No Title

California Woman sues dating site, says man assaulted her LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A California woman is suing a popular Internet dating site, saying she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on Match.com. Attorney Mark L. Webb says he filed the Los Angeles Superior Court civil lawsuit on Wednesday on behalf of an entertainment executive identified only as Jane Doe. The suit demands that Match.com screen its members for sexual predators. Webb says he's asking for a temporary injunction barring the site from signing up more members until his client's demands are met. Webb says the woman met the alleged assailant last year at the Urth Cafe in West Hollywood. After a second date, the attorney says the man followed her home and attacked her. A telephone message left Thursday for Match.com's IAC corporate owner in New York wasn't immediately returned. Massachusetts Conviction upheld in killings of mom and daughter, 12 BOSTON (AP) -- A child rapist who was convicted of murdering a woman and her 12-year-old daughter will not get a new trial, the highest court in Massachusetts ruled Thursday. Michael Bizanowicz is serving a life sentence in the 2004 rape and murder of Joanne Presti, 34, and her daughter, Alyssa, in their Woburn home. The crime prompted changes in the state's sex offender laws to better classify and track the most dangerous offenders. Bizanowicz argued in his appeal that police never thoroughly investigated Presti's landlord as a suspect. He said the trial judge should have allowed his lawyer to present evidence that Presti was having an affair with her landlord. The Supreme Judicial Court rejected those claims, dismissing his request to reduce his convictions or grant a new trial. The SJC said the trial judge correctly found that Bizanowicz failed to show any "substantial connecting link" between the landlord, Harinder Singh, and the killings. "The evidence was of a highly speculative nature and did not have a rational tendency to prove that Singh committed the crime," Justice Judith Cowin wrote for the court in the unanimous ruling. Cowin wrote the opinion before retiring from the bench recently. Bizanowicz had been classified as a Level 3 sex offender -- considered the most dangerous and likely to re-offend -- because of a child rape conviction. Tennessee Appeals court overturns some Ford convictions MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned former state Sen. John Ford's convictions for concealing material facts and wire fraud. Ford was convicted in 2008 in Nashville for failing to disclose payments he accepted from contractors with TennCare, the state's expanded Medicaid program, while promoting their interests as a lawmaker. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled Thursday the federal government didn't have jurisdiction, even though TennCare receives federal funds, because the disclosure was required by the state Senate and Tennessee's election finance registry. Those are state entities. The appeals court also cited last June's Supreme Court ruling that prosecutors may seek honest services wire fraud convictions only in cases where they put forward evidence that defendants accepted bribes or kickbacks. The court said Ford's wire fraud conviction was not related to bribes or kickbacks and overturned that conviction Thursday as well. Following the Supreme Court ruling, the appeals court asked for supplemental briefs in Ford's case. A brief filed by U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Jerry Martin last July said the "Defendant's honest-services convictions must be vacated in light of the Supreme Court's holding." Ford was sentenced to a total of 14 years on the two charges that were vacated. Ford's attorney Paul Mogin said Thursday the appeals court ruling was the right decision and he was pleased with the decision. Ford is still serving a 5 1/2-year federal sentence on an unrelated bribery conviction stemming from the FBI's "Tennessee Waltz" corruption investigation. In that case, a federal jury in Memphis convicted Ford in 2007 of taking $55,000 in bribes from undercover agents pretending to seek legislative favors for a fake computer recycling company. Ford was first elected to the state Senate in 1974, an election that also sent a brother, Harold Ford Sr., to the U.S House of Representatives and another brother, Emmett Ford, to the Tennessee House of Representatives. He is the uncle of former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. Ohio Man pleads guilty to three counts of aggravated murder BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio (AP) -- An Ohio man pleaded guilty Thursday and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in the slayings of his girlfriend's adult daughter and an elderly couple, victims whose bodies were found in three states. Samuel K. Littleton II pleaded guilty in western Ohio's Logan County to three counts of aggravated murder and three counts of gross abuse of a corpse in the February slayings of Tiffany Brown and Richard and Gladis Russell. Littleton, 37, pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors have said relatives of the victims agreed to the deal to get "closure" and healing and avoid the lengthy court proceedings associated with death penalty cases. Littleton kept his head down much of the time, responding in a soft, clear voice to a series of yes or no questions from the judge. He declined to make any statement. Family members of the victims addressed Littleton in court, talking of the pain and grief he caused. Shouts of "coward" came from the crowd as he was led away Littleton was convicted in the Feb. 11 stabbing death of Tiffany Brown, 26. Her body was found in the basement of the Bellefontaine home that Littleton bought from Richard and Gladis Russell in western Ohio. He also was convicted in the deaths of the Russells on Feb. 16 at their rural Lewiston home. Authorities said Littleton took their car and dumped the body of Richard Russell, 84, in Tennessee. The body of 85-year-old Gladis Russell was found in Georgia. Their car was found in Princeton, W.Va., where Littleton was arrested after authorities found him hiding in the woods behind a discount store. He was returned to Ohio on Wednesday after waiving extradition. He was not required to register as a sex offender in Woburn -- where the Prestis lived -- even though he sometimes lived with a girlfriend in Joanne Presti's neighborhood. After the killings, the state's Sex Offender Registry was changed to better classify and track the most dangerous offenders. The new law included a requirement that sex offenders list secondary addresses. Published: Fri, Apr 15, 2011