Alabama: Son of AU coach Taylor sues over hairstyle
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Trooper Taylor is trying to help Auburn win a national football championship as an assistant coach with the Tigers. His son is in federal court fighting for the right to play basketball at Auburn Junior High.
Blaise Taylor, the 14-year-old son of the assistant coach, is suing Auburn’s school system for the right to wear braided hair during JV basketball games.
A lawsuit claims Auburn junior varsity coach Frank Tolbert won’t let Blaise play on the team unless he changes his hairstyle. The suit says the rule violates free speech rights and is racially discriminatory because it targets a black hairstyle.
A lawyer for the Auburn school board defends the rule and says it applies to everyone, not just blacks.
New York: Longtime suspect pleads not guilty in death
GOSHEN, N.Y. (AP) — Convicted sex offender Michael Mele (MEE’-lee) has pleaded not guilty to charges he killed an aspiring New York dancer who disappeared two years ago.
The 25-year-old suspect was arraigned Monday in Orange County, N.Y., court in the death of Laura Garza of Brooklyn.
Garza had moved to New York from Texas five months before she ran into Mele in December 2008 at a Manhattan nightclub. Her skeletal remains were found in April in Mount Cobb, Pa.
Mele was charged last Wednesday with murder, manslaughter and evidence tampering.
Mele, a longtime suspect in the case, was already serving time for violating his parole as a sex offender.
The judge ordered him held without bail, but said Mele’s lawyer could apply in writing for bail.
Utah: State court rules man doesn’t own canyon outright
PROVO, Utah (AP) — A 4th District Court judge has ruled that a man who wants to mine Provo’s Rock Canyon for landscape rock doesn’t own his property 100 percent.
The Daily Herald of Provo says the 4th District Judge James R. Taylor’s ruling makes it harder for Richard Davis to mine the canyon.
The newspaper says Taylor has argued he was the canyon’s only owner.
However, the newspaper says Davis has a 50-percent interest in the property and that other owners are granting Provo a conservation easement.
The Daily Herald says the ruling will make it more difficult for Davis to obtain a mining permit.
Georgia: Judges grapple with immigration backlog
ATLANTA (AP) — The federal government hired two additional judges and is planning to appoint two more to help clear a massive backlog of deportation cases in Georgia’s immigration courts.
Judge Dan Trimble began hearing cases at the Stewart Detention Center in November and Judge Saundra Arrington took the bench there in October.
But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports some court observers are concerned the new hires wouldn’t put much of a dent in a backlog that reached 6,601 cases on Sept. 20. The caseload is so big that judges in Georgia are now scheduling hearings for cases into 2013.
Immigration attorneys say the government is seeking a third judge to hear cases in Lumpkin, and one more judge is in the pipeline to fill a vacancy in the downtown Atlanta court.
Utah: Ill. man set for sentencing for library explosion
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An Illinois man convicted of traveling to Salt Lake City to set off a bomb in the city’s main library four years ago is set to be sentenced.
Thomas Zajac was convicted in October by a federal jury of six felony charges that prosecutors said are almost guaranteed to keep him locked up for the rest of his life. The most serious charge — using a destructive device in a crime of violence — calls for a minimum of 30 years in prison.
The 57-year-old Zajac is set to be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups in Salt Lake City.
Prosecutors said Zajac was angry about his son’s 2004 drunken-driving arrest by Salt Lake City police. They say he left a package bomb at the library Sept. 15, 2006, that sent shrapnel flying. Nobody was hurt.
Maine: Ethics hearings set for 6 lawyers
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Disciplinary hearings for six lawyers from a prominent Maine firm are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Lewiston.
The Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar is seeking professional sanctions against six attorneys from Verrill Dana, a Portland law firm.
The lawyers are accused of breaking ethics rules by engaging in “willful blindness” to the misconduct of former partner John Duncan three years ago. Duncan was disbarred and served two years in federal prison for stealing about $300,000 from clients.
An attorney representing four of the lawyers said she’s confident the six will be cleared of wrongdoing.
Supreme Court Justice Donald Alexander will hear arguments this week and decide whether the lawyers broke any professional rules and whether they should be sanctioned.
Kansas: Man faces April trial in sister’s death
GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) — A Garden City man who underwent extensive mental health evaluations now faces trial in April for the stabbing death of his sister.
Fifty-three-year-old Luis Montoya pleaded not guilty of first-degree murder last week in Finney County District Court. The judge scheduled a four-day trial to start April 18.
Montoya was arrested in August 2009 when police were called to the home he shared with his sister, Maria Montoya, and found the 55-year-old woman dead. An autopsy showed wounds to her head, chest, face and arms.
Family members have testified the two argued repeatedly about responsibilities in the home.
The Garden City Telegram reports Montoya was evaluated for mental competency by doctors who concluded he was competent to stand trial. He was also given a mental defect evaluation at Larned State Hospital.
