National Roundup

 Massachusetts

Mall Santa Claus charged with groping elf 
HINGHAM, Mass. (AP) — A man who played Santa Claus at a Massachusetts mall has been barred from the shopping center after he was charged with groping an 18-year-old woman playing an elf.
Herbert Jones was released on $1,000 bail after pleading not guilty Monday to indecent assault and battery. A judge ordered him to stay away from the Hanover Mall and barred him from playing Santa anywhere pending the outcome of his case.
Police say the woman called them Saturday to report that the 62-year-old Jones had pinched her buttocks and made suggestive comments. The two worked at a Santa photo booth.
Jones, who has a real bushy white beard, denied touching the woman to police and mall management.
 
California
Official: School failed student in harassment case 
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — The president of a California university where four white students are accused of harassing a black student says the school failed to adequately intervene or impose sanctions.
San Jose State University President Mohammad Qayoumi told the campus in a letter on Monday that the school will soon name an independent expert to look into the case.
Among the questions he said must be answered is how the abuse of the student could have gone unchecked or undetected for weeks.
Police say the white students taunted their freshman dorm-mate with racial slurs, barricaded him in his room and placed a U-shaped bicycle lock around his neck.
The four students are currently facing misdemeanor hate-crime and battery charges.
Qayoumi’s comments came as the NAACP called on prosecutors to file felony charges against the students. Prosecutors say they are continuing their investigation.
 
New York
Cleric’s terro­rism trial date moved back to mid-April 
NEW YORK (AP) — An Egyptian Islamic cleric extradited from Great Britain will go on trial in mid-April, a few weeks later than originally planned, a judge said Monday.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest granted the change for the trial of Mustafa Kamel Mustafa at the request of prosecutors, who said the March trial date originally set was too soon after another terrorism trial likely to begin in February. The new date is April 14.
Defense lawyers told the judge they were seeking to have Mustafa moved from a Manhattan federal lockup to a prison hospital to await trial because such a facility would be better equipped to care for Mustafa, who is missing his arms just below the elbows. The arms seemed redder than usual and had scratches on them Monday. Defense lawyer Joshua Dratel said there was a concern that the arms were becoming infected.
Mustafa, who has said he lost the lower parts of his arms fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and helped abduct two American tourists and 14 others in Yemen in 1998.
He was extradited to the U.S. from Great Britain a year ago.
Mustafa became well known in the 1990s as his Finsbury Park Mosque in London became a training ground for extremist Islamists, including Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid. He had been jailed since 2004 in Britain on separate charges.
 
Texas
Police officer accused of rape in patrol car 
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A San Antonio police officer is accused of handcuffing and raping a 19-year-old woman in a case decried by the police chief, who calls it “unthinkable.”
Officer Jackie Len Neal, an 11-year member of the department, was placed on paid administrative leave as a sexual assault case against him is pending.
According to an arrest affidavit, Neal asked the woman to step out of her vehicle about 2 a.m. Friday after tailing her for several blocks.
The affidavit said Neal told the woman her vehicle had been reported stolen. The woman produced a sales slip, but Neal patted her down, ignoring a request for a woman to do that, according to the affidavit.
Neal then allegedly placed the woman in handcuffs and raped her in the back of his car. Police say a GPS device in Neal’s patrol car confirms he was parked on the street in question for about 18 minutes on Friday, according to the Express-News.
The woman contacted police, who opened a case against Neal. He was arrested at about 2 a.m. Saturday.
Neal was released from jail later Saturday morning. A listed phone number for Neal was disconnected, and court records listing an attorney were not immediately available.
 
Illinois
Trial pushed back for man accused of killing niece 
EFFINGHAM, Ill. (AP) — A 22-year-old southern Illinois man accused of fatally stabbing his 7-year-old niece won’t go on trial until next year.
The Effingham Daily News reports an Effingham County judge on Monday tentatively scheduled Justin DeRyke’s trial for February. But State’s Attorney Bryan Kibler says it likely will be later than that because DeRyke’s attorney has so many audio and video interviews to review.
DeRyke is accused of killing Willow Long in September near her home in Watson, a village about 100 miles northeast of St. Louis.
Investigators say DeRyke insisted he killed his niece to “put her out of her misery” after he says she fell onto a brush pile and pierced her neck.
DeRyke has pleaded not guilty and is jailed on $5 million bond.
 
Ohio
Mom plans Jesus sculpture near area high school 
NEW CONCORD, Ohio (AP) — A local parent hopes to put a life-size sculpture of Jesus on property near a high school in an eastern Ohio district that agreed to remove a religious painting from an office after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened a lawsuit.
Zanesville lawyer Jeanette Moll tells The Columbus Dispatch she commissioned a bronze statue similar to the image in the painting. She says it’s an intentional effort but isn’t a protest of the East Muskingum school board’s decision to remove the painting from John Glenn High School in New Concord.
Moll says the sculpture would be a memorial to faith, placed on private land. She says she’s in talks with a homeowner and church near the school about a permanent location for the sculpture.
Moll’s children attended the school.