National Roundup

Texas
Man who faked being judge’s son gets prison term
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A man who faked being the son of a South Texas judge to con money from people with legal troubles has been sentenced to two years in state jail.
Another judge in San Antonio on Tuesday sentenced 37-year-old Mark David Leal.
Leal in March pleaded no contest to theft of $3,500 from a man facing drug possession and drunken driving charges.
Prosecutors say Leal falsely claimed his mother was Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner and that she would delete the charges from a court computer.
The scam surfaced in 2011 when the charges weren’t dropped and the duped man mailed a threatening letter to the unknowing judge. The swindled man, who pleaded guilty to the drug charge and sending the threat, cooperated in the investigation.
Vasquez-Gardner failed in her 2012 re-election bid.

Connecticut
Man charged with stealing $10,000 worth of meat
SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) — A Bloomfield man has been charged with stealing about $10,000 worth of chicken wings and other meat from a South Windsor company where he worked.
Forty-three-year-old Boris Delisser was charged Tuesday with first-degree larceny in connection with the reported thefts last year at County Distributors, a wholesale meat company off Route 5.
Police say the company’s owner reviewed surveillance video and saw Delisser taking products from the warehouse and loading them into a vehicle. Authorities say they investigated the owner’s complaint and found that Delisser had stolen meat on several other occasions.
Delisser posted $10,000 bail and is due in Manchester Superior Court on May 2.
A phone listing for Delisser couldn’t be found Wednesday. It’s not clear if he has a lawyer.

Rhode Island
Dentists’ group sues state over ‘illegal’ raids
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A dentists’ group in Rhode Island is suing the state Health Department over what it calls illegal raids at dentists’ offices.
The Rhode Island Dental Association filed a lawsuit Monday in Providence Superior Court against the Health Department’s Board of Examiners in Dentistry. The association represents more than 550 dentists.
The association claims Health Department officials have conducted illegal searches of dentists’ offices, illegally issued subpoenas, improperly seized patient records and retaliated against dentists who tried to speak out against them.
Health Department officials say they don’t comment on pending litigation.
Dentists say they don’t oppose inspections, but the department has no standards for them.
The association says during one inspection in Warwick this month, state officials demanded immediate action from a dentist who was in the middle of surgery.

Missouri
Joplin schools settle tornado debris lawsuit
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — The Joplin School District has settled a $2.2 million lawsuit filed by a demolition company that cleared debris from three schools damaged in the May 2011 tornado.
The Joplin Globe reports that federal court records show the lawsuit was settled for $276,000.
Urban Metropolitan of Atlanta, Ga., alleged in the lawsuit that it was required to do work not included in the original contract, and that the district discriminated against the company because it is minority-owned.
The district fired Urban Metropolitan a year ago, citing performance issues.
In December,  forgery charges were filed against the company and its project manager.
Jasper County Prosecutor Dean Dankelson said Tuesday that the lawsuit settlement will not affect the criminal charges.

Missouri
2 teens to be tried as adults in couple’s deaths
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A judge has decided that two teens accused of murdering a vacationing Michigan couple will be tried as adults.
Seventeen-year-old Anthony Zarro, of Spring, Texas, and 16-year-old Christopher Allen, of Nashville, Tenn., are charged with killing Paul and Margaret Brooks in January. The couple from Baldwin, Mich., was vacationing in Lampe in southwest Missouri when they were beaten and stabbed to death.
Circuit Court Judge Alan Blankenship ruled Tuesday that the boys will be tried as adults and Stone Prosecutor Matt Selby filed the criminal case a short time later.
Citing the seriousness and viciousness of the attack on the couple, Blankenship said there are no reasonable prospects for rehabilitating the boys.

Ohio
6 teens guilty of damaging holiday lighting display
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) — Six high school students have been convicted in the vandalism of a family’s annual Christmas light display that was a decades-long tradition in their Ohio community.
The last of the six boys was found guilty in juvenile court this week in Chillicothe, about 40 miles south of Columbus. They were accused of damaging and stealing from an elaborate display featuring 30,000 lights in the yard of a Ross County home.
Most of the teens will learn their punishments later. One case was handled in municipal court, and that teen is being sent to a diversion program.
The display’s creator, Mike Hall, initially said he’d end the decorative tradition after the vandalism. But he has told The Chillicothe Gazette he received encouragement from the community and might change his mind.

Mississippi
State high court rules in favor of apartment owner
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court has denied an appeal from Melissa Handy, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a Jackson apartment complex where her son drowned in 2007.
On May 5, 2007, 17-year-old Ricco Handy drowned while swimming in the pool at the Bellevue Place Apartments in Jackson. The teenager and a cousin were visiting an uncle who lived at the apartments. The uncle did not accompany the two boys to the pool.
Melissa Handy sued the owner of Bellevue Place, A. Waddell Nejam.
A Hinds County judge ruled for Nejam in 2010.
The Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision this past week, said Ricco Handy was prohibited by apartment rules from using the pool without his uncle. The court majority said he entered the pool at his own risk.