Ohio
Man accused of toe-sucking, foot massaging at mall
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - A man accused of taking off a woman's shoe and sucking her toes without permission at an Ohio mall is now accused of massaging the feet of other women without their consent.
Joseph Jones, of Toledo, was in court Tuesday to face menacing and sexual imposition charges.
He told a judge that he's being targeted after earlier pleading not guilty to sexual imposition.
Court records show he was first accused of sucking the toes and kissing the cheek of a store employee at a Toledo mall in December.
Two women who work at the same store then came forward to say Jones took off their shoes and began massaging their feet. Another woman says he grabbed her foot.
Jones has been banned from the mall.
Georgia
Search continues for teacher's body after11 years
FITZGERALD, Ga. (AP) - A search continues in south Georgia for the remains of a teacher who's been missing for more than 11 years.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge J.T. Ricketson tells multiple news outlets that investigators returned to a pecan farm Wednesday morning, searching for Tara Grinstead's remains. Investigators dug through a wooded area Tuesday for Grinstead, who went missing from her Ocilla home in 2005.
Grinstead was a history teacher at Irwin County High School and three-time Miss Tifton. Her former student, Ryan Alexander Duke, was arrested last week and charged with murder in her death.
Details of investigators' possible findings weren't released. A judge issued a gag order Tuesday preventing law enforcement, potential witnesses, court personnel and family members from discussing the case.
California
UC releases details on 113 employee sexual misconduct cases
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - The University of California said it investigated 113 cases of sexual misconduct involving staff and faculty at its 10 campuses over a recent three-year period, according to hundreds of pages of internal documents released Tuesday.
The information was released to The Associated Press and other news organizations following a public records request made amid a string of high-profile cases at UC Berkeley last year.
Many details and personal information in the documents are redacted but the records give an overview of how many sexual harassment cases were investigated system-wide at the University of California in recent years.
The 113 cases occurred between January 2013 to April 6, 2016 and include allegations that range from inappropriate conduct to sexual assault, according to a summary from the office of UC President Janet Napolitano. All 113 cases involve employees found to have violated the University's Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment policy.
About 58 percent of the cases came from complaints by staff members, while 35 percent were from student complaints. The rest were unknown or anonymous.
It said 7 percent of the cases involved sexual assault, "including the touching of intimate body parts."
The summary also said that approximately two-thirds of the people accused of misconduct no longer work for the University of California.
Berkeley has faced intense criticism and scrutiny for what student groups and victims rights groups called lax discipline for senior faculty involved in sexual misconduct cases.
In one case, Sujit Choudhry, the former dean of the law school, received only a temporary pay cut and orders to undergo counseling as punishment following a 2015 investigation substantiated claims that he repeatedly kissed and touched a subordinate.
The university also faced criticism for several other sexual harassment cases, including one involving the campus' vice chancellor for research and a prominent astronomer who were initially were allowed to keep their jobs but ended up resigning under pressure, as did Choudhry.
In response to the cases, Napolitano has moved to strengthen campus procedures for investigating and disciplining faulty members in sexual harassment cases, said UC spokeswoman Claire Doan.
Napolitano has put in place mandatory sexual assault training for students and employees and created a system-wide peer review committee to evaluate proposed sanctions for senior university leaders and faculty found guilty of misconduct. Previously, it was up to individual campuses to impose sanctions on their own officials.
Georgia
Judge: 86-year-old jewel thief too sick for trial
ATLANTA (AP) - A well-known jewel thief who reflected on her six-decade criminal career in a 2013 documentary has been deemed too ill to stand trial for an alleged 2015 theft.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that 86-year-old Doris Payne's trial was scheduled to start Feb. 21 in connection with the theft of a pair of Christian Dior earrings from a Saks Fifth Avenue store.
But the trial is on hold. An administrative order signed by a Fulton County Superior Court judge says the defense has demonstrated that Payne's medical condition precludes the case from moving forward.
Meanwhile, she awaits arraignment after her December arrest at a store in Atlanta's Perimeter Mall.
Payne, her family and friends discuss her life in the documentary "The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne."
North Carolina
School board rejects ban on Confederate flag
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina school board has voted not to ban the Confederate flag from school grounds, rejecting two pleas from a local chapter of the NAACP to establish the policy.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports the Orange County Schools Board of Education decided instead on Monday to establish an equity committee to advise the board on several issues, including symbolic speech. Board chairman Steven Halkiotis said board members will not tolerate hate speech, bullying or intimidation.
The Northern Orange County NAACP had asked the board to ban the Confederate flag on school grounds during the board's earlier meeting in February.
"To the NAACP, that includes the historical context of the Confederate flag to slavery, the Confederacy, the Civil War and Jim Crow," NAACP President Patricia Clayton said in a letter to school board members. "For many, the flag is a racially inflammatory symbol, which is undeniably rooted in slavery and racism. Given OCS' commitment to serve all students, the district should not allow the Confederate flag on its campuses."
Some students, parents, employees and community members said there's been an increase in Confederate flags appearing on vehicles, bags and pieces of clothing on school grounds.
Published: Thu, Mar 02, 2017
