Court Roundup

Montana
Prosecutors try  to revive 2010 teacher rape case
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Prosecutors in Yellowstone County are asking a judge to revive rape charges against a former high school teacher.
The Billings Gazette reports Chief Deputy County Attorney Rod Souza says former Billings Senior High teacher Stacey Dean Rambold violated the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement when he was kicked out of a sex offender treatment program.
Prosecutors charged Rambold with three counts of felony sexual intercourse without consent in 2008 after one of his students told a church group leader of the incidents, which she said happened in 2007, when she was 14.
The girl later committed suicide, and prosecutors said they would not be able to convict Rambold without her testimony. In 2010, after several months of negotiations, Rambold and prosecutors signed a deferred prosecution agreement, which put the criminal case on hold for three years.
The agreement stated that the case against Rambold would be dismissed at the end of that period if Rambold met several conditions, including a requirement that he complete a sex offender treatment program and that he signed an affidavit admitting he performed an illegal sexual act on the girl.
In a motion to revive the prosecution against Rambold filed with the court on Monday, Souza said officials were notified that Rambold was terminated from the treatment program. The prosecutor did not say when Rambold was terminated from the program.
Souza is asking for a new trial date to be set in the case.

Ohio
State appeals court reinstates prostitution case
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio appeals court has reinstated prostitution charges against 19 dancers accused in a sex-for-hire scheme at a cabaret.
The Seventh District Court of Appeals in Youngstown says a lower court judge shouldn’t have rejected the use of surveillance videos as evidence in the case.
The videos were on the cabaret’s computers seized by police with a search warrant.
The Youngstown Vindicator reports the appeals court ruled Monday that the security camera recordings, which allegedly provide evidence of prostitution, do not violate wiretap laws.
The misdemeanor charges allege the dancers engaged in prostitution at the Go Go Girls Cabaret in Austintown in suburban Youngstown in April and May 2009.

Pennsylvania
County appealing $8.7M foster sex federal jury award 
ERIE, Pa. (AP) — An attorney for the Erie County Office of Children and Youth has filed notice the agency is appealing an $8.7 federal jury award to a man, now 21, who blames county caseworkers for placing a violent foster child in his adoptive home.
Kenny Brian sued the agency because he was sexually assaulted when he was just 9 years old by the 14-year-old foster brother placed in the home he shared with his adoptive parents in 2001.
A jury agreed with Bryan that the caseworkers were wrong not to share the foster teen’s history of sexually assaultive behavior, and were therefore responsible for his molestation and related mental health issues.