National Roundup

Kentucky
Prisons drop ban on mail thought to promote homosexuality

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - The Kentucky Department of Corrections has dropped a policy that let wardens ban mail to inmates if they thought the items promoted homosexuality.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Corrections Commissioner Rodney Ballard sent a statewide memo to prison staff last week, issuing the revised inmate mail policy.

The policy previously allowed prison wardens to ban materials that depicted homosexuality, sadism, masochism, bestiality and sexual acts or nudity with children.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky challenged the policy's reference to homosexuality in March, citing free speech and free press rights by the First Amendment. When the policy was revised, the specific reference to homosexuality was removed.

Legal director of the Kentucky ACLU William Sharp says the old policy was discriminatory.

Texas
Habitual offender gets life in prison for 9th DWI conviction

CONROE, Texas (AP) - A Houston man convicted of drunken driving nine times since 1980 has been sentenced to life in prison.

The Montgomery County judge who sentenced Donald Middleton on Tuesday said the 56-year-old man is a habitual offender.

Middleton pleaded guilty last week to driving drunk in a May 2015 traffic accident.

Investigators say Middleton was arrested after he fled on foot after the wreck, ran to a store and begged the clerks not to turn him in.

Prosecutors say Middleton has already served four prison terms for alcohol-related convictions.

Pennsylvania
Lawsuit claims guard's metal detector caused pacemaker to fail

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A man says in a lawsuit that a security guard's metal detector caused his pacemaker to fail as he entered Pittsburgh Municipal Court.

Vince Kelly filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the city and Allegheny County, who jointly control the courts building, which is connected to the county jail.

Kelly says when he entered the building in January 2014, he warned the security guard that the walk-through magnetometer could cause his pacemaker to fail.

The lawsuit says the guard let Kelly avoid the device but then waved a hand-held wand too close to his chest. He says his pacemaker failed, and he fell and lost consciousness briefly.

The city and county aren't commenting.

Victory Security employs the guard and couldn't immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

Tennessee
Father gets life for selling his kids to ­pornographer

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A Tennessee man who sold his three daughters to a man who raped them and used them in child pornography has been sentenced to life in prison.

U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer called it one of the most horrible crimes he had ever seen when he sentenced the 63-year-old father on Monday, according to a statement from the office of acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr.

According to court records, both parents were involved with the abuse and exploitation of the children and were indicted in 2013. The girls were ages 12, 14 and 16 when police discovered what happened to them, federal prosecutors said in a statement. It was not immediately clear when police made that discovery, however.

The Associated Press is not naming the parents to protect the identities of the daughters.

A federal jury in January convicted the father on all four counts of an indictment, including the selling of a child by a parent, production of child pornography, production of child pornography by parents, and coercion and enticement of a minor. The mother, who is now 41, was sentenced in February to serve 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of the production of child pornography by a parent.

The girls were sexually abused and exploited from February 2011 to August 2012, court records show.

Police discovered the horror the girls were living in after investigating a complaint that they were being neglected, had medical problems that were not being treated and were not going to school, said Tony Clark, the district attorney in Washington, Carter, Johnson and Unicoi counties. The three daughters were among four siblings at the home, including one as young as 5, Clark said. He said all were removed.

Evidence presented during the father's trial showed a two-year pattern of sexual abuse, dozens of confirmed rapes of his children and the production of 400 images of child sexual abuse, Harr's office said.

Federal prosecutors had asked that the father be given a life sentence, saying his "complete unwillingness to accept responsibility for his conduct and decisions and his history of neglect and abuse of his children demonstrate a great need" to protect the public.

"This offense is the most serious ... that undersigned counsel has prosecuted during her thirty years of federal service," Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Smith said in the written request. "Words cannot adequately describe the seriousness of the offense."

California
Black Lives Matter activist jailed for arrest interference

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - A Black Lives Matter organizer who interfered with an arrest by police in southern California has been sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Richards was convicted last week of trying to take a person from the "lawful custody of a peace officer."

Protesters demanding her freedom chanted "Free Jasmine Now" outside the courthouse as she was sentenced. More than 84,000 people have signed an online letter of support for her.

Richards was with a group of protesters at a park last September when a woman approached who allegedly had left a restaurant without paying. Prosecutors argued that Richards incited people to interfere with the woman's arrest.

Jasmine Richards will be given credit for 18 days she already spent in jail. She also must attend anger management classes.

Published: Thu, Jun 09, 2016