Illinois
Officer's death investigation cost tops $300,000
FOX LAKE, Ill. (AP) - More than $300,000 has been spent on an investigation into the unsolved shooting death of a police lieutenant that sparked a massive manhunt in northern Illinois, according to a review of personnel records from 50 suburban Chicago police agencies.
About $196,000 of that total was related to overtime, according to an analysis by the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald.
The killing of Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz on Sept. 1 prompted a manhunt for three suspects, and authorities later confirmed Gliniewicz, 52, had been shot twice with his own weapon. But despite a month of detective work, police haven't made any arrests, identified any suspects or established a motive.
The county coroner has said he is unable to rule Gliniewicz's death a homicide, suicide or an accident.
The review found that 283 people from 50 suburban Chicago police departments and sheriff's offices either assisted in the investigation or covering shifts for others during the three weeks that followed the shooting, amounting to more than 5,700 hours of work.
The Lake County Sheriff's Office sent 93 employees to help with the investigation at a cost of nearly $46,000 in overtime.
Lake County Major Crimes Task Force spokesman Chris Covelli said that once a major crimes task force investigation starts it's understood that individual departments will pick up the cost of the employees they send to work on it.
New York
Judge rejects renaming college, cites donor's will
PAUL SMITHS, N.Y. (AP) - A New York judge has denied a college's petition to add benefactor Joan Weill to its name, citing the will of the founding donor.
Paul Smith's College President Cathy Dove announced the ruling on the Adirondack college's website Wednesday. It was made by a Franklin County state Supreme Court judge.
The college's board of trustees voted over the summer to rename the college Joan Weill-Paul Smith's College in exchange for a $20 million donation from Weill, wife of Wall Street billionaire Sanford Weill.
The plan drew the ire of alumni who said it set a bad precedent for charitable giving.
The college was established by the will of J. Phelps Smith. He stipulated the college be "forever known as Paul Smith's College of Arts and Sciences" to honor his father.
Massachusetts
Cop who ran over student cleared of wrongdoing
CHATHAM, Mass. (AP) - A Cape Cod police officer who ran over and killed a college student while responding to a business alarm on New Year's Day has been cleared of wrongdoing.
An investigation by the Cape and Islands district attorney's office determined that Chatham Officer Christopher Vardarkis will not face charges.
Authorities say Vardarkis struck Garrett Gagne as he lay on an unlit Chatham street at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 1.
The 22-year-old Gagne, from Longmeadow, was on the Cape to celebrate New Year's Eve. He was a senior government major and lacrosse player at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York.
The Cape Cod Times reports the investigation found that Gagne had alcohol and illicit drugs in his system.
Drug and alcohol tests on Vardarkis determined he was not impaired.
Ohio
City appeals 'jock tax' ruling to U.S. Supreme Court
CLEVELAND (AP) - The city of Cleveland says it is within its rights to tax visiting professional athletes based on the number of games they play a year because taxation is a matter of local jurisdiction.
In a filing Tuesday, the city asked the U.S. Supreme Court to back its position after the Ohio Supreme Court struck down Cleveland's system earlier this year.
The state court ruled that Cleveland's method for taxing athletes violates players' due process rights. It ruled the city must assess taxes based on the total number of days each visiting player works in a year, as is common elsewhere.
At issue were challenges by former Chicago Bears linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer and retired Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday.
Washington
Court weighs 3 death sentences in Kansas cases
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court seems inclined to rule against the perpetrators of what one justice called "some of the most horrendous murders" he's ever seen from the bench.
The justices on Wednesday were critical of the Kansas Supreme Court, which overturned the death sentences of three men, including two brothers convicted in a murderous crime spree known as the "Wichita massacre."
It was the first high-court hearing on death penalty cases since a clash over lethal injection procedures exposed deep divisions among the justices in the court's last term.
The debate this time concerned the sentencing process for Jonathan and Reginald Carr and for Sidney Gleason, convicted in another case.
The state court ruled that jurors received flawed instructions about mitigating evidence and said the brothers should have been sentenced separately.
Missouri
Pastor asks to retract guilty plea in fraud case
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A Missouri pastor sentenced to seven years in prison after admitting he bilked $3.3 million from at least 18 mostly elderly investors wants to rescind his guilty plea, challenging the constitutionality of the federal laws under which he was prosecuted.
In a four-page motion, James Staley III seeks a Nov. 16 trial in which U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch should "have the opportunity to testify as to the veracity" of the laws applied to his case. He pleaded guilty in April and was sentenced in August.
Some of Staley's terminology in his court filing is common to anti-government "sovereign citizens" who declare themselves outside the bounds of federal and local legal constraints. Staley, now imprisoned in a southern Illinois prison, writes that he is the "registered owner" of his name and uses trademark and copyright symbols behind it - often indicators of someone with a sovereign citizen philosophy, according to the FBI's website.
Federal prosecutors said Staley was not registered to sell securities in Missouri, but earned more than $570,000 in commissions while peddling investment products he said carried minimal risk and yielded large, guaranteed returns, in some cases 30 to 40 percent. They said victims invested with him because he was a "nice religious man," and that clergy by nature could be trusted.
Published: Thu, Oct 08, 2015
