Delaware
Feds: Hackers targeted game makers, Microsoft
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Two men accused of being members of an international hacking ring that accessed a U.S. Army computer network and targeted computer giant Microsoft and other companies have pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges.
Authorities say 22-year-old David Pokora of Ontario, Canada, and 28-year-old Sanadodeh Nesheiwat (sana-DO'-deh NESH'-uh-wat) of Washington, New Jersey, belonged to a group that called itself the Xbox Underground. The two pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Delaware. They face up to five years in prison at their January sentencing.
Prosecutors accuse the ring of hacking into an Army computer system through a video game company that was working under federal contract on flight simulation software for Apache helicopters. They're also accused of manufacturing and selling a counterfeit Xbox One gaming console before the unit's official release.
Pennsylvania
DA: Court should stay Melvin's entire sentence
PITTSBURGH (AP) - The district attorney wants the state Supreme Court to delay former Justice Joan Orie Melvin's entire sentence for campaign corruption - not just the requirement that she apologize to every judge in the state - while she again appeals her conviction and sentence.
Melvin, 58, of Wexford, was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to three years of probation on house arrest and ordered to perform community service in a soup kitchen. She was fined $55,000. And she was ordered to send an apology to every judge in the state - written on copies of pictures that Allegheny County Judge Lester Nauhaus ordered taken of her in handcuffs.
In August, the state Superior Court upheld her conviction and sentence, including writing the apology letters - but not on the pictures. Instead, that court found that the photo requirement served no legitimate purpose and was meant only to "shame and humiliate her."
Melvin is appealing to the Supreme Court because she still hopes to have her conviction and the entire sentence overturned. But in the meantime, she wants to serve all aspects of her sentence except for writing the apology letters. By doing so, Melvin would get credit for time served, which means a substantial portion of her house arrest term could be satisfied by the time the Supreme Court decides her appeal.
District Attorney Stephen Zappala's office contends in a filing Tuesday that that's not fair.
The prosecutors argue that Nauhaus decided not to sentence Melvin to jail in part because he felt the court-ordered apology - in conjunction with the other terms of the sentence - would sufficiently punish and rehabilitate Melvin, whom he had chided for her "stunning arrogance."
Zappala's office had argued for 2½ to 5 years in prison. In Tuesday's filing, the prosecutors argue that if any part of Melvin's sentence is overturned on appeal, she should be resentenced from scratch because Nauhaus' sentencing plan would have been "disrupted."
Melvin was convicted of using her state-paid Superior Court staff - and the state-paid staff of her sister, former state Sen. Jane Orie - to run her campaigns for a state Supreme Court seat in 2003 and 2009. She won a seat on the state's highest court in 2009.
When Melvin appealed to the Superior Court, her attorneys asked Nauhaus to stay the apology portion of her sentence on the grounds that it forced her to admit guilt while that was still being contested. Nauhaus, instead, stayed the entire sentence, telling Melvin's attorneys they were wrongly "cherry picking" only the part of the sentence Melvin disliked.
Melvin's attorney, Patrick Casey, declined to comment on the district attorney's latest filing.
New York
Boston bombing suspects' sister faces NYC judge
NEW YORK (AP) - A sister of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was led away in handcuffs Tuesday after a brief court appearance on aggravated harassment charges, which her lawyer said were based on "an uncorroborated claim."
Ailina Tsarnaeva, 24, who lives in North Bergen, New Jersey, is accused of threatening to bomb a woman who previously had a romantic relationship with her husband.
"Leave my man alone," she said in a phone call on Aug. 25, according to the criminal complaint. "Stop looking for him. I have people. I know people that can put a bomb where you live."
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Abreu said Tsarnaeva was apparently referencing her brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had been the subjects of an intense manhunt in the Boston area in the days after the deadly April 2013 marathon bombing. Tamerlan was later killed.
Prosecutors said Tsarnaeva had driven past the woman's house since an order of protection was issued.
Tsarnaeva's attorney, Susan Marcus, said her woman disputes making such statements.
"My client is an easy target," Marcus said. "This is an uncorroborated claim."
Marcus said Tsarnaeva, a mother of two including a 5-month-old, and her family had "absolutely no means," and she did not deserve to be jailed.
Judge Denise Dominquez renewed the order of protection and set bail at $5,000.
Tsarnaeva arrived at Manhattan criminal court with a man, though it wasn't clear if it was her husband, as a small group of protesters screamed insults and a throng of media snapped photographs.
"I have nothing to say," she told reporters.
Her lawyer referred to the father of Tsarnaeva's children as her husband, though it has also been reported they were not married.
Tsarnaeva has an ongoing case in Massachusetts and is required to check in with probation officers since prosecutors said she failed to cooperate with a 2010 counterfeiting investigation.
Prosecutors said she picked up someone who passed a counterfeit bill at a restaurant at a Boston mall and "lied about certain salient facts during the investigation."
She also was arrested in 2009 on charges she left the scene of an accident, but the case was dismissed, prosecutors said.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is charged with building and planting the two pressure cooker bombs that exploded near the marathon's finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others. He has pleaded not guilty. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a gunbattle with police.
