National Roundup

Massachusetts
Boston mobster’s lawyer wants judge dismissed 
BOSTON (AP) — Lawyers for Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger have asked a federal appeals court to order the judge scheduled to preside over his trial to step aside because of his close ties to the U.S. Justice Department.
The Boston Globe reports that in a motion filed Tuesday, Bulger’s lawyer said that if the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals fails to grant his request, Bulger’s trial “will go forward under a dark cloud.”
Bulger’s lawyer argues that Judge Richard Stearns’ ability to be impartial is questionable because he was a top prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office in the 1980s and is a close friend of FBI director Robert Mueller.
The 83-year-old Bulger is scheduled to go on trial in June for his alleged role in 19 slayings.

Texas
Boy with carved back discharged from hospital
RICHLAND HILLS, Texas (AP) — A 6-year-old Texas boy whose father has been accused of carving a pentagram on the child’s back has been released from a hospital.
Richland Hills police Sgt. Nathan Stringer says officers planned to speak with the boy Thursday about the attack a day earlier. Police say the child’s father called 911 and said he inscribed a pentagram on his son because it was “a holy day.”
It is not clear which faith he was referring to. Wednesday’s date was 12-12-12, a once-in-a-century event.
Brent Troy Bartel was being held in jail on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police say they plan to seek a mental evaluation.

Indiana
State attorneys defend punitive damages law
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — State attorneys are defending Indiana’s punitive damages limit against a man who won a $150,000 jury award against a Roman Catholic priest he alleged sexually abused him when he was 17.
Lawyers for the attorney general’s office asked the Indiana Supreme Court Thursday to set aside a Marion County judge’s decision that ruled the law violated the state constitution.
Indiana’s law limits punitive damages to $50,000 and allows the state to take a three-quarter share.
Attorneys for the man referred to as John Doe say the law intrudes on judicial power and violates the right to trial by jury.
The state argues that the justices previously upheld the law and since plaintiffs don’t have an inherent right to punitive damages, the state can limit the amount and claim a share.

Texas
Inmate capital murder trial to resume Monday
BRYAN, Texas (AP) — A Texas appeals court has rejected a prosecution challenge to the wording of jury instructions in the trial of a second inmate charged in the 2007 death of a guard during an escape attempt.
The Eagle newspaper reports closing arguments are expected Monday in the Bryan capital murder trial of John Falk Jr.
Prosecutors who seek the death penalty had their appeal rejected Wednesday by the 10th Court of Appeals.
Officer Susan Canfield died after being thrown from a horse hit by a truck stolen at the Wynne Unit. Inmate Jerry Martin, who was driving, received the death penalty. Falk, who was nearby, is charged with being equally liable for Canfield’s death.
Martin was serving 50 years for attempted capital murder. Falk was serving a life term for murder.

California
Woman convicted  in murder of her lawyer boyfriend
SALINAS, Calif. (AP) — A California jury has convicted a woman for the steel-bar beating death of her family law attorney boyfriend.
Monterey County prosecutors say 44-year-old Verginia Turner killed 58-year-old Mark Hafen in his Salinas home two years ago because she feared Hafen was about to end the relationship.
Defense lawyers say Turner was a battered woman who killed in self-defense after an argument.
The Salinas Californian says jurors deliberated for a few hours before finding Turner guilty of murder. She will be sentenced in February.

Illinois
Bid to revive old cigarette lawsuit denied by judge
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A judge in southwestern Illinois has rejected an attorney’s request to revive a $10.1 billion verdict against cigarette-maker Philip Morris.
Madison County Circuit Judge Dennis Ruth ruled Wednesday that the plaintiffs didn’t show details in subsequent cases involving so-called light cigarettes would have changed this case’s outcome.
Another judge in 2003 found Philip Morris misled customers about “light” and “low tar” cigarettes and broke Illinois law by marketing them as safer.
The state’s high court later threw out that verdict. But an Illinois appellate court last year cleared the way for the plaintiffs to argue that a favorable 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case may be applied to reinstate the Madison County case.
The class-action lawsuit involves 1.1 million people who bought “light” cigarettes in Illinois.

North Dakota
Settlement is reached in bison damage lawsuit
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Three Dakotas ranchers and a Florida millionaire businessman have settled a lawsuit over damage allegedly caused by wayward bison, attorneys said.
Bachmeier Farms and ranchers Nick Vollmuth and Gary Sandland claimed bison from Maurice Wilder’s ranch on the North Dakota-South Dakota border trespassed on their land for years, damaging pasture, crops, hay and fences.
A trial had been scheduled for this week, but the matter was settled out of court, the Bismarck Tribune reported Thursday.
Wilder’s ranch encompasses about 35,000 acres, sprawling from Selfridge, N.D., to McLaughlin, S.D. It was the subject of complaints for years about bison running loose and causing problems for neighbors.
In February 2011, thousands of bison were rounded up in South Dakota after authorities received reports of animals starving on the ranch. A smaller number of animals reportedly were running loose on the North Dakota side of the ranch around the same time.
Wilder, of Clearwater, Fla., paid $57,000 for feed and expenses after the impoundment ended, and in March 2001, he took about 850 bison to auction in Mobridge, S.D.
Wilder sold a 12,000-acre cattle ranch located east of the bison ranch at auction in September. He still owns the bison ranch.