NEW MEXICO
Academic seeks death certificate for Billy the Kid
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A retired Arizona State University professor is taking his pursuit of a death certificate for Billy the Kid to New Mexico's highest court.
Historian Robert J. Stahl filed a petition Friday with the New Mexico Supreme Court to order the state's medical examiner to create the document for the legendary outlaw, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
Stahl says he hopes the court will order the Office of the Medical Investigator to consider the evidence and determine whether William H. Bonney's death can be certified.
According to most accounts, the Kid was fatally shot by Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Sumner in 1881. But some claim Garrett shot someone else and the Kid took up ranching or escaped to Texas under an alias.
Stahl is a member of the nonprofit Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang, an organization formed to protect the "true" history of the Kid. He wants to silence rumors that Bonney escaped the sheriff's bullet.
An official death certificate would end the attention that has been given to impostors claiming they were the Kid, like Ollie "Brushy Brill" Roberts of Hico, Texas, said Stahl.
No one in Fort Sumner ever denied that the Kid was shot by Garrett, said Stahl, and six members of the jury appointed to investigate the case knew the Kid and saw his body.
The jury unanimously found Garrett's shooting of the Kid to be "justifiable homicide."
The retired professor also wants to correct the coroner's report on Bonney's death. Stahl has been researching frontier topics since 2003 with help from his wife and sister and believes the date on the report is wrong.
An English translation of the coroner's report says the Kid died minutes after being shot, around midnight on July 14, 1881. But Stahl believes the Kid actually died at about 12:30 a.m. on July 15, citing an account by George Miller, who was staying in Fort Sumner that night.
Miller wrote in the Las Vegas Optic on July 18 that the shots woke him and he immediately checked his watch.
Stahl's previous efforts to get the Office of the Medical Investigator to create a death certificate have failed. He submitted a written request that was denied earlier this year.
Stahl was told he'd need a court order for a death certificate to be issued.
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MAINE
Diner owner defends yelling at kid to stop crying
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The owner of a Maine diner says she's not sorry for yelling at a 2-year-old child for crying in her restaurant because it got the girl to be quiet.
Darla Neugebauer, owner of Marcy's Diner in Portland, is defending her actions after a backlash on social media among people who say they'll never eat at the restaurant again.
Neugebauer wrote on Facebook that the girl had been crying for more than 40 minutes by the time she slammed her hands on the counter and told the girl to be quiet.
She told WCSH-TV that the parents ordered three full-sized pancakes for the child but ignored her, and she claimed they didn't feed her after the food arrived.
"Life's full of choices and you've got to live with all of them," Neugebauer said. "I chose to yell at a kid, it made her shut-up, which made me happy, it made my staff happy, it made the 75 other people dining here happy, and they left, they may never come back, other people may not come in. Their loss really."
Tara Carson, the mother of the child, wrote on Facebook that anyone with young children should understand that crying is normal after waiting such a long time for food.
"I turned to my daughter and I was like 'Listen, this is how I'm raising you not to be as an adult. Like, you will never be like this when you get older,'" Carson said. "I felt helpless as a mom that, you know, I couldn't do anything to help her, because I can't explain why there's crazy people in this world that behave like that."
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PENNSYLVANIA
Former union boss sentenced for racketeering
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A former Philadelphia union boss convicted of overseeing violence, vandalism and intimidation to get construction jobs for his members has been sentenced to more than 19 years in prison.
Seventy-three-year-old Joseph Dougherty was also ordered Monday to pay more than half a million dollars in restitution following his January conviction on charges including racketeering and extortion.
Prosecutors say Dougherty told Ironworkers Local 401 members that they were at "war" with nonunion competitors, especially as construction jobs dried up after the Great Recession.
U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson says he considered the defendant's age but had to impose a sentence that matched the seriousness of the offenses.
Nearly a dozen union members pleaded guilty in the case, and several testified against Dougherty.
Dougherty's attorney says he plans to appeal the conviction and sentence.
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KENTUCKY
Clerk prayed about issuing marriage licenses
COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A county clerk in Kentucky says she prayed and fasted for months before deciding to stop issuing marriage licenses once the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis testified Monday in a federal hearing stemming from a lawsuit brought against her by two gay couples and two straight couples. She says the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives her the right to not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because it violates her religious beliefs.
Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union say Davis' rationale would mean local officials could also deny marriage licenses to people who have been divorced or committed other actions that some consider sinful.
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KANSAS
Judge sets date for resentencing doctor, wife
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A judge has set a hearing for a former Kansas doctor and his wife accused of a moneymaking conspiracy at a pain clinic linked to 68 overdose deaths.
A court notation on Monday shows Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, will be resentenced Aug. 31.
The couple was convicted in 2010 of conspiracy to commit health care fraud resulting in those deaths, unlawfully prescribing drugs, health care fraud and money laundering. Schneider was initially sentenced to 30 years and his wife to 33 years.
But in June, U.S. District Judge Monti Belot overturned the conspiracy sentence following an unrelated U.S. Supreme Court decision that the victim's drug use had to be the actual cause of death, not merely a contributing factor.
Published: Tue, Jul 21, 2015
