National Roundup

Maine Man gets 30 days in car assault case AUBURN, Maine (AP) -- A Maine man is going to jail for 30 days for hitting a man with his car, in what police say was payback for a fatal accident five years ago. In a plea agreement, 22-year-old William Panzino, of Auburn, pleaded guilty to reckless conduct and driving to endanger Wednesday in Androscoggin County Superior Court. He was originally charged with aggravated assault and reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon. The Sun Journal of Lewiston said Panzino was charged with striking Kyle Karkos on an Auburn street last June, sending him to the hospital with cuts and bruises. Panzino said it was an accident. But prosecutors said Panzino ran down Karkos as retribution for a 2006 crash that killed a passenger in a car driven by Karkos, who was then 17. Alabama Execution date sought for death row inmate MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The Alabama Attorney General's Office has filed a motion seeking an execution date for death row inmate Tommy Arthur. The 68-year-old Arthur has been sentenced to die by three separate juries for the Feb. 1, 1982, shooting death of Troy Wicker at his home in Muscle Shoals. Wicker's wife, Judy Wicker, testified she hired Arthur to kill her husband. Last week, the Alabama Supreme Court denied Arthur's petition for a new trial without comment. Assistant Attorney General Clay Crenshaw said there is no time frame for the motion to be addressed. Arthur has been on death row since 1983. This will be his fourth execution date. He was previously scheduled to be executed in 2001, 2007 and 2008. Judy Wicker served 10 years for her role in her husband's death. Pennsylvania Mother wins $21.6M in botched birth from hospital ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- An Erie County jury says the hospital now known as UPMC Hamot must pay $21.6 million in a malpractice case in which a botched birth left a boy profoundly disabled for life. Wednesday's verdict includes $19.6 million to provide for Ja'Kareon Graham's future medical expenses. The rest covers the 4-year-old boy's past medical expenses and his lost lifetime earning capacity. The attorney for what was then Hamot Medical Center argued that the hospital staff "met all applicable standards of care" but declined to comment on the verdict or whether the hospital will appeal. The Erie Times-News says the jury agreed with the boys' mother that the hospital's nursing staff was unprepared for complications arising from the breach birth and didn't do enough to prevent oxygen deprivation that left the boy being unable to speak and being fed through a tube. Kansas Survivor of deadly liquor store h o ldup sentenced TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- An 18-year-old man who survived a Kansas liquor store holdup in which an accomplice was killed has received a three-year sentence for his role in the crime. The owner of Cormier Retail Liquor in the Topeka suburb of Highland Park opened fire on two gunmen who tried to rob the store in October 2009. One of the robbers, 21-year-old Rickie D. Loyd Jr., died of a gunshot wound the end. Anthony Laverne Marshall, who was 16 at the time, was wounded in the shoulder. Marshall pleaded no contest last year to several charges, including attempted aggravated robbery. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Marshall was recently sentenced in Shawnee County District Court to three years in a juvenile facility. Virginia ACLU challenges Richmond parade police fee RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- The ACLU of Virginia is challenging a fee charged by Richmond police to provide escorts for parades. The organization is asking the U.S. District Court to allow a coalition of local groups to hold a May Day parade without paying the fee. It says the police department wants $294 to provide off-duty officers as escorts. ACLU of Virginia legal director Rebecca Glenberg tells The Richmond Times-Dispatch that the city code doesn't authorize the police department to assess fees on parade organizers. Glenberg says the coalition doesn't have the money to pay the fee. A police department spokesman says the agency can't comment because it hasn't reviewed the ACLU's complaint. Idaho Federal judge steps down from prison lawsuit BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- A federal judge has agreed to step down from a potentially class-action lawsuit over conditions at an Idaho prison at the request of the prison's operator, Corrections Corporation of America. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has been handling the lawsuit brought by inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center for two years. He announced Tuesday that he was recusing himself after CCA attorneys claimed his staff improperly approached an ACLU attorney about taking the case. Winmill stressed that there was no improper conduct, and the staffer that contacted the attorney was simply doing her job as a pro bono coordinator -- a court worker who finds attorneys to take cases for no charge. But he said he wouldn't risk even the inference of impropriety, and so would step down. Oregon Groups sue feds over sea turtle habitat GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Conservation groups have gone to court to get the federal government make good on its proposal to expand habitat protections for endangered western Pacific leatherback sea turtles to include feeding areas off the West Coast. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday asks a judge to order NOAA Fisheries Service to take final action expanding protected habitat to include more than 70,000 square miles of ocean waters off Washington, Oregon and California, where Leatherbacks feed on jellyfish after migrating across the Pacific from nesting grounds in Indonesia. The final ruling was due Jan. 5. NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Christine Patrick says they are 'very close' to issuing a final rule on the critical habitat. Published: Fri, Apr 22, 2011