Louisiana: Police chief and his brother deny accepting bribes
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Recently re-elected White Castle Police Chief Mario Brown and his brother, former Mayor Maurice Brown, pleaded innocent Tuesday to federal charges that they used the influence of their offices in return for money and other things of value.
The brothers told U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Riedlinger that they are innocent of all charges.
Both had previously pleaded innocent, but prosecutors recently amended the indictment that was returned by grand jury in Baton Rouge in July. That action required a second arraignment.
The case is scheduled for trial Dec. 6, but the brothers have filed a pending motion for separate trials.
Maurice Brown, 45, did not seek re-election to the mayor’s office last month.
But Mario Brown, who is accused with his brother of racketeering and public bribery, as well as other separate offenses, won a second term with 55 percent of the vote.
Both defendants were targeted by undercover FBI agents in a sting operation.
Maurice Brown is alleged to have accepted cash and tickets to professional sporting events in return for using his office to promote a conceptual garbage-can cleaning service to potential investors and public officials.
Mario Brown is alleged to have accepted cash and sports tickets to improperly run the names of specified individuals through law enforcement computers.
The police chief also is alleged to have written a letter to law enforcement authorities in New Haven, Conn., in return for $500 in cash from an undercover agent posing as a corrupt businessman.
In that letter, Mario Brown vouched for a young man said to be facing drug charges in Connecticut.
Mario Brown, who allegedly did not know the purported defendant, wrote a letter in which he stated that the young man was a person of good character who could be trusted to appear for court hearings if allowed release on bail.
“I would be very surprised if he were involved in any criminal activity,” Mario Brown allegedly said in his letter.
Colorado: Defense: DNA shows man didn’t rape trial witness
GREELEY, Colo. (AP) — The lawyer for a Greeley man charged with kidnapping and raping a witness in a murder case says DNA evidence indicates the defendant is not guilty.
The Greeley Tribune reports that 22-year-old Christian Hanson went on trial Tuesday on charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder.
He’s accused of being in a group that forced the witness into a car, held her at gunpoint, sexually assaulted her and beat her.
Hanson is accused of trying to hire an undercover officer posing as a hit man to kill the woman after his arrest.
Hanson’s attorney says Hanson’s DNA wasn’t found on the woman.
The defense says the hit man allegation is based on a conversation so vague that it’s meaningless.
Ohio: Indicted judge in Cleveland loses re-election bid
CLEVELAND (AP) — A judge indicted in a county corruption investigation in Cleveland has lost her bid for re-election.
Democrat Bridget McCafferty of Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) County Common Pleas Court was defeated on Tuesday by Republican Michael Astrab, a criminal defense lawyer. He got 53 percent of the vote.
McCafferty has pleaded not guilty to lying to FBI investigators about political meddling in cases before her court. She has been on paid leave from the bench and her trial is scheduled for September of next year.
More than three dozen people have been charged in the corruption probe, including elected officials and county employees.
Texas: Polygamist group member guilty of sexual assault
SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — A member of a West Texas polygamist group has been convicted of sexual assault of a child.
The penalty phase was scheduled to begin Wednesday for Keith William Dutson Jr. He faces two to 20 years in prison.
Jurors on Tuesday convicted the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints member over allegations from 2006.
The FLDS sanctions polygamous unions, which are not official civil marriages. The San Angelo Standard-Times reports Dutson would have been 20 at the time of the October 2005 ceremony. The girl would have been 15.
Defense attorney Brandon Hudson told jurors that the parents gave their consent and a ceremony was held.
Prosecutor Eric Nichols says the case was about sexual assault, not validity of search warrants used during a 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch.
New York: Ohio man faces sentencing in 1994 NY stabbing
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — An Ohio man faces sentencing in New York for a 1994 murder-for-hire plot that targeted a former girlfriend’s husband.
Randall Knight of Akron is due Wednesday in federal court in Buffalo, where he pleaded guilty in July to crossing state lines to commit the crime.
Knight initially was acquitted of 32-year-old Andie Gasper’s murder following a Cattaraugus (kat-uh-RAW’-gus) County Court trial in 1995, but he was charged again, this time federally, earlier this year after investigators reopened the case.
Investigators say Knight and the victim’s wife, Cheryl Gasper, plotted Gasper’s death so they could share his $100,000 life insurance policy.
Cheryl Gasper pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and will be sentenced in Cattaraugus County Court Nov. 13.
New Hampshire: Lawyers question witness to NH home attacks
NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — Defense lawyers are questioning the teen who witnessed the machete and knife attacks that killed a New Hampshire mother and seriously wounded her 11-year-old daughter.
Nineteen-year-old William Marks said murder defendant Steven Spader began attacking the victims with a machete as they lay huddled in bed pleading with him to stop.
Marks testified Spader wielded the machete with both hands while co-defendant Christopher Gribble hacked at the victims with a knife. Gribble’s trial is scheduled for February.
At the start of cross-examination, Marks admitting talking to his father about selling his story to a national television network.
Marks agreed to cooperate and plead guilty to three felonies in exchange for a 30-60 year sentence.?
