Georgia
Doctor: Ex-school superintendent can’t endure trial
ATLANTA (AP) — A doctor says Atlanta’s former school superintendent can’t endure a trial in the system’s test cheating case due to her health.
Beverly Hall’s oncologist, Dr. Laura Weakland, said in a sworn statement that Hall can’t endure a trial because of side effects from chemotherapy and progression of cancer.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard suspended an assistant district attorney for how they reacted to the news. Howard said the prosecutor wrote “Surprise, surprise” in an email inadvertently sent to all parties in the case.
Howard said in a statement he suspended the prosecutor because he can’t ignore “the appearance of insensitivity to Dr. Hall’s condition.”
Hall is among more than 30 Atlanta Public Schools educators accused of participating in a conspiracy to cheat on standardized tests.
California
Man who hoarded 400 snakes guilty of animal cruelty
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California teacher who had 400 snakes in his home, many of them dead or dying, pleaded guilty Thursday to failing to provide proper care for them.
William Buchman, 53, entered the misdemeanor plea in Orange County and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service. He also can’t have a pet for five years and is paying $17,000 in restitution for animal care.
He originally was charged with felony animal abuse, which carried a potential three-year prison term.
Buchman, who is on leave from his teaching job at Mariners Elementary School in Newport Beach, cared for his ailing mother but lived alone following her death several years ago.
“Mr. Buchman suffered a severe depression after the long terminal illness and death of his mother,” his attorney, Paul Meyer, said in a statement. “The depression paralyzed him and he tragically neglected the reptiles which had been a family hobby.”
Buchman was arrested in January, after reports of a vile smell at his Santa Ana home led to the discovery of the pythons, including 280 that were dead or dying.
The front four rooms of the home were packed floor to ceiling with snake bins. Some of the dead snakes were little more than skeletons. Others, only recently dead, were covered with flies and maggots.
There also was an infestation of rats and mice, which had been kept as snake food.
“House of Horrors: That’s the best way to describe it,” Sondra Berg, supervisor for the Santa Ana Police Department’s Animal Services Division, said after Buchman’s arrest.
Months earlier, neighbors had reported a repulsive smell from the house.
It got so bad as to where my wife would throw up,” next-door neighbor Forest Long Sr. said. “She’d get out of the car and run into the house.”
The smell was later determined to be animal in nature. Animal control authorities tried to work with Buchman for several months after neighbors reported the smell but weren’t allowed inside the home until a search warrant was obtained.
Berg said Buchman told authorities he was involved in a type of snake breeding called “morphing,” in which owners try to breed different color patterns in the reptiles.
His attorney said Buchman has cooperated with therapy, remodeled his home and donated all his reptile equipment to a rescue group.
The surviving snakes have all found new homes.
Louisiana
Coach pleads not guilty in anabolic steroids case
GONZALES, La. (AP) — A former Donaldsonville High School strength coach and physical education teacher has pleaded not guilty to drug and juvenile delinquency charges arising from charges he gave an unsuspecting student-athlete anabolic steroids.
The Advocate reports 56-year-old Curtis Tsuruda, of LaPlace, entered his initial plea during an arraignment last week before District Judge Guy Holdridge at the parish Courthouse Annex in Gonzales.
Assistant District Attorney Jason Verdigets said no trial date has been set but Tsuruda’s next court date is Sept. 2.
Ascension Parish sheriff’s deputies arrested Tsuruda on April 1 after he reportedly admitted that he gave methandienone pills to a 16-year-old student-athlete at Donaldsonville High.
Sheriff’s detectives later searched Tsuruda’s home in St. John the Baptist Parish and found steroids.
Deputies have said Tsuruda told the student the drugs were amino acid/protein pills. The youth’s parents noted mood changes in their child, however, after the student had taken the pills for about a week or two. They reported the situation to sheriff’s deputies.
Methandienone is an anabolic steroid, a synthetic variant of testosterone, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration online fact sheet says.
Deputies booked Tsuruda on April 1 on counts of distribution of methandienone, violation of the controlled dangerous substance school zone law, distribution to a student and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.
Prosecutors filed bills of information against Tsuruda on the same counts on June 6.
J. Price McNamara, Tsuruda’s defense attorney, said his client is a good person and family man who has had a stellar career. But McNamara declined to speak about his client’s case, saying he would allow the judicial system to work.
“I think when all the facts are in, it will deliver a fair result,” McNamara said.
Vermont
Surgeon resolves criminal case with guilty plea
NEWPORT, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont surgeon who was shocked by police with a stun gun after smashing out his former girlfriend’s car headlights with an axe has settled the case by pleading guilty to a charge of resisting arrest.
Jury selection had been scheduled to begin Thursday for Dr. Mark Meredith of Derby.
The Caledonian Record reports Meredith’s attorney David Sleigh says his client, a 50-year-old surgeon at North Country Hospital in Newport, agreed to the plea as a way to settle the case, but he didn’t accept the state’s version of events.
Meredith’s record will be wiped clean if he meets the court’s terms.
Court documents Meredith’s girlfriend called police in April 2013 after an incident that began because he believed the woman had stolen a $600 bottle of port wine.
