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Beaumont man pleads guilty to Rita fraud
Court Watch | 2008/02/20 01:38
A Beaumont man has pleaded guilty to making a false statement to FEMA in seeking disaster relief after Hurricane Rita.

Wilyum Henderson, 50, entered the plea Tuesday in federal court in Beaumont.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Henderson filed a fake claim with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster housing and individual assistance for losses from the hurricane that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. He received $2,000 in assistance.

Henderson could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000. A sentencing date hasn't been set.



Court orders whistle-blower site offline in U.S.
Court Watch | 2008/02/19 09:11

A California district court has shut down a controversial Web site in the U.S. that allows whistle-blowers to post corporate and government documents online anonymously. A site known as Wikileaks.org has been taken offline in the U.S. due to a court order from the U.S. District Court in San Francisco. However, the site remains online in other countries, including Belgium and Germany.

The order in the U.S. came after a Swiss bank, the Julius Baer Group, filed a complaint earlier this month against the site and San Mateo, Calif.-based Dynadot LLC, Wikileaks' domain name registry, for posting several hundred of the bank's documents.

Some of those documents allegedly reveal that the Julius Baer Group was involved in offshore money laundering and tax evasion in the Cayman Islands for customers in several countries, including the U.S.

The court ordered that "Dynadot shall immediately clear and remove all DNS-hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name," according to court documents. It also said that Dynadot should prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org Web site, or any other Web site or server other than a blank park page until further notice.

A spokesman for the Julius Baer Group could not be reached for comment Monday.

According to its Web site, the purpose of Wikileaks, founded in 2006, is to develop "an uncensorable system for untraceable mass document leaking and public analysis."

Wikileaks has been plagued by controversy since its inception, coming under fire from institutions whose confidential documents have been posted on the site and from critics who have questioned the motives of the site's founders. Still, others have praised the site for supporting the free dissemination of information.

Wikileaks posted a press statement on its site about the U.S. order, calling it "clearly unconstitutional" and said it "exceeds its jurisdiction."



Court Won't Hear Ex-Ala. Coaches' Appeal
Court Watch | 2008/02/19 05:07
The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an appeal from two former Alabama assistant football coaches who lost their jobs following an NCAA investigation of the Crimson Tide's football program.

The justices rejected the case of Ronnie Cottrell and Ivy Williams without comment.

Cottrell and Williams sued the NCAA and recruiting analyst Tom Culpepper for defamation, claiming they were unable to find comparable employment following the NCAA's investigation of Alabama. The football program was placed on probation and received other sanctions for rules violations.

Cottrell won a $30 million judgment against Culpepper, but the trial judge threw out the verdict and ordered a new trial. The Alabama Supreme Court upheld that ruling, as well as others that eliminated Williams as a plaintiff and the NCAA as a defendant.

Cottrell still is entitled to a new trial, but could find it harder to prove his claims under the Alabama high court ruling.



Court declares Steve Fossett legally dead
Court Watch | 2008/02/16 12:58

Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett has been declared dead by a Chicago judge five months after his plane disappeared.

The 63-year-old went missing on September 3 after taking off in a single-engined plane from a Nevada airstrip.

His wife had asked for him to be declared legally dead.

The judge heard testimony from Mr Fossett's wife, Peggy, and a family friend, as well as from a search-and-rescue expert, before deciding there was sufficient evidence to declare him dead.

Mr Fossett earned millions of dollars trading futures and options on Chicago exchanges.

Attorneys representing his estate had filed a petition to have him declared legally dead so his assets could be distributed according to his will.

Mr Fossett was a record-setting balloonist, sailor and pilot who completed non-stop flights around the world.

Mrs Fossett's lawyer, Michael LoVallo, said: "It was very sad and at first she hoped and sort-of envisioned him walking down the road the next day with another story to tell.

"But as the days went on, she realised it wasn't going to happen as it had on other occasions when he'd had close calls."

Mr Fossett was on a pleasure flight when he vanished and was not looking for a dry lake bed to use as a surface on which to set the world land speed record, as was initially reported.



Cop may plead guilty to bar beating
Court Watch | 2008/02/15 06:53

The burly Chicago cop whose alleged beating of a female bartender was caught on videotape -- might be ready to plead guilty, his lawyer said Wednesday.

But the alleged victim, Karolina Obrycka, told the Chicago Sun-Times she is still reeling from the attack. "I'm still afraid of big guys," she said.

Abbate, 39, is charged with the Feb. 19, 2007, beating of the 115-pound Obrycka at Jesse's Shortstop Inn on the Northwest Side. Abbate faces up to five years in prison.

"There is a possibility" Abbate will plead guilty, his lawyer Peter Hickey said. "How firm that possibility is, I really don't know.

"The judge is going to make an offer, and it's going to be up to Mr. Abbate to decide if he wants to take it."

Hickey signaled Abbate's interest by requesting a "402 conference," in which prosecutors, defense lawyers and a judge discuss a possible plea deal. After the request, Hickey, prosecutors and Judge John Fleming met for more than an hour.

Though Abbate could get probation, a source with knowledge of the case said any plea deal would involve jail time.

Before the conference, Abbate -- sporting a handlebar mustache -- sat in the back of the courtroom with Hickey signing papers. Hickey later asked Fleming to order a pre-sentence investigation. Abbate will appear in court again March 11.

According to a lawsuit filed by Obrycka, Abbate "erupted into a violent fit" after she refused to serve him because he seemed intoxicated. Security videotape caught Abbate beating Obrycka and gained worldwide attention last year after it was made public.

After the beating, Abbate allegedly threatened Obrycka and others through intermediaries to keep them quiet, prosecutors said. Abbate is charged with aggravated battery in a public place, official misconduct, conspiracy, intimidation, and communicating with a witness.

He has been suspended without pay, said police spokeswoman Monique Bond.

Obrycka said she trusts Fleming to impose the appropriate sentence. Her life has changed since the beating, she said, and last October, she got married. "I still have nightmares, but not as much because my husband is taking care of me," she said.





NJ Boy, 9, Found Guilty in Daycare Death
Court Watch | 2008/02/15 06:48
A 9-year-old boy accused in the beating death of a toddler at a day care center last summer has been found guilty of the juvenile equivalent of manslaughter.

The boy, identified only as "J.L.," was "adjudicated delinquent" and sentenced to 18 months probation. He must continue the counseling and therapy he is already undergoing, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office said Thursday night.

Prosecutors had sought to have the youth serve a three-year sentence at a juvenile facility, the maximum allowed under law.

The boy was originally charged with aggravated manslaughter in the Aug. 23 death of 11-month-old Tahir Francis of Carteret, who died from head injuries after being kicked at the Beverly Bryant Family Day Care facility in Woodbridge Township.

It is still not clear what provoked the attack.

Beverly Bryant, 64, who operated the licensed facility out of her home, was not in the room when the infant was kicked. Authorities have said Bryant was distracted by a phone call and other home chores.

The center was ordered closed and Bryant was charged with child endangerment. She has pleaded not guilty.



Former Hill Aide Guilty on Porn Charge
Court Watch | 2008/02/15 03:50
A former aide to Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal child pornography charge.

James Michael McHaney of Washington, D.C., faces up to 10 years in prison after his felony conviction. He was fired from his job as a scheduler for Cantwell after his arrest last year. Earlier, he had worked for the 2004 presidential campaigns of Democrats Dick Gephardt and John Kerry.

Prosecutors say McHaney, 28, tried to arrange a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old boy last November. Police later found child pornography in his car and home.

He was initially charged with attempting to sexually exploit a minor, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of possession of child pornography. Prosecutors said he had more than 1,000 images of child pornography, as well as videos and DVDs portraying children as young as three engaged in sexual conduct.

McHaney's lawyer, Thomas Abbenante, called the case "a very tragic situation" for McHaney and his family. McHaney's parents were in court Thursday as U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan approved the plea agreement.

The parents declined to comment, as did Assistant U.S. Attorney Jean Sexton, who prosecuted the case.



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