Florida
Person of interest in 7-year-old girl's death extradited
GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) -- A man who is a person of interest in the slaying of a 7-year-old girl has been extradited from Mississippi to Florida.
Jarred Mitchell Harrell is jailed in Clay County on $1 million bond. He appeared in court over closed-circuit television Wednesday morning and was appointed a public defender.
Harrell was arrested Feb. 11 and faces 29 counts of possession of child pornography.
Authorities say Harrell is wanted for questioning in the death of Somer Thompson. She disappeared in October while walking home from school. Her body was found in a south Georgia landfill two days later.
Connecticut
Prosecutors offer deal to ex-prep school dean
LITCHFIELD, Conn. (AP) -- A former dean of an exclusive Connecticut boarding school is considering a plea bargain offered by state prosecutors in an alleged sexual assault case involving four students.
Assistant State's Attorney Terri Sonnemann said in court Tuesday that a plea deal has been offered to Robert Reinhardt, former dean of The Gunnery school, but details were not disclosed.
Reinhardt's lawyer, William Dow, says he and his client are reviewing the proposal. They return to Litchfield Superior Court on April 7.
Four former Gunnery students allege Reinhardt molested them when they attended the school in the town of Washington.
The 44-year-old Reinhardt has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault charges and is free on $950,000 bail. The school fired him last June.
Nebraska
Mom sentenced to prison for daughter's abuse
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- A 36-year-old Lincoln mother has been sentenced to two-to-four years in prison for helping a man molest her daughter.
The woman was sentenced Tuesday in Lancaster County District Court for a count of aiding and abetting first-degree sexual assault. The Associated Press is not naming to the woman, in order to protect the identity of her daughter.
The man who molested the girl, 41-year-old Rodney Lee Baker, was sentenced in December to 14-to-25 years in prison for first-degree sexual assault.
Police say the now 17-year-old girl told officers Baker had molested her from December 2003 until December 2005, when she was 11 to 13 years old.
New Hampshire
Five charged in burglary killing face court dates
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) -- Five young men charged in connection with the killing of a woman and an attack on her daughter inside their Mont Vernon home are scheduled to appear in court next week.
Three of the men have been indicted on first-degree murder and other charges. Twenty-year-old Christopher Gribble of Brookline is due in court March 2; 18-year-old William Marks of Amherst, March 3; and 18-year-old Steven Spader of Brookline, March 4.
Eighteen-year-old Quinn Glover of Amherst, has agreed to plead guilty to robbery and other charges and will cooperate with prosecutors.
Twenty-year-old Autumn Savoy, of Hollis, who also has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, is due in court March 5.
Texas
Guns missing from Cleveland evidence room
CLEVELAND, Texas (AP) -- A federal investigation is under way to determine whether some 500 weapons missing from a police department's evidence room are part of an illegal firearms-trafficking scheme.
The guns were discovered missing from the Cleveland Police Department's evidence room during an inventory last year, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declined to discuss the probe, saying it is an ongoing investigation.
Court records show ATF agents recovered 112 of the missing guns while executing a search warrant at a Humble gun shop.
Police say the mother not only knew about the abuse, but had watched as the girl was molested.
Iowa
Attorney: Judge can't choose counsel for boy
CHARITON, Iowa (AP) -- An attorney says the rights of a Chariton boy accused of killing his stepfather were violated when a judge rejected a request for the attorney to represent the child.
A judge last week rejected a request by the boy's family for Des Moines attorney William Kutmus to represent the child. For now, a public defender will represent the boy.
Kutmus, in a written argument filed Tuesday, says state law doesn't "empower the court to willy-nilly select any counsel that may come to the court's mind."
The boy is charged in juvenile court with first-degree murder in the Feb. 10 shooting death of Todd Peek. He also faces charges for allegedly trying to kill his mother and a 5-year-old girl.
Texas
USA: Immigration cases are not a waste of money
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A federal prosecutor is defending his office's practice of seeking criminal convictions against some illegal immigrants.
U.S. Attorney John Murphy said Tuesday in a court filing that his office did not waste taxpayer money by prosecuting three Mexican citizens, as a federal judge claimed earlier this month.
Murphy said the men were deported multiple times before being arrested in Travis County for driving while intoxicated. Less costly alternatives had not kept the men from returning to the U.S. in the past, he wrote.
The men pleaded guilty on Feb. 4 to charges of illegal re-entry by a deported alien and were sentenced to time served by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, who noted it cost more than $13,350 to jail the men.
Federal agents discovered the tunnel in September 2006.
New York
AD: Man paid for dead 8-year-old's identification
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Staten Island district attorney says a deli worker paid $10,000 to acquire the identity of an 8-year-old boy who died in 1996.
Rizwan Ahmed is accused of paying an acquaintance, Hazel Benson, for the birth certificate and Social Security number of her late son, Michael.
Benson said she was "desperate for funds" while caring for her handicapped mother. But she says Ahmed never gave her any money.
Ahmed was awaiting arraignment Wednesday on charges including forgery. The name of his attorney was not immediately on record.
Benson is due in court March 24 on similar charges.
Published: Thu, Feb 25, 2010
