Court Roundup

Montana Law firm in wolf lawsuit withdraws from case HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- The law firm that represented several environmental groups in a successful push to return wolves to the endangered species list has withdrawn from the case because of a rift among the plaintiffs. Douglas Honnold, an attorney with Earthjustice in Bozeman, filed a motion in federal court in Missoula last week to be removed from the case. He declined to comment, other than to say some of the plaintiff groups have "established different positions" about how to proceed. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled in August the government made a political decision when it removed wolf protections from just two of the states where the predators roam. Wolves were then returned to the endangered species list. North Carolina PETA seeks federal documents on state bear exhibits CHEROKEE, N.C. (AP) -- An animal welfare group is suing the federal government, saying officials failed to fully release documents related to bear exhibits in western North Carolina. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals filed the lawsuit last week in Washington. The group says the Bureau of Indian Affairs didn't do a complete search for records of lease agreements for the bear exhibitors. PETA says the exhibits are in Cherokee and that the bureau is responsible for managing lease agreements in that area. PETA contends that three roadside zoos are abusing the bears by keeping them in poor living conditions. The group wants to see whether they are violating their lease agreements. Department of Interior spokeswoman Nedra Darling said Thursday that the agency has a policy of not commenting on pending litigation. Missouri Feds seek Egyptian mask from St. Louis museum ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Federal prosecutors have filed motions to seize an Egyptian mummy mask they believe was taken from Egypt illegally before it was bought by the St. Louis Art Museum. The civil forfeiture documents filed last week by the U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis also request a restraining order to prevent the museum from doing anything with the mask of Ka-Nefer-Nefer while the issue is being decided in court, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The federal government has not accused the museum of being involved in the theft of the 20-inch long funeral mask. Its investigators suspect the mask was stolen sometime between 1966, when it was shipped to Cairo for an exhibit, and 1973, when the Egyptian Museum in Cairo discovered it missing. The government believes the mask was secreted out of Egypt and later bought by the museum. The museum filed a civil lawsuit last month in federal court, trying to pre-empt the government's move to take the mask. Ka-Nefer-Nefer, an Egyptian noblewoman, lived about 3,200 years ago. The mask is made of painted and gilded plaster-coated linen over wood and has inlaid glass eyes. It was excavated from one of the Saqqara pyramids, about 16 miles south of Cairo, in 1952. The art museum paid $499,000 when it bought the mask from a New York art dealer in 1998. The mask has been on display at the museum in Forest Park since then. The museum has said it researched the mask's ownership history before buying it and had no indication there were questions about how it arrived in the U.S. The museum's research showed the mask was part of the Kaloterna private collection during the 1960s, before a Croatian collector, Zuzi Jelinek, bought it in Switzerland and later sold it to Phoenix Ancient Art in 1995. The museum also maintains in its lawsuit that the government's statute of limitations for seizing the mask has expired. Nebraska State high court orders new trial in drug case OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- A Bellevue man will get a new trial in his drug case after the Nebraska Supreme Court threw out his conviction Friday because it questioned the evidence against him. The high court said in its decision that prosecutors did not show that a marijuana plant and syringe of methamphetamine seized from Jay Borst's home in July 2008 was part of a legal search. As a result, the seized items and statements Borst made about them weren't admissible at trial. The ruling overturns a 2009 decision from the state appeals court that upheld Borst's conviction for manufacture of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to four years on each charge, to be served concurrently. Prison records show he's out on parole in the case. A message left Friday for Borst's attorney wasn't immediately returned. The Nebraska attorney general's office didn't have an immediate comment. Court records show the drug items were found in plain sight at Borst's home when three Sarpy County sheriff's deputies were serving an arrest warrant for him on unrelated charges, but the warrant was never submitted as evidence at trial. The high court ruled the warrant was crucial to the case. "In order to determine whether the officers had a legal right to be in Borst's home, it was necessary for the state to offer the arrest warrants in supporting affidavits into evidence. Without (those), the court could not determine their validity," the court decision said. The state Supreme Court said that because deputies did not have a search warrant for Borst's home, prosecutors needed to show that the seizure of evidence met certain criteria, such as drugs were in plain sight while serving a valid arrest warrant, to be legal. A valid arrest warrant would have shown the search was legal. The appeals court had said the deputies' testimony about the arrest warrant was sufficient to establish its validity but the high court disagreed. Utah Wrongful death suit filed in police shooting SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The family of a Utah man fatally shot by police in 2009 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Salt Lake City's police department and the Utah Highway Patrol. Attorneys for relatives of Christopher Joseph Tucker filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court. It seeks a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages for the loss of Tucker's life and economic support for his family. The 30-year-old man was shot and killed Aug. 6, 2009, after leading police on a low-speed chase on Interstate 80. According to police, when officers tried to take Tucker into custody, he rammed a police car with his vehicle and then pointed his car directly at officers. Salt Lake City police officer Louis Abner Jones fired three shots at Tucker, fatally wounding him in the neck and torso. A Salt Lake County district attorney's office investigation later cleared Jones of any wrongdoing. But the lawsuit brought on behalf of Tucker's parents, his fiancee and young daughter cites a different version of events, contending police used unnecessary force and failed to recognize that Tucker suffered physical and mental health problems. Court papers say video from dashboard cameras in police cars don't show that Tucker wasn't speeding, nor used his car to ram a police vehicle or threaten officers. Rather, the lawsuit contends a collision occurred when an officer used a maneuver to stop Tucker from continuing to drive. The lawsuit also alleges that Tucker's father had contacted police with concerns for his son's safety, including that his son, who was not armed, may have taken a sleeping pill, but not his diabetes medication. Published: Mon, Mar 21, 2011