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Law
Ex-justice of the peace charged in Texas slayings – CNN.com
(CNN)
A former justice of the peace now faces capital murder charges in the killings of two Texas prosecutors and the wife of one of them, authorities announced Thursday.
Eric Williams’ bail has been set at $23 million in the March killings of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, and the January slaying of Mark Hasse, one of McLelland’s assistant district attorneys. Williams was already in jail on a charge of threatening investigators probing the killings, and his wife had been charged with murder on Wednesday.
“The murder of a public official, such as a judge a prosecutor or a law-enforcement officer, is an assault on all the people of the state, because it’s an attack of the rule of law,” said Kirby Dendy, chief of the Texas Rangers.
via Ex-justice of the peace charged in Texas slayings – CNN.com.
BBC News – Samsung and Apple’s patent clash heads to trial by jury
Samsung and Apple’s patent battle heads to a court in California this Monday – one of the biggest trials of its kind.
The tech firms have accused each other of intellectual property infringement.
Billions of dollars of payments could be triggered from one business to the other and sales bans imposed if the jury finds one or both parties guilty.
Submitted documents and testimony are also likely to throw fresh light on decision making processes and deals made by the two tech firms with others.
Together the two companies account for more than half of all the world’s smartphone sales.
Despite the fact that Apple buys many of its components from Samsung, the two have failed to agree cross-licencing deals even after the courts forced their bosses to meet for talks.
via BBC News – Samsung and Apple’s patent clash heads to trial by jury.
Wikipedia: Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of expressions for which a set of rights are recognized under the corresponding fields of law. →
Disturbing e-mails could spell more trouble for Penn State officials – CNN.com
(CNN) — With convicted serial child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky behind bars, new questions are surfacing about what Penn State officials knew about a 2001 incident involving the former assistant football coach’s encounter with a boy in the shower — and whether they covered up the incident.
After the 2001 incident, Sandusky sexually abused other boys over the course of years until his arrest.
CNN does not have the purported e-mails. However, the alleged contents were made available to CNN.
The messages indicate former Penn State President Graham Spanier and two other former university officials knew they had a problem with Sandusky after a 2001 shower incident, but apparently first decided to handle it using a “humane” approach before contacting outside authorities whose job it is to investigate suspected abuse.
“This is a more humane and upfront way to handle this,’ wrote Gary Schultz, then vice president at the university.
Records show no authorities were ever contacted and Sandusky was eventually charged with having sexual contact with four more boys after the 2001 incident. On June 22, Sandusky was convicted of abusing 10 boys over 15 years.
Painful chapter closes with Sandusky’s conviction for child sex abuse
In an exchange of messages from February 26-28, 2001, Spanier allegedly acknowledges Penn State could be “vulnerable” for not reporting the incident, according to two sources with knowledge of the case.
“The only downside for us is if the message (to Sandusky) isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it,” Spanier purportedly writes.
The alleged e-mails among Spanier, Schultz, 62, and former Athletic Director Tim Curley, 57, never mention Sandusky by name, instead referring to him as “the subject” and “the person.” Children that Sandusky brought on campus –some of whom might have been victims — are referred to as “guests.”
The exchanges began 16 days after graduate assistant Mike McQueary first told Coach Joe Paterno on February 9, 2001, that McQueary believed he saw Sandusky make sexual contact with a boy in a locker room shower.
Since the scandal broke, Spanier, Schultz and Curley have publicly maintained McQueary reported only inappropriate conduct — horsing around. The purported e-mails indicate the men could be at additional risk for not disclosing the matter to authorities. Schultz and Curley are currently charged with perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse. They have pleaded not guilty.
Paterno testified before a grand jury that McQueary was “very upset” and said he saw Sandusky “doing something with a youngster. It was a sexual nature,” according to a transcript. Paterno testified he told his boss, Curley. Curley and Schultz contacted McQueary about a week and half later about the incident.
In an alleged e-mail dated February 26, 2001, Schultz writes to Curley that he assumes Curley’s “got the ball” about a three-part plan to “talk with the subject asap regarding the future appropriate use of the University facility,” … “contacting the chair of the charitable organization” and “contacting the Department of Welfare,” according to a source with knowledge of the case.
Schultz refers to Sandusky as the “subject” and Sandusky’s Second Mile charity as the “charitable organization,” according to a source with knowledge of the e-mails.
Pennsylvania law requires suspected child abuse be reported to outside authorities, including the state’s child welfare agencies.
But then, something changes.
The next evening, February 27, Curley allegedly writes to Spanier. Schultz, who’s out of the office for two weeks, is copied.
Victim No. 6: Violation and vindication
Curley refers to a meeting scheduled that day with Spanier and indicates they apparently discussed the Sandusky incident two days earlier.
Curley indicates he no longer wants to contact child welfare authorities just yet. He refers to a conversation the day before with Paterno. It’s not known what Paterno may have said to Curley.
Curley writes: “After giving it more thought and talking it over with Joe yesterday, I am uncomfortable with what we agreed were the next steps.”
The athletic director apparently preferred to keep the situation an internal affair and talk things over with Sandusky instead of notifying the state’s child welfare agency to investigate Sandusky’s suspicious activity.
“I am having trouble with going to everyone, but the person involved,” Curley allegedly continues.
Curley writes he’d be “more comfortable” meeting with Sandusky himself and telling him they know about the 2001 incident and — according to a source with knowledge of the case — refers to another shower incident with a boy in 1998 that was investigated by police, but never resulted in charges against Sandusky.
Curley writes to Penn State’s president Spanier that he wants to meet with Sandusky, tell him there’s “a problem,” and that “we want to assist the individual to get professional help.”
In the same purported e-mail provided to CNN, Curley goes on to suggest that if Sandusky “is cooperative,” Penn State “would work with him” to tell Second Mile. If not, Curley states, the university will inform both Second Mile and outside authorities.
Sandusky’s ‘make-believe world’
Curley adds that he intends to inform Sandusky that his “guests” won’t be allowed to use Penn State facilities anymore.
“What do you think of this approach?” Curley allegedly wrote to Spanier.
About two hours later, Spanier responded to Curley in another e-mail and copied Schultz. Spanier allegedly called the plan “acceptable”, but worries whether it’s the right thing to do, according to two sources.
“The only downside for us is if the message (to Sandusky) isn’t ‘heard’ and acted upon, and we then become vulnerable for not having reported it,” Spanier purportedly wrote.
“But that can be assessed down the down the road. The approach you outline is humane and a reasonable way to proceed,” he adds.
The next afternoon, Schultz allegedly responded to the Penn State president and its athletic director. Schultz signs off on handling the matter without telling anyone on the outside, at least for now.
“This is a more humane and upfront way to handle this,’ Schultz purportedly wrote. But he made clear Penn State should inform Sandusky’s charity Second Mile “with or without (Sandusky’s) cooperation.”
As for telling child welfare authorities, he added, “we can play it by ear.”
No one ever reported the 2001 shower incident. A decade later, a 2011 grand jury found no Pennsylvania law enforcement or child welfare agency was ever told.
“It was not only not humane to give Sandusky a pass, but inhumane towards young men who fell prey to him,” said attorney Tom Kline, who represents Victim 5. About six months after the February 2001 incident witnessed by McQueary, Victim 5 was molested. Last week, Sandusky was convicted of having unlawful sexual contact with Victim 5, among 44 other counts involving nine other boys.
Schultz and Curley already are charged with perjury fofr allegedly lying to a grand jury and failure to reported suspected child abuse.
Sources say based on the e-mails and other documents, they could face additional charges. Spanier, sources say, could also be charged, law enforcement sources and legal experts say.
As part of an ongoing grand jury investigation, state prosecutors are pouring over the e-mails turned over by Penn State as part of its own investigation, led by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
According to court papers, the government is also examining a Sandusky file left behind by Schultz. In a statement, Schultz’s attorney Tom Farrell says Schultz who retired in 2009, did not keep any “secret” files.
Muralist replaces Sandusky image; Penn State looks to cases ahead
Prosecutors say the file was created, maintained, and possessed by Schultz and assert documents in the file are “inconsistent” with statements made by Schultz and Curley to a grand jury.
One inconsistency may involve Schultz’s grand jury testimony stating the state’s child welfare agency was notified about the 2001 shower incident. “My recollection would be … (in 2002) … that they were asked to look into this allegation,” Schultz testified.
He also testified any notes he “probably” took about the 2002 incident may have been destroyed when he retired in 2009.
Curley’s grand jury testimony also appears inconsistent with the e-mails. In the messages, he refers to “a first situation” in 1998, yet he told a grand jury he wasn’t aware of any other allegations of alleged sexual conduct involving Sandusky.
A prosecutor asked Curley: “Specifically, a 1998 report, did you know anything about that in 2002?” Curley responded: “No, ma’am.”
Schultz and Curley, through their lawyers, consistently maintain McQueary didn’t tell them about a sexual assault in 2001, and instead said McQueary described “inappropriate conduct” or horsing around.
McQueary has repeatedly testified he told Penn State officials he saw a boy with his hands up against a wall with Sandusky behind him and heard slapping, rhythmic sounds. He added that someone wouldn’t have to be “a rocket scientist” to figure out what was going on.
A jury acquitted Sandusky of rape involving the 2001 incident, and instead found Sandusky guilty of several other counts involved in that shower incident including unlawful sexual contact.
Spanier’s lawyer did not respond to calls from CNN seeking comment for this story.
According to Penn State’s board of trustees, Spanier was fired last year because “he failed to meet his leadership responsibilities.”
Shortly after his dismissal, Spanier issued a statement that said, in part, “I was stunned and outraged to learn that any predatory act might have occurred in a university facility or by someone associated with the university. … I would never hesitate to report a crime if I had any suspicion that one had been committed.”
In a statement to CNN, lawyers for Schultz and Curley said both men were doing the best they could about a report of “inappropriate conduct” by a man with a stellar reputation.
“As Governor Tom Corbett stated, ‘If we were going to do this case, we had to have the best possible case to go against somebody like Mr. Sandusky who was … loved by everybody. Carried out of the football stadium on the shoulders of his football team. How can anybody say there must be something wrong with him?’” the lawyers’ statement read, citing Corbett’s remarks in a June 25 article by The Patriot News.
“For Curley, Schultz, Spanier and Paterno, the responsible and ‘humane’ thing to do was, like Governor Corbett (said), to carefully and responsibly assess the best way to handle vague, but troubling allegations. Faced with tough situations, good people try to do their best to make the right decisions.”
A spokesman for Paterno’s family, who has not seen any e-mails, told CNN Paterno didn’t communicate by e-mail and defended the coach.
“Everyone should want the truth … and Joe always told the truth,” Dan McGinn told CNN. “He did the right thing. He told his boss about McQueary.”
One thing is clear. There’s no evidence Penn State did anything to find the boy involved in the 2001 incident.
The night Sandusky was led away in handcuffs, Penn State issued a statement calling for healing. So did the family of Joe Paterno.
Healing might take time. Everyone is waiting for the results of Freeh’s investigation, anticipated by this fall. It’s unclear when state investigators will finish their work. The Justice Department is also conducting a probe, as is the U.S. Department of Education and the NCAA.
And Penn State is already reaching out to attorneys representing Sandusky’s victims.
Their lawsuits have yet to be filed.
Kline, Victim 5′s attorney, said he wants to see the results of Penn State’s investigation.
“Everything we saw in this trial could have been stopped by Penn State,” Kline told CNN.
“This is an American tragedy of monumental proportions.”
Matt Sandusky describes alleged abuse
CNN’s Dana Garrett and Chris Boyette contributed to this report
via Disturbing e-mails could spell more trouble for Penn State officials – CNN.com.
Wikipedia: schultz definition: Theodore 1902–1998 American economist. →
BBC News – Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales banned by US court
A court has banned sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US while it decides on the firm’s patent dispute with Apple.
Apple has claimed that Samsung infringed its design patent and copied the look of its popular device, the iPad.
The Samsung tablet is considered by most analysts as the biggest rival to Apple’s iPad.
The ban does not apply to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 II, the tablet’s new edition.
The trial for the case is scheduled to begin in California on 30 July.
Apple will have to post a $2.6m (£1.67m) bond to enforce the injunction, which it applied for in May, to compensate Samsung if the ban subsequently proves to have been unnecessary.
“Although Samsung has a right to compete, it does not have a right to compete unfairly, by flooding the market with infringing products,” said US District Judge Lucy Koh.
The judge had previously denied Apple’s appeal for an injunction on the Galaxy tablet and smartphones, but was asked by a federal appeals court to reconsider Apple’s request on the tablet PC.
In December 2011, a German court threw out Apple’s complaints about Samsung’s redesigned Galaxy 10.1N.
via BBC News – Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales banned by US court.
NYC subway bomb plotter found guilty on all counts – CNN.com
New York (CNN) — A Bosnian immigrant accused of plotting to bomb New York’s subway system as an “al Qaeda terrorist” has been found guilty on all counts, including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
via NYC subway bomb plotter found guilty on all counts – CNN.com.
Police chief in Trayvon Martin case to resign – CNN.com
(CNN) — Sanford, Florida, Police Chief Bill Lee is expected to resign Monday, 57 days after his department declined to arrest neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, according to a city official familiar with the matter.
Lee announced that he was temporarily stepping aside on March 22, a day after Sanford’s city commission expressed a lack of confidence in his handling of the incident.
At the time, Sanford police were under intense pressure to arrest Zimmerman, 28, for shooting the unarmed teen-ager. Zimmerman was later charged with second-degree murder after a special prosecutor investigated the case.
via Police chief in Trayvon Martin case to resign – CNN.com.
Zimmerman ‘sorry’ for loss of Martins’ son; bond set at $150,000 – This Just In – CNN.com Blogs
After George Zimmerman took the stand during his bond hearing and told Trayvon Martin’s parents that he was sorry for the loss of their son, a Florida judge Friday set Zimmerman’s bond at $150,000.
The judge set a number of conditions, including GPS monitoring. The judge said Zimmerman wouldn’t have the opportunity to be released Friday, because his attorney and state authorities needed to hammer out the monitoring and other logistics.
Friday’s bond hearing also included testimony from one of the state’s main investigators in the case, with Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara challenging the state’s assertions. Under questioning, the attorney said the state didn’t have evidence to contradict Zimmerman’s account that Martin started the fight that led to the shooting, but he did say evidence did call into question other parts of Zimmerman’s account.
Zimmerman, 28, was charged on April 11 in the February death of Trayvon Martin, after the case sparked a heated, national debate over racial profiling and saw thousands of protesters demand Zimmerman’s arrest. Martin’s family contends Zimmerman racially profiled their son, who was walking back from a convenience store in Sanford, Florida.
Apple, Google Shares Slump; Apple Falls Below $600 – MarketBeat – WSJ
By Steven Russolillo
…Apple and Google shares are both getting torched this morning amid an otherwise upbeat day in the broad market.
Shares of Apple and Google are each down more than 3%, with Apple falling below $600 for the first time since late March.
Apple shares are now down more than 9% since hitting its latest all-time high of $644 last week. Google is off more than 7% since reporting earnings late Thursday.
The tech heavyweights are dragging down the major indexes. At last check, the S&P 500 was up 2 points, or 0.2%, to 1373. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Comp dropped 0.7% to 2991.
Meanwhile the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which doesn’t include either company, is popping this morning, up 94 points, or 0.7%, to 12945.
via Apple, Google Shares Slump; Apple Falls Below $600 – MarketBeat – WSJ.
NH police chief killed days before retirement
(CNN) — A police chief from southeastern New Hampshire who planned to retire in a few days has been shot to death while trying to execute a search warrant, authorities said Friday.
Chief Michael Maloney of the police department in Greenland, a town of about 3,500, was killed in a shooting that wounded four other officers on Thursday night at a home in the community, said Attorney General Michael Delaney.
“This is a tragedy for our community,” he said. “Our law enforcement community is in mourning.”
Two suspects, a man and a woman, were found dead in the home after a long stand off, Delaney said. Investigators believe the deaths came from either a “murder-suicide” or a “double suicide,” he said.
Greenland is just south of the city of Portsmouth. Its police force has 10 members, the town says on its website.
During a news conference Friday, Delaney was asked why a police chief would be part of a dangerous mission so close to his retirement. He did not answer the question directly but said all the officers involved were part of a drug investigation.
The shootings come after a year in which U.S. cities saw an increase in officers killed.
The number of officers who died in the line of duty in 2011 increased 16% nationwide from last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
Last year, 177 officers were killed, compared with 153 in 2010, the organization said.
George Zimmerman charged, is in state custody – CNN.com
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Defense attorney asks that there be no rush to judgment
- Martin’s mother says family simply wanted an arrest
- Special prosecutor charges George Zimmerman with second-degree murder
- Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old Floridian who was killed on February 26
(CNN) — Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin and is in custody, a special prosecutor announced Wednesday.
Zimmerman, 28, was arrested on a warrant and was in the custody of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, his ne
via George Zimmerman charged, is in state custody – CNN.com.
Wikipedia: The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is a Florida government agency. →
