New Hampshire
Man charged with stalking via phone GPS
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) -- A 42-year-old Somersworth, N.H., man is facing charges he stalked a woman by following her via a global positioning system application in her cellular phone.
Police say Michael Barnes breached his bail conditions on an earlier assault charge when he enabled the GPS function in an attempt to determine the woman's location. He was arrested Saturday.
Foster's Daily Democrat says Barnes used the GPS to learn the woman was staying at a woman's shelter.
Court documents say the woman became aware she was being tracked when her phone carrier sent her a text indicating the GPS function had been activated. It listed Barnes' phone as having activated the GPS.
Barnes told a judge he didn't know he had done anything wrong.
Ohio
3 charged in theft and beating death of baby alpaca
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP) -- Authorities have charged three people in the theft and fatal beating of a baby alpaca in southwest Ohio.
Butler County sheriff's officials say two 17-year-old boys are charged in juvenile court with animal cruelty, breaking and entering, and tampering with evidence. A 22-year-old woman faces complicity charges, for allegedly driving the truck the alpaca was moved in.
The 3-month-old alpaca, named Masterpiece, was reported stolen Feb. 19 from a farm near Middletown. Authorities say the animal was beaten, put in a truck, and dumped in an abandoned barn.
The alpaca had a value of at least $8,000. Alpacas are similar to llamas and native to South America. They're prized for their wool.
Maryland
Conviction thrown out in threat against governor
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Maryland's second-highest court has thrown out the conviction of a man who threatened in an e-mail to "strangle the life" out of Gov. Martin O'Malley.
The Court of Special Appeals overturned the conviction of Walter Carl Abbott Jr. last week, ruling that the Baltimore County judge failed to define "threat" for the jury or to tell jurors how to determine if the e-mail constituted a threat.
Prosecutors say the construction worker e-mailed O'Malley's official Web site in 2008 expressing anger at the governor's policies on illegal immigrants and writing that he would strangle O'Malley if he ever got close enough to him.
Abbott's attorney argued that his client didn't mean the threat literally.
The attorney general's office is weighing whether to appeal.
Indiana
Judge acquits school principal of criminal charges
PETERSBURG, Ind. (AP) -- A judge has acquitted a southern Indiana high school principal on criminal charges of not reporting possible misconduct by a teacher to authorities.
Pike Central Principal LeAnne Kelley said she was confident that she'd be cleared of the charges and that she was grateful for the support she received since being indicted last year.
Kelley and the district superintendent were indicted following a police investigation of a former Pike Central teacher accused of exchanging text messages of a sexual nature with a 17-year-old female student and tapping another girl on the thigh with a yardstick.
The judge ruled Kelley not guilty following a bench trial last week.
The former teacher pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Utah
Sheriff probes false testimony claim in Jeffs case
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Court papers filed in an Arizona criminal case say a Utah sheriff's office is investigating allegations that false testimony was provided during the 2007 criminal trial of polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs.
Jeffs, the 53-year-old prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was convicted on two counts of rape as an accomplice.
Court records indicate an investigation into the false testimony allegations began last month after Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap was told that Elissa Wall may have "lied" about her medical records.
Wall's marriage at age 14 in 2001 was the basis for both the Utah trial and a pending Arizona case.
An Arizona defense attorney now wants a judge to order Wall's current husband deposed. He says Lamont Barlow was the source of the information communicated to Belnap.
Nebraska
Settlement talks resume in TD Ameritrade suit
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A lawsuit over the theft of contact information for more than 6 million TD Ameritrade customers has been ordered into mediation, so the search for a satisfactory settlement will continue.
Last fall, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco rejected a proposed settlement last fall that offered anti-spam software and a promise of tighter security at TD Ameritrade. Walker ruled that deal offered little significant benefit to the Ameritrade customers affected.
Walker recently ordered more settlement talks under the supervision of a magistrate judge.
Ameritrade disclosed the breach in September 2007. Anyone who held an Ameritrade account or provided an e-mail address to the company before then could have been affected by the data theft.
North Carolina
Court-martial set to begin in 1985 triple slaying
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) -- A court-martial is set to begin in the case of a retired soldier forced back into the Army to face charges in a triple slaying from a quarter-century ago.
Jury selection ibegan on Tuesday in the case of Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis. His attorney, Frank Spinner, said he's considering asking the military judge to halt the case as he seeks relief from a federal judge.
Hennis initially was convicted on state charges that he killed Kathryn Eastburn and two of her children in 1985. He was later acquitted in a new trial ordered by an appeals court.
The Army forced Hennis back into uniform in 2006 to face a court-martial in the case after civilian investigators reported that DNA testing linked him to the crime.
Published: Wed, Mar 3, 2010
