Missouri
Anheuser-Busch settles lawsuit with craft brewer
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. has removed its “Hold my beer and watch this” videos from its Bud Light YouTube page, and the craft brewer that sued over use of the phrase has dropped the legal action.
Big Sky Brewing Co. of Missoula, Mont., sued Anheuser-Busch in December, saying it had a trademark for the phrase “Hold my beer and watch this,” and had used the slogan since 2004.
Big Sky dropped the suit on Wednesday in exchange for Anheuser-Busch removing the videos, created by actor John Krasinski of TV’s The Office and his business partner. There was no financial settlement.
The videos, which debuted in early December, were popular — they had millions of views before being taken down on Jan. 15.
New York
Indictment in notorious 1978 Lufthansa heist
NEW YORK (AP) — More than 30 years after the crime, a reputed mobster was indicted Thursday in the $6 million Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport that was dramatized in the Martin Scorsese movie “Goodfellas.”
Federal prosecutors issued a wide-ranging indictment against five defendants, alleging murder, robbery, extortion, arson and bookmaking. One of them, Vincent Asaro, of Howard Beach in Queens, was accused of participating in the Dec. 11, 1978, heist — one of the largest cash thefts in American history.
Hooded gunmen invaded the airline’s cargo terminal and stole about $5 million in untraceable U.S. currency being returned to the United States from Germany. The cash was never found. Authorities say jewelry worth about $1 million also was taken.
Asaro is an alleged captain in the Bonanno crime family. Information on his attorney was not immediately available. All five defendants were in custody and awaiting court appearances.
In June, FBI investigators descended on a Queens neighborhood where it’s believed the robbery was planned. Agents with jackhammers and shovels dug beneath a house once occupied by the gangster who inspired Robert De Niro’s character in “Goodfellas.”
James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, a late Lucchese crime family associate, is said to have buried victims in familiar places — including under a nearby saloon he ran called Robert’s Lounge.
It was in that neighborhood that Burke allegedly masterminded the Lufthansa robbery.
A fellow Lucchese associate, the late Henry Hill, described the saloon as Burke’s private cemetery. “Jimmy buried over a dozen bodies ... under the bocce courts,” Hill wrote in his book, “A Goodfella’s Guide to New York.”
In June 1980, a human leg bone and a portion of a human shoulder bone were excavated from the bar’s basement.
The lounge was purportedly a mob hangout where the airport robbery is said to have been planned by a mobster so accomplished that crime writer Nicholas Pileggi dubbed him a “criminal savant.”
Ohio
$5M bond for ex-con charged in girl’s death
CLEVELAND (AP) — Bond has been set at $5 million for an ex-con charged in the Cleveland death of a 5-year-old girl who was shot in the head while sitting in a vehicle with her mother.
Geoffrey Gurkovich appeared Thursday in Municipal Court on an aggravated murder charge. No attorney for him was listed in court records detailing the charge.
The 32-year-old Cleveland man is accused of killing Jermani Brooks, who was shot Sunday. Her mother was wounded and hospitalized in fair condition.
Police allege Gurkovich intended to shoot a man who got into an argument with his girlfriend. They say Jermani apparently was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Relatives planned a vigil Thursday, on what would have been Jermani’s sixth birthday.
Louisiana
Ex-BP engineer asks judge to recuse himself
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A former BP engineer convicted of obstructing a Justice Department probe of the company’s 2010 Gulf oil spill has asked a judge to disqualify himself from the case.
In a court filing late Wednesday, Kurt Mix’s lawyers say they learned last week that U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. and his law clerk filed civil claims in 2013 for damages against BP.
Duval had disclosed in 2012 that his family owns a beachfront vacation home in Grand Isle and was entitled to seek compensation from BP. He said then that he didn’t see any reason to disqualify himself from the case.
Defense attorneys argue Duval must disqualify himself before ruling on their request for a new trial for Mix, who was convicted last month of obstruction of justice for deleting text messages.
Washington
Man charged in threats to gay, socialist officials
SEATTLE (AP) — A 32-year-old Seattle man accused of posting threats on Facebook against Seattle’s openly gay mayor and a socialist City Council member was charged Wednesday with malicious harassment, felony harassment and two counts of cyberstalking.
Mitchell Munro Taylor remained jailed on $600,000 bail, The Seattle Times reported.
Taylor was arrested Jan. 16, two days after Mayor Ed Murray’s staff found more than 20 threatening, anti-gay postings from the man’s account on Murray’s Facebook page, court documents said. One post said “Mayor, meet Harvey Milk,” a reference to a gay rights activist and San Francisco board of supervisors member who was fatally shot in 1978.
Another post said “death to socialist council member.” Kshama Sawant wasn’t named but police say they think she was the target because she is the only socialist on the council.
The posts “include many homophobic slurs, a description of killing babies, rape and death references, and several menacing references to Harvey Milk,” King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff wrote in charging documents.
At an initial hearing last week, defense lawyer Eric Lindell said Taylor has Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. The man has no criminal record.
According to an affidavit filed in court, the mayor told police he found the comments very offensive and considered some to be death threats. The same document said Sawant told police she was concerned for her safety and the safety of her family.
Both were elected last November and sworn in earlier this month.
