Court Roundup

Minnesota
Sex abuse lawsuit against the Boy Scouts postponed
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The trial of a sex abuse lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America in Minnesota has been postponed.
Court officials say Ramsey County District Judge Elena Ostby was not available Monday, when the trial was due to begin. The trial will be rescheduled later.
The lawsuit by a former Scout identified only as John Doe 180 targets the national Scouting organization, the local Northern Star Council and a Burnsville church that sponsored his troop. It also names his former scoutmaster, Peter Stibal II, who is serving 21 years in prison for molesting four Scouts.
Earlier this year, the judge ordered the Scouts to give the plaintiffs internal files on adult volunteers suspected of abuse. They cover 1999-2008, more recent than similar files made public in an Oregon case last year.

Maine
State high court to hear argument in double fatality
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s highest court is hearing arguments on which statements should be allowed at the trial of a young woman facing manslaughter charges for allegedly being drunk and texting at the time of a car crash that killed two friends.
Twenty-year-old Kristina Lowe of Oxford has pleaded not guilty in the January 2012 crash in West Paris. Her trial is on hold pending the supreme court’s decision.
Police say Lowe was drunk and told them she was texting when she lost control of her car. Lowe’s attorney says she wasn’t texting at the time of the crash, and was on painkillers and not read her rights when interviewed in the hospital.
A lower-court judge has suppressed some of her statements. Justices will hear arguments Monday on which statements should be allowed.

Louisiana
DA, defense to reassess 1983 homicide case
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — Caddo Parish prosecutors say they plan to meet with a defense attorney to reassess the case against a man on death row, in light of another man’s reported confession.
A meeting is in the works with the attorney for Glenn Ford, District Attorney Charles Scott told The Times (http://bit.ly/17Pxcg7 ).
Ford, who did occasional yard work for Isadore Rozeman, has always denied that he killed the jeweler and watchmaker in 1983. However, he was convicted and sentenced to death.
Defense attorney Gary Clements, director of the Capital Post-Conviction Project, said he cannot talk about the case because he’s still gathering evidence and facts.
Most of the records are under seal. But in June and July, the District Attorney’s Office filed supplements revealing that during an unrelated investigation, a reliable informant quoted another man as saying he shot Rozeman.
U.S. District Magistrate Judge Mark Hornsby has given Clements until Nov. 25 to add to his 283-page writ of habeas corpus asking the federal court to overturn Ford’s conviction.
In 2000, the Louisiana Supreme Court ordered a hearing of claims that prosecutors suppressed favorable evidence and that Ford’s trial and appeal lawyers were ineffective. Neither of Ford’s court-appointed trial attorneys had ever tried a case before a jury.