National Roundup

Pennsylvania
Police: Dealer hid 110 heroin bags in buttocks

SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - Police say a Pennsylvania drug dealing suspect was found hiding 110 small bags of heroin in his buttocks.

Authorities say 32-year-old Carbondale resident Corey Davis was arrested Thursday in Scranton, where police conducted an undercover drug buy.

Police say they found the other drugs when they searched Davis after his arrest.

Davis remained Friday in the Lackawanna County jail, where he was unable to post bond.

Online court records show he faces a preliminary hearing Oct. 6. He doesn't have an attorney listed to comment on his behalf.

Louisiana
Doctor indicted on charges of prescribing drugs

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Metairie doctor has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of illegally prescribing oxycodone and threatening to kill federal agents.

U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite said in a news release Thursday that Dr. Shannon Ceasar, the former owner of Gulf South Physicians Group, was arrested July 22.

A criminal complaint unsealed three days later said he had unlawfully prescribed controlled substances to patients in and outside his clinic. The complaint said at least two people who obtained narcotics with his prescriptions later died of drug overdoses.

Polite said the 43-year-old Ceasar is accused of threatening to assault or kill federal law enforcement officers and members of the Louisiana State Medical Board.

Georgia
Slain officer's widow to inspect vest in lawsuit

ATLANTA (AP) - The widow of a slain Georgia police officer hopes to learn more about why his body armor didn't save him.

Tammy Jordan says in an ongoing federal lawsuit that a vest from Michigan-based Armor Express failed to stop gunfire that killed Griffin Police Officer Kevin Jordan. He was shot five times while intervening in a fight while working an off-duty security job at a Waffle House in Griffin, Georgia, in 2014, according to the lawsuit.

In court documents, Armor Express denied that one of its vests failed to meet standards.

Jordan's lawyer, Anitra Price, said they will be able to inspect the equipment he was wearing when he died during a meeting Friday at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's office in Midland.

Price says she's had difficulty obtaining information about the vest.

New Hampshire
Court upholds teen rape and murder victim's privacy rights

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday decided that the details of a young woman's sexual history should remain private after her rape and murder.

Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott, of Westborough, Massachusetts, was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of New Hampshire when she was killed in 2012. Seth Mazzaglia was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence, but argued the trial court should've allowed him to introduce evidence about Marriott's past.

In June, the state Supreme Court ruled information about Marriott's sexual activity that was sealed during the trial should be made public during the appeals process. Prosecutors and Marriott's family objected.

The court issued its new ruling Thursday after lawyers argued the issue last week.

At issue was whether the state's rape shield law, which is intended to protect rape victims from having their personal information revealed during criminal proceedings, applies to both trials and appeals. Every state has such laws.

"We are pleased that the court upheld the well-established right of rape victims to not have their prior sexual history used against them. This is a victory for not just the Marriott's but for all victims of sexual assault." said Amanda Grady Sexton of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Mazzaglia's attorney, Christopher Johnson, had argued the court shouldn't conduct the appellate process behind closed doors. He noted the order said arguments on his client's appeal would be public, and there were no restrictions on them.

Prosecutors had asked the appeal arguments to be closed, then released a transcript later with private information blacked out.

Pennsylvania
Man who sought hit-and-run law facing drunken driving trial

NANTICOKE, Pa. (AP) - A man who convinced Pennsylvania lawmakers to enact harsher penalties for hit-and-run drivers after his son was killed by one in 2010 has been ordered to stand trial on drunken driving charges.

Dr. Stephen Miller, a Wilkes-Barre dentist, is known for pushing for Kevin's Law, a 2014 amendment that increased the penalty for fatal hit-and-runs to at least three years in prison. Miller and his wife lobbied for the change after their 5-year-old son Kevin was killed by a hit-and-run driver who a witness said had been drinking.

Police say Miller's blood-alcohol content was three times the legal limit while driving his wife and two children on June 12 in West Nanticoke.

A judge ordered Miller to stand trial on Thursday, but dismissed endangerment charges relating to his passengers.

North Dakota
6th trial delay for accused flight attendant

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A federal judge in North Dakota has granted a sixth trial delay for a flight attendant accused of disrupting SkyWest Airlines flights in the Upper Midwest and on the East Coast last year.

Justin Cox-Sever's attorney asked for more time "to locate witnesses, to complete the investigation, and to prepare for trial," and the government did not object. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland moved Cox-Sever's trial from early October to early December in Bismarck. The trial originally was scheduled for last December.

Cox-Sever, of Tempe, Arizona, is accused of fabricating bomb threats on a July 2015 flight from Charlottesville, Virginia, to Chicago, and on a September 2015 flight from Minneapolis to Dickinson, North Dakota. The first plane turned around mid-flight, and the second incident resulted in the temporary shutdown of the Dickinson airport.

Cox-Sever could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted, though prosecutors have told The Associated Press that a plea deal is likely. Cox-Sever's defense attorney has said only that all options are on the table.

Cox-Sever is no longer employed by SkyWest. The airline won't say whether he quit or was fired.

Published: Mon, Oct 03, 2016