National Roundup

Massachusetts Boston pays $1.4M to settle suit against officer BOSTON (AP) -- The city of Boston has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a man who says a police officer tackled him and placed him in a choke in 2009, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to work. The settlement with Michael O'Brien, of Methuen, came nearly three years after the men's March 16, 2009, scuffle. The arresting officer, David Williams, was recently fired for using excessive force. O'Brien says Williams knocked him to the ground while he was videotaping another police officer with a cellphone during a traffic stop. O'Brien tells The Boston Globe that he lives with debilitating dizziness and headaches. Williams' lawyer says his client contends he did nothing wrong and there is no admission of liability in the settlement. New York Thomas Puccio, lawyer for von Bulow, dies at 67 NEW YORK (AP) -- A prominent defense lawyer who won an acquittal for socialite Claus von Bulow on charges of trying to kill his heiress wife has died. He was 67. Manhattan's Frank E. Campbell funeral home says Thomas Puccio died Monday of leukemia in New Haven, Conn. Puccio was born in Brooklyn and graduated from Fordham University Law School. He began his career as a federal prosecutor, winning the convictions of several members of Congress in the Abscam scandal. Puccio's clients as a defense lawyer included Alex Kelly, a former high school wrestling star who fled to Europe before his rape trial and lived a jet-set life for years before surrendering. More recently, he defended estate lawyer Francis X. Morrissey Jr., who was convicted of plundering the fortune of ailing philanthropist Brooke Astor. New York Dugard to rem a in in hiding to protect daughters NEW YORK (AP) -- Kidnapping survivor Jaycee Dugard, who first made national headlines three years ago, said in a TV interview that she plans to live in seclusion with her daughters until they are mature enough to understand what happened to them. Dugard, 31, and her two girls, ages 14 and 17, have been living at an undisclosed California location since being found by authorities in 2009 -- 18 years after Dugard was abducted from a South Lake Tahoe bus stop. She was held by Phillip and Nancy Garrido in their Antioch backyard, where she gave birth to the two children conceived by rape. In an interview that aired Tuesday night, Dugard told ABC News she's spent the past three years healing and experiencing life with her family. "I want my girls to have a normal life as much as possible," she told ABC News' Diane Sawyer. "I feel like on some things I have to do it a little bit differently ... not be recognized ... for their sake. "I think in time as they get older, they'll know how to deal with it better, and that would be the time that we would come out," she said. Dugard has been working to build the JAYC Foundation, which aims to support families dealing with abduction and other tragedies. She wrote a best-selling memoir last year, "A Stolen Life," which recounts her years in captivity. Dugard also made her first public appearance last weekend at a star-studded New York awards ceremony held by fashion designer and humanitarian Diane von Furstenberg. She was introduced at the Friday ceremony by Oprah Winfrey, another honoree of the night. "Jaycee Dugard, I am so proud of you, your courage, your ability to press onward toward the future and toward a more victorious life for yourself and for using your courage, your strength, and your power to show the world that you care," Winfrey said. Phillip Garrido is serving a 431-year prison sentence, and Nancy Garrido is serving 36 years to life, after both struck plea deals on kidnapping and rape charges. The state of California paid Dugard a $20 million settlement under which officials acknowledged repeated mistakes were made by parole agents responsible for monitoring Phillip Garrido, who was a convicted rapist. During the TV interview, Sawyer asked Dugard if either of the Garridos had tried to contact her. "No, not at all, which is fine with me," Dugard said. Sawyer then asked Dugard if she has days when she doesn't think about what happened to her. Dugard replied, "Oh, sure. It's not with me every day." Asked if anyone has caught her eye romantically, Dugard said, "No, no, I just, I can't go there yet. It's too soon." Delaware Death row in mate faces April 20 execution WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- A Delaware death row inmate who has waived his right to all further appeals of his conviction and death sentence has been sentenced to die by lethal injection. A Superior Court judge set an April 20 execution date for Shannon Johnson during a brief hearing Wednesday. Johnson waived his right to a requirement that the execution be held no sooner than 90 days from the sentencing date. Johnson was sentenced to death for the 2006 murder of a man whom he found sitting in a car with Johnson's former girlfriend. He later shot the former girlfriend, but she survived. After the state Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence, Johnson said he did not want to pursue any further appeals. Kentucky Split appeals court upholds murder conviction LOUISVILLE, KY. (AP) -- A split federal appeals court has upheld the murder conviction of a Louisville man after finding that prosecutors needed only to play the taped statement of a co-defendant at the trial and not call the man as a witness. Judge Danny Boggs of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that while 42-year-old Michael Anthony Peak's rights "may well have been violated," he couldn't find a reason to overturn his conviction under recent Supreme Court decisions. Peak and Patrick Meeks were convicted in 2001 of killing an unidentified Hispanic man as part of a drug robbery. Prosecutors played Meeks' statement implicating Peak, but didn't call him to testify. Judge Eric Clay dissented, saying the Constitution guarantees a defendant the right to confront his accuser at trial. Published: Thu, Mar 15, 2012