South Dakota: Judge: Doc accused in sex ring can’t leave jail
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A Sioux Falls doctor accused of buying sex through a Tea-based online prostitution ring will remain in jail as he awaits trial.
Judge John Simko on Wednesday rejected the appeal of Joshua Payer, 35, for pretrial release despite his promises to remain on house arrest and quit practicing medicine until the case is resolved.
Simko earlier had deemed Payer a flight risk and ordered that he be held until trial in October.
Payer has pleaded not guilty in federal court to child sex trafficking charges and drug counts. He could face up to 80 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Prosecutors say that by paying for sex, Payer himself was engaged in sex trafficking.
Payer’s lawyer, Mike Butler, said his client is being unjustly charged. He said that charging Payer with sex trafficking because he paid for sex is like charging a drug-buyer with drug trafficking.
“At some point, somebody’s going to have to pull the plug on this prosecution,” he said. “This man should not face these charges.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Koliner said Payer paid for sex with at least one 17-year-old girl, a 16-year-old girl and two 18-year-old women in the six months leading up to the arrest last November of Brandon Thompson.
Thompson 26, who allegedly ran the sex ring with his girlfriend, has pleaded not guilty to child sex trafficking and other charges. Payer also is accused of writing an illegitimate Oxycontin prescription for Thompson.
California: SoCal chase suspect charged, could get life
POMONA, Calif. (AP) — A man who led police on a high-speed Southern California freeway chase following gunfire during a shooting range robbery has been charged with attempted murder and other crimes that could send him to prison for life.
During the Monday morning incident, investigators say Trevor Bakgwan Kuk took aim with an assault weapon and fired at a Los Angeles sheriff’s helicopter and a West Covina police officer after robbing the Burro Shooting Range near Arcadia.
Prosecutor James Daloisio says the 27-year-old Arcadia resident was charged Wednesday with multiple felonies, including two counts of attempted murder of a police officer, commercial burglary, grand theft, evading arrest and assault with an assault pistol.
Arraignment has been postponed until Sept. 15 in Pomona Superior Court.
Virginia: Judge reviews proposed salmonella payments
LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — A federal judge in Virginia is reviewing proposed settlement payments to the families of 53 victims of last year’s nationwide salmonella outbreak.
The victims include nine people who died and 44 children who were sickened.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski said Wednesday during a hearing in Lynchburg that he’ll make recommendations by the end of next week to U.S. District Court Judge Norman Moon as to whether to approve each payment.
The payments will come from a $12 million pool established by the insurer for Lynchburg-based Peanut Corp. of America.
The outbreak was traced to Peanut Corp.’s plants in Georgia and Texas. It sickened about 700 people and was linked to at least nine deaths.
Montana: Supreme Court upholds library ban for ex-candidate
HAMILTON, Mont. (AP) — The city of Hamilton has dropped a trespassing charge against a former mayoral candidate after the state Supreme Court upheld a protection order barring him from the Bitterroot Public Library.
The trespassing charge followed a dispute in 2009 between the library and Michael Spreadbury over his insistence the library place on reserve a copy of a letter accusing local public officials of denying justice to citizens.
Spreadbury was found guilty last February of criminal trespass at the library. He had appealed that decision to district court.
City attorney Ken Bell says the decision to drop was the result of the Supreme Court upholding Spreadbury’s five-year ban from the library. Bell says the library only wants to protect its patrons and staff and the order does that.
Pennsylvania: DOJ seeks role in anti-gay suit against NY school
PHILADELPHIA, N.Y. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has opposed a northern New York school district’s attempt to have a former student’s anti-gay-bias lawsuit dismissed in federal court.
The Justice Department filed a motion in U.S. District Court on Friday to participate as a friend of the court in a federal discrimination lawsuit filed by former student Charles Pratt against the Indian River Central School District near Watertown.
Pratt sued in April 2009, claiming he was harassed before he dropped out of high school when he was 15 years old.
The district has filed a motion to dismiss the action. The Justice Department disagrees with key reasons the district believes the suit should be dismissed. The court has not decided whether to allow justice officials to join the case.
Georgia: Jury being chosen for trial in ex-DA killing
DOUGLAS, Ga. (AP) — Jury selection is in progress in Douglas for the trial of a man accused of the 2007 killing of a former district attorney.
Attorneys began selecting the jury on Monday in the trial of 49-year-old Bobby Rex Stribling. He’s accused of killing 74-year-old Glenn Thomas in June 2007.
Thomas was beaten at his law office in downtown Jesup. He died two weeks later from head injuries.
Court officials say the jury should be seated and the trial should begin next week for Stribling, who pleaded not guilty to malice murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault with intent to rob, aggravated battery, burglary and theft by taking.
The jury is being selected from residents in Coffee County, about 60 miles west of Jesup, because of pretrial publicity.?
