New York
Court upholds conviction for video of neighbor
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s highest court is upholding the conviction of a suburban Rochester man for videotaping his neighbor after a shower through an exterior window.
The Court of Appeals says the 2003 state law against so-called video voyeurism applies to what David Schreier did.
Schreier stood on the front step of his neighbor’s townhouse in the town of Gates and filmed her through the window in her front door when she opened her bathroom door.
The seven judges unanimously reject Schreier’s argument that doing so wasn’t “surreptitious” as the law specifies. The court also says someone’s own bathroom is a place they should expect privacy.
Schreier was convicted at trial and sentenced to five years on probation.
New York’s video voyeurism law is called “Stephanie’s Law” for a woman recorded by her landlord with a hidden camera.
Texas
Mother guilty in daughter’s death from malnutrition
ABILENE, Texas (AP) — A West Texas woman was convicted Wednesday in the starvation death of her 22-month-old daughter.
The Abilene Reporter-News reports that 23-year-old Tiffany Klapheke was found guilty of injury to a child in the 2012 death of Tamryn Klapheke. The Taylor County jury returned with the verdict after about six hours of deliberation.
The punishment phase is expected to begin Thursday morning. Tiffany Klapheke faces up to life in prison.
Klapheke cried as the verdict was read.
Prosecutors alleged the mother failed to feed her three daughters, leading to the death of her youngest one. According to prosecutors, Klapheke had kept Tamryn locked in a room for four days before she found her dead in her crib and called 911.
In closing statements, prosecutor Joel Wilks said Klapheke “turned her back,” adding, “She shuts the door and she leaves. She leaves that child in pain.”
Klapheke, who didn’t testify, has said her Air Force husband’s deployment overseas left her too stressed to care for the couple’s three girls.
Airman Thomas Klapheke has since divorced Tiffany Klapheke. The state has temporary conservatorship of the couple’s surviving children, with their father granted restrictive custody.
During the trial, jurors heard testimony from expert witnesses who spoke about Tiffany Klapheke’s mental state at the time of the Tamryn’s death.
Two defense witnesses, Abilene neuropsychologist Samuel Brinkman and Houston-based psychologist Mark Wernick, said Klapheke likely suffers from both post-traumatic stress disorder and reactive attachment disorder as a result of trauma she endured as a child.
Testifying for the prosecution, Abilene psychotherapist Marc Orner said “there’s very little to disagree with” in the diagnosis by Brinkman and Wernick. But he did not agree with the conclusion that the Klapheke fell victim to a “dissociative state” before reportedly neglecting her children.
Wyoming
19 states to help challenge New Jersey gun law
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming is leading a coalition of 19 states asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let them submit a brief supporting a New Jersey man’s challenge to that state’s concealed weapons law.
The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, acting as lawyer for Wyoming and the other states, on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to grant a hearing to John M. Drake and others who are challenging a recent appeals court ruling.
A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last summer ruled against Drake’s challenge to a provision in New Jersey law that says people seeking permits to carry a concealed firearm must prove to police that they have a justifiable need.
The brief from Wyoming Attorney General’s Office says that Wyoming and the other states are concerned that if the appeals court ruling stands, it could threaten their less-restrictive concealed carry laws.
“This decision out of New Jersey impacts the right to keep and bear arms outside of the home,” Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said Wednesday. “So, I felt it was necessary to have the attorney general support a petition to the Supreme Court to hear this case.
“If the current decision stands, states providing greater protections than New Jersey under the Second Amendment may be pre-empted by future federal action,” said Mead, a Republican.
Wyoming is among the most pro-gun states in the nation. Although Wyoming still issues concealed carry permits to its citizens, the state in 2011 changed its laws to allow concealed carry without a permit.
Mead and other statewide officials this month approved $13 million in grants to help a Colorado producer of ammunition magazines for guns move its manufacturing operations to Wyoming. Magpul Industries of Erie, Colo., pledged to move out of Colorado after lawmakers in that state enacted gun control measures last year.
The Star-Ledger, a New Jersey newspaper, reported Wednesday that Drake, of Fredon, N.J., is a business owner who owns and services ATMs. He told the paper he sometimes carries large amounts of cash.
“It seems unreasonable to me to have to wait until you’re beaten up or shot at to get a permit,” Drake said told the newspaper.
The National Rifle Association also is supporting Drake’s legal challenge.
The Star-Ledger quoted Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, saying, “Law-abiding citizens have a constitutional right to defend themselves beyond their front doorstep.”
The other states joining in the effort are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.
Pennsylvania
Man charged in Amish buggy horse shooting
RONKS, Pa. (AP) — A man from the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish country faces charges in a drive-by shooting that killed a horse pulling a buggy with five people inside.
Timothy Antonio Diggs Jr. lives in Ronks, in Lancaster County. He was charged Wednesday with reckless endangerment, cruelty to animals and a weapons offense.
Diggs has been jailed since Dec. 3 on unrelated burglary charges and can’t be reached for comment.
Police say an Amish man reported on Nov. 23 that as a car passed his buggy he heard a firecracker noise but continued to his farm, unaware the noise was a gunshot.
When he arrived home he discovered his horse was shot in the side. The horse died before a vet arrived.
The Amish couple and their three young children in the buggy weren’t hurt.
