National Roundup

Rhode Island
Church defrocks priest accused of molestation at prep school
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — An Episcopal priest accused of molesting children at an elite Rhode Island boarding school and elsewhere has been removed from the priesthood.

The Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania announced Monday that it had defrocked the Rev. Howard White. The diocese says White accepted his removal but didn’t admit guilt. White didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.

The move came after an investigation into widespread abuse at St. George’s School in Middletown, Rhode Island, found White abused children there in the 1970s before being fired. He went on to teach in other private schools.

The 75-year-old White has been accused of molesting children in New Hampshire, West Virginia and North Carolina.

St. George’s School’s famous graduates include poet Ogden Nash, Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and NBC’s Billy Bush.

Virginia
Man accused of assaulting dozing women in hotel busted in sting
MANASSAS, Va. (AP) — A man accused of sneaking into hotel rooms and sexually assaulting his victims as they slept has been arrested following a sting operation in northern Virginia.

Prince William County police said Monday that 31-year-old Brandon C. Murdock of Front Royal was charged with burglary and attempted aggravated sexual assault.

Police believe Murdock entered rooms at the Wyndham Garden Hotel in Manassas and sexually assaulted a 63-year-old woman visiting from overseas in September and two teenage girls on a school-related trip from South Korea last October.

In both cases, the victims said they woke up to a man touching them inappropriately, but he fled.

Investigators placed a decoy in one of the hotel’s rooms Thursday. They say Murdock entered and was apprehended.

It’s unclear if he has an attorney.

New York
Woman accused of trying to extort cash from Gov. Spitzer
NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who accused former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer of assaulting her has been arrested for trying to extort money from him, police said.

Svetlana Zakharova, 26, was arrested Monday night in New York City.

The Russian woman had fled the country after accusing Spitzer in February of assaulting her in a room at The Plaza Hotel, an allegation his attorney said was false and created by someone with “emotional difficulties.”

Spitzer, a Democrat, resigned as governor in 2008 amid revelations that he had sex with prostitutes. He was named as a prostitution ring patron during a federal investigation, but was not charged.

Zakharova was charged with extortion and was scheduled to appear in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday. It was not immediately known if she has an attorney who can comment on the charges.

Spitzer and Zakharova met up at The Plaza Hotel in February while she was traveling from California, where she had been living, to her native Russia, Spitzer attorney Adam Kaufmann said at the time.

“They had a brief and amicable conversation, and then Mr. Spitzer left,” Kaufmann said. But she called a few hours later and asked that he return to the room, where she had become “highly emotional and was threatening self- harm,” he said.

The woman called 911, saying she had cut herself and was distraught and having a breakdown, two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case told The Associated Press in February. They were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. She called back and tried to cancel the emergency call but police were already en route, they said.

When police arrived, they noticed the woman had a cut on her arm and took her to a hospital. There, she told doctors that Spitzer had choked and shoved her, the officials said.

She did not want to press charges, and left on a flight to Russia the next day, one official and Kaufmann said.

No charges were ever filed against Spitzer in the case.

Police did not say Monday night how much Zakharova was allegedly trying to extort from him.

Zakharova also was charged with forgery in an unrelated case in which police said she used a 67-year-old Bloomfield, New Jersey man’s information and signed a lease agreement that ended up costing him $18,000.

Louisiana
Court turns away compensation for wrongful conviction case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s Supreme Court won’t consider whether the family of a man who was exonerated after almost 30 years on death row is due compensation for wrongful conviction.

That leaves intact rulings against Glenn Ford, who died of lung cancer nearly a year after he was cleared of killing a jeweler during a holdup.

A state district judge had ruled in March 2015 that he couldn’t get compensation because trial evidence showed that he was involved in lesser related crimes.

Judge Katherine Dorroh said Ford knew about plans to rob Isadore Rozeman and did nothing to stop the holdup, and tried to destroy evidence by selling stolen items and trying to sell the murder weapon.

The high court refused without comment Monday to hear the case. Chief Justice Bernette Johnson voted to hear it.

Pennsylvania
Father charged with supplying  heroin to his teen daughter
LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man is jailed on charges he supplied the heroin that caused his 16-year-old daughter to overdose.

Lancaster police say Kerry Long’s daughter survived, but only after paramedics administered four doses of naloxone, a chemical meant to reverse the effects of heroin intoxication.

The 35-year-old Ephrata man reportedly acknowledged supplying the drugs after the girl told police that her father gave her the drugs that led her to overdose at a Lancaster residence Saturday afternoon.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Long, who remained jailed Tuesday unable to post $1 million bail on charges of aggravated assault, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children and heroin possession.

He faces a preliminary hearing Oct. 21.