Connecticut: Police: Man took funeral urn from girlfriend
OXFORD, Conn. (AP) — Police say a Connecticut man has been charged with stealing a funeral urn containing the ashes of his girlfriend’s grandmother.
Connecticut State Police say 37-year-old Mark Kzakrzeski (Zak-ar-ZESS’-kee) of Southbury was carrying a pistol when he stole the urn during a fight Friday at the girlfriend’s home in Oxford.
State Trooper Joe Duva says Kzakrzeski told police he threw the ashes and urn in the woods, and that it hadn’t been found as of Monday.
Kzakrzeski was charged with larceny, illegal possession of a firearm and disorderly conduct. He was being held Monday on $50,000 bond and was scheduled to appear Tuesday in Derby Superior Court.
It could not immediately be determined Monday if he had an attorney.
Massachusetts: Cops: Fake ER valet nabs expecting mom’s car
LOWELL, Mass. (AP) — Police say a fake valet at a Massachusetts emergency room offered to park a pregnant woman’s car, then drove away with it.
Lowell police Capt. Kelly Richardson tells the Boston Herald that the woman drove herself to Lowell General Hospital at 3 a.m. Friday while suffering labor pains. She parked outside the emergency room doors and was met by a man wearing a uniform-style shirt who introduced himself as the valet.
The man said she couldn’t park there but volunteered to take her keys and move the car. Then, police say, he drove away.
While being admitted, the woman was told the hospital didn’t offer a valet service.
The car was found Saturday morning. Police are examining it for fingerprints and other evidence to try to find the suspect.
Montana: Is riding a horse while drunk legal in Montana?
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana Department of Transportation public safety video that features a horse picking up a rider at a bar is intended as a metaphor to encourage drinkers to get a ride home.
But it is being taken literally by some in a state well known for its horse culture.
Helena Police Chief Troy McGee says he’s received many calls from residents wanting to know if riding a horse while under the influence is legal. McGee tells the Independent Record newspaper that it is.
Montana law carefully defines a vehicle, and excludes those running under animal power.
The popular 30-second video titled “Sober Friend” shows a savvy horse carefully obeying traffic laws on a nighttime journey through town before stopping in front of a bar to pick up a rider.
Nebraska: 3 insurance agents plead not guilty to investment fraud
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Three former Grand Island insurance agents accused of defrauding more than 250 investors out of $29 million have pleaded not guilty.
Stella Levea, James Masat, of Grand Island, and Kenneth Mottin, of St. Libory, were the principals of First Americans Insurance Service, which has been under investigation since a 2009 bankruptcy filing.
Jan Sharp, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Omaha, says the three made their pleas Friday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln.
The indictment says Levea, Masat and Mottin solicited investments from private lenders who were told their money was backed by secure annuities. The filing says the defendants instead diverted the money to financially bolster their business interests and entities and misappropriated victims lenders’ funds to pay for their and their families’ personal expenses.
South Carolina: State has 0 executions in 2010
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — For the first time in seven years, South Carolina did not execute any prisoners in 2010.
The Greenville News reports Monday that more than 50 inmates await their death sentence.
South Carolina is among 35 states with the death penalty. The Corrections Department reports 42 people have been executed since 1985. The annual tally peaked at seven in 1998.
The last time the state executed no one in a calendar year was 2003. At least five executions were stayed in 2010. That includes three who are appealing their sentences to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Death Penalty Information Center reports that 46 inmates were executed nationwide last year. That’s a 12 percent decline from 2009.
Death penalty observers cite cost among factors for the drop.
Oklahoma: Judge to decide recusal issue in pharmacy shooting
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma County judge will decide if a different judge must step aside from the first-degree murder case of an Oklahoma City pharmacist charged in the shooting death of a 16-year-old would-be robber.
District Judge Bill Graves will hand down a ruling Tuesday concerning the recusal of fellow District Judge Ray Elliott, who last month refused a defense request to recuse himself from the high-profile case against pharmacist Jerome Ersland.
Defense attorney Irven Box wants Elliott off the case and claims the judge’s wife, an assistant district attorney, provided him with an appellate court opinion involving the case.
Box also says Elliott has used a racial slur to describe Hispanics. Prosecutors say Elliott’s actions weren’t inappropriate.
Ersland is accused in the May 2009 shooting death of Antwun Parker.
Florida: Man accused of war crimes deported to Bosnia
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A St. Petersburg man accused of committing war crimes in Bosnia has been deported.
Officials say Branko Popic was put on a commercial flight to Sarajevo over the weekend, after a U.S. immigration judge ordered his removal. The judge concluded that the 62-year-old was a member of a military brigade responsible for the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim civilians in the town of Srebrenica in July 1995.
Popic was among a group of nine people suspected of being involved in the massacre who were tried in Tampa federal court. After two hung juries, prosecutors dropped the charges against Popic.
