National Roundup

Pennsylvania Police: Blind wo man's dog alerts police to attack PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Police say an intruder attacked a blind woman inside her home before her guide dog alerted police. Investigators say the 54-year-old woman is hospitalized in stable condition following the early morning attack Monday in the city's Wynnefield Heights neighborhood. Authorities say the intruder came in through an open door, choked the woman and threw her down a flight of stairs. Investigators say the woman's seeing-eye dog then used a special device to contact police. The woman's attacker fled the scene. Pennsylvania DA: Pa. man hid phone in jail in prosthetic leg UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A county detective says a man serving six months in a southwestern Pennsylvania county jail illegally hid a cellphone and charger in his prosthetic leg. Twenty-seven-year-old Christopher Greer, of Uniontown, faces a preliminary hearing May 22 on a contraband charge filed last week by a Fayette County detective. The detective says the phone was found during a search of Greer's cell on Feb. 23. Greer was sentenced to jail after he was convicted in March of driving with a suspended license. Inmates are not allowed to bring their own phones into the jail. Greer's public defender did not immediately return a call for comment Monday. The Fayette County Prison is about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh. Florida State High Court justices nearly missed ballot TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- A lawyer representing three state Supreme Court justices says Florida Gov. Rick Scott nearly got a chance to replace them. Three justices-- who have been on the court for more than a decade -- did not file their qualifying paperwork until minutes before the Friday noon deadline. The seven-member state Supreme Court abruptly put a hearing on state redistricting on hold for more than an hour in order to allow the justices to finish their paperwork and turn it into state elections officials. In Florida appeals judges and supreme court justices are appointed by the governor. But instead of running for re-election, they are subject to an up or down vote every six years. If the justices had failed to file their paperwork Scott would have appointed new justices. Oklahoma Hearing delayed for Okla. man charged in death OKEMAH, Okla. (AP) -- A judge has delayed a hearing for an Okmulgee man facing separate murder charges for the death of his girlfriend and the deaths of two young Weleetka girls. Kevin Sweat was due in court Monday for a preliminary hearing in the death of his girlfriend, Ashley Taylor. Sweat is also charged in the June 2008 shooting deaths of 13-year-old Taylor Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker. Police say the killings are unrelated -- but detectives looking into Ashley Taylor's death say they found shell casings that allegedly linked Sweat to the deaths of the young girls. A judge on Monday agreed to delay the preliminary hearing in Ashley Taylor's death until May 22 after defense attorneys said they needed more time to review documents. Sweat has pleaded not guilty. Pennsylvania Lawyer wants statement nixed in dismemberment case WEST CHESTER, Pa. (AP) -- The lawyer for a man accused of killing and dismembering a Pennsylvania teen wants statements made to police barred from trial because the man had a lawyer at the time he was questioned. The attorney for Laquanta Chapman claims the interviews conducted following his November 2008 arrest on gun and drug charges violated Miranda rights. Authorities say Chapman butchered dogs in the basement of his Coatesville home to cover up the killing and dismemberment of Turner, who disappeared a year earlier, his body never found. The Daily Local News reports police testified Friday Chapman waived his right to have an attorney present. The judge did not immediately rule. A second man has already pleaded guilty and is expected to testify. West Virginia Monitor to examine W.Va. juvenile justice system CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- West Virginia's juvenile justice system will be examined by a court-hired monitor due to concerns that it focuses more on punishment than rehabilitation. "Currently there seems to be too little emphasis on individual programming and re-entry strategies," state Supreme Court administrative director Steve Canterbury said Monday in a news release. The court has tapped Cindy Largent-Hill, a former director of the Division of Juvenile Services, for the job. Largent-Hill is a member of the Adjudicated Juvenile Rehabilitation Review Commission, which is looking at the division's programs and operations plan for the Industrial Home for Youth in Salem and the Honey Rubenstein Center in Davis. "This is a monitor, not a special master and not a receiver," Justice Margaret Workman said in the release. "It would be premature without full information and study to appoint a special master or receiver. We want to work cooperatively with the other branches of government." Largent-Hill will work with circuit courts and their probation staffs, visit facilities, review files of juveniles at the Salem and Davis facilities and talk with residents. She told the Charleston Daily Mail that she wants to help change the system, and not just police it. Most youths entering the system were abuse victims or have drug problems. But treatment opportunities sometimes are overshadowed by a focus on punishment, she said. "They are stunted in so many ways -- socially, emotionally, behaviorally -- so they are much more complex, so it's not just a teenager with a bad attitude anymore," she said. The system offers vocational and educational classes and is less like prison that it was several years ago. But it could do a better job, said Denny Dodson, the current Juvenile Services director. Dodson said some juveniles don't want to take advantage of educational or vocational programs. Some judges also are part of the problem. "The good judges use that rehabilitation, but some courts use it as a punishment, and it's out of exasperation, realizing the change wasn't going to happen," he told the newspaper. Published: Tue, Apr 24, 2012