end up mired in complex appeals. | 11/12/09 07:37:32 By - Anthony Spangler
Georgia inmate breaks out of jail using rubber flip-flop
The inmate who escaped from the Bibb County jail Saturday night used his rubber flip-flop to unlock the door to a cell he was sharing with four other people, according to the Bibb County Sheriff's Office. "We were understaffed," explained Sheriff Jerry Modena. | 11/11/09 19:15:54 By - Amy Leigh Womack
Search in sex abuse case turns into search for bodies
Authorities are searching a rural property near Bates City, Mo., looking for bodies, as well as buried jars of written memories of anguish and horror allegedly left years ago by sexually abused children. Indications are that "an individual or individuals were killed," Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said Wednesday. | 11/11/09 18:26:41 By - Donald Bradley
Man's defense in murder trial: 'I've been running the country'
Kevin Wayne Dunigan told the jury, "You're being deceived." Not only were police and prosecutors totally wrong for accusing him of the 1995 stabbing death of Gary Patrick Veirs, Dunigan said in his closing argument Tuesday, but he also had the cure for global warming and how to win the war in Afghanistan. | 11/11/09 18:08:29 By - Andy Furillo
Priest, ex-stripper battle in court over daughter's custody
The already sordid tale of the Rev. David Dueppen and his baby's mother, former stripper Beatrice Hernandez, turned even tawdrier Tuesday as the two traded intimate and bizarre allegations in a Miami-Dade courtroom. Dueppen said he'd been abused as a child, making him unable to resist Hernandez's demands for sex. Hernandez said Dueppen threatened to "disappear her'' by sending monks in brown robes to "shoot'' her if she revealed the baby's existence to the church. | 11/11/09 15:41:25 By - David Ovalle
Miami Chief Timoney to step down as new mayor takes over
Embattled Miami Police Chief John Timoney will step down from his post, city officials told The Miami Herald on Wednesday. The decision comes the same day newly elected Mayor Tomas Regalado, who had pledged to remove Timoney from the position, was sworn in at an inauguration ceremony. | 11/11/09 13:49:38 By - Jennifer Lebovich and Charles Rabin
Tawdry details emerge in Miami custody case between stripper and priest
The already sordid tale of the Rev. David Dueppen and his baby's mother, former stripper Beatrice Hernandez, turned even tawdrier Tuesday as the two traded intimate and bizarre allegations in a Miami-Dade courtroom. | 11/11/09 13:19:06 By - David Ovalle
McCain calls Fort Hood shooting terrorism, says signs missed
U.S. Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican and former presidential candidate, called last week's shooting at Fort Hood "an act of terror" during a speech at the University of Louisville Wednesday morning. He called for swift disclosure of questionable behavior at military bases. "We ought to make sure that political correctness never impedes national security," he said. | 11/11/09 10:58:23 By - Ryan Alessi
D.C. sniper's execution leaves a Texas family without closure
Sarah Dillon spent part of Tuesday praying at her son's gravesite, asking for a last-minute miracle. Her desire: that the killing of her oldest son in 2002 would somehow be solved before convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad was executed in Virginia. It didn't happen. Authorities have said her son may have been among more than a dozen people whom Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo killed during a 2002 spree in the Washington, D.C., area and as many as nine other states, including Texas. | 11/11/09 07:47:53 By - Anna M. Tinsley
Abortion debate sides agree that Tiller's killing was not justified
Activists on both sides of the abortion issue say that despite his claims that his actions were necessary, Scott Roeder was unjustified in killing Wichita abortion provider George Tiller. Abortion-choice supporters called the act cold-blooded murder, while abortion opponents said it flies in the face of what their movement stands for. | 11/11/09 07:10:18 By - Dion Lefler and Deb Gruver
Ex-NFL and 'Dancing' star Taylor jailed after Miami crash
Former New York Giants great and "Dancing With the Stars" contestant Lawrence Taylor was arrested in Miami Sunday night on charges of leaving the scene of a crash, according to jail records. The crash tore off the front right tire on Taylor's 2009 Cadillac Escalade, and he drove about two miles on the axle before stopping, authorities said. | 11/10/09 20:43:47 By - Jennifer Lebovitch
Man goes to an awful lot of trouble to reclaim an $800 truck
Police say Richard Heger, 67, broke into a local tow shop's storage lot to reclaim his 1967 pickup, stole a tow truck to tow it away, did $7,000 damage to the tow company's gate and more damage to a restaurant's sign when the truck broke loose, then lied about his identity to police and spun stories involving President Barack Obama and the CIA. | 11/10/09 16:35:57 By - Elizabeth Bluemink
Former Kentucky lawmaker indicted on murder charges
Former Kentucky GOP state Rep. Steve Nunn has been indicted on charges that he killed his former fiancee, Amanda Ross, and violated a domestic violence protection order she had received against him. Ross was found shot early on Sept. 11 in front of her town house in Lexington and died later that morning. | 11/10/09 15:05:22 By - Valerie Honeycutt Spears and Ashlee Clark
Judge rules priest, ex-stripper in custody dispute must stay apart
A Miami-Dade judge on Tuesday ordered a former stripper and a disgraced Catholic priest -- who are involved in a custody dispute over their baby daughter -- to stay away from each. | 11/10/09 14:59:26 By - David Ovalle
3 teens accused of setting boy on fire will be tried as adults
Three of the five teenagers accused of setting fire to 15-year-old Michael Brewer of Deerfield Beach, Fla., will be charged as adults, the Broward State Attorney's Office said Monday. Denver Jarvis and Matthew Bent, both 15, and Jesus Mendez, 16, were charged with one count of second-degree attempted murder in the Oct. 12 attack in which Brewer was doused Brewer with rubbing alcohol and set aflame. | 11/10/09 14:58:44 By - Robert Samuels
Roeder admits to killing abortion doctor Tiller
Scott Roeder confessed Monday to killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller, saying he had no regrets because "preborn children were in imminent danger." Roeder, 51, said that he didn't consider what he did to be murder and that he had no intention of changing his plea to guilty. "There is a distinction between killing and murdering," he said. "I don't like the accusation of murder whatsoever, because when you protect innocent life, that's not murder." | 11/10/09 07:18:42 By - Judy L. Thomas
Idaho prosecutor pleads guilty to stalking his ex, quits RNC
After pleading guilty to stalking a former girlfriend, Blake Hall, a leading figure in Idaho and national politics for 25 years, was fired Monday as a deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho and resigned from the Republican National Committee. | 11/09/09 21:13:24 By - Dan Popkey
Marriage to a 14-year-old in Missouri leads to charge of statutory rape
Vincent Mosby signed a marriage contract and paid a dowry in a religious ceremony in August, police said. Mosby, 23, didn’t legally wed his 14-year-old bride, however, because Missouri law won’t allow it without a judge’s order. Police said she was pressured into the union because her mother and stepfather thought she was going to be sexually active with a boy her age. | 11/09/09 14:50:42 By - Christine Vendel
More evidence that Fort Hood gunman held radical beliefs
Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in the Fort Hood shootings, once regularly attended a Falls Church, Va., mosque that the FBI has linked to two of the 9/11 hijackers, but the congregation's current spiritual leader Sunday insisted the government's claims of connections are wrong. | 11/08/09 23:26:41 By - Barry Schlachter
$29,000 for 5 minutes in the ER raises health care questions
For five desperate minutes, emergency room doctors at UC Davis Medical Center frantically tried to revive Scott Hawkins. In those five minutes, the 23-year-old student was hooked up to life support monitors, air pumped into his weakened lungs as he bled on a gurney. | 11/08/09 15:26:05 By - Bobby Caina Calvan
Kansas justice warns funds shortfall will force court cutbacks
State courts in Kansas will have to close their doors for one week each month beginning in February if the Legislature doesn't restore $8 million to the judiciary budget. The courts would close and place staff on involuntary unpaid leave the weeks of Feb. 15, March 15, April 5, May 10 and 24, and June 7, Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Davis said in a letter to court employees. | 11/07/09 18:49:20 By - Fred Mann
Experts: Teen who killed 4-year-old likely abuse victim too
When Raul Renato Castro was a baby, his father was convicted of molesting a 5-year-old relative and was sentenced to prison. Now, 14-year-old Castro is accused of molesting 4-year-old Alex Christopher Mercado and drowning the child in a bathtub on Oct. 30. Researchers say the circumstances don't surprise them. | 11/07/09 18:26:25 By - Pablo Lopez
Military releases names of dead in Fort Hood massacre
Twelve of the dead were members of the military. One was a civilian.The alleged gunman, Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, remains in critical condition and has not regained conciousness, base officials said. A memorial service has been scheduled for Tuesday at Fort Hood. The White House announced that President Barack Obama would attend. | 11/07/09 17:41:45 By -
Police: College student beat roommate to death with bat
Quran Mahammed Jones allegedly beat Scott Hawkins to death in their dorm suite before he was shot by police officers responding to a report of a disturbance. Court documents say that when police arrived they faced Jones in the common area of the suite with a "crazed look in his eyes." Jones remained hospitalized but has been charged with murder and assault. | 11/07/09 09:14:49 By -
Kansas couple charged with poisoning restaurant's salsa
On Thursday, federal prosecutors accused former Mi Ranchito restaurant employees Arnoldo Bazan and his wife, Yini De La Torre — niece of the restaurant co-founder — of mixing the pesticide into salsa Aug. 30 and sending at least a dozen people to the hospital. | 11/06/09 17:07:19 By - Brad Cooper
Fort Hood medical staff never expected bloodshed at home
Many of the doctors who cared for the wounded from Thursday's rampage had seen similar wounds during rotations to Iraq and Afghanistan. But few were prepared for the grim and chaotic scene that unfolded as ambulance after ambulance began ferrying gunshot victims to the hospital emergency room. | 11/06/09 15:38:54 By - Dave Montgomery
Miami police chief Timoney says he wants to keep job
The day John Timoney was sworn in as Miami police chief in 2003, 11 of his troops stood trial for concocting evidence and planting guns in a spate of shootings. Seven would be convicted. Within two years, Timoney's administration would clean up the mess, turning a sometimes trigger-happy force into one where no officer fired a weapon for 20 months. Bad cops were punished. Crime dipped. Now the chief finds himself in a very public political fight, with his Miami career on the line. | 11/06/09 15:02:49 By - Jennifer Lebovich and Charles Rabin
Report: Dugard initially denied her identity in kidnapping
When Jaycee Lee Dugard resurfaced in August, she denied being the 11-year-old girl kidnapped in 1991 and defended Phillip Garrido as a "great person." She became defensive as officers questioned her, then asked for a lawyer. She tried to convince police she was fleeing an abusive husband in Minnesota. Then the young woman told police the truth, ending the 18-year mystery of her disappearance. | 11/06/09 14:46:48 By - Sam Stanton
Fort Hood gunman was bound for Afghanistan, not Iraq
Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist suspected of killing 12 soldiers at Fort Hood Thursday, was in the "deployment window" and was headed for Afghanistan, not Iraq, as some sources had reported. Witnesses said he shouted the traditional Muslim blessing "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire. | 11/06/09 12:23:42 By - Nancy A. Youssef
Couple accused of poisoning salsa at K.C. area restaurant
Federal prosecutors accused former restaurant employees Arnoldo Bazan and his wife, Yini De La Torre of mixing pesticide into salsa Aug. 30 at the restaurant her uncle founded and sending at least a dozen people to the hospital. Prosecutors allege the couple poisoned the salsa to make customers sick so the restaurant would be blamed and hurt financially. | 11/06/09 09:28:12 By - Brad Cooper
Fort Hood no stranger to violent outbursts
The massive base -– one of the largest U.S. Army bases in the world -– has seen its share of incidents. Until the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007 -- ironically, the gunman in Thursday's bloodshed also attended Virginia Tech -- the Fort Hood area was the scene of the deadliest mass killing in U.S. history -- the 1991 Luby's Cafeteria killings that took 23 lives. | 11/05/09 22:51:45 By - Anna M. Tinsley
Charred dolls found at home of Florida burn victim
A pair of charred dolls were discovered this week in the backyard of burn victim Michael Brewer's Deerfield Beach home, according to a report released by the Broward Sheriff's Office on Thursday. | 11/05/09 15:49:42 By - Diana Moskovitz
Fort Hood shooter was Army psychiatrist who treated stress
At least 12 people were killed and 31 wounded in a mass shooting at Fort Hood Army Base near Killeen, Texas, when at least one gunman opened fire on soldiers preparing to be deployed. The shooting broke out at the base's readiness center at about 1:30 p.m. The gunman, identified as Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was captured alive. Investigators were trying to determine if he had accomplices. | 11/05/09 15:49:14 By - Dave Montgomery and Nancy A. Youssef
Boise man sprays girlfriend with lighter fluid, threatens fire
Jonathan Edward Drake, 23, is being held in the Ada County Jail on a felony charge of aggravated battery after Boise police say he sprayed lighter fluid on a woman late Wednesday night and then threatened her with a lighter. | 11/05/09 15:13:47 By - Patrick Orr
Python hoax leads to charges against Bradenton trapper
A well-known Bradenton nuisance-animal trapper, who admitted to staging the capture of a 14-foot python on July 25, has been arrested on charges stemming from the hoax. | 11/05/09 14:52:24 By - Robert Napper
Trucker drove girlfriend’s remains home before attempting suicide
A truck driver claims he drove his dead girlfriend from California to Mississippi to say goodbye to his family before trying to take his own life, an investigator testified Wednesday. | 11/05/09 14:44:28 By - Robin Fitzgerald
Official probe clears officers in raid of Fort Worth gay bar
Two state agents did not use excessive force against three bar patrons arrested during a June bar check at the Rainbow Lounge, an internal investigation by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has found. In addition, allegations that the Rainbow Lounge was targeted in the bar check by the TABC agents and Fort Worth police because it is a gay bar also was unfounded, according to findings of the investigation released by TABC officials Thursday morning. | 11/05/09 14:40:49 By - Deanna Boyd and Mike Lee
Day care found with inactive meth lab
Shocked parents took their young children to the emergency room Tuesday night and Wednesday when they got word from police that a home day care had been raided for methamphetamine. | 11/05/09 14:37:12 By - Karen Nelson
Fraud case reveals rotten part of tomato business
A former SK Foods executive has been charged in Sacramento federal court, the latest expansion of a sprawling case of fraud, bribery and price fixing in the tomato-processing industry. | 11/04/09 19:44:53 By - Jim Downing
Texas lottery tells ticket theft victim he isn't the winner
Texas Lottery Commission officials told a man whose winning ticket was stolen that they consider a store clerk who signed and redeemed the ticket the winner. The store clerk, however, has been indicted on charges of claiming a lottery prize by fraud. | 11/04/09 19:30:39 By - Alex Branch
New Miami mayor wants Timoney out as police chief
Tomas Regalado, who won the Miami mayor's race against a pro-development candidate, repeated on election day that he wants Police Chief John Timoney gone. | 11/04/09 18:21:06 By - Charles Rabin, Michael Vasquez and Luisa Yanez
Police: Teen drowned 4-year-old in tub to hide molestation
Raul Renato Castro molested Alex Christopher Mercado in the bathroom of the Castro family home in Mendota, Calif., according to a police affidavit made public Wednesday. When Alex started crying and threatened to tell his mother, Castro decided to kill him, according to the affidavit. He then held the boy under water in the tub until he was sure he was dead. | 11/04/09 16:27:27 By - Pablo Lopez
S. Carolina man gets three years for having sex with horse
Rodell Vereen, 50, of Longs, S.C., was charged in July with buggery and trespassing after a woman found him in her barn having sex with a horse at Lazy B Stables in the Wampee community of Horry County. It wasn't Vereen's first offense — he was also charged with buggery in 2007. | 11/04/09 12:56:51 By - Tony Root
Legal pot alternative K2 is getting attention of police
It burns like marijuana, works like marijuana and it sort of looks like it, too. And it's perfectly legal. It's called K2, and Kansas City police confirm that the little bags of dried herbs are starting to pop up among teens and young adults. | 11/04/09 07:19:53 By - David Klepper
Analyst says Florida's sex-offender residency law is flawed
Florida's restrictions on where sex offenders can live might be both ineffective and endangering the public, according to a legislative analyst. Marti Harkness says multiple studies show almost no link between a sex offender's residency and the crime he committed. But onerous residency restrictions increase the chances that offenders will be homeless, hard to track and more likely to commit new crimes. | 11/04/09 07:05:04 By - Marc Caputo
Officers missed kidnap victim on 60 visits to Garrido's home
A new report by California's inspector general says state parole officers visited the home of Philip Garrido 60 times, but never detected Jaycee Lee Duggard, the girl he'd kidnapped when she was 11 and kept in the backyard for 18 years. Among the failures: state parole agents didn't investigate why there was a 12-year-old girl inside the home of a registered sex offender and why "clearly visible utility lines" were running from Garrido's home to a concealed compound where he allegedly kept Dugard. | 11/04/09 17:33:58 By - Sam Stanton
Auditor finds obvious: Parole officers failed to watch Garrido
State parole agents failed completely to properly supervise accused rapist and kidnapper Phillip Garrido for 10 years, a new state audit has found. Even after his alleged victim, Jaycee Lee Dugard, was discovered alive in August, 18 years after he kidnapping, top corrections officials praised parole — despite the fact that agents missed numerous opportunities to discover her presence. | 11/04/09 15:40:34 By - Sam Stanton
Justice Department won't appeal order to free Guantanamo detainee
A Kuwaiti Airways engineer who the U.S. military has accused of being a key aide to Osama bin Laden has been moved to the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center's minimum-security wing that's reserved for prisoners slated to be released. | 11/03/09 23:41:37 By - Mark Seibel
After 15 years, ex-DEA agent wins settlement from U.S.
Capping a remarkable courtroom ride, former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Richard Horn and attorney Brian Leighton secured a $3 million financial settlement from the Justice Department. The confidential settlement filed Tuesday ends a lawsuit that embarrassed past and present CIA officials. | 11/03/09 22:08:46 By - Michael Doyle
DNA leads to arrest in six Anchorage rapes dating to 2001
Special Victims Unit detectives say they developed Richard Dorsey as a suspect in the crimes in March when he was on trial for sexually assaulting a woman in a grocery store in July 2006. The case ended with a hung jury, and prosecutors took a DNA sample from Dorsey in preparation for a new trial. That new sample linked Dorsey to an unsolved 2002 rape. | 11/03/09 19:42:12 By - James Halpin
Hilton Head couple declared dead after missing for year and half
More than a year and half after John and Elizabeth Calvert disappeared, their family plans a public memorial service in Atlanta. The family also established scholarships in each of their names. | 11/03/09 19:18:48 By - Josh McCann
Police impersonators strike Washington state restaurants
Two men who have posed as police to rob Pierce County, Washington, fast-food restaurant managers apparently struck again over the weekend and may be ramping up their violence, authorities reported Monday. | 11/03/09 16:56:55 By - Stacey Mulick
eBay pulls auction for Roeder's defense fund
An online auction to raise money for Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man charged with killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller, was short-lived. eBay took down most of the auction items Monday within hours of the listings being posted. One of the auction organizers called eBay's actions 'egregious censorship with pro-abortion bias.' | 11/03/09 07:12:29 By - Judy L. Thomas
Parents of slain Sacramento State student stunned by UC-Davis hospital bill
On Saturday, 10 days after Scott Hawkins was beaten to death inside his dormitory at California State University, Sacramento, his parents got a letter in the mail. It contained a bill from the UC Davis Medical Center for $29,186.50 along with a form letter addressed "Dear Patient" that implied they were indigent and stated that the hospital no longer could provide them services. | 11/03/09 06:47:49 By - Sam Stanton
Fresno child found in dryer was drowned first
The 4-year-old Mendota boy who disappeared Friday was drowned and placed in a neighbor's dryer before a search for the child had even begun, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said today. | 11/02/09 19:28:09 By - Brad Branan
Day care owner charged with DUI after teacher called 911
Day care teacher Lindsey White knew she'd lose her job when she called 911 to report that her boss drove off in a van full of 3-year-olds. The day care is now closed, and its owner, is charged with driving under the influence along with charges related to having children in the car and no valid driver's license. | 11/02/09 16:26:46 By - Lori Yount
South Carolina gun sales soar on fear of crime, Democrats
So far in 2009, the number of South Carolinians wanting to pack heat nearly has doubled over the previous year as people worry about violent crime and feel threatened by partisan politics. As of mid-October, 28,197 new concealed weapons permits have been issued this year by the State Law Enforcement Division. | 11/02/09 14:07:19 By - Noelle Phillps
Rash of horse killings continues in South Florida
She was a bay -- a dark brown thoroughbred. She had a shiny coat and new horseshoes, all signs that someone took good care of her. The mare was the latest horse slaughtered, possibly for her meat, in a rash of such killings this year in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. | 11/02/09 13:44:49 By - Christina Veiga
Despite eBay pledge, auction for anti-abortion murder suspect begins
An eBay auction to raise money for the man charged with killing a Wichita abortion doctor launched Sunday night despite eBay's pledge to nix it. But organizers posted items that were less contentious than those they'd originally planned to sell, and they used spellings that make searches difficult. | 11/02/09 07:18:43 By - Judy L. Thomas
Alaska bootleggers face tougher penalties
Weeks after two hub cities in rural Alaska voted to remove bans on local liquor sales, the state is launching a campaign warning bootleggers they face big fines and mandatory jail time if caught. | 11/02/09 06:36:47 By - Kyle Hopkins
Did Chandra Levy suspect, gang members, threaten witness?
Prosecutors said Friday that members of MS-13, the notorious gang, and the man accused of killing former intern Chandra Levy threatened to murder a potential witness in the case. Prosecutors said the witness, who was not identified, received a letter from MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, reminding him that if he were to testify at the trial, they knew where his family is. | 10/30/09 18:24:44 By - Michael Doyle
Bigamy charges dismissed against leader of Texas sect
Bigamy charges against West Texas sect leader Yisrayl Hawkins were dismissed Thursday after the head of the House of Yahweh pleaded no contest to four cases involving child-labor violations, the Callahan County attorney announced. He's believed to have more than 20 wives. | 10/30/09 15:57:41 By - Steve Campbell
Texas strikes a big blow to ambulance chasers
The Texas Transportation Commission voted Thursday to remove from standardized accident forms the phone numbers of people involved in accidents, making it harder for lawyers and medical providers to solicit business from crash victims using telemarketing firms. | 10/30/09 15:46:47 By - Gordon Dickson
Who does the SWAT team call when it gets robbed?
Guns, ammunition and assorted tactical gear were stolen Thursday from a sport utility vehicle assigned to a member of the Dallas police SWAT team, according to a police report. | 10/30/09 15:37:26 By - Bill Miller
Death of retired U.S. marshal considered 'very suspicious'
Kansas authorities are investigating the "very suspicious" death of a Newton man identified by sources as Richard Schroeder, a retired former U.S. marshal who has worked as a private investigator. | 10/30/09 14:12:10 By - Tim Potter
Prosecutors: Man spent kids' college funds on stripper
A Chugiak, Alaska, man is accused of using fraud to plunder family Permanent Fund dividend money from his kids' college savings accounts and spending the cash on an exotic dancer in Las Vegas, federal prosecutors said Thursday. | 10/29/09 22:07:16 By - Kyle Hopkins
Jury awards $16.5 million in radio station contest death
A Sacramento, Calif., Superior Court jury today awarded the survivors of Jennifer Lea Strange more than $16.5 million as a result of her death nearly three years ago in a water-drinking contest conducted by a local radio station. | 10/29/09 21:46:15 By - Andy Furillo
Police chief says 'too many beers' led to his pool hall arrest
Atlantic Beach, S.C., police chief Randy Rizzo said he drank "too many beers," and that led to his arrest Wednesday morning by Horry County police outside a pool hall. | 10/29/09 21:02:36 By - Kurt Knapek
Dugard's father, earlier victim appear at Garrido hearing
The court hearing for Phillip and Nancy Garrido lasted only two minutes Thursday but turned into a media circus as Jaycee Lee Dugard's purported biological father and Garrido's 1976 rape victim both showed up in court. | 10/29/09 15:55:08 By - Sam Stanton
Man held girlfriend hostage since last summer
Merced police rescued a woman Tuesday from a North Merced apartment that they called a "house of horrors" where her boyfriend raped and tortured her for months. | 10/29/09 14:57:55 By - Corinne Reilly
Kansas City's school guards regain right to carry guns
What started out as a matter of fixing a policy glitch swelled into a philosophical discussion among administrators and board members about school safety, the surrounding neighborhoods and the role of holstered guns in the hallways. | 10/29/09 14:49:24 By - Joe Robertson
Judge: Prison officials destroyed tape that could prove abuse
A Missouri prison inmate claims he was restrained for 17 hours without breaks to get a drink of water or use the bathroom. But a videotape that could prove or disprove the allegations can't be found, and a federal judge concluded this week that prison officials destroyed it. | 10/29/09 14:41:22 By - Tony Rizzo
Teen faces charges after holding girlfriend's younger sister overnight
A 16-year-old boy has been hit with burglary and assault charges after he allegedly lured his girlfriend's 12-year-old sister out of her bed and kept her hidden overnight because he was upset with his girlfriend's mother, according to police. | 10/29/09 13:10:58 By - James Halpin
Miami-based financier arrested for role in money-laundering conspiracy
A German financial manager based in Miami was arrested on money-laundering charges Wednesday as part of a sweeping criminal investigation into an international hedge fund that has cost major banks about $400 million in losses, according to sources familiar with the probe. | 10/29/09 07:01:44 By - Jay Weaver
Ex-Veco executive Allen sentenced to 3 years, $750,000 fine
Bill Allen, the central figure in Alaska's public corruption scandal, pleaded guilty to bribery, conspiracy and tax violations more than two years ago and since then has been a key witness in a string of high-profile corruption trials. | 10/28/09 18:39:24 By - Sean Cockerham, Richard Mauer and Lisa Demer
Police union: Department's hidden cameras a violation
The discovery of a hidden camera in the Miami Beach Police Department's internal affairs interview room has the police officers union crying foul and demanding an outside investigation. | 10/28/09 18:38:53 By - Jennifer Lebovitch
Washington judge found guilty of harassment, patronizing prostitute
A jury has found Pierce County Superior Court Judge Michael Hecht guilty of felony harassment and patronizing a prostitute. The verdict was announced just after 10 a.m. today. After the first verdict was announced, there was an audible gasp in the courtroom. | 10/28/09 16:46:12 By - Stacey Mulick
Kansas hotel tryst: Man robbed of cash, phone and pants
A man who thought he was meeting a woman for a hotel interlude got more than he anticipated Tuesday night, police said. | 10/28/09 16:42:12 By - Stan Finger
Pot nursery found in house rented out by City of Modesto
A tip from a utility crew led Modesto police to a $1 million marijuana growing operation Monday in a home owned by the city in the Dry Creek river plain. | 10/28/09 16:21:58 By - Adam Ashton
Fresno dealing with a 'suicide by cop' shooting
In what Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer called a classic case of "suicide by cop," a man who appeared to be armed was shot and killed by officers in northwest Fresno this morning. | 10/28/09 15:23:16 By - Jim Guy
Alleged Kentucky thief flees in thong and hoodie
A woman fled from a Lexington lingerie store Monday night, wearing little more than thongs, the store owner says. Wearing only a pink zipped-up hoodie and two pairs of thongs belonging to the store, the woman ran, hopped in a truck and left. | 10/28/09 12:39:44 By - Karla Ward
eBay won't allow auction for Roeder's defense fund
An eBay auction planned by abortion opponents to raise money for Scott Roeder, who is accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller, will not be permitted, company officials said Tuesday. | 10/28/09 07:22:27 By - Judy L. Thomas
Ex-Veco CEO Allen to be sentenced on bribery charges
With his delays exhausted, Bill Allen, the central figure in Alaska's public corruption scandal, is due to be sentenced this morning on bribery, conspiracy and tax charges. Allen, 72, once ran the leading oil-field business in Alaska, Veco Corp. | 10/28/09 06:41:34 By - Richard Mauer
Miami Beach man calls Secret Service, asks to see Obama
With President Barack Obama in Miami Beach for a fundraiser, mayoral candidate Raphael Herman showed up at City Hall bloodied and screaming, according to witnesses, and then called the Secret Service to say he knew where Obama was staying and would pay him a visit. | 10/27/09 19:21:11 By - David Smiley
Will killer in 1984 murder be freed?
A Fresno man who killed a man, cut out his heart and put it in his pocket in 1984 will get another chance at freedom today, and a state Supreme Court ruling could help his case. | 10/27/09 13:01:30 By - Pablo Lopez
Teen in Dallas terror plot pleads not guilty
The Jordanian national accused of attempting to blow up a Dallas skyscraper last month pleaded not guilty Monday morning during his arraignment in federal court. Hosam "Sam" Smadi, 19, was indicted Oct. 7 on one count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of bombing a public place. | 10/27/09 07:42:07 By - Melody McDonald
Sex allegations against Bill Allen emerge in unsealed documents
Former Veco CEO Bill Allen wants a federal judge to look beyond his corruption of Alaska politics to a life of charity and job creation in the state when he is asking for leniency and a sentence of only six months in prison. However, as Allen prepares to learn his punishment for bribery and conspiracy from U.S. District Judge John Sedwick, newly unsealed documents in a related case provide details into allegations that he maintained sexual relationships with underaged girls and asked two women to lie under oath about his sexual relationship with them, or that he first got caught violating laws governing political campaign finance in 1985. | 10/27/09 06:40:06 By - Richard Mauer
Just in time for Christmas, Ponzi suspect's loot for sale
Attention, holiday shoppers: Ill-gotten gains including a 2009 Cadillac Escalade Platinum Edition and a Chanel sapphire-and-diamond watch will hit the auction block the week before Thanksgiving. The items will be sold to pay back the investors of a former businessman who faces fraud charges. | 10/26/09 19:13:49 By - Thomas Goldsmith
Slain college football player remembered in his hometown
Jasper Howard was laid to rest Monday afternoon, more than a week after he was fatally stabbed in the stomach following a late night campus party at the University of Connecticut on Oct. 18. No one has been charged with the death of the 20-year-old former Miami Edison High football and track star. | 10/26/09 18:45:24 By - Manny Navarro
Upheld: 4,060 year sentence for child molester in Texas
A state appeals court has affirmed the 4,060-year prison sentence given to a Springtown man in 2008 for sexually abusing three teenage girls. | 10/26/09 17:26:03 By - Bill Miller
At 150 mph, way over the speed limit even in Texas
Speeds of 150 mph were clocked early Friday by Grapevine police as they tried to stop a sports utility vehicle on Texas 114, according to reports. | 10/26/09 17:21:47 By - Bill Miller
Woman cop imposter robs man, 95, in Wichita
A woman posing as a police officer forced her way into a southeast Wichita home Thursday night, assaulted the 95-year-old man who lives there and robbed him. | 10/26/09 15:24:39 By - Stan Finger
Safety - not cash - is the driver for top cop ticket writer in Wichita
Wichita police Officer Brian Safris pulled his patrol car to the curb at Douglas and Topeka and focused his attention on the crosswalk at the east end of the intersection. "You see that white line?" he asked. | 10/26/09 15:18:09 By - Hurst Lavania
Abortion foes use eBay to raise funds for doctor's accused killer
An Army of God manual. A prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons. An autographed bullhorn. These are among the items that abortion foes plan to auction on eBay and other Web sites in a fundraiser for Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man charged with killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller. | 10/25/09 18:15:46 By - Judy L. Thomas
Arson case from 1991 revives Texas death penalty debate
The case of a man tried, convicted and executed over a house fire that killed his three children 18 years ago has raised questions about Texas' death penalty. Fire experts have challenged the arson investigation that was fundamental to the state's case against Cameron Todd Willingham, raising the possibility that the fire may have started accidentally. | 10/25/09 17:03:56 By - Dave Montgomery
To cut costs, sheriff abandons 'Shamu' scheme for cruisers
The Sedgwick County, Kan., Sheriff's Office no longer will spend $4,000 per patrol car for the award-winning "Shamu" paint scheme and decal package it's used for more than 17 years, switching to a new silver-on-blue design that will cost about $500 per vehicle. | 10/24/09 19:03:24 By - Stan Finger
Justice Department stands by conviction of Alaska's Kott
After months of backtracking in its prosecutions of the Alaska corruption cases, the Justice Department said Friday that former House Speaker Pete Kott received a proper trial in 2007 and his conviction on bribery, extortion and conspiracy charges should stand. | 10/24/09 17:58:50 By - Richard Mauer
Bank robber demands $100, then waits to be arrested
A man walked into an Alaska bank this month and handed a teller a note scribbled on the back of a bank slip, demanding $100. Police arriving on the scene moments later found that note on the floor. The money was still in the bank. So was the robber, who'd taken a seat on a couch in the bank lobby, waiting for police. | 10/24/09 17:39:42 By - James Halpin
Woman gets probation for burning toddler with curling iron
A Tarrant County jury deliberated for more than 11 hours over two days before convicting a 65-year-old Haslet woman Friday of burning her 2-year-old great-granddaughter with a curling iron in July 2008. Jurors sentenced Saundra Patterson to five years' probation. | 10/24/09 16:52:36 By - Nathaniel Jones
Police clock SUV at 150 mph, but can it go that fast?
Speeds of 150 mph were clocked early Friday by police as they tried to stop a Buick Enclave sport utility vehicle on Texas 114, according to reports. Car and Driver's Web site lists the Enclave's top speed (governor limited) at 109 mph, but a police spokesman said he's sticking to the speed listed in the police report. | 10/24/09 16:46:39 By - Bill Miller
Arson fire at mayor's law office shakes Miami suburb
Beneath the calm surface of Miami Lakes -- a small bedroom community known for its sports fields, green spaces and grazing cows -- the mayor and his critics are locked in a pitched battle for control of the town's soul. On Wednesday, the town was startled by reports of an overnight fire at Pizzi's law office, one that authorities said was intentionally set. | 10/24/09 16:38:43 By - Yudy Pineiro
New national program launched against dating violence
By the time they graduate from high school, one in three teenage girls nationally will have been in an abusive relationship. With the help of a $1 million initiative, Catholic Charities launched a four-year program Thursday to promote healthy relationships and to prevent teen dating violence. | 10/23/09 15:02:53 By - Courtney Looney
Trail of candy bars leads to Rock Hill thief
An early trick-or-treater was arrested Wednesday after police say he stuffed 52 packages of snack-size candy bars in his pants and fled a Rock Hill store. | 10/23/09 14:29:24 By - Christy Mullins
FBI: Florida DNA backlog will be fixed
Another federal agency has been brought into Congressman Vern Buchanan’s investigation into fixing the gaps in the federal database entry of offenders' DNA that prevented local authorities from getting a DNA match on accused serial home invader and rapist Delmer Smith III. | 10/23/09 12:37:12 By - Robert Napper
N.C. Gov. Perdue to block release of inmates
North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue drew a line Thursday, forbidding prison officials from freeing 20 inmates who have spent more than half their lives in prison for rape, murder or assault. Perdue said she would risk being thrown in jail before she authorized the inmates' release. | 10/23/09 07:31:32 By - Mandy Locke
California marijuana, mortgage fraud scheme nets 18 indictments
Federal prosecutors announced 18 indictments Thursday in a pot cultivation and mortgage fraud scheme that purchased homes in Elk Grove and Sacramento, California, and converted them into bustling "grow houses" for tens of thousands of marijuana plants. | 10/23/09 06:51:44 By - Peter Hecht
FBI looks at bribery allegations against Alaska Rep. Young
An Alaska businessman admitted to giving gifts to Republican Rep. Don Young, the state's long-serving sole congressman, in a confession made public this week as part of an ongoing federal investigation into political corruption in the state. | 10/22/09 20:33:59 By - Erika Bolstad
Washington state woman found guilty in llama abuse trial
A woman was found guilty Wednesday of abusing several members of a herd of 41 llamas in her care. A veterinarian testified at trial she found many of the llamas emaciated, infested with parasites, and found the field covered in feces and eaten down to swamp grass. | 10/22/09 16:40:55 By - Peter Jensen
Police: Clerk stole lottery ticket, cashed it and left country
A 25-year-old convenience store clerk suspected of stealing a customer's $1 million winning lottery ticket has cashed it and may have left the country, authorities said. Police have seized more than $365,000 deposited in banks by Pankaj Joshi, a University of Texas at Arlington student who quit his job in June, according to court documents. | 10/22/09 14:41:28 By - Mitch Mitchell
Students help exonerate 2 men convicted of murder
Students with the University of Texas at Arlington Innocence Project played a key role in the exoneration of two Dallas County men who were wrongfully convicted of capital murder in a 1997 case and sentenced to life in prison. Another man has confessed to the murder, and the men will soon be released, the district attorney's office announced Wednesday. | 10/22/09 14:27:15 By - Alex Branch
Hockey game brawl between fathers sends one to hospital
A brutal confrontation between two fathers after a girls' field hockey match on Monday in Chico left Davis Senior High School players, coaches and parents on edge Wednesday. The fight thay one man in the hospital overnight, Chico police said. | 10/22/09 13:21:10 By - Hudson Sangree
Slain Sacramento student sometimes victim of bullies
Gerald Hawkins, a 52-year-old math teacher, said his son had never spoken about any problems with his roommates, including 19-year-old Quran Jones, the student suspected of fatally beating Scott Hawkins to death with a baseball bat inside the American River Courtyard dorm. | 10/22/09 13:15:58 By - Sam Stanton and Laurel Rosenhall
Kansas City man accused of posing drugged girls for child porn
A south Kansas City man allegedly used sedative-laced ice cream to drug young girls and pose them for pornographic pictures, according to court documents. | 10/22/09 12:28:50 By - Tony Rizzo
Prosecutors want ex-Veco CEO Allen to serve almost four years
Former Veco chief executive Bill Allen should be sentenced to just fewer than four years in prison and fined $750,000 for his role as Alaska's corrupter in chief, federal prosecutors say. The government's recommendation was filed late Wednesday, a week before Allen and another Veco executive involved in a wide-ranging corruption scheme, Rick Smith, are due to be sentenced on their 2007 guilty pleas to conspiracy, bribery and tax charges. | 10/22/09 06:36:42 By - Richard Mauer
Police shoot alleged California campus attacker; victim dies
A man beaten in a California State University, Sacramento dormitory room this afternoon has died, authorities said late Wednesday. His alleged attacker, who was shot by campus police officers after the beating, remains in the hospital, authorities said. His condition is unknown. | 10/21/09 21:30:37 By - By Kim Minugh and Laurel Rosenhall
Kentucky prison inmates don't like the food, and it shows
Inmate surveys show plummeting approval ratings of prison food in Kentucky since the state outsourced the work to a private company in 2005, creating unhappy prisoners that some believe have become a security problem. The decline in inmate satisfaction was particularly steep at a facility where prisoners rioted and burned much of the complex on Aug. 21. | 10/21/09 20:21:59 By - Valerie Honeycutt Spears
Prosecutors: Woman used curling iron to burn toddler
A 2-year-old girl's great-grandmother went on trial in Texas Tuesday, accused of repeatedly using a curling iron to burn the toddler in the summer of 2008. The burns were discovered when the woman, who had custody of the 2-year-old and her then-5-year-old sister, went to visit relatives. | 10/21/09 19:52:37 By - Domingo Ramirez Jr.
Charlotte heroin deaths raise fears of violence
Heroin overdoses and deaths in Charlotte have more than tripled since last year, a concern to authorities who want to prevent a repeat of the city's drug battles of the early 1990s. Local officials are particularly concerned that gangs, most of which are connected to Mexican drug organizations, are aggressively targeting teenagers. | 10/21/09 18:39:51 By - Franco Ordonez
Woman gets 7 years for burning Fort Benning, Ga., building
A federal judge sentenced Shawana Topekia Pierce, the former Fort Benning civilian employee who pleaded guilty in July of burning down the post's Judge Advocate General's headquarters, to 7 years in prison. She must pay $7.5 million in restitution. | 10/21/09 18:31:11 By - Lily Gordon
Florida doctor offers $50,000 reward to find wife's killer
Dr. James Briles unleashed the anger he feels against whomever took the life of his wife Kathleen, as his family and two crime fighting groups offered $50,000 for information that leads to the capture of her killer. He found his wife bound and beaten to death in the living room of their home. | 10/21/09 18:03:56 By - Robert Napper
Baja governor wants more details about deported felons
The governor of Baja California pressed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Tuesday to offer his state more details about Mexicans released from California prisons and deported into Mexico. Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millan said federal and state authorities in Baja could benefit from details about deported felons so they can identify fugitives wanted within Mexico and deportees with ties to organized crime that plagues both countries. | 10/21/09 17:37:24 By - Susan Ferriss
Cocaine cartel leader sentenced to 45 years
Once a feared Colombian cocaine kingpin, Diego Leon Montoya Sanchez repeatedly apologized to a federal judge in Miami on Wednesday for his life of trafficking, greed and murder before he was sentenced to 45 years in prison. | 10/21/09 17:45:44 By - Jay Weaver
Democrats running for Texas governor signal support for death penalty
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer said Tuesday that he still supports the death penalty but believes that the process needs more scrutiny. His comments came after former Gov. Mark White raised questions about whether capital punishment should be ended in Texas. | 10/21/09 17:36:56 By - Anna M. Tinsley
Lead lawyer in Stevens prosecution resigns senior post
The lead lawyer who oversaw the botched prosecution of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens will step down from his role as the head of the Justice Department's public integrity section, the department confirmed Wednesday. | 10/21/09 17:36:33 By - Erika Bolstad
Police: Slain Charlotte teen was pressured to have abortion
Royce Mitchell was pressuring 15-year-old Tiffany Wright to end her pregnancy - and took her to an abortion clinic - according to new court documents that may shed light on why police say Mitchell should be prosecuted for statutory rape. On Sept. 14, Tiffany, a Hawthorne High junior, was fatally shot as she waited for her school bus on Mallard Creek Road. Doctors delivered her baby girl, but the infant died. | 10/21/09 14:57:06 By - By Christopher D. Kirkpatrick and Gary L. Wright
Kentucky tops nation in fatal child abuse, report indicates
Kentucky had the highest rate of child deaths from abuse and neglect in the United States during 2007, according to a report released Wednesday by a national child advocacy group. Every Child Matters Education Fund, a non-profit group in Washington, D.C., reported that 41 Kentucky children died from abuse and neglect in 2007 — a rate of 4.09 deaths per 100,000 Kentucky children. | 10/21/09 07:09:53 By - Valarie Honeycutt Spears
Former Veco CEO Allen seeks sentencing delay
Former Veco chief executive Bill Allen is asking that his Oct. 28 sentencing on corruption charges be postponed four months because his cooperation in ongoing criminal cases is "incomplete," as is a contempt investigation of federal prosecutors in which he is also assisting. | 10/21/09 06:41:27 By - Richard Mauer
Supreme Court to rule on release of Guantanamo detainees into U.S.
The Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to weigh whether a federal judge has the power to release Guantanamo Bay prisoners into the United States continues a legal tug of war begun when the Bush administration opened the overseas detention camp. | 10/20/09 22:59:15 By - Michael Doyle
DNA leads to charges in 30-year-old child rape, murder
Fernando Caro, 59, was arrested in San Quentin Prison, where he is already serving a life term for two other homicides. Fresno, Calif., police chief Jerry Dyer said DNA technology enabled detectives to link Caro to the killing of Victoria Ann DeSantiago, 8, who was kidnapped, raped and slain in 1979 while on an errand to a convenience store. | 10/20/09 22:42:06 By - Jim Guy
Federal medical marijuana policy leaves some advocates wary
Medical marijuana advocates were ecstatic at word that the Obama administration is backing off prosecution efforts in California and 13 other states that allow use of the drug in treating pain and other ailments. But they remained concerned that the new policy is still vague and that oversight of marijuana dispensaries remains a hodgepodge of local regulations. | 10/20/09 06:47:44 By - Sam Stanton and Denny Walsh
Sacramento sheriff's veteran sentenced for child porn
Former Sacramento County sheriff's Lt. Mark W. Kessell was sentenced Tuesday to four years and four months in prison for downloading Internet child pornography. Both the prosecutor and a probation officer had recommended three years, but the judge said that was not enough punishment to fit what he called "a crime that turns my stomach." | 10/20/09 16:53:10 By - Denny Walsh and Sam Stanton
99-year-old grandmother swindled out of $2,200
An unsuspecting 99-year-old woman has fallen prey to scammers after she wired $2,200 to a man in Canada who claimed to be her grandson and said he needed money to get out of jail. | 10/20/09 16:45:50 By - Kristin M. Kraemer
Prostitute: Superior court judge paid me for sex
A 21-year-old man testified that he had sex with Pierce County (Washington) Superior Court Judge Michael Hecht, then a lawyer, 8 or 10 times in Hecht's office. Hecht is charged with patronizing a prostitute and felony harassment. | 10/20/09 16:36:38 By - Sean Robinson
Death penalty's cost effectiveness evaluated in report
States could save hundreds of millions of dollars by eliminating the death penalty, according to a report released today. The report, which includes a national survey of police chiefs, was compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit group that researches capital punishment. | 10/20/09 07:12:54 By - Ron Sylvester
Alaska's rape tracking system has too many holes, according to report
Alaska needs more village public safety officers, forensic nurses and better tracking for sexual assaults to help combat its status as the rape capital of the U.S., according to a new Senate Judiciary Committee report. | 10/20/09 06:39:32 By - James Halpin
Parents plead with parole board to keep killer in prison
Time hasn't eased the suffering for family and friends of Nancy Shoemaker, who was 9 years old when she was abducted from a south Wichita street and murdered in 1990. They offered tearful, impassioned testimony of their pain and why Donald Wacker should remain in prison to two members of the Kansas Parole Board. | 10/19/09 19:20:03 By - Stan Finger
Guantanamo hearings to begin for Sudanese captives
With U.S.-Sudan policy in flux, the Pentagon on Monday airlifted a planeload of lawyers and other staff to Guantanamo for hearings in the war court cases of two long-held Sudanese captives accused of working for al Qaeda. | 10/19/09 21:00:05 By - Carol Rosenberg
Texas teen gets 60 years for stabbing mother
Jennifer Bailey, 18, must serve at least 30 years before she is eligible for parole, an official said. After Susan Bailey was fatally stabbed in September 2008, Jennifer Bailey fled to South Dakota with her boyfriend and younger brother. | 10/19/09 19:00:31 By - Domingo Ramirez Jr.
Police reopen decades-old Mississippi murder case
Lynn Welch sat in her husband's car one cold winter night in 1976 and waited for him to return to a Gulfport cab stand. She waited and waited but he didn't come. She would soon learn he had picked up a fare for a quick ride but was stabbed to death inside the taxi. | 10/19/09 18:53:41 By - Robin Fitzgerald
Slain autistic student used two knives to attack officer
Friday's fatal shooting at Carolina Forest High School in Conway, S.C., was the first incident in which an S.C. school officer has killed a student on campus, officials said. | 10/19/09 18:27:41 By - Aliana Ramos and Kurt Knapek
Sneakers tied together and hung over a line mean drugs
The Rev. Willie Phillips of the Move Against Drugs in Columbus, Ga. confronts drug dealers in his campaign to drive them out of the small south Georgia city that's home to the Army's Fort Benning. | 10/19/09 18:19:13 By - Tim Chitwood
U.S. to ease medical marijuana prosecutions
The Justice Department said Monday that it would mellow out on prosecuting medical marijuana users in the 13 states in which therapeutic pot smoking was allowed. Attorney General Eric Holder formally directed federal prosecutors to refocus investigations on heftier targets. | 10/19/09 14:59:50 By - Michael Doyle
Theft of child's memorial riles classmates
Memo to whoever stole a $1,400 bronze memorial statue dedicated to a little girl from the very schoolyard where she and her pals once played: Even a fifth-grader can spot a fool. Friends of Tori Heard, a second-grader who died at age 7 in an October 2006 car crash, can't see why anyone would have ripped off Tori's statue. | 10/16/09 17:11:35 By - Joe Kovac Jr.
Life sentence sought for accused killer of Chandra Levy
Federal prosecutors revealed Friday that they will seek life imprisonment without possibility of parole for the man accused of murdering former intern Chandra Levy. | 10/16/09 16:29:00 By - Michael Doyle
Autistic high school student shot dead after stabbing officer
A 16-year-old male autistic student was fatally shot this morning after an altercation with a resource officer at a South Carolina high school, officials said. The student was armed with a knife and got in a ''tussle'' with the resource officer. | 10/16/09 17:43:02 By - Tonya Root
911 calls reveal teen's agony in moments after fire attack
Within minutes of being burned over much of his body, Michael Brewer wailed in agony as onlookers tried to help the 15-year-old, according to 911 tapes released Friday. "Please, please, please," the boy screamed and cried. "Please help me." | 10/16/09 17:07:06 By - Jennifer Lebovich
DA: Garrido trial may take 2 years to commence
Phillip Garrido's attorney has filed a broad request for information on what type of evidence has been gathered against her client, who is charged with abducting Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991, when she was 11. | 10/16/09 17:00:11 By - Sam Stanton
North Carolina forced to release 20 violent criminals
Twenty murderers, rapists and robbers sentenced to life in North Carolina prisons in the 1970s will be released at the end of October as a result of recent court rulings. Ten of those scheduled to be released were sex offenders, including men who raped young girls. Seven have spent time on death row. The one woman in the group was convicted of murdering a state trooper while fleeing a bank robbery. | 10/16/09 07:34:09 By - Mandy Locke
Kentucky gets low grade for protecting legal rights of kids
A report by two leading child advocacy groups on Thursday gave Kentucky a failing grade in protecting the legal rights of abused kids. Kentucky was one of eight states to earn a D and one of 15 to earn a D or an F. The state's score was due, in part, to lack of a requirement that attorneys be trained before they are appointed to represent children in court and for failure to require that representation continue through appeals. | 10/16/09 07:08:53 By - Beth Musgrave
Drivers challenge red light cameras --but the pictures stop them
Drivers caught by red-light cameras are starting to bombard Kansas City with challenges to their tickets. But a lot of them don’t know how clearly their hand was caught in the cookie jar. Once they see a video -- with blown-up still photos of their license plates -- they often change their minds. | 10/16/09 00:37:12 By - Lynn Horsley and Donald Bradley
Survivor of 1989 killing spree recounts the horror
Carmina Salcido remembers her sister Sofia, 4, trying to protect her. She remembers her father's eyes when he came for baby Teresa. She remembers the silence that followed as he walked away. On April 14, 1989, Ramon Salcido, 28, embarked on a killing spree that shattered the solace of the Sonoma wine country, horrified the rest of the country and ripped apart Carmina's life before it had really begun. | 10/15/09 16:44:43 By - Jennifer Garza
Lifers could be released from North Carolina prisons
A North Carolina Supreme Court decision on the length of a "life" sentence may force the state to release 20 violent offenders this month. Gov. Beverly Perdue has asked state lawyers to try to reverse or delay the release. | 10/15/09 18:46:11 By - Staff Reports
Hundreds arrested in nationwide anti-gang sweep
A six-month anti-gang sweep has resulted in 1,472 arrests nationwide of foreign-born people suspected of criminal acts in the United States, officials announced Thursday. Targeted gangs included MS-13, Surenos-13, 18th Street Gang, Latin Kings, Bloods, Crips and Vatos Locos. | 10/15/09 18:37:02 By - Bill Miller
South Carolina grants posthumous pardon for 1913 murder
Brothers Thomas and Meeks Griffin were executed in 1915 for the 1913 murder of 73-year-old John Q. Lewis, a Confederate veteran in Blackstock. The verdict is believed to be the first posthumous pardon in a capital case in state history. | 10/15/09 17:45:33 By - Roddie Burris
Maria Shriver apologizes for breaking California cell phone law
California's first lady Maria Shriver apologized Wednesday after getting some heat for photos and a video that showed her driving while chatting on her cell phone - a violation of the law her husband signed that prohibits driving and talking on the phone without a hands-free device. | 10/15/09 18:50:40 By - Torey Van Oot
Court blocks request for Washington judicial records
The Washington Supreme Court reasserted that judicial records are not public under state law when it rejected a private citizen's request to obtain the correspondence of Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan. | 10/15/09 18:41:40 By - Steve Maynard
Washington state man accused of hitting autistic boy
A former coach accused of hitting a young autistic boy at the Richland, Wash., library in August made his first appearance in court. He allegedly swore at and struck 7-year-old Matthew Tolick, who was kicking and screaming as his caretaker tried to lead him out of the building. | 10/15/09 18:33:21 By - Paula Horton
Texas Gov. Perry labels forensics panel story a 'media sideshow'
Gov. Rick Perry, seeking to defuse an election-season controversy over the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, described Willingham on Wednesday as a "monster" and "bad man" whose conviction in the deaths of his three daughters was sustained "every step of the way" by the courts. Perry, facing a vigorous re-election challenge, has drawn national media scrutiny after shaking up the Texas Forensic Science Commission. | 10/15/09 16:54:49 By - Dave Montgomery
Suspected bomber in mail case said to be victim's brother
A 51-year-old Oklahoma man has been charged in a September mail bombing that injured a man at a Visalia business. Authorities say the suspect is the victim's brother. | 10/15/09 15:20:47 By - Lewis Griswold
Nurse accused of VA patient's death is released
Maria K. Whitt, 32, was placed on house arrest and released to her mother. The former VA hospital nurse is charged with murder in the death of World War II veteran Jesse Lee Chain, 90, who died of a morphine overdose Sept. 3, 2006. | 10/14/09 17:39:34 By - Ashlee Clark
Ex-wife: Kansas bigamist was 'charming guy'
Jayme Wear married a charming man last year and they lived a good life at their Overland Park, Kansas, apartment. Until she discovered him with another woman - in another apartment at the same complex. The two women discovered they were both married to him. | 10/14/09 17:03:30 By - Joe Lambe
Texas teen attacks mom with baseball bat
In a voice-mail message to a friend, 17-year-old Conner Troutt calmly explained that he had beaten his mother to death with a baseball bat. The mother, Donna Troutt, was still alive in critical condition. | 10/14/09 16:40:32 By - Deanna Boyd
Delay deadline passes for Alaska corruption case's key bribe witnesses
The deadline has come and gone for prosecutors to seek a delay of the Oct. 28 sentencing of former Veco chief executive Bill Allen, the FBI's key informant in the Alaska public corruption investigation. | 10/14/09 06:45:41 By - Richard Mauer
Burned boy will remain in Miami hospital for months
Michael Brewer, the 15-year-old Deerfield Beach boy who on Monday was doused in rubbing alcohol and set ablaze, will remain hospitalized for months at Ryder Trauma Center in Miami, where doctors said Wednesday that the boy's face and hands were spared serious damage. | 10/14/09 15:30:25 By - Adam H. Beasley
Batman valuables claimed by murdered millionaire's widow
The riddle of the missing Batman valuables owned by slain Fort Lauderdale millionaire Ben Novack Jr. has been solved - at least for now. But the collection - thought to be the second-largest in the country - is now part of the ongoing battle over Novack's vast estate, with his widow, Narcy, claiming ownership of the property. | 10/13/09 16:30:19 By - Julie Brown
California counties to test DUI ignition locks
Motorists found guilty of a first drunken driving offense in four California counties will be required to install and use breathalyzers in their cars for five months, under a law signed this week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. | 10/13/09 17:07:01 By - Tony Bizjak
Animal cruelty charges filed against pet hoarder
The owner of a cat-rescue nonprofit has been charged with 33 counts of animal cruelty after Anchorage police say they found dozens of cats, dogs and birds sick and wallowing in their own waste at her home and shelter. | 10/13/09 16:56:02 By - James Halpin
Judge cuts Cuban spy's life sentence
Antonio Guerrero, a convicted Cuban intelligence agent who infiltrated the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West - but didn't obtain or pass along state secrets to his handlers in Havana - saw his life sentence reduced to approximately 22 years on Tuesday. | 10/13/09 16:43:59 By - Jay Weaver
New California law bans cow tail amputations
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation banning the practice of amputating part of cows' tails despite criticizing the bill this summer. | 10/13/09 18:51:34 By - Robert Rodriguez
Texas panel to examine safeguards against wrongful convictions
A blue-ribbon panel named after a wrongfully convicted inmate from Fort Worth is beginning a prolonged mission toward reforming criminal justice in Texas, fueled by a ballooning controversy over the possibility that the state may have executed an innocent man. The Tim Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions will conduct its first meeting today, starting a yearlong effort toward recommending new safeguards against erroneous convictions. | 10/13/09 07:43:15 By - Dave Montgomery
Charlotte dealmaker leaves trail of financial debacles
John Knox Bridges, a lover of art and aviation, told friends and associates he came from a family worth billions. He said he owned a corporate jet, hobnobbed with world leaders, and served on the boards of prestigious groups including New York's Guggenheim Museum and the World Health Organization. A Charlotte Observer investigation found many of his claims to be untrue, and he is accused of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from business associates and nonprofit groups. | 10/12/09 18:01:37 By - Ames Alexander
Judge: Widow of Kentucky plane crash victim can sue airline
A federal judge has ruled that the widow of one of the Comair Flight 5191 passengers can sue for loss of companionship, one of the first such claims to go forward in Kentucky. The August 2006 crash, near Lexington's Blue Grass Airport, killed 47 people. | 10/12/09 23:55:08 By - Beth Musgrave
Officer: 'I just held on' to teen dangling from bridge
Shawnee Police Officer John Nahrebeski's fists gripped the back of the boy's Carhartt jacket. And gripped. And gripped. Would the jacket hold, would he lose his footing, how would he get the teen up? "A million things go through your mind," Nahrebeski said. | 10/12/09 23:29:35 By - Grace Hobson
Marijuana's value hard to measure -- it's illegal, after all
Supporters of legalizing marijuana and officers charged with seizing it agree on one point: It's a valuable crop. Just how valuable, however, is a point of contention, and the argument is more than just technical: Larger quantities generally result in harsher penalties in court. | 10/12/09 17:26:17 By - Jim Guy
Alaska weighs whether drawings constitute child porn
An Alaska state prosecutor who handles child pornography cases wants sexually explicit drawings of children -- even computer-generated cartoons -- to be as illegal as photographs of actual abuse. However, the move to criminalize anime worries some free speech advocates. | 10/12/09 16:29:44 By - Megan Holland
'No snitching': When telling on someone is worse than not
In many urban areas, providing information to police is a violation of street ethics punished by anything from intimidation to death. The anti-snitching code has decreased respect for the criminal justice system and has made murders and other crimes more difficult to prosecute, law enforcement officials say. | 10/12/09 16:17:59 By - Stanley B. Chambers Jr.
Sacramento mayor gets robbed in San Francisco
Noting that "no good deed goes unpunished," Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said he was robbed on the streets of San Francisco over the weekend as he was helping "an elderly gentleman I met on the BART train." | 10/12/09 13:35:12 By - Mark Glover
Are home invasion fears spurring Bradenton gun sales?
Anthony Mikesell and his friend, Kevin Shahan, woke up early to drive from North Port to the Palmetto Gun Show at the Manatee Convention Center on Sunday to get some ammunition for Mikesell’s 9mm pistol. They said it’s tough to find ammunition for any firearm or even find firearms for sale because so many people are buying them for home defense. | 10/12/09 12:57:41 By - Richard Dymond
Kentucky VA center where nurse charged had high death rate
A former nurse at the VA hospital in Lexington, Ky., has been charged in the 2006 death of a 90-year-old World War II veteran. A consultant warned in September that the hospital's ICU death rate was unusually high -- amid a laundry list of other problems. | 10/11/09 13:07:33 By - Jennifer Hewlett
Ex-VA nurse pleads not guilty
A nurse charged in the death of a Veterans Affairs Medical Center patient entered a not guilty plea Friday during an arraignment in U.S. District Court in Lexington, Ky. Maria K. Whitt, 32, of Mount Sterling, is charged with murder in the death of 90-year-old World War II veteran Jesse Lee Chain, who died of a morphine overdose Sept. 3, 2006. | 10/10/09 15:04:38 By - Jennifer Hewlett
Body tissue scheme spurred by profits
It's illegal to buy and sell human organs in the United States, but trading in cadaver limbs, skin, ligaments and veins is a billion-dollar industry that enables doctors to rebuild knees, repair weak bones and fuse teeth implants. As a federal criminal case concluded this week against Philip Guyett, who ran a business in Raleigh, N.C. that allowed potentially diseased body parts to be used in at least 127 unsuspecting patients around the country. | 10/10/09 14:34:35 By - SARAH AVERY
Seattle airport bust scoops up Alaska-bound drugs
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport officials are calling it their largest drug bust ever, and all the cocaine was headed to Anchorage. Three men, including two Anchorage residents, were indicted Thursday on federal drug conspiracy charges after police found nearly a dozen packages of cocaine -- with a street value police said would easily exceed half a million dollars in Alaska -- wrapped and stuffed in boxes of Nerf and Hot Wheels toys in their baggage. | 10/10/09 14:26:00 By - JAMES HALPIN
Graham moves to block Obama from trying 9/11 suspects in U.S.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday that he'd attached an amendment to an appropriations bill that would prohibit the Obama administration from spending money on the prosecution and trial of the accused terrorists before U.S. civilian federal judges. | 10/09/09 21:34:23 By - James Rosen
Prosecutor may seek death penalty in rest stop killing
Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said Friday that he might seek the death penalty for a 33-year-old man accused in the shooting death of a truck driver last year at a rest area on Interstate 29. John M. Hughes, an inmate in Ohio, faces charges of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and armed criminal action in the death of Valentin G. Kirilchuk, 39, of Springfield, Mo. Hughes's girlfirend, who's in a Mississippi prison, is also charged. | 10/09/09 21:22:17 By - Glenn E. Rice
Perry makes more changes to panel probing execution
Gov. Rick Perry on Friday removed another member of the Texas Forensic Science Commission in a shakeup that has been tied to the panel's probe of the evidence that led to the execution of a Houston man in the fire deaths of his daughters. Perry has now replaced four members of the 9-member panel. | 10/09/09 21:13:54 By - Dave Montgomery
California teen gets life for crime he committed at 14
Angel Cabanillas, now 18, will be the only California inmate serving a life sentence for a crime committed at the age of 14 or younger, his defense attorney said. Attorney Martin Baker of Modesto said a life sentence for a child's crime is "cruel and unusual punishment." | 10/09/09 20:34:19 By - Merrill Balassone
Family stunned by account of jail battle that left inmate dead
Jailers at the Stanislaus County Jail in California used Tasers and a pepperball gun in an effort to get Craig Prescott under control so he could be moved to a "safety cell." Instead, he was knocked unconcious and died at a Modesto, Calif., hopsital. "My son was mentally ill," said Prescott's mother. "What's their excuse?" | 10/09/09 20:13:57 By - Rosalio Ahumada
Man sought in shooting death of 17-year-old surrenders
A wanted man police say might have been involved in an East Anchorage gang-related gunfight that left a teenage girl dead last month turned himself in to police on unrelated charges. His lawyer said the 20-year-old had nothing to do with the shooting Sept. 20 that left 17-year-old Desirae Douglas dead. | 10/09/09 20:00:50 By - Don Hunter and James Halpin
Judge stops ex-Kentucky state Rep. Nunn's psychological evaluation
Fayette Circuit Judge Thomas Clark stopped a psychological evaluation of former Ky. state Rep. Steve Nunn, who is charged with murder in the Sept. 11 death of his ex-fiancee. Clark's Friday morning decision to set aside his earlier order for an evaluation will return Nunn to the Fayette County jail. | 10/09/09 12:55:05 By - Amy Wilson
Seattle-Tacoma Airport officials find 11 kilos of cocaine in toy boxes
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport officials are calling it their largest drug bust ever, and all the cocaine was headed to Anchorage. Three men, including two Anchorage residents, were indicted Thursday on federal drug conspiracy charges after police found nearly a dozen packages of cocaine -- with a street value police said would easily exceed half a million dollars in Alaska -- wrapped and stuffed in boxes of Nerf and Hot Wheels toys in their baggage. | 10/09/09 06:39:10 By - James Halpin
Inmates' lawyers seek contempt order for Schwarzenegger
Saying the Schwarzenegger administration is thumbing its nose at three federal judges with a prison population reduction plan it submitted to them, inmates' attorneys on Thursday asked the judges to find the governor in contempt. | 10/08/09 21:10:32 By - Denny Walsh
Mother found guilty of murdering baby
Tulare County Superior Court jury today found Nancy Ortiz, the woman accused of abandoning three newborn infants in her Orosi neighborhood, guilty of second-degree murder for one baby's death. | 10/08/09 18:01:45 By - Eddie Jimenez
House passes hate crimes legislation on defense spending bill
The controversial measure tacked onto page 1,350 of a must-pass defense bill stiffens penalties for those convicted of committing violent offenses because of the "sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability" of the victim.The provision expands an existing federal hate crime law, which covers race, religion and ethnicity. Now, hurting any member of these specially protected populations could lead to a 10-year federal prison sentence on top of other sentences. | 10/08/09 17:57:18 By - Michael Doyle
More Sanford trouble: Dashcam catches his car speeding
On Tuesday afternoon, a South Carolina trooper pulled over a black Ford Crown Victoria that he'd clocked doing 85. In the back seat, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. The trooper didn't issue a ticket. But now that the dashboard video of the stop has surfaced, the driver will be getting a ticket and his actions are being investigated by the State Law Enforcement Division, for which he works. | 10/08/09 16:58:07 By -
Miami jury returns manslaughter verdict in girl's AK-47 killing
Damon "Red Rock'' Darling, 24, was accused of fatally shooting the little girl when he opened fire on another man on a sunny day in July 2006 at a housing project in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood. Jurors deliberated less than three hours before returning the manslaughter verdict. | 10/08/09 16:18:37 By - David Ovalle
Kansas City movie pirate is tripped up by winter coat in July
It was a sleuthing job worthy of Batman himself. And the winter coat carried into a movie theater in July proved to be the final clue that led to the arrest of a man secretly videotaping "The Dark Knight" in Kansas City last year. | 10/08/09 15:06:22 By - Tony Rizzo
Scam artists target Chinese drywall cases in Mississippi
The Mississippi State Board of Contractors says scam artists in Florida are targeting homeowners by trying to sell them bogus test kits, inspections and cures for tainted Chinese drywall, and they’re warning Mississippi homeowners to watch out for the scams here. | 10/08/09 14:09:20 By - Michael Newsom
Two more suspicious deaths at Lexington, Ky., VA hospital
A special agent with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' Office of Inspector General says there are at least two more suspicious deaths at Lexington's Veterans Affairs Medical Center. A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a former VA hospital nurse with killing a 90-year-old patient there with a fatal injection of morphine. | 10/08/09 12:32:17 By - Jennifer Hewlett
FBI tapped cell phone in Dallas terror plot when tracking car failed
The FBI had Hosam "Sam" Smadi under surveillance in the months before the Jordanian national was accused of trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper, according to newly released court documents. But tracking him wasn't without its problems, according to a search warrant affidavit. | 10/08/09 07:41:11 By - Melody McDonald
Store clerk robbed, beaten by beer thieves, then he's fired
Robbers stomped and beat Reazul Islam as they stole beer from a Valero station where he was working in Euless, Texas. Two days later, Islam's manager called him to say he was fired and to turn in his Valero shirt and a company security pendant. | 10/07/09 20:47:30 By - Domingo Ramirez Jr.
Supreme Court debates cross on California national parkland
A cross erected in California's remote Mojave National Preserve captivated the Supreme Court on Wednesday, as the justices clashed over the most closely watched religion case of the year. The long-running dispute seemed to divide the court along ideological lines. Liberals voiced skepticism about government's support for the cross memorial, while conservatives suggested that they have little problem with the Latin-style cross, which was first installed 75 years ago. | 10/07/09 18:55:10 By - Michael Doyle
Levy murder suspect seeks to bar snitches' testimony
Attorneys for the man who's accused of murdering intern Chandra Levy are trying to fend off testimony from jailhouse snitches as well as an academic expert in an esoteric field of law enforcement. | 10/07/09 18:14:29 By - Michael Doyle
Canadian held at Guantanamo gets two new civilian lawyers
Omar Khadr, a Canadian who's accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier in Afghanistan, will be represented by a pair of former U.S. federal prosecutors -- if he's ever brought to trial. Khadr was only 15 when the alleged attack took place and his new lawyers say they'll argue he was too young to face a war crimes tribunal. | 10/07/09 18:05:23 By - Carol Rosenberg
Student in Miami school stabbing denied bond in adult court
Andy Rodriguez, 17, will be tried as an adult on second-degree murder charges in the stabbing death of a classmate last month in a Miami-area high school courtyard. A judge denied him bond on Wednesday. | 10/07/09 16:36:44 By - Luisa Yanez
Miami priest who fathered stripper's baby now wants custody
Former South Florida Catholic priest David Dueppen admits he fathered a baby with a former stripper but now wants custody of the infant girl. The former stripper, Beatrice Hernandez, 42, came forward last month to claim she'd been Dueppen's on-again, off-again girlfriend since meeting him at Porky's strip club seven years ago. Dueppen took a leave of absence after Hernandez told the Miami Archdiocese of the child. | 10/07/09 16:15:29 By - David Ovalle
Feinstein pushes for federal law to ban cell phone use by inmates
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein wants to pass a new law to ban the use of cell phones by inmates in federal prisons. | 10/07/09 15:59:44 By - Rob Hotakainen
Marriage fraud cases involve Fort Bragg, N.C., soldiers
Fort Bragg soldiers and Central Asian immigrants staged courtships and marriages to reap the benefits America gives those who get hitched, according to federal investigators. | 10/07/09 15:45:35 By - Mandy Locke
Direct deposit becoming a victim of cybercrime
Until recently, David Johnston's 30 or so employees received their paychecks via direct deposit, saving them a trip to the bank. Now, they're handed an old-fashioned printed check and must deposit it themselves. | 10/07/09 15:33:31 By - Jeff Jardine
Dallas terror suspect under constant suveillance by FBI
The FBI had Hosam "Sam" Smadi under almost constant surveillance in the months and weeks before the Jordanian national attempted to blow up a Dallas skyscraper, according to newly released court documents. | 10/07/09 14:43:42 By - Melody McDonald
Kansas girl wasn't dead when killers readied to dump body
The three men accused of killing Keighley Ann Alyea thought they'd killed her in Johnson County, Kansas, according to what police told the family, but she became conscious as they drove to dump her body in rural Cass County, across the state line in Missouri. An uncle said the men decided to finish the job, rather than take her to a hospital. | 10/07/09 14:27:36 By - Joe Lambe
Kentucky nurse charged in death of 90-year-old at VA hospital
In a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday morning, Maria K. Whitt is charged with killing Jesse Lee Chain by injecting him with lethal levels of morphine. Whitt, 32, of Mount Sterling, Ky., was working at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lexington, Ky., at the time of Chain's death. | 10/07/09 14:11:03 By - Jennifer Hewlett
Fort Bragg soldiers charged in fake marriage scam
Fort Bragg soldiers and Central Asian immigrants staged courtships and marriages to reap the benefits America gives those who get hitched, according to federal investigators. | 10/07/09 14:04:28 By - Mandy Locke
Texas execution probe: Perry ignored advice on forensics chair
A statewide lawyers group that recommends nominees to the Texas Forensic Science Commission urged Gov. Rick Perry to retain commission Chairman Sam Bassett less than four weeks before the Austin lawyer was ousted in a commission shake-up that has stalled an inquiry involving a 2004 execution. | 10/07/09 12:57:03 By - Dave Montgomery
Belleville anti-bullying program draws parents, locals after bus incident
An anti-bullying program at Belleville West High School drew parents from outside the district who joined local residents in voicing concerns about bullying in schools and suggested approaches toward solutions. | 10/07/09 12:34:37 By - Rickeena J. Richards
FBI search of Dallas terror suspect's home yields weapons, documents
Off a muddy road in rural Hill County Texas, in a nondescript tan mobile home, Hosam "Sam" Smadi made his final plans to bring down a Dallas skyscraper, authorities say. Federal officials learned about the well-hidden mobile home after arresting the 19-year-old Jordanian on Sept. 24. Smadi gave the FBI written consent to search the residence, where he moved Sept. 22. | 10/07/09 11:27:18 By - Melody McDonald
Did FBI delay of DNA test prolong Florida rape spree?
A Florida crime spree that included several rapes may have continued for months because the FBI failed to process a DNA sample from the former federal prison inmate now suspected in the crimes. DNA evidence linking the crimes to the suspect was available in February, but FBI DNA records turned up no matches because the suspect's DNA sample, given in March 2008, wasn't tested until last month -- after the suspect had been identified from other evidence. | 10/06/09 23:46:46 By - Robert Napper
After 9 years, police in Kentucky make arrest in murder
Bruce Price, an ex-con, was Lexington, Ky.'s, first homicide victim of 2000 when he was gunned down in the middle of the street that February. After nine years, police finally have made an arrest in the case. | 10/06/09 16:55:29 By - Karla Ward
Suspect in Texas bombing may be dead, but probe goes on
Michael Roy Toney, whose 1999 conviction and death sentence for the bombing were overturned last year, died Saturday when his pickup crashed in East Texas, authorities said. The Texas attorney general said Monday the investigation into the 1985 bombing would continue. | 10/06/09 16:46:56 By - Alex Branch
Handgun found in rural home of teen in Dallas terror plot
Hosam "Sam" Smadi, 19, told investigators that he moved into the small mobile home in a rural area near Milford, Texas, around Sept. 22, two days before investigators say he tried to blow up the 60-story Fountain Place building in downtown Dallas. A search of the home turned up a Beretta handgun and ammunition. | 10/06/09 16:23:47 By - Melody McDonald
S. Carolina social worker accused of pulling gun on students
A South Carolina Department of Social Services worker who works with special needs children in Horry County was arrested and suspended from his job after three Coastal Carolina students told police Monday that he pointed a gun and threatened them, officials said. | 10/06/09 16:13:33 By - Kurt Knapek
Machine-gun-toting preacher speaks about his past in Belleville area
Sam Childers is still amazed at where he is now and what he is doing. The former drug dealer and violent outlaw from Minnesota is known as the machine-gun-toting preacher who rescues children in Sudan and has established the Children's Village, an orphanage in South Sudan. | 10/06/09 18:01:05 By - Wally Spiers
Former federal prisoner arrested in string of Florida attacks
Within weeks after he was released from federal prison late last year, Delmer Smith III began violently attacking women along Florida's Gulf coast in a string of home invasions, authorities say. Police now believe Smith may be responsible for as many as 11 attacks. | 10/06/09 15:43:57 By - Robert Napper
McClatchy faces off with Olympic Committee over trademark
The U.S. Olympic Committee is protesting an effort by The McClatchy Co. to trademark the name of its newspaper in Olympia, Wash., The Olympian. The USOC argues that the similarity of its trademarks to The Olympian "tends to cause confusion or mistake, to deceive, and to falsely suggest a connection." | 10/06/09 15:34:06 By - Christian Hill
Idaho seeks to shield seniors from 'life settlement' fraud
People whose life-insurance policies have accumulated cash value sometimes sell those policies to obtain money they need now. But that can create opportunities for abuse. | 10/06/09 14:51:47 By - Sandra Forester
Malpractice not to blame for rising health costs, panel says
Curbing medical malpractice litigation isn't the "silver bullet" that's needed to slay the werewolf of rising health care costs, a panel of academics said Tuesday. "Health policy myths become convenient truths," said Gregg Bloche, a graduate of the medical and law schools at Yale and a former visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. | 10/06/09 16:03:19 By - Markham Heid
Ex-con may be responsible for almost dozen attacks
Within weeks after he was released from federal prison late last year, Delmer Smith III began violently attacking Sarasota women in a string of home invasions, authorities say. The man police are calling a "monster" may also be responsible for several brutal home invasions this year in Manatee County. | 10/06/09 13:32:33 By - Robert Napper
Body of missing girl found south of K.C.; 3 men charged
Prosecutors in Johnson County, Kan., charged three men on Tuesday in the murder of Keighley Ann Alyea, the 18-year-old suburban Kansas City teen who'd been missing for almost a week. Alyea's body was found Monday evening in rural Cass County, south of Kansas City, Mo., police said Tuesday. | 10/06/09 15:59:54 By - Joe Lambe, Dawn Bormann, Meredith Rodriguez and Grace Hobson
Lawmaker's son, others, charged in copper wire theft in Belleville
Three men were charged Monday with stealing hundreds of feet of AT&T cable wire, including the son of a former state representative from the area. | 10/06/09 12:58:17 By - Carolyn P. Smith
Body parts distributor sentenced to 8 years for mail fraud
Philip Guyett, who pleaded guilty in March to mail fraud for his handling of human tissue he recovered at funeral homes and then sold for use in bone grafts and other procedures, was sentenced in U.S. District Court Monday. On several occasions, Guyett falsified records that would have shown some of the donors to be ineligible to be used as in medical procedures because of the diseases they suffered from. | 10/05/09 19:49:21 By - Sarah Avery
Police step up search for missing girl in suburban Kansas City
Keighley Ann Alyea's unoccupied car was found in suburban Overland Park on Sunday. Family members said they haven't heard from her since Tuesday. They've created a Facebook page, looking for clues to her whereabouts. | 10/05/09 19:19:57 By - Robert A. Cronkleton and Grace Hobson
FBI: Teen thought Dallas terror video would go to bin Laden
The Jordanian teenager accused of trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper created a seven-minute video that he believed would be given to 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, an FBI special agent testified during a probable cause hearing Monday. | 10/05/09 18:47:01 By -
Judge dismisses radio exec from lawsuit in water death case
The broadcasting company executive in charge of the station where Jennifer Lea Strange died in a 2007 water-drinking contest was dismissed Monday as a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of the woman's survivors. In the water-drinking event, contestants were asked to drink as much water as they could without urinating. | 10/05/09 18:42:04 By -
Lawyers get months to review evidence in Laotian coup case
Because two men have just been charged, there will be little or no public movement for at least six months in the case accusing those two and 10 others of plotting the violent overthrow of the communist government in Laos. The new defendants attorneys said they'll need at least six months to sort through the 85,000 documents and hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings that are evidence in the case. | 10/05/09 18:35:16 By - Denny Walsh
N.C. human trafficking case shows plight of girls forced into prostitution
Jorge Flores Rojas was a notorious sex ring operator in Charlotte, N.C. — a city that has become a center for sex trafficking along the East Coast. Local and federal authorities are not sure how extensive the Charlotte sex rings have become. They say Flores' ring brought in hundreds of young women each year to work as prostitutes. Flores was convicted of trafficking in April. But authorities say other pimps in Charlotte continue to prey on young girls from poor countries. | 10/05/09 07:46:30 By - Franco Ordonez
In emails, Ross told friends Kentucky's Nunn needed help
Shortly after taking out a protective order against her ex-fiance in February, Amanda Ross told family and friends that she didn't want former state Rep. Steve Nunn to lose his high-profile state job -- she just wanted him to get help. | 10/02/09 15:52:38 By - Beth Musgrave
Is Perry trying to cover up wrongful execution in Texas?
Three ousted members of the Texas Forensic Science Commission said their abrupt removal by Gov. Rick Perry this week could slow the panel's efforts to determine if a flawed arson investigation led to the execution of an innocent man five years ago. Perry removed the commission's chairman and two members on Wednesday, two days before the obscure panel was scheduled to discuss a report challenging the arson findings that that led to Cameron Willingham's execution. | 10/02/09 11:50:52 By - Dave Montgomery
Man, mother sentenced to life for prostituting girl, 5
A Wichita woman convicted of prostituting her small daughter to a neighbor received a life prison sentence Thursday. So did the man charged with paying for sex with the child who was between 5 and 6 years old at the time. | 10/02/09 15:42:49 By - Ron Sylvester
2 more sex abuse suits filed against Miami Archdiocese
Two men have filed lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Miami alleging they were sexually abused by priests 40 years ago at a Miami rectory and a Boystown facility. At least half a dozen cases involving one former priest in the Archdiocese have been settled in recent years. | 10/01/09 18:05:23 By - Toluse Olurunnipa
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