Mississippi: Insurance company wants judge off lawsuit
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — An insurance company wants former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz kicked off a lawsuit involving imprisoned former attorney Paul Minor.
Minor, meanwhile, thinks the federal judge in the case should step down because he’s the same judge who presided over the criminal case that sent Minor and two former judges to prison.
Minor, Diaz, and former Harrison County judges Wes Teel and John Whitfield were indicted on federal corruption charges in 2003. Diaz was acquitted of all charges. The others were eventually convicted on various counts in a retrial.
Now Diaz is Minor’s lawyer in a $12.5 million lawsuit brought by USF&G Insurance Co. USF&G is suing Minor, Peoples Bank, and Teel. USF&G says Diaz could be called as a witness in the case and shouldn’t be representing Minor.
Teel ruled Dec. 18, 2001, in favor of Minor’s client, Peoples Bank, in a case against USF&G. Two months later, USF&G settled for $1.5 million in favor of the bank.
USF&G complained in court papers that Teel and Minor had fraudulently obtained the $1.5 million because of loans Minor guaranteed for the judge.
Minor acknowledged guaranteeing the loans but said he was only helping a friend. Prosecutors said Minor paid off or guaranteed loans to the judges to influence their decisions in his cases.
Earlier this month, Diaz file court motions seeking the removal of U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate, who presided over the criminal case, according to The Clarion-Ledger.
Minor, Whitfield and Teel were convicted on numerous counts in 2007.
A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in New Orleans later threw out a bribery conviction for each of the men, but upheld other convictions, including mail fraud, wire fraud and honest services fraud. The court also tossed one conspiracy charge each against Minor and Teel.
They are scheduled for resentencing in January. Minor is currently serving the longest sentence of the men, 11 years. It’s not clear how much the reversal will reduce Minor’s sentence because he got the most time for a racketeering conviction, which was upheld.
Illinois: Three accused of robbing limo with bachelor party
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — Three men face federal charges that they robbed a driver of a limousine bus carrying members of a bachelor party in southwestern Illinois.
A complaint filed in East St. Louis alleges the holdup happened Nov. 6 at a service station in Washington Park, where the driver had gone for fuel while members of the bachelor party were in a nearby nightclub.
Authorities allege that 22-year-old Kenneth Little pointed a gun at the driver, and 24-year-old Devon Alexander robbed the man of $1,000 after 24-year-old Floyd Gamble Jr. hit him.
Little has been arrested. The two other suspects remain at large.
None of the suspects have a listed home telephone number. Online court records do not show if they have retained an attorney.
Mississippi: Trial scheduled for fraud case
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A woman will stand trial Jan. 10 in federal court in Gulfport on charges of making a false claim to FEMA for disaster benefits after Hurricane Katrina.
The Sun Herald reports Amber Allison, also known as Amber Allen, was indicted in 2009. Three other family members — including Allison’s husband and in-laws — have been convicted in what prosecutors say was a conspiracy to defraud the government.
Prosecutors say the family received a total of more than $30,000 from FEMA and the American Red Cross after Katrina. Prosecutors say they had lived in Gulfport but had moved to San Antonio and filed claims stating their primary residences at the time of the hurricane were in Gulfport.
Court records show that they had sold one of the homes before the hurricane.
Nebraska: Legal fight lengthens over immigration law
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has given lawyers for both sides more time to file briefs in the legal battle over Fremont’s ordinance barring renting to or hiring illegal immigrants.
Fremont voters approved the ordinance in June, and it was supposed to take effect in July.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund are challenging the ordinance, saying it is discriminatory and contrary to state law.
The city asked U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp for more time. The Fremont Tribune says she granted it a Jan. 21 deadline to file arguments against motions for an order that would bar the ordinance from taking effect. The ACLU and the fund have until Feb. 18 to respond to the city’s arguments.
Vermont: Suspect in death of Vt. niece asks out of hearing
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — The Vermont man facing a death penalty trial for the death of his 12-year-old niece is asking a judge to excuse him from a hearing next month into whether he tried to shift the blame for the killing to a fictitious sex ring.
In documents filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington, 44-year-old Michael Jacques of Randolph also asked to be excused from any future court appearances that he is not required to attend.
The Burlington Free Press says federal law only requires Jacques to attend his arraignment, trial and sentencing.
Jacques is charged with abducting, sexually assaulting and then killing Brooke Bennett. He is said to have tried to shift attention to others, including a nonexistent sex ring.
Jacques’s death penalty trial is scheduled for September.
Missouri: 2011 trial likely for man convicted in ‘90 slaying
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Chillicothe man twice convicted in the 1990 slaying of a Missouri farm wife is headed back to court with a likely trial date next April before a Columbia judge.
Mark Woodworth was 16 when his neighbor, Cathy Robertson, was shot to death while she slept in her northwest Missouri home. Her husband, the business partner of Woodworth’s father, survived the shooting. Woodworth is now 36 and serving a life sentence for murder.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled earlier this month Woodworth may present new testimony as part of his latest post-conviction appeal. The court appointed Boone County Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler as its special master.
Oxenhandler wants lawyers for Woodworth and the state to file pretrial documents by Dec. 13. He expects the trial to start in April.
