Missouri
$2 million bond reduced for 2 Saudi Arabian men
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped the main charge against two Saudi Arabian men accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in Springfield, prompting a judge to significantly reduce their combined $2 million bond.
The charge of forcible sodomy was dropped in early January after the Missouri Supreme Court refused to review a Greene County judge’s ruling in August that prosecutors did not have enough evidence to support the charge.
Rayan Mohammed A Alqabbaa, 21, and Ahmed Ayed A Alanaz, 27, are still charged with kidnapping and deviate sexual behavior after a woman said they kidnapped her from a nightclub in June and took her to an apartment, where she said she was assaulted, The Springfield News-Leader reported. They are scheduled to go on trial Feb. 3.
When the men, who were students at Missouri State University, were originally charged, their bond was set at $1 million each. The Saudi Arabian government paid that amount in December. After the state Supreme Court declined to review the lower court ruling, Greene County Judge Calvin Holden reduced the bond to $100,000 each and said the Saudi Arabian consulate would get a $1.8 million refund, according to court documents.
Holden also ruled the men would no longer be held under house arrest but have a nightly curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
A cab driver who picked the men and woman up from the nightclub told police he was suspicious about how the woman was being treated. Police said when they entered a Springfield apartment, they found the woman partially clothed, crying, vomiting and asking for help.
She told investigators she had been abducted from Zan nightclub and that someone might have put something in her drink.
The suspects’ attorneys say surveillance footage from the nightclub contradicts some of the woman’s account.
South Carolina
Group appeals judge’s refusal to block prayer
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A group is appealing the refusal of a federal judge to stop Greenville County schools from holding events in churches.
The Greenville News reported the American Humanist Association is appealing the decision by U.S. District Judge G. Ross Anderson Jr.
Court records show the humanist group has filed notice of appeal with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.
The group wanted Anderson to block the school district from holding events at places of worship and allowing student-led prayers while its lawsuit proceeds.
Anderson said last month the association’s allegations lacked proof.
The group sued earlier this year, seeking to stop Mountain View Elementary School from holding ceremonies in a chapel at North Greenville University, which is affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention.
New Jersey
Vikings owner strikes back at court ruling
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Vikings owner Zygi Wilf is moving to invalidate a court decision that demands his family pay $100 million in damages and legal fees over a broken business deal.
The Wilfs formally appealed a ruling that found the real estate developers committed fraud, violated civil racketeering laws and deprived a former business partner of contractual payments. It extends a case that has been working its way through the courts for 21 years.
Wilf attorney Peter Harvey told The Associated Press on Thursday that the trial judge “badly mismanaged” the case. He argues there were multiple errors of law, a failure to limit the case’s scope and conflicts of interest.
An attorney for a key plaintiff declined to comment. Briefs from both sides are due throughout the spring.
Illinois
Judge tosses lawsuit over ISU murder conviction
PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a man who spent more than a decade in prison before DNA evidence cleared him in the murder of his girlfriend.
Alan Beaman of Rockford was convicted in the 1993 strangulation death of Illinois State University student Jennifer Lockmiller and spent 13 years in prison. He was serving a 50-year sentence when the Illinois Supreme Court reversed his conviction in 2008, and DNA testing pointed to two previously unknown suspects in the case.
In 2010, Beaman sued former McLean County prosecutors and former and current police officers in Normal, where Lockmiller was found dead. He claimed former prosecutors and police conspired to wrongfully accuse him. Some defendants had already been dropped from the suit.
A U.S. District Court judge granted a motion for dismissal last week by lawyers for two former Normal officers, one current officer and the town of Normal, The (Bloomington) Pantagraph reported.
“We’re pleased with the decision but will wait to see if the plaintiff files an appeal,” said Normal City Manager Mark Peterson. “We know it’s not necessarily over yet.”
Beaman’s lawyer, Locke Bowman, said, “Obviously, we are disappointed by the ruling. We are reviewing our options.”
Beaman was a student at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington when he was arrested in 1994. He has always insisted he was at his parents’ home in Rockford when Lockmiller was killed.
He was granted a certificate of innocence last year and has a clemency petition pending before Gov. Pat Quinn.
New York
Residents sue over World Trade Center security
NEW YORK (AP) — New Yorkers living around the rebuilt World Trade Center are fighting what they call the "fortresslike" security planned for their neighborhood. They say the $40 million barrier would block them in.
Residents have sued the New York Police Department, the city and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the trade center.
On Thursday in Manhattan state Supreme Court, members of the World Trade Center Neighborhood Alliance will try to show that the NYPD went too far with plans for guard booths, gates, fencing and checkpoints.
Plaintiff Mary Perillo, a longtime resident, says the neighborhood has become far more residential since 9/11. She says the security plan isolates residents while the area is flooded by tourists.
The city Law Department has said the security is necessary.
