Maryland
Jack Ryan' lawsuit deadlines pushed back
(BridgeTower Media Newswires) - The lawsuit over ownership of the Jack Ryan character following the death of author Tom Clancy is now scheduled to extend into at least 2020 after a federal magistrate judge approved an updated schedule Monday.
The discovery deadline was Oct. 2 in the case, filed by Clancy's widow and asking for a declaration that the author's estate is the sole owner of the character. But, under the new schedule, that deadline moves to July 2019. Dispositive pretrial motions, which were to be due in June 2019 are now due in March 2020.
The lawsuit was initially filed in August 2017 in Baltimore City Circuit Court but later removed to U.S. District Court because it concerned copyrighted material. More than a year later, the parties have had one mediation session and scheduled a second, but additional deadlines have been pushed back at their joint request.
There is no stated reason for the modifications.
The complaint alleges J.W. Thompson Webb, the personal representative of the estate, "failed repeatedly to defend the Estate's unique interest in Tom Clancy's characters" by signing agreements distributing profits from the new books between the estate and the companies.
Webb denied Alexandra Clancy's allegations of improper behavior in an answer to the lawsuit and said any decisions related to Jack Ryan were made in consultation with Clancy's longtime intellectual property counsel. Webb also filed a counterclaim at the same time, seeking a declaratory judgment that he "acted in a prudent and businesslike manner and effectively discharged his duties and powers as Personal Representative of the Estate."
Webb is also requesting attorneys' fees for dealing with the lawsuit.
South Dakota
Nearly 3M in restitution ordered in medical fraud case
RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - A former Rapid City dentist and city councilman convicted of medical fraud has been ordered to pay $12 million to victims, with his cohorts adding nearly another million.
Larry Lytle, 83, was sentenced in April to 12 years in prison for using bogus claims to mislead more than 3,000 people into buying laser devices he said could treat hundreds of medical conditions, including diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and AIDS.
A restitution order was filed Monday in federal court against Lytle and two co-conspirators who pleaded guilty earlier to conspiring with him, the Rapid City Journal reported . Ronald Weir, 39, of Rapid City, was ordered to pay about $802,000 and Irina Kossovskaia, 63, a Canadian citizen, about $92,000. Weir earlier was sentenced to two years in prison and Kossovskaia was sentenced to a year and three months behind bars.
Lytle admitted to selling the so-called QLasers for about $4,000 each from 2005 through 2015. The case has been described by prosecutors as one of the largest fraud schemes ever handled in federal court in South Dakota.
Both Lytle and Weir have questioned the restitution amounts and have been given until Oct. 5 to produce documents supporting their requests for reductions.
Lytle's plea agreement required him to start making restitution earlier this year, and he has paid nearly $673,000. Whether any more can be obtained from him is unknown. Prosecutors have alleged that he transferred many of his assets to family members as his legal situation deteriorated, and a judge earlier this summer said Lytle "appears to be nearly devoid of assets."
Victims will receive proportional shares of whatever restitution is collected.
New York
Murder suspect told police blacks should be 'exterminated'
NEW YORK (AP) - A white supremacist accused of stabbing a black man to death on a New York City street told police he wanted to purge the Earth of black people.
According to his videotaped confession, James Jackson told investigators after his arrest in the March 20, 2017, stabbing of Timothy Caughman that blacks were "inferior" and should be "exterminated."
The New York Post reported that Jackson's confession was played at a pretrial hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday.
Authorities say the 30-year-old Jackson traveled from Baltimore to New York to kill black men. The 66-year-old Caughman was stooped over a pile of trash when he was attacked from behind with a sword.
Jackson has pleaded not guilty to murder as a hate crime and murder as an act of terrorism.
Mississippi
Testimony at Quinton Tillis trial: Dying woman named 'Eric'
BATESVILLE, Miss. (AP) - Prosecutors in Mississippi insist they're trying the right man for an awful crime, the killing of a woman who was set on fire on a backroad.
But the first day of the murder retrial of Quinton Tellis was dominated by emergency workers who said Tuesday that a dying Jessica Chambers told them "Eric" had attacked her.
Prosecutors tried to deflect that testimony with a speech pathologist who said Chambers was burned too badly to speak clearly.
They're promising evidence linking that will prove Tellis murdered Chambers, including cellphone locations, DNA on a keychain, Tellis' own statements and a witness who may testify that she picked up Tellis that night near where Chambers was burned.
Defense lawyers are urging jurors to trust the emergency workers testimony' about the victim's last word.
New York
DOJ hires vendor to help sift through massive trial data
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The Department of Justice has hired an outside vendor to help sift through a massive amount of data from the computers of a New York-based self-improvement group accused of branding women and forcing them into unwanted sex.
The computers were seized from Albany-area residences associated with NXIVM co-founders Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman.
The Times Union reports the computers contain 12 terabytes of data. Federal court officials have said one terabyte equals "12 library floors' worth of books."
Records on the computers involve dozens of attorneys who've done work for Raniere, Salzman and heiress Clare Bronfman.
Authorities say Bronfman and actress Alison Mack helped Raniere form a secret society of sex slaves who were branded with his initials.
The defendants deny the allegations.
Published: Thu, Sep 27, 2018
