National Roundup

Pennsylvania
“Boogeyman” rapist charged in one more assault
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh police say DNA taken from a 1989 rape victim has been linked in a national database to a suburban man already serving 90 to 180 years in prison for raping three girls — 3, 9, and 17 years old — from 1998 to 2005.
Forty-three-year-old Michael Lipinski, of Penn Hills, was convicted and given the de facto life sentence in 2010 after an Allegheny County prosecutor likened him to the “boogeyman” for the three prior convictions.
Online court records don’t list an attorney for Lipinski, who is now charged by Pittsburgh police in the March 1989 burglary and rape of a young woman in her home.
Lipinski was previously convicted of raping the 17-year-old girl by entering her home at night in 1998, and raping the younger girls after abducting both from their homes.

Oregon
Ex-Portland police officer pleads guilty
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ex-Portland police officer Scott E. Elliott pleaded guilty in federal court to receipt of child pornography and faces a mandatory 5-year prison term when he is sentenced Feb. 14.
The Oregonian reports Elliott once worked registering others as sex offenders. Now he’ll have to register as a sex offender himself.
Elliott signed a plea agreement Oct. 30 in which prosecutors dropped another charge.
He was accused of receiving at least nine child pornography images over the Internet in September 2009. Other child pornography images were found on his computer.
The 50-year-old was a 22-year veteran with Portland police when he resigned in May. He was arrested in late March on state charges while on duty.

Washington, D.C.
2 teens accused in robbery killing of DC cab driver
WASHINGTON (AP) — D.C. police say two teenagers who were dating are accused of killing a taxi driver so they could rob him of money.
Court records accuse Joshua T. Mebane, of Waldorf, and Linda Bury, of Parkton, in the killing of Quadar Muhammad.
Police say the couple entered Muhammad’s cab last Wednesday at the Greyhound bus terminal and asked to be driven to a school. Police say once they arrived, Mebane shot Muhammad in the head. The car was later found on fire, with Muhammad’s body inside. A witness reported to police that Bury had talked about having killed a cab driver with her boyfriend.
They’ve been ordered held in the D.C. jail.
Bury’s lawyer didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday. A lawyer for Mebane couldn’t immediately be reached.

Mississippi
Cemetery slaying suspects face separate trials
NATCHEZ, Miss. (AP) — One of two men charged in the 2011 slaying of a teenager in the Natchez City Cemetery is scheduled for trial Wednesday.
District Attorney Ronnie Harper tells the Natchez Democrat that Adrian Williams and Keldrick Washington are being tried separately.
Williams’ trial is scheduled for Wednesday in Adams County Circuit Court. Washington will go to trial Nov. 27.
Each man is charged with murder in the May 28, 2011, death of 17-year-old Quinton Brown.
Prosecutors say a passerby discovered Brown’s body in the cemetery. Authorities say Brown had been shot five times.
A third man, Denzel Fort, pleaded guilty in March to accessory after the fact in relation to the killing. He has not yet been sentenced and is currently free on a $40,000 bond.

Kentucky
Man followed as prophet faces tax evasion sentence
COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) — A northern Kentucky religious figure who told followers the end of the world was imminent will hear his tax evasion sentence.
Ronald Weinland was convicted in June of failing to pay $245,000 on his $4.4 million income from 2004 through 2007.
The Kentucky Enquirer reported the government wants a five-year prison sentence for the 63-year-old Weinland, who lives in Union. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBride wrote in his motion that Weinland exploited the devotion of his followers who saw him as a prophet.
In his motion for a lesser sentence, defense attorney Christopher Coffman wrote that no one who saw the ridicule visited on Weinland will be tempted to “engage is similar conduct.”
Weinland is scheduled to be sentence Wednesday in U.S. District Court at Covington.

Montana
Man challenges law banning offensive speech
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man says a law used to charge him for using sexual slur against a public employee criminalizes free speech.
Randall Dugan asked the Montana Supreme Court Tuesday to rule the state’s Privacy in Communications law unconstitutional. He argues his offensive speech is protected.
Dugan used the slur against a Gallatin County Victim Assistance Program worker in an October 2009 phone call after she said she would not help him obtain a protection order against his children’s mother, who was to be released from prison.
State attorneys defending the law say it provides fair notice to a person of ordinary intelligence what kind of conduct is forbidden.
They say that Dugan used “fighting words” that are not protected and the state can ban conduct that violates privacy interests.

Pennsylvania
Nanny files an appeal in 1992 infant death case
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A nanny found guilty earlier this year in the two-decade-old death of a suburban Philadelphia infant is appealing her conviction.
Melissa Haskell’s attorney filed the appeal with the state Superior Court on Friday. Haskell was convicted in June of the 1992 death of Ryan Baurley.
The 5-month-old Baurley’s death was initially attributed to sudden infant death syndrome but the case was reopened last year.
Haskell’s ex-husband claimed Haskell had confessed to killing the boy at his King of Prussia home. He provided investigators with a recording of Haskell confessing to the boy’s death.
Defense attorney Martin Mullaney tells The Philadelphia Inquirer that recorded confession will be a subject of the appeal.
Haskell was sentenced last month to at least 10 years in prison for third-degree murder.?