Pennsylvania
Police: Teacher bought child porn from classmate
EMPORIUM, Pa. (AP) - Police say a Pennsylvania substitute teacher bought pictures of nude female students from one of their classmates.
Forty-one-year-old Jon Serianni was charged Tuesday with child pornography and corruption of minors after investigators searched his phone and found 190 pictures of girls who were nude or in sexually explicit poses.
The Emporium man was a substitute high school teacher in the Cameron County School District when he allegedly overheard some male students discussing the pictures. Serianni then texted one of the boys and offered to pay for some of them. The boy tells police he received less than $300 from Serianni.
Serianni faces a preliminary hearing Jan. 22 at the Cameron County Courthouse. Defense attorney David Shrager says he's just begun investigating the charges.
North Carolina
Trial set after vanishing Marine request is denied
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A Marine accused of deserting his unit a decade ago in Iraq has been denied another chance for the military equivalent of a grand jury hearing.
Marine spokesman Lt. Col. Cliff Gilmore says a military judge recently denied a request by Cpl. Wassef Hassoun for a new Article 32 hearing. Gilmore said Hassoun's court martial is likely to begin in December.
Hassoun's case began in 2004 when he disappeared from a base in Iraq. He turned up in Lebanon, saying he was kidnapped by extremists. After a brief return to the U.S., Hassoun disappeared to Lebanon again.
A report from the Article 32 hearing acknowledged the military could have a difficult time proving its case. Hassoun's attorney asked for another hearing, saying more witnesses should have testified the first time.
Florida
Supporters say man framed his deaf brother
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A deaf Florida man who supporters say was framed for murder by his brother has a chance to get out of prison.
Felix Garcia's case will be heard Wednesday by Florida's parole commission.
He's serving a life sentence for the murder of Joseph Tramontana Jr. during a 1981 Tampa robbery.
But Garcia's advocates say his brother killed the man, then framed Felix. Frank Garcia has since recanted his testimony and says his brother wasn't involved in the murder.
Felix Garcia was tied to the crime through a pawn shop slip after his brother asked him to sell a ring.
Advocates also say Felix Garcia didn't get a fair trial. A hearing aid was provided for him and a courtroom speaker was turned up, but supporter say he still couldn't understand the proceedings.
Tennessee
Youths may be sent to Texas after escapes
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Some of the teens who were involved in escapes at a troubled juvenile detention facility in Nashville, Tennessee, may be transferred to Texas.
Tennessee Department of Children's Services spokesman Rob Johnson told The Tennessean the youths continue to pose a risk and haven't been allowed to return to the Woodland Hills facility.
Juvenile court judges have already approved moving three youths. Another nine face being transferred.
Johnson says all the youths were involved in at least one of two mass escapes in September and have been held in temporary detention facilities since being recaptured.
He says transferring them to The Oaks Brownwood facility in central Texas presents logistical challenges, but would give the teens access to educational and therapeutic services, which aren't available in temporary facilities.
Massachusetts
Man pleads guilty in theft of 17th century diary
BOSTON (AP) - A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to using another person's identity to sell a 17th century diary stolen from Boston's Old South Church.
Michael Ford pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court.
Prosecutors say the diary, written by James Hull in the 1600s, was stolen from a display case in the church in 2008. In August of that year, a man sold the diary to a Cambridge book store for $750, using the driver's license of another man as identification. Within 40 minutes of the transaction, Ford had the check and the driver's license and, using the license as identification, cashed the check at a bank.
The store resold the diary for $40,000, but it has since been returned to the church.
The 66-year-old Ford faces up to five years in prison.
California
Man convicted of 1978 slaying to be released
VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - Prosecutors in Southern California say a man who has spent 36 years behind bars for murder was wrongly convicted and could be released next week.
The Ventura County District Attorney's office announced Tuesday that new evidence resulted in a judge overturning the conviction of 69-year-old Michael Hanline.
Hanline was found guilty in 1980 of first-degree murder in the 1978 death of Ventura resident J.T. McGarry.
New DNA testing of crime scene evidence found material that came from a man who isn't Hanline or his alleged accomplice.
Hanline is expected to be released following a court hearing Monday. Prosecutors will conduct an investigation and decide whether to retry him.
The California Innocence Project, which took up the case in 1999, says Hanline's case was the longest wrongful incarceration in state history.
Nebraska
All-female appeals court panel hears arguments
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - An all-female panel of the Nebraska Court of Appeals has heard oral arguments for the first time in state history.
The three-judge panel met for oral arguments last week at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Judges Frankie Moore, Francie Riedmann and Riko Bishop heard several cases and then took questions from students.
Riedmann and Bishop were appointed by Gov. Dave Heineman in 2013. Moore, the chief judge of the appellate court, was appointed by former Gov. Mike Johanns in 2000.
The Court of Appeals is made up of three women and three men.
Published: Thu, Nov 20, 2014
