Kansas: Man receives life sentence for molesting child
LINWOOD, Kan. (AP) — A Linwood man has been sentenced to life in prison for sexually molesting a young relative.
Thirty-four-year-old Chris King was sentenced Wednesday in Leavenworth County District Court on two counts of rape and other charges. He will be eligible for parole in 25 years.
King was convicted in October of sexually abusing his 8-year-old relative between August 2007 and January 2008.
Defense attorney Scott Toth told The Leavenworth Times that he will file an appeal.
Louisiana: Man cleared of murder after 6 years in jail
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A jury in Shreveport deliberated less than an hour before clearing a man accused of a murder six years ago.
Nathan Arnold was acquitted of second-degree murder this week in the death of Richard Henry, who had been shot about 10 times. The Times reported that authorities found an assault rifle next to him.
Prosecutors contended that the shooting took place after an argument between the two men inside an SUV. A defense attorney said key state witnesses contradicted themselves.
The 36-year-old Arnold had been jailed since the October 2004 killing.
New York: Lawsuit: Cezanne at NYC’s Met wrongly acquired
NEW YORK (AP) — A man claims a Paul Cezanne painting at New York’s Metropolitan Museum was stolen from his great-grandfather during the Russian Revolution.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Pierre Konowaloff sued the museum in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday. The work is called “Madame Cezanne in the Conservatory.”
A collector bequeathed the work to the Met in 1960. The museum said in a statement that it believes it has good title to the painting and will fight the lawsuit.
Konowaloff, who lives in France, filed a similar suit against Yale University last year over a work by Vincent Van Gogh. Yale says it is the rightful owner.
Konowaloff says he is the great-grandson of industrialist and aristocrat Ivan Morozov.
New York: Jury awards $66M to injured physical therapist
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A jury has awarded $66 million to a western New York woman who was left paralyzed when a weight machine at the physical therapy office where she worked fell on top of her.
The Buffalo News reports that a jury in Buffalo reached the verdict after a nearly eight-week trial in the lawsuit brought by Natalie Barnhard of Cheektowaga against Cybex International and Amherst Orthopedic Physical Therapy.
She was working as a physical therapy assistant when a Cybex exercise machine at Amherst Orthopedic’s Buffalo office fell on her in October 2004. Barnhard, now 30, suffered two broken cervical vertebrae and had bones compressed onto her spinal cord.
The jury found Medway, Mass.-based Cybex 75 percent liable for the accident and Amherst Orthopedic 20 percent responsible.
Cybex says it will appeal the verdict.
Virginia: Prosecution suffers setback in murder trial
HOPEWELL, Va. (AP) — Prosecutors have been ordered to provide lawyers for a man charged with killing his wife in 1964 information about another man she was having an affair with at the time of her death.
Judge W. Allan Sharrett on Wednesday ordered the information to be shared about Army Sgt. Robert Sheffield.
Court records show Sheffield admitted having an affair with 30-year-old Naomi Fulcher Long but appeared to be lying about it on a polygraph test. Sheffield has since died.
Seventy-seven-year-old Donald Long of Las Vegas is charged with first-degree murder.
Prosecutors suffered another setback last month when it was discovered a police employee was believed to have contaminated DNA evidence in the case with his or her own DNA.
Alabama: Mother files suit over 9-year-old son’s beating
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A woman who claims her son’s second-grade teacher beat him with a belt for missing answers on a test has filed a federal lawsuit against the teacher and the Birmingham city school system.
Sarah Blackmon said her 9-year-old son, a special education student, was struck with the belt six times, once for each question he missed on the test.
School officials say teacher Katherine Thirkill admitted in November 2009 that she had hit the child with the belt. She was placed on administrative leave and returned to work a short time later. She still works at the Birmingham school.
The lawsuit claims the student’s civil rights were violated.
Louisiana: Fired Grambling coach gets trial date for suit
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Former Grambling State University head football coach Melvin Spears Jr.’s wrongful termination lawsuit against the school will go to trial May 2.
Spears, who is Alabama State University’s offensive coordinator, was fired from Grambling in December 2006. He sued the school in 2007.
Spears contends Grambling owes him for the final three years of a five-year contract he signed in February 2005. His suit says the contract called for him to receive
$156,000 annually. Spears was named Grambling’s interim head coach in 2004 after former coach Doug Williams took a front-office job with Tampa Bay.
Pennsylvania: Mediation sought in alleged arts student beating
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Attorneys for a performing arts honor student and three Pittsburgh police officers accused of wrongly beating him in January want a mediator to try to settle the student’s federal civil rights lawsuit.
Jordan Miles, 18, contends he was beaten because the three white officers assumed he was a troublemaker because he was a young black man walking in a high-crime area. Officers charged Miles with trespassing and claimed he had a gun, which they say turned out to be a soda bottle — and which Miles denies even having.
A judge threw out the trespassing charges when a property owner contradicted the police account and testified that her son was friends with Miles.
