National Roundup

Nebraska State High Court address judicial bias argument OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- The Nebraska Supreme Court has vacated a land dispute decision based on one party's argument that the district court judge in the case harbored a personal prejudice against their attorney. The case involved a dispute between two Lincoln County landowners and a land developer over the elevation of land in a new residential development. Lincoln County District Judge John Murphy found in favor of the land developer, and the landowners appealed. It was during the appeal process that the landowners discovered Murphy harbored a personal prejudice against their attorney, James Paloucek of North Platte. Last year, Murphy sent a letter to Paloucek's firm saying he would not hear any of the firm's cases because he held the firm responsible for having a fellow judge removed from the bench. Alabama Security company settles harass me nt suit with EEOC BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- The federal government says an Atlanta-based security company has agreed to pay almost $2 million to settle sexual harassment complaints involving its Birmingham office. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says a district manager for U.S. Security Associates Inc. in Birmingham was accused of harassing female employees with sexual demands, inappropriate touching and other offensive conduct. U.S. Security Associates said Friday it denies the allegations, and the manager at the center of the suit no longer works there. The company previously lost a federal court verdict over the manager's actions, and EEOC says six other women made similar allegations claiming the man sexually harassed them while working as a supervisor for the company in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina. The $1.95 million EEOC settlement involves seven women. Montana Attys challenging death penalty in shooting deaths KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) -- Attorneys for a 34-year-old Kalispell man charged with killing his ex-girlfriend and her daughter are asking a state judge to rule that Montana's death penalty law is unconstitutional. Tyler Michael Miller is charged with two counts of deliberate homicide for the Christmas Day shooting deaths of 35-year-old Jaimi Hurlbert and 15-year-old Alyssa Burkett. The Flathead County attorney's office is seeking the death penalty. The Daily Inter Lake reports Miller's attorneys filed a motion Wednesday arguing Montana's death penalty statute violate the U.S. constitution because in Montana judges, rather than juries, have the power to decide if someone should be sentenced to death. The attorneys cited a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that said the Sixth Amendment requires juries to find the aggravating factors necessary to impose the death penalty. South Carolina Prosecutor wants federal probe of ex-mayor slaying COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A South Carolina prosecutor wants the federal grand jury to investigate the slaying of a former small-town mayor shot to death by a police officer. Prosecutor Duffie Stone sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Bill Nettles informing him he would ask federal authorities to take over the investigation into the shooting of Bert Reeves. The 40-year-old former Cottageville mayor was shot once in the chest on May 16 with a service revolver belonging to Officer Randall Price. No details of the shooting have been released, and investigators have said they weren't clear why the two ended up on the dirt road near where Reeves lived. Price, who was hired as a Cottageville officer in 2008, has been placed on leave during the investigation. Kansas Topeka lawyer sentenced in hit-and-run death TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) -- A Topeka lawyer was sentenced to more than five years in prison for killing a bicyclist in a hit-and-run accident. Forty-year-old Marc Schultz was sentenced last week to five years and two months in prison in the September death of 55-year-old Timothy Roberts in rural Shawnee County. Schultz pleaded no contest in April to reckless involuntary manslaughter and other charges. He admitted that he was under the influence of alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs and had his then 5-year-old son in the car with him. Schulz also admitted that he left Roberts on the side of the road after hitting him from behind. Schulz had three DUI convictions before the fatal accident. His law license was suspended after he pleaded to the charges. Kansas Doctor, resear cher charged with faking data WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- A Kansas doctor and a researcher are accused of falsifying data in a clinical drug trial they were paid to conduct. Named in a federal indictment returned last week are 73-year-old Wayne Spencer, a Topeka physician, and 48-year-old Lisa Sharp, a clinical research coordinator from Olathe. Both are charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and falsifying information required by the Food and Drug Administration. Spencer and Sharp worked for Lee Research Institute, which was paid $30,000 by pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough to conduct clinical trials of an allergy pill on human subjects. The indictment alleges the defendants concealed that two test subjects were not qualified to participate in the trial. Washington Gay softball lea gue limit on str a ight players OK'd SEATTLE (AP) -- A gay softball organization that runs an annual tournament called the Gay Softball World Series can keep its rule limiting the number of heterosexual players on each team, a federal judge has ruled. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by three men who say they were disqualified from the annual tournament because they weren't gay enough. They said in the suit filed last year that their team's second-place finish in the 2008 tournament in Washington state was nullified because they are bisexual, not gay, and thus their team exceeded the limit of two non-gay players. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour said last week that their suit can proceed to trial. But he also ruled that the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance, which also oversees gay softball leagues in dozens of U.S. cities, has a First Amendment right to limit the number of heterosexual players, much as the Boy Scouts have a constitutional right to exclude gays. Coughenour said questions remain about the way the softball association applied its rule, including whether the questions asked about the men's sexuality at a protest hearing were unnecessarily intrusive. Therefore, the case can proceed toward a trial set for Aug. 1, he said. Published: Mon, Jun 6, 2011