National Roundup

Massachusetts
Roaming herd of cows wreaks cemetery havoc
SOUTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) — The vandals that damaged a Massachusetts cemetery this week have pleaded “moo.”
Police say a small herd of cows knocked over 40 American flags and veterans’ bronze grave markers, then snacked on a few flower arrangements, at the Center Cemetery in Southampton on Monday.
Motorists called to report that the cows were loose. Police contacted the owner, Henry Wykowski, who caught and removed the cows from the cemetery.
Chief David Silvernail says the cows are an “ongoing problem,” and his department has responded to complaints about the roaming bovines three or four times since last spring.
Cemetery Commission member Robert Floyd tells The Daily Hampshire Gazette he plans on asking the farmer to pay for the damage once he comes up with an estimate.

Illinois
Teen performer at inaugural is shot to death
CHICAGO (AP) — A 15-year-old majorette who performed at some of President Barack Obama’s recent inauguration festivities has been shot to death in Chicago.
Police say Hadiya Pendleton was shot in the back Tuesday in a South Side park and died at a city hospital. Authorities say Hadiya was one of about 12 teenagers sheltering from heavy rain under a canopy when a man jumped a fence, ran toward the group and opened fire. The man fled the scene in a vehicle. No arrests have been made.
Police do not believe Hadiya was the intended target of the shooting. A teenage boy was shot in the leg. Police did not release his name.
Hadiya belonged to the King College Prep High School band, which performed at several inaugural events in Washington, D.C.

Wisconsin
Couple can’t  collect in birth control mix-up
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A state appeals court says a West Bend couple can’t recoup the costs of raising a child they conceived after a clinic mistakenly gave the mother vitamins instead of birth control pills.
Shelby Nell and Austin Omernick alleged West Bend Clinic filled Nell’s birth control prescription with prenatal vitamins. She got pregnant before she realized the mistake and gave birth to a healthy boy in 2009.
The couple sued the clinic in 2010, seeking damages related to pain and suffering during the pregnancy and the cost of raising the child to age 18.
The 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday the couple can’t collect the cost of raising the boy, saying such a claim raises too many avenues for fraud. The couple can seek damages for suffering, however.

Oklahoma
Tulsa plaza shooting suspect pleads not guilty
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A 24-year-old man charged with shooting into a crowded Tulsa plaza and wounding a sheriff’s deputy and a bystander has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Andrew Dennehy’s attorney entered the plea in district court Wednesday at his client’s arraignment.
Dennehy’s family and attorney say he’s a paranoid schizophrenic plagued by bizarre thoughts and delusions. Prosecutors say he’s bluffing and understands the charges against him.
Prosecutors allege Dennehy wandered barefoot into the plaza between the Tulsa County courthouse and Tulsa Central Library on March 7, 2012, and fired a handgun — sending people fleeing in panic and injuring a the deputy and bystander.
Dennehy was also wounded when deputies arrived and returned fire.

Massachusetts
Ex-chemist pleads not guilty to obstruction
BROCKTON, Mass. (AP) — A former Massachusetts chemist accused of faking test results at a state drug lab has pleaded not guilty to four counts of obstruction of justice in a scandal that could jeopardize thousands of drug convictions.
Annie Dookhan was indicted on a total of 27 charges accusing her of fabricating test results and tampering with drug evidence while testing substances in criminal cases.
The 35-year-old Dookhan was arraigned Wednesday on four obstruction counts in Brockton Superior Court. She was scheduled to be arraigned later Wednesday on additional charges in Fall River Superior Court.
An estimated 200 convicted defendants have been released from jail and had their cases put on hold while their legal challenges are pending.
Authorities shut down the lab in August.
Dookhan remains free on $10,000 bail.

Idaho
Man sentenced for sexual abuse of disabled adult
TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — A convicted sex offender who fled the state after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing a vulnerable adult has been sentenced to between 18 to 25 years in prison.
The Times-News reports that David Knutsen was sentenced by 5th District Judge Richard Bevan on Tuesday.
Deputy Prosecutor Suzanne Craig said Knutsen and the victim, a developmentally delayed 22-year-old woman, were both patients at a mental health hospital when Knutsen committed the abuse in 2009.
After a jury found him guilty of four felonies in connection with the abuse, Knutsen fled to Nevada, where he was eventually arrested on charges including assaulting an officer. He spent more than 2 years in a Nevada prison before being returned to Idaho for sentencing.

Maine
Mom pleads not guilty to charge of hiring hit man
DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine (AP) — A mother of 13 from Brownville has pleaded not guilty to trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband.
WLBZ-TV reported that 46-year-old Wendy Farley entered her plea Tuesday in Piscataquis County District Court in Dover-Foxcroft.
Farley was initially charged in September with criminal solicitation for murder for allegedly offering a friend between $3,000 and $10,000 to have her husband of 30 years killed. A grand jury indicted her on Monday.
Police say Farley wanted her husband’s death to look like a hunting accident. An affidavit says she told the friend she wanted to escape her husband’s strictness and needed her freedom.
Farley remains in jail pending trial.