| Defendants' parents speak | | Posted Sunday, January 21, 2007 12:45:30 PM by Blog57 Team | | LONG BEACH - A call for support, both spiritual and financial, was made at a community forum held Saturday on behalf of 10 local black youths who stand accused of felony assault and hate crimes in connection with the Halloween beatings of three white women in Bixby Knolls. Pastor Leon Wood started the 90-minute forum, held at the California Recreation Center, 1550 Martin Luther King Ave., with a prayer and called on those who attended to have compassion for the minors and their families. The minors have been charged in connection with an attack that left three women seriously injured after they left a haunted house on the 3800 block of Linden Avenue. Closing arguments in the case are scheduled to conclude this week and a ruling could come as early as Thursday. The pastor was joined by Elder Emmett Murrell, who compared the minors' case to other civil rights injustices including the death of Ron .... | |
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| | | Suit Seeks Attorneys For Defendants At First Bail Appearance | | Posted Wednesday, November 15, 2006 6:45:40 AM by Blog57 Team | | BALTIMORE, Md. -- A class action suit filed Tuesday that challenges a decades-old state practice said defendants are entitled to an attorney when they appear before a court commissioner after arrest. Defendants routinely appear alone before a commissioner who sets bail, which is later reviewed. Indigent defendants do not receive a public defender until after the initial appearance before a court commissioner. .... | |
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| | | Prison Sentences for Defendants in Two Perry County Meth Cases | | Posted Monday, November 06, 2006 10:46:06 PM by Blog57 Team | | PINCKNEYVILLE - Defendants in two separate meth-related cases were sentenced in Perry County Circuit Court this week to prison time in the Illinois Department of Corrections.On Monday, Rhonda K. Marshal, 49, Benton, entered a negotiated guilty plea to unlawful possession of a meth precursor, a class X felony.Prosecutors said that Marshall, along with co-defendant Johnny R. Willett, 42, also of Benton, illegally transported approximately 69 grams of crushed ephedrine, a substance used to manufacture methamphetamines, on Jan. 15. The pair allegedly planned to make between 20 and 100 grams of methamphetamines.As part of the plea agreement, class 3 felony charges of unlawful possession of anhydrous ammonia in an unauthorized container (accountability) and tampering with anhydrous ammonia equipment (accountability) were dismissed.... | |
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| | | Heat is on rest of Hamdania defendants to plead | | Posted Sunday, October 29, 2006 6:45:58 AM by Blog57 Team | | NORTH COUNTY ---- Pressure to resolve their cases without going to trial is mounting on the remaining six defendants in the slaying of an Iraqi civilian last spring, the mother of one of the Marines charged in the case said Friday."Things are getting pretty hard on the men," Diann Shumate said. "They are getting scared and there's a lot of pressure being put on them to take a plea deal." Her son, Lance Cpl. Jerry Shumate Jr., faces a court-martial early next year, as do four others from the 2nd platoon of Kilo Company attached to Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. .... | |
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| | | Pier 34 Defendants Present Their Case | | Posted Friday, October 20, 2006 6:45:34 PM by Blog57 Team | | The defense has begun presenting its case in the criminal trial stemming from the deadly Pier 34 collapse, attacking the character and credibility of the engineering company that repaired the pier and allegedly warned the defendants that the pier was about to collapse. The defense alleges that defendants Michael Asbell and Eli Karetny relied on the experts who inspected the pier and did repairs. And the defense denies one witness’ claim that he warned the defendants on the day of the collapse that the pier was about to fall apart. The defense contends that engineering company employees are only trying to cover up their shoddy repairs and in actions by pointing blame toward Asbell and Karetny. One defense witness has testified that the engineering company familiar with the pier's problems had a responsibility to contact authorities immediately. Former Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections commissioner Edward McLaughlin says if he had been notified, the place would have been shut down.... | |
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| | | Madison County weld rod trial getting under way | | Posted Friday, October 13, 2006 12:45:49 PM by Blog57 Team | | Madison County Circuit Judge Daniel Stack is picking a jury for a welding rod trial expected to last at least four weeks. Michael Haskell of Forsythe, Ill. filed suit against ESAB Group, the BOC Group and Lincoln Electric on Oct. 15, 2004, claiming his exposure to manganese-containing welding products caused him to suffer neurological injuries, including Parkinson's disease. Haskell, represented by Robert Bosslet of Granite City, claims the defendants were negligent and liable for failing to warn him of manganese exposure and liable for not providing fume extraction systems in the workplace. He is seeking damages in excess of $250,000. He claims the defendants should have known of the inherent health hazards of the products they sold, distributed or used.... | |
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| | | Twenty-Three Defendants Charged Federally and Stateside with Crack and Powder Cocaine Distribution in Bromley-Heath | | Posted Thursday, October 12, 2006 10:45:31 AM by Blog57 Team | | United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Daniel Conley, Suffolk County District Attorney; Kenneth W. Kaiser, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New England; and Albert Goslin, Acting Commissioner of the Boston Police Department, announced the unsealing today of twelve federal Indictments and one Complaint charging a total of eighteen defendants with distributing crack and powder cocaine in the Bromley-Heath housing development, in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston. Also, five individuals, three of whom under the age of 18, have been named in state charges alleging cocaine distribution. "This investigation reflects the commitment of the Department of Justice, including the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI, to work closely together with local and state agencies to bring federal resources to bear on community problems," stated U.S.... | |
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| | | Defendants cast doubt on Celona's credibility in corruption trial | | Posted Wednesday, October 04, 2006 2:45:36 AM by Blog57 Team | | PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The lawyers for three health care executives on trial on corruption charges paint former state Senator John Celona as a desperate man and a liar. Lawyers gave closing arguments today in the federal trial of the former head of Roger Williams Medical Center and two former executives. The case went to the jury this afternoon. Prosecutor Luis Matos called Celona a "political errand boy" for the defendants. Celona has pleaded guilty and was the government's star witness. The defense said Celona would say anything to get a lighter prison term and they repeatedly attacked his credibility. Lawyer Kevin Bristow said that if Celona says the sky is blue -- you've got to look up.... | |
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| | | Suspected gunman's bail cut in half | | Posted Monday, September 25, 2006 2:45:33 PM by Blog57 Team | | A Superior Court judge on Friday cut a suspected gunman's bail in half after the defendant's attorney argued it was set twice as high as the bail of his client's co-defendants in the case of a drive-by shooting in Jackson. Attorney Eli Eytan also argued to Superior Court Judge James N. Citta that the state has no forensic evidence to prove that his client, Eric Adair, 18, of Massachusetts Avenue, Lakewood had fired a gun. Adair and two others, Joshua Gonzalez and Dashaun Randolph, both 16 of Lakewood, are accused of randomly shooting at three youths in Jackson last year in what authorities said may have been a gang initiation. Two of the three victims were wounded. Eytan argued there was nothing to show that Adair had fired a gun, or that there was any reason why his bail should be $500,000, or twice as much as that of his co-defendants, whose bails are set at $250,000.... | |
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| | | Jury Convicts Defendants In Smuggling Deaths Case | | Posted Sunday, September 17, 2006 2:45:44 AM by Blog57 Team | | Houston -- Sentencing has been set for May 1 for three people convicted in a human smuggling operation in which 19 people died after being trapped in an airtight truck trailer. Prosecutors say that the three hid the immigrants in their home, then moved them to other locations before the group was packed into the trailer in south Texas. Temperatures inside the trailer reached 173 degrees. Survivors testified about taking off their sweaty clothes for relief, and crowding around holes punched in the truck so they could breathe. The three defendants are facing life sentences. Prosecutors asked jurors to send a message to smugglers that they will not make money from the suffering of others. Defense attorneys argued their clients were only bit players in a big scheme.... | |
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