U.S. Supreme Court
Ginsburg, 85, hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital.
The court says the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. The court says the fall occurred Wednesday evening.
Ginsburg was admitted to the hospital for treatment and observation after tests showed she fractured three ribs.
Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She has had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014.
West Virginia
Deadly white nationalist rally organizers sue host city
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Organizers of last year's deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, are suing the city and police officials over what they say were violations of their constitutional rights.
The Daily Progress reports the Unite the Right rally organizers filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday saying authorities prevented them from exercising their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The plaintiffs are Jason Kessler, white nationalist group Identity Evropa and neo-Nazi groups National Socialist Movement and Traditionalist Worker's Party. The lawsuit says by issuing orders not to engage crowds, authorities allowed a "heckler's veto," in effect suppressing speech by the possibility of violent reactions.
Violent clashes erupted at the rally, and a counterprotester was killed when a car rammed a crowd.
Kessler filed a similar lawsuit in March that was voluntarily dismissed in August.
Massachusetts
Court officer acquitted of child rape charges
ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts court officer who had been charged with raping his girlfriend's teenage daughter has been acquitted.
The Sun Chronicle reports that a jury found 36-year-old Dwaine Green, of Boston, not guilty Wednesday of three counts of rape of a child.
According to court records, the girl was 15 when she reported the alleged assaults to police in 2015.
Green's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, says his client was suspended from his position as a Taunton District Court officer after his arrest.
Reddington says DNA evidence prosecutors had collected didn't match Green. He says the jury was "attentive throughout the whole trial."
Oklahoma
Heath insurer Aetna faces $25M verdict in coverage case
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A jury has instructed health insurer Aetna to pay an Oklahoma City family $25.5 million for denying a cancer patient's claim for coverage for proton beam therapy.
The Oklahoman reports that the jury on Monday found that Aetna doctors didn't spend enough time reviewing Orrana Cunningham's case. The jury ruled that Aeta recklessly disregarded its duty to deal fairly and in good faith with Cunningham.
An Aetna doctor denied Cunningham coverage for the therapy in 2014 because it's experimental. Two other in-house doctors reviewed and upheld the decision. Cunningham died in May 2015.
Court records show that one doctor had complained to the insurer about having to review more than 80 cases a day.
Aetna Attorney John Shely says the company tries to do the right thing. Aetna is considering options to appeal.
New York
Former attorney general won't face abuse charges
NEW YORK (AP) - The prosecutor appointed to investigate allegations that former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman physically abused women says she has closed the case without bringing criminal charges.
Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced her decision Thursday.
She said in a brief statement that investigators did an "exhaustive review" and she personally interviewed each woman who had accused Schneiderman of assault.
Singas says investigators also spoke with members of Schneiderman's security detail.
But she said she concluded that "legal impediments, including statutes of limitations, preclude criminal prosecution."
Singas added that the probe found no misconduct by Schneiderman's staff in the attorney general's office.
Schneiderman said in a statement he didn't consider the decision an exoneration. He also apologized "for any and all pain that I have caused."
Missouri
Wife says she, not her son, fatally shot Missouri KKK leader
FARMINGTON, Mo. (AP) - The wife of a slain Missouri Ku Klux Klan leader says she, not her son, pulled the trigger.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Malissa Ancona and her son, Paul Edward Jinkerson Jr., face first-degree murder charges in the February 2017 death of Frank Ancona, who called himself an "imperial wizard" of the Ku Klux Klan.
Ancona last year agreed to testify against her son, whom she originally blamed in the shooting.
But in a Sept. 26 letter to Judge Wendy Wexler Horn, Malissa Ancona said: "He did not pull the trigger (I DID)."
The next hearing in Ancona's case is set for April. Jinkerson's trial starts in May.
Frank Ancona's body was found dumped beside the Big River close to Belgrade, 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of St. Louis.
Connecticut
Former altar boy sues church over alleged sexual abuse
WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) - A former Connecticut altar boy who says he was sexually abused by a now deceased Roman Catholic priest has sued the Archdiocese of Hartford.
The Republican American reports that the lawsuit filed Wednesday by 46-year-old Kevin Distasio alleges negligence and reckless and wanton conduct by the archdiocese.
Distasio says in the suit he was abused in 1980 by the Rev. Walter Vichas while an altar boy at Blessed Sacrament Church in Waterbury. Vichas died in 2008.
The suit says the archdiocese failed to supervise Vichas or remove him from his duties. It also says the archdiocese failed to investigate Vichas' suspicious conduct and failed to develop a policy for reporting clergy sexual abuse.
The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Published: Fri, Nov 09, 2018
