Politics

Lesbian teen sues over prom flap; back at school

By topix.com on March 12, 2010

Constance McMillen didn’t believe her Mississippi school district would really call off her senior prom rather than allow her to show up with her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo.

Democrats prepare for final push in health care reform

By cnn.com politics on March 12, 2010

Washington (CNN) — Democrats have set a date to begin what they hope is the final phase of health care debate in Congress.

A Democratic leadership source told CNN Radio that the legislative push begins Monday when the House Budget Committee is expected to vote on a key procedural piece of the health care package.

That measure will not contain new policy language, but it ignites the process, known as reconciliation, that Democrats are using to pass and change the Senate health care bill.

The reconciliation vote would open the door to a possible final-passage vote on the Senate health care bill next week.

Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the committee, has scheduled a Friday news conference to discuss Mondays vote and process being used by Democrats.

Word that Democrats were pulling the legislative trigger on health care came as party leaders in the House and Senate held extended sessions to try and hash out a final proposal.

Democrats were still debating how to handle a few items and whether to include a large student loan reform bill in the health care reconciliation package.

Leaders first hope to get final passage of the Senate health care bill in the House and then use a second reconciliation measure to amend it and create a compromise that more House Democrats can support.

After the Budget Committee votes on a reconciliation framework Monday, that measure moves to the House Rules Committee where Democrats can add the meat of their compromise. The second reconciliation bill would then be poised for a vote on the House floor.

Independent counsel named in Paterson investigations

By cnn.com politics on March 12, 2010

New York (CNN) — New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has appointed a former chief judge of the State Appellate Court to oversee two investigations of Gov. David Paterson.

Judge Judith Kaye was officially appointed independent counsel to the New York State Attorney General on Thursday.

Kaye will continue the inquiry into Paterson after the preliminary investigation determined "that there are credible issues that need to be resolved," Cuomo announced during a conference call.

Cuomo told reporters it was "out of an abundance of caution," that he brings in Kaye. She has agreed to work pro bono, thus adding no additional costs to the taxpayer, Cuomo added.

Sen. Reid’s wife, daughter injured in accident

By topix.com on March 11, 2010

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s wife and daughter were hospitalized Thursday _ the wife with a broken back and neck _ after their minivan was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer truck on an interstate highway in suburban Virginia, authorities said.

Who\’s in the serial killer\’s portfolio?

By CNN on March 11, 2010

(CNN) — Hoping to solve numerous cold cases, authorities on Thursday released hundreds of photos of unidentified women and children found in a storage unit that belonged to a serial killer who appeared on "The Dating Game."

Investigators are trying to determine if some of the people in the pictures were victims of Rodney Alcala, 66, who was convicted in February of murdering a child and four women between November 1977 and June 1979.

A jury this week recommended a death sentence for Alcala, who appeared on the popular dating show in 1978 as Bachelor No. 1.

"We balanced the privacy concerns of those depicted in the decision to release these pictures," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said in a statement. "Although we hope that the people depicted are not victims, we believe the release may help solve some cold cases and bring closure to victims families."

A few pictures of men were also found among the portrait-style photos that were discovered in a storage unit that Alcala kept in Seattle, Washington, said Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the district attorneys office. The locker also contained earrings that belonged to 12-year-old Robin Samsoe, who Alcala abducted and killed in 1979, Schroeder said.

The discovery of the earring in the locker has raised speculation that there may be other victims or that the photographs were trophies to Alcala, she said.

"The idea is to figure out if these are other victims that belong to other cold cases and if they are we can hopefully bring some closure to these victims families," she said. "We know that Mr. Alcala used his photography as a ruse to get close to his victims."

Authorities already believe that Alcala may be responsible for deaths in New York, Schroeder said.

"Its very possible," Schroeder said. "Mr. Alcala is a predatory monster and we believe that he destroyed many lives everywhere he went."

According to the Orange County District Attorney, Alcala was convicted in 1972 of kidnapping and molesting a child in Los Angeles County in 1968. After serving a 34-month sentence, he was released.

In November 1977, Alcala raped, sodomized and murdered Jill Barcomb, an 18-year-old New Yorker who had recently moved to California, the district attorney said.

"The defendant used a large rock to smash in the victims face, causing blunt force trauma, and strangled her to death by tying her belt and pant leg around her neck. He then left the victims body in a mountainous area in the foothills near Hollywood."

The body was discovered soon after, and biological evidence was collected, but DNA technology was not yet available to find her killer.

The following month, Alcala raped, sodomized and murdered 27-year-old nurse Georgia Wixted, according to the district attorney. "The defendant used the claw end of a hammer to beat the victim and smash in her head. He strangled her to death using a nylon stocking and left her body in her Malibu apartment," according to the district attorneys Web site.

Again the body was discovered and biological evidence was collected, but no link was made to Alcala.

All this occurred before Alcala charmed "Dating Game" contestant Cheryl Bradshaw in 1988. Though Bradshaw chose Alcala as her date, she reportedly refused to go out with him.

Alcala may have appeared likable to viewers at home, but Bachelor No. 2, Jed Mills, said he was the complete opposite when they sat together in the green room before the show.

Mills said he had an almost immediate aversion to Alcala.

"Something about him, I could not be near him," Mills recalled. "He was very obnoxious and creepy — he became very unlikable and rude and imposing as though he was trying to intimidate. I wound up not only not liking this guy … not wanting to be near him … he got creepier and more negative. He was a standout creepy guy in my life."

Mills said he still has a difficult time discussing Alcala.

"Just talking about it, I get a tightness in my stomach," he said, "It kind of sinks in slowly. What this guy did, its hard to express. He kind of haunts me a bit."

Two more slayings followed the year after Alcala appeared on the show. In June 1979, he raped and killed 21-year-old Jill Parenteau in her Burbank apartment, the district attorney said.

"The defendant strangled the victim to death using a cord or nylon. Alcalas blood was collected from the scene after he cut himself crawling through a window. Based on a semi-rare blood match, Alcala was linked to the murder," the district attorneys Web site said.

Though he was charged with killing Parenteau, the case was dismissed after his first conviction in the Samsoe case.

In that case, Alcala approached a 12-year-old at the beach in Huntington Beach and asked her to pose for pictures, after which she rode off on her bicycle toward a dance class, the district attorney said.

She did not make it. "The defendant kidnapped and murdered Samsoe and dumped her body near Sierra Madre in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains," the district attorneys Web site said.

Alcala was convicted for Samsoes murder in 1980 and sentenced to receive the death penalty, but the conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court.

A second trial in 1986 resulted in a death sentence, but it was overturned by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

As he awaited a third trial, Alcalas DNA was linked to the murder scenes of Barcomb, Wixted and Lamb. He was charged with the four Los Angeles murders, including Parenteaus.

Anyone with information regarding the identities of the women and children in the photographs found in Alcalas storage locker is asked to contact the Orange County District Attorneys Office or the Huntington Beach Police Department.

Florida reform school probe ends with no arrests

By CNN on March 11, 2010

Miami, Florida (CNN) — Their stories were chilling: Students at a reform school recounted beatings and sexual assaults at the hands of school administrators and other employees who were supposed to be taking care of them.

But a state investigation into the claims — which date back to the 1950s and 1960s — found insufficient evidence to prosecute any former workers at the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida.

Results of the investigation, which was conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at the request of Gov. Charlie Crist, were released Thursday. The FDLE investigated allegations made by a group of men who said they were beaten and sexually abused when they attended the school about five decades ago.

Read the FDLEs final report

State Attorney Glenn Hess told the FDLE he would not pursue any prosecutions in a letter dated February 25.

"The primary obstacles to bringing criminal cases based on events alleged to have occurred more than 40 years ago are the Constitutional rights to a speedy trial and to due process," Hess wrote.

"Floridas statute placing time limitations on prosecutions must also be considered. In a nutshell, citizens are protected from being prosecuted for crimes that occurred so long ago that preparing a defense would be difficult or impossible. The claims provided here are an example," he said.

The allegations against school workers were made by a group of men — now in their 60s — who call themselves "the white house boys" after a nondescript white concrete building on the school grounds where they say the beatings and torture were carried out, often with a thick leather strap.

One member of the group, Dick Colon, told CNN the outcome of the investigation shows "Florida is running with a scam and everybodys behind it."

House votes to impeach federal judge

By cnn.com politics on March 11, 2010

Washington (CNN) — The House of Representatives voted unanimously Thursday to impeach Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, making him the nations 15th federal judge ever impeached.

"Our investigation found that Judge Porteous participated in a pattern of corrupt conduct for years," said U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Judicial Impeachment.

"Litigants have the right to expect a judge hearing their case will be fair and impartial, and avoid even the appearance of impropriety. Regrettably, no one can have that expectation in Judge Porteous courtroom."

After the impeachment vote, Schiff and Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, were named the lead impeachment managers for the Senate trial, which will decide whether to remove Porteous from the bench.

"Todays vote marks only the second time in over 20 years that this has occurred," Goodlatte said in a House news release. "However, when evidence emerges that an individual is abusing his judicial office for his own advantage, the integrity of the entire judicial system becomes compromised."

In a statement, Porteous lawyer Richard W. Westling said the Justice Department had decided not to prosecute because it did not have credible evidence.

"Unfortunately, the House has decided to disregard the Justice Departments decision and to move forward with impeachment. As a result, we will now turn to the Senate to seek a full and fair hearing of all of the evidence."

In a telephone interview, Westling said he did not know when the Senate trial would be held. "There are no clear rules that dictate timing," he said.

Last year, the Task Force on Judicial Impeachment held evidentiary hearings that led to unanimous approval of the four articles of impeachment, citing evidence that Porteous "intentionally made material false statements and representations under penalty of perjury, engaged in a corrupt kickback scheme, solicited and accepted unlawful gifts, and intentionally misled the Senate during his confirmation proceedings," the House release said.

Porteous was appointed to the federal bench in 1994.

In 2007, after an FBI and federal grand jury investigation, the Justice Department alleged "pervasive misconduct" by Porteous and evidence "that Judge Porteous may have violated federal and state criminal laws, controlling canons of judicial conduct, rules of professional responsibility, and conducted himself in a manner antithetical to the constitutional standard of good behavior required of all federal judges."

The complaint said the department opted not to seek criminal charges for reasons that included issues of statute of limitations and other factors. But Westling said the statute of limitations was not applicable.

An Impeachment Task Force held four hearings late last year that focused on allegations of misconduct by Porteous, including:

– Involvement in a corrupt kickback scheme

– Failure to recuse himself from a case he was involved in

– Allegations that Porteous made false and misleading statements, including concealing debts and gambling losses

– Allegations that Porteous asked for and accepted "numerous things of value, including meals, trips, home and car repairs, for his personal use and benefit" while taking official actions on behalf of his benefactors

– Allegations that Porteous lied about his past to the U.S. Senate and to the FBI about his nomination to the federal bench "in order to conceal corrupt relationships," Schiff said in his floor statement as prepared for delivery

Porteous was invited to testify, but he declined to do so, Schiff said. "His long-standing pattern of corrupt activity, so utterly lacking in honesty and integrity, demonstrates his unfitness to serve as a United States District Court judge," he said.

Porteous, 63, has not worked as a judge since he was suspended with pay in the fall of 2008, Westling said.

The last federal judge impeachment occurred last year, when Judge Samuel B. Kent of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas resigned after being impeached on charges of sexual assault, obstructing and impeding an official proceeding, and making false and misleading statements, according to the Web site of the Federal Judicial Center.

The Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment, dismissed the articles.

Before then, Judge Walter L. Nixon of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi was impeached in 1989 on charges of perjury before a federal grand jury. The Senate convicted him and removed him from office that year.

Autopsy suggests energy exec drowned

By CNN on March 11, 2010

(CNN) — A preliminary autopsy on the body of an energy executive pulled from the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, this week revealed a head laceration and evidence of drowning, investigators said Thursday.

The body was found Tuesday, four days after Douglas Schantz, president of Houston, Texas-based Sequent Energy Management, disappeared.

A toxicology report, due back in roughly three weeks, will show "how much Schantz had to drink before falling into the Mississippi" last week, said John Gagliano, lead investigator at the New Orleans coroners office.

Authorities recovered Schantzs body around noon Tuesday, said police spokesman Gary Flot.

Police said Schantz was found with all his personal belongings, including his wallet, credit cards, identification and jewelry.

Schantz, 54, was last seen outside a Bourbon Street bar at 2:06 a.m. Friday, New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley told reporters Tuesday morning. No one had heard from him since then.

At the Tuesday morning news conference, Riley said detectives reviewed video from "almost every" business in the busy French Quarter. Several cameras captured a "disoriented" Schantz walking alone from a bar toward the Mississippi River, Riley said. Schantz had been drinking, Riley said, and was headed toward a boat at the wharf.

"The last video of Mr. Schantz is when he was near the boat Natchez, walking on a 2- to 3-foot-wide walkway near the river," Riley said. "From 2:40 until 6:40 a.m. video was watched and … once he [Schantz] walked out of that frame near the Natchez, he never returned on any frames of the video."

Riley said that according to the video, no one approached Schantz during the walk.

Texas Equusearch, a search-and-rescue team, searched the waters with sonar equipment, and the Coast Guard and Harbor Police had also joined the search, according to Riley.

Family and friends said they knew something was wrong Friday morning when Schantz didnt show up at the airport, missed a company meeting, and didnt return calls. Such behavior, they said, was uncharacteristic of him.

"Theres never been a time he was out of reach," said Pete Tumminello, vice president of Sequent Energy, on Monday. "Ive worked with him for seven years. Theres never been a time hes been out of reach."

Schantz missed a flight Friday morning with his daughter, a Tulane University senior, police said. He also did not show up for an office meeting in Houston.

Schantz went to the French Quarter with friends on Thursday night, Sequent Energy spokesman Alan Chapple told CNN on Tuesday. They went there after an earlier event at Tulane University to present a $25,000 donation to the Tulane Energy Institute, Chapple said. Schantz and his colleagues had dinner with professors and students at the school, and later he and some others went to the bar.

Schantz was staying at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, only about two blocks from the bar that he was seen leaving, Chapple said. Members of the party had left the establishment at varying times, he said.

During their investigation, police had not discovered any evidence of a crime, Flot said Tuesday morning. The FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and private investigators were also working the case, Riley said.

Schantzs son, Michael, described Monday the agony his family was feeling as they awaited news.

"My family is distraught, Im distraught, [in] shock," he said. "We just want him found alive and back with our family."

CNNs Carolina Sanchez and Khadijah Rentas contributed to this report.

Feds may seek more vehicle safety oversight

By topix.com on March 11, 2010

The government may require automakers to include brake override systems, a fix intended to prevent the type of runaway car incidents that some Toyota drivers have described.

Ex-cop admits coverup of Louisiana bridge shooting

By CNN on March 11, 2010

(CNN) — A second former New Orleans police officer pleaded guilty Thursday in connection with police shootings of civilians on a Louisiana bridge in the days following Hurricane Katrina, authorities said.

Jeffrey Lehrmann, a former police detective who now works as a special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge that he failed to report a cover-up in the investigation of the Danziger Bridge shootings in New Orleans, the Department of Justice said in a statement Thursday.

Lehrmann also admitted he helped compile a false report on the incidents, and was with others when they planted a gun as part of the cover-up, according to court documents.

Last month, former police Lt. Michael Lohman pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the cover-up.

Two civilians were killed and four others wounded in the shootings on September 4, 2005, six days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast.

In the first shooting, on the east side of the bridge, one person — later identified as James Brissette, 19 — was killed and four wounded, prosecutors said. In a second shooting, on the bridges west side, Ronald Madison, 40, a severely disabled man, was killed. Madisons brother was arrested but later released without indictment, authorities said.

"The police maintained that they fired at the civilians in self-defense, after the civilian fired at police," the statement said. "However … Lohman pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring with other officers to cover up what he had determined was a bad shoot on the bridge. Today, defendant Lehrmann admitted that he also knew of and participated in a conspiracy to obstruct justice in the investigation of the shooting."

Lehrmann faces a sentence of up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced June 10, and Lohman faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine at his May 26 sentencing.

Jim Letten, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, said that while Lehrmanns conviction is the second in the case, "this officer was the first to enter into an agreement with the United States and provide cooperation."

Lehrmann learned from a New Orleans police supervisor, identified in court documents as "the investigator," that an officer had "shot an innocent man" on the bridge, prosecutors said in the Department of Justice statement, citing the documents. Upon hearing that comment, Lehrmann determined it was a "bad shoot," meaning it was not legally justified, authorities said.

"Lehrmann admitted that he participated with his supervisors in the creation of a report that included false statements by the officers involved in the shooting; false claims about a gun that had in fact been planted by the investigator; and fabricated statements from witnesses who did not really exist," prosecutors said.

"Lehrmann also admitted that the report of the Danziger Bridge investigation included false statements alleged to have been given by two of the victims of the police shooting."

According court documents, Lehrmann said the report of the incident indicated the investigator had returned to the bridge the day after the shooting and found a gun in the grass below the scene of one shooting.

But Lehrmann said that story was "a lie." He told authorities that after the shooting, he and two sergeants drove with the investigator to the investigators home, where the investigator retrieved a bag from his garage. Asked what was in the bag, the investigator said, "A ham sandwich," according to the documents.

"Lehrmann then looked in the bag and saw a gun that would be used in the Danziger Bridge investigation," prosecutors said in the statement. "Once the investigator assured Lehrmann and the sergeants that the gun was clean, meaning it could not be traced to another crime, they all went along with the plan to plant the gun."

At the time of Lohmans guilty plea, authorities suggested that other indictments would follow. However, an information was filed in Lehrmanns case, showing he was not indicted. Informations can be filed when a defendant waives indictment by a grand jury, according to the federal courts Web site.

The shootings occurred after several officers, responding to a call for assistance, drove to the bridge and encountered six civilians who were walking across it to get food and supplies, according to the indictment filed in Lohmans case. The officers fired, killing Brissette, and then traveled to the other side of the bridge, where Madison was shot.

Madison was shot seven times — five times in the back, the coroner said. His brother, Lance, was arrested on suspicion of eight counts of attempted murder of a police officer and held for weeks before his release, according to the indictment.

State prosecutors pursued criminal charges against several police officers without success. In August 2008, a judge quashed indictments against Sgts. Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius Jr., Officer Anthony Villavaso II and former Officer Robert Faulcon Jr., all of whom were facing first-degree murder and attempted murder charges. In addition, the judge threw out attempted first-degree murder charges against Officers Mike Hunter Jr. and Robert Barrios, and attempted second-degree murder charges against Officer Ignatius Hills. Federal prosecutors opened an investigation after the judges actions.

Legal scholars have said that while more might be indicted, its unclear whether any other officers will be charged in the shootings.

"Theres no evidence the officers shot out of malice," Dane Ciolino, a professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, said last month. "It was probably negligence, ratcheted up to a federal offense by the cover-up."

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