Indiana
Man arrested over 40-pound teen daughter
ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) - Police have arrested the father of a mentally disabled 15-year-old girl who has been hospitalized in Indianapolis weighing just 40 pounds.
Anderson police Detective Joel Sandefur says the girl was flown to the hospital in critical condition on Monday. Sandefur told The Herald Bulletin that the girl's condition could be life threatening.
Investigators have jailed the girl's 58-year-old father on a preliminary charge of child neglect. It is not clear whether he has an attorney.
Sandefur told WTHR-TV that the Anderson man blamed his daughter's low weight on a medical condition. Sandefur did not provide any details about that or the nature of the girl's disability.
Anderson is about 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis.
Maine
Girl wins $75K settlement in suit against district
ORONO, Maine (AP) - A court is awarding a transgender girl $75,000 in a settlement of her lawsuit against a school district where administrators made her use a staff bathroom.
Nicole Maines won her lawsuit against the Orono school district in January at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The Portland Press Herald reports a lower court awarded her the settlement last week. Penobscot County Superior Court issued an order Nov. 25 that prohibited the district from "refusing access by transgender students to school restrooms that are consistent with their gender identity."
The order says the district must pay $75,000 to Boston-based Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders and Berman Simmons, a Portland law firm that represented Maines. The money will cover legal expenses and related costs.
Utah
Man gets top sentence inhate crime case
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A federal judge on Monday gave a Utah man the maximum sentence of a year in prison for writing a letter threatening to kill white members of an interracial family if they didn't make a black teenage relative move away.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Evelyn Furse said the threat made by 71-year-old Robert Keller was significant and harmful.
The teenage boy's sister said Monday she still feels uncomfortable in her neighborhood and worries about her children after receiving the letter last December. The family members' names have not been released, and the sister declined to be publicly identified Monday.
Prosecutor Carlos Esqueda said Keller was upset because the then-13-year-old boy was walking down the street with a white girl in Hurricane, a southwestern Utah city of about 14,000 people. Esqueda said the case was part of a pattern of racist behavior from Keller, and argued that Keller's age didn't excuse his behavior.
"Obliviously, racism still exists today. It lives, and it breathes next door in our neighborhoods," Esqueda said in court. "Justice needs to be firm, and justice needs to be swift."
Keller apologized for sending the expletive-laden letter but said his message was misconstrued.
"I'll admit I lost my temper," Keller said. "It wasn't really meant to be a threat; it was more or less to wake them up to what was going to happen down the road."
He did not elaborate.
In September, Keller pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of interfering with the right to fair housing in what prosecutors called a hate crime. A second count was dropped, according to court records.
Defense attorney Kent Hart said his client had a tough upbringing but has no history of violence.
Following the hearing, Hart called the sentence excessive and disappointing.
The judge also imposed a year of supervised release, a $1,000 fine and 260 hours of community service. There is no parole in the federal justice system.
New York
Police: Road rage driver attacks man with bayonet
WEST SENECA, N.Y. (AP) - A man has been charged with assault after state police say he sliced another motorist's face with a bayonet during a road rage encounter along a suburban Buffalo highway.
Troopers say 26-year-old Bryan Cirbus of West Valley sideswiped another man's car Friday where Interstate 90 and Route 219 merge in West Seneca.
Police say both drivers pulled to the side of the highway, where Cirbus pulled out a bayonet. During the struggle he allegedly cut the other man's face and hands and sliced his jacket while attempting to stab the man in the shoulder.
Cirbus was restrained by a woman riding with him, then left the scene before troopers arrived, according to police.
Cirbus later turned himself in. He's due in court Tuesday night. Court officials didn't know if he has a lawyer.
New Jersey
Students plead not guilty in sex assault charges
PATERSON, N.J. (AP) - Four of five students at New Jersey's William Paterson University have pleaded not guilty to charges they restrained and sexually assaulted a female student in a dorm.
The five are charged with crimes including conspiracy, criminal restraint and aggravated sexual assault. The alleged attack occurred Nov. 25 on the campus in Wayne.
The four - Jahmel Latimer of Hoboken, Darius Singleton of Jersey City, Garret Collick of Paterson Noah Williams of Camden - pleaded not guilty through their attorneys at a brief proceeding Tuesday. A fifth defendant, Tremaine Scott of Vineland, didn't appear because his attorney wasn't present.
Bail was lowered for the four from $200,000 to $50,000 by the Passaic County prosecutor's office. The four were being held at the county jail and appeared in court in prison uniforms.
Wisconsin
Man properly committed for huffing gas
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A state appeals court says a Marathon County judge properly forced a man into treatment for huffing gasoline, rejecting his argument that gasoline doesn't qualify as a drug.
The family of the man, identified only as Zachary W. in court documents, petitioned to have him involuntarily committed last year, saying he was a danger to himself. The man argued that state law governing involuntary commitments for drug dependence doesn't define the word "drug" and gasoline doesn't meet the definition under other sections of state law.
A jury ultimately found Zachary W. was drug-dependent and Judge Jill Falstad ordered him committed. The 3rd District Court of Appeals ruled the commitment was proper Tuesday, finding that the man used gas like a drug.
Published: Wed, Dec 03, 2014
