Missouri
Mom admits to stealing dying daughter’s pain meds
TROY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri woman has been charged with stealing her terminally ill daughter’s pain medications.
Forty-six-year-old Carol Ballweg, of Troy, was charged Wednesday with four counts of stealing a controlled substance and two counts of abuse of a vulnerable person.
Police say Ballweg was the primary caregiver for her 20-year-old daughter who is in hospice care.
Medical staff found bed sores on the daughter and began suspecting the daughter wasn’t being given the prescribed doses of fentanyl and oxycodone, so they tested her urine. Police say it showed no signs of the medications, even though Ballweg repeatedly requested refills ahead of schedule.
Police say Ballweg confessed to being addicted to opioids and using the medicine herself. Bond is set at $100,000. No attorney is listed for Ballweg in online court records.
Pennsylvania
Woman sues diocese, alleges ‘smear’ effort over abuse claims
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A woman described as a victim in Pennsylvania’s grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown over what she’s calling a “smear” campaign by church officials.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday on behalf of Juliann Bortz, alleges church officials tried to dig up dirt on her to discredit her allegations of abuse by the Rev. Francis Fromholzer when she was a teen in the 1960s.
Her attorney says 69-year-old Bortz was unaware the church sought unfavorable information on her until she read the grand jury report last month.
The suit alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation. Her lawyer tells the Morning Call she’s seeking an apology and details on who tried to discredit her.
The Allentown Diocese denied attempting to discredit Bortz. The diocese says it never acted on the information and removed the priest.
Connecticut
Town settles sexual harassment case against mayor
EAST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut town has negotiated a $175,000 settlement with a former town employee who said the mayor had sexually harassed her.
Francine Carbone said in her complaint that East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. harassed her by exposing his genitals to her and making comments about her breasts. The New Haven Register reports she filed the lawsuit alleging she was fired because she made a complaint to the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.
East Haven Town Attorney Joseph Zullo said the compromise brings a “swift and favorable conclusion” to Carbone’s complaint against the town. Carbone’s attorney says the settlement was practical.
Maturo has consistently denied all allegations of sexual harassment. The settlement will contain no admission of liability for the town or mayor.
Washington
DeVos loses case over protecting for-profit college students
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic attorneys general from 19 states and the District of Columbia have won a lawsuit against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over her decision to suspend rules meant to protect students from abuse by for-profit colleges.
At issue was her move last year to delay repayment rules that were finalized under President Barack Obama and scheduled to take effect in July 2017.
DeVos argued that the rules created “a muddled process that’s unfair to students and schools.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who led the suit, said Wednesday’s federal court ruling in Washington was “a victory for every family defrauded by a predatory for-profit school.”
The court said the Education Department’s rationale for suspending the rules was “arbitrary and capricious.”
Department spokeswoman Liz Hill said Thursday the agency was reviewing the ruling.
North Carolina
Contractor gets prison for sabotaging Army computer program
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) — An Atlanta man convicted of sabotaging a computer program housed on servers at an Army base in North Carolina has been sentenced to two years federal prison.
Citing a U.S. Attorney’s Office release, WRAL-TV reports 49-year-old Mittesh Das, a defense contractor, was also ordered to pay the government $1.5 million in restitution. He was convicted on a charge of knowingly transmitting malicious code with the intent to cause damage to a U.S. Army computer used in furtherance of national security.
A Fort Bragg-based program handling pay and personnel actions for nearly 200,000 reservists began experiencing problems in 2014. Troubleshooting found suspicious code. Investigators determined Das installed malware after the Army chose a different contractor to oversee the program.
Oklahoma
Man convicted in hate-crime killing dies in prison
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — The Oklahoma Department of Corrections says a man serving a life sentence for the hate-crime killing of his Lebanese neighbor has died.
Department spokesman Matt Elliott said Thursday that 63-year-old Stanley Majors was found dead Wednesday in his bed at Oklahoma State Penitentiary.
Majors was in the prison infirmary. No information about his condition has been made available.
Jurors convicted Majors in February of first-degree murder and hate crime charges in the 2016 shooting death of 37-year-old Khalid Jabara.
Prosecutors alleged Majors killed Jabara after bombarding him with racial insults in a feud with Jabara’s family that lasted several years.
Defense attorneys argued that Majors showed signs of dementia and had problems with his long-term memory, but a mental competency examination found Majors competent to stand trial.
