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Together, Phoebe and Tyler alerted us to a crisis
Court Feed News |
2011/05/09 14:50
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Phoebe Prince was a recently arrived Irish immigrant, 15 and emotionally fragile, when high school bullying over two boys she dated apparently drove her to hang herself with a scarf in her Massachusetts home.
Tyler Clementi was an 18-year-old violinist with a bright future. He jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River after his roommate at Rutgers University allegedly used a webcam to spy on his same-sex liaison.
They never met each other, but together their ordeals put a spotlight on the harm caused by bullying and helped strengthen laws to crack down on what had until then been treated as a rite of adolescence.
"This prosecution has also shattered the myths that bullying is just part of growing up, that it affects only a small number of kids, and that kids can work it out themselves," said David Sullivan, a prosecutor in the Prince case. "The era of turning a blind eye to bullying and harassment is over."
Last week, five teenagers charged in the Prince case admitted in court that they participated in her bullying. In plea deals with prosecutors, they received probation and were ordered to perform community service. If they successfully complete their probation, the charges will be dropped. A statutory rape charge against a sixth teenager was dropped. |
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Hearing set in Palin stalker case
Court Feed News |
2011/05/09 11:51
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A court magistrate is set to consider a request by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to extend a restraining order against a 19-year-old Pennsylvania man accused of stalking her.
At Monday's hearing, a magistrate in Anchorage will consider extending the order against Shawn Christy of McAdoo by six months.
Palin, her father, Chuck Heath, and her friend, Kristan Cole, also have been seeking long-term protective orders against Christy's parents, Craig and Karen Christy.
Craig Christy is accused of barraging Palin's parents with harassing telephone messages, including 26 in one day, and contacting Cole's children on Facebook. Cole's request for a protective order against Karen Christy was denied last month.
Palin and Cole obtained original restraining orders against Shawn Christy last year. |
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2 teens in Mass. bullying case get probation
Court Feed News |
2011/05/04 11:52
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Two of the six teenagers charged with bullying a Massachusetts high school freshman so relentlessly that she committed suicide have been sentenced to a year of probation. Sean Mulveyhill pleaded guilty to criminal harassment Wednesday in Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court. Kayla Narey admitted to sufficient facts to the same charge, acknowledging the state could win conviction at trial. Both 18-year-olds were ordered to do 100 hours of community service to help at-risk children, complete their high school education and were barred from profiting from their involvement in the Phoebe Prince case. Prince, who moved to South Hadley from Ireland, hanged herself in January 2010 in her family's apartment about 100 miles west of Boston. Prosecutors say the 15-year-old had been relentlessly bullied at school. |
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Court sides with Wyoming in dispute with Montana
Court Feed News |
2011/05/01 09:31
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The Supreme Court says Wyoming is not taking too much water from a river system it shares with Montana.
The high court on Monday turned away Montana's complaint that Wyoming is taking too much water from the Tongue and Powder rivers in violation of a 1950 agreement between the states.
Montana claimed that more efficient irrigation in Wyoming is preventing runoff from rejoining the river and flowing downstream.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the 7-1 decision, which says more efficient irrigation is permissible to the detriment of downstream users. Justice Antonin Scalia was the only dissenting vote.
Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the case because she worked on it while in the solicitor general's office. |
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Pierre contract dispute goes before high court
Court Feed News |
2011/04/29 11:17
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The South Dakota Supreme Court has heard arguments in a dispute between Pierre and the union representing a majority of city workers.
The city a year ago imposed its final salary offer of a 1 percent raise for all employees and another 1 percent for eligible workers. A circuit court judge last fall ruled that the city was within its rights to do so. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49 appealed.
KCCR radio reports that union attorney Todd Love told Supreme Court justices Thursday that the city didn't follow proper procedure. The attorney for Pierre argued that the city dealt with the union in good faith and had no other alternative.
Justices will rule later. Meanwhile, the city and union will continue under terms of the 2009 contract. |
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Conn. high court hears death penalty appeal
Court Feed News |
2011/04/28 14:36
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A lawyer told the state Supreme Court yesterday that his client’s death penalty case was the weakest one ever to go before the high court, alleging that the jury was biased and that key evidence was improperly withheld from the trial.
Justices heard the appeal of former Torrington resident Eduardo Santiago, 31, who prosecutors say agreed in 2000 to kill a West Hartford man in exchange for a pink-striped snowmobile with a broken clutch. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2005 after a jury convicted him, despite no clear evidence that he was the one who pulled the rifle trigger.
Two other men are serving life prison sentences for the killing of Joseph Niwinski, 45, who was shot in the head while sleeping in his home.
Santiago’s lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Mark Rademacher, told the Supreme Court that there was no way a reasonable jury could have condemned Santiago. The defense presented 25 mitigating factors, including Santiago’s troubled childhood, for jurors to consider against the death penalty, while the state based its argument for execution on one aggravating factor, that Niwinski was killed in a murder-for-hire plot. |
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