Florida
Judge denies making racist and sexist slurs
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A Jacksonville circuit judge is formally denying allegations that he made demeaning comments about women and said black people should "go back to Africa."
Circuit Judge Mark Hulsey filed his response Monday to charges being investigated by Florida's Judicial Qualifications Commission, which says probable cause exists to investigate Hulsey for violating misconduct rules.
Hulsey, who is running for re-election, requested a hearing.
Hulsey is accused of telling a staff attorney that black people should get on a ship and "go back to Africa." He's also accused of using derogatory terms to refer to a staff attorney, and of ordering his judicial assistant to perform personal tasks.
Hulsey denies making the comments, and says an assistant volunteered to take his wife to a medical appointment.
Florida
Lawsuit against accounting firm seeks $5 billion
MIAMI (AP) - Accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers is squaring off in a Miami courtroom with lawyers for a defunct mortgage company over a $5.5 billion lawsuit involving audits at a failed Alabama bank.
Opening statements are scheduled Tuesday in the case. The lawsuit contends PricewaterhouseCoopers should have detected massive fraud at Colonial Bank of Montgomery, Alabama, that was orchestrated by top executives at shuttered mortgage firm Taylor, Bean and Whitaker based in Ocala.
Several of the mortgage firm's executives were convicted of crimes in the fraud scheme. Colonial was shut down in 2009.
The lawsuit contends PricewaterhouseCoopers is liable for losses because its audits missed evidence of fraud at Colonial. The Big Four firm contends it did its job and that criminal fraud is designed to avoid detection.
The trial will last several weeks.
Kentucky
Trial begins for man accused of killing woman
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Trial is underway in Kentucky for a Lexington man accused of killing and dismembering a woman nearly two years ago.
The Lexington Herald-Leader reports 60-year-old Paris R. Charles' trial began Monday on murder and abuse of a corpse charges in the death of 50-year-old Goldia Massey.
Massey's son reported her missing in October 2014. Authorities say her arm was found along the Kentucky River in Henry County that month. Her torso was found along the river in Jessamine County that December.
Prosecutor Rewa Zakharia told jurors police found box cutters, saws and saw blades in Charles' home during a search.
He was arrested in February 2015.
Charles' attorney Leslie Smith maintains her client's innocence. She says Massey's son gave police differing dates about when he had last seen his mother.
Florida
Woman accused of allowing sons to shoot BBs at homeless man
DELAND, Fla. (AP) - A Florida woman is facing charges after police say she allowed her three sons to shoot BBs at a homeless man.
News outlets report 36-year-old Amina El-Zayat of DeLand was arrested Sunday on aggravated battery, contributing to the delinquency of minors and child neglect charges.
A DeLand police report says El-Zayat was driving when her children shot BBs from two airsoft rifles at the man who was picking through garbage at a gas station.
The victim told police the children cursed him and fired, then later returned and did it again.
Police found the airsoft rifles and BB pellets in El-Zayat's vehicle.
El-Zayat told police she's been having trouble with transients rummaging through the trash at a nearby car wash her family owns. It's unclear if she has an attorney.
Washington
Man pleads not guilty in killing of couple over feud
EVERETT, Wash. (AP) - A man pleaded not guilty Monday after prosecutors said he killed a rural Washington state couple and buried their remains.
John Blaine Reed, 54, was arraigned in Everett and entered the pleas on two counts of aggravated murder and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm.
Monique Patenaude, 46, and Patrick Shunn, 45, were shot April 11 near Oso, a small community northeast of Seattle that was the site of the nation's worst landslide disaster in 2014.
Reed is accused of killing Patenaude and Shunn over a long-standing property feud. Authorities have said Reed was a former neighbor who shared a driveway with the couple.
After the slayings, Reed fled to Mexico with his 49-year-old brother Tony Reed with money and a vehicle from their parents, according to prosecutors.
More than two months later, Mexican authorities arrested John Reed and turned him over to authorities in Arizona. He returned to Snohomish County Friday and was booked into jail. He is being held without bail.
Tony Reed previously turned himself in and led detectives to the couple's gravesite in the woods near their home. He has pleaded guilty to two counts of rendering criminal assistance for helping hide the bodies.
Their mother, 77-year-old Faye Reed, pleaded not guilty on Friday to rendering criminal assistance. Their father, 81-year-old Clyde Reed, asked to delay his hearing on the same charge for another two weeks so he can hire his own attorney.
Connecticut
Man pleads guilty to capturing and killing hawks
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut man has pleaded guilty to capturing and killing federally protected hawks.
Connecticut U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly says Adam Boguski pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Hartford to charges including two counts of taking, capturing and killing Cooper's hawks.
Prosecutors say the 43-year-old Boguski and another man are pigeon-racing enthusiasts who killed the predatory hawks because they saw them as threats to their pigeons. The men maintained a pigeon coop in Stamford.
Prosecutors say the men captured the hawks in a trap designed to capture birds of prey and then shot and killed them in it.
Cooper's hawks are protected under federal law.
Boguski is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 11. He faces a maximum of 18 months in prison.
Published: Wed, Aug 10, 2016
