An attorney for a prominent New York City lawyer accused in a $700 million fraud says his client will plead guilty next month to all the charges he faces.

Defense attorney Gerald Shargel said Monday his client Marc Dreier (DRY'-ur) will enter the plea May 11 to securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering charges.

Shargel says Dreier wants to enter the plea to demonstrate his acceptance of responsibility and his profound remorse.

Until December, Dreier had led a law firm with 250 attorneys and celebrity clients. He was arrested after hedge funds complained he was stealing from them.

Prosecutors say the 58-year-old could face a maximum of 30 years to life in prison.

The Cullman Democrat had originally been scheduled to be in Jefferson County District Court on Tuesday. Defense attorney Mark White said Monday the hearing was to determine if Little had an attorney, and the court has already been notified that he does.

Little's next court date is May 18, but that could be changed because that's the final day of the 2009 legislative session.

Little was arrested April 3 in Jefferson County. He was charged with drunken driving, failure to yield for an emergency vehicle, having an open container of alcohol in the car and having an expired driver's license.

President Barack Obama won more than 48 percent of the vote in November in this overwhelmingly white community northwest of the state capital.

Yet Canyon Creek, the heart of Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One, is the site of a major Supreme Court battle over the federal government's often used and most effective tool in preventing voting discrimination against minorities.

The utility district's elected five-person board manages a local park and pays down bond debt. Because it is in Texas, the board is covered by a section of the Voting Rights Act that requires approval from the Justice Department before any changes can be made in how elections are conducted.

That requirement applies to all or parts of 16 states, mostly in the South, with a history of preventing blacks, Hispanics and other minorities from voting.

The utility district is challenging that section of the law, which Congress extended in 2006 for 25 years. The Obama administration is defending it.

The Voting Rights Act, enacted in 1965, opened the polls to millions of black Americans. The law "has been the most important and transformative civil rights act in our country's history," said John Payton, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

The federal government has used the provision, known as Section 5, to "stop things that would have perverted our democracy," Payton said. His group represents Texans and organizations seeking to preserve the section.

On the other side are the utility district, an array of conservative legal groups and some Southern Republicans.

Richard Monroe Jr. claims the rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, hit him with a brass-knuckle microphone after he jumped onstage and put his hand on the performer's shoulder.

Broadus sat a few feet away as Monroe described waking up naked, robbed, and in a pool of blood after the beatdown by other performers and the rapper's security detail. A videotape of the incident that occurred at the White River Amphitheater near Seattle was also shown to jurors Friday.

Broadus' attorneys said the video doesn't show the blow to the back of the head that Monroe claims the rapper delivered, nor evidence that the rapper should be forced to pay any damages.

They told jurors during the trial's opening moments Friday that Broadus' security guards had mere seconds to react when Monroe — who stands 6-feet-3 inches tall and weighs nearly 300 pounds — came on stage unexpectedly.

Three years ago, Smith was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for raping a Filipino woman after a night of drinking.

The emotional case soon turned into a political tug-of-war between the government — keen on maintaining smooth relations with its key ally — and nationalist, left-wing and women's rights activists eager to showcase that the Philippines can do without U.S. protection.

Smith spent only about three weeks in a Philippine jail before U.S. officials obtained custody, arguing that the Visiting Forces Agreement between the two countries allowed them to hold the Marine until his legal appeal was resolved.

The U.S. Embassy statement did not say when Smith left the country or where he was headed and the embassy spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for details.

"This has been a difficult and emotional case for all involved, especially their families and loved ones. We hope that the parties can now move on with their lives," the statement said.