National Roundup

West Virginia
Civil suits planned after Mingo judge indictment
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The lawyer for the husband and wife allegedly wronged by Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury and other officials says they are ready to file a list of civil lawsuits.
Attorney Mike Callaghan told the Charleston Daily Mail that he sent notices to several public agencies informing them of planned lawsuits on behalf of Robert and Kim Woodruff.
State law requires anyone planning to sue a state agency to give notice 30 days before filing.
Callaghan said he sent notices to the state Supreme Court, the Mingo County Commission, State Police and the city of Gilbert.
Federal prosecutors claim Thornsbury had an affair with his secretary, Kim Woodruff, and tried to frame her husband, Robert, for several crimes, including drug possession, larceny and assault.
Thornsbury, who was indicted earlier this month, has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bond facing an Oct. 15 trial.
In the indictment, prosecutors claim West Virginia State Police Trooper Brandon Moore and Gilbert Police Officer Nathan Glanden helped with the unsuccessful schemes, but neither was charged.
Callaghan said he plans to sue Moore and Glanden individually, as well as their respective agencies.

Georgia
Prosecution rests in baby killing trial
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — The prosecution has rested its case in the trial of a man accused of fatally shooting a baby in a stroller in coastal Georgia.
De’Marquise (deh-mahr-KEES’) Elkins is charged with murder in the March 21 killing of 13-month-old Antonio Santiago in Brunswick. His mother, Karimah Elkins, is on trial alongside him on charges of evidence tampering and lying to police.
Lawyers for De’Marquise and Karimah Elkins said earlier this week that they expect to take about two days to present their witnesses and evidence.
Prosecutors say that Antonio was killed in an attempted robbery and that evidence implicates De’Marquise Elkins. The baby’s mother was wounded in the shooting.
The trial is being held near Atlanta because of pretrial publicity.
If convicted of murder, the 18-year-old Elkins faces up to life in prison.

Tennessee
Resort hotel loses lawsuit over dirty claim by website
The inclusion of a Tennessee hotel on an unflattering list on a travel website wasn’t dirty pool after all.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected a bid by the owner of the Grand Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to reinstate a defamation lawsuit against the site TripAdvisor.
Judge Karen Nelson Moore concluded for the court that the hotel’s inclusion on the “2011 Dirtiest Hotels” list doesn’t rise to the level of defamation because it is obvious the list simply communicates the opinions of TripAdvisor users.
Hotel owner Kenneth M. Seaton sued Newton, Mass-based TripAdvisor in 2011. He accused the website of defamation and portraying his business in a false light.
Judge Thomas W. Phillips in Knoxville rejected the claims in August 2012.

New Mexico
Ex-officer wants wrongful death lawsuit tossed
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former Albuquerque police officer recently acquitted of killing his wife wants a civil wrongful death lawsuit against him dismissed or have taxpayers pay for his legal bills.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that Levi Chavez made the requests last week in court documents.
According to court papers filed in district court, Chavez says he will represent himself because he is “financially destitute” after his criminal trial.
A jury in July acquitted Chavez of killing his wife, 26-year-old Tera Chavez.
But the family of Tera Chavez filed the civil lawsuit in 2008 against Levi Chavez, the Albuquerque Police Department, some of its officers and Police Chief Ray Schultz. The city later settled its part.
That civil case is scheduled for trial on Jan. 13.

Virginia
Justices to hear Va. Tech wrongful death lawsuit
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Supreme Court will hear arguments next month in the wrongful death suit brought by the parents of two Virginia Tech students slain during the 2007 campus massacre.
According the docket posted Tuesday, the full court is scheduled to hear arguments from attorneys for the state and the parents of the late Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson on Sept. 12.
The Roanoke Times reports that both sides have filed appeals in the suit filed by the families of the two women who were among the 32 killed on April 16, 2007.
The state is appealing the March 2012 negligence verdict reached in Montgomery County Circuit Court. Jurors awarded the parents of Peterson and Pryde $4 million each, but a judge later reduced that to the cap on damages against the state to $100,000 each. The state was the lone defendant in the trial.
Attorneys for the parents are asking the court to reinstate outgoing Virginia Tech President Charles Steger as a defendant. They want Steger to be held accountable for delaying alerting the Blacksburg campus of the first two shootings by student-gunman Seung-Hui Cho. He killed himself after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Steger was initially named in the parents’ lawsuit but was exempted by a judge before trial on a legal technicality.
An attorney for the parents had argued that the decision to delay warning the entire campus of the first two deadly dorm shootings ultimately rested with Steger after he had heard from investigators at the scene. Hours later, Cho and 30 students and faculty were dead at Norris Hall, a classroom building. The victims included Pryde and Peterson.
Steger and other university officials have said they based their decision to delay the campus-wide warning because investigators at the dorm believed the victims were targeted and that the gunman, while still at large, did not pose a threat to the wider campus.
The Pryde and Peterson families had declined to join a multimillion-dollar legal settlement with the state and filed suit on the second anniversary of the killings.