New Jersey
Openings made in trial over 'gay conversion therapy'
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) - A jury in northern New Jersey heard opening arguments in the fraud trial of a nonprofit that offers so-called "gay conversion" therapy.
Four men and two of their mothers sued the organization, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, under New Jersey's consumer fraud laws in 2012.
The men contend the organization violated the laws by characterizing homosexuality as a mental disorder and claiming it could successfully change patients' sexual orientation. They say they underwent treatment that included being told to spend more time naked with their fathers and participating in role-playing in which they were subjected to anti-gay slurs in a locker room setting.
The nonprofit contends there's still debate over whether human sexual orientation is changeable and that it isn't an issue for courts to decide.
Opening statements in the case were made Wednesday.
The lawsuit against Jersey City-based Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, or JONAH, is the latest court battle in New Jersey regarding conversion therapy, a practice that has come under fire from gay rights groups, which are trying to ban it in more than a dozen states.
JONAH, its co-founder and an affiliated counselor who provided conversion therapy were sued in by four young men who underwent the treatment for varying periods of time from 2007 to 2009. The mothers of two of the men joined the suit.
According to the lawsuit, one plaintiff said he was told to beat a pillow, representing his mother, with a tennis racket. The lawsuit says additional methods used by counselors included making patients strip naked during individual or group therapy sessions and subjecting them to anti-gay slurs.
The plaintiffs claim JONAH violated New Jersey's consumer fraud laws by engaging in "unconscionable practices, deception, fraud, false pretenses, false promises and misrepresentations" by characterizing homosexuality as a mental disorder and claiming it could successfully change patients' sexual orientation.
Lawyers for JONAH have argued that debate continues among scientists about whether sexual orientation is fixed or changeable and whether conversion therapy is harmful. They charge that plaintiffs are seeking to "shut down the debate by making one viewpoint on the issue literally illegal."
Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed a law in 2013 banning licensed therapists from practicing conversion therapy in New Jersey. Two court challenges to the ban, one by a couple and their son and one by a group that included two licensed therapists, were dismissed by a federal judge and later affirmed by a federal appeals court.
Pennsylvania
Trial ordered in death of victim of 1993 carjack
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Two men convicted in the death of a 4-year-old girl hit by a carjacked sport utility vehicle in Philadelphia two decades ago have been ordered to stand trial in the recent death of her younger sister.
Carlos Colon and Thomas Reyes were convicted of murder in the death of Lucretia Davis in the July 1993 crash. They're serving sentences of more than 25 years in prison.
Colon and Reyes now are charged with murder in the 2013 dehydration death of Delorian Davis, who was 18 months old at the time of the crash and ended up in a coma.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports defense attorneys protested during Tuesday's preliminary hearing there's no way to link the dehydration that killed Delorian Davis to the crash. Prosecutors argued a jury should decide.
New Jersey
Menendez cites senator's case to try to move trial
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, fighting to have his corruption case moved to Washington, on Tuesday cited arguments that the government made to keep former Alaska U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' 2008 corruption trial in Washington.
Attorneys for Menendez and co-defendant Salomon Melgen pointed out in the filing that federal prosecutors successfully argued against Stevens' attempt to have his trial moved to Alaska. Stevens, a Republican, was convicted in 2008, but the charges later were dismissed.
Menendez, who served for more than a decade in the House of Representatives before joining the Senate in 2006, and Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist, filed the request last month, arguing virtually none of the 22 counts alleged occurred in New Jersey so the trial shouldn't be in the state. Their attorneys say the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section wants the judge to ignore its prior arguments that a case against a sitting U.S. senator should be heard in Washington.
Prosecutors said last month that Menendez's attempt to move the trial from New Jersey ignores allegations he accepted numerous items of value in the state. They also said his lawyers are based in New York, less than 15 miles from the federal courthouse in Newark.
Menendez is charged with accepting gifts and donations totaling about $1 million, including flights aboard a luxury jet and a Paris vacation, from Melgen in exchange for political favors. He has said he accepted gifts because he and Melgen have been close friends for years. They have pleaded not guilty.
Defense lawyers argued the government began the investigation and grand jury presentation in Florida before moving the case to New Jersey.
The basis for trying the case in New Jersey "appears to be radio communications from the pilot of a plane in New Jersey airspace on which Senator Menendez was a passenger," the original defense brief states. "Needless to say, the pilot's cabin and the airport control tower were not the 'nerve center' of the conspiracy alleged in the indictment."
The brief says the location of the defendants and possible witnesses, the expense to the parties and the location of attorneys and the fact that events at issue took place in Washington are compelling reasons to move the case from New Jersey.
Prosecutors said New Jersey is just as accessible to Florida as it is to D.C.
Tennessee
Defendants in Bobo case face death penalty
DECATURVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for three men charged with murder in the disappearance of a Tennessee nursing student four years ago if they are convicted.
Special prosecutor Jennifer Nichols acknowledged in court Wednesday that the notice had been filed.
Indictments from May charge Jason Autry, Zachary Adams and his brother John Dylan Adams with premeditated murder and murder in the perpetration of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape of Holly Bobo.
Bobo was 20 when she was reported missing from her rural Parsons home in April 2011. Authorities say her skull was found in the woods in September.
Published: Thu, Jun 04, 2015
