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Pa high court to meet in historic chamber
Legal Business |
2011/09/17 23:49
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Pennsylvania's highest court plans to convene in a historic chamber in Philadelphia for the first time in more than two centuries.
Tuesday's oral arguments session in the Supreme Court Chamber in Old City Hall will be the first time the justices have used the room since 1802.
The session also will be the first to be videotaped under a court policy announced last month. The Pennsylvania Cable Network plans to record the event and air it Tuesday evening.
Cases to be heard include one involving the state's use of an $800 million surplus from a fund that helps doctors pay medical malpractice premiums to balance the state budget in 2009.
The court is using the historic courtroom as part of a commemoration of Constitution Week, which runs through Saturday.
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Ga. court upholds Open Meetings fines
Court Watch |
2011/09/16 23:50
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Georgia's top court is requiring the city of Statesboro to pay the legal costs of residents who sued it for violating the state's Open Meetings Act.
The unanimous opinion released Monday upholds a Bulloch County judge's ruling that requires the city pay $4,250 in legal fees after it found the Statesboro mayor and city council met outside the Statesboro City Hall chambers to discuss the city's 2011 budget.
A group of residents sued the city, mayor and five council members and sought an injunction barring any more "secret" meetings, and the city appealed after a judge ruled against it in September 2010.
The opinion written by Justice Harold Melton says "the Open Records Act explicitly authorizes the assessment of attorney fees." |
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Ex-Mormon bishop pleads guilty to child sex abuse
Topics in Legal News |
2011/09/16 23:49
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A former Mormon bishop and co-founder of a nonprofit group that helps women and children in Third World villages faces sentencing in November for sexually abusing children.
Lon Harvey Kennard, 69, from Heber City, Utah, pleaded guilty this week to three counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Each count involves a different victim, and carries a sentence of 5 years to life.
The victims were among six children the man and his wife adopted from Ethiopia, where the couple helped establish an orphanage.
The Associated Press isn't naming the man to protect the identity of the victims.
The couple's nonprofit organization provided services to destitute villages in Mexico, Central America, Africa and the Caribbean.
Kennard was initially charged with 43 counts stemming from abuse that began in 1995, around the time the defendant was bishop of his Latter-day Saints ward and one year after he and his wife started the nonprofit agency. |
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Guilty plea for Va. man in $318K Social Security fraud
Court Watch |
2011/09/09 08:54
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A Bristol man has pleaded guilty to stealing Social Security benefits and making false statements in an attempt to hide the thefts.
Seventy-one-year-old David Ross entered the plea Thursday in federal court in Abingdon.
Ross faces a sentence of up to 65 years in prison on all counts.
Federal prosecutors say Ross admitted stealing more than $318,000 in benefits that had been intended for his mother, who died in 1971. He told the Social Security Administration that his mother died in December 2010.
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Ex-Va attorney convicted in law firm embezzlement
Court Watch |
2011/09/09 01:52
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A former attorney has been convicted of embezzling at least $450,000 from the law firm where she worked.
Henrico County Circuit Judge L.A. Harris Jr. on Friday found Kyle C. Leftwich guilty of eight counts of embezzlement in a scheme to divert funds from Marks & Harrison's accounts between 2004 and 2008. She could face up to 160 years in prison when she's sentenced in November.
Evidence showed that Leftwich endorsed Social Security checks made out to her for representing disabled clients. But she deposited the money elsewhere than into the firm's account and rigged firm ledgers to cover her actions.
Leftwich was fired in June 2010 and lost her law license a short time later. She repaid $450,000 to Marks & Harrison as part of a civil settlement.
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