National Roundup

Tennessee
Lawmaker takes heat over bill that would hide his tickets
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee lawmaker is taking heat after being accused of sponsoring a bill that would hide his own unpaid speeding tickets from the public.

WTVF reports that Rep. Andy Holt is trying to phase out traffic camera speeding tickets and is pushing legislation that would keep the names of people with unpaid traffic tickets confidential.

The news station confronted the Republican from Dresden about 10 unpaid speeding tickets he got as a result of a traffic camera in Carroll County. A reporter wanted to know why Holt never told fellow lawmakers about the tickets when he was pushing his bill earlier in the House Transportation Subcommittee.

Holt looked at the reporter and said “not you” and walked down the hall of Legislative Plaza, refusing to talk about the tickets or his bill.

Massachusetts
Prosecutors: Man ran over ex-wife 4 times
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Prosecutors in Massachusetts say a man ran over his ex-wife four times in the driveway of their Quincy home, killing her, after they fought over his alleged gambling last year.

Yan Long Chow pleaded not guilty Thursday in Norfolk Superior Court to first-degree murder. He was ordered held without bail.

Prosecutors say Chow had told police he accidentally hit Zhen Li in the driveway on Sept. 2. The 52-year-old Li died at the scene.

Court documents say investigators learned the couple often fought over Chow’s gambling.

Chow’s layer, Scott Martin, tells The Boston Globe his 55-year-old client had nothing to gain from Li’s death.

Martin says Chow and Li married in 1985, divorced in 1993, remarried in 1998 and divorced again in 2005, but remained a couple.

Florida
Drug trial delayed for coup leader
MIAMI (AP) — A trial on U.S. drug trafficking charges has been delayed a month for a former Haitian coup leader and recent senator-elect in that country.

A Miami federal judge granted the delay Thursday for Guy Philippe, whose lawyer says she needs more time to go over prosecution evidence. The trial was reset from April 3 to May 1.

Philippe has pleaded not guilty to drug smuggling and money laundering conspiracy charges that carry a maximum life prison sentence.

Philippe led a 2004 uprising that ousted then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In November, he was elected to the Haitian Senate but was arrested and brought to the U.S. in January, four days before officially taking office.

Philippe unsuccessfully claimed his status as an elected official gave him immunity from the U.S. charges.

Pennsylvania
Church leader’s legal odyssey over abuse claims returns
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former Philadelphia church official long imprisoned over his handling of abuse complaints may soon learn if his legal odyssey will come to an end.

Monsignor William Lynn served nearly three years of a three- to six-year sentence when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed his conviction over trial errors.

That was the second time Lynn’s 2012 conviction for child endangerment had been thrown out.

The high court said the trial judge had let too many other priest-abuse victims testify.

Prosecutors will ask a judge Friday to retry the 66-year-old Lynn. They say he helped the archdiocese transfer problem priests without warning.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams charged Lynn even though his predecessor thought the law did not allow it.

Williams remains in office despite his arrest this week on federal bribery charges.

California
DOJ settles suit over LA Dodgers broadcasts
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday it has settled a lawsuit that accused AT&T’s DirecTV unit of orchestrating a backroom deal with competitors to not carry the sole channel that broadcasts Dodgers baseball in Los Angeles.

The deal, while a seeming victory for deprived Dodger fans, will not necessarily lead to them seeing their team on TV more this season.

The suit claimed DirecTV swapped information with Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc. and AT&T — before it acquired DirecTV — during negotiations to carry the SportsNet LA, the network owned by the Dodgers.

Officials said the settlement will ensure that the companies will no longer make agreements to prevent competitors from offering the channel to lure customers.

Dodger fans were bitter they could only watch games through Time Warner Cable — now owned by Charter — the past three seasons. But that bitterness may continue. The government did not order AT&T to start carrying SportsNet LA, it only sought to prevent such dealing in the future.

The settlement also requires the companies to monitor certain communications their programming executives have with their rivals, and to implement antitrust training and compliance programs.

The government said DirecTV was the ringleader because it was the only company that unlawfully talked to multiple rivals, and said that DirecTV executives acknowledged that the satellite-TV company would be in a stronger position if competing TV providers also did not carry the Dodgers channel.


Oklahoma
Court OKs life sentence in toddler’s death
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the life prison sentence of a 28-year-old man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 19-month-old daughter.

The appeals court handed down the decision Friday in the case of Scott Allen Bolden, who was convicted by a Tulsa County jury of first-degree murder and child abuse in the May 2013 death of Angel Benjamin.

Prosecutors said the girl had numerous bruises on her body and died of bleeding in the brain. Defense attorneys argued the injuries were accidental.

The child’s mother, 22-year-old Heidi Marie Benjamin, is serving a 14-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in December 2014 to child neglect and permitting child abuse.

Among other things, appellate judges rejected claims that prosecutorial misconduct deprived Bolden of a fair trial.