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More charges filed in Los Angeles arsons case
Legal News |
2012/01/25 17:47
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A German man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to additional charges accusing him of setting nearly 50 fires, mostly to parked cars, which terrorized parts of Los Angeles over the New Year's weekend.
Deputy Public Defender Gustavo Sztraicher entered the plea in Superior Court on behalf of Harry Burkhart, who spoke only to identify himself and acknowledge that he understood the legal process.
Bail was set at $7.5 million, and Burkhart was scheduled to return to court March 1.
Outside court, Sztraicher had no comment.
Earlier in the day, the criminal complaint against Burkhart was amended to include a total of 100 arson-related counts involving 49 fires in Hollywood, West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. If convicted, the 24-year-old faces more than 80 years in state prison.
The rash of fires left residents on edge between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2 as parked cars were torched during the night. Some of the fires spread to carports and nearby buildings, including a former home of Doors singer Jim Morrison, and rousted people from their beds. Another one of the blazes was at the Hollywood and Highland entertainment complex, a popular tourist destination bordered by the Walk of Fame. |
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Court orders new psychiatric review of Breivik
Legal News |
2012/01/12 18:14
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A Norwegian court on Friday ordered a new psychiatric evaluation of confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, after an earlier report found him legally insane.
Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen said in Oslo the new evaluation is necessary considering widespread criticism of the initial findings, which suggested Breivik should be sent to psychiatric care instead of prison.
The 32-year-old Norwegian has confessed to a bomb and shooting spree July 22 that killed 77 people and traumatized the peaceful Scandinavian country.
Breivik denies criminal guilt, saying he's a commander of a resistance movement aiming to overthrow European governments and replace them with "patriotic" regimes that would deport Muslim immigrants.
Investigators have found no sign of such a movement and say Breivik most likely plotted and carried out the attacks on his own.
Arntzen said two Norwegian psychiatrists — Agnar Aspaas and Terje Toerrisen — had been appointed for the new evaluation.
However, Breivik doesn't want to talk to them because he doesn't believe they will understand him any better than the experts who interviewed him for the first assessment, defense lawyer Geir Lippestad, told reporters after speaking to his client in prison.
Lippestad also said that the defense team is skeptical toward a new evaluation because the first assessment was leaked to Norwegian media. |
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Court papers: NYC officer shooting suspect sorry
Legal News |
2012/01/04 17:39
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The man charged with murder in the shooting death of a police officer during a botched break-in apologized and said he didn't mean to fire the gun, according to court papers released Wednesday.
Lamont Pride, 27, and four others have pleaded not guilty in the death of Officer Peter Figoski, who was shot once in the face Dec. 12 as he tried to enter the basement apartment, the scene of a reported burglary. While Pride was being driven in a police car to central booking, he told police he was sorry, according to the papers.
"I didn't mean for this to happen," he said. "I didn't want to kill a cop. It went wrong and I'm sorry. I can't take it back," he said, according to the papers.
Through the stack of messy, hand-written statements gleaned from investigators, the plot emerges as a badly-conceived attempt to rob a drug dealer. Authorities said Pride and the others hatched the plot the day before to rob the apartment. Michael Velez, 21, stayed in the getaway car as the four others went in to the dingy, barely finished apartment at 25 Pine St. Ariel Tejada, 22, and Nelson Morales, 27, pistol-whipped the tenant and beat him while they ransacked the place, authorities charged. |
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Riders stuck on snow-trapped train sue NY agency
Legal News |
2011/12/27 18:36
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Subway riders stuck all night in a train trapped by snow after a blizzard sued a transportation agency on Tuesday, saying officials told them it was simply "an act of God."
In court papers describing last year's ordeal, they said they had no heat, food, water or bathroom facilities while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority kept promising help.
The city was all but paralyzed when the storm hit on Dec. 26, 2010, with 2 feet of snow piled around an A train on elevated tracks in Queens. Inside were about 500 passengers who spent eight hours there in freezing temperatures.
The conductor refused to allow passengers off the train, "resulting in a deplorable imprisonment," said 22 of them named in the suit, which was filed in Queens state Supreme Court.
They are seeking unspecified damages from the New York City Transit Authority, part of the MTA, which runs the nation's largest mass transit system. The subway alone has a daily ridership of more than 5 million.
Manhattan attorney Aymen Aboushi said the stranded passengers decided to sue after a year of meetings with transit officials convinced them that suing was the only way to get the MTA to pay attention. He said he's handling the case pro bono in hopes of forcing changes in the emergency response system to avert a similar nightmare. |
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Supreme Court says Manchester property tax data private
Legal News |
2011/12/26 00:36
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The Vermont Supreme Court says information used by towns to calculate adjustments to residents' property taxes should remain private.
In an entry order published Friday, the court reversed a Bennington County Superior Court ruling that said the town of Manchester should provide the tax information to someone who requested it.
The issue involves the amount Vermont property tax payers may have deducted from their bills based on their income, school property tax burden and if they to use a portion of their tax refund to reduce property taxes.
The state Department of Taxes calculates that amount and sends it to towns to reduce a property owner's taxes.
The Supreme Court says the law governing the deductions is covered by the state's privacy laws. Property tax bills are, however, public.
The court decision is posted on the town website, http://www.manchester-vt.gov |
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