US serial killer found guilty of murdering 11 women (AFP)

CLEVELAND, Ohio (AFP) – Relatives of 11 murdered women wept in court as Ohio jurors found a man guilty of killing them and burying their bodies in his house.

Jim Allen, the father of Leshanda Long, whose skull was recovered from a bucket found in the Cleveland home of Anthony Sowell, said he was glad justice had been served.

"The pain will never be completely gone, but this is a good day for my family," Allen said.

Sowell, 51, was on Friday found guilty on 82 counts after 15 hours of deliberations over three days by the jury. He was only found not guilty on one count of aggravated robbery against Gladys Wade, who had testified he attacked her in 2009.

Prosecutors for the case said Sowell was sexually motivated and acted alone when he killed the women, whose decomposed remains were found in his backyard and inside his home after his arrest in October 2009.

Sowell had blamed the smell emanating from his house on a nearby sausage factory.

He did not show any emotion as Judge Dick Ambrose read out each verdict, but as he left the courtroom, he hoisted his handcuffed hands in the air, looking directly at the cameramen and photographers.

Sowell could now face the death penalty, and Ambrose scheduled the trial to resume on August 1, when jurors will have to decide whether to recommend the death penalty.

Donnita Carmichael, daughter of Tonia Carmichael, the first victim identified by the medical examiner's office, said she was relieved this part of the trial had ended.

She hugged her grandmother and Tonia's mother Barbara in the courtroom as the verdict was read. They both wept.

"I'm excited for my family and now we can try to move on from this," Carmichael said. "We have been through a lot."

The gruesome case that unraveled on October 29, 2009 had officials scrambling to explain why the crimes weren't discovered sooner.

The women allegedly killed by Anthony Sowell were exclusively poor, black and hampered by lifestyles that took them on and off the streets.

Because of their socioeconomic situation, they were not always reported as missing immediately.

Testimony in the trial lasted for three weeks, and the defense and prosecution refused to comment after the verdicts were returned, saying the case is under a gag order.

The deceased victims are: Tonia Carmichael, Leshanda Long, Amelda Hunter, Crystal Dozier, Kim Smith, Diane Turner, Telacia Fortson, Janice Webb, Nancy Cobbs, Tishana Culver and Michelle Mason.

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Sex, drugs and porn barred from Jeffrey Gundlach trial (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Evidence allegedly showing that star fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach kept a stash of drugs and porn in his office will not see the light of day at trial, a judge ruled in a lawsuit pitting Gundlach against his former employer.

More evidence related to Gundlach's alleged sexual liaisons with former co-workers also will not be allowed in the high-profile trial scheduled to begin next week between Gundlach and Trust Company of the West, a California judge ruled on Thursday.

TCW sued Gundlach, its former chief investment officer, in late 2009. The company Gundlach formed upon getting fired, DoubleLine Capital, used stolen proprietary data including contact databases to develop a client base, thereby engaging in "an ongoing pattern of wide-ranging, systematic unfair competition," TCW says in its complaint.

TCW is seeking in excess of $375 million in damages, according to Peter Viles, its corporate communications head.

Gundlach fired back with a countersuit, claiming that TCW owes him damages from his termination. He is seeking $500 million in damages, according to his defense team.

"Unrelated evidence" found in Gundlach's office would not be considered except under exceptional circumstances, said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl J. West on Thursday.

"Collateral evidence will drag us down and take an untoward amount of time," West said, claiming that the extraneous evidence would be a distraction from the serious issues of fraud, proprietary theft, and damages stemming from Gundlach's termination.

"The fact that Jeffrey Gundlach kept hard core pornography, sexual devices and drugs at his TCW offices is not in question, and clearly demonstrates an unacceptable pattern of unstable and unprofessional behavior," Susan Estrich, an attorney for TCW, said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

"The heart of this case is and always has been Mr Gundlach's theft of trade secrets and confidential information from TCW, and his betrayal of the trust placed in him by his former employer and its investors."

DoubleLine Capital was content with the decisions made on the eve of the trial.

"We're pleased that Judge West once again has ruled correctly on pretrial issues in favor of DoubleLine and adverse to TCW's meritless lawsuit," Lew Phelps, a spokesman for DoubleLine Capital, told Reuters.

West also noted that the power of two "well-heeled" legal teams was overwhelming his office.

"You guys are taxing me here," he said, adding that the lawyers were submitting so much paper and so many motions that he and his staff could not read it all.

Jury selection for the trial begins on Monday, July 25.

The case in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles is Trust Co of the West v. Jeffrey Gundlach et al, BC429385.

(Reporting by Mary Slosson; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Casey Anthony released from Florida jail (Reuters)

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) – Casey Anthony was released from a Florida jail on Sunday to resume the life on the outside interrupted three years ago when she was charged with the murder of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.

Casey Anthony exited the jail escorted by guards wearing bullet-proof vests and carrying rifles and stepped into a black SUV, one of two waiting vehicles, a few minutes after midnight on Saturday.

Anthony was acquitted by a jury on July 5 of culpability in Caylee's death. Since then, her future has been the subject of much speculation, but with no publicly known facts beyond her jail departure date.

Pool reporters inside the jail saw Anthony and her attorney Jose Baez whiz by them in the lobby and exit through the front door in a matter of about 12 seconds.

"She was just tunnel vision on that door," said Tony Zumbado, an NBC News cameraman. Anthony's only words were "thank you" to a jail sergeant, he said.

"When she walked out, she had a smirk on her face," said Zumbado, who interpreted the expression as relief.

"She looked to me like she might be nervous or holding back tears," said Matt Sedensky, an Associated Press reporter in the pool.

He quoted jail officials as saying Anthony -- wearing the tight hair bun seen during her trial, a bright pink shirt, jeans and bright blue sneakers -- left with the $537.68 remaining in her inmate account.

Two backup plans to take her out of other jail doors were scrapped when officers determined she could safely depart through the front, Sedensky said.

Some TV reports showed footage of a plane at an Orlando executive airport that they said Anthony had boarded and which then left for an unknown destination, but the reports could not be immediately confirmed.

CROWD WAITING

A crowd of several hundred had been waiting since midafternoon for the release, and many of its members rushed into the street trying to follow Anthony as she was driven away, briefly blocking the eastbound lanes of a six lane road.

Lori Richards, 54, of Daytona Beach and three friends had set up a tent at 3 p.m where they huddled through a brief lightning storm.

"We're here to support Caylee and we want them (the public) to boycott anything Casey or any of the Anthonys do," Richards said.

Casey Anthony's parents and brother had testified at the widely telecast trial.

Many in the crowd at the jail came with signs for and against Casey, and some periodically chanted Caylee's name.

A large police presence included the sheriff's mobile command center, five horse-mounted officers and at least 20 uniformed officers on foot, many wearing bullet-proof vests. Three news helicopters hovered overhead.

Anthony's safety is no small matter. Her trial revealed gruesome details of Caylee's death and the disposal of the toddler's remains in trash bags in swampy woods. There was also plenty of evidence of Casey Anthony relishing her life, partying and shopping, after Caylee died.

Even Casey Anthony's lawyer Baez acknowledged her outward lack of emotion over the death was "bizarre."

Her acquittal was met with shock and derision by much of the public, egged on by outraged television commentary.

Charles Greene, Anthony's defense lawyer in a related civil defamation lawsuit, told a judge on Friday that he had received seven threats against her that day.

Much speculation has focused on whether Anthony will try to live quietly out of the public eye, or seek out attention, and just what sort of person she is.

She stopped accepting jail visits from her parents long ago. An attempt by her mother Cindy Anthony to visit her both right before the trial began and just after the verdict were rejected.

Lawyer Greene told a judge that psychologists who examined Anthony at the jail this week found her mentally unstable after the ordeal of the trial, according to opposing lawyer Keith Mitnik.

Mitnik is suing Anthony on behalf of Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, whose life the suit says was ruined after Anthony initially lied to detectives that a woman by that name had kidnapped Caylee.

(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jerry Norton)

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Two men charged with Dodger Stadium beating (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two men newly arrested in the savage beating of a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium were charged on Friday with assault and battery, while an ex-convict jailed two months ago as a suspect was officially exonerated.

The turning point in a case that drew national headlines and stymied the Los Angeles Police Department for weeks came as the family of Bryan Stow, 42, who was left in a coma by the beating, said he was finally showing signs of improvement.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief Charlie Beck waited until after prosecutors had formally charged the two men arrested on Thursday to confirm at a news conference that the latest suspects were in custody.

"The process has worked," Villaraigosa said.

Louis Sanchez, 29, and Marvin Norwood, 30, both of Rialto, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, are slated for arraignment on Monday. They were held in lieu of $500,000 bail each.

The district attorney's office said both men were charged with mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury -- all felonies collectively punishable by up to eight years in prison.

Sanchez was also charged with two misdemeanor counts of battering stemming from a separate incident the same day. He faces another year behind bars if convicted of those charges.

Authorities said a woman was also arrested in the case but has not been charged. She was identified by the Los Angeles Times as Dorene Sanchez, 31, believed to be Louis Sanchez's sister and the wife or girlfriend of Norwood.

Investigators concluded that the convicted felon originally arrested as a suspect, Giovanni Ramirez, 31, a documented gang member, was not involved in the attack.

"I want to tell the world, Giovanni Ramirez is no longer a suspect in this case," Beck said. "It is just as important to exonerate the innocent as it is to implicate the guilty."

Ramirez, arrested on the basis of a tip from a parole officer in what police then called a major break in the case, was never charged with the beating. But he was sent back to prison for 10 months on a parole violation stemming from the discovery of a gun in the apartment where he was staying.

His lawyer and family have steadfastly maintained his innocence, saying he was not at the stadium at the time of the beating. His mother, Soledad Gonzalez, called her son's arrest "a big, big mistake."

Stow, a paramedic and father of two, had driven to the game in Los Angeles from his northern California home in Santa Cruz to see his favorite baseball team, the Giants, play the Dodgers on the Opening Day game March 31 at Dodger Stadium.

Dressed in Giants apparel, he was attacked by two men wearing Dodgers gear in the stadium parking lot after the game, beaten so badly that he was left in a coma.

The assault touched off a furor in Los Angeles over what critics said was a failure by the city and team officials to provide adequate security.

Stow remains hospitalized in San Francisco, but his family said on its website that he was opening his eyes and alert, and was able to mouth his last name, just days after suffering a medical setback that had led to emergency surgery.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Ohio man convicted of murder in 11 deaths (AP)

By MEGHAN BARR and THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Meghan Barr And Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press – Fri Jul 22, 6:08 pm ET

CLEVELAND – A man who lived among the rotting remains of 11 women was convicted Friday of killing all of them, bringing closure to a case that has haunted the city of Cleveland ever since the bodies were unearthed from a house that smelled like death.

Anthony Sowell, 51, was convicted of aggravated murder, kidnapping, tampering with evidence and abuse of a human corpse in the 11 deaths. He now faces the death penalty.

"We do deserve this justice," said Denise Hunter, whose sister, Amelda, was found buried in Sowell's back yard in plastic garbage bags. "I'm so glad that finally, on July the 21st, that all of our families can rest assured — and all of our loved ones can rest assured — that peace has come to our families."

Most of the victims' families slipped out a side entrance of the courtroom, preferring to avoid making any comment about the verdict. When Sowell was convicted of murdering Tonia Carmichael, who was strangled with an electrical charger, Carmichael's mother and daughter clung to each other and wept as they rocked back and forth in the front row.

The jury deliberated for just over 15 hours before announcing the verdicts.

Sowell, dressed in a gray polo shirt and dark slacks, closed his lips tightly, looked straight ahead and barely moved as the first aggravated murder verdict was read before deputies immediately handcuffed him. Then he sat down, his chest heaving as he pushed himself back in the chair.

Most jurors avoided looking at Sowell while the judge read the verdicts. Two jurors wiped away tears and others swiveled in their chairs to look at sobbing relatives of victims.

When the jury left the room, Sowell raised his clasped, cuffed hands high in the air.

None of the attorneys commented afterward because a gag order remains in place until after Sowell is sentenced. The sentencing phase will begin Aug. 1.

The discovery of the bodies was an embarrassment for the city's police force, which was accused by victims' families of failing to properly investigate the disappearances because most of the women were addicted to drugs and lived in an impoverished neighborhood. In the wake of public outrage over the murders, a panel formed by the mayor recommended a complete overhaul of the city's handling of missing person and sex crime investigations.

Several victims' families filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city last year.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's niece, Lori Frazier, was Sowell's ex-girlfriend and testified during the trial. Jackson said in a statement Friday that he hoped the verdict brings closure for the victims' families.

The jury sat through weeks of disturbing and emotional testimony as the prosecution made its case against Sowell. They saw photographs of the victims' blackened, skeletal corpses lying on autopsy tables and listened to police describe how their bodies had been left to rot in Sowell's home and backyard.

"Some of it was very gross and, you know, devastating to hear," Hunter said. "But I already accepted peace when we found out about the murders. Some of it I didn't want to know, but peace was already settled in my heart."

The women began disappearing in 2007, and prosecutors say Sowell lured them to his home with the promise of alcohol or drugs. Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave in late 2009 after officers went to investigate a woman's report that she had been raped there.

Many of the women found in Sowell's home had been missing for weeks or months, and some had criminal records. They were disposed of in garbage bags and plastic sheets, then dumped in various parts of the house and yard. All that remained of one victim, Leshanda Long, was her skull, which was found in a bucket in the basement.

Most of the victims were nude from the waist down, strangled with household objects and had traces of cocaine or depressants in their systems.

All of the victims were black, as is Sowell. He was acquitted of only one count in the 83-count indictment: a charge of aggravated robbery connected to one of the women he was convicted of attacking.

Sowell was also convicted of rape, attempted murder, kidnapping and felonious assault in attacks on two other women who survived. He was convicted of attempted murder, attempted rape, kidnapping and felonious assault in an attack on a third woman who also survived.

During the trial, several women gave grueling testimony of alleged attacks by Sowell, telling the court how they had managed to escape. One woman, who said she was brutally raped by Sowell, testified that she had seen a headless body in his home.

Prosecutors also showed an eight-hour taped interrogation of Sowell after he was first arrested.

During the interrogation, Sowell let out a cry of anguish and buried his head in his hands as two detectives pressed him to explain how the bodies ended up in his house in a drug-ridden neighborhood on the east side of town.

"It had to be me," Sowell said in the video, rubbing his head with his hands. "I can't describe nobody. I cannot do it. I don't know. But I'm trying to."

Sowell told detectives during the interrogation that he heard a voice that told him not to go into a third-floor bedroom where two bodies were found. He also told them about "blackouts" and "nightmares" in which he would hurt women with his hands. He told detectives that he began losing control of his anger about the time the victims started disappearing.

When one detective described a body that was found in his basement, Sowell became visibly upset again in the video.

"I guess I did that, too," he said. "'Cause nobody else could've did it."

The defense declined to call any witnesses.

In his closing statement, defense attorney John Parker questioned the credibility of several witnesses, noting that some had struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues, and criticized police officers for failing to properly investigate when the victims' families tried to report them missing. He asked jurors whether the prosecution proved who actually killed the women — at one point suggesting that more than one person may have dragged the bodies around the house.

When the bodies were found, police concluded that a nearby sausage shop wasn't the source of the lingering stench of rotting meat, as many neighbors had believed. The family-owned shop had spent $20,000 on plumbing fixtures, sewer lines and grease traps in futile attempts to get rid of the odor.

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Sony wants subpoena for Jackson footage quashed (AP)

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY, AP Entertainment Writer Anthony Mccartney, Ap Entertainment Writer – Fri Jul 22, 8:23 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Sony studios on Friday asked the judge hearing Michael Jackson's manslaughter trial to throw out a subpoena for footage of the singer's final rehearsals after a defense attorney said earlier this week that reviewing them was "a big waste of time."

Attorneys for Sony Pictures Entertainment, which has footage from the "This Is It" film depicting Jackson's last rehearsals, argue in a motion that neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys should be able to show the footage during the trial.

Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor is scheduled to consider the request on Monday, but canceled plans to review the outtakes over the weekend. In a ruling, he stated that he had watched some of the 16 hours that attorneys were considering presenting to jurors, but that he would not travel to Sony studios for additional viewings on Saturday and Sunday.

The studio based its motion on quotes defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan made after a hearing Wednesday in which he said the footage doesn't show the singer was in poor health in the days before he died. Flanagan represents Dr. Conrad Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge related to Jackson's death.

"We believe his health is somewhat compromised, but he's not displaying it," Flanagan told reporters, including The Associated Press. He added that he thought the footage was irrelevant to the trial.

"I really think it's a big waste of time," he said.

Sony seized on the statement in its motion, writing, "If the enterprise is a waste of time, the court has stated that it has little time to be wasted."

Flanagan did not immediately return a phone message Friday afternoon.

Defense attorneys had been hoping the unseen footage from "This Is It" would support their contention that Jackson was frail in the days before his June 25 death.

Prosecutors found the footage helpful to their case, and asked Pastor to allow them to use up to 12 hours of raw footage. Murray's team wanted to show up to four hours from the rehearsals.

Jury selection in Murray's trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 8.

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Psychiatrist: Suspect in soldier death delusional (AP)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A forensic psychiatrist told a jury Friday that the man accused of fatally shooting a soldier at a military recruiting station in Arkansas suffers from a mental disorder.

Dr. Shawn Agharkar testified that Abdulhakim Muhammad has delusions — fixed, false beliefs — that puff up his perception of himself and make him think he's being persecuted because he's a Muslim.

"He clearly has a different version of reality than the rest of us," Agharkar said.

Muhammad, 26, is charged with capital murder for killing Army Pvt. William Long and attempted capital murder for wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula in 2009. He confessed to the shootings and could be sentenced to death if convicted.

His defense attorneys argue that he isn't guilty because he has a mental disease or defect. Muhammad and prosecutors say otherwise.

"I have no mental defect or disease, neither past or present," Muhammad wrote in a letter to Circuit Judge Herbert Wright in May. "I was well aware of my actions June 1, 2009."

Muhammad says the shootings were justified because American troops have killed Muslims in the Middle East. He's professed ties to al-Qaida and called his act jihad.

On Friday, Agharkar said there's no proof to back up his claims.

"Saying you're an operative of a major terrorist group is grandiose," Agharkar said.

But a forensic psychiatrist with the Arkansas State Hospital reached a far different conclusion in an evaluation last year.

"He did not have mental disease or defect," Dr. R. Clint Gray wrote in his forensic report. Gray is expected to testify next week when the trial resumes.

Prosecutors rested their case Thursday after playing video of Muhammad confessing to the shootings. Proceedings ended abruptly Friday afternoon as prosecutors tried to suggest that Agharkar benefits financially from finding mental problems in the people he evaluates.

He's paid $350 per hour and he said he's logged between 100 and 120 hours on Muhammad's case. The state foots that bill.

"I'm paid for my time, not my testimony," Agharkar said.

Muhammad, who was born Carlos Bledsoe in Memphis, Tenn., changed his name after he converted to Islam in college. He later traveled to Yemen in 2007 and was deported back to the U.S. after he overstayed his visa.

In court on Friday, Agharkar looked at the jury — not Muhammad — as he said people with mental problems don't often think there's anything wrong with them.

"Denial of mental illness is very common," Agharkar said.

___

Jeannie Nuss can be reached at http://twitter.com/jeannienuss

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Strauss-Kahn, wife take in the symphony: report (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, battling attempted rape charges in New York, has attended two Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts at the Tanglewood Music Festival, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The first concert was a recital by Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider on Thursday at Tanglewood, a famed estate that hosts one of the world's premier music festivals every summer in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts and located 150 miles (225 kilometers) from Manhattan.

On Friday Strauss-Kahn was back at the venue, the Boston Symphony's summer home, for a concert with conductor Kurt Masur and cellist Lynn Harrell, the paper reported.

Strauss-Kahn had orchestra seats with his wife, the former French television journalist Anne Sinclair, who celebrated her 63rd birthday on Friday.

The pair apparently declined to talk to reporters.

The Times published a photograph of the two seated at the venue that showed Strauss-Kahn with a blue sweater casually draped over his shoulders, and Sinclair wearing a white blouse.

Earlier this month Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest, and the travel restrictions that confined him to a townhouse in New York were lifted, after US prosecutors raised concerns about the credibility of the New York hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault.

But the charges made by the Guinean woman have not been dismissed, and Strauss-Kahn is due back in court on August 1.

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Blago home, once de facto gov's mansion, for sale (AP)

CHICAGO – Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his wife are trying to sell their Chicago home that once served as Illinois' de facto governor's mansion, his attorneys revealed Friday, as the couple scrambles to raise money before he goes to prison for corruption.

At the court hearing, Blagojevich also stood before Judge James Zagel and said he fully understood that the government could end up seizing their home of more than a decade if he tried to flee or otherwise violates the conditions of his $450,000 bond.

Asked by the judge if he understood the consequences of a violation, which could also include going to straight to jail to await sentencing, the impeached governor responded, "Yes, your honor. I have no intention of violating the terms."

Blagojevich and his wife Patti Blagojevich, who worked for years as a real estate agent, have begun trying to sell their spacious home on a leafy Chicago street, defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky told TV cameras later.

"So if anyone's watching this and is interested in a nice house . . . contact the Blagojeviches," he said.

The court appearance was Blagojevich's first since a jury convicted him last month on 17 of 20 corruption counts, including attempted extortion for trying to sell or trade an appointment to the U.S. Senate seat President Barack Obama vacated to become president.

Blagojevich, 54, kept his tone serious when speaking to Zagel. But he looked at ease waiting for the proceedings to begin, smiling and signing his autograph in a yearbook one spectator handed to him.

The Blagojevich home, where the couple lives with their two children, was the place where FBI wiretaps captured Blagojevich talking about profiting by naming someone to Obama's old Senate seat; it's also where federal agents woke the then-governor at dawn on Dec. 9, 2008, and led him away in handcuffs.

A few years ago, the county estimated the home's value at around $700,000.

Blagojevich also had to put up a second property to secure the bond — a condo in Washington, D.C. Defense attorney Aaron Goldstein said each property had about $300,000 in equity, meaning the Blagojeviches could pocket $600,000 if they sold both.

Before the end of Blagojevich's retrial, prosecutors had indicated they could seize both properties as part of sanctions if jurors convicted him. But after the verdict last month, they dropped those provisions, opening the way for the couple to put the Chicago home up for sale.

The Blagojeviches bought the home in 1999, when he was a U.S. congressman. During his six years as governor, Blagojevich never moved to the official governor's mansion in Springfield. He remained instead in his political power base of Chicago, which angered some residents elsewhere in the state. He often conducted state business from his home office, with its fireplace and vast book collection, rather than going to his office in downtown Chicago.

Blagojevich does not yet have a sentencing date. He's expected to receive around a ten-year prison term in total for the recent convictions and for the lone conviction at his first trial last year of lying to the FBI.

His imprisonment could pose financial hardships for his family, which selling the house could help alleviate.

Blagojevich used up the last of his liquid funds to pay his lawyers for his first trial. Since then, taxpayers have footed his legal bill. In prison, his only income would derive from menial jobs, possibly scrubbing toilets or floors, at a starting wage of 12 cents an hour.

As he left the courthouse Friday, Blagojevich did not answer questions from reporters about the sale of the house. He made a brief statement that, "Patti and I were here to comply, as we always try to do with all the different rules, and we signed all the necessary papers."

That was a reference to prosecutors' complaint that Blagojevich had failed to promptly turn in all the paperwork officially putting up the two properties as collateral, documents which included title reports, appraisals and mortgage statements. Defense attorneys said Friday all the papers were now in.

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Strauss-Kahn, wife attend concert in Massachusetts (AP)

NEW YORK – French politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn is venturing farther from New York City after his house arrest on an attempted rape charge was lifted.

Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, took in two concerts at the Tanglewood Music Festival in western Massachusetts, two officials with the festival said Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about attendees.

The couple traveled to the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Mass., about 130 miles northeast of New York, and attended a recital by violinist Nikolaj Znaider and pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar on Thursday. They returned Friday for an orchestra concert conducted by Kurt Masur and featuring cellist Lynn Harrell.

The couple came alone and sat in the Koussevitsky Music Shed, the center's 5,000-seat amphitheater, the officials said. They did not appear to have any security guards with them, the officials said.

Tickets ranged from $18 to $52 for Thursday's performance and $19 to $91 for Friday's concert.

Prosecutors say Strauss-Kahn, a popular Socialist who had been a favorite to run for the French presidency, attempted to rape a hotel housekeeper during a visit to Manhattan on May 14.

He resigned his post as leader of the powerful International Monetary Fund a few days after his arrest.

A judge put Strauss-Kahn under house arrest at a rented townhouse in New York, but lifted it July 1 after prosecutors said they had concerns about the housekeeper's credibility. Strauss Kahn was allowed to travel freely within the United States, but cannot leave the country.

The trip to Massachusetts was first reported by the New York Times, which ran a photo Saturday of Strauss-Kahn and Sinclair in the audience at the Music Shed.

Strauss-Kahn wore a blue shirt and a navy blue sweater draped over his shoulders; Sinclair had a jacket and a purse in her lap.

Tanglewood, located in New England's Berkshire Mountains, is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It is about a three-hour drive from the townhouse in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood.

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