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Wis. justice accuses colleague of choking her

June 28, 2011

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal faction has accused a conservative justice of choking her during an argument in her office earlier this month — a charge he denied.

Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Justice David Prosser put her in a chokehold during the dispute. She contacted the newspaper late Saturday after Prosser denied rumors about the altercation.

“The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold,” Bradley told the newspaper.

A message could not be left at her home listing, and her former campaign manager did not return a call from The Associated Press.

Article: USA Today

Rod Blagojevich guilty of 17 corruption charges

CHICAGO — Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted of 17 felonies Monday in his political corruption retrial, including 11 counts stemming from what federal prosecutors called his attempt to sell the U.S. Senate seat once occupied by President Obama.

“I frankly am stunned,” Blagojevich, a Democrat, said after the verdict. He was found not guilty of one count, and the jury of 11 women and one man deadlocked on two. In his first trial last year, Blagojevich was found guilty of one count of lying to the FBI; the jury could not reach agreement on 23 others.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the verdict was “a loud and clear message that Gov. Blagojevich committed very serious crimes.” After Blagojevich’s arrest in 2008, Fitzgerald said it interrupted “a political corruption crime spree” that “would make (Abraham) Lincoln roll over in his grave.”

Article: USA Today

Can ID theft victims sue imposters for damages? Not yet, it seems

OMAHA, Neb. — On the fourth floor of Douglas County Courthouse, Jaimee Napp opened a new front in the war on identity theft. She did something every ID theft victim has probably dreamed of doing: Napp sued her imposter in civil court for damages.

This first battle didn’t go well.

District Judge John Hartigan interrupted the closing arguments by beginning a debate on the meaning of term “identity theft” (“It’s not like someone took her soul.”). After Napp’s therapist said she was suffering from symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder, defense attorney Tim Mikulicz said that claim was a “slap in the face to every soldier returning from Iraq.”

Article: msnbc.com

Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Cornell fraternity

(CNN) — The mother of a college student who died of alcohol poisoning at Cornell University is suing Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity for $25 million in a lawsuit that alleges fraternity pledges bound her son’s wrists and ankles and forced him to drink alcohol in a hazing ritual on the night of his death.

George Desdunes, 19, was a sophomore member of the fraternity when he died in February. The wrongful death lawsuit, which was filed by Marie Lourdes Andre in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Monday, alleges he was kidnapped by a group of Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledges and forced to drink alcohol and other substances while being quizzed about the fraternity.

Article: CNN

Murder trial jurors can be overwhelmed, traumatized

(CNN) — Paula Calzetta was driving to dinner with Diane Keim last month when she made a wrong turn that put the women in front of a Bank of America building in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Keim nearly threw up. In a flash, Calzetta remembered everything she’d learned about the brutal murders connected to that place. They had been jurors in the trial of a man who, after extorting money from a woman there, killed her and her children. The former jurors ended up at that bank on the way to meet the deceased woman’s family for the first time.

“They were worried that we had to go through what they went through,” said Calzetta, 56. “They were very thankful, and sorry that we had to go through all of that, but certainly we would have all done it again.”

Article: CNN