National Roundup

Illinois
Islamic scholar has deadline to accept plea deal
ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. (AP) — A suburban Chicago judge has given an Islamic scholar until Sept. 12 to accept a plea deal on sexual abuse charges.

Mohammad Abdullah Saleem, founder of the Institute of Islamic Education in Elgin, will go to trial Sept. 12 if he doesn’t take the deal. He was accused in February 2015 of sexually abusing a then 22-year-old employee of the institute. In
December 2015 he was charged with abusing a student of the school. Saleem has so far not accepted the deal and has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

The (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reports that Judge James Karahalios said Saleem can reconsider and accept the deal before Sept. 12, but not afterward because Saleem will have “pushed the state to great expense and inconvenience.”

Florida
Report: Man keeps $121,000 in Amazon goods he was to deliver
LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say they’ve arrested a driver who refused to deliver $121,000 worth of Amazon items because he said he was never paid.

An arrest report from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office says 36-year-old Julio Hernandez was arrested Friday on theft and extortion charges.

The sheriff’s office last month began investigating the theft of thousands of Amazon orders that were supposed to be driven from a distribution center in Ruskin, Florida, to Fort Worth, Texas.

Investigators say Hernandez is a driver for a subcontracted transportation company. They say he refused to make the delivery after claiming he never received $1,800 he was owed. Deputies searching his home say they found Amazon containers stacked from floor to ceiling in his garage. Hernandez was released from jail Saturday on $40,000 bail. Jail records don’t list an attorney.

Texas
Mother of ‘affluenza teen’ freed from home confinement
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The mother of a Texas teenager who used an “affluenza” defense after he killed four people in a drunken-driving crash has been released from home confinement.

Tonya Couch is charged with hindering apprehension of a felon and money laundering. She and her son Ethan fled to Mexico last year after video surfaced apparently showing him at a party with alcohol — a probation violation.

A judge said Tuesday that Tonya Couch no longer need be under house arrest, but must wear an electronic monitor and not consume alcohol or drugs while awaiting trial.

She tends bar in suburban Fort Worth.

At trial, a psychologist blamed “affluenza” — acting irresponsibly due to wealth — for Ethan Couch’s actions. He is serving nearly two years in jail for the 2013 fatal crash.

California
Nazi-looted ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ paintings to stay with art museum
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has ruled in favor of a Southern California museum in its 10-year legal battle over the ownership of two German Renaissance masterpieces that were seized by the Nazis in World War II.

U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter ruled last week that Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum, where the paintings “Adam” and “Eve” have been for more than 30 years, is the rightful owner of the two life-size oil-on-panel paintings.

Marei von Saher alleged that the paintings were seized from her father-in-law, Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, after his family fled Holland during the Holocaust.

The Norton Simon countered that it legally acquired the works in the 1970s from the descendant of Russian aristocrats who had them wrongly taken by the Soviet Union in the 1920s.

Lucas Cranach the Elder painted the works in around 1530. In 1971, they were acquired by the museum for $800,000, the equivalent of about $4.8 million today. They were appraised at $24 million in 2006.

The dispute is one of many to emerge in recent years involving precious art looted by the Nazis.

The judge said that because Goudstikker’s art dealership decided not to seek restitution for the works after the war, his family thereby abandoned their claim to the art.

Tennessee
Detective charged with perjury wants attorney removed
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee detective charged with perjuring himself in a rape case involving high school basketball players is asking a judge to remove the prosecutor.

The request is part of a hostile back-and-forth between authorities where the students live and where the alleged rape happened.

Gatlinburg Det. Rodney Burns has charged a group of Ooltewah High School players with one count of rape, but Hamilton County prosecutor Neal Pinkston says it should be four.

Pinkston has charged Burns with perjury; Burns is claiming defamation.

According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Burns’ attorneys argued Tuesday that the $300,000 defamation suit creates a conflict of interest for Pinkston.

Pinkston said the suit is a tactic to get him to drop charges against Burns.

The judge said he needs time to rule.


Ohio
Man gets prison for killing 2 housekeepers
CLEVELAND (AP) — A chef who admitted fatally shooting two housekeepers at an assisted living facility in suburban Cleveland is expected to spend the rest of his life behind bars after pleading guilty and saying he can’t explain a motive for the murders.

A judge in Cleveland sentenced 56-year-old Frank Staton to 66 years to life in prison Tuesday after the Chardon man pleaded guilty to eight counts, including aggravated murder and other charges. His trial had been scheduled for next month.

Staton told the judge he can’t explain why he repeatedly shot Terri Treadway and Catherine Sutter, both 58, at Hamlet Village in Chagrin Falls before shooting himself once. Staton was hospitalized for more than a week after the March 24 shootings.

Treadway was Staton’s girlfriend at the time, according to the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office.

The women’s relatives advocated a harsh sentence.

Sutter’s son, Jason Sutter, indicated in court that he doesn’t think prison is a sufficient sentence for Staton, cleveland.com reported.

“Today is a day I will remember as well, as the day I lost faith in the justice system,” Jason Sutter said. “An animal like you should be destroyed.”