London
Children of Paul Weller win suit over web pictures
LONDON (AP) — The children of musician Paul Weller won a privacy lawsuit Wednesday over paparazzi pictures published on a newspaper website.
Lawyers for the former front man of The Jam and his family sued Associated Newspapers over images of daughter Dylan and twin sons John Paul and Bowie that appeared on its MailOnline site.
Dylan was 16 and the twins 10 months old when the pictures, taken during a shopping trip in Santa Monica, were published in 2012.Judge James Dingemans ruled that although publishing the pictures was legal in California, they “were published in circumstances where Dylan, Bowie and John Paul had a reasonable expectation of privacy” — a status protected in British human rights law.
He awarded a total of 10,000 pounds ($17,000) to the children.
Paul Weller told the High Court in London that the photographer was asked to stop but persisted, “taking photos of a very frightened 16-year-old holding her baby brother.”
“What kind of person is that anyway?” he said.
MailOnline said it was “deeply disturbed” by the judgment and would appeal.
It said it was in competition with U.S-based websites protected by the First Amendment, and called the privacy ruling “a worrying development in our law, as it has conferred unfettered image rights on all the children.”
Florida
Former CFO is charged in $1.2B Ponzi scheme
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The former chief financial officer of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein’s law firm has been charged with conspiracy in the $1.2 billion fraud.
South Florida federal prosecutors filed a court document Wednesday charging Irene Shannon in the case. The document contends that Shannon oversaw much of the accounting and banking at the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm and was well aware of the Ponzi scheme.
Court records Wednesday did not list an attorney for Shannon. The type of document filed by prosecutors indicates that she will eventually plead guilty.
Rothstein is serving a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to orchestrating the scam, which involved investments in nonexistent legal settlements.
New Jersey
German Shepherd called to jury duty in New Jersey
BRIDGETON, N.J. (AP) — At least one prospective juror in New Jersey could take a bite out of crime.
Cumberland County has summoned IV Griner to jury duty. The only problem is IV is a 5-year-old German Shepherd.
Her owner tells KYW-TV in Philadelphia he figured out the mistake as soon as the summons arrived at his Bridgeton home.
The dog’s owner is Barrett Griner IV. He uses the Roman numeral for four in his name. He named his dog using the letters “I” and “V.”
The county’s judiciary coordinator says the computer likely misplaced the Roman numeral for Barrett’s last name and mailed the summons.
Virginia
Man pleads guilty in shooting at college campus
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) — A man accused of shooting and wounding two women at a community college inside a Christiansburg mall has pleaded guilty to four felony charges.
Media outlets report that 19-year-old Neil Allan MacInnis of Christiansburg pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of aggravated malicious wounding and two counts of using a firearm in a felony. Sentencing is set for July 10 in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Police have said the women were in the lobby when a gunman entered a satellite campus of New River Community College in the New River Valley Mall on April 12, 2013. The suspect was subdued by an off-duty security guard and Christiansburg police.
MacInnis has been held without bond at the Western Virginia Regional Jail.
Ohio
Federal judge stays most of gay marriage ruling
CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal judge has put on hold the majority of what attorneys have called a “momentous” change to Ohio’s gay marriage law.
Judge Timothy Black on Wednesday stayed his ruling ordering Ohio to recognize the marriages of gay couples who wed in other states.
Black made an exception for the four couples who filed the February lawsuit that led to the court case, ordering Ohio to immediately list both spouses in each relationship as parents on their children’s birth certificates.
All other married gay couples in the state will see no immediate tangible expansion of their rights until an appeals court decides to uphold or overturn the ruling.
That likely will take months.
Black says implementing his ruling without knowing the appeal’s outcome could cause confusion and potential inequity.
Tennessee
Inmate who was released early loses appeal
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An inmate who sued because he was released early from a Tennessee jail has lost an appeal.
In 2011, Stanley Walker filed a lawsuit against Bradley County saying he was improperly released early from jail because the government didn’t want to pay for his medical expenses. Walker alleged that he contracted a staph infection while in jail, and he wanted Bradley County to pay for his medical expenses and other damages.
On Tuesday, the Tennessee Court of Appeals said that people don’t have the right to sue because that they were released early from incarceration. The appeals court also upheld a Bradley County judge’s decision to dismiss Walker’s lawsuit, which also claimed negligence.
Walker was released early from a 30-day sentence for probation violation for driving on a suspended license.
North Carolina
2 face kidnapping charges in case with DA’s father
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Two more people have been charged in the kidnapping of a North Carolina prosecutor’s father.
Federal authorities filed kidnapping charges Wednesday against Jakym Tibbs and a man listed as John Doe known by the nickname “Kirkwood Quan.”
Six other people were arrested last week following a late-night raid by the FBI on an Atlanta apartment. Rescued was Frank Arthur Janssen, a Wake Forest man whose daughter is an assistant district attorney in Wake County.
Authorities said the kidnappers made demands regarding Kelvin Melton, a high-ranking Bloods street gang member serving a life sentence in a North Carolina prison for a 2011 shooting. The victim’s daughter, Colleen Janssen, prosecuted Melton.
