New Jersey
Judge rules that 'gay conversion' therapy is fraud
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A judge in New Jersey has ruled that people providing gay conversion therapy who describe homosexuality as a curable mental disorder are committing fraud.
Hudson County Superior Court Judge Peter Bariso Jr. ruled Tuesday against the Jersey City-based Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing. He said that JONAH's claims are illegal based on the state's Consumer Fraud Act.
JONAH has been sued by four men and two of their mothers, alleging that their methods don't work.
Bariso also ruled last week that JONAH could not call proponents who planned to offer testimony that homosexuality is an illness.
Gov. Chris Christie signed a ban preventing licensed therapists from performing gay conversion therapy for patients under 18 in 2013. Two associations and therapists have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal.
Pennsylvania
Guard gets prison for trafficking teens with inmate
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A former prison guard was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years behind bars for forcing two teens into prostitution with the help of her boyfriend, whom she met when he was an inmate.
Poshauntamarin Walker, 35, who last lived in Coatesville, near Philadelphia, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Mark Hornak in Pittsburgh.
She and her boyfriend, Rasul Abernathy, 33, pleaded guilty last fall to federal charges of sex trafficking of children in return for 10-year prison terms. Abernathy was sentenced last month.
"The victims, who are under 18, cannot consent to being trafficked but are forced into that world by poverty and circumstances," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Lieber Smolar told the judge. "They do not have loving and supportive families like the defendant but live on the street and try to survive day to day."
Walker acknowledged forcing a 17-year-old boy the couple met online to sell himself for sex between December 2012 and March 2013 while she and Abernathy lived in North Versailles, a Pittsburgh suburb.
Walker didn't plead guilty to charges involving a 16-year-old girl the couple was also charged with prostituting, but she acknowledged responsibility for that behavior as part of her plea.
Details of the sex trafficking charges emerged when the FBI unsealed a search warrant a few days after the couple was arrested in their home last February.
Abernathy and Walker placed personal ads for sex services that had phone numbers investigators linked to the couples. They paid cash for hotel rooms or sometimes used Walker's debit card, and she would drive the boy to his "dates" with Abernathy as a passenger in the car, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Lieber Smolar told the court.
Abernathy met Walker when he was incarcerated from February 2007 to September 2008 at the state prison in Greensburg. After his release, the couple lived together when Abernathy met the 16-year-old after she ran away from Allegheny County's Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.
Abernathy told the girl she could live with Walker, but he didn't tell her that he lived there, too, and they'd all have to share one bed, authorities said.
According to an FBI search warrant, Walker showed the girl how to dress and apply makeup provocatively, and Abernathy dictated the price for her sexual services. The couple gave her marijuana and pain pills to relax before she had sex with customers and alcohol afterward. They also physically abused the girl or threatened her with violence if she refused to perform the sexual services or tried to run away, authorities said.
Minnesota
Court upholds law on refusing breath test
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld a state law making it illegal for suspected drunk drivers to refuse a breath test.
The high court on Wednesday rejected a man's claim that the law violated due process by preventing him from refusing an unconstitutional, warrantless search.
The case stemmed from the 2012 arrest of William Robert Bernard, whom witnesses identified as the driver of a truck that became stuck on a boat launch. Police said Bernard smelled of alcohol and acknowledged drinking but refused a chemical test after he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.
Justices wrote that a search following a lawful arrest is a well-recognized exception to the requirement of a search warrant. They also wrote the law furthers the state's ability to prosecute drunk drivers.
New York
Former exec gets 22 years in killing of equestrian
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) - A former American Express executive who pleaded guilty to killing a suburban New York equestrian and wounding his partner has been sentenced to 22 years in prison.
Newsday reports that Brett Knight apologized during Tuesday's proceeding in Suffolk County court in Riverhead.
He pleaded guilty in December to murder, attempted murder and other charges in the September 2013 fatal shooting of Setauket resident and equestrian Ross Reisner. Reisner's partner was wounded.
Knight is from Midvale, Utah. He said he would use the prison time to reflect on his actions.
Prosecutors say the killing followed a dispute between Knight and the men. Knight had previously lived in Reisner's Setauket home but was evicted. Knight also suspected the men told a former employer about a baseless wrongful-termination lawsuit.
Ohio
Court: sentencing aspect tossed in sex assault law
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Evidence that corroborates a crime has no bearing on the sentence an offender should receive, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday as it tossed out part of an Ohio sex assault law.
The court's 6-1 ruling, which addressed sex assaults on children under 13, also rejected corroborating evidence as a sentencing tool in plea deals where a jury did not consider the evidence.
Corroborating evidence is irrelevant to the purpose of sentencing, namely "protecting the public from future crime and punishing the offender," Justice Judith Lanzinger wrote for the majority.
Lawmakers have "unconstitutionally created two different sanctions to be imposed on offenders who commit the same crime - differentiated only by the quantity of the evidence presented to prove guilt," Lanzinger said.
Prosecutors argued unsuccessfully that lawmakers have wide discretion in defining crimes and fixing punishments.
The decision overturned a three-year prison sentence for gross sexual imposition handed down to a Franklin County man in 2012.
The Supreme Court's ruling ordered the case returned to a judge for resentencing.
Published: Thu, Feb 12, 2015
