National Roundup

Indiana
Michigan City to put spotlight on old homicides
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) — Police in a northwestern Indiana city plan to put a weekly public emphasis on 17 unsolved homicides.

The Michigan City police department says it will release facts about the cases, which go back as far as 1970. The project will start Jan. 17.

Authorities recently filed charges in the 2011 death of a 17-year-old girl, NeKeisha Hodges-Hawkins. Police say that case is a “shining example” of how the public and police can work together.

LaPorte County Prosecuting Attorney John Espar says new leads on cold cases can jump-start investigations. The (Northwest Indiana) Times says police will include the name and phone number of an investigator.

Pennsylvania
Cops: Children locked inside room with no heat, little food
HALIFAX, Pa. (AP) — Police and child welfare investigators in Pennsylvania say three emaciated young children were locked inside a room each night with no heat and little food.

A Halifax Township couple have been charged with aggravated assault, false imprisonment and related offenses. Joshua and Brandi Weyant are jailed on $1 million bail.

Pennlive.com reports that a doctor who examined the children after they were brought to the hospital in mid-December says two of them were days away from death due to abuse and neglect had they not received medical care.

Police say Brandi Weyant blamed her husband for the abuse. Court documents say Joshua Weyant denied abusing the children, but said he didn’t want them “overfed.”

New York
Thieves steal $1M in fur coats from upscale store
NEW YORK (AP) — Police are searching for three thieves with a taste for designer clothing who stole more than $1 million dollars’ worth of fur from a store on Manhattan’s upscale Madison Avenue.

The theft occurred on Christmas Eve after one of the suspects threw a brick through the window of the Dennis Basso Inc. store just before 5 a.m.

Owner Dennis Basso says the thieves made off with several Russian sable coats, some of which were valued as high as $200,000.

Achilleas Georgiades, a store executive, says he can’t believe something like this happened on the “civilized” Madison Avenue.

Surveillance video captured one of the suspects being struck in the head by a metal beam after climbing through the shattered window.

PETA officials say the theft serves Basso right for peddling fur.

Connecticut
Judge dismisses suit by acquitted sports director
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the former owner of a New Milford children’s sports instruction center who sued state officials and police after he was acquitted of charges that he inappropriately touched two girls.

Judge Victor Bolden in Bridgeport ruled last week that David Amory didn’t prove his allegations.

Amory accused New Milford police of malicious prosecution and false arrest. He also accused the state Department of Children and Families of mishandling its child abuse investigation.

Amory was charged in 2012 with sexual assault and other crimes on allegations he inappropriately touched girls ages 7 and 8, at Top Flight Sports Center. He was acquitted last year.

Amory’s lawyer didn’t return messages Tuesday.

Top Flight closed in August 2012 amid state and police investigations.

Ohio
Court: ‘Bath salts’ were outlawed drugs by 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio Supreme Court has resolved a conflict over laws meant to outlaw drugs sometimes known as bath salts or synthetic marijuana.

The court ruled 6-1 Tuesday that the Ohio General Assembly made the synthetic drugs illegal in 2011.

At issue before the court were conflicting appeals court rulings about the timing of such laws.

In one case, the 12th Ohio District Court of Appeals in Middletown rejected a gas station owner’s argument that drugs he was convicted of selling in early 2012 weren’t made illegal until December of that year.

In another case, the 10th Ohio District Court of Appeals in Columbus sided with a Columbus shop owner by concluding that certain drugs weren’t illegal because lawmakers created confusion in a bill that took effect in 2011.

North Carolina
Man convicted of murder walks free with plea deal
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A North Charleston man sentenced in 2009 to 39 years in prison for killing a known drug dealer is free after accepting a plea deal before his re-trial.

The Post and Courier reports Tuesday that 31-year-old Travoris Hurst walked free from the county jail Dec. 6.

Hurst was convicted of murder for a 2007 cemetery shooting investigators called a botched robbery.

When he tried to appeal, audio recordings of his trial were missing, causing an appeals court to reverse his conviction.

Days before his scheduled second trial, Hurst pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and got credit for the nine years since his arrest. He will be on probation for five years.

His attorney Charles Cochran says Hurst maintains he’s innocent but took the plea to get out of jail.

Indiana
Ex-lawyer who bilked relatives of $1.3M gets prison
MADISON, Ind. (AP) — A former Indiana attorney who pleaded guilty to bilking relatives out of more than $1.3 million has been sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison.

A Jefferson County judge sentenced 67-year-old John C. Eckert last week to 10 years but suspended seven years and six months. Eckert had pleaded guilty to 12 felony counts of forgery and one felony theft count.

The Madison Courier reports Eckert’s plea requires him to pay more than $1.38 million in restitution to his brother, Thomas Eckert, who’s a physician.

Thomas Eckert told the court his brother is a “predator” and a “parasite” who targeted his own family and has never displayed any remorse.

The money was stolen through estates and trusts the former attorney set up and served as a co-trustee.