Mob kingpin Bulger heads to court as questions swirl (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) – Former mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger heads back to federal court in Boston on Tuesday as it emerged he visited Boston in disguise and heavily armed on several occasions while on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.

Tuesday's hearing, due to start at 2 p.m. local time, will focus on the issue of assigning legal counsel to Bulger, who has requested a court-appointed public defender.

Authorities are adamant that the former crime boss should not get counsel at public expense.

"He has every incentive to lie and stick the taxpayers with the bill for his defense," prosecutors said in a filing on Monday.

Bulger, 81, who had been on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and Catherine Greig were arrested at their rent-controlled apartment in Santa Monica, California, a few blocks from the ocean, on June 22 after being on the run together since 1995.

The pair had more than $820,000 in the hideout, much of it in $100 bills bundled together and stashed inside a wall.

Prosecutors have demanded that Bulger's family, including William "Billy Bulger," a former president of the Massachusetts State Senate, provide sworn affidavits about his financial position. Bulger said in a filing that he does not want help from his family to pay for his defense.

On Monday Greig, 60, hired Kevin Reddington, a well-known criminal defense attorney, to represent her. Greig has a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday.

At present Bulger is being held at the Plymouth County jail, south of Boston, where he is reportedly confined to his cell 23 hours a day. In the remaining hour Bulger can shower, exercise and make phone calls.

Prosecutors said in a filing on Monday that Bulger told FBI agents some details of his years running from the law -- and from 19 murder charges -- after his arrest.

"Bulger admitted traveling (in disguise) to Boston on several occasions while 'armed to the teeth' because he 'had to take care of some unfinished business,'" the filing said.

That comment begged the question of who among Bulger's circle -- family, friends and associates -- might have known about or helped facilitate those trips.

In the 1990s it emerged that Bulger had long been an FBI informant, tipping off a small band of corrupt federal agents about the activities of other Boston-area criminals.

In turn, those agents looked the other way at Bulger's organized crime enterprise, the violent Winter Hill Gang. Bulger is also charged with racketeering, money laundering and narcotics distribution, among other offenses.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny and Lauren Keiper in Boston, and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington)

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War crimes prosecutor courts Kadhafi aides (AFP)

TRIPOLI (AFP) – The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Tuesday urged Moamer Kadhafi's aides to help arrest him, as the Libyan leader lashed out at an ICC warrant against him for crimes against humanity.

On the ground, rebel fighters captured an arms depot from Kadhafi forces in the desert near their mountain enclave southwest of Tripoli in a boost for their resupply, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Human rights bodies and the West, meanwhile, hailed the ICC's move against Kadhafi on Monday that came on the 100th day of a NATO bombing campaign.

Libya rejected the warrants issued for Kadhafi, 69, his son Seif al-Islam, 39, and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, 62, for atrocities committed in a bloody uprising that began mid-February.

The ruling is a "cover for NATO which is still trying to assassinate Kadhafi," said Justice Minister Mohammed al-Gamudi.

Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaaim said the ICC "functions as a European foreign policy vehicle.

"It is a political court which serves its European paymasters," he said, adding: "Our own courts will deal with any human rights abuses and other crimes committed in the course of conflict in Libya."

But ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said Libya's regime could "be part of the solution" by implementing the arrest warrant.

"Kadhafi's inner circle is the first option. They can complement the arrest warrants," he said at a press conference in The Hague.

"They can be part of the problem and be prosecuted, or they can be part of the solution, working together with the other Libyans to stop the crimes," Moreno-Ocampo said.

In the latest fighting around the southwestern mountains, the rebels on Tuesday captured a network of bunkers in the desert around 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the hilltown of Zintan, the AFP correspondent said.

The capture of rockets, machine guns and other munitions was a major boost for rebel hopes of driving on to Tripoli from the frontline on the other side of the Nafusa Mountains, which now lies just 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the capital.

Hundreds of rebel fighters, accompanied by local civilians, combed through the warren of caches, some of which had been blown up in air strikes but with others remaining intact.

The rebel fighters overcame heavy multiple rocket fire from loyalist troops to seize their booty. Rebel commanders said they also ambushed a government convoy, destroying three vehicles.

NATO said warplanes under its command hit three tanks and six armoured personnel carriers in the Zintan area on Monday.

The chief of NATO operation in Libya, Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard, said on Tuesday that the mission had made "significant" progress but dismissed any scaling back due to rebel advances on the ground.

Germany, meanwhile, said it has offered to supply NATO with bomb components for use in the stretched military alliance's operation.

"The German defence ministry has received a request of the relevant NATO agency ... Germany has expressed its general willingness to make available precision weaponry components," a ministry spokesman told AFP.

Moreno-Ocampo sought the three arrest warrants as thousands died in fighting and an estimated 650,000 people fled the country with Kadhafi clinging to power despite NATO strikes easing the siege of key rebel cities.

Gamudi noted that his country was not a signatory to the ICC's founding Rome Statute, and "does not accept the jurisdiction of the court."

But the head of Libya's rebel National Transitional Council (NTC), Mustafa Abdel Jalil, told a news conference in the rebel capital of Benghazi that "justice has been done."

In The Hague, rebel justice minister Mohammed al-Allagy told reporters: "We are going to arrest them ... We will decide afterwards where to prosecute them."

Bulgaria and Croatia on Tuesday joined a list of countries which have recognised the NTC as the only legitimate representative of the Libyan people, their foreign ministries said in a joint statement.

"The Kadhafi era is over and he has to step down immediately," it said.

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Ex-cop to testify in post-Katrina shootings (AP)

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Michael Kunzelman And Mary Foster, Associated Press – Tue Jun 28, 3:25 am ET

NEW ORLEANS – A day after hearing a woman describe the shootings that cost her an arm and killed a family friend, jurors were expected Tuesday to hear from a former New Orleans police lieutenant who pleaded guilty to helping cover up the deadly shootings of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

Michael Lohman, a veteran of 21 years with the New Orleans Police Department, has pleaded guilty to participating in an alleged cover up of the shootings that left two people dead and four wounded on Sept. 4, 2005.

Federal prosecutors wrapped up the first day of testimony Monday by putting Susan Bartholomew on the stand. In frequently tearful testimony, she told jurors she felt bullets piercing her body as she huddled with her husband and teenage daughter behind a concrete barrier. She recalled that her daughter, lying on the ground next to her, tried to shield her body from the hail of gunfire.

"I prayed. I just called to the Lord because I didn't know what else to do," Bartholomew said.

Bartholomew said it wasn't until after the shooting stopped that she realized police officers had shot her, leaving her right arm hanging by just a strip of skin. She said the officers approached them as they lay on the bridge, threatened to kill them and yelled at them to hold up their hands.

"Of course I couldn't because my arm was shot off," she said. "I raised the only hand I had."

Opening arguments started Monday with prosecutors painting a picture of out of control police opening fire on unarmed civilians without following proper procedure. Defense attorneys countered with a portrait of stressed, tired, overworked officers reacting to what they thought was an attack on fellow officers.

"They cut loose with assault rifles and shotguns and they did so without ever identifying themselves," Justice Department attorney Bobbi Bernstein said of the officers. "The mistake they made was thinking anyone walking on the Danziger Bridge that day was a criminal."

Police Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, former officer Robert Faulcon, Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officer Anthony Villavaso are charged in the shootings that killed 17-year-old James Brissette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison, who was severely mentally disabled. The men were indicted last year on federal civil rights charges. Retired Sgt. Arthur Kaufman is charged in the alleged cover-up.

Police are accused of plotting to plant a gun, fabricate witnesses and falsify reports to make the shootings appear justified. Five other former officers already have pleaded guilty to participating in a cover-up. They are cooperating with the government and are expected to testify during the trial, which could last up to eight weeks.

Defense attorneys said their clients had honored their oaths to protect and serve, quickly beginning rescue missions even though they too suffered from the hurricane's destruction. They saw death and suffering, worked in horrifying conditions and heard gunshots so frequently at night they had to stop rescue missions when the sun went down.

Holmes survived, but Brissette died on the east side of the bridge. On the west side, Faulcon allegedly shot Madison in the back with a shotgun as he and his brother, Lance Madison, were fleeing from the gunfire. Ronald Madison was lying on the ground when Bowen walked over and asked a fellow officer, "Is that one of them?" before he repeatedly stomped on the dying man, Bernstein said.

"This was a tragedy for everyone involved, police officers and victims," said attorney Lindsay Larson, who represents Faulcon. "It was a horrible, terrible mistake, but it was not a federal crime."

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Judge rules Casey Anthony competent to stand trial (Reuters)

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – Week six of the Casey Anthony murder trial opened with talk of a psychic, a Velveeta cheese wrapper and the revelation an emergency mental evaluation of the young Florida mother was behind the abrupt cancellation of Saturday's court session.

Judge Belvin Perry ruled on Monday that 25-year-old Casey was competent to assist in her defense based on evaluations over the weekend by three court-appointed psychologists.

In his emergency motion for the mental health checks, defense attorney Jose Baez wrote that he based the request on unspecified "confidential communications" with Casey.

Perry sealed the psychologists' reports and ordered the trial to resume.

Prosecutors say Casey smothered her 2-year-old daughter Caylee with duct tape on June 16, 2008, drove around with the child's body in her car trunk for several days and dumped the remains in woods near their Orlando area home.

Evidence showed Casey spent the following month happily partying with her boyfriend.

Baez contends Caylee accidentally drowned in the Anthonys' backyard pool, and that Casey's inappropriate reaction stemmed from a history of sexual abuse.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Perry has yet to rule on a motion filed by the defense team on Monday asking the judge to declare a mistrial and start over with a jury that was not selected based on its willingness to impose the death penalty.

Defense attorney Ann Finnell argued that a federal court in Miami recently declared the state's death penalty unconstitutional on technical grounds. The ruling does not invalidate the statute.

Finnell said Casey's defense team challenged Florida's death penalty before the trial began on the same grounds cited by the federal court, but Perry denied the motion. Finnell is asking Perry to reconsider.

BODY VAPORS

Baez on Monday called a biochemist to the witness stand to rebut key prosecution evidence that chemical vapors from Casey's car trunk could be the result of Caylee's body decomposing there for several days.

Kenneth Furton, a professor at Florida International University, testified that the science behind the chemical analysis is not yet fully developed or reliable.

Both Furton and the prosecution witness said this was the first time either had provided evidence in court on the science of chemical vapors given off by a decomposing body.

Furton testified that scientists around the world disagree on whether it is possible to identify human remains from chemical signatures.

"There is no instrumental method that's been scientifically validated" to identify a human body from chemical compounds, Furton said.

During cross examination, Furton agreed that a decomposing human body could cause the chemical signatures found in Casey's car trunk, but insisted garbage also was a possibility.

Prosecutor Jeff Ashton pressed Furton to identify anything else found in the trunk that could give off the same vapors and overpowering odor described by numerous witnesses.

Ashton held up the contents of a trash bag found in the trunk, including an empty salami package. He gave the jury an empty Velveeta cheese foil wrapper to pass around and make their own judgments.

The food containers "would be unlikely to produce a substantial odor," Furton conceded.

The defense spent more than three hours questioning two witnesses who followed a psychic's instructions to look for Caylee in the woods where her remains ultimately were found on December 11, 2008.

Jurors saw a videotape of private investigator Dominic Casey walking around in the woods in November 2008 while talking on a cell phone to the psychic. Both he and a helper, James Hoover, testified they did not find a body.

Perry extended the court session on Monday until after 7 p.m., almost two and a half hours later than normal. Even after losing more than five hours of court time due to the quick end of Saturday's session, Perry indicated he still expects the defense to wrap up its case by Wednesday.

If the projection sticks, the judge hopes to give the case to the jury by Saturday morning at the latest to begin deliberations.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jerry Norton)

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Casey Anthony murder trial enters 30th day (AP)

ORLANDO, Fla. – The meter reader who found Caylee Anthony's remains is being questioned at the murder trial of the toddler's mother.

Roy Kronk discovered Caylee's remains in December 2008 in a wooded area near the Anthony family's Orlando home.

Casey Anthony's attorneys began questioning Kronk on Tuesday about an August 2008 visit to the same area when he thought he saw something suspicious in the woods. Kronk had called authorities three times over the next three days but they found nothing at the time.

Kronk returned to the area in December 2008 and discovered the bag containing Caylee's remains.

Anthony has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and could face the death penalty if convicted of that charge.

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Prosecutors, defense face off in Katrina police brutality case (Reuters)

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Tears streamed down Susan Bartholomew's cheeks as she recalled feeling the bullets blowing off her right arm, and listening to her suffering daughter and husband beside her.

"I could hear them crying out, and you could tell they were in a lot of pain. I prayed," she told jurors in a New Orleans courtroom on Monday. "I just called on the Lord because I didn't know what else to do."

Emotional testimony on Monday by Bartholomew, who lost her right arm in a barrage of police gunfire days after Hurricane Katrina, marked day one of a trial that could send five local police officers to prison for the rest of their lives.

Federal prosecutors launched their case against the officers, accused of civil rights violations in connection with shooting and killing two unarmed civilians, wounding four others and allegedly conducting an elaborate cover-up.

On trial are officers Robert Faulcon, Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Arthur Kaufman. A sixth officer is schedule for trial in the fall.

On the morning of September 4, 2005, they and other officers were working from a makeshift station a few miles from the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans when they heard a radio call that officers were under fire and the perpetrators were running toward the bridge.

When they encountered the civilians -- including members of the Bartholomew family at one end of the bridge, and brothers Lance Madison and Ronald Madison near the other end -- some of the officers opened fire.

James Brissette, 17, died in the shooting, as did 40-year-old Ronald Madison. All of the surviving victims, as well as some officers at the scene, have said none of the victims had a weapon.

When the shooting stopped and officers ordered the victims to raise their hands, Bartholomew testified that she was terrified.

"I thought they would kill me because I couldn't raise both hands, because my arm was gone," she said.

"I DON'T HAVE A RIGHT ARM"

Bartholomew, who wore a shawl across her shoulders to conceal her injury from the shooting, had to raise her left hand to take the witness oath.

"I don't have a right arm," she told the bailiff.

Before lawyers began their opening statements, U.S. District Judge Kurt Englehardt read the 25-count indictment of the men, who face charges including deprivation of civil rights, use of a weapon in a violent crime and obstruction of justice related an alleged four-year cover-up of facts of the shooting.

Jurors paid close attention as Barbara Bernstein, lead attorney for the U.S. Justice Department in the case, repeatedly lifted her arms as though taking aim with a rifle and shouted, "Boom."

Defense attorneys called the government's version of the events "a fairy tale."

The five officers were among the heroes of post-Katrina New Orleans, said attorney Paul Fleming. The lawyers described a stress-ridden, flooded city in which the officers worked tirelessly for several days under horrific conditions to rescue citizens.

"Judge these men in the context of the worst natural disaster in the history of this country," Fleming said.

Statements by some officers who have pled guilty indicate that the firing continued after the victims were on the ground. Several are expected to testify in the trial, which could last two months.

Key questions will be whether anyone fired on police officers in the area of the Danziger Bridge on September 4, 2005, and if so, who did the shooting.

Defense lawyers appear likely to raise what has become known as the "Katrina defense," meaning the hurricane and subsequent flood threw New Orleans into such a chaotic state that police officers could not be expected to exercise normal caution and restraint.

U.S. District Judge Lance Africk discounted that defense in March as he sentenced two New Orleans police officers to prison for killing civilian Henry Glover and disposing of his body in a burning car. Africk told the men that other officers understood "the Constitution was not suspended during Katrina."

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Suspect's relatives testify in 11 Ohio slayings (AP)

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press – 1 hr 3 mins ago

CLEVELAND – Relatives of a Cleveland man suspected of killing 11 women have testified that he eventually got control of the family house where the victims' remains were found in 2009.

Half-brothers Thomas and Allan Sowell (SOH'-wehl) testified Tuesday at the trial of 51-year-old Anthony Sowell. The mother of Anthony Sowell's stepmother also testified.

They say Anthony Sowell shared the house with his stepmother but she was in hospitals or nursing homes for years before her death. She died after the bodies were found.

Anthony Sowell avoided eye contact with one half-brother but chuckled and nodded when the other was describing their father as a "rolling stone" or womanizer.

Prosecution questions appear geared to placing the house under Anthony Sowell's control before presenting testimony on the killings. He has pleaded not guilty.

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Trial opens for accused Cleveland serial killer (Reuters)

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Prosecutors named each of the 11 women Anthony Sowell is alleged to have murdered and where their decomposing bodies were found buried in or around his house in opening statements for his trial on Monday.

Sowell, 51, has been charged with the aggravated murders of the Cleveland women, whose bodies were discovered by police in his house and backyard in fall 2009. Prosecutors seek the death penalty.

Cuyahoga County prosecutor Rick Bombik told jurors the case would be one they would never forget. Prosecutors outlined when each woman went missing, where in Sowell's house or backyard their bodies were found, and in what condition.

"It will be burned into your memories as long as you live," Bombik said.

Most of the homicides for which Sowell has been charged were caused by "ligature strangulation" and all of the victims were found nude or naked from the waist down.

Sowell's attorney, John Parker, described his client as a man with a "regular job" and who "had a relationship" in a statement that ran a little more than 11 minutes.

Parker said there were "no eye witnesses, no fingerprints and no DNA," in the case. The "forensic evidence will be greatly disappointing," he told the jury.

The defense also said there was no evidence of kidnapping or "planning" that would justify the aggravated circumstances of the murder charges and questioned the "credibility" of the witnesses who will testify against Sowell.

The trial before Judge Dick Ambrose is expected to include testimony from three alleged survivors. Prosecutors also are expected to present more than 8 hours of taped interviews between Sowell and the police.

On Monday prosecutors presented testimony from the first officer who arrived on the scene at Sowell's house and the owner of a sausage shop next to his house.

Earlier in the day jurors were taken to the home where Sowell lived and where the bodies of the 11 women were found.

(Editing by David Bailey and Jerry Norton)

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Loughner's lawyers seek to halt forced medication (Reuters)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Attorneys for Tucson shooting rampage suspect Jared Loughner have petitioned a federal court to order prison officials to stop forcibly medicating him with anti-psychotic drugs.

Loughner was declared mentally incompetent last month to stand trial on charges he killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and was sent back to a hospital for federal prisoners in Missouri.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns has set a hearing for September 21 to determine whether Loughner's condition has improved enough for the proceedings against him to resume.

Court papers filed by his defense team last Friday argued that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, "without the approval of the court, has decided to involuntarily and forcibly medicate Jared Loughner on the grounds that he is a danger to others."

Dr. Carlos Tomelleri, a psychiatrist evaluating Loughner, cited three recent outbursts by the 22-year-old college dropout as justification for administering medication to him against his will, the documents said.

Two of those incidents involved Loughner throwing a plastic chair inside his closed and locked cell, "the third involved spitting at counsel," the document stated.

But Loughner's defense team, led by attorney Judy Clarke, said there was "no evidence that any efforts were made to educate Mr. Loughner about the consequences of his behavior before seeking to forcibly medicate him with psychotropic drugs."

Loughner is accused of opening fire with a semiautomatic pistol on Giffords and a crowd of bystanders attending a political gathering outside a Tucson supermarket in January. Giffords, a third-term Democrat, is still recovering from a single gunshot wound to her head.

Loughner pleaded not guilty in March to 49 charges stemming from the shooting rampage at the "Congress on Your Corner" event, including multiple counts of first-degree murder.

He has been described by his lawyers as "gravely mentally ill." At the competency hearing in May, Burns cited the conclusions of two medical experts that Loughner suffers from schizophrenia, disordered thinking and delusions.

In a sign of his mental agitation during the hearing last month, Loughner rocked back and fourth, and was dragged from the courtroom shouting, "She died in front of me," shortly before Burns ruled him incompetent to stand trial.

(Editing by Steve Gorman)

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Ky. ex-lawmaker pleads guilty in fiancee slaying (AP)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A former Kentucky state lawmaker has pleaded guilty to murder for shooting his ex-fiance and was sentenced to life without parole.

An attorney for Steve Nunn said the son of former Kentucky Gov. Louis B. Nunn entered the plea Tuesday in a court in Lexington.

Nunn could have faced the death penalty if he'd been convicted in a trial that was scheduled to start in August. He was charged in the death of 29-year-old Amanda Ross, who was shot outside her Lexington home on Sept. 11, 2009.

Police arrested Nunn not long after Ross was found dead. Nunn was apprehended in a cemetery near his parents' graves and police said he slit his wrists and fired one shot at troopers before surrendering.

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