National Roundup

Massachusetts
Parents from China sue over Harvard rejection
BOSTON (AP) — A couple from Hong Kong has sued a U.S.-based college admissions consultant for failing to get their two sons into an Ivy League university as he had allegedly promised.
Gerald and Lily Chow say in their suit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston that they gave Mark Zimny more than $2 million to get their sons into an elite American university, preferably Harvard.
Zimny is a former Harvard professor who ran the education consultancy group IvyAdmit Consulting LLC.
The Boston Globe reports that the Chows say they gave $2.2 million to Zimny, who said he had contacts at Harvard and would funnel donations from the Chows to elite colleges.
They charge Zimny with fraud and breach of contract. They want their money back.
Zimny denied the allegations in court papers.

Ohio
Teen headed to trial in Craigslist bogus job killings
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A teenager befriended by a self-styled chaplain is headed to trial on murder charges in a deadly scheme to lure victims with phony Craigslist job offers in Ohio.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin Tuesday in Summit County Common Pleas Court in Akron for 17-year-old Brogan Rafferty of nearby Stow.
The jury selection could last several days and the trial could last through most of October.
Rafferty, who is being tried as an adult, and his co-defendant, Richard Beasley, 53, of Akron, have pleaded not guilty. Beasley will be tried separately.
Rafferty, who was then 16, is suspected of helping Beasley lure victims with bogus job offers.
Three men were killed last year — two in Noble County in southeast Ohio and one found slain in Summit County near an Akron shopping mall — after responding to what authorities said were bogus online job postings.
Rafferty cannot face execution because he was a juvenile at the time of the crimes. Instead, he could face life in prison.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Beasley.
The body of David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Va., was found on Noble County property owned by a coal company and often leased to hunters.
Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon, was found in a shallow grave near an Akron-area shopping mall. He had been shot in the head.
The body of Ralph Geiger, 55, of Akron, was found in Noble County and had died Aug. 9 of a gunshot wound to the head.
A South Carolina man, Scott Davis, escaped after being shot in the arm by hiding in woods until it got dark. He has been subpoenaed to testify at Rafferty’s trial.
Beasley was a Texas parolee who returned to Ohio in 2004 after serving time on a burglary conviction. He was awaiting trial on prostitution and drug charges when authorities took him into custody.
Police have said a halfway house he ran in Akron was a front for prostitution. Authorities said he was a mentor for Rafferty and had befriended him.

Oklahoma
5 employees to return to ministry after suspension
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Five suspended employees of a Tulsa megachurch charged with waiting more than two weeks to report the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl will be returning to the ministry by the end of the month with different responsibilities, church leaders said.
Victory Christian Center pastor Bruce Edwards made the announcement during this weekend’s services at the 17,000-member worldwide ministry.
Prosecutors allege the 13-year-old girl told employees around Aug. 15 that she had been raped in a stairwell on the church’s campus in south Tulsa — but police weren’t told until Aug. 30, after church officials said they did their own investigation. Police and church authorities then determined she was among at least four victims of alleged sex crimes by two former employees.
Among those charged for not reporting the allegations are John and Charica Daugherty, the son and daughter-in-law of ministry co-founder and head pastor Sharon Daugherty. The others are Paul Willemstein, Anna George and Harold “Frank” Sullivan. All five have pleaded not guilty to one misdemeanor count each and are due in court Oct. 31.
A church spokesman said Monday that the two departments in which the five employees worked have been restructured to add a direct supervisor above them.
Former Victory employee Chris Denman was arrested Sept. 5 on a complaint alleging that he raped the 13-year-old girl and molested a 15-year-old girl. Prosecutors also charged the 20-year-old with making a lewd proposal to a child and using a computer to commit a sex crime involving a 12-year-old girl.
Denman has pleaded not guilty to the charges involving the two older girls, but has yet to enter a plea for the other charge. He remained jailed Monday on $200,000 bond and is due in court Thursday for a hearing.
The other former church employee, 23-year-old Israel Castillo, is charged with making a lewd proposal to a 15-year-old girl and using a computer to commit a sex crime. He posted bond and has pleaded not guilty.

Pennsylvania
Boy, 13, charged in killing of his grandparents
FRANKLIN, Pa. (AP) — State police say a 13-year-old fatally shot his grandparents in their Pennsylvania home and they have charged the boy as an adult.
Troopers from the Franklin barracks announced the charges Tuesday against Zachery James Proper, of Oil City, but provided few details.
The Derrick in Oil City first reported the charges, which  police confirmed in a news release.
Police say Proper shot his grandmother, Dorothy Fross, and step-grandfather, George Fross, at their home in Sandycreek Township, about 65 miles north of Pittsburgh, at about 4 p.m. Sunday.

Maryland
State lawmaker’s trial scheduled in theft of funds 
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — An attorney for a Maryland lawmaker accused of using campaign money for wedding expenses says he is “highly confident” a plea agreement will be reached in court.
Delegate Tiffany Alston is scheduled for trial on Tuesday, but her attorney Raouf Abdullah says “the ink is dry” on a plea agreement.
Abdullah spoke to reporters before going into a meeting with state prosecutors in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.
Alston, a Prince George’s County Democrat, was found guilty by a jury in June of misdemeanor theft and misconduct by using $800 in state money to pay an employee in her law office.