Indiana
Judge asked to reconsider vanity plate bureau rule
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles is asking a judge to reconsider an order that it resume the state’s personalized license plate program.
The agency said Monday it filed the request with a Marion County court a month after the judge ruled a police officer had the right to buy a license plate reading “0INK.”
The judge said the BMV had no formal regulations in place for evaluating the content of vanity plates and ordered it to create standards that meet constitutional requirements within six months.
BMV Commissioner Don Snemis says the judge’s order would force the agency to issue personalized plates with offensive references to race, religion or sexual orientation.
The lawsuit by Greenfield police Officer Rodney Vawter maintained the BMV’s policy violated his freedom of speech rights.
Utah
Teens may face charges in fatal gun accident
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah (AP) — Salt Lake County prosecutors say they’re considering possible criminal charges against two 16-year-old boys in connection with a gun accident that killed a friend.
The boys and 17-year-old Harley Jarrett were looking at a .45-caliber revolver in the closet of a Cottonwood Heights home when it went off Wednesday, shooting Jarrett in the head. The boys thought the gun was unloaded.
District Attorney Sim Gill told The Salt Lake Tribune that while a final decision on charges is pending, his office has already decided the two teens would be prosecuted in the juvenile court system.
The two boys were arrested for investigation of possession of a stolen firearm and one boy was arrested on suspicion of negligent homicide.
Ohio
Sentencing of man delayed in fatal arson fire
CLEVELAND (AP) — A sentencing hearing scheduled for this week has been postponed for a man twice convicted of killing a woman and eight children at a sleepover in Cleveland’s deadliest arson fire.
The hearing for Antun Lewis had been scheduled for Tuesday. But U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. on Friday granted a defense motion to delay it. The judge plans to talk to attorneys on Tuesday afternoon to set a new sentencing date.
In his order, Oliver acknowledged that prosecutors filed a memorandum late Thursday raising “significant sentencing issues,” so he agreed to postpone sentencing to give Lewis’ attorney more time to prepare.
The fire killed 33-year-old Medeia Carter, four of her children and four other youngsters attending a birthday sleepover party on May 21, 2005.
The judge on Thursday denied a motion seeking dismissal of the arson charge, and a request for another trial.
Authorities said Lewis, upset over a drug debt, doused the three-story building’s first floor with gasoline. Lewis, who knew some of the victims, denied wrongdoing and said he was at home, several blocks away, when the fire started.
Lewis’ conviction in his first trial was thrown out after the judge ruled that jailhouse informants used by prosecutors were unreliable.
After Lewis was found guilty at his retrial in December, defense attorneys said they believed the enormous tragedy overshadowed the evidence in the case.
New York
NYC man on trial in killing of cop and another man
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Opening statements are expected Monday in the trial of a New York City man accused of killing a suburban police officer. The shooting happened in October 2012 during a traffic stop.
Darrell Fuller also is accused of killing another man during a carjacking while fleeing the scene of the first shooting.
He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, robbery and weapons charges.
Police say 29-year-old Officer Arthur Lopez and his partner were on patrol near the Queens-Nassau County border when they stopped a Honda that was operating with flat tires.
Fuller allegedly opened fire without warning, killing Lopez.
Fuller is then suspected of killing a motorist during a carjacking moments after the first shooting.
The trial in Nassau County Court is expected to last eight weeks or longer.
Ohio
Hospital fights suit over stillborn baby treatment
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — A northeast Ohio hospital facing a lawsuit denies a woman’s allegations that the facility disposed of her stillborn infant’s body without her consent and prevented her from having a proper funeral.
Lytanya Wylie of Youngstown is seeking at least $25,000 in damages in the suit against St. Elizabeth Health Center.
In a court filing last month, the not-for-profit hospital acknowledged Wylie was a patient but denied the allegation that employees disposed of the body without Wylie’s consent or knowledge.
The lawsuit says Wylie was pregnant with twins and was told before her delivery last summer that one had died. She says she never saw the child after the delivery.
Her attorney has said Wylie doesn’t know what happened to the body.
The second baby was delivered alive.
Mississippi
Wrongful death case appeal filed with high court
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Attorneys for a northwest Mississippi shooting range are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal in case involving the death of a Naval SEAL during a training exercise.
The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in January that the wrongful-death lawsuit filed the SEAL’s family brought was erroneously dismissed by a DeSoto County judge. The Mississippi high court ordered the case to trial.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Shapoor Alexander Ghane Jr. was killed in 2008 when a bullet fired during an exercise struck him in the chest, even though he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Attorneys for the Ghane family have until July 7 to response to the request.
Authorities said the bullet that killed Ghane first passed through a wall behind which Ghane was crouching and struck him through a gap in the vest.
The Navy said the incident occurred on Jan. 30, 2008 during a close-quarters combat training exercise at Mid-South Institute of Self-Defense Shooting in Lake Cormorant, near Walls in northwest Mississippi.
Ghane joined the Navy in June 2004 and entered SEAL training in November 2004 in Coronado, California.
