National Roundup

Ohio Suspect in Craigslist case pleads not guilty AKRON, Ohio (AP) -- A self-styled chaplain suspected in a deadly Craigslist robbery scheme in Ohio has pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder and kidnapping. An attorney for 52-year old Richard Beasley entered the plea Wednesday on his behalf. Beasley hid his face in his arms during his arraignment by video hookup from jail. He asked about news cameras in the Akron courtroom and said he worried that showing his face might contaminate the jury pool. He's accused of killing three men and wounding a fourth. Prosecutors say victims of the alleged plot were lured with a Craigslist job ad. Beasley was indicted on 27 counts and could face the death penalty if convicted. He denied involvement in the killings. A 16-year-old boy also charged in the case has pleaded not guilty. California Muslim guard gets $465K in harassment suit SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A San Francisco jury awarded $465,000 to a Muslim security guard who says his co-workers and supervisors called him a terrorist and an al-Qaida member. The San Francisco Chronicle reports jurors added $400,000 in punitive damages Monday to their earlier $65,000 verdict in favor of Abas Idris for lost wages and emotional distress. The 27-year-old says he quit his job as a security guard for Los Angeles-based Andrews International in February 2010 after the company failed to take his complaints about harassment seriously. He had served as a guard at the Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio. An attorney for Andrews says the company had promoted Idris to a supervisory position and plans to appeal the verdict. Mississippi Judge grants delay in cancer clinic case JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- A federal judge has granted a request to delay the trial of a doctor and two employees charged in an alleged scheme to dilute cancer drugs and use old syringes on multiple patients. Dr. Meera Sachdeva, Brittany McCoskey and Monica Weeks had been scheduled for trial Feb. 7. U.S. District Judge Dan Jordan signed an order last week pushing the trial back to May 2. All three have pleaded not guilty. The women's attorneys wanted more time to review thousands of pages of information related to the case. Sachdeva, founder of Rose Cancer Center in Summit, has been held without bond since August on charges of diluting drugs and billing Medicaid and Medicare for more chemotherapy than patients were given. McCoskey and Weeks are free on bond. Sachdeva was ordered held without bond after prosecutors argued that she could flee the country. She is a naturalized U.S. citizen from India. Prosecutors said she often traveled overseas and has considerable assets, including bank accounts, in her native country, despite the seizure of about $6 million. The Mississippi Health Department closed the Rose Cancer Center in July 2011 because of "unsafe infection control practices" and has tested hundreds of patients for HIV and other diseases because of concerns about dirty needles after 11 patients went to hospitals with the same bacterial infection. Federal and state authorities have said old needles were used on multiple patients, but a civil lawsuit contained the first public allegation filed in court that someone contracted a disease like HIV. That lawsuit claims James Ralph Patterson Sr. went to the clinic for treatment of his brain and lung cancer but ended up getting watered-down drugs and was infected with HIV by an old needle. Patterson died July 3 at the age of 61. The lawsuit is filed on behalf of Patterson's son, and it's is one of several suits filed in Pike County Circuit Court by Jackson attorneys John Giddens and Philip Thomas. Sachdeva established the clinic in south Mississippi in 2005 and billed Medicaid and Medicare for about $15.1 million during the alleged scheme. Prosecutors say Sachdeva gave patients less chemotherapy or cheaper drugs than they were told, while billing Medicaid and Medicare for more. Prosecutors also say the clinic billed for new syringes for each patient even though it reused some on multiple people. Missouri Suspect arrested in 1989 Nebraska homicide RANDOLPH, Mo. (AP) -- A suspect in the 1989 murder of a Nebraska woman is jailed in Missouri. Forty-five-year-old John R. Oldson is charged with first-degree murder in the 1989 death of Catherine Beard of Ord, Neb. Oldson was arrested Tuesday night at his home in Randolph, Mo. He is being held in the Clay County jail awaiting extradition. Valley County, Neb., authorities say he is suspected of killing Beard, a waitress who disappeared from Ord in 1989. Her remains were found in 1992. Valley County Sheriff Casey Hulburt says new evidence and witnesses led to the arrest but he did not elaborate. Clay County authorities say Oldson lived in the Kansas City area for at least three years and was married. Nebraska online court records don't list the name of his attorney. Pennsylvania Environmentalists settle with wastewater plant PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Two environmental groups have settled a federal lawsuit against a Pittsburgh-area municipal sewage plant over concerns the facility didn't have a permit to treat often-toxic Marcellus Shale drilling wastewater. The lawsuit was filed in Pittsburgh federal court in July and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Wednesday that court documents show the Municipal Authority of the City of McKeesport has settled claims brought by Clean Water Action and Three Rivers Waterkeeper. Officials for the groups confirmed the settlement but didn't immediately comment on its terms. The water authority's executive director says he can't comment because the agency's board must vote to approve the settlement first. The environmental groups claimed the plant accepted the wastewater without proper state authority, but the agency had said it had stopped doing that before the suit was filed. Published: Thu, Jan 26, 2012