California
Woman who was assaulted settles Match.com suit
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A woman who sued Match.com after being sexually assaulted by a man she met on the dating website settled her lawsuit on Tuesday when she saw proof that the site was screening its members for sexual predators.
Carole Markin sued the website when she found out her attacker had been convicted of sexual battery. She did not seek monetary damages in her lawsuit, just a court order requiring the site to check its members' backgrounds to weed out convicted sex offenders.
"If I save one woman from being attacked, I'm happy," Markin said. "I went into this lawsuit to protect other people, and it worked."
Robert Platt, an attorney for the site, said Match.com has begun checking its members against state and federal sex-offender databases.
Last week Alan Wurtzel, 67, pleaded no contest to assaulting Markin. He could face a year in jail, five years of probation and a lifetime registration as a sex offender when he is sentenced Sept. 19.
Prosecutors said that on their second date last year, Wurtzel drove Markin to her home and followed her inside where he sexually assaulted her while holding her down.
New York
Police arrest naked man in stabbing spree
NEW YORK (AP) -- A naked man who went on a stabbing spree at his Manhattan apartment building, killing an elderly man and injuring four others, was charged with murder on Wednesday, police said.
Christian Falero, 23, was arrested after he randomly knocked on several tenants' doors of the seven-story Washington Heights building and then stabbed the people who answered with a 10-inch kitchen knife, police said.
Police charged him with second-degree murder and robbery.
A second-floor tenant, Ignacio Reyes-Collazo, 81, was killed during the random attacks that unfolded around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Three women, ages 60 to 85, were stabbed and a 22-year-old home attendant was punched, police said. They were all taken to area hospitals; one of the women was in critical condition, the others were stable.
Residents said afterward that the suspect was seen running down the street yelling that it was the end of the world. He underwent a psychiatric evaluation at Harlem Hospital, police said.
His fifth-floor neighbor, Ramon Acosta, 41, said Falero always seemed likable. Acosta came home from work Tuesday to find police outside the building and the suspect's mother in tears.
Acosta said he has known the young man for 10 years and never had a problem with him.
"I guess he just flipped," he said.
Massachusetts
Plaintiff awarded $3.1M in art heist lawsuit
BARNSTABLE, Mass. (AP) -- A Massachusetts jury has found in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in connection with a 1978 art heist.
The Barnstable Superior Court jury awarded plaintiff Michael Bakwin more than $3.1 million in damages on Tuesday.
The artwork was stolen from Bakwin's Stockbridge home in 1978. It included a piece by French impressionist Paul Cezanne.
In 2007, Bakwin sued retired attorney Robert Mardirosian. The seven paintings were stolen by one of Mardirosian's former clients. Mardirosian was convicted in 2008 of harboring and attempting to sell the artwork and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The Cape Cod Times reports that the trial centered on whether Mardirosian transferred assets to family members in an attempt to appear insolvent.
New York
Top court to hear '93 WTC bombing case once again
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York's top court will again hear arguments over alleged negligence by World Trade Center managers for failing to deter the 1993 bombing of its parking garage that killed six people and injured about 1,000.
A five-judge panel was unable to reach the necessary four-judge consensus after June arguments.
With Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and Judge Robert Smith still recused from the case, two Appellate Division presiding justices will sit in Wednesday on the Court of Appeals.
A jury found the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey failed as landlord to maintain reasonably safe premises and was mostly at fault, blaming terrorists for the other 32 percent.
The authority claims government immunity and reasonable security measures.
Airline hijackers destroyed the center's twin skyscrapers on Sept. 11, 2001.
Wisconsin
Attorney charged with stealing $542K in funds
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A Brookfield attorney is accused of stealing $542,000 in unclaimed foreclosure funds by claiming that he represented the rightful owners.
Prosecutors charged 52-year-old Thomas E. Bielinski on Tuesday with theft of at least $10,000 by fraud.
The complaint says Bielinski targeted mortgage-foreclosure cases where the owners of surplus funds had failed to file claims. Prosecutors say he claimed to represent the owners, and had 43 of 47 fraudulent claims approved and paid.
He's accused of forging claimants' signatures and notary stamps, and then eliminating evidence by removing court documents from official files once he was paid.
His home telephone is disconnected. It wasn't immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Oklahoma
Court rejects condemned killer's appeal
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Oklahoma Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a Choctaw man convicted and sentenced to die for beating a co-worker to death with a hammer.
The court's ruling released Wednesday rejects 39-year-old James Allen Coddington's claims of ineffective counsel.
Coddington was convicted of first-degree murder in 2003 and sentenced to death for the 1997 beating death of 73-year-old Albert Hale.
Coddington's original death sentence was overturned -- but a different jury sentenced him to death in 2008.
Prosecutors say Coddington beat Hale to death with a hammer after Hale refused to give him money to buy drugs.
The two worked together at an auto parts store in Choctaw.
Published: Thu, Aug 25, 2011
