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NJ mom accused of starving child pleads not guilty
Court Feed News |
2011/06/02 15:44
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Two women pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of child endangerment a week after an 8-year-old was found dead in their apartment from severe malnutrition and an untreated broken leg and her injured and emaciated siblings were removed alive.
The children's 30-year-old mother, Venette Ovilde, stared blankly and answered a judge's questions in a barely audible whisper as she entered her plea through a court-appointed attorney. She remains held on $500,000 bail on aggravated manslaughter and child endangerment charges.
Her 23-year-old roommate, Myriam Janvier, also pleaded not guilty through a court-appointed attorney to child endangerment charges. Her bail was continued at $100,000.
Christiana Glenn died May 22 from severe malnutrition and a fractured femur that authorities said had never been treated. Her 7-year-old sister and 6-year-old brother remained hospitalized for treatment of malnutrition and other injuries after being removed from Ovilde's Irvington apartment.
The children were discovered after the police were called to the home on a report of a child not breathing.
The women, who were both born in Haiti but came to the U.S. at a young age, radically altered their lifestyles about two years ago when they came under the sway of a man they described as their religious leader, according to friends and acquaintances. |
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E. Idaho investor pleads guilty in fraud case
Court Feed News |
2011/06/02 11:14
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A former eastern Idaho investor has pleaded guilty to felony wire fraud and money laundering as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors.
Daren Palmer, who appeared in U.S. District Court in Pocatello on Tuesday, remains on supervised release until his sentencing on Aug. 22.
Prosecutors say Palmer duped clients out of millions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme over the course of several years. Investigators accused him of using his company, Trigon Group, to fraudulently take more than $76 million from 68 separate investors.
State and federal officials called it a classic Ponzi scheme, in which money from new investors is used to pay off earlier investors. The scheme falls apart when clients start trying to pull their money out and there aren't enough new investors to provide funds.
In Idaho, federal prosecutors filed charges against Palmer last month after a two-year FBI investigation. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission won civil lawsuits against Palmer, who was ordered to pay about $90 million in restitution and fines.
Palmer has cooperated with his prosecution and wanted to plead guilty as early as a year ago, said assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Haycock. |
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Colorado Supreme Court affirms water court ruling
Court Feed News |
2011/06/01 15:49
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed a water court's ruling over water rights being sought to serve about 50,000 people in Arapahoe County.
As part of a project with the East Cherry Creek Valley Water and Sanitation District, the United Water and Sanitation District had sought to acquire agricultural water rights held by Burlington Ditch Land and Reservoir Co. and the Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Co. and change them to water rights for municipal uses.
The East Cherry Creek Valley Water and Sanitation District planned to use the water on the South Platte River so it wouldn't have to rely as much on groundwater as more people move in. Demand is currently around 9,000 acre-feet per year, but the district projects that will grow to around 14,000 acre-feet annually within 20 years, according to court documents.
On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court agreed with a water court ruling that limited what could be considered the irrigation companies' historical consumptive use of their water, which helps determine how much water can be converted to municipal use. The water court had said it was trying to protect against harm to other water rights. |
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Court refuses to reconsider Spector's appeal
Court Feed News |
2011/05/30 18:05
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An appeals court on Friday refused to reconsider music producer Phil Spector's appeal of his murder conviction, saying there was overwhelming evidence of his guilt.
The California 2nd District Court of Appeal panel acknowledged it did not consider an issue that defense lawyers now say was critical to his conviction.
The panel blamed the lawyers for failing to sufficiently brief the point and said they had no obligation to consider it.
They quoted case law saying, "Issues do not have a life of their own: if they are not raised ... we consider the issues waived."
Spector, a legendary rock music producer, was convicted two years ago of fatally shooting actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion in 2003. He is serving 19 years to life in prison on a second-degree murder conviction. |
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Ala. tried to close home where twisters killed 7
Court Feed News |
2011/05/27 16:47
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The government sued last fall to close an assisted living facility where nine elderly, disabled people lived in two double-wide mobile homes parked in a valley miles from the nearest town. Yet the facility was still open April 27, when a tornado smacked the mobile homes and killed four residents along with the owner, his daughter-in-law and 7-year-old granddaughter.
The state filed suit because Shoal Creek Valley Assisted Living didn't have a license — the fact that it was illegally operating in mobile homes wasn't even mentioned in the complaint. But months passed, winter turned to spring, and the place remained open. Then came the day tornadoes killed more than 200 people across Alabama.
One of those tornadoes, an EF-4 with winds as strong as 180 mph, wiped out the homes in a direct hit, leaving only twisted metal, splintered wood and seven bodies scattered across a horse pasture. That nondescript plot of land about 45 miles northeast of Birmingham was the site of the South's largest cluster of deaths on that epic day of misery.
While other cities and counties suffered more total fatalities in the twisters last month, state emergency management officials across the Southeast said they know of no other single location where more people died in the April outbreak. However, the destruction was so total in some places that it's impossible to determine exactly where some people died, and other victims remain hospitalized.
No one will ever know if the seven people who died in the assisted living center would have survived in a more substantial structure, but 71 patients escaped without injury when another tornado struck the brick-and-masonry La Rocca Nursing Home in Tuscaloosa about 90 minutes before Shoal Creek Valley's trailers were demolished. |
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Deliberations Tuesday in co-op lawyer trial
Court Feed News |
2011/05/27 16:47
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Deliberations will resume Tuesday in the felony theft trial of an attorney accused of stealing from a Central Texas electric cooperative.
Jurors in Kendall County failed to reach a verdict Thursday in the trial of Walter Demond, who did work for the Pedernales Electric Cooperative. The trial is in recess for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The former partner at Clark, Thomas & Winters is charged with theft, money laundering and misapplication of fiduciary property. The Austin American-Statesman reports the case involves $700,000 in Pedernales funds, alleged inflated legal bills and money reaching relatives of co-op executives.
Former co-op general manager Bennie Fuelberg was sentenced to 300 days in jail and ordered to repay $126,000 after being convicted of theft of co-op funds, money laundering and misappropriation of fiduciary property. |
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