New Hampshire: Ex-teacher pleads guilty on nude photo charge
DERRY, N.H. (AP) — A former New Hampshire high school teacher has pleaded guilty to a charge she e-mailed nude photographs of herself to a 15-year-old student.
Forty-one-year-old Melinda Dennehy of Hampstead entered the plea Monday to a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.
As part of a plea agreement, Dennehy was given a suspended jail sentence on condition she remain on good behavior and have no contact with the child or go to the high school.
In court, Dennehy apologized for her actions and poor judgment. She told the court she’s continuing counseling and hopes to lead a productive life.
Dennehy was arrested in March after the photos were found circulating around the high school. She resigned three weeks later.
Indiana: LSD use linked to apostolic church arson
NASHVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Investigators say a group of teenagers decided to burn down a rural southern Indiana church after taking LSD and coming to believe that it belonged to Satan worshippers.
Court documents filed in Brown County court say six 18-year-old men and a 17-year-old male from Columbus agreed days in advance to burn down the Grandview Apostolic Church.
State fire investigator Timothy Murray reported that the 17-year-old admitted pouring gasoline on the ground next to the church and setting the fire July 14. Murray, however, said all the teens were “on board with the arson.”
The seven teenagers have been arrested on felony arson charges.
Brown County Prosecutor Jim Oliver says there is no reason to believe anything unusual about the church.
The fire destroyed the church, which was built in 1892.
Massachusetts: Kin of slain teen decry bid to lower verdict
WOBURN, Mass. (AP) — The parents of a boy who was fatally stabbed in a suburban Boston high school are criticizing a bid to reduce the sentence of life without parole for the convicted killer of their son.
Jon and Carman Alenson said in a statement to the Boston Herald that it was “unthinkable” to them that the verdict against John Odgren was unfair or cruel.
The Alensons said their 15-year-old son, James, got nothing less than death and knowing that Odgren will remain behind bars is their only chance for “some sort of peace.”
Odgren’s attorney planned to ask a judge on Monday to reduce the verdict to second-degree murder, making him eligible for parole after 15 years.
The defense has argued that Odgren was a mentally ill 16-year-old in 2007 when he attacked Alenson in a bathroom at Lincoln-Sudbury High School.
Ohio: Pastor to turn over dead brother’s estate
MONROE, Ohio (AP) — The co-pastor of an Ohio megachurch where a 62-foot-tall Jesus statue was struck by lightning said she will turn her brother’s estate over to her nephew after years of family feuding.
Solid Rock Church co-pastor Darlene Bishop has held control of the estate of her brother, country music songwriter Darrell “Wayne” Perry, who died of throat cancer in 2005 at age 55.
Perry’s songs included Tim McGraw’s “Not a Moment Too Soon,” Toby Keith’s “A Woman’s Touch” and Lorrie Morgan’s hit, “What Part Of No.”
Perry’s four children say Bishop hastened her brother’s death in 2005 by promising to use prayer, instead of medical treatment, to cure his throat cancer.
Sixty-five-year-old Bishop says she encouraged her brother to see a doctor, but he refused.
“All of (his children’s) accusations against me were not warranted,” Bishop said.
Bishop and her husband, Lawrence, founded the Solid Rock Church in southwest Ohio in 1978. It grew from a dozen congregants in a tin-roofed building with folding chairs into a megachurch with 13 churches in the Philippines and an orphanage in Brazil.
The Dayton Daily News reports that Darlene Bishop Ministries made more than $1.3 million in 2007, the last year for which complete IRS records were available.
“She thrives on fame and stardom and shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue,” said Bishop’s nephew Bryan Wayne Perry. “I’m ashamed that the same blood runs through our veins.”
In one of Bishop’s books, she says God cured her of breast cancer in 1986. Twenty years later, in a court deposition, she said she was never medically diagnosed with the disease, but believes she had it.
Her brother’s children said Bishop used that story to persuade her brother not to seek medical care until it was too late.
“It hurt me tremendously,” Bishop said of the family quarrels. “I’m not going to allow anything to make me bitter. My conscience is clear.”
Bishop said she and her husband are looking ahead to replacing the bust of Jesus with a full-bodied statue made of limestone.
Colorado: Slain witness survived earlier attempt to kill her
DENVER (AP) — Newly available court documents show that a Denver woman who was killed before she could testify against a suspected gang leader had avoided a hit five months before her death.
Kalonniann (kah-LON-ee ANN) Clark was to testify against Brian Hicks. Prosecutors have described her slaying in December 2006 as a murder for hire.
Court records say that in July 2006, Nathaniel Turner was pulled over in Aurora with a car full of ammunition and photos of Clark and her husband labeled “victim” and “victim’s husband.”
Turner told police last March he was promised $25,000 to kill her.
Prosecutors say Willie Clark and Shun Birch eventually killed her in her driveway. They are awaiting trial.
Willie Clark was convicted this year in the 2007 slaying of Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams.
Indiana: Lawsuit: Church tried to cover up 2007 rape
WASHINGTON, Ind. (AP) — A civil lawsuit claims the Evansville Catholic Diocese and others tried to cover up a 2007 rape of a 23-year-old mentally handicapped woman.
The lawsuit claims the woman was assaulted during an abstinence youth retreat at the former St. Mary’s School.
The church, in its response to the suit, has denied the claims and says the sex was consensual. Diocese Spokesman Paul Leingang says its response to the lawsuit was its only public comment.
A 27-year-old man pleaded guilty to rape in the case in 2009 and was deported to El Salvador in January.
The lawsuit also claims officials advised the woman to use the morning-after contraceptive pill. The church denies that claim.
