National Roundup

Arkansas
Judge affirms $181 million of suit’s legal fees
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas judge says Johnson & Johnson must pay $181 million in fees to attorneys who successfully argued that the pharmaceutical company committed Medicaid fraud in the marketing of its antipsychotic drug Risperdal.
Pulaski County Judge Tim Fox ruled Thursday that Arkansas taxpayers should not foot the bill in the lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general. Last year, a jury found that Johnson & Johnson, through its Janssen Pharmaceuticals subsidiary, had committed Medicaid fraud and violated the state’s deceptive trade practices act.
Johnson & Johnson had argued that legal fees of $2.2 million to $3.8 million would be appropriate. A Janssen spokeswoman tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the company maintains it did not violate the state’s Medicaid fraud law and that no legal fees should have been ordered.

Pennsylvania
2nd teen girl is sentenced in beating on video
CHESTER, Pa. (AP) — A second teenage girl has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison in the videotaped beating of a mentally disabled woman who was sitting on her steps in a struggling city just outside Philadelphia.
The Delaware County Daily Times reports the 17-year-old girl was sentenced Thursday to 6 to 23 months in prison. She pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and conspiracy to recklessly endanger another person.
Investigators allege the six female defendants — apparently for fun — punched, kicked and hit the 48-year-old woman with a shoe and a chair in Chester in September. One recorded the beating, which was posted online.

New York
2 Amish men are charged with killing puppies
CLYDE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities in central New York have charged two Amish men with killing a dog and her nine puppies after no one bought the young animals.
Wayne County District Attorney Richard Healy says Friday that when 26-year-old Merlin Schmucker of Galen failed to sell the Australian red heeler puppies, he asked 19-year-old Jonathan Eicher of Lyons to shoot them.
State police say Eicher admitted killing nine puppies and their mother with a .22-caliber rifle in December. Healy says troopers investigated after a highway crew found some of the dead dogs in a roadside ditch Jan. 17.
Healy says Eicher told police that killing dogs under such circumstances is accepted among the Amish.
The DA says both men have been charged with animal cruelty. They are due back in court next month.

Arizona
Trial date is set in Arizona AG’s hit-and-run case
PHOENIX (AP) — A March 28 trial date has been set in the misdemeanor hit-and-run case against Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne.
Horne’s pretrial conference was scheduled for Friday afternoon in Phoenix Municipal Court after two one-month delays.
But court officials announced Thursday afternoon that a request from Horne’s attorney Michael Kimerer to vacate the hearing was granted and a trial date was set.
Horne is accused of not leaving a note after FBI agents saw him tap another vehicle while driving a borrowed car last March.
Horne says he didn’t think the other vehicle was damaged. He has pleaded not guilty.

Missouri
Bill seeks to ban gender-based abortions
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Legislation proposed in the Missouri House would outlaw abortions performed solely because of the sex or potential genetic abnormality of the fetus.
The bill is sponsored by Republican Rep. John McCaherty, of suburban St. Louis. It would allow criminal charges and civil lawsuits against doctors for performing abortions on women who they know are seeking to end a pregnancy solely based on gender or potential physical or mental disabilities.
Americans United for Life says the Missouri bill is modeled after a proposal it’s also pursuing in other states. The anti-abortion group says “sex-selection abortions” have become increasingly common in some Asian countries.
McCaherty’s bill was filed this week with more than 40 co-sponsors — about one-fourth of all House members.

Minnesota
Suit that Hebrew National is not kosher dismissed
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A federal judge threw out a lawsuit Thursday that claimed Hebrew National’s hot dogs and other meat products weren’t entirely kosher, saying such a standard was “intrinsically religious in nature” and outside the court’s purview.
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank ruled that the First Amendment’s protection of religious freedom bars the court from examining claims about whether the products completely meet Jewish dietary laws.
A group of 11 consumers had sued ConAgra Foods Inc., maker of Hebrew National, claiming the Omaha, Neb.-based company charges premium prices for meats that aren’t really 100 percent kosher. The lawsuit alleged that employees at a third-party kosher certifier for ConAgra complained of witnessing non-kosher procedures at meat plants, but that the certifier, AER Services Inc., did nothing to correct the problems and instead fired the employees or threatened to have them transferred.
However, the judge ruled that whether ConAgra’s products were indeed “100 percent kosher” was a religious question outside the court’s review.
ConAgra released a statement saying it was pleased by the ruling and has “always stood by” its kosher status.
The lawsuit, which sought class-action status, was filed in U.S. District Court. It alleged that the fraudulent mislabeling of food as kosher has been a problem for years. The suit alleged ConAgra was aware of the value consumers put in seals and standards, such as the “Triangle K” on Hebrew National meats to represent they are kosher.
In order for meat to be considered kosher, the animal the meat came from must be healthy and clean, meaning it can’t have dirty hides covered in mud, sand or stones, the suit said. The lawsuit alleged the animals used to make Hebrew National products did not meet those standards, and that unclean and unhealthy animals were often selected to be slaughtered for kosher meats.
In his ruling, Frank noted that Triangle K and its Orthodox rabbis determine whether food is kosher.
“Naturally, therefore, this Court cannot determine whether Defendant’s Hebrew National products are in fact kosher without delving into questions of religious doctrine,” the judge wrote.