National Roundup

Alabama
Prosecutors: Shop sold coat of endangered jaguar fur
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Jaguar fur surrounds a federal case in which prosecutors say an Alabama clothing consignment shop violated the Endangered Species Act.

The shop, which does business as Hertha’s Second Edition, violated the federal act by selling a fur coat to a customer in Biloxi, Mississippi, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint filed this week in the Southern District of Alabama. The coat was made partly from the hide of a jaguar, authorities said.

A lawyer representing the store and its affiliated firm, Hershey’s Girls LLP, didn’t immediately return phone and email messages from The Associated Press. No one answered the phone at its store in Mobile, Alabama, early Wednesday.

Hertha’s Second Edition is described on its website as an upscale resale shop, with locations in Mobile and nearby Fairhope, Alabama.

The case is unusual, but not unprecedented in the vintage clothing business.

Last March in San Francisco, prosecutors charged the owner of a vintage clothing store with trying to sell coats and other items made of endangered species, including jaguar and snow leopard. Cicely Ann Hansen, 68, was charged with nine misdemeanor counts of illegal possession for sale of an endangered species.

Hansen owns Decades of Fashion, a popular vintage clothing store in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Hansen denied the allegations during a court appearance, and told reporters she had believed it was legal to sell fur clothes made before the Endangered Species Act took effect in the early 1970s.

The Alabama complaint provides no further details on the jaguar or the clothing at issue, but says the coat was sold to the Mississippi customer sometime between Jan. 13 and Feb. 6.

The charge is a felony and is punishable by up to one year in prison.

Pennsylvania
Biological parents of dismembered teen seek estate access to sue
READING, Pa. (AP) — The biological parents of a 14-year-old Pennsylvania girl who authorities say was killed and dismembered by her adoptive mother are trying to become administrators of the girl’s estate.

An attorney for Rose and Rodney Hunsicker say they want to become administrators so they can sue the social service agencies that placed the girl, Grace Packer, with the woman accused of abusing and killing her.

The Hunsickers lost custody of Grace and her two siblings years ago amid allegations that other adults were abusing the children.

Now, Grace’s adoptive mother, Sara Packer, and Packer’s boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, have pleaded not guilty to murder charges in her death. Authorities say Grace was killed in July 2016 as part of a rape-murder fantasy and dismembered months later.

Illinois
93-year-old judge retiring after decades on bench
CHICAGO (AP) — A 93-year-old judge who issued rulings on everything from desegregation to prisoners’ rights is retiring after nearly four decades on the federal bench in Illinois.

Chicago’s U.S. District Court announced Tuesday that Milton Shadur will be retiring effective next month.

Among the thousands of cases he’s presided over was a copyright lawsuit brought by NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

Shadur told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin that he hadn’t intended to retire, but complications from recent surgery changed his mind.

Chief U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo called Shadur “simply a legend.”

Shadur graduated from the University of Chicago at age 18 with a degree in math and physics. President Jimmy Carter appointed the World War II veteran to the bench in 1980. Shadur and his wife have been married 71 years.

Massachusetts
Aunt of texting suicide victim wants prison time for his girlfriend
BOSTON (AP) — The aunt of a Massachusetts teenager who took his own life after being urged to do so in text messages from his girlfriend is asking for 20 years behind bars for the woman.

The woman’s father will ask that his daughter be spared prison time.

Michelle Carter is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday after being found guilty in June of involuntary manslaughter in the 2014 death of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III.

The Boston Herald reports that Roy’s aunt, Kim Bozzi, says in a statement to be read at sentencing that the judge should “take away the spotlight (Carter) so desperately craves.”

Carter’s father, David, says in a letter to the judge that his daughter made “a tragic mistake” and should get probation and continued counseling.

Missouri
Court revives man’s lawsuit over protests
ST. LOUIS (AP) — An appeals court has revived a man’s lawsuit claiming police violated his civil rights in 2014 when they arrested him during protests of the Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting death of Michael Brown.

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a judge’s dismissal of Dwayne Matthews Jr.’s case against police. Matthews says police beat him, held his head under water in a culvert and used pepper spray on him.

He was among 10 people who alleged in the lawsuit that police used excessive force against Ferguson protesters in the days after 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed, was shot and killed by white officer Darren Wilson.

A judge last year threw out the lawsuit. The 8th Circuit revived only Matthews’ claims.

New York
Police: Man involved in tortoise theft turns himself in
NEW YORK (AP) — Police in New York City say the man wanted for stealing a rare tortoise from an environmental center has turned himself in.

The Daily News reports a 36-year-old Queens man surrendered to police Tuesday. Police have charged the man with grand larceny and other offenses.

The African spurred tortoise that was taken from the Alley Pond Environmental Center in Queens last month was returned after an anonymous caller told police he received the animal in a tortoise trade in Connecticut.

Police are still trying to determine if the man stole the tortoise or was somehow involved in a trade.