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Iowa hiring lawsuit begins Monday
Class Action News |
2011/09/12 14:48
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Trial in a class-action lawsuit alleging racial discrimination against blacks is set to begin in a Polk County District courtroom.
Earlier this month, a judge rejected the state's request to throw out the lawsuit against the state.
Judge Robert Blink disagreed with the state's argument that the case was too broad be legally viable. He said the state agreed years ago to certify the case for class action.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.
The lawsuit was filed in 2007 by 14 people who claim they were denied state positions because they are black. It's grown to cover an estimated 6,000 blacks who sought employment or promotions with the state since 2003. |
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Ex-Mormon bishop pleads guilty to child sex abuse
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/09/12 14:46
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A former Mormon bishop and co-founder of a nonprofit group that helps women and children in Third World villages faces sentencing in November for sexually abusing children.
Lon Harvey Kennard, 69, from Heber City, Utah, pleaded guilty this week to three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Each count involves a different victim, and carries a sentence of 5 years to life.
The victims were among six children the man and his wife adopted from Ethiopia, where the couple helped establish an orphanage.
The Associated Press isn't naming the man to protect the identity of the victims.
The couple's nonprofit organization provided services to destitute villages in Mexico, Central America, Africa and the Caribbean.
Kennard was initially charged with 43 counts stemming from abuse that began in 1995, around the time the defendant was bishop of his Latter-day Saints ward and one year after he and his wife started the nonprofit agency. |
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Ga. court upholds Open Meetings fines
Legal Career News |
2011/09/12 12:47
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Georgia's top court is requiring the city of Statesboro to pay the legal costs of residents who sued it for violating the state's Open Meetings Act.
The unanimous opinion released Monday upholds a Bulloch County judge's ruling that requires the city pay $4,250 in legal fees after it found the Statesboro mayor and city council met outside the Statesboro City Hall chambers to discuss the city's 2011 budget.
A group of residents sued the city, mayor and five council members and sought an injunction barring any more "secret" meetings, and the city appealed after a judge ruled against it in September 2010.
The opinion written by Justice Harold Melton says "the Open Records Act explicitly authorizes the assessment of attorney fees." |
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Va. high court considers ex-King confidant's case
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/09/12 11:46
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A lawyer has asked the Virginia Supreme Court to throw out the incest conviction of a former top adviser to Martin Luther King Jr.
The Rev. James Bevel, the architect of the 1963 Children's Crusade in Birmingham, Ala., died in 2008 at age 72 while his appeal was pending. His attorney, Bonnie Hoffman, is seeking what's known as an abatement. The idea is that a conviction is not final until the appeals process is complete.
However, Senior Assistant Attorney General Virginia Theisen (THIGH'-sun) said that under the law, convictions are presumed to be valid.
A Loudoun County judge refused to abate the conviction after hearing emotional testimony from Bevel's victim. The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld the decision.
A ruling by the Supreme Court is likely in early November. |
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Court to look at Mich. affirmative action ban
Court Feed News |
2011/09/11 15:46
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A federal appeals court says it will take a fresh look at a decision that overturned Michigan's ban on affirmative action in college admissions and government hiring.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Friday that a majority of judges agreed to take the case. That means a July 1 decision by a three-judge panel has been erased.
The panel had thrown out a law that bans the consideration of race in college admissions. Michigan voters had approved the ban in 2006. |
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W.Va. lawyer nominated to federal appeals court
Legal Career News |
2011/09/09 15:36
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President Barack Obama has nominated Hamlin native Stephanie Dawn Thacker as a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Thacker has been a partner in the Charleston law firm of Guthrie & Thomas since 2006.
Before that she spent seven years with the U.S. Department of Justice. Her work as a trial attorney there focused on prosecution and training in connection with child pornography and sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, obscenity and other offenses.
She also served as an assistant federal prosecutor and worked for the state attorney general's office.
The U.S. Senate must now consider Thacker's nomination to the Richmond, Va.-based court. The seat became vacant after the March death of Judge Blane Michael.
The 15-member court covers North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. |
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