National Roundup

New York
No signs of crime in death of judge found by river

NEW YORK (AP) — There are no signs that a crime was committed in the death of the first black woman on New York state’s highest court, police said Thursday after her body was found on the bank of the Hudson River.

Medical examiners are still planning to perform an autopsy on 65-year-old Sheila Abdus-Salaam.

The New York City police harbor unit retrieved her body from the Hudson on Wednesday, a day after she was reported missing.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who appointed Abdus-Salaam to the state’s Court of Appeals in 2013, called her a “trailblazing jurist.”

“As the first African-American woman to be appointed to the state’s Court of Appeals, she was a pioneer,” Cuomo said. “Through her writings, her wisdom and her unshakable moral compass, she was a force for good whose legacy will be felt for years to come.”

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore said her colleague will be “missed deeply.”

Abdus-Salaam graduated from Barnard College and received her law degree from Columbia Law School.

She started her career as a staff attorney for East Brooklyn Legal Services. She served as a judge on the Manhattan state Supreme Court for 14 years.

Nebraska
Woman injured by discus at track meet wins lawsuit

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A woman who was struck in the head by a discus at a 2014 state track meet in Nebraska has been awarded $350,000 in a settlement.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that 83-year-old Bernice Gorecki filed a lawsuit in 2015 after being hit by a student-athlete’s discus while standing in the visitor area of the track meet at Burke High School in Omaha.

She and her husband sued the Omaha Public Schools and the Nebraska State Activities Association, alleging the entities failed in their duty to keep spectators safe.

District spokeswoman Monique Farmer says a spectator fence has now been pushed back farther.

Gorecki’s attorney, David Mullin, says he can’t comment on Gorecki’s injuries or her recovery.

Kentucky
Mother charged with killing 3-month-old son

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Police have charged a Kentucky woman with murder in the death of her infant son.

News outlets report that 26-year-old Dailyn Cruz Abrera of Louisville was arrested Wednesday and charged with killing 3-month-old Lucas Paez Cruz. The arrest warrant says she called dispatchers on March 30 and said she had smothered her baby and “wanted to know the fastest way to die.”

Louisville officers arrived at the home and found the boy dead in a bed.

Online jail records show the mother was being held in the Louisville jail on a $500,000 cash bond. The records didn’t indicate whether she has an attorney.

Florida
Last member of drug-smuggling group arrested

MIAMI (AP) — The last of South Florida’s drug-smuggling “Cocaine Cowboys” has been arrested — some 26 years after he went on the lam — while on a 40-mile bike ride with his wife near the Orlando suburb where they apparently lived under assumed names.

The Miami Herald reports Gustavo “Taby” Falcon, 55, was booked into the Orange County Jail Wednesday evening and is charged with smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States in the 1980s along with his notorious brother, Augusto “Willie” Falcon.

He likely will be transferred to Miami.

The organization was linked to dozens of murders and shootings. The 2006 documentary “Cocaine Cowboys” detailed suitcases full of cash, hit men with machine guns, drug-laden speedboats and nighttime drops of drugs in South Florida’s swamps.

Deputy marshals arrested Falcon and his wife, Amelia, at an intersection near Orlando during their bike ride, said U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Barry Golden. He said Falcon had obtained fake driver’s licenses for himself, his wife and their two adult children, using Miami addresses. Gustavo Falcon and his wife went by the names Luis and Maria Reiss.

Golden said marshals caught a big break when Gustavo Falcon was involved in a car accident near Orlando and used a fake driver’s license with a Miami address. That led marshals to trace him to his history in South Florida.

The family had been under surveillance by marshals at the home they were renting in Kissimmee, which is near Orlando. Golden said they’d been living in the Orlando area since 1999, which surprised marshals who thought Gustavo Falcon was hiding out in Mexico or Colombia.

He was last seen in South Florida in 1991. Gustavo Falcon’s brother and Salvador “Sal” Magluta were recognized as kingpins of the organization, which used their speedboats to haul loads of cocaine smuggled from Colombia. A 1991 federal indictment charged the two brothers, Magluta and several others with smuggling 75 tons of cocaine into the U.S. between 1978 and 1991.

Willie Falcon and Magluta were acquitted of the charges in 1996. Authorities later discovered they bought off witnesses and at least one member of the jury.

Magluta was retried and convicted of drug-related money laundering charges in 2002 and sentenced to 205 years in prison. That was reduced to 195 years in 2006. Willie Falcon then accepted a plea deal in 2003 on similar charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is scheduled for release in June.

Jail records don’t list an attorney for Gustavo Falcon.

Ohio
Woman denies purposely killing teen with car

CINCINNATI (AP) — A woman charged with murder denies intentionally hitting an 18-year-old woman with her car and dragging her during an altercation in downtown Cincinnati.

A judge set bond at $1 million for 20-year-old Briana Benson on Thursday after she pleaded not guilty in the death of Madelyn Hart.

The charges against Benson also include felonious assault, aggravated vehicular homicide and failure to stop after a crash.

An attorney for the Cincinnati woman says Benson strongly denies intentionally hitting Hart and has cooperated with investigators.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters alleges Benson hit Hart intentionally on March 26, dragging her about 88 feet (27 meters).

Deters has said that Hart banged on Benson’s car before she was struck. But he says that doesn’t provide a right to run over someone.