Washington
Briefs Headline:Woman attacked at party for too-short shorts
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) - Prosecutors say a 25-year-old Snohomish woman attacked another woman at a barbecue because she thought her shorts were too short.
Papers filed in Snohomish County Superior Court say the woman attending the June 22 party confronted the woman, telling her that her shorts were too short. Several minutes later the suspect attacked the victim, knocking her to the ground and pulling out hair extensions.
The Daily Herald reports the victim suffered broken facial bones and bleeding in the left eye.
The suspect is charged with felony assault.
Colorado
Denver woman in terrorism case plans guilty plea
DENVER (AP) - A 19-year-old suburban Denver woman accused of trying to help a foreign terrorist organization plans to plead guilty in the case.
Federal documents filed Friday say an agreement has been reached in the case against Shannon Conley of Arvada. She was arrested at Denver International Airport in April while boarding a flight she hoped would ultimately get her to Syria.
Details of the agreement weren't part of the court filing, but Conley's public defender, Robert Pepin, asked to schedule a change of plea hearing. FBI agents say Conley was intent on waging jihad in the Middle East, despite their overt efforts to stop her.
Authorities say she wanted to live with a suitor she met online, who claimed to be fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Georgia
Briefs Headline:Judge appears in court after battery arrest
ATLANTA (AP) - A federal judge from Alabama is expected to be released from an Atlanta jail pending a background check after being arrested over the weekend on suspicion of battery.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller appeared Monday in a Fulton County court via video conference from the jail. He faces a misdemeanor battery charge after Atlanta police responded early Sunday to a reported altercation with his wife at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
A magistrate judge set a $5,000 bond for Fuller pending a background check. Fuller is due back in court Aug. 22.
A nominee of President George W. Bush, Fuller has served in the Middle District of Alabama since 2002. The 55-year-old judge and former prosecutor is best known for presiding over former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman's public corruption trial.
Missouri
Prosecutors: Court ruling helps sex crime victims
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) - A recent Missouri Supreme Court ruling removed legal obstacles that made it more difficult to prosecute sex abuse cases, particularly those involving children, prosecutors and victims' advocates said.
The ruling, which received little public attention when it was issued July 29, struck down a rule that allowed appellate judges to set aside convictions on sex crimes if they thought the victim's testimony wasn't credible. The state Supreme Court said the corroboration rule required appellate judges to make determinations they were not equipped to make, The Columbia Daily Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/1kUleNG ).
Judge Richard Teitelman wrote in the unanimous opinion that in every other crime, appellate judges assume evidence supporting a conviction is true, and generally consider only if there is enough evidence.
The corroboration rule combined a discredited premise that victims of sex assaults lie more often than other victims with the idea "that judges and juries are uniquely unable to make accurate factual determinations in sex crime cases. Both assumptions are unsupported," Teitelman wrote.
The court also struck down a "destructive contradictions" rule that allowed appellate courts to throw out convictions if a witness contradicts statements made during their court testimony or in earlier proceedings.
The ruling came in the case of Sylvester Porter of St. Louis, who challenged his conviction and 25-year sentence on two first-degree statutory sodomy counts involving a 3-year-old girl. The girl was 5 when she testified at Porter's trial and his attorneys argued in an appeal that her testimony was not corroborated and was contradictory.
Porter's attorneys invoked the destructive contradictions rule because the victim gave different details at different times, which often happens with child victims, said Jerri Sites, child advocacy center program director at Rainbow House.
Child abuse victims "may make a clear disclosure in a forensic interview, and get to court, and they freeze when they are facing their abuser," Sites said.
The practical effect of the decision is likely to be small but the decision has major significance in the development of the law, said Ben Trachtenberg, an associate professor of law at the University of Missouri.
"It shows Missouri following a modern trend of getting rid of some antiquated rules that apply only in sex cases and the theory that victim witnesses in sex cases, primarily women, were necessarily more unreliable than in other cases," Trachtenberg said.
Connecticut
Court dismisses lawsuits in Avon Mountain crash
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that victims of the 2005 Avon Mountain crash that killed four people cannot sue the state on allegations that Route 44 was dangerous and lacked adequate safety measures.
Justices said in a 5-1 ruling Monday that the design of the steep road and the lack of warning signs and other safety measures did not make the highway defective under state law.
A dump truck went out of control down the 500-foot hill in Avon in 2005 after its brakes failed, causing a fiery, 20-vehicle accident at the bottom that killed four people and injured 19.
The court dismissed two identical lawsuits by crash survivor Michael Cummings of New Hartford and Ellen Stotler of Avon, whose husband died in the crash.
Pennsylvania
Police: Man, 60, solicited girl, 14, on Facebook
BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (AP) - A 60-year-old western Pennsylvania man has been charged with using Facebook to solicit a 14-year-old girl to perform a sex act.
Steve G. Moore, of Beaver Falls, was arraigned Sunday on charges of unlawful contact with minors, corruption of minors, and promoting prostitution.
The last charge resulted after police say they found "disturbing private message conversations" that Moore had with prostitutes and random women.
Police searched his computer after the girl told her grandmother that Moore offered her $50 on July 8 to perform the sex act. Police obtained a search warrant for Moore's computer and filed the charges Saturday.
He faces a preliminary hearing Aug. 19.
Online court records don't list an attorney for Moore, who also does not have a listed telephone number.
Published: Tue, Aug 12, 2014
