Kansas
Army fugitive in prison again after 37 years on run
FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — An Army spokesman says an escaped inmate who eluded capture for 37 years is back behind bars at the military’s maximum-security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
Spokesman George Marcec confirmed Thursday that convicted killer James Robert Jones returned to military custody this week from Florida and is being housed at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks. It is unclear if Jones has been charged with additional crimes related to his escape.
The 59-year-old Jones was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Florida after authorities used facial recognition technology to identify Jones, who was living under the name Bruce Walter Keith.
He was convicted of murder and assault in the 1974 killing of a fellow soldier at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Jones was serving a 23-year sentence when he escaped.
Ohio
Ex-cop who was freed is sent back behind bars again
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A former Ohio police captain who was freed after spending nearly 15 years in prison for his ex-wife’s killing is headed back behind bars.
A Summit County judge ordered that former Akron officer Douglas Prade be taken to jail Thursday, a day after an appeals court said a judge was wrong to release him about 14 months ago.
Prade didn’t speak during the hearing and was taken away in handcuffs.
His attorneys had sought to keep him free while he appeals, and they fought prosecutors’ efforts to have him locked up immediately.
Prade was freed when a judge decided new DNA testing of a bite mark proved he didn’t kill his ex-wife. But the appeals court concluded that the test didn’t give a clear answer.
Pennsylvania
Cops: Man sent poisoned card to romantic rival
HATBORO, Pa. (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia man is accused of sending a romantic rival a birthday card laced with the deadly poison ricin.
Authorities in Bucks County say 19-year-old Nicholas Helman was arrested at his Hatboro home Wednesday on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, risking a catastrophe and other counts.
Investigators say Helman told a co-worker that he sent the toxic card to his ex-girlfriend’s current boyfriend. The co-worker called police.
Authorities say Helman had the ingredients for making ricin and that tests confirmed the presence of the deadly chemical on the card.
Court documents don’t list an attorney for Helman, who remains in custody pending a March 27 preliminary hearing. His father, Douglas, told The (Doylestown) Intelligencer that he knew nothing about the charges.
California
Judge extends order blocking data destruction
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in San Francisco has extended his nationwide order blocking the National Security Agency from destroying telephone surveillance records.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White issued a restraining order on March 10 to prevent the National Security Agency from destroying phone records that it had collected more than five years ago.
On Wednesday, White, who is overseeing an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against the agency, prolonged that order, ruling the records were needed to decide the case.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the 23 organizations who are plaintiffs in the suit include churches, marijuana advocates and gun owners.
Cindy Cohn of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said the records could be destroyed if the government would confirm that the plaintiffs’ phone data was collected, but the Justice Department’s lawyer, James Gilligan, said that information should remain secret.
New Mexico
Gym faces lawsuit over Muslim head covering incident
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico Muslim woman has filed a lawsuit against New Hampshire-based gym chain Planet Fitness after she says an Albuquerque location refused to let her wear religious head covering while working out.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that an attorney for 37-year-old Tarainia McDaniel recently filed the lawsuit in a New Mexico district court stemming from an October 2011 clash.
According to the lawsuit, McDaniel joined Planet Fitness on a two-year contract and later transferred to another gym location. But the lawsuit says on Oct. 3, 2011 she was turned away at her new gym and told the head covering didn’t meet its dress code.
McDaniel says she even offered to wear a hijab, the formal head covering.
Planet Fitness attorney Erika Anderson says the head covering violates the gym’s dress code policy.
West Virginia
Doctor’s wife wants convictions in fraud tossed
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A West Virginia doctor’s wife is asking a federal appeals court to throw out her convictions for obstructing an investigation into health care fraud by her husband.
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Josephine Adams’ case Thursday in Richmond.
Adams was convicted in 2011 on 16 felony counts of conspiracy and obstruction and was given three years of probation. Her husband, Vienna osteopath Barton Adams, was convicted of health care fraud and tax evasion and was sentenced to 50 months in prison.
An attorney for Josephine Adams told the appeals court that the trial judge improperly barred her husband from testifying on her behalf.
Florida
No jail for leader of program over anonymous tip
MIAMI (AP) — There won’t be any jail time for the head of Miami-Dade County’s Crime Stoppers program for contempt of court over his refusal to divulge details about an anonymous tip.
Circuit Judge Victoria Brennan made that decision Thursday at a hearing for Richard Masten, the program’s executive director. Brennan had ordered Masten to provide information about the tip to a defense attorney in a cocaine possession case.
There was no immediate final decision on Masten’s punishment.
Masten last week ate a piece of paper in court containing what he said was the tip information rather than give it up. Masten, a former police chief, says the anonymous tip program’s integrity is at stake.
