Pennsylvania: Judge gives ‘gurney attorney’ court deadline
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) — An attorney charged with stealing $99,000 from two elderly couples he represented has met a judge’s deadline to appear in court for trial.
Fifty-three-year-old Mark Morrison didn’t appear for trial Monday after his attorney said he couldn’t arrange for an ambulance to bring the bedridden counselor to the Fayette County Courthouse.
But the Herald-Standard newspaper in Uniontown is reporting that County Judge Steve Leskinen believes that Monday’s delay and some related motions may be a last-ditch attempt to put off the trial that has been pending since 2006.
Leskinen has found Morrison competent to stand trial even though the attorney showed up on a gurney and claimed to be unable to speak during a competency hearing in November.
The judge’s staff says Morrison arrived in court Tuesday morning.
Wisconsin: 2 men accused of using snake in sexual assault
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (AP) — Two northwestern Wisconsin men are accused of sexually assaulting a woman with a live snake.
Twenty-four-year-old John Bullock of Altoona and 25-year-old Domonta Jones of Eau Claire pleaded not guilty to the assault Monday in Eau Claire County Circuit Court. Each man is charged with first-degree sexual assault. A criminal complaint says the woman told police she was knocked out in the bedroom of Jones’ home on Nov. 11. And, when she regained consciousness, Jones was holding her while Bullock assaulted her. She says Jones then got his snake and used it to assault her. Bullock says the sexual contact was consensual.
The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram says the men are jailed on $30,000 cash.
North Carolina: Court bans cell phones after stun gun confusion
ASHEBORO, N.C. (AP) — A ban on cell phones is in effect at a North Carolina courthouse after deputies confiscated about two dozen look-alike stun guns.
WGHP-TV reports that the Randolph County Sheriff’s department started the cell phone ban this week after collecting the fake-phone stun guns over a five-month period at the courthouse in Asheboro.
Sheriff Maynard Reid says the stun guns pack a powerful burst of voltage that could disable someone.
Reid also doesn’t like the cameras and computing power packed into modern cell phones being available to courthouse visitors. The sheriff says someone could take photos of undercover officers and post them on the Internet.
Reid says entrance security checks also have caught people trying to carry knives and screwdrivers into the courthouse.
California: State high court refuses appeal of no-burn rule
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The state’s highest court has refused to hear an appeal of a San Francisco Bay area air pollution regulation that bans burning Duraflame logs and other fuels on bad air nights.
The California Supreme Court’s refusal affirms a Bay Area Air Quality Management District limit on burning wood, fire logs or wood pellets on nights when air quality is expected to exceed public health standards.
The appeal was brought by Duraflame Inc., which argued that its logs burn cleaner than other fuel types and should be exempt from the ban.
Duraflame appealed to California’s high court after losses in both Alameda County Superior Court and a state appeals court.
Alabama: Judge tosses food fees lawsuits
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A Jefferson County judge has tossed out lawsuits brought against Alabama’s three largest universities by former students contending their mandatory food fees violate state law.
Circuit Judge Robert Vance ruled last week that the universities are immune since the fees are part of trustees’ authority under state law.
He also ruled the fees advance the legitimate interest of improving on-campus living.
The students filed suit in August against the University of Alabama, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Auburn University. They requested their money back, plus damages, and asked that the case become a class-action suit covering all students who paid the fee.
An attorneys for the students said they plan to ask the judge to reconsider, or to appeal.
Connecticut: New London woman settles suit against hospital
STONINGTON, Conn. (AP) — A New London woman and Lawrence & Memorial Hospital have settled a lawsuit in which the woman claimed the hospital failed to properly diagnose and treat her mother after she contracted the flesh-eating bacteria.
An attorney for Bianca Nardi tells The Day of New London that the suit Nardi filed of behalf of her mother, former Republican Town Committee Chairwoman Robin Miller, has been settled.
She did not disclose the amount.
Hospital spokesman Michael O’Farrell also confirmed the case has been settled, but would not say whether the hospital had changed any policies or procedures as a result of Miller’s death.
Miller died in 2003 after contracting necrotizing fasciitis (fash-ee-EYE’-tis), more commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria.
New York: MSG security guards win $1.3M settlement
NEW YORK (AP) — Security guards at Madison Square Garden who claimed they had been cheated out of overtime pay have been awarded $1.3 million.
The guards filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court in 2009, saying the garden should have paid them time and a half under federal and state laws.
Their lawyer, Robert Meister, told the Daily News that some of the guards worked as much as 60 hours a week.
The $1.3 million will be divided among the original four plaintiffs and nearly 300 other security guards.
The settlement must be approved by a federal judge. The News said MSG declined to comment.
Pennsylvania: Suit: Women were taped while disrobing at Pa. spa
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Two women who say they were taped by hidden cameras as they undressed at a southwestern Pennsylvania tanning salon have filed a federal lawsuit against the business and its owner.
According to the suit filed Monday, one of the women learned of the tapings in July when she discovered video of her disrobing at Sunkissed Tanning and Spa had been uploaded to pornographic websites.
The suit claims other women were also taped in various states of undress through a hole in the ceiling of the East Huntingdon tanning salon between 2005 and 2007.
Tanning salon owner Toni Tomei denied any wrongdoing to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. She says she called police about three years ago after a teen complained someone photographed her at the salon.
Each woman is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
