A Florida grandmother injured in a fall aboard the Battleship New Jersey cannot sue its operators for damages, an appellate court has ruled.

The panel said the Home Port Alliance – which runs the ship as a museum and memorial on the Camden waterfront – has charitable immunity as a nonprofit educational facility. That protects charities from lawsuits when the injured person benefits “to whatever degree” from the nonprofit’s activities.

Patricia Zavilla broke her right knee when she fell on some stairs while touring the ship with her husband and young grandson in April 2008.

Zavilla claimed she was there only as a tourist and wasn’t part of the community that benefits from the group’s charitable work since she lives out of state.

The court, however, found Zavilla was giving a self-guided tour that “advanced (the Alliance’s) goal” of educating the public about the battleship’s history.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has reinstated a lawsuit against an attorney that was filed by a former client convicted of securities fraud.

Bryan Behrens had sought to sue Christian Blunk for more than $8 million due to Behrens client-investors. In court filings, Behrens says Blunk gave him bad advice and was to blame for the securities fraud. But a Douglas County district judge dismissed the case in March, because Behrens had sought Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination.

In the opinion issued Thursday, the high court says the judge was wrong to throw out the lawsuit and should have delayed the case until after Behrens' criminal trial.

Behrens, of Omaha, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was ordered to spend five years in prison and repay his victims.

A subway driver who authorities say was texting his girlfriend just before his trolley slammed into the back of another one near an underground station, injuring more than 60 people, pleaded guilty Wednesday and was sentenced to probation.

Aiden Quinn appeared in Suffolk Superior Court to plead guilty to gross negligence by a person in control of a common carrier. Judge Carol Ball sentenced him to two years probation and 100 hours of community service.

Quinn admitted typing a text message to his girlfriend just before the May 2009 rush-hour crash at the Government Center subway stop, prosecutors said. He ran through yellow and red warning lights and into the two-car train ahead of his. He was later fired.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Treseler asked Ball to sentence Quinn to six months in jail followed by probation, pointing to the injuries and cost of the accident.

Treseler said approximately 65 riders on the two trains sought medical care for injuries ranging from bumps and bruises to broken bones.

A judge dismissed a federal court filing by Ted Klaudt (klowt) that he's illegally imprisoned because of an insufficient indictment and a court that did not have jurisdiction.

The former state legislator from northwest South Dakota is serving 44 years for second-degree rape involving two foster girls who were given phony medical exams on the premise they could sell their reproductive eggs.

U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier dismissed as "frivolous" and "meritless" Klaudt's arguments that the trial court lacked jurisdiction because the American flag in the courtroom had fringe, making it a military tribunal, and because he later renounced his U.S. citizenship.

Acting as his own attorney, Klaudt wanted the court to call a grand jury to consider charges of treason against the governor, Supreme Court justices and others.

Conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats said he would consider supporting efforts to impeach the remaining four Iowa Supreme Court justices if they don't take his advice and voluntarily step down from the bench.

"Right now, I'm focused on the resignation piece, but I think if they don't do the right thing, we may have to look at other options," said Vander Plaats.

He argued that Chief Justice Mark Cady should announce the resignations in the annual report to the Legislature on the condition of the state's court system.

"I though Cady could make this part of his condition of the court address, saying we're going to step and this is how we're going to step down," said Vander Plaats.

A Florida businessman who once factored in the Smurfs cartoon empire lost a bid Tuesday to withdraw his guilty plea in an $11 million shakedown plot targeting his financier son-in-law.

With that, Stuart R. Ross was sentenced to the five years' probation he was promised when he pleaded guilty in August to attempted grand larceny. But his lawyer said he now plans to ask an appeals court to let Ross take back the plea, which he says Ross entered while pressured by medical problems.

In his plea, Ross admitted threatening to destroy son-in-law David S. Blitzer's professional reputation if not paid $5.5 million. Ross also acknowledged offering to give up any rights to see his grandchildren for another $5.5 million.

Ross, 74, agreed to plead guilty while jailed on $200,000 bond awaiting trial. He was contending with pneumonia, cancer and other health woes that weren't getting adequate care behind bars, and he took the plea deal to gain his freedom, lawyer Matthew Myers said outside court Tuesday.

"He was under tremendous duress," Myers said. "It's the only reason why he pled."

But state Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner rebuffed Ross' request to withdraw his plea. Defendants pleading guilty are routinely warned they can't revisit the decision and are asked to acknowledge they are indeed guilty.