National Roundup

Indiana
Mother who killed 2 children faces new murder charge
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A prosecutor has filed a new murder charge against an Indiana woman who pleaded guilty to fatally smothering her two children.

Allen County Prosecutor Karen Richards also filed a weapons charge against 30-year-old Amber Pasztor of Fort Wayne in the September slaying of her former neighbor, 66-year-old Frank Macomber.

Court documents say Pasztor has admitted shooting Macomber in the head and leaving his body in woods near her parents’ home in Allen County.

Pasztor is due to be sentenced June 29 to 130 years in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill to two counts of murder in the Sept. 28 deaths of 7-year-old Lilliana Hernandez and 6-year-old Rene Pasztor.
Police in Elkhart, about 70 miles (110 kilometers) northwest of Fort Wayne, found their bodies in Macomber’s stolen car.

Florida
Attorney: ex-NFL star innocent of sex battery claims
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — An attorney says a completed police investigation in Florida shows former NFL star Michael Irvin is innocent of sexual battery claims made by a female acquaintance.

Irvin lawyer Kenneth Padowitz said at a news conference Tuesday that prosecutors should drop the case after reviewing the police investigation. Irvin told reporters the evidence backs up his contention that nothing improper happened.

Police have been investigating since the alleged incident involving Irvin and an unidentified woman at a Fort Lauderdale hotel on March 22. Padowitz says the case is now in the hands of the Broward State Attorney’s office, which says the matter remains under review.

The 51-year-old Irvin was a star receiver for the University of Miami and the Dallas Cowboys. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007.


New York
Ex-journalist pleads guilty of Jewish threats
NEW YORK (AP) — A former journalist from St. Louis accused of threatening Jewish organizations as a way to harass his ex-girlfriend pleaded guilty Tuesday to cyberstalking.

“For this, I deeply apologize,” said Juan Thompson, 32, who also pleaded guilty to a charge of conveying false information and hoaxes.

Federal prosecutors said Thompson sometimes used his girlfriend’s name while making threats against Jewish community centers, schools or other facilities. They said one message claimed he had placed two bombs in a Jewish school and was “eager for Jewish Newtown,” a reference to the 2012 school massacre in Connecticut.

The government collected evidence from about two dozen laptops, tablets and cellphones seized from his home.

Sentencing was set for Sept. 15. Thompson agreed not to appeal any sentence at or below 46 months — nearly four years — in prison.

Thompson was fired from the online publication The Intercept last year after being accused of fabricating story details.

Since Jan. 9, there have been more than 150 bomb threats against Jewish community centers and day schools in 37 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish group that battles anti-Semitism.

The threats led to evacuations and sent a chill through local Jewish communities. Acts of vandalism on Jewish targets, including cemeteries, have added to those concerns.

In April, Israel indicted an 18-year-old American-Israeli and called him the primary suspect in a wave of over 2,000 threats against U.S. Jewish centers, airports, malls, police stations and other institutions.


Oregon
Woman’s sex assault kit not tested until 5 years after rape
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Court records state Portland police didn’t pursue or submit evidence for a sexual assault case until five years after the assault was reported, despite police having the name of a suspect and a sexual assault kit.

A 19-year-old woman told police she was raped in 2011 and gave a name, phone number and address of the man she accused, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Monday. She also submitted a sexual assault kit for testing.

Five years later, the kit was tested and matched the man she accused. The DNA matched that of Clint Curtis Williams, who was in a state database from a felony arrest. He had a first-degree rape conviction in 1986 and multiple parole violations. Earlier this year, he was accused of failing to register as a sex offender.

Williams was arraigned last week on one count of first-degree rape and three counts of other sexual assault charges.

The kit was among nearly 3,000 untested kits that Multnomah, Marion and Lane counties sent last April to a private lab in Utah after grant money was received.

The Utah lab is screening the stockpile of kits for male DNA profiles and conducting other biological testing as needed, then uploading its findings into a secure web-based program. The Oregon State Police crime lab, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office and the police agencies involved have access to the data.

Last year, the governor signed into law Melissa’s Bill, which is named after a 14-year-old killed by a serial rapist on her way to school in 2001.

In that case, sexual assault kits from at least two other young teens raped by the girl’s killer four years earlier sat untested until detectives investigating her death submitted them to a lab.

The bill directs police agencies across Oregon and state police to adopt rules for collection, submission for testing and retention of the kits. All kits must be stored for 60 years.


Nebraska
Inmate’s DNA links him to 4 Omaha rapes, authorities say
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a state-required DNA test for a Nebraska prison inmate links him to four rapes reported more than 10 years ago in Omaha.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine says he intends to charge Brandon Weathers with rapes committed in 2002 and 2004. Weathers already is serving 100 to 160 years for raping a 13-year-old child.

The World-Herald reported in April that more than 70 inmates had refused to provide DNA samples as required by state law. A June 5 court order gave officials authority to use force to obtain Weathers’ sample if he again refused. He did, so guards held him down and took a sample from a cheek.

Authorities say the Nebraska State Patrol lab connected the sample to the four cases.