National Roundup

Florida
Fired lawyer says Public Defender’s office too political
VIERA, Fla. (AP) — An assistant public defender who wore a Black Lives Matter tie to court in Florida says he was fired because he made online comments accusing his office of being overtly political.

Florida Today reports that 27-year-old Alton Edmond lost his job last week at the Brevard County public defender’s office.

Edmond says workers in Public Defender Blaise Trettis’ office talked openly about supporting Donald Trump for president before the election and that Trettis attended a Trump rally.

Trettis says he attended the Trump rally, but it was after-hours. Trettis says Edmond was terminated for several reasons, including recording colleagues talking about politics and leaving a loaded gun in his office.

Edmond says he has a concealed carry permit, and he posted online a recording of himself but took it down after he realized it had voices of his colleagues, too.

Pennsylvania
Woman dies after getting stuck in clothing drop box
NATALIE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman has died after getting her arm caught in a clothing donation drop-off box.

Northumberland County Coroner James Kelley says 56-year-old Judith Permar died from a combination of trauma injuries she sustained in the accident and hypothermia.

The coroner says the Mount Carmel woman used a step stool to reach into the bin, and her left arm became stuck when the stool collapsed. She broke left her arm and wrist and couldn’t get free.

Investigators believe she went to the drop box about 2 a.m. Sunday. She was found dead more than six hours later.

The drop box is located along a highway in Natalie, a tiny village in Mount Carmel Township. That’s about 60 miles northeast of Harrisburg.

The coroner conducted an autopsy Monday.

New York
Defense: Suspect in strangulation  case ‘entitled to due process’
NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for a man charged in the strangulation death of a New York City runner are urging the public “not to rush to immediate judgment.”

Legal Aid Society Chief Defender Tina Luongo says in a statement that Chanel Lewis is “entitled to fairness and due process.”

Legal Aid has a full team working on the case, including its DNA unit.

Police arrested Lewis on Saturday. They said evidence included genetic material found under victim Karina Vetrano’s fingernails and on her phone and neck.

Police officials also said Lewis made detailed, incriminating statements to detectives. Lewis’ family insists he is innocent.

The 30-year-old woman was attacked while running near her Queens home on Aug. 2. Her father found her badly beaten body in a secluded marsh.

Pennsylvania
Police: Naked man steals taxi, rides across park
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Police say a naked man stole a taxi and recklessly drove through a crowded park in a posh section of Philadelphia.

Police say the man attacked a woman who was getting out of a cab Monday afternoon. The driver of the taxi says he then got out to help the woman, and that’s when the man undressed and stole his cab.

Police say the suspect drove through Rittenhouse Square, hit three parked cars and crashed into a curb before being apprehended.

The suspect was taken to a hospital. His condition is unknown. The woman who was attacked is expected to be OK. No one else was hurt.

Maryland
Melania Trump re-files lawsuit against Daily Mail
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — First lady Melania Trump has re-filed a libel lawsuit against the corporation that publishes the Daily Mail’s website, this time in New York, for reporting rumors that she worked as an escort.

In the new filing Monday, the first lady’s attorneys argue the report damaged her ability to profit off her high profile.

Trump had previously filed the lawsuit against Mail Media Inc. in Maryland, but a judge earlier this month ruled the case shouldn’t be filed in Maryland and dismissed it. The lawsuit now filed in New York, where the corporation has offices, seeks compensatory and punitive damages of at least $150 million.

Trump had sued Mail Media Inc. along with blogger Webster Tarpley for reporting the rumors. Trump filed the lawsuit in Maryland after both Tarpley and the Daily Mail issued retractions. The lawsuit against Tarpley has been allowed to move ahead in Maryland.

New York
Facebook takes search warrant case to top court
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Facebook is heading to New York state’s highest court to challenge search warrants seeking information from user accounts.

Prosecutors in Manhattan sought search warrants in 2013 for the accounts of 381 individuals in connection with a disability benefits fraud case against New York City police and fire retirees.

Facebook challenged the warrants but lower courts sided with prosecutors, ruling it was up to individual users to challenge the warrants seeking their information.

The social media site provided the information but continues to argue that it has the right to challenge warrants for information it possesses about its users.

Both sides made oral arguments before the Court of Appeals Tuesday.

The case has been closely watched by social media companies, civil libertarians and prosecutors.

Connecticut
Lawsuit: MetLife failed to pay $50M in overtime
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A lawsuit alleges MetLife Inc. failed to pay $50 million in overtime to claim specialists across the country for the past three years.

The complaint was filed Tuesday in federal court in Hartford, Connecticut, by former claim specialist Stephanie McKinney, of Charleston, South Carolina. She previously worked at the insurance company’s offices in Bloomfield, Connecticut.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status on behalf of claim specialists nationwide who worked on long-term disability insurance claims for MetLife and two subsidiaries.

A spokesman for New York-based MetLife says company officials haven’t seen the lawsuit so they cannot comment.

McKinney alleges she and other specialists worked up to 60 hours a week without overtime pay and often had to gather claims information outside of office hours.