National Roundup

 Massachusetts

Mom who didn’t give meds to son denied new trial 
LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts woman sentenced to as many as 10 years in prison for withholding potentially life-saving medication from her autistic, cancer-stricken son has had her request for a new trial rejected.
Kristen LaBrie’s new attorney told a judge this week that her trial lawyer was ineffective and had no experience presenting the “diminished capacity” defense.
The Salem News reports that a judge wrote in a decision released Thursday that while not perfect, the work of LaBrie’s attorney was “very good.” The judge says the lawyer pursued the only viable defense — that LaBrie was overwhelmed by the responsibility of caring for a sick child.
LaBrie was convicted in 2011 of attempted murder for withholding at least five months of chemotherapy treatments for her son, Jeremy Fraser. He died at age 9 in 2009.
 
Massachusetts
Documents: Teen cut teacher’s throat, left note 
SALEM, Mass. (AP) — Court documents show a popular Massachusetts teacher who police say was killed by one of her students was found in the woods with her throat slit and a note that read, “I hate you all.”
The documents released Friday after requests by The Associated Press and other media organizations say 14-year-old Philip Chism brought a box cutter, mask, gloves and multiple changes of clothing to school the day 24-year-old Colleen Ritzer was killed.
According to the documents, surveillance video shows Chism putting on gloves and with a hood over his head as he followed Ritzer into a Danvers High School bathroom.
She was reported missing when she never returned home from school. Her body was found in the woods and Chism was found walking along a highway overnight.
He has been charged with murder, aggravated rape and armed robbery. His attorney had no comment.
 
Louisiana
Question asked: Is rooster that fights a chicken? 
VILLE PLATTE, La. (AP) — Is a fighting rooster a chicken?
The Advocate reports the Evangeline Parish Police Jury asked the state Attorney General’s Office to officially weigh in on the issue, questioning whether uncertainty over the fowl’s scientific name might invalidate the 2008 state ban on cockfighting.
The state’s top legal minds determined this month that a chicken is a chicken is a chicken.
At issue was whether roosters that are pitted against each other in cockfights fit the legal definition of “chicken” used in the state ban, which defines the fowl in question as “any bird which is of the species Gallus gallus.”
Evangeline Parish Assistant District Attorney J. Gregory Vidrine said in a letter to the Attorney General’s Office that the issue arose after a group of residents asked the Police Jury to license a cockfighting operation in the parish.
Vidrine wrote that the Police Jury had no intention of sanctioning illegal activity but that “the interested parties maintain that the ‘chickens’ that they intend to fight are of a species other than Gallus gallus.”
After five pages of references to past court cases and scientific journals, the Attorney General’s Office concluded that fighting roosters are among several subspecies that fall under the scientific name used in the cockfighting law.
“From a genetic and morphological standpoint, there is, currently, no way for a ‘chicken’ not to be a member of the proscribed G. gallus genus and species,” the opinion stated.
The opinion went on to state that regardless of any ambiguity in the scientific name, the clear intent of the cockfighting ban is to prohibit the fighting of roosters.
Louisiana was the last state to ban cockfights, in which two roosters face off in an often deadly battle with small blades or pick-like gaffs attached to their legs or with their natural spurs. The fights were widespread in south Louisiana before the 2008 ban and still continue clandestinely.
 
Iowa
Realty law­yer has his license pulled after fraud deals
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has disbarred a Davenport real estate lawyer who was convicted of helping buyers secure inflated mortgage loans before the 2008 market crash.
The court on Friday revoked the law license of Marc Engelmann, who is serving a three-year prison term on fraud charges.
Engelmann represented a seller of nine residential properties to the same two buyers. In each transaction, he filed official statements that overstated the sales prices by $30,000. Lenders approved higher loans for the buyers based on the inflated price. The seller gave a kickback of $30,000 to the buyers at closing.
Federal prosecutors brought charges in 2011 after the buyers defaulted on the loans, costing lenders nearly $393,000.
Engelmann had practiced law since 1976, handling thousands of transactions in the Quad Cities area.
 
Illinois
Violent offenders to get boot ca­m­p in Cook County 
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Sun-Times says an investigation by the newspaper shows Cook County judges have sentenced hundreds of violent felons to a boot camp program meant for non-violent offenders.
The paper says that’s happening despite a state law that explicitly rules out boot camp sentences for those convicted of armed robbery.
The newspaper says one of the judges involved, Cook County Circuit Judge Diane Cannon, acknowledged in an interview that she’s given sentences that did not follow “the letter of the law.”
Cannon also noted the boot camp program has helped young offenders get their GEDs, learn job skills and get counseling to manage their anger.
But one of those Cannon sent to boot camp in 2007 is now charged with murder in the killing of a college student.
 
Massachusetts
Teen pleads not guilty to rape 
of minor at camp  
PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts teenager accused of using a broomstick to rape a fellow student at a sports camp has pleaded not guilty.
Galileo Mondol entered the plea Thursday in state Superior Court to seven charges, including aggravated rape on a person under 16.
The 17-year-old Mondol was allowed to remain free on the $100,000 bail he posted after his district court arraignment, with the same conditions.
Prosecutors say Mondol was one of three Somerville High School soccer players charged in connection with the alleged assault Aug. 25 in a cabin at Camp Lenox in Otis. The school had rented the camp for preseason team-building.