Germany
Trial begins in $10B investor lawsuit against Volkswagen
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Trial proceedings have begun in the lawsuit brought against Volkswagen by investors alleging the company did not give them timely notice of its scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.
Investors are seeking almost 9 billion euros ($10.4 billion), saying Volkswagen didn't give them the information they needed to decide what to do with their shares before the scandal became public. The U.S. Environmental Protection agency accused Volkswagen in September 2015 of manipulating diesel emissions, sending the shares sharply lower.
The case opened Monday in front of the higher regional court in Braunschweig involves claims from investors that will serve as a model for further cases, the dpa news agency reported. The model case involves claims of 4 billion euros from Deka Investments and other shareholders.
The company says it met its duty to inform investors in time.
Volkswagen has admitted rigging engine control software in the U.S. to turn down emissions controls when vehicles were not being tested. That way they passed certification tests but spewed up to 40 times the U.S. limit of harmful nitrous oxides during every day driving.
The company pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines and penalties. Two executives were jailed in the U.S. and the company's former CEO, Martin Winterkorn, was charged with wire fraud and conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act but cannot be extradited from Germany. A criminal investigation is still ongoing in Germany.
In all, the company has set aside 27.4 billion euros ($31.7 billion) for fines, settlements, recalls and buybacks.
Alaska
Family of man killed by police prepares lawsuit
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The family of a 20-year-old Fairbanks man who was killed by police is preparing a wrongful death lawsuit against Alaska authorities, their attorney said.
Cody Eyre was fired upon by three Alaska State Troopers and two Fairbanks police officers on Christmas Eve last year, the Juneau Empire reported Sunday.
Eyre "brandished his firearm toward law enforcement officers," resulting in police opening fire, troopers said. Authorities have not released body camera footage, police reports or investigative findings.
Eyre was shot 12 times, dying from the wound to the back of his head, according to an independent autopsy report conducted on behalf of the family.
Mark Choate, the family's attorney, said he is planning to file the lawsuit within the next 30 days, claiming troopers and Fairbanks police violated Eyre's civil rights.
Choate said he expected the police department and state Office of Special Prosecutions to release information in three or four months after the shooting.
"But eight months? It makes me nervous," Choate said, "because as a society, what we want is for people to trust the police."
Samantha Eyre-Harrison said her brother had been fighting with his girlfriend and decided to take a walk on the day of the shooting. He had a .22-caliber pistol, which he typically carried with him.
Eyre's mother called police after becoming worried about him and hoping they could calm him down, Eyre-Harrison said. The family later heard a flurry of gunshots.
John Skidmore, the director of the Alaska Department of Law, declined to comment on the specifics of the case, saying the investigation is still open. A number of factors can delay an investigation, and smaller agencies in the state usually have low staffing, he said. The Office of Special Prosecutions will review the department's internal investigation when it's ready, he said.
The family hopes that the state will release information about the shooting through the filing of a lawsuit, Choate said.
"That's just really unfair that one side would have access to everything and the other side would have access to nothing," Eyre-Harrison said. "It doesn't promote a very good sense of justice."
Maine
Man accused of attempted murder heads to trial
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - A Maine man who is charged with trying to kill a sheriff's deputy during a shootout headed to trial this week.
Scott Bubar has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated attempted murder and reckless conduct in the 2017 shootout. The Kennebec Journal reports the case will be decided by a judge alone and that the weeklong trial began Monday.
Prosecutors say Bubar was barricaded inside his mobile home when he shot at numerous police officers responding to a neighbor's call about a domestic disturbance.
Officials say 65-year-old Roger Bubar, Scott Bubar's father, was killed in the shootout.
If convicted, Bubar faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Maryland
Mistress gets 7 years in killing of soldier's wife
BALTIMORE (AP) - A federal judge has sentenced a Texas woman to 17 years in prison for helping a U.S. Army sergeant with whom she had an affair kill his soldier wife in Maryland.
The Baltimore Sun reports 33-year-old Dolores Delgado was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty earlier to the federal crime of crossing state lines to commit domestic violence resulting in a death.
Delgado testified in the case against Sgt. Maliek Kearney, who was convicted last month in the 2015 killing of 24-year-old Pfc. Karlyn Ramirez. Delgado said she provided the firearm and allowed Kearney to drive her car to Maryland.
Ramirez, who was assigned to Fort Meade in Maryland, was found fatally shot at her Severn home.
The newspaper reports tears ran down Delgado's face as she told Ramirez's family she was sorry.
Oregon
Man who killed 4, wounded 24, seeks Supreme Court review
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A man who fatally shot his parents before killing two students and wounding two dozen others at an Springfield, Oregon, high school 20 years ago has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his nearly 112-year prison sentence.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports 36-year-old Kipland P. Kinkel submitted his own typed petition to the nation's highest court in early August.
He's now being represented by two new lawyers, Thaddeus Betz of Bend, and Marsha Levick, of Philadelphia.
Betz and Levick this week filed a new habeas corpus petition in federal court in Portland, arguing that the Oregon Supreme Court got it wrong earlier this year when it upheld Kinkel's sentence and found that Kinkel is incapable of rehabilitation.
Kinkel's sentence included 25 years for his four homicides and nearly 87 years for the wounding of 24 others and attempted murder of a police detective.
Published: Tue, Sep 11, 2018
