Massachusetts
Man gets 30 years for operating prostitution ring
BOSTON (AP) - A federal court judge handed down a 30-year prison sentence to a man investigators say operated one of the most violent sex trafficking rings in Boston in the last decade.
Twenty-eight year old Raymond Jeffries was sentenced Thursday in Boston. Authorities say he ran a large-scale sex trafficking ring that forced teens and young women into prostitution through intimidation and preying on their vulnerabilities.
Authorities say at least 20 women - some teenagers - were forced into prostitution by Jeffries in a number of states from 2006 until May 2014.
Prosecutors say Jeffries also pleaded guilty to charges that he ordered a hit on a partner that he believed was cooperating with authorities. The victim survived.
Jeffries also has been ordered to undergo sex offender counseling.
Pennsylvania
Appeals court asked to bring Ten Commandments suit back to trial
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pennsylvania student's mother and atheists' group who sued a school district over a Ten Commandments display are asking a federal appeals court to send the 2012 lawsuit back for trial.
A judge in July had ruled in favor of the New Kensington-Arnold School District. He said that Marie Schaub's daughter wasn't in high school when she sued, so both had minimal contact with the monument.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that the district's lawyer told the Pittsburgh court Thursday that Schaub would have standing if she filed the same lawsuit now.
An attorney for Schaub and the Freedom From Religion Foundation says Schaub sued because she knew her daughter would have passed the monument daily at Valley Junior-Senior High School.
The judges took the case under advisement.
South Dakota
Supreme Court: Schwan sons get hearing in dispute
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - Two sons of the late frozen food magnate Marvin Schwan will get an opportunity to argue for court oversight of his charitable foundation after about $600 million in investment losses, South Dakota's Supreme Court said in an opinion released Thursday.
The high court ruled that a circuit court must consider Mark and Paul Schwan's request for supervision. The two sit on a committee that reviews the administration of the Marvin M. Schwan Charitable Foundation.
The foundation lost about $600 million in offshore ventures, and Mark and Paul Schwan want more details. They said in court documents that other committee members, including some who also serve as foundation trustees, have blocked their efforts.
The lower court ruled in favor of the foundation's trustees, saying Mark and Paul Schwan didn't meet the criteria to request supervision. But the Supreme Court disagreed and sent the case back to the circuit court for a hearing.
Blake Shepard, an attorney for the Schwan brothers, said they are grateful for the opportunity to have a hearing on the merits of their petition. An attorney for the foundation's trustees didn't immediately respond to a telephone message requesting comment.
The dispute over the foundation also involves the state attorney general's office, which has the authority to enforce the conditions of a charitable trust. Attorney General Marty Jackley said his office will discuss matters with private counsel.
Marvin Schwan created Schwan's Sales Enterprises as a milk processing facility in Marshall, Minnesota, in 1948. The business grew to become a leading retail and food delivery business. Schwan, who lived in Sioux Falls, died in 1993 at age 64. At that time of his death, Forbes magazine ranked him as the country's 70th richest man, worth more than $1 billion.
Iowa
Court upholds conviction despite bogus testimony
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - The Iowa Supreme Court is refusing to grant a new trial to a man convicted of a 1983 murder with the help of discredited FBI bullet-matching science.
The court ruled 7-0 that Glendale More would probably have been convicted even if inaccurate FBI testimony linking him to bullets that killed the victim would have been excluded.
More is serving a life sentence in the 1983 death of Wauneita Townsend, who was found shot to death in her car in a Davenport parking lot.
He sought a new trial after the FBI disavowed comparative bullet lead analysis, a technique that used chemistry to link bullets found at crime scenes to others.
The court said Friday it's troubled by errors in More's case, but that other facts point to his guilt.
Ohio
Federal judge: No jail as suspended judge appeals
CINCINNATI (AP) - A federal judge has granted a suspended juvenile court judge's request to delay her six-month jail sentence as she further appeals her 2014 conviction for unlawful interest in a public contract.
The judge granted the order a day before Judge Tracie Hunter was scheduled to begin her sentence Friday after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled not to hear her appeal.
Hunter's lawyers told the federal court that she didn't receive a fair trial in 2014. They allege prosecutorial misconduct and mistakes by the Hamilton County trial judge. Hunter's lawyers also say a jail sentence would aggravate Hunter's health problems that stem partly from a car accident when she was a college student.
Calls seeking comment were left Friday with the special prosecutor and the Hamilton County court in Hunter's case.
New Mexico
State Supreme Court affirms murder conviction
CARLSBAD, N.M. (AP) - The New Mexico Supreme Court has affirmed the murder conviction of a Carlsbad man who killed his Texas girlfriend in 2014.
Robert Earley was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and tampering with evidence last year.
The state's high court ruled Thursday that Earley will remain in prison.
His conviction carried an automatic life sentence by state law, but a mandatory appeal was filed in the case.
Authorities say Earley killed Emily Lambert at a Carlsbad hotel following an argument on March 1, 2014.
Earley's lawyers argued his statements to the police shouldn't have been allowed into evidence.
The state Supreme Court rejected Earley's claims of error during his trial, held that the convictions were supported by the evidence and held that Earley's statements to police were properly admitted at trial.
Published: Mon, May 23, 2016
