National Roundup

Missouri
Attorney with murder record back in practice
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City attorney whose conviction in the beating death of his law partner was overturned in 2006 can resume his practice, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
The court ordered the law license of Richard Buchli II to be reinstated, with certain conditions.
Buchli was convicted in 2002 of murder in the death of his law partner, Richard Armitage. Prosecutors alleged that Buchli’s financial problems were the motivation behind the killing.
A judge overturned Buchli’s conviction in 2006, finding that evidence had been withheld from the defense during his trial. Prosecutors dismissed the case last year, after a judge in 2010 threw out all the state’s evidence.
While he will be allowed to practice law again, Buchli will be on probation for three years and required to report quarterly to a probation “monitor” on the status of his practice and about any criminal or civil actions against him, The Kansas City Star reported.
He will be required to take continuing legal education courses and carry malpractice insurance, and a mentor will safeguard his clients’ money. Buchli also must undergo a mental health evaluation within 60 days, with the results reported to the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel, which oversees attorney discipline in Missouri.
Buchli said Tuesday he would have to discuss the order with his lawyer before he could comment.
Buchli has not been acquitted in the case, meaning charges could be refiled someday.

Pennsylvania
Appeals court upholds new law on billboards 
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A state appeals court has upheld a Pittsburgh ordinance regulating the size, location and other features of electronic billboards — including how bright they can be.
Lamar Advertising, the nation’s largest outdoor advertising company, sued last year claiming the city’s new billboard ordinance was enacted illegally.
An Allegheny County judge last year rejected the claim by the Baton Rouge, La., firm, which appealed to Commonwealth Court. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that appeal was also rejected Tuesday.
Lamar is arguing the bill changed so many times before it was passed that it should have been reviewed again during a public hearing and by the city’s planning commission.
Lamar contends the ordinance also limits constitutionally protected speech and its attorney says the company may appeal again.

Utah
Ex-chemist is cleared of trade secret thefts
LOGAN, Utah (AP) — A federal judge has cleared a former chemist of charges of stealing trade secrets from the Utah-based Frontier Scientific Inc.
A grand jury indicted 44-year-old Prabhum Mohapatra in 2011 of two counts of theft of trade secrets and two counts of fraudulent activity.
Mohapatra pleaded guilty last year to one charge of unlawful access to a protected computer in a plea deal. Several other charges were dropped.
Prosecutors said Tuesday Mohapatra admitted illegally accessing data on the company computer and sending an email with the data to a family member outside the country. But The (Logan) Herald Journal reports that Judge Clark Waddoups ruled the information was publicly available and therefore no theft occurred.
He still faces a second-degree felony tied to the theft charge in 1st District Court.

Georgia
Teen accused in child sex sting faked his death
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors in Panama City are seeking to revoke the bond of a Georgia teen who officials believe faked his death and traveled to Denver.
According to court records in Bay County, on April 22, a fisherman found a pile of clothes and a suicide note along the bank of the Little River in Brooks County, Ga., which is on the Florida-Georgia line. Investigators say Nathan Wilkins, 19, turned up in Aurora, Colo., three days later.
The News Herald of Panama City reported that Wilkins was due in court on Monday from charges stemming from his arrest on sex charges in June. It is unclear whether Wilkins has returned from Colorado.
Assistant State Attorney Christa Diviney said that Wilkins violated his bond by leaving his home without notifying the court or his bondsman.
Wilkins was charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex, computer pornography and child exploitation. He was arrested during Operation Riptide, a multi-agency sting operation that officials say was designed to lure men interested in sex with children.
Wilkins responded to a Craigslist ad from a man looking for someone to help his 11-year-old daughter lose her virginity, according to court records. The person Wilkins exchanged emails with asked him to bring a slushy for the child.
Police said Wilkins arrived at the predetermined location with a slushy. But the father and child weren’t waiting for him. Instead, officers representing the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force were waiting. Wilkins and 11 other men were arrested in the sex sting.

New Mexico
Applebee’s sued over death of drunk customer
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A Taos restaurant is facing a lawsuit over allegations that it overserved a pedestrian who was struck and killed by a pickup.
The Albuquerque Journal reports Julian Varela had a blood alcohol level four times the legal limit for driving when he left the Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill and Bar on Dec. 29, 2011.
He was killed by a teen driver who wasn’t cited in the incident.
The lawsuit says the restaurant’s employees shouldn’t have served Varela the 20-ounce “Brewtus” beers and should have stopped him from leaving while intoxicated.
It says Applebee’s corporate leadership encouraged its restaurants to drive up liquor sales.

Indiana
Man sues over wife, son’s 2011 train deaths
HARTFORD CITY, Ind. (AP) — A north-central Indiana man whose pregnant wife and 10-month-old son were killed in a car-train crash has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against two railroad companies.
Thomas A. Janero’s suit filed Monday in Blackford Circuit Court seeks unspecified damages from Norfolk Southern Railway Co. and CSX Transportation and contends that a building near the site of the September 2011 collision limited the visibility of approaching trains.
Janero’s 22-year-old wife, Kristen Marie Janero, and their son, Xander, died when the car they were passengers in was struck by a train in Montpelier, about 35 miles south of Fort Wayne.