Massachusetts
Owner of destroyed strip club sues utility
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — The owner of a strip club destroyed in a natural gas explosion in Massachusetts has sued the utility for $5 million.
The lawsuit filed by the owner of Scores Gentleman’s Club against Columbia Gas said if the Springfield club had not been destroyed it could have enjoyed years of “generous” income.
The Republican reports that the suit says because of city rules, it cannot rebuild and “has forever lost the ability to use the property for its club.”
The November 2012 explosion was caused when a Columbia employee accidentally punctured a gas line while probing for a leak. The blast leveled the club and damaged dozens of other buildings. Eighteen people were injured.
A Columbia spokeswoman said she couldn’t discuss a pending lawsuit, but the utility has been negotiating with all claimants.
Pennsylvania
Police: Man extorted $13K to not reveal affair
UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A western Pennsylvania man has been jailed on charges that he extorted $13,000 from another man in exchange for not telling the alleged victim’s wife that he was having an affair.
Making matters more unusual, state police say, is that the affair involved the suspect’s girlfriend.
Online court records don’t list an attorney for 30-year-old Thomas Wingard Jr., of Uledi (yoo-LAY’-dee), who is jailed in Fayette County until his preliminary hearing Dec. 1 on charges including robbery and extortion.
Police say Wingard’s girlfriend invited the alleged victim to her home in late September or October. That’s where police say Wingard confronted the other man with a baseball bat and took $120 from him after threatening to tell the man’s wife about the affair.
Police say Wingard took at least $13,000 from the man in subsequent meetings.
New Mexico
Murder charges dismissed for lack of speedy trial
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A judge in Albuquerque has dismissed murder charges against a man whom the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled was denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that District Judge Monica Zamora granted a defense request to dismiss charges against Walter Brown in the 2011 stabbing of James Moore.
Zamora previously refused to dismiss the case but she granted the new request Tuesday in the wake of a Nov. 6 state Supreme Court decision.
Brown spent nearly three years in jail while awaiting trial.
The Supreme Court ruled that Brown’s rights were denied when a judge set a $250,000 bond solely based on Brown’s alleged crimes and not whether he was a flight or safety risk.
The New Mexico Constitution presumes that defendants are bailable.
Connecticut
Police: Son says he killed mom after drug fight
TORRINGTON, Conn. (AP) — Police say a suspect accused of killing his mother said he argued with her over his drug use, refused to attend a drug rehabilitation program in New York and strangled her.
The Republican-American reports that Nicholas Hulme was arraigned Tuesday in Bantam Superior Court on charges of murder and third-degree larceny. Hulme did not speak in court and was ordered held on a $1.5 million bond.
The arrest warrant says the 18-year-old Hulme told police that in an argument about drugs and money Nov. 3, his mother, Wendy Hulme, “came after him.”
Authorities say he choked his mother until she lost consciousness and brought her to the floor.
Police say Hulme beat on her chest, but she remained unresponsive.
Mississippi
Pastor’s appeal of sexual battery conviction lost
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The state Court of Appeals has upheld the 2013 conviction of a Mississippi pastor for sexual battery of a child.
Larry Gene Singleton, now 72, was convicted in Tate County on two counts of fondling and one count of sexual battery. He is serving a 30-year sentence.
Singleton, the former pastor of Bay Springs Baptist Church in Abbeville, was arrested in December of 2013 after sheriff’s investigators received a complaint from the victim, who accused Singleton of forcing him to have sex.
Authorities say the sexual abuse allegedly began when the victim was 11 years old and continued for several years.
The Appeals Court on Tuesday rejected Singleton’s argument that he was coerced into confessing to the crimes. The court said Singleton waived his rights and agreed to the interrogation.
Alabama
Court extends deadline in girl’s running death
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A state appeals court is giving prosecutors more time to respond to legal challenges in the case of a woman charged in her granddaughter’s running death in Etowah County.
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals says prosecutors have until next week to answer arguments filed by lawyers for Joyce Hardin Garrard.
The state asked for more time to file documents that were supposed to be due last week.
Garrard is charged with capital murder in the death of her 9-year-old granddaughter, Savannah Hardin. Prosecutors claim the woman made the girl run until she collapsed as punishment for a lie.
The 49-year-old Garrard says she’s innocent.
Garrard argues that her rights have been violated by a nearly three-year wait for trial. She’s also citing potential problems with the girl’s autopsy.
Minnesota
Teen girl who beat politician won’t go to jail
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A teenager who severely beat former Hennepin County board chairman Mark Andrew at the Mall of America last year won’t go to jail for her crime — and he’s glad she won’t.
Eighteen-year-old Deea LeShawn Elliot pleaded guilty to first-degree assault for attacking Andrew with a metal baton last December after her accomplice stole his cell phone. A judge on Tuesday sentenced her to 14 weeks of intensive counseling and a year-long immersion in an arts program of her choice. She won’t go to jail if she meets those conditions.
Andrew tells Minnesota Public Radio he strongly believes in redemption, and the way to turn her life around is not to send her to prison.
Andrew met face-to-face with Elliot in court Tuesday. She repeatedly said she was sorry.
