National Roundup

Illinois Cosby accusers fight motion to dismiss lawsuit SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - Three women who allege Bill Cosby sexually assaulted them decades ago say in a court motion that he doesn't have a right to lie and hide behind the statements of his representatives to have their defamation lawsuit dismissed. The women said in the motion filed Friday that Cosby claims "he enjoys a license to lie about anyone who truthfully accuses him of misconduct" and "claims because he directed his spokespersons to make the defamatory statements at issue, rather than uttering the statements himself, he is somehow absolved of liability." The filing was a response to Cosby's motion to dismiss the suit. Cosby, through lawyers, has denied the allegations. He hasn't been criminally charged. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield, not far from Cosby's Massachusetts home. Kentucky @ROUND UP Briefs Headline:Condemne man in execution lawsuit dies LAGRANGE, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky death row inmate involved in a lawsuit against the state over how executions are carried out has died. A statement from the Kentucky Department of Corrections says Thomas Clyde Bowling died Saturday due to "complications stemming from cancer." He was 62. Bowling was convicted of fatally shooting Eddie and Tina Earley and injuring their 2-year-old son outside the Lexington dry cleaning business they owned in 1990. A jury sentenced him to death in 1991. News media reports cited the Department of Corrections release in reporting that Bowling had been moved from the Kentucky State Penitentiary to the Kentucky State Reformatory, which has a nursing care center due to his condition. He was among six inmates who sued over how Kentucky carries out lethal injections. California @ROUND UP Briefs Headline:1 boy settl­es parents' wro­ngful death lawsuit SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - One of three teenagers who admitted that they sexually assaulted a 15-year-old Northern California girl who later committed suicide has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by her parents. In 2012, Audrie Pott fell asleep after drinking Gatorade laced with alcohol at a friend's party in their hometown of Saratoga. She awoke to find her pants off and lewd comments scribbled over her body. Her family says she hanged herself days later after learning cellphone photos were taken of her during the assault and shared through text messages. Three of Audrie's teenage classmates were prosecuted in private juvenile proceedings and sentenced to between 30 and 45 days in juvenile hall. Two continue to attend Saratoga High, while the third transferred to high school about an hour south in Gilroy. The San Jose Mercury News reports that Audrie's parents, Lawrence and Sheila Pott, filed a civil lawsuit against the boys to hold them more accountable for their actions. Their attorney, Bob Allard, said the parents decided to settle with one of the teens because he showed remorse and "told the truth" about what happened to Audrie. "He's accepted responsibility. He's told us the truth of what happened in that room. The others have not," Allard said. "They're still standing by their claim that Audrie was awake and consented to their acts." Allard said that had the two other teens apologized, they might not have been sued. "If they had simply knocked on the door of the Pott household, apologized, accepted responsibility and jumped headfirst into our quest to educate our youth by, for example, speaking at high schools about the mistakes they made and how this can be prevented, there would be no civil lawsuit," Allard said. Audrie's parents led the campaign to pass a California law which allows prosecutors to seek harsher sentences for juvenile sex offenders who take pictures of their crimes and use them to bully the victims. Florida Reportedly dead man arrested in North Carolina JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A Jacksonville businessman reported dead two years ago in Venezuela was arrested in North Carolina on alleged fraud charges Saturday after his life insurance companies filed a lawsuit alleging he was alive and they shouldn't be making payments. Details of the charges against 62-year-old Jose Lantigua are unclear. But Saturday's arrest ends two years of speculation about whether the former furniture store owner had faked an illness in 2013 while vacationing in Venezuela, leaving his business millions of dollars in debt. His life insurance companies thought they were being swindled and launched an investigation saying the businessman was not dead after two lenders filed claims. The lawsuits by Hartford Life and Annuity Life Insurance Co. also alleged a worker was bribed to falsify documents stating the businessman's body was cremated. They also claim Lantigua fraudulently assigned benefits claims to a local creditor before he disappeared. The Jacksonville Business Journal reports Lantigua's son accused the insurance company of falsifying its investigation into his father's death, accusing the company of lying about the Venezuelan government revoking his father's death certificate. The newspaper reported that the insurance company admitted a Venezuelan lawyer did alter documents to make it seem like the Venezuelan government nullified the death certificate. A judge ruled the papers were faked, but could not determine who faked them. Fast forward to Saturday when officials stopped a car Lantigua was driving in with his wife in Buncombe County, North Carolina. A Jacksonville prosecutor told The Florida Times-Union that Lantigua faces insurance fraud charges in Florida involving policies worth $9 million from seven companies. Assistant State Attorney Joe Licandro said an arrest warrant for Lantigua had been issued more than a year ago, but prosecutors dropped it after problems emerged with some of the underlying information in the case. He said a new warrant charging Lantigua with insurance fraud and schemes to defraud was issued within the past week. Licandro said no warrant had previously been issued for Lantigua's wife because prosecutors weren't sure until now whether she knew he was alive. Federal agents released her in North Carolina, but she was arrested Saturday evening in Florida. Attorney Joshua Woolsey, who has represented the family in several civil suits, said Saturday that he and his law firm were withdrawing from the case "I and the law firm were shocked to learn this morning that we have been defrauded by acting and relying on the information that indicated he was dead," Woolsey said. Published: Tue, Mar 24, 2015