National Roundup

Wisconsin
Woman added to ‘most wanted’ list arrested
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The FBI says a Milwaukee woman added to its “10 Most Wanted Fugitives” list last week was arrested in North Carolina.

Twenty-four-year-old Shanika Minor is accused of fatally shooting Tamecca Perry and her unborn child last March in Milwaukee.

FBI Special Agent Jennifer Walkowski says Minor was arrested Friday morning in Fayetteville. Walkowski did not immediately have details of the arrest.

Authorities say Minor shot Perry, who was nine months pregnant, following a confrontation over loud music at the duplex where Minor’s mother also lived. Minor fled after the shooting.

The FBI offered a $100,000 reward in the case.

Pennsylvania
Man who bit off part of wife’s lover’s ear gets house arrest
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man who bit off part of his wife’s lover’s ear during a scuffle will serve house arrest and probation.

The (Scranton) Times-Tribune reports Scranton resident John Teeple III was sentenced Thursday to four years of court supervision and three months of house arrest. He pleaded guilty to simple assault, reckless endangerment and a weapons offense.

Authorities say Teeple saw his wife’s lover driving a car he was paying for and confronted him. That led to a scuffle in which Teeple bit off part of the man’s left ear.

Teeple says the fight was the culmination of an emotional time that resulted in the end of his 14-year marriage.

Defense attorney Bill Thompson says his client didn’t start the physical fight.


Florida
Message in bottle: Cubans mistreated by Coast Guard
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a message in a bottle alleging mistreatment of 21 Cuban migrants aboard a U.S. Coast Guard vessel.

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Cubans should be returned home because the Florida Keys lighthouse where they landed May 20 didn’t count as U.S. soil under the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy.

Coast Guard Capt. Jeffrey Janszen is quoted by The Citizen as saying that a fisherman found a bottle floating off the Keys with a message alleging the group was suffering. Janszen says the letter appears authentic and names the migrants and the vessel where they’ve been detained for 40 days. But he says the allegations are “absolutely false.”

The Miami judge is considering requests from the migrants’ attorneys to have access to the group aboard the vessel.

Florida
Lawsuit: Maggots found on intensive care patient
ORANGE PARK, Fla. (AP) — A family is suing a Florida hospital where staff reported finding maggots while examining a 76-year-old woman.

The children of Dorothy Mooneyham of Orange Park seek over $15,000 damages from the Orange Park Medical Center. In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Clay County, Mooneyham’s children say the hospital abused and neglected a vulnerable adult and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

The lawsuit says Mooneyham suffered complications from a November surgery and was admitted to intensive care. Medical records emailed to The Associated Press by Fred and Patti Mooneyham’s attorney, Frank Ashton, show the unit’s staff found maggots in her mouth and on her leg on separate occasions.

Mooneyham died about a month after surgery.

Hospital spokeswoman Carrie Turansky tells The Florida Times-Union that the allegations are “outrageous and inaccurate.”

Minnesota
2 men facing life sentences want rehabilitation
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys for two men facing a possible life prison sentence for plotting to go to Syria to join the Islamic State group are asking a judge to consider allowing them to participate in a de-radicalization program.

The rehabilitation program was offered to six other men who pleaded guilty to conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization. Abdirahman Daud and Guled Omar, along with a third defendant, pleaded not guilty and were convicted by a jury in May.

Minnesota Public Radio News reports that U.S. District Judge Michael Davis pioneered the de-radicalization program that was developed by a German expert who works with neo-Nazis and other extremists. Davis has said it’s not necessarily an alternative to incarceration.

The judge hasn’t set a sentencing date for the three defendants.

Florida
Dad admits killing son while playing videogames
ENGLEWOOD, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man who kept playing videogames after pinning his 6-year-old son to the couch on Christmas Eve has pleaded guilty to killing the boy.

The Herald Tribune reports that 31-year-old James Dearman pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated manslaughter of a child in the death of his son Jimmy. He faces up to 20 years in prison at a July 28 hearing.

A sheriff’s report says Dearman used his weight to pin the boy to the couch where he was playing video games with his girlfriend, 22-year-old Ashley Cole. The couple eventually realized the boy wasn’t breathing and called 911.
Cole also pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter of a child.


California
Proposal cracks down on opioid doctor shoppers
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A bill before the California Legislature would make it more difficult for addicts to obtain opioid prescriptions through so-called “doctor shopping.”

SB482 would crack down on the practice by requiring providers to consult a database of patient prescription histories before recommending the use of addictive drugs.

Advocates say a mandatory check would identify at-risk patients and reduce opioids in the marketplace.

Similar attempts have failed in the past, but proponents hope the national opioid epidemic and high-profile deaths such as that of musician Prince will prompt action this year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 165,000 people died from prescription opioid overdoses from 1999 to 2014.

The California Medical Association is opposed. It argues that lawmakers should not control the practice of medicine.