National Roundup

California
Stanford sex assault judge bows out from sex case
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — A California judge under fire for a light sentence given to a Stanford University swimmer has recused himself from making his first key decision in another sex crimes case.

Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky filed a statement with the court saying that some people might doubt his impartiality, The Mercury News reported Monday.

The judge is the target of a recall campaign that started in June after he sentenced former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, 20, to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman who passed out behind a trash bin after a fraternity party.

Persky was scheduled this week to consider a request from Robert Chain to reduce his conviction for possessing child pornography from a felony to a misdemeanor. The judge said last year he would be receptive to the idea if the plumber stayed sober.

“While on vacation earlier this month, my family and I were exposed to publicity surrounding this case,” the judge wrote in his brief ruling. “This publicity has resulted in a personal family situation such that ‘a person aware of the facts might reasonably entertain a doubt that the judge would be able to be impartial.’ “

The newspaper reports that Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor who is leading the recall, said she is pleased by Persky’s recusal. Gary Goodman, a deputy public defender who opposes a recall, said the recusal is a prime example of Persky’s integrity.

Persky followed a recommendation by the county probation department to sentence Turner, the former Stanford swimmer, to six months in prison despite prosecutors seeking six years. Turner could have faced up to 14 years in prison.
The 23-year-old victim read an impassioned statement at the sentencing hearing. She described the assault in graphic detail and said her “independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition.”

Also Monday, Stanford University officials announced a ban on hard liquor at undergraduate on-campus parties. The move follows the outcry over the sentence for the assault, which came after both Turner and his victim drank at a campus party.

New Jersey
Judge allows suit alleging gay marriage bias
HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) — A judge is allowing a lawsuit alleging a Roman Catholic school in New Jersey fired an employee because she’s married to a woman to move forward.

The Record reports a judge issued the ruling late Monday denying a request by Paramus Catholic High School to dismiss the lawsuit.

Attorneys for Kate Drumgoole say the school violated the state’s discrimination law when it fired her as dean of guidance and head coach of the basketball team in January after administrators learned she was married to a woman.

But the school says Drumgoole was fired because she’s in a same-sex marriage, not because she’s gay. An attorney for the school says it’s within the law for churches to require employees to subscribe to their tenets.

Virginia
Sailor accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill wife
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A Navy sailor from Virginia Beach has been charged with trying to hire a hit man to kill his estranged wife.

Court documents say Chadwick Ghesquiere was willing to pay about $50,000 in life insurance money plus 80 Adderall pills that had been prescribed to him by the Navy.

The 38-year-old Ghesquiere was arrested last week and ordered held without bond Friday.

Court documents say federal agents learned of the alleged plot from one of Ghesquiere’s friends. The friend said that Ghesquiere and his wife were getting divorced, and Ghesquiere didn’t want to pay child support.

A preliminary hearing is set for Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. An attorney for Ghesquiere declined comment when reached by email Tuesday.

Rhode Island
Investigators re-examining 1992 mob hit
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) —€” State and federal investigators are re-examining an unsolved 1992 gangland killing in Providence following the recent arrests of two major players in the New England Mafia.

WPRI-TV reports authorities are looking into what ex-mobsters Robert DeLuca and Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme know about the September 1992 slaying of enforcer Kevin Hanrahan.

Hanrahan was gunned down by two men after walking out of a Providence restaurant. Two FBI informants claimed in 2010 that Salemme ordered the hit while he was acting as boss of the Patriarca crime family.

Both Salemme and DeLuca have resurfaced after being implicated in the 1993 murder of a witness.

Attorney Steven Boozang says Salemme had nothing to do with either crime. DeLuca’s court-appointed attorney didn’t return a request seeking comment.

Florida
Police: Man dead after online date led to robbery
AUBURNDALE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a central Florida man is dead after a woman he met through online dating set him up to be robbed.

Local news outlets report that 27-year-old Adam Hilarie was found dead last week at his Auburndale home.

Police say Hilarie went on a date last Thursday with 18-year-old Hailey Bustos after the two met on the dating site PlentyOfFish. Hilarie brought the woman back to his apartment that night, but police say she returned the next evening with three other men to steal electronics. Detectives say someone shot Hilarie in the head.

Records show Bustos, 26-year-old Andre Warner, 31-year-old Gary Gray and 26-year-old Joshua Ellington each face murder and robbery charges. Jail records didn’t list attorneys for them.

Ohio
Mediation ordered in suit over autopsies
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court wants a settlement reached in the case of a newspaper suing a coroner for autopsy records in the unsolved slayings of eight people from one family.

A complaint by The Columbus Dispatch that is before the court alleges the Pike County coroner is improperly withholding the final autopsy records.

The coroner says the autopsies are “confidential law enforcement investigatory records” that aren’t subject to public records laws. Ohio’s attorney general says he supports that position to avoid jeopardizing chances of catching the killers.

The court on Tuesday ordered the case to mediation. The Cincinnati Enquirer has filed a similar lawsuit, which is also in mediation.

Seven adults and a teenage boy from the Rhoden family were found shot at four homes near Piketon on April 22.