Police resumed their search Monday for possible links to unsolved crimes at the home of the Northern California sex offender charged with kidnapping a little girl and hiding her in his backyard for 18 years.

Three agencies in the San Francisco Bay area were looking through Phillip Garrido's property in Antioch for the fourth day, seeking evidence that might help solve cold cases.

Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were charged last week in the abduction, rape and imprisonment of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was taken outside her home in South Lake Tahoe. They have pleaded not guilty to 29 counts.

Antioch and Contra Costa County authorities have not provided many details about what they are seeking at the property.

Police in the nearby city of Pittsburg, however, have said they are investigating whether Garrido, 58, was involved in the murders of prostitutes in the 1990s.

Over the weekend, authorities also roped off a next door neighbor's backyard where Garrido once lived in a shed. Neighbors say he once worked as the property caretaker and helped out an elderly man who lived there several years ago.

A fashion designer convicted of sexually assaulting aspiring models has asked a judge for a new trial, citing alleged juror and prosecutorial misconduct.

Anand Jon Alexander, awaiting sentencing, made an eloquent and impassioned plea Monday for a new trial. The 35-year-old, who is representing himself, says the jury that convicted him in November of 14 counts was not fair or impartial.

Superior Court Judge David Wesley denied Alexander a new trial earlier when the motion was made by a team of attorneys for the designer. He did not rule on Alexander's motion before breaking for lunch.

The designer has been featured on the television show "America's Next Top Model" and worked with such celebrities as Paris Hilton and Mary J. Blige.

A man accused in a scheme to illegally ship nearly $300 million in Chinese-made ammunition to the Afghan military has agreed to a plea deal that recommends he serve just two years of probation.

Under the deal, prosecutors will drop 84 counts of wrongdoing in exchange for 23-year-old Efraim Diveroli of Miami Beach pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge. He will also be fined $500,000.

Diveroli's AEY Inc. was awarded a $298 million U.S. Army contract to provide the ammuminition to Afghanistan. The contract forbade exporting Chinese ammunition, but prosecutors say the company did it anyway and claimed the rounds were from Albania.

Sentencing is scheduled for November 10.

A rural Virginia sheriff accused of taking bribes in exchange for promising not to interfere with a cockfighting ring has pleaded guilty to racketeering.

According to court documents, former Page County Sheriff Daniel Presgraves entered the plea Friday. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Presgraves had faced racketeering, conspiracy and other charges, including that he sexually assaulted and harassed female employees. Another indictment in June charged him with lying to an FBI agent.

Those charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement.

James Davis, 60 years old, is cooperating with federal prosecutors, who are mounting a case against the chief executive of Stanford, R. Allen Stanford. Mr. Stanford was hospitalized Thursday morning because of a rapid heart beat.

Mr. Davis is facing up to 30 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud as well as mail fraud and conspiracy to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. The government is seeking $1 billion from Mr. Davis.

"I did wrong. I'm sorry," Davis, the former Stanford chief financial officer said outside a Houston courthouse, after pleading guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges. "I apologize. I take responsibility for my actions."

Mr. Davis doesn't have the money, his attorney David Finn said.

Mr. Davis's assets have been frozen. He is living in Michigan and working a $10-an-hour manual labor job on a family farm in order to pay for his legal fees, Mr. Finn said.

The comedian and author of the best-selling book "Too Fat to Fish" originally was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday for a pretrial conference. That date is changed to Sept. 9.

Lange was charged following a minor traffic accident last month in Toms River, about 50 miles south-southwest of New York City.

Police say Lange's vehicle struck the back of another vehicle. They say no one was injured.

Defense lawyer Michael Grasso entered a not guilty plea for Lange on July 14. He says the 41-year-old Lange passed an alcohol screening test after the accident.