National Roundup

Massachusetts
Inmate seeking sex change eligible for fees
BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge who ruled that a Massachusetts prison inmate is eligible for a state-funded sex change operation has determined that the inmate is also eligible for public reimbursement of legal fees.
Although the ruling released Sunday by U. S. District Court Chief Judge Mark Wolf does not say exactly how much Michelle Kosilek is eligible for, the case dates back years and the amount “is likely to be large.”
The judge ruled earlier this month that the state prisons department violated Kosilek’s rights by refusing to pay for a sex change.
Kosilek was born male but lives as a woman in an all-male prison. Kosilek was named Robert when married to Cheryl Kosilek and convicted of murdering her in 1990. Kosilek is serving a life term.

Illinois
Appeals court sides with union in prison lawsuit
MOUNT VERNON, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois state appeals court has turned back Gov. Pat Quinn’s bid to throw out a temporary restraining order that bars him from closing two state prisons and various other corrections sites.
The (Carbondale) Southern Illinois reports that Friday’s ruling by a three-judge panel of the Mount Vernon-based Illinois 5th District Appellate Court lets stand the order granted earlier this month by Associate Alexander County Judge Charles Cavaness.
Cavaness barred the shuttering of the Dwight and Tamms prisons. The order came at the request of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
An arbitrator had ruled in the union’s favor and ordered the state and AFSCME to continue bargaining for 30 days before closures could begin.

Ohio
Mom charged with theft from overseas soldier
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Police in northeast Ohio say they’ve arrested a woman charged with stealing her son’s state and federal income tax refunds while he was serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Repository in Canton reports police stopped 42-year-old Jennifer Fletcher on Sunday in Brewster after determining the vehicle she was driving had been reported stolen. The newspaper reports Fletcher is suspected of withdrawing $7,500 from her son’s account in 2010 and 2011 and forging his signature to cash checks in his name.
Court records show she was arrested on charges of theft, identify fraud and forgery.
Police say a man who was living with Fletcher is charged with complicity to those alleged crimes.
Fletcher was taken to jail, and records listed no attorney for her.

Massachusetts
Doctor suspected of child porn served at camps
BOSTON (AP) — A pediatrician facing federal child pornography charges has also been associated with two Massachusetts summer camps for children.
Dr. Richard Keller, the former medical director of Phillips Academy in Andover and a Boston Children’s Hospital endocrinologist, was arrested last week. Federal prosecutors allege the 56-year-old Keller purchased more than 50 DVDs of child pornography online. During a search of his home, authorities say they found more than 500 photographs and 60 to 100 DVDs of child pornography.
Keller was involved for nearly three decades with Camp Joslin in Charlton, a camp for boys with diabetes, and also served at and Camp Mah-Kee-Nac in Lenox.

Montana
Innocence Project seeks new trial in 1997 death
POLSON, Mont. (AP) — The Montana Innocence Project is seeking a new trial in the case of a northwestern Montana man serving a life sentence for the 1997 shooting death of his best friend.
The group argues a key witness in the case against 46-year-old Richard Raugust has twice confessed to shooting Joe Tash in his camper trailer near Trout Creek and that the judge urged deadlocked jurors to continue deliberating, saying it would be expensive to re-try the case.
The Missoulian reports the Montana Innocence Project filed a petition for post-conviction relief in District Court in Lake County last month.
The group also argues another witness lied about seeing Raugust walking back toward his house from the direction of Tash’s house about 30 minutes after Tash was shot.

Arkansas
Hearing set in lawsuit over $1M lotto ticket
SEARCY, Ark. (AP) — A judge may weigh in on a number of requests in a legal battle over a $1 million lottery ticket that one Arkansas woman claims she threw away and another says she picked out of the trash.
A pretrial hearing in the case is expected to get under way Tuesday in Searcy.
Sharon Jones claimed the jackpot after she plucked the ticket out of the trash last year. A judge ruled earlier this year that the money should belong to another woman who says she threw the ticket away after a machine told her it wasn’t a winner.
That judge later ordered a new trial and said he wouldn’t preside over it.

Vatican City
Theft trial for papal butler starts next week
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI’s ex-butler and another Vatican lay employee will go on trial next week in the embarrassing theft of papal documents that exposed alleged corruption at the Holy See’s highest levels.
Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre said Monday the first session would begin Saturday, Sept. 29.
Paolo Gabriele, who as butler in the papal apartments had served for several years as one of Benedict’s closest aides, is accused of grand theft. Claudio Sciarpelletti, who has been temporarily suspended from his post as a computer specialist in the Holy See office of secretariat of state, will be tried on a lesser charge, that of aiding and abetting the crime.
According to last month’s indictment, Gabriele, who is under house arrest in Vatican City and who was relieved of his post, said he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to take the documents to shed light on what he called evil in the church.
The documents, which have painted a picture of alleged infighting and corruption at the Vatican, were revealed in the Italian media this year after Gabriele allegedly passed them on.
The Vatican has promised a public trial by a three-judge panel but said no still or video cameras will be permitted.
Vatican officials say they are still looking into the possibility of other accomplices.
Conviction on the theft charge could bring up to six years in jail.?