National Roundup

Colorado: Elway invests $15M with alleged Ponzi schemer
DENVER (AP) — Former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway and his business partner gave $15 million to a hedge-fund manager now accused of running a Ponzi scheme.

The Denver Post reported Thursday that Elway and Mitchell Pierce filed a motion saying they wired the money to Sean Michael Mueller in March. They said Mueller agreed to hold the money in trust until they agreed on where it would be invested.

A state investigator says 65 people invested $71 million with Mueller’s company over 10 years and it only had $9.5 million in assets in April and $45 million in liabilities.

Elway’s filing asks that the court put their claims ahead of others so they can collect their money first. His lawyer declined to comment.

Ohio: Man gets year in prison for $2,000 Katrina aid fraud
CLEVELAND (AP) — An Ohio man has been sentenced to one year in prison for making a fraudulent $2,000 claim for help meant to assist Hurricane Katrina victims.

The federal judge who sentenced 40-year-old JuJuan Norman of Cleveland on Wednesday also ordered him to repay $2,000 to the government. Plus, Norman must serve three years of probation.

Authorities say Norman used a false address to get a government assistance check in 2005.

Eleven people have pleaded guilty in federal courts across northern Ohio to fraudulent Katrina claims.

A message seeking comment was left for Norman’s attorney Thursday.

Kentucky: Judge: Case shows execution system unreliable
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A federal appeals judge says misdeeds and mistakes in a Kentucky death penalty case show the legal system is unreliable to determine life and death.

The dissenting comments by Judge Boyce F. Martin Jr. came as the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request to reconsider the case of death row inmate Gregory L. Wilson.

The denial could send the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Wilson’s execution was already halted by a state judge who expressed concerns about how Kentucky carries out executions.

Wilson had been scheduled for execution last month for a 1987 rape and murder in northern Kentucky.

Mississippi: Trial set for ‘Most Wanted’ fugitive sought since 1994 
HERNANDO, Miss. (AP) — The trial of a fugitive, accused of child molestation in the 1990s and captured in Wyoming this year, is scheduled for Monday in Mississippi.

Edward Eugene Harper, who was on the run for 15 years and was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, was captured by federal authorities in Wyoming last July.

The Commercial Appeal reports Harper was wanted for his alleged involvement in sexual behavior with two girls, ages 3 and 8 at the time, who lived nearby in Hernando.

He failed to appear at a DeSoto County Circuit Court hearing in 1994. He faces charges of conspiracy to commit sexual battery, child fondling and sexual battery.

He was returned to Mississippi from Wyoming last September and has been in the DeSoto County jail since.

California: Court: Reporter can’t sue for false arrest at protest
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court says a reporter who was allegedly roughed up by San Francisco police while filming a protest cannot sue the department for wrongful arrest.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a lower court ruling dismissing Mark Burdett’s false arrest claim.

The appeals court said Burdett was standing in the street, so police could have arrested him for jaywalking.

Burdett was filming a protest against the Iraq war in March 2004 for the Indybay news collective when an officer accused him of knocking over a motorcycle. He says other officers threw him to the ground and pummeled him while handcuffing him.

Idaho: Former teacher pleads guilty over obscene cartoons
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A former teacher at a Meridian middle school has pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing obscene cartoons depicting child sexual abuse.

Thirty-three-year-old Steven Kutzner pleaded guilty in Boise’s U.S. District Court on Wednesday to possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s office say investigators found 70 cartoon images of youthful animated characters  engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Kutzner, who was a teacher at Lake Hazel Middle School in Meridian, resigned in 2009 after agents served a search warrant at his home.

He faces up to 10 years in a federal prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 5.

Massachusetts: Woman gets 2 years in jail for child prostitution
DANVERS, Mass. (AP) — A woman living in a taxpayer-subsidized motel room in Danvers has been sentenced to two years in prison for trying to turn a 13-year-old girl into a prostitute.

The Salem News reports that Maria Trinidad was sentenced after pleading guilty in Salem Superior Court on Wednesday to attempting to induce a child into prostitution and attempting to derive support from child prostitution.

Trinidad’s 18-year-old son pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to induce a child into prostitution and was sentenced to six months.

Authorities say in June 2009 Trinidad offered the runaway girl to a group of men in the motel. The men got their girlfriends, who took the girl to her brother’s home.

New Mexico: Police officers in fatal shooting sue clergyman, church
ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — Two Rockford police officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old man on church property last year are suing the church and its pastor for defamation.

A complaint filed this week as part of a pending federal case alleges that the Rev. Melvin Brown called the shooting “murder” several times, accusing officers Oda Poole and Stan North of a crime and damaging their reputations.

The basement day care area at the church is where the two officers shot and killed Mark Anthony Barmore of Rockford on Aug. 24, 2009.

A Winnebago County grand jury later found North and Poole justified in their use of deadly force against Barmore.