New York
Billionaire's jury award cut from $12m to $1M
NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan federal judge has cut the $12 million awarded to billionaire William Koch in a counterfeit wine lawsuit to less than $1 million.
The judge on Monday described the punitive damages a jury awarded Koch against California businessman Eric Greenberg Koch last year as "exorbitant."
He reduced the damages to $711,600.
The judge ruled that the "the flagrancy of Greenberg's fraud" merited some award. But he said the "harm was economic in nature and none of its targets ... were financially vulnerable."
Koch had accused Greenberg of knowingly selling him over 24 bottles of fake Bordeaux at auction. Greenberg had maintained he believed the wines were authentic.
According to the Daily News, a spokesman for Koch said the goal never was about money but to expose wine fraud.
Arizona
2 students are allowed to join tuition lawsuit
PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has ruled two students can help the Maricopa County Community College District defend itself against a lawsuit that seeks to block the district's policy of providing in-state tuition to young immigrants granted deferred deportation by the Obama administration.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Arthur Anderson granted a request by community college students Abel Badillo and Bibiana Vasquez to become part of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's lawsuit.
The students argued that they had interest in the lawsuit because they have been given in-state tuition status and would have to pay more expensive out-of-state tuition if the state wins the case.
Opponents of the policy say that extending reduced tuition to those youths violates a state law that prohibits any immigrant without legal status from receiving public benefits.
Virginia
Judge puts gay marriage case on hold temporarily
HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has put one lawsuit challenging Virginia's gay marriage ban on hold while another makes its way through the appeals process.
U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski noted in Monday's ruling that the two same-sex couples who filed the lawsuit in Harrisonburg have been allowed to intervene in a similar case out of Norfolk that is scheduled to be heard next month by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He called that a "seismic procedural development" that puts the issue in the hands of the federal appeals court, making further proceedings in Harrisonburg unnecessary.
The judge in the Norfolk case ruled Virginia's gay marriage ban unconstitutional.
Louisiana
Rapper C-Murder seeks new trial in teenager's death
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Nearly five years into a life sentence for killing a teenager at a Harvey nightclub, rapper C-Murder is challenging his conviction.
C-Murder, whose real name is Corey Miller, says irregularities during the jury's deliberations deprived him of a fair trial.
The Times-Picayune reports the 43-year-old is serving his sentence at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, for second-degree murder in the Jan. 12, 2002, death of 16-year-old Steve Thomas, of Marrero.
Two state juries convicted him. His first conviction was overturned. He was convicted a second time in August 2009.
Miller, 43, maintains his innocence. His attorney, Rachel Conner, filed a post-conviction relief application in state court in Gretna last month. She raised 10 points to support her assertion that her client didn't get a fair trial. Conner said she plans to raise more points later.
Primary among the assertions is what she described as irregularities during the jury's deliberations. One juror cast a guilty vote not based on the evidence but because she wanted to end deliberations to protect another juror who refused to convict Miller but was targeted by other jurors to change her mind, Conner wrote.
Miller also accuses the trial judge, Hans Liljeberg, of forcing the jury to reach a verdict, after jurors said they could not decide.
New York
Judge tosses man's claim of Facebook stake
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge has officially closed the book on a New York man's multibillion-dollar lawsuit claiming half-ownership of Facebook.
Judge Richard Arcara has granted Facebook and founder Mark Zuckerberg's motion to dismiss Paul Ceglia's lawsuit.
Last week's ruling affirms a magistrate judge's recommendation from a year ago saying the lawsuit should be thrown out because the contract Ceglia based it on was faked.
Ceglia is from Wellsville. He claimed he and Zuckerberg signed a 2003 software development contract that included a provision entitling him to half-ownership of Facebook in exchange for startup money for the budding company.
Facebook lawyers say the two had a contract but references to Facebook were slipped in for the lawsuit.
Ceglia awaits trial on related criminal fraud charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
Pennsylvania
Ex-hero officer faces trial in armed rape case
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former police officer who was shot in the face and later sat next to the first lady while being honored at a presidential address is too dangerous to leave prison to await a rape trial, a judge said Tuesday.
Richard DeCoatsworth is charged with sexually assaulting two prostitutes at gunpoint last year and forcing them to take drugs. He withdrew a plea to reduced charges Tuesday, telling the judge he wants to clear his name.
"I'd like an opportunity to prove my innocence," DeCoatsworth said in court. "If I were a guilty man, the offer the commonwealth presented would be a good one."
DeCoatsworth, 28, has experienced a long slide since he was shot pursuing a suspect in 2007. A defense lawyer said he became addicted to painkillers after the shooting and resulting surgeries.
"The shot to the face changed his life forever. It really altered him," lawyer A. Charles Peruto said. "He had his face reconstructed. The pain has been immeasurable."
DeCoatsworth, who has a short beard covering much of the scarring below his mouth, faces decades in prison if convicted of the most serious charges at trial in November. He was likely to leave prison with time served, about 10 months, had he gone through with the plea.
