North Carolina
Prosecutor: No state charges for teacher who stepped on flag
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina district attorney says he won't prosecute a high school teacher for stepping on an American flag during a lesson on the First Amendment.
Cumberland County district attorney Billy West told The Fayetteville Observer on Wednesday that the state's misdemeanor flag-desecration charges are unenforceable because a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling protects such actions.
Massey High Classical High School teacher Lee Francis says Monday's history lesson was about that case, which determined flag-burning is a form of protected speech. Francis was put on paid administrative leave Tuesday.
News outlets have quoted students as saying that Francis asked for a lighter or scissors, and when no one produced them, he put the flag on the floor and stomped on it.
Francis says he stepped on the flag several times with his right foot.
Maryland
Girl, 15, pepper sprayed, charged after bike crash
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) - Police pepper-sprayed a 15-year-old girl and charged her as a juvenile with assault and disorderly conduct after her bicycle hit a car, prompting disagreement Wednesday about whether the officers acted properly.
Hagerstown Police Capt. Paul Kifer said the white officer who arrested the mixed-race girl had to subdue her with chemical spray to get her into a cruiser for a ride to the police station Sunday.
Kifer said the girl had refused to cooperate with police trying to question her about the accident and find a parent to authorize her refusal to receive medical treatment from paramedics on the scene.
"The investigation had to be done," Kifer said. He said that while she appeared uninjured, police also wanted to make sure the girl wasn't hurt and find out who she was.
"At that point, as would be even with an adult, if you're refusing to give us information on a traffic situation, at that point you can be arrested until we determine who you are," he said.
Kifer said investigators determined that the girl caused the accident. She's also charged with failure to obey a traffic device and marijuana possession. Kifer refused to publicly identify her, citing privacy concerns.
Several officers involved in the girl's arrest remain on duty while the department investigates, Kifer said. The department is preparing to release police body-camera video of the incident, he said.
Attorney Robin Ficker, retained by the mother, said police should have taken the diminutive girl to a hospital, as her father did after picking her up at the station. Ficker said she wasn't admitted but suffered sprained muscles and soreness everywhere, including her wrists from being handcuffed. He said she's been unable to participate in high school soccer and wrestling practice.
"I think the soreness is not caused by the car so much as it was caused by the police," he said.
Ficker posted on social media a cellphone video of the arrest that shows the screaming girl being placed in the back seat of the cruiser with her arms behind her, apparently restrained. She refuses to put her feet in the car until an officer sprays from a small aerosol can through the partially open door.
One of the officers tells a concerned bystander, "All we want to do is make sure she's OK."
Ficker said the girl has a white mother and black father. He declined to identify them.
About 50 demonstrators gathered in a parking lot across the street from police headquarters Wednesday, partly blocking traffic and urging cars to honk their horns. Organizer Leon Racks said someone must be held accountable for what he considers police misconduct.
Florida
State agrees to release witness in federal mob trials
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A top informant in federal organized crime trials has won a bid for early release from prison with the help of Gov. Rick Scott and other top Florida officials.
Scott and three members of the Florida Cabinet voted Wednesday to cut short a 24-year sentence for Kevin William Bonner at urging of federal prosecutors.
Bonner has been behind bars for 18 years for a string of armed robberies but he helped authorities in a string of cases including ones pursued against John "Junior" Gotti, the son of one of the most notorious mobsters in the U.S.
Bonner has been serving his state sentence in federal prisons. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Trezevant said Bonner would be placed in a federal witness protection program once he's released at a still unspecified date.
Louisiana
Documents about a12-year-old oil leak lead to fight
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Environmental attorneys and an energy company are going to court over the confidentiality of documents related to an ongoing oil leak from an offshore site damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
The Louisiana Environmental Action Network and others say Taylor Energy is violating a 2015 settlement agreement by fighting the release of certain documents about the leak. Environmentalists sought the documents' release under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
Taylor Energy argues that the documents include confidential information about oil spill containment technology in oil leak containment developed for Taylor.
The documents deal with Taylor Energy's response to the still-leaking site. A 2015 Associated Press investigation revealed evidence that the leak is worse than the company or the federal government had earlier reported.
Indiana
House explosion leader appeals murder conviction
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana Supreme Court is taking up the appeal of a man convicted in a deadly Indianapolis house explosion.
The court heard arguments Thursday in 47-year-old Mark Leonard's appeal of his July 2015 murder and arson convictions.
Leonard was convicted in the natural gas explosion that destroyed his then-girlfriend's home and killed two next-door neighbors in November 2012. A judge sentenced Leonard to two life sentences without parole, plus 75 years.
Leonard's appeal contends that testimony about a separate murder-for-hire scheme in which he faces charges should never have been presented at trial.
Prosecutors say Leonard spearheaded the plot to destroy the house and collect the insurance money. Four others were charged in that scheme, including Leonard's half brother, Bob Leonard, who was convicted in February.
Published: Fri, Sep 23, 2016
