Court Roundup

California Jury finds Eureka police liable for man's death OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- A federal jury in Oakland has awarded $4.5 million to the family of a 26-year-old man who died in Eureka police custody after he was beaten by two officers and placed in a jail cell without receiving medical attention. Jurors found the city of Eureka and Officers Adam Laird and Justin Winkle liable Friday for the August 2007 death of Martin Frederick Cotton II, who was arrested at a local rescue mission after allegedly getting into several fights there. The Humboldt County coroner listed his cause of death as a subdural hematoma due to blunt force trauma. In reaching its verdict, the jury determined the officers used excessive force and were deliberately indifferent to Cotton's medical condition when they jailed him. Police and jail officials said Cotton was high on LSD and could have hurt himself inside his jail cell. Delaware Suspect in officer's death waives hearing WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- A Wilmington man charged with fatally stabbing a New Castle County police officer has waived his right to a preliminary hearing. Public defenders told a Court of Common Pleas judge on Monday that 32-year-old David Salasky Jr. was waiving his right to a hearing where prosecutors would have had to establish probable cause for charging him with the murder of 44-year-old officer Joseph Szczerba (ZER-bah). The judge ordered the case transferred to Superior Court. Prosecutors will now have to try to obtain an indictment from a New Castle County grand jury. The case may be eligible for the death penalty. Salasky, who has a long criminal history, is charged with stabbing Szczerba on Sept. 16 after police responded to a report of a vehicle break-in near New Castle. Vermont Post-trial briefs to be filed in Yankee case MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Lawyers for Entergy Corp. and the state of Vermont are expected to file their last pitches in writing to the federal judge weighing the future of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The state is moving to deny the plant a new permit to operate past the expiration of its initial 40-year license in March. Entergy, which has received a license renewal from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, says that trumps the state action and that the plant should stay open. Judge J. Garvan Murtha, who heard three days of testimony and arguments in U.S. District Court in Brattleboro earlier this month, is expected to rule before the end of the year. New York Judge tosses Madoff suits targeting hedge funds NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge has thrown out lawsuits in which investors blamed hedge funds for failing to detect Bernard Madoff's massive fraud. The ruling by Judge Deborah Batts was made public Monday. It says investors in the hedge funds run by J. Ezra Merkin were sufficiently warned about risks. The Manhattan jurist says a few people were suspicious about Madoff's practices before the allegations were publicly revealed. But she says it wasn't widely known -- and he even duped government regulators. The 73-year-old Madoff is serving a 150-year prison term after admitting the fraud. Published: Tue, Sep 27, 2011