Wyoming: Ex-police officer acquitted in case, faces trial in 2nd
RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) — A former Rawlins police officer who was found not guilty of sexual assault faces another trial on charges of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old.
A jury found 46-year-old Adam Lee Meacham not guilty on Monday on five counts of child sexual abuse.
In the other case, Meacham faces charges of third-degree-sexual assault, immoral or indecent acts and soliciting a child to participate in illicit acts, allegedly involving a teen in 1989.
Meacham was once a Rawlins police captain and also served as a Carbon County commissioner. He has denied wrongdoing.
West Virginia: Man enters Alford plea in Memorial Day 2007 murder
FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia man has entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder in the Memorial Day 2007 slaying of a South Carolina man.
In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict.
Lincoln Taylor entered the plea Monday in Marion County Circuit Court before his third trial on a first-degree murder charge was scheduled to begin.
Taylor was charged in the fatal shooting of 22-year-old Derrick Osborne of Columbia, S.C. His first two trials were declared mistrials.
Under the plea agreement, Taylor received a 10-year sentence with credit for time served, meaning he will spend seven years in prison.
Nebraska: Man pleads no contest to assault of teenage girl
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) — One of four people accused in the sexual assaults of a teenage girl faces sentencing in September in North Platte.
Twenty-eight-year-old Rex Yates on Monday pleaded no contest to sexual assault of a minor. He’s due back in court Sept. 20 for sentencing.
Police say Yates and two other men had sex with the girl over several months, starting in October 2008 when the girl was 14.
Jacob Hays of North Platte had pleaded no contest to attempted sexual assault of a minor. He was given six-to-15 years in prison.
Twenty-one-year-old Ryan Winters pleaded no contest to the same charge and awaits sentencing.
Child-abuse and sexual-assault charges against 26-year-old Samantha Grant were dropped in January. The prosecutor declined to explain why.
Connecticut: Michigan punk rockers dispute rape charges
DERBY, Conn. (AP) — Bandmates of two Michigan-based punk rockers charged with raping a woman in Connecticut are disputing the allegations.
Uriah Baker of Lansing, Mich., and Quentin Price of New Orleans were arraigned Monday in Derby Superior Court on first-degree sexual assault charges and remain held in lieu of $300,000 bail. Their cases were continued to July 27.
The two 29-year-old members of Lansing-based Goddamn Gallows were arrested Friday after police say they sexually assaulted the woman at a house party in the town of Orange following a gig in New Haven Thursday night.
Fellow band members told the New Haven Register the woman was overly flirtatious at the party, didn’t appear upset after the encounter with Baker and Price and continued to hang out at the party afterward.
Virginia: Walmart store near battlefield back in court
ORANGE, Va. (AP) — A trial date is expected to be set on a bid to block a Walmart Supercenter near an endangered Civil War battlefield in northern Virginia.
Attorneys for Orange County and residents who oppose the proposed store near the Wilderness Battlefield are scheduled to appear in Orange Circuit Court on Tuesday.
In late April, Judge Daniel R. Bouton kept alive the fight to block the Walmart Supercenter near where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first met on the field of battle. For Vermont, the death toll of 1,234 at the Wilderness amounted to 16 percent of the state’s total combat deaths for the entire war.
The judge ruled residents who live near the battlefield and a historic group can contest at trial the county’s approval of the store in Locust Grove.
North Carolina: Judge eases oversight of lacrosse accuser
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina judge has eased the electronic monitoring of a woman who once falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players of rape and is now charged with arson and other crimes.
Multiple media reports said 31-year-old Crystal Mangum was downgraded Monday from 24-hour house arrest to electronic monitoring and a curfew.
Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan says Mangum should move into her parents’ home to care for her ill mother. Mangum’s father died recently.
Mangum’s lawyer says the new conditions will allow her to find a job. She was indicted in April on charges of first-degree arson and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
New Jersey: Former bandmate of Hendrix sues over ‘03 release
LODI, N.J. (AP) — A former bandmate of Jimi Hendrix is suing Martin Scorsese and others over a 2003 release that he says he wrote but didn’t get credit for.
Lonnie Youngblood sued in April in federal court in New Jersey over the song “Georgia Blues.” It was featured in a compilation called “Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: Jimi Hendrix.”
He is seeking unspecified lost-income damages from Hendrix’s estate, MCA Records and film director Scorsese. The defendants declined to comment to The Associated Press or didn’t return phone calls.
Missouri: Death sentence challenged in botched jailbreak
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A 29-year-old man sentenced to death nearly a decade ago for killing two mid-Missouri jailers during a botched escape is back in court for a new trial.
Michael Tisius was convicted in 2001 in the deaths of Randolph County jailers Jason Acton and Leon Egley. The two men were killed after Tisius and the girlfriend of inmate Roy Vance unsuccessfully tried to free Vance.
The new trial only concerns the death sentence, not the conviction. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder but could receive a lesser sentence of life in prison without parole.
A jury imported from southwest Missouri’s Greene County heard opening statements Monday. The trial is expected to take most of this week.
