National Roundup

California
Judge who swiped 2 cardholders agrees to resign
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Northern California judge has agreed to resign after swiping two art deco-style business cardholders from a judges’ dinner in San Francisco.

The Commission on Judicial Performance on Monday announced its censure of Judge Michael S. Williams of Napa County. Williams’ resignation will take effect in December.

Williams was attending a dinner hosted by a matrimonial lawyers association in March 2016 when he took two cardholders in the art deco decor of The City Club of San Francisco. They were each worth about $30 to $50.

The commission says Williams returned the cardholders after being informed that he was caught on video.

The judge expressed remorse and said he had an “unexplainable impulse” to take the cardholders.

Georgia
Jury awards $3.9M to family of film worker killed by train
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A jury awarded $3.9 million Monday to the family of a movie worker killed on a Georgia railroad bridge in 2014, finding the railroad’s owner shared in the blame for the deadly freight train collision even though the film crew was trespassing.

The parents of Sarah Jones sued CSX Transportation in Chatham County State Court, saying the railroad shared in the blame for their daughter’s death. The 27-year-old camera assistant died in the crash Feb. 20, 2014, during the first day of shooting “Midnight Rider,” an ill-fated movie about Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band.

“CSX is deeply sympathetic to the terrible loss suffered by the family of Ms. Sarah Jones, but respectfully disagrees with the conclusions reached by the jury today and will appeal,” said Rob Doolittle, a spokesman at the Jacksonville, Fla.-based company.

The film’s director, Randall Miller, served a year in jail after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing charges. Jones’ parents, Richard and Elizabeth Jones of Columbia, South Carolina, said CSX also failed to take precautions that could have averted the crash on a trestle spanning the Altamaha River near Jesup in southeast Georgia.

The jury in Savannah heard testimony during the civil trial that two CSX trains rolled through while the movie crew stood on both sides of the tracks within an hour before the crash, but the operators of those trains never called dispatchers to alert them. Jurors also were shown a CSX policy that train operators are expected to immediately report trespassers on its tracks and rights of way.

Jeffrey Harris, the Jones family’s attorney, also noted that the train’s brakes weren’t applied until after the locomotive struck a hospital bed the filmmakers had placed across the tracks. Actor William Hurt, hired to play Allman, had been lying in the bed before the train came upon the crew at 53 mph (85 kph). Hurt escaped unharmed.

Six crew members were injured by flying shrapnel from the bed. Jones was run over.

CSX attorneys blamed the crash entirely on the filmmakers. CSX officials had twice sent production managers emails denying them permission to shoot on the bridge. Three of Jones’ co-workers testified that production managers never told the rest of the crew members, who went onto the railroad trestle unaware they were trespassing.

CSX lawyers argued that evidence of failures to follow company policies doesn’t prove the railroad was negligent. They said the engineer in the crash didn’t brake sooner because he was afraid the train would derail and possibly dump its payload of shipping containers onto people who were huddled on the bridge’s narrow walkway beside the tracks.

The crash ended production on “Midnight Rider,” which has remained in limbo. Allman went to court to prevent Miller from reviving it before he died in May at age 69.


Massachusetts
Suspect in fatal stabbing says he was held against his will for hours
WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts teenager charged with fatally stabbing a woman in a rooming house told police he did not know the victim and she had held him against his will for two hours.

Eighteen-year-old Derrick Lopez was held without bail Monday after pleading not guilty to murder and other charges in the death of 36-year-old Christin Tobin. She was found dead early Saturday morning in her room at a Waltham rooming house.

Lopez told police he did not know Tobin, but had seen her on the porch and asked to use her bathroom. Lopez says Tobin then held him at knifepoint.

Police went to the house after being waved down by Lopez’s cousin, who said Lopez was being held hostage.

Lopez’s lawyer declined comment, but relatives say Lopez has a mental disability and was framed.

Ohio
Supt. in rape case appeals unpaid leave
BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio school superintendent accused of sexually assaulting a young girl is appealing his district’s decision to put him on unpaid leave.

Patrick O’Donnell, of Lewistown, is expected to get a public hearing with the Indian Lake Schools board in Logan County once the Ohio Department of Education provides the required referee for the proceeding.

The 52-year-old O’Donnell has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape, sexual battery and gross sexual imposition of a girl younger than 13. A court affidavit says the child alleged that O’Donnell touched her inappropriately and his wife, who is also a superintendent, failed to report the allegations to police.

Forty-six-year-old Heather O’Donnell, superintendent of Midwest Regional Education Services Center in Bellefontaine, has pleaded not guilty to child endangering charges.

Pennsylvania
Former attorney given 2-year prison sentence for mail fraud
SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — A former Pennsylvania attorney who defrauded dozens of homeowners out of more than $69,000 has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Forty-eight-year-old Susan Kevra-Shiner, who owned a company in Avoca that sold insurance policies, was sentenced by a federal judge in Scranton on Monday. She was previously convicted on seven counts of mail fraud.

According to prosecutors, Kevra-Shiner sold fraudulent insurance policies through her company after her insurance underwriter, Stewart Title Guaranty Company, terminated their business relationship in 2008.

She defrauded 69 people with these invalid policies and must repay them in full as part of her sentence. Kevra-Shiner will also face three years’ probation after her release from prison.