National Roundup

Georgia
Judge declines to rule in dispute over MLK Bible
ATLANTA (AP) — An ownership dispute over the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize and traveling Bible is one step closer to trial.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney declined to rule Thursday in the dispute over the two items that has effectively pitted King’s two sons against his daughter. That means the case will likely go to trial unless the parties reach a settlement.

King’s estate, which is controlled by his sons, in January 2014 asked a judge to order their sister to surrender the items. In a board of directors meeting that month Martin Luther King III and Dexter Scott King voted 2-1 against Bernice King to sell the two artifacts to a private buyer.

Bernice opposed any sale and argued the items don’t belong to the estate.

The three surviving King children are the sole shareholders and directors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Estate Inc. In a vote in January 2014, Martin and Dexter voted 2-1 against Bernice to sell their father’s 1964 peace prize medal and traveling Bible to an unnamed private buyer.

Both items were in Bernice’s possession and lawyers for the estate filed a lawsuit just over a week later asking a judge to order Bernice to surrender both items. The Bible and Nobel medal have been in a safe deposit box, with the keys held by the court, since March 2014.

The case was set to go to trial in February 2015, but McBurney temporarily halted all action in the case after the parties asked for time to reach a settlement out of court.

Lawyers for the two sides told McBurney in May 2015 that they were close to an agreement but not quite there. McBurney ordered them to use a mediator to resolve the dispute after a lawyer for Bernice asked the judge to order mediation and the estate’s lawyer did not object.

Former President Jimmy Carter in October confirmed that he was working as a mediator to try to help the King heirs resolve their dispute. A string of legal disputes has divided the King heirs in recent years, but Bernice, Martin III and Dexter released a joint statement expressing optimism after a meeting with Carter in October.

Bernice spoke from the pulpit of historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in February 2014 and denounced what she said was a plan by her brothers to sell the Bible and Nobel medal, which she said were among their father’s most cherished possessions.

The estate’s lawyers had cited a 1995 agreement among King’s heirs to sign over their rights to many items they inherited from their father to the estate.

A lawyer for the estate said at a hearing shortly after the lawsuit was filed that money that would come in from the sale or lease of the Bible and Nobel medal was crucial to the estate’s viability.

Pennsylvania
Man gets prison in killing over Craigslist car ad 
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison for killing the owner of an auto detailing business who was selling his car on Craigslist.

Police said 29-year-old Reading resident Tyrell Young traveled to an Allentown shop in April 2014 to view the car being sold by 41-year-old Eric Ervin, of Coopersburg.

Ervin was later found dead of a gunshot wound in a trailer that housed his business.

Ervin’s girlfriend told police he had been talking to a man about selling his 2003 silver BMW 745i, and police traced a cellphone that had called Ervin’s.

Young was sentenced Wednesday in Lehigh County after pleading guilty to third-degree murder, receiving stolen property and a weapons violation. He faces nine more years in prison for a parole violation.


Virginia
Rights ­restoration may include sex offenders still locked up
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s order to restore voting rights to ex-felons may have included more than 100 sex offenders who’ve completed their sentences, but were deemed too dangerous to release.

The Washington Post reports that Nottoway County Commonwealth’s Attorney Terry Royall said Wednesday that the director of the Virginia Center for Behavioral Rehabilitation informed her that 176 of its 370 residents meet the criteria for restoration and a database showed 132 had been restored. The center is a facility where these individuals can be sent through a civil court proceeding.

In April, McAuliffe restored voting and other civil rights to more than 200,000 felons who had completed their terms of incarceration or “supervised release, including probation and parole.” McAuliffe spokeswoman Christina Nuckols said the governor’s order doesn’t cover the facility’s residents.

“The governor’s restoration order specifically excludes individuals who are under any form of supervised release, and offenders in this facility are clearly under 24-7 supervision by the state,” Nuckols said. “None of them had their rights restored, plain and simple. This is yet another partisan attempt to spread misinformation and hysteria.”

Royall notes that the residents aren’t under “supervised release.” The order doesn’t specifically exclude civilly committed people.

“Civil commitment is not part of a criminal sentence, even though they are still in custody,” said Steve Benjamin, a prominent Richmond defense attorney.

In a letter to county supervisors, Royall noted that such residents “are civilly committed because they have been adjudicated to be sexually violent predators by a circuit court judge. Moreover, they will have to be transported at taxpayer cost when they choose to exercise their Constitutional rights to vote and/or serve on a jury.”

Republicans have filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse McAuliffe’s order, saying governors can restore voting rights only on a case-by-case basis. Opponents have also said the process has been rushed and flawed. McAuliffe has said some errors were unavoidable with such a large undertaking and pledged to correct them.


Florida
Deputy facing child sex charges fatally shoots self
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida sheriff’s officials say a deputy facing 29 child sex-related charges has died after shooting himself.

Broward County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Veda Coleman-Wright said in a news release that 43-year-old Sgt. Kreg Costa died Wednesday night at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale. She says Costa shot himself at his home in Sunrise after being released from jail on bond earlier Wednesday.

Investigators say staff at Costa’s office noticed he was staying in his office during the night. A check into his computer showed he was viewing websites dedicated to hardcore pornography, incest and bondage while at work.
Authorities also say he exchanged sexually explicit emails and videos with a 16-year-old girl.

Costa had been with the sheriff’s office since 1999. He’d been suspended with pay since April 24.