Court Roundup

Virginia Court: Tape of Va Tech shooter's hearing destroyed CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) -- Attorneys for the families of two students killed in the Virginia Tech shootings won't get to hear an audio tape of a hearing to decide whether the shooter would have to undergo mental health treatment. Lawyers for the parents of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde had requested the tape as part of discovery in the two civil lawsuits against Virginia Tech stemming from the April 2007 shootings. But Montgomery County court officials said the recording of the hearing was likely destroyed in 2009. Shooter Seung-Hui Cho had appeared three years earlier before a special magistrate, who ordered him to outpatient counseling. The Roanoke Times reports that state law requires the recordings be retained for at least three years. No written transcript is available, either. New Mexico Los Alamos man charged for threatening judge ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- A 29-year-old Los Alamos man with a history of threatening authorities is accused of making a death threat against a federal judge. The FBI in Albuquerque says Brian Stacy was arrested and charged Wednesday after he admitted to police that he emailed a death threat to U.S. District Judge John Conway. Conway presided over a 2005 federal firearms case in which Stacy was sentenced to prison. Stacy was later returned to prison for a probation violation stemming from a death threat against a probation officer. Ohio DNA left untested in case linked to Ohio killings CLEVELAND (AP) -- Police in Ohio say they failed to test evidence that might have connected a sexual assault case to a man on trial in 11 killings in Cleveland. Officials in suburban Cleveland Heights say they discovered the evidence, a rape kit, almost two years after the 2009 assault accusation. Cleveland police asked for it this year in the investigation of 51-year-old Anthony Sowell (SOH'-wehl). Prosecutors say the evidence was a DNA match to Sowell. The Plain Dealer reports that police confused the rape kit with urine and blood samples from the accuser. Cleveland Heights Law Director John Gibbon says officers don't know how it happened. Sowell has not been charged in the Cleveland Heights case. He has pleaded not guilty in the Cleveland killings, and jury selection is under way. California Overturning of SF murder conviction to be reviewed SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The California Supreme Court has agreed to review a lower court's decision to overturn the murder conviction of a San Francisco man charged with the stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the state's high court voted last week to look at the case against Tari Ramirez at the urging of prosecutors. It will decide whether to order a new trial for Ramirez or reinstate the jury's second-degree murder conviction in the death of 28-year-old Claire Tempongko. Ramirez was accused of fatally stabbing Tempongko in October 2000, a month after she filed complaints with police against him. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008. But a state appeals court overturned the conviction in March. It ruled that the judge presiding over the trial misled jurors about the option of a lesser verdict of manslaughter. Vermont Jury awards $251,799 to doc after trial BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) -- A Vermont jury has awarded $251,799 in damages to a physician who was allegedly promised a research fellowship in psychiatry that was later withdrawn. Dr. Lari Young said Fletcher Allen Health Care fellowship program director Dr. Richard Bernstein recruited her in 2007 by telling her she could concentrate on research work. She said she was talked into resigning the fellowship after being assured a job at Vermont State Hospital that never materialized. As a result, her lawyer says, her training was delayed by three years, costing her losses in salary she would've received once she entered the profession. On Wednesday, an 11-person jury agreed to award the damages. The Burlington Free Press reports that Young is now working on a fellowship at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, in Winston-Salem, N.C. Published: Mon, Jun 20, 2011