National Roundup

Texas
Couple sentenced for securing jobs for illegal workers

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) - A Houston couple has been sentenced to federal prison for operating an employment agency that for years found work in restaurants across the country for people in the U.S. illegally.

Fifty-eight-year-old Chenglun Ma and his wife, 55-year-old Lina Sun, were sentenced Thursday in federal court in Beaumont to 13 months and 18 months, respectively. They also were ordered to forfeit a residence and pay a $2.2 million judgment.

They both pleaded guilty in June to federal racketeering charges.

Prosecutors say the two enlisted workers for placement in more than 1,000 Chinese restaurants in 29 states.

The couple was among about 30 people indicted in November 2013 on charges they transported and harbored people in the country illegally.

New Hampshire
Defense rests in Robarge murder trial; final arguments next

NEWPORT, N.H. (AP) - Testimony has wrapped up in the murder trial of a Vermont man prosecutors say killed his estranged wife the day she filed for divorce in New Hampshire.

James Robarge, 45, testified Friday he did not kill 42-year-old Kelly Robarge on June 27, 2013. He said he has no idea how fragments from his car's oil pan wound up on the remote logging road where her decomposed body was found in Unity 10 days later.

Jurors are scheduled to hear closing arguments and instructions on the law Monday and begin deliberating Robarge's fate.

Robarge is charged with first-degree murder and an alternative charge of second-degree murder. His trial in Sullivan County Superior Court began Jan. 14, with jurors touring the Charlestown home the couple once shared and the trailhead leading to the logging road where Kelly Robarge's body was dumped.

He has remained in custody since his arrest soon after his wife's body was found.

Defense lawyers told jurors during opening statements that Robarge was their crucial witness and they put on only one other - a state trooper who tried in vain to find a green or blue Subaru seen in the area of James Robarge's disabled vehicle, not far from where his wife's body was found.

In testimony spanning two days, James Robarge showed no emotion as he repeatedly denied ever threatening his wife, contrary to the assertions of prosecution witnesses.

He testified he arrived at the Charlestown home sometime before 3 p.m. the day his wife filed for divorce to drop off his dog before a doctor's appointment. He said he discovered his 18-month-old grandson crying on the couch, two of the family's five German Shepherds fighting and no sign of his wife.

But a close friend testified Kelly Robarge texted her just after 11 a.m. saying she had returned home from family court in Claremont to find James Robarge at the house. She texted that she was about to tell him about the divorce filing.

The two had been separated for about three months, and he had been living with his stepfather in Saxtons River, Vermont.

Robarge disputed cellphone records that place him at the Charlestown home from around 11 a.m. until about 4 p.m.

"Your cellphone was certainly there," prosecutor Susan Morrell insisted, during cross-examination Friday.

"No it wasn't," Robarge countered, but acknowledged he had his cellphone with him all that day. Robarge agreed Thursday that he didn't want to lose his house or his family.

Jurors were dismissed after the defense rested its case Friday morning. Superior Court Judge Brian Tucker noted that Monday's schedule could be derailed by another significant snowfall - an occurrence that has prolonged the trial in recent weeks.

Ohio
Hearing reset in fired Ohio State band director lawsuit

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A federal judge has rescheduled a hearing to weigh Ohio State University's request that a civil rights lawsuit by the school's fired ex-marching band director be tossed.

Jonathan Waters sued for reinstatement last year, accusing the university, President Michael Drake and a provost of discriminating against him by disciplining him differently than a female employee and denying him due process.

The university seeks dismissal of the suit, saying Waters was an at-will employee who could be fired for any reason, and Waters can't validly argue gender discrimination as a member of the male majority.

The school alleges he repeatedly concealed a "sexualized" band culture from outsiders and misled university officials. Waters, who was terminated in July, has re-applied for the job.

Judge James Graham will now hear arguments April 10.

Arkansas
Prison inmates can now grow longer beards

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Arkansas Board of Corrections has decided that prison inmates can grow longer beards for religious reasons.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (http://bit.ly/1zfvrnP ) reports the ruling is a response to a case filed by inmate Gregory Houston Holt, who goes by the name Abdul Maalik Muhammad. In the case filed against the then-prison director, Ray Hobbs, Muhammad claimed that his religious rights as a Muslim were violated when his request to grow a half-inch beard was denied.

The state argued that inmates could hide dangerous contraband within their beards, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that argument. Now the Board of Corrections has adopted the change for its prison system.

For security reasons, inmates who request a religious exemption must have two different photos -one with a beard and one without- for their identification cards.

Muhammad's attorney, Douglas Laylock, called the policy change a "very constructive response."

At a board meeting last week, Arkansas Deputy Attorney General David Curran said the most of the prison systems in the country allow beards without a length restriction.

The department's previous policy, which stated that inmates could have a "neatly trimmed mustache that does not extend beyond the corner of the mouth or over the lip," had no religious exemptions. The policy, which was adopted in 1998, also requires male inmates to have their hair cut above the ears and above the nape of their neck.

Published: Mon, Feb 09, 2015