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Court Reiterates $82.6M Award for Woman
Court Feed News |
2008/03/11 16:46
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A California appeals court said a woman who was paralyzed after her Ford Explorer rolled over is entitled to $82.6 million in damages from the automaker. The 4th District Court of Appeal was asked by the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case after Ford Motor Co. appealed the award, arguing that it was being punished even though the design of the vehicle met federal safety standards. Benetta Buell-Wilson was driving on an interstate east of San Diego in January 2002 when she swerved to avoid a metal object and lost control of her 1997 Explorer, which rolled 4 1/2 times. The mother of two was paralyzed from the waist down when the roof collapsed on her neck, severing her spine. A jury initially awarded Buell-Wilson $369 million, including $246 million in punitive damages but courts twice cut the size of the award. The $82.6 million approved by the appeals court Monday includes punitive damages of $55 million. The Supreme Court wanted the appeals court to determine if its ruling was in line with an earlier Supreme Court decision overturning a $79.5 million punitive damages award in a tobacco case. |
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Ga. Court Shooting Trial Resumes in July
Court Feed News |
2008/03/11 14:44
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The murder trial of accused courthouse shooter Brian Nichols will resume July 10, a judge decided Monday even as he considered hearing the three-year-old case at another courthouse. The trial was suspended during jury selection in October because of problems funding Nichols' defense. Those problems have not been completely resolved, but Judge James Bodiford has sought to move the case along. The case will resume with the same jury pool on a date roughly midway between what prosecutors and defense attorneys had sought. At the hearing Monday, prosecutors asked that the trial resume June 16 while the defense wanted a Sept. 8 date. "This case needs a start date, a real start date," Bodiford said. Now, the question is where to hold the trial. Up until now, the plan was to hold the trial in the Fulton County Courthouse complex, where the March 11, 2005, shooting spree began. Defense lawyers had previously asked that the trial be moved to another location in the county, but that request was denied by the previous judge overseeing the case because no other courthouse was suitable or was willing to host the trial. |
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Court Officer Guilty Of Taking Cash
Court Feed News |
2008/03/08 09:11
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A state court security officer on Friday admitted taking cash payments from bail bondsmen, the latest development in a continuing investigation of the Connecticut bail bond industry. Jill D'Antona, a judicial marshal employed at the Superior Court on Elm Street in New Haven, pleaded guilty in federal court to soliciting and accepting a gratuity. In her position, which her superiors said she is in the process of resigning, D'Antona, 37, of Seymour, was assigned to courthouse security and prisoner transportation duties. D'Antona is accused of taking thousands of dollars over at least five years from Robert and Philip Jacobs, two of the three principals in a family-owned bail bond business operating in greater New Haven. The Jacobses, who were charged earlier in connection with the same investigation, have admitted paying D'Antona for using her official position to get them business.
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Investor Pleads Not Guilty in Conspiracy
Court Feed News |
2008/03/07 16:34
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An associate of indicted Rep. Rick Renzi pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges he conspired with the congressman to use his office for financial gain. Real estate investor James W. Sandlin is accused in a 27-count indictment along with Renzi with extortion and conspiring to promote a land swap. The charges include wire fraud, extortion and money laundering and conspiracy. Sandlin, 56, of Sherman, Texas, was released without bail after his arraignment in U.S. District Court in Tucson. He and his lawyer declined to comment. Renzi pleaded not guilty to the charges on Tuesday. Both are due back in court April 29. The indictment accuses Renzi of telling groups seeking to get the surface rights to an Arizona copper deposit that they would have to buy land owned by Sandlin to win required congressional approval for the land exchange. After an investment group agreed to buy the land, Renzi received $733,000 from Sandlin, the indictment said. Sandlin had owed Renzi money from a previous land deal. Renzi and another co-defendant are also charged with eight other counts. Renzi will stay in office, his lawyer Reid Weingarten said. Renzi, a three-term Republican whose 1st Congressional District covers most of northeastern Arizona, announced last year that he would not seek re-election. |
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Court Order Sought in E-Mail Controversy
Court Feed News |
2008/03/07 16:31
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A private group told a federal court that the Bush administration made apparently false and misleading statements in court about the White House e-mail controversy. The group asked the judge on Thursday to demand an explanation regarding alleged inconsistencies between testimony at a congressional hearing last week and what the White House told a federal court in January. "This evidence demonstrates defendants' blatant disregard for the truth and the processes of this court," Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy in court papers. CREW wants the judge to compel the Executive Office of the President to explain why it should not be held in contempt of court. In a sworn declaration, White House official Theresa Payton told the court on Jan. 16 that "substantially all" e-mails from 2003 to 2005 should be contained on back-up computer tapes. However, at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Feb. 26, the panel's Democrats released a White House document that called that claim into question. E-mail was missing from a White House archive for the period of Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2003 from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, the White House document states. The backup tape covering that seven-day period was not created until Oct. 21, 2003, raising the possibility that e-mail was missing from the earlier period. That time span was in the earliest days of the Justice Department's probe into whether anyone at the White House leaked the CIA identity of Valerie Plame. Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was eventually convicted by a jury of four felonies in the leak probe. The congressional panel also released written statements by a former White House technical supervisor saying that a 15-person team conducted an extensive multi-phase assessment that resulted in a final 250-page analysis on the problem of missing White House e-mail. In her sworn declaration to the federal court in January, the White House official said she was aware of a chart created by a former employee regarding missing e-mails, but said nothing about the 250-page analysis. |
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Man Pleads Guilty in Missing Girl Case
Court Feed News |
2008/03/06 12:36
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A man has pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Connecticut girl found at his home after a yearlong disappearance. Prosecutors are recommending a 30-year prison sentence for 42-year-old Adam Gault of West Hartford. Judge David Gold indicated Wednesday that he will order at least 20 years in prison. Gault pleaded guilty to eight charges, including second-degree sexual assault and kidnapping. Authorities say the girl was 14 when she ran away from home to live with Gault in 2006. Police, who feared she was dead, found her hiding in a small storage area during a search of Gault's home last June. Gault's wife and another woman living with him were also arrested. |
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