National Roundup

Iowa
Court: Casino doesn't have to pay jackpot error

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) - An Illinois grandmother's incredible luck has run out.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that a Waterloo casino does not have to pay Pauline McKee the $41 million she thought she won in 2011 while playing a penny slot machine.

The court says the game's rules capped jackpots at $10,000 and didn't allow bonuses. The court says the message that appeared indicating McKee won a $41.8 million legacy bonus "was a gratuitous promise" that the casino wasn't obligated to pay.

The Antioch, Illinois grandmother of 13 hit the bonus while gambling on a Miss Kitty slot machine at the Isle Casino Hotel during a family reunion. She sued to try to collect the prize after a state investigation found the bonus award wasn't valid and resulted from a software error.

Florida
Prosecutor asks if praying may sway jury in case

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Closing arguments in the trial of three defendants charged in the hazing death of a FAMU drum major are being held up as a prosecutor wants to find out if jurors were influenced by the sight of two defendants praying outside the courtroom.

Almost all of the six jurors and two alternates say they saw Aaron Golson and Benjamin McNamee praying before deputies let lawyers and court personnel into the courtroom Friday.

Judge Renee Roche individually questioned the jurors and alternates about whether it would affect their deliberations.

State Attorney Jeff Ashton says it's possibly a mistrial issue.

McNamee, Golson and Darryl Cearnel were the final three defendants charged in the 2011 death of 26-year-old Robert Champion of Decatur, Georgia. If convicted, they each could face 15 years in prison.

Pennsylvania
Condemned man asks court to hasten execution

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) - A central Pennsylvania man on death row for killing his ex-lover's husband in 1998 is again asking a judge to hasten his execution.

Fifty-three-year-old William Wright III became frustrated with appeals process and in 2007 asked a federal judge in Johnstown to force the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to decide his case.

When that court upheld his conviction and death sentence, a federal judge nonetheless stayed the execution pending federal appeals - which Wright's attorneys sought but he didn't want. Finally, a judge in Blair County, where Wright was convicted, in 2012 ruled Wright wasn't mentally competent to represent himself.

Wright's been fighting that and the Altoona Mirror reports he's filed another request Thursday to hasten his execution.

Wright has claimed his various attorneys have wrongly focused on his mental state instead of simply arguing his innocence.

Missouri
Activists sue over prosecutor's role in grand jury

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) - Activists want a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to probe what they claim was prosecutorial misconduct during grand jury proceedings involving the Ferguson shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Attorneys for several civil rights groups will make that pitch during a hearing Friday morning in St. Louis County, detailing their allegations against the county's prosecutor, Robert McCulloch.

A grand jury convened by McCulloch last year declined to indict white former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Brown, who was black and unarmed. That shooting death and the grand jury's decision sparked often violent protests.

Messages left Friday with McCulloch's office were not immediately returned.

Brown's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Thursday against the city of Ferguson, Wilson and the suburb's former police chief.

Wisconsin
12-year-old girl won't be moved for treatment

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) - A judge has denied a request to move a 12-year-old girl to a psychiatric center after she was accused of stabbing a classmate to please the horror character Slender Man.

The judge also denied a motion to reduce her $500,000 bail to a signature bond. Her attorney, Anthony Cotton, says the defendant needs treatment for schizophrenia.

The judge was concerned about her being a flight risk, but Cotton says she has no friends and no car and couldn't get far.

The 12-year-old girl and her 13-year-old friend, both of Waukesha, are charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the stabbing of Payton Leutner. She survived 19 stab wounds.

Tennessee
Sex club seeks city's blessing by becoming church

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Nashville swingers club has undergone a conversion - it says it's now a church - in order to win city approval so it can open next to a Christian school.

The story began last fall, when a fixture in downtown Nashville called The Social Club sold its building and purchased a new one in a run-down office park several miles to the east.

The new building is geographically isolated at the end of a dead-end street, but it is near the back of Goodpasture Christian School, a large private school serving pre-school through high school children.

It might have been years before school officials and parents learned what was going on inside The Social Club - its website says it is "a private club for the enjoyment of both men and women ... to engage in any sexual activity" - if someone had not sent anonymous letters to the school president and the local councilwoman.

Parents and religious leaders were called on to pack the Metro Nashville Council chambers to support a zoning change to prevent the club from opening. That's when the club, which had spent $750,000 on the building and begun renovations, suddenly transformed into a church.

The United Fellowship Center's plans are nearly identical to those of The Social Club but with some different labels. The dance floor has become the sanctuary. Two rooms labeled "dungeon" are now "choir" and "handbells." Forty-nine small, private rooms remain, but most of them have become prayer rooms.

Larry Roberts is the attorney for the club-turned-church. He previously vowed to take the city to court. Now, he says, it's the city that will have to sue.

Metro Zoning Administrator Bill Herbert said as long as the United Fellowship Center is in compliance with codes, it will receive permission to operate.

Published: Mon, Apr 27, 2015