National Round Up

Iowa: New date set in Iowa teen’s murder trial
CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) — The trial for a Charles City teenager accused of sexually assaulting and choking to death his 3-year-old cousin is set to begin May 18.

The trial for 15-year-old Edgar Concepcion Jr. is to begin with jury selection in Hamilton County District Court. The trial was moved there because of pre-trial publicity. Concepcion is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, first-degree sexual abuse, second degree sexual abuse and child endangerment.

Concepcion is accused in the death of Krystel Banes. He has pleaded not guilty.

Nevada: Newspaper ranks 9 judges on ‘do-not-retain’ list
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A newspaper survey of Nevada lawyers ranks the performance of nine judges as so poor that they should not be re-elected.

One judge who rated poorly in the Las Vegas Review-Journal survey was state Supreme Court Justice Nancy Saitta (SAY’-tah).

Half the attorneys who responded said Saitta should be retained during the next election cycle, and half said she should not.

Clark County District Court judges Jessie Walsh, Stefany Miley, Kathy Hardcastle and Michelle Leavitt made the list of poor-performing judges.

Family Court judges Cheryl Moss, Kenneth Pollock and Cynthia Dianne Steel also ranked low, along with Las Vegas Municipal Court judges George Assad and Diana Hampton.

New York: Writer sues dealer over copy of Schindler’s List

NEW YORK (AP) — An Argentine writer is trying to stop a New York dealer from selling what he says is one of the few remaining copies of the document at the heart of the film “Schindler’s List.”

Marta Erika Rosenberg says in a lawsuit that the proposed sale infringes on rights bequeathed to her by Oskar Schindler’s widow. Schindler was the industrialist who saved the lives of some 1,000 Jews in Nazi Germany by employing them in his factories. His story was told in Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning movie.

Washingtonville, N.Y.-based dealer Gary Zimet has put a copy of a list of Schindler’s Jewish workers up for sale for $2.2 million. He says the document’s seller bought it from relatives of Schindler’s accountant.

Connecticut: Jury awards $2.9M to bicyclist for collision

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut jury has awarded $2.9 million to a bicyclist who was injured when she hit a gate on West Hartford land owned by a regional water and sewer agency.

Maribeth Blonski of Rocky Hill sued the Hartford-based Metropolitan District Commission over the 2002 incident. She alleged the agency endangered people by placing the steel gate on a trail near a reservoir in the Talcott Mountain Recreation Area.

The MDC’s lawyer says agency officials were surprised by Friday’s verdict in Hartford Superior Court and will appeal.

Blonski broke four vertebrae in her neck when she hit the gate, which was erected to keep cars away from the reservoir. She had been an avid cyclist and hosted a local-access television program about mountain biking before the collision.

West Virginia: Relative of Upper Big Branch victim sues MSHA

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A relative of one of the victims of the Upper Big Branch mine explosion is suing for the right to observe as government investigators interview witnesses.

William I. Griffith sued Mine Safety and Health Administration director Joe Main in Charleston federal court Monday. The United Mine Workers union says Griffith wants a court order barring witness interviews unless representatives of families and miners are present.

MSHA announced Thursday that it planned to interview witnesses in private.

The union is participating in the investigation as the representative of some of the miners who worked at the Massey Energy mine.

Twenty-nine men died in the April 5 explosion.

New York: Deliberations resume in NYC beating death
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City jury has resumed deliberations in the trial of a second man charged with murder and assault as a hate crime in the death of an Ecuadorean immigrant.

Keith Phoenix has pleaded not guilty in the death of Jose Sucuzhanay (Soo-KOO’-suh-neye) and attempted assault of his brother, Romel, on Dec. 7, 2008.

The jury got the case late Thursday and resumed deliberating Monday in state Supreme Court.

Phoenix’s co-defendant, Hakim Scott, was convicted of manslaughter last week but acquitted of the more serious hate crime charge.

Prosecutors say the defendants thought the brothers were gay, and yelled anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs at them.

Georgia: Fed appeals court rules in favor of asylum seeker

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a gay Venezuelan citizen seeking asylum in the U.S. because he says he was persecuted due to his sexual orientation and political views.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a decision by an immigration board that denied Leonel Euro Ayala’s asylum application was “riddled with error.” The ruling, issued Friday, sends Ayala’s case back to the board.

Ayala said that in December 2004 several Venezuelan police officers assaulted him after he left a gay night club in Caracas. He says they placed a hood over his head, forced him to perform oral sex on one of the officers and threatened to jail him.

He lawfully entered the U.S. in February 2005 and requested asylum a year later.

Indiana: Couple awarded $3.7 million for ladder fall

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — A jury has awarded a northern Indiana man and his wife $3.7 million for a brain injury the man suffered when he fell from a ladder at a shopping mall.

The St. Joseph Superior Court jury ruled in favor of the Porter County couple and against mall owner Simon Property Management and its maintenance company, Varsity Contractors.

Richard Proctor and Sonia Proctor sued after Richard Proctor suffered a skull fracture, brain trauma and other injuries when he fell 19 feet from a roof hatch ladder while servicing heating/air conditioning equipment on the roof of University Park Mall in Mishawaka in January 2007.