Minnesota: Judge accused of misconduct for comments
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge is accused of misconduct after criticizing a volunteer court watchdog group.
The Minnesota Board on Judicial Standards says Hennepin County Judge Jack Nordby shouldn’t have publicly aired his disdain for the group WATCH in his courtroom.
Nordby expressed frustration with the group at a child molester’s sentencing last December. He compared the group’s tactics to the hand signals gang members use to intimidate court witnesses.
The Star Tribune reports documents released by the board say Nordby refused to accept a public reprimand and plans to fight the accusations.
Ohio: Trucker sentenced in special needs bus crash
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A Chicago truck driver has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for a crash that killed four people on a special needs bus during a snowstorm in Ohio.
The Springfield News-Sun reports 60-year-old Zygmunt Wieckowski (ZIG’-munt wih-KOW’-ski) was in tears Wednesday as he apologized in court to the families. The bus driver and three special needs adults were killed in the crash in January on Interstate 70 near Springfield in western Ohio.
Wieckowski pleaded no contest in August to four counts of vehicular manslaughter and was found guilty of the misdemeanor charges.
He was released after the sentencing hearing, pending an appeal.
Investigators said they believed Wieckowski was driving too fast for slick roads when his tractor-trailer went out of control and hit the bus.
Virginia: Hearing delayed on Walmart battlefield dispute
ORANGE, Va. (AP) — A hearing on a planned Walmart store near an endangered Civil War battlefield in northern Virginia has been delayed.
Lawyers were expected in Orange County Circuit Court Thursday afternoon, but the hearing was continued. The clerk’s office said Thursday a new hearing date has not been set.
Thursday’s hearing was expected to cover the county’s bid to block town leaders from testifying on their decision to grant a special use permit to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
The permit is needed to build the store near the Wilderness Battlefield in Locust Grove.
Historians and preservationists say the store threatens the Wilderness Battlefield, but Wal-Mart counters it will not be built on the core of the battlefield.
The matter is headed to trial in January.
Pennsylvania: Man admits strangling ex with bungee cord
WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has admitted he strangled his ex-girlfriend after breaking into a home she was housesitting for friends.
Forty-nine-year-old Randall Harner, of Girardville, Schuylkill County, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder Wednesday in Chester County Court.
Harner admitted strangling 52-year-old Deborah French with a bungee cord inside a home in Chester Springs in August 2008. A county judge accepted a plea agreement that with prison term between 26 and 52 years.
Police say Harner admitted killing French in interviews, saying they had argued about their breakup.
Harner apologized to French’s family, saying he takes full responsibility for his actions.
Arkansas: Governor says lawsuit doesn’t apply to him
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Gov. Mike Beebe is asking to be removed from a lawsuit over personal use of state-owned vehicles.
A court filing by Beebe attorney Tim Gauger says the lawsuit by Republican Party officials doesn’t apply to Beebe. The motion filed Monday in Pulaski County Circuit Court says Beebe’s vehicle is part of his daily security provided by state police.
The lawsuit claims the personal use of state-owned vehicles by elected officials violates pay restrictions in the state Constitution. It was filed after a series of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports on the cars.
It names Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, Treasurer Martha Shoffner, Auditor Jim Wood, Land Commissioner Mark Wilcox and House Speaker Robby Willis. All are Democrats.
New Jersey: Reports: FBI agents seek school superintendent
TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — FBI agents fanned out Thursday to arrest the superintendent of New Jersey’s fourth-largest school district on corruption charges.
The Star-Ledger of Newark and Asbury Park Press reported agents raided Toms River Regional School District superintendent Michael Ritacco’s Seaside Park home.
Agents set off the home’s security alarm when they entered shortly after 6 a.m. Agents conducted a room-by-room search, but found no one at home.
Agents then went to Ritacco’s Toms River office.
Calls and an e-mail to the FBI have not been immediately returned.
The 62-year-old became superintendent in 1991. In 2003, the district named a 3,500-seat arena that hosts sporting events, concerts and trade shows after Ritacco.
His arrest would come days after a former Toms River school official and a Morris County insurance broker pleaded guilty to bribing a high-ranking school official over insurance contracts. The official was not named.
Frank D’Alonzo, a former athletics and special projects supervisor for the school district, and Frank Cotroneo, a Morristown insurance broker, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Trenton to bribery and tax evasion.
They admitted funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the school official, who is not named in the court papers but is identified as “Executive Employee.”
According to court documents, the executive employee oversees the district’s nearly $200 million budget and its 2,000 employees, and has the authority to sign contracts on behalf of the district.
Ritacco earns $234,000 a year as superintendent. He has remained in charge of the district of 17,400 students since agents raided his home in April. He has denied wrongdoing.
D’Alonzo said in court that he participated in a scheme in which he received bribes from an unnamed insurance broker in Towson, Md., and passed part of them on to the executive employee in return for the executive employee’s assistance in maintaining insurance contracts with the Maryland firm.
Cotroneo said in court he participated in a scheme in which the executive employee approved a workers compensation insurance contract that was padded by hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, which paid for bribes to the executive employee.
