National Roundup

NORTH CAROLINA
U.S. Army general adds lawyers in face of charges
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — A U.S. Army general charged with sexual misconduct plans to add civilian lawyers to his team at a hearing at Fort Bragg.
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair is expected in court Thursday for hearing on pre-trial motions. Sinclair faces court martial on charges that include forcible sodomy, indecent acts, violating orders and adultery. He has thus far deferred entering a plea.
The Army has rebuffed public records requests from The Associated Press for copies of motions filed in the case by the prosecution or defense.
Sinclair’s team plans to add attorneys from the firm Montgomery McCracken, based in New York and Philadelphia. They plan to ask military judge Col. James Pohl to delay decisions on the motions to allow the civilian attorneys to review the issues.

MARYLAND
Investigated gynecologist died of asphyxiation
BALTIMORE (AP) — An autopsy has found that a former Johns Hopkins gynecologist who was suspected of secretly recording exams committed suicide by putting a plastic bag around his head and attaching it to a tank of helium.
Dr. Nikita Levy killed himself as he was under investigation for allegedly taking secret pictures and videos of his patients.
WBAL-AM reports that the Maryland medical examiner’s office ruled that asphyxiation was the cause of death. Police have also confirmed that Levy left a suicide note addressed to his family.
Meanwhile, attorney Jonathan Schochor says he plans to sue the hospital over Levy’s behavior. Schochor’s law firm won a more than $120 million case against Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley, who was convicted of sexually abusing patients and videotaping the encounters.

WEST VIRGINIA
Court suspends assistant public defender 30 days
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A longtime Kanawha County assistant public defender won’t be able to practice law for 30 days because he ignored an error in a client’s case.
The West Virginia Supreme Court suspended John P. Sullivan’s law license on Wednesday. Sullivan also must work under a supervisory attorney during a two-year probation.
The order came in a 2009 case involving Anthony White. According to the order, an error in a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge’s sentencing order delayed White’s eligibility for parole for six months.
The order says Sullivan acknowledged taking no action to have the error corrected and ignoring phone calls from White and his family.
Kanawha County Chief Public Defender George Castelle tells the Charleston Gazette  that Sullivan will remain with the Public Defender’s Office.

PENNSYLVANIA
Police arrest man posing as intern in court
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Authorities say a 19-year-old man was arrested at the Allegheny County Courthouse after posing as an intern and being found in possession of court documents.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports 19-year-old Monroeville resident Josh Aaron Dowell-Miller was stopped by sheriff’s deputies Wednesday. Officials say he had several files from a downtown law firm on him and that he said he was an intern there.
The law firm says he wasn’t an intern there. Police say he had visited the firm under false pretenses and had to be escorted from the building.
Police say the files were for civil cases.
Dowell-Miller is being charged with theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. It wasn’t clear if he had an attorney and a telephone listing for him couldn’t immediately be found.

KENTUCKY
Lawyer: Video shows shooting was self-defense
HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The attorney for two Tennessee men charged with shooting two others in southern Kentucky says there’s video that shows the men fired in self-defense.
The Kentucky New Era reports the comments were made Wednesday when the men, 23-year-old Hersey Mitchell and 22-year-old Louis Spencer, appeared with attorney Rick Bolin Christian County Circuit Court for a hearing.
Mitchell is facing a murder charge in the fatal shooting of Shannon Fairley while Spencer is facing an assault charge for a shooting that injured Desmond Leavell. The shootings took place in September outside a convenience store in Oak Grove.
Bolin said video from the store shows Fairley threatening Mitchell before he was shot and one of the alleged victims shooting at Spencer before he returned fire.

COLORADO
Man convicted of manslaugher in motorcycle case
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — An Iraq War veteran has been convicted of manslaughter in a slaying outside the Sin City Disciples motorcycle clubhouse in Colorado Springs.
The Gazette reports jurors acquitted Christopher Anthony Mountjoy Jr., of Fountain, of first-degree murder and robbery Wednesday but convicted him of manslaughter.
Mountjoy was one of six people who were charged after the death of Virgil Means in March. Means had been thrown out of a party and then was fatally shot when he returned to look for his wallet.
Prosecutors alleged Mountjoy fired the fatal bullet. His lawyers argued he was acting in self-defense because he thought Means was returning for retaliation.
Mountjoy deployed to Iraq twice in a combat role.

LOUISIANA
DA disbands special drunk driver program
LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — A program that allowed some drunken drivers to wipe their records clean in near-record time has been halted after Lafayette judges balked at continuing the program amid an ongoing federal bribery investigation.
The program, which involved so-called “immediate 894” handling of cases, is at the center of a pay-for-privilege scandal. The investigation has led to four federal indictments, including bribery charges against a former assistant district attorney and two former secretaries in the district attorney’s office.
District Attorney Mike Harson told The Daily Advertiser on Tuesday in an email that the “immediate 894” procedures have been discontinued.
The FBI investigation is continuing in the bribery case. Federal prosecutors have said Harson is not a target of the investigation.?