California
Convicted killer pleads not guilty to jailhouse attack on killer of college student
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A man accused of a jailhouse attack on the convicted killer of California college student Kristin Smart pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted murder.
Jason Budrow, 43, entered his plea in Fresno County Superior Court to four felony charges, including using a prison-made deadly weapon and assault by an inmate serving a life sentence, KSBY-TV reported.
Prosecutors say Budrow slashed Paul Flores in the neck last Aug. 23 in the yard at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga in central California.
Flores was hospitalized but returned to the prison two days later. Authorities haven’t mentioned a possible motive for the attack.
Flores was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the murder of Smart, a 19-year-old who disappeared from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo over Memorial Day weekend in 1996.
Prosecutors maintained that Flores killed Smart during an attempted rape in his dorm room at the university, where both were first-year students. He was the last person seen with Smart as he walked her home from an off-campus party.
Her body was never found.
Flores was arrested in 2021, convicted in 2022 and sentenced last March.
Budrow is serving two life terms without chance of parole for strangling a girlfriend in 2010 in Riverside County and the 2021 strangling of his new cellmate at Mule Creek State Prison, serial killer Roger Reece Kibbe, who was known as the I-5 Strangler in the 1970s and 1980s.
Kibbe raped and killed at least seven women — several of them in the Sacramento and Stockton areas along Interstate 5 — and cut his victims’ clothing into odd patterns.
If convicted on the new charges, Budrow could receive an additional sentence of 27 years to life in prison.
Louisiana
LGBTQ+ advocates’ lawsuit says transgender care ban violates the constitution
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawsuit to block enforcement of Louisiana’s new ban on transgender health care procedures for anyone under 18 was announced Monday by LGBTQ+ advocates.
The lawsuit was prepared by Lambda Legal and others on behalf of five Louisiana minors and their parents, identified in the filings by pseudonyms. Lambda Legal said in a news release the lawsuit was being filed in Louisiana district court in New Orleans.
State lawmakers approved the ban last year and overrode a veto by then-Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. The law bans, among other things, hormone treatments, gender reassignment surgery or puberty-blocking drugs for minors and took effect Jan. 1, making Louisiana one of 22 states banning or restricting such transgender care.
The lawsuit in New Orleans is one of several state and federal court challenges to those laws. A federal judge in Arkansas struck down that state’s ban last June but other challenges have resulted in rulings allowing enforcement.
The ACLU has taken a challenge to Kentucky and Tennessee bans to the Supreme Court.
The Louisiana lawsuit argues that the law violates the state constitution’s right to privacy provision by imposing burdens on parents’ and individuals’ ability to make personal medical decisions. It seeks a judicial declaration that the law is unconstitutional and a court order blocking its enforcement.
“The Act’s prohibition on providing evidence-based and medically necessary care for transgender adolescents with gender dysphoria stands directly at odds with transgender adolescents’ right to obtain the medical treatment they need, as recommended by their medical providers and with the support of their parents,” the lawsuit states.
Edwards, who was term-limited, left office Monday. New Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, the former state attorney general, had expressed support for the ban. His communications director did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
Montana
Arrest warrant issued for man accused of killing thousands of birds, including eagles
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge issued an arrest warrant Monday for a Montana man who failed to show up for an initial court appearance on charges of killing thousands of birds, including bald and golden eagles. A second defendant pleaded not guilty.
The two men, working with others, killed about 3,600 birds on Montana’s Flathead Indian Reservation and elsewhere over a six-year period beginning in 2015, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed last month. The defendants also were accused of selling eagle parts on a black market that has been a long-running problem for U.S. wildlife officials.
Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto issued a warrant for Simon Paul, 42, of St. Ignatius, Montana, after he failed to appear at his scheduled arraignment Monday in U.S. District Court in Missoula.
Travis John Branson, 48, of Cusick, Washington, pleaded not guilty and was released pending further proceedings in the case.
The two defendants are charged with a combined 13 counts of unlawful trafficking of bald and golden eagles and one count each of conspiracy and violating wildlife trafficking laws.
Paul and Branson worked with others who were not named in the indictment to hunt and kill the birds, and in at least one instance used a dead deer to lure an eagle that was then shot, according to prosecutors. The men then conspired to sell eagle feathers, tails, wings and other parts for “significant sums of cash,” the indictment said.
They face up to five years in federal prison on each of the conspiracy and wildlife trafficking violations. Trafficking eagles carries a penalty of up to one year in prison for a first offense and two years in prison for each subsequent offense.
Branson could not be reached for comment and his court-appointed attorney, federal defender Michael Donahoe, did not immediately respond to a message left at his office. Paul could not be reached for comment.
Bald eagles are the national symbol of the United States, and both bald and golden eagles are widely considered sacred by American Indians. U.S. law prohibits anyone without a permit from killing, wounding or disturbing eagles or taking any parts such as nests or eggs.
Bald eagles were killed off across most of the U.S. over the last century, due in large part to the pesticide DDT, but later flourished under federal protections and came off the federal endangered species list in 2007.
Golden eagle populations are less secure, and researchers say illegal shootings, energy development, lead poisoning and other problems have pushed the species to the brink of decline.
Indiana
Judge dismisses prof’s defamation lawsuit against student newspaper
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A judge Monday dismissed a University of Notre Dame’s professor’s defamation lawsuit against a student-run publication over news coverage of her abortion-rights advocacy.
St. Joseph County Superior Court Senior Judge Steven David found that sociology professor Tamara Kay’s assertions that The Irish Rover’s coverage of her was false and defamatory were unfounded.
“The Court concludes that Dr. Kay does not present any evidence that shows that The Irish Rover had any doubts about the truth of their statements before they were published. By failing to present such evidence, the Court concludes that Dr. Kay’s defamation claim fails as a matter of law,” David’s ruling said.
The case had raised questions about press freedom and academic freedom at one of the nation’s preeminent Catholic universities.
Kay’s lawsuit disputed some quotes the newspaper used and said it misinterpreted a sign on her door about helping students access health care. She had argued that her motivation was to support sexual assault victims.
An email was sent to Kay seeking comment on the dismissal of her suit.
W. Joseph DeReuil, the Rover’s editor-in-chief at the time, said in a prepared statement that he “was gratified to see today’s court ruling confirm what we at the Irish Rover were sure of all along: our reporting was completely factual and written in good faith.”
Kay had asked for unspecified punitive damages. Her lawsuit alleged she had been harassed, threatened, and experienced property damage as a result of the articles.
Illinois
Woman pleads guilty, to testify against own mother accused of cutting baby from teen’s womb
CHICAGO (AP) — A 29-year-old Chicago woman has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder after authorities said she helped her mother kill a pregnant teenager whose baby was cut from her womb.
Desiree Figueroa’s plea was made Monday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. It stipulates that she testify against her mother, Clarisa Figueroa, whose first-degree murder trial is scheduled to start later this month, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The plea deal calls for Desiree Figueroa to receive 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors have said Clarisa Figueroa strangled 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez with a cable on April 23, 2019 after she was lured to the Figueroas’ home with the promise of free clothing for her unborn child. Ochoa-Lopez was nine months pregnant. Clarisa Figueroa then called 911, saying she given birth and the child was not breathing.
The child died about two months later.
Authorities say not long after Clarisa Figueroa’s adult son died of natural causes, she told her family she was pregnant. They say she plotted for months to acquire a newborn, and that she posted an ultrasound and photos of a room decorated for a baby on her Facebook page. In March 2019, she and Ochoa-Lopez connected on a Facebook page for pregnant women
Detectives investigating Ochoa-Lopez’ disappearance learned that she had gone to the Figueroas’ home. Two weeks after her disappearance, police found her car parked nearby and were told by Desiree Figueroa that Clarisa Figueroa recently had given birth.
DNA tests later determined the child was not Clarisa Figueroa’s.
Ochoa-Lopez’s body was found in a garbage can outside the home.
Clarisa Figueroa tricked her boyfriend, , Piotr Bobak, into believing he was the father, according to police and prosecutors.
Bobak cleaned up the crime scene and was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty last year to obstruction of justice.
About six months after Ochoa-Lopez was slain, Desiree Figueroa gave birth in jail to her own child.
Convicted killer pleads not guilty to jailhouse attack on killer of college student
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A man accused of a jailhouse attack on the convicted killer of California college student Kristin Smart pleaded not guilty Monday to attempted murder.
Jason Budrow, 43, entered his plea in Fresno County Superior Court to four felony charges, including using a prison-made deadly weapon and assault by an inmate serving a life sentence, KSBY-TV reported.
Prosecutors say Budrow slashed Paul Flores in the neck last Aug. 23 in the yard at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga in central California.
Flores was hospitalized but returned to the prison two days later. Authorities haven’t mentioned a possible motive for the attack.
Flores was serving a sentence of 25 years to life for the murder of Smart, a 19-year-old who disappeared from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo over Memorial Day weekend in 1996.
Prosecutors maintained that Flores killed Smart during an attempted rape in his dorm room at the university, where both were first-year students. He was the last person seen with Smart as he walked her home from an off-campus party.
Her body was never found.
Flores was arrested in 2021, convicted in 2022 and sentenced last March.
Budrow is serving two life terms without chance of parole for strangling a girlfriend in 2010 in Riverside County and the 2021 strangling of his new cellmate at Mule Creek State Prison, serial killer Roger Reece Kibbe, who was known as the I-5 Strangler in the 1970s and 1980s.
Kibbe raped and killed at least seven women — several of them in the Sacramento and Stockton areas along Interstate 5 — and cut his victims’ clothing into odd patterns.
If convicted on the new charges, Budrow could receive an additional sentence of 27 years to life in prison.
Louisiana
LGBTQ+ advocates’ lawsuit says transgender care ban violates the constitution
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawsuit to block enforcement of Louisiana’s new ban on transgender health care procedures for anyone under 18 was announced Monday by LGBTQ+ advocates.
The lawsuit was prepared by Lambda Legal and others on behalf of five Louisiana minors and their parents, identified in the filings by pseudonyms. Lambda Legal said in a news release the lawsuit was being filed in Louisiana district court in New Orleans.
State lawmakers approved the ban last year and overrode a veto by then-Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat. The law bans, among other things, hormone treatments, gender reassignment surgery or puberty-blocking drugs for minors and took effect Jan. 1, making Louisiana one of 22 states banning or restricting such transgender care.
The lawsuit in New Orleans is one of several state and federal court challenges to those laws. A federal judge in Arkansas struck down that state’s ban last June but other challenges have resulted in rulings allowing enforcement.
The ACLU has taken a challenge to Kentucky and Tennessee bans to the Supreme Court.
The Louisiana lawsuit argues that the law violates the state constitution’s right to privacy provision by imposing burdens on parents’ and individuals’ ability to make personal medical decisions. It seeks a judicial declaration that the law is unconstitutional and a court order blocking its enforcement.
“The Act’s prohibition on providing evidence-based and medically necessary care for transgender adolescents with gender dysphoria stands directly at odds with transgender adolescents’ right to obtain the medical treatment they need, as recommended by their medical providers and with the support of their parents,” the lawsuit states.
Edwards, who was term-limited, left office Monday. New Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, the former state attorney general, had expressed support for the ban. His communications director did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
Montana
Arrest warrant issued for man accused of killing thousands of birds, including eagles
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A federal judge issued an arrest warrant Monday for a Montana man who failed to show up for an initial court appearance on charges of killing thousands of birds, including bald and golden eagles. A second defendant pleaded not guilty.
The two men, working with others, killed about 3,600 birds on Montana’s Flathead Indian Reservation and elsewhere over a six-year period beginning in 2015, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed last month. The defendants also were accused of selling eagle parts on a black market that has been a long-running problem for U.S. wildlife officials.
Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto issued a warrant for Simon Paul, 42, of St. Ignatius, Montana, after he failed to appear at his scheduled arraignment Monday in U.S. District Court in Missoula.
Travis John Branson, 48, of Cusick, Washington, pleaded not guilty and was released pending further proceedings in the case.
The two defendants are charged with a combined 13 counts of unlawful trafficking of bald and golden eagles and one count each of conspiracy and violating wildlife trafficking laws.
Paul and Branson worked with others who were not named in the indictment to hunt and kill the birds, and in at least one instance used a dead deer to lure an eagle that was then shot, according to prosecutors. The men then conspired to sell eagle feathers, tails, wings and other parts for “significant sums of cash,” the indictment said.
They face up to five years in federal prison on each of the conspiracy and wildlife trafficking violations. Trafficking eagles carries a penalty of up to one year in prison for a first offense and two years in prison for each subsequent offense.
Branson could not be reached for comment and his court-appointed attorney, federal defender Michael Donahoe, did not immediately respond to a message left at his office. Paul could not be reached for comment.
Bald eagles are the national symbol of the United States, and both bald and golden eagles are widely considered sacred by American Indians. U.S. law prohibits anyone without a permit from killing, wounding or disturbing eagles or taking any parts such as nests or eggs.
Bald eagles were killed off across most of the U.S. over the last century, due in large part to the pesticide DDT, but later flourished under federal protections and came off the federal endangered species list in 2007.
Golden eagle populations are less secure, and researchers say illegal shootings, energy development, lead poisoning and other problems have pushed the species to the brink of decline.
Indiana
Judge dismisses prof’s defamation lawsuit against student newspaper
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A judge Monday dismissed a University of Notre Dame’s professor’s defamation lawsuit against a student-run publication over news coverage of her abortion-rights advocacy.
St. Joseph County Superior Court Senior Judge Steven David found that sociology professor Tamara Kay’s assertions that The Irish Rover’s coverage of her was false and defamatory were unfounded.
“The Court concludes that Dr. Kay does not present any evidence that shows that The Irish Rover had any doubts about the truth of their statements before they were published. By failing to present such evidence, the Court concludes that Dr. Kay’s defamation claim fails as a matter of law,” David’s ruling said.
The case had raised questions about press freedom and academic freedom at one of the nation’s preeminent Catholic universities.
Kay’s lawsuit disputed some quotes the newspaper used and said it misinterpreted a sign on her door about helping students access health care. She had argued that her motivation was to support sexual assault victims.
An email was sent to Kay seeking comment on the dismissal of her suit.
W. Joseph DeReuil, the Rover’s editor-in-chief at the time, said in a prepared statement that he “was gratified to see today’s court ruling confirm what we at the Irish Rover were sure of all along: our reporting was completely factual and written in good faith.”
Kay had asked for unspecified punitive damages. Her lawsuit alleged she had been harassed, threatened, and experienced property damage as a result of the articles.
Illinois
Woman pleads guilty, to testify against own mother accused of cutting baby from teen’s womb
CHICAGO (AP) — A 29-year-old Chicago woman has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder after authorities said she helped her mother kill a pregnant teenager whose baby was cut from her womb.
Desiree Figueroa’s plea was made Monday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. It stipulates that she testify against her mother, Clarisa Figueroa, whose first-degree murder trial is scheduled to start later this month, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The plea deal calls for Desiree Figueroa to receive 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors have said Clarisa Figueroa strangled 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez with a cable on April 23, 2019 after she was lured to the Figueroas’ home with the promise of free clothing for her unborn child. Ochoa-Lopez was nine months pregnant. Clarisa Figueroa then called 911, saying she given birth and the child was not breathing.
The child died about two months later.
Authorities say not long after Clarisa Figueroa’s adult son died of natural causes, she told her family she was pregnant. They say she plotted for months to acquire a newborn, and that she posted an ultrasound and photos of a room decorated for a baby on her Facebook page. In March 2019, she and Ochoa-Lopez connected on a Facebook page for pregnant women
Detectives investigating Ochoa-Lopez’ disappearance learned that she had gone to the Figueroas’ home. Two weeks after her disappearance, police found her car parked nearby and were told by Desiree Figueroa that Clarisa Figueroa recently had given birth.
DNA tests later determined the child was not Clarisa Figueroa’s.
Ochoa-Lopez’s body was found in a garbage can outside the home.
Clarisa Figueroa tricked her boyfriend, , Piotr Bobak, into believing he was the father, according to police and prosecutors.
Bobak cleaned up the crime scene and was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty last year to obstruction of justice.
About six months after Ochoa-Lopez was slain, Desiree Figueroa gave birth in jail to her own child.
