National Roundup

South Korea Olympic champion Kim Yu-na sues her former agency SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A lawyer for Olympic champion Kim Yu-na says the South Korean figure skater has sued her former agency due to a dispute over endorsement deals. Lawyer Lee Sang-hun said Monday that Kim filed a lawsuit with a Seoul district court in November to get $795,370 from Seoul-based IB Sports. Lee says Kim split with IB Sports last year but is still entitled to her part of endorsement money paid to her former agency after her departure. IB Sports agrees. But company officials say they have a right to get some part of new endorsement money Kim is making by "extending" her contracts with previous advertisers she worked with while being with IB Sports. Lee counters the new endorsement money has come from "new" deals, not from extension of previous deals. Ohio Husband in 'caged kids' case to leave jail NORWALK, Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio man who forced some of his 11 adopted, special-needs children to sleep in cages will be released from prison, five days after his wife. Sixty-two-year-old Michael Gravelle is scheduled to leave the Hocking Correctional Facility in Nelsonville in southeast Ohio on Monday. He and his wife, Sharen Gravelle, served two years on child abuse and endangering convictions. Sharen Gravelle was released on Wednesday. Both must serve three years of probation. The Gravelles lost custody of the children in 2006. They said they used wire and wood enclosures at their home in Norwalk in northern Ohio to protect children they said acted up and were destructive The case led the state to increase oversight when multiple special-needs children are living in one home. Massachusetts Nuns sue Boston Archdiocese over retirement funds BOSTON (AP) -- An order of Roman Catholic nuns has sued the Boston Archdiocese and Cardinal Sean O'Malley after years of failed efforts to withdraw from a church-run pension fund. The Daughters of St. Paul have asked the Supreme Judicial Court to order pension plan trustees to provide them with a full accounting of the nuns' portion of the fund, or to rule that the nuns were technically never part of the church-run plan and order the archdiocese to reimburse the nuns' contributions. The funds at stake are not for the nuns, but for the retirement of lay employees of their publishing house. A lawyer for nuns tells The Boston Globe the order went to court as a last resort. An archdiocese spokesman says the church is confident the suit can be resolved. New Mexico Bail at $50,000 for sons arrested in mom's death ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A judge has sent bail at $50,000 each for two sons of a woman who was found dead in her Albuquerque home with open wounds. Both 40-year-old Jason Mariner and 36-year-old Clayton Mariner are charged with neglect of a resident and tampering with evidence. A criminal complaint says 64-year-old Karen Mariner had many bedsores, some bones were visible and some of the wounds were infected when she was discovered dead on Friday. Police say Clayton Mariner said his mother suffered from multiple sclerosis and that he and his brother were her caregivers and paid by the state for their roles. KOB-TV reports that a judge on Sunday declined Jason Mariner's request to have his bond lowered because his father is sick in the hospital. Pennsylvania Gurney attorney jailed for theft from clients UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A judge has sentenced a western Pennsylvania attorney who was again wheeled into court on a gurney to 18 months to six years in prison for stealing $99,000 from clients, even though his friends testified he's too sick to be incarcerated. Fayette County Judge Steve Leskinen sentenced 53-year-old Mark Morrison on Friday. Morrison will also spend eight years on probation. Morrison was convicted in January, but first appeared in Leskinen's courtroom on a gurney in November, claiming to be mentally incompetent. At that time, the judge sided with experts who believed Morrison might have been faking. On Friday, the judge sentenced Morrison despite claims his health is failing due to a circulatory problem and a bacterial infection. Leskinen says the sentence was warranted because Morrison shows no remorse for stealing the money from two elderly couples he represented. Georgia Top court to consider execution standard ATLANTA (AP) -- A convicted murderer is asking the Georgia Supreme Court to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty because he is mentally disabled. Alphonso Stripling claims prosecutors shouldn't have sought the death penalty against him for the 1988 killing of two co-workers at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Douglasville. Stripling's attorneys say he shouldn't face execution because a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found that the mentally disabled cannot be sentenced to death. But prosecutors want the chance to prove Stripling is mentally disabled at a re-sentencing hearing. Georgia is in the spotlight after a federal appeals panel ruled in 2010 that state law requiring defendants to prove their mental disability beyond a reasonable doubt was unconstitutional. That ruling is under review by the full 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. New York Appeals court in NYC reinstates wiretaps lawsuit NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal appeals court in New York City has reinstated a lawsuit challenging a law that lets the United States eavesdrop on overseas conversations. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday restored the lawsuit brought by attorneys, journalists and human rights organizations. A lower court judge had sided with the government. It had said the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue since none of them could show they were subject to the surveillance. The arguments centered on the latest version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The plaintiffs said it hindered attorneys, journalists and human rights groups whose work might require speaking to possible surveillance targets. A spokeswoman for government lawyers who argued the case said they had no comment. Plaintiffs' attorney Jameel Jaffer called it a "watershed opinion." Published: Tue, Mar 22, 2011