Court extends stay against forcibly medicating Loughner (Reuters)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner should not have been forced to take anti-psychotic drugs against his will without a judge first ruling on his appeal of the issue.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals keeps in place a stay that court imposed on July 1 ordering officials at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, to stop forcibly medicating Loughner.

The three-judge panel ruled that a U.S. district judge in San Diego abused his discretion by denying Loughner's emergency petition seeking to bar the Federal Medical Center from involuntarily medicating him after an administrative hearing found he posed a danger to others in the facility.

Prosecutors have cited several outbursts by Loughner in which they said he threw chairs or spat at others.

But the appeals court panel said the government "has managed to keep Loughner in custody for over six months without injury to anyone."

"We are confident it can continue to do so for the short period it will take to resolve this appeal," the judges added. "And the record shows Loughner is not a danger to himself."

The appeals court ruled that its stay should remain in effect until a hearing on the merits of Loughner's appeal, and it ordered a such a hearing set for the week of August 29.

Although prison officials remain barred from giving Loughner anti-psychotic drugs against his will, the court said they were free to take less drastic measures to control his behavior, including forced administration of tranquilizers.

The 22-year-old college dropout was declared in May to be mentally incompetent to stand trial on charges he killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in a January 8 shooting rampage in Tucson.

At the competency hearing, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns cited the conclusions of two medical experts that Loughner suffers from schizophrenia, disordered thinking and delusions.

Described by his own lawyers as "gravely mentally ill," Loughner has been since undergoing psychiatric evaluation to determine whether his ability to understand the court proceedings against him can be restored.

He pleaded not guilty in March to 49 charges stemming from the shooting at the "Congress on Your Corner" event, including multiple counts of first-degree murder. (Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb)

View the original article here

American who plotted against US troops convicted (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – A New York man who plotted violent jihad against US forces in the Middle East and the Balkans was convicted Thursday of conspiracy to commit murder and other charges, federal prosecutors here said.

Betim Kaziu was tried in a federal court trial in Brooklyn, where the charges against him included plotting to commit murder overseas and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the US justice department said in a statement.

He was also convicted of conspiring to provide material support to terrorism and conspiring to use a machine gun to commit those crimes.

Prosecutors said that Kaziu, 23, traveled from New York to Cairo in February 2009 to wage jihad against US troops in the Middle East and the Balkans.

In Egypt, the defendant attempted to acquire automatic weapons and to travel to Somalia to join the radical Somali al-Shebab network, US authorities said.

Kaziu, who according to US media reports is the son of Islamic immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, then traveled to Kosovo, where he planned to target American troops stationed there before going on to Pakistan to join al-Qaeda.

He was arrested by police in Kosovo in August 2009 and transferred into the custody of US authorities to face terror charges.

According to court testimony, the defendant, who grew up in the United States, had been radicalized in part by propaganda videos produced by Al-Qaeda and Al-Shebab.

He also was inspired by Internet speeches by terror mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born radical Muslim cleric and leader of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, according to testimony during his trial.

A November 4 sentencing date has been set for Kaziu, who faces a possible life sentence.

View the original article here

Judge hears from farmers in suit against Pilgrim's (AP)

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Angela K. Brown, Associated Press – Fri Jun 17, 8:13 pm ET

FORT WORTH, Texas – A federal judge heard more testimony Friday from farmers who allege poultry giant Pilgrim's Pride closed plants and ran them out of business to manipulate commodity chicken prices, which they say violated a Depression-era law designed to limit big meat companies' power over farmers and ranchers.

"We want Pilgrim's Pride to pay these growers what they've lost, the business value, and the mental anguish that they've suffered," Bob Depper, one of the attorneys representing the 275 farmers in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, told The Associated Press. He said a monetary amount had not been determined.

The trial that started Thursday in Marshall, about 175 miles east of Fort Worth, could last weeks or months, Depper said. It is being tried before a judge and not a jury, he said.

Pilgrim's Pride does not comment on pending litigation, company spokesman Gary Rhodes told the AP in an email.

When it closed some plants, cut thousands of jobs and shed production after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late 2008, the company cited cost-saving measures. Pilgrim's Pride emerged from bankruptcy a year later as it sold a majority stake to Brazilian beef giant JBS. Last year the company's headquarters moved from Pittsburg in East Texas to Greeley, Colo.

Because Pilgrim's Pride filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas in Fort Worth, groups of farmers initially filed civil suits there — as did the city of Clinton, Ark.

The northern Arkansas city filed a $28.5 million suit in 2009, alleging price manipulation and fraud, after Pilgrim's Pride shut down its plant there. Clinton, Ark., which was hit by a 2008 tornado that destroyed a boat-making plant that employed 45, said the poultry processor was essentially turning it into a ghost town.

But a federal bankruptcy judge in Fort Worth dismissed the city's suit and didn't allow more time to file an amended complaint. Earlier this year the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld those rulings. That city's suit is listed as terminated, according to court records.

The city of Clinton, Ark., is not a plaintiff with the farmers in the civil suit currently being tried in East Texas, Depper said.

The suit now in federal court in East Texas alleges that Pilgrim's Pride in 2008 started a plan to boost commodity chicken prices by cutting its weekly production by 5 percent after it closed two plants initially and also terminated contracts with farmers near its other facilities. The growers were devastated financially because no other chicken companies were in the various cities, making the farmers dependent on Pilgrim's Pride, the suit said.

The company's actions came on the heels of its 2007 hostile takeover of Gold Kist when it acquired $1.3 billion in additional debt, according to the suit.

The suit also claims that the company gave preferential treatment to farms owned by employees, managers and officers — including Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, Pilgrim's Pride then-chairman and controlling shareholder.

Depper said manipulating prices violates the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921, where lawmakers recently have argued over reforms that would better protect farmers and ranchers, such as making it easier for them to sue companies on antitrust grounds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture does not need congressional approval for any new rules, which have drawn opposition from big meat companies.

Many believe that to win a lawsuit filed under the law now, farmers or ranchers have to prove a company's actions harmed competition in the entire industry. But Depper said the antitrust component is not specific in the act, and judges have ruled differently depending on the case.

___

AP Agribusiness Writer Christopher Leonard contributed to this report from St. Louis.

View the original article here

US drops charges against bin Laden (AFP)

NEW YORK (AFP) – Federal prosecutors dropped charges against Osama bin Laden from attacks spanning more than a decade, officials said in court papers filed in US District Court in New York Friday.

Charges included more than 200 counts of criminal activity such as murder, conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against civilians and more.

US District Judge Lewis Kaplan approved the request, which is a common procedure when the defendant dies.

The charges included bin Laden's role in the bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

None of the charges were related to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.

The court papers filed on Friday included a statement from a Justice Department official declaring detailed evidence that bin Laden was killed by US forces in a raid on May 2 in Pakistan.

The statement said DNA samples, facial recognition analysis and the confirmation of one of bin Laden's wives all confirmed the identity of the al-Qaeda leader.

"These tests confirmed that the sample from the Abbottabad raid genetically matched the derived comprehensive DNA profile" for bin Laden, the official wrote in the statement. "The possibility of a mistaken identification is approximately one in 11.8 quadrillion."

View the original article here

Ex-billionaire to seek sanctions against Montana (AP)

BILLINGS, Mont. – Former billionaire Tim Blixseth said he will pursue court sanctions against the Montana Department of Revenue after a federal judge tossed a bankruptcy petition the state filed against him seeking $57 million in alleged unpaid taxes.

The petition could have forced the founder of Montana's ultra-exclusive Yellowstone Club to liquidate his assets if it had been successful. But it was dismissed when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Bruce Markell in Las Vegas ruled Wednesday that Blixseth does not have any tangible assets in the state, making Nevada an improper venue.

On Thursday, Montana's lead attorney on the petition characterized the ruling as a narrow one that did not directly address the state's legitimate tax claims.

"Those issues are still alive, and once we see the order entered, we probably have an idea of what we're going to do next," said Lynn Butler, a bankruptcy attorney based in Austin, Tex.

He added that the state would fight any sanctions "tooth and nail."

Under federal bankruptcy law, sanctions against the state could include a monetary award. Blixseth attorney Mike Flynn said those could total hundreds of thousands of dollars and entail damages from the wide publicity the case has received case.

A Sept. 1 hearing date was scheduled on the motion for sanctions. Flynn said he intends to depose Gov. Brian Schweitzer and other state officials who Blixseth said have conspired against him since before the Yellowstone Club's 2008 bankruptcy.

"We are going to depose everyone in the food chain that filed this," Blixseth said. "They took a shot at me and it was a bad-faith bankruptcy filing."

Blixseth said that the petition was nothing more than a "desperate move" to derail pending litigation related to the Yellowstone Club's 2008 bankruptcy and a separate lawsuit Blixseth is pursuing against Credit Suisse. The latter case involves a $375 million loan the banking industry giant made to the club in 2005.

The 60-year-old is a resident of Washington state. Last month, he paid $1.9 million in back taxes to California and Idaho to get them to withdraw as co-plaintiffs with Montana in the forced bankruptcy petition.

As a condition of those settlements, Blixseth agreed not to seek sanctions against authorities in the two states.

Montana authorities led the petition against Blixseth, going after him in Nevada because he put most of his assets into a family trust registered in that state several years ago.

Forbes once pegged Tim Blixseth's net worth at $1.3 billion. Court documents recently put the figure at roughly $230 million.

He still faces a $40 million civil judgment handed down last year by federal bankruptcy judge in Montana over claims related to the Yellowstone Club's 2008 bankruptcy. That order is on appeal.

There's also an outstanding case against Blixseth before the Montana State Tax Appeals Board. That litigation was put on hold after the federal case was filed.

Authorities and creditors claimed he drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the Yellowstone Club, leading to its bankruptcy. The club has since emerged from bankruptcy under new owners.

Most of the money that Blixseth took out of the private ski and golf resort near Big Sky came through the 2005 Credit Suisse loan. The money bankrolled a lavish lifestyle for Blixseth and his ex-wife, Edra Blixseth, that included a fleet of cars, two luxury jets, millions of dollars in jewelry and furniture and estates in France, Mexico, California, Scotland and elsewhere.

Montana authorities contended the money should have been counted as income on which Tim Blixseth owed taxes. The states' claims spanned a five-year period, 2002 to 2006, and included more than $36 million in taxes and almost $21 million in penalties and interest.

Tim Blixseth has said the Internal Revenue Service ruled years ago that the Credit Suisse money was a legitimate loan to the club. And he contended that any liabilities against the club were the responsibility of Edra Blixseth, who took control of the resort after the couple's 2008 divorce.

After the bankruptcy petition was filed on April 4, Tim Blixseth alleged it had been engineered by state authorities, including Schweitzer, in collusion with Credit Suisse and the club's new owners, CrossHarbor Capital Partners, of Boston.

"No American should have to go through what I just went through, but if somebody had to I'm glad it was me," Tim Blixseth said. "Most people wouldn't have the fortitude or the resources to fight."

View the original article here

Prosecutors wrapping up case against Blagojevich (AP)

CHICAGO – Prosecutors at the corruption retrial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich called their last few witness Thursday as they prepared to rest their case, which means Blagojevich's attorneys must decide soon about whether to mount their own case.

The prosecution's last new witness to take the stand was a former deputy governor under Blagojevich, who told jurors that his boss had planned to hold a $2 million grant to a school in then-U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel's district until Emanuel's Hollywood-agent brother held a fundraiser for the governor.

Bradley Tusk, who is not accused of wrongdoing, was a formidable witness in part because he was one of the few close aides to Blagojevich who expressed deep misgivings about alleged shakedowns at the time.

Tusk said he was aghast when Blagojevich called him in 2006 to tell him to pass the message on to Emanuel that the school wouldn't get the grant money until his brother raised campaign cash.

"I got off the phone as quickly as I could," Tusk testified.

After recalling a few witnesses, prosecutors were expected to rest their case later Thursday.

It would be the second time in less than a year that prosecutors will have finished a presentation to jurors in a Blagojevich trial. Not all the panelists at the first trial were persuaded after a six-week government case. Deadlocked jurors last year agreed only on convicting Blagojevich of lying to the FBI.

Blagojevich, who denies any wrongdoing, faces 20 counts this time, including that he tried to sell or trade President Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat for campaign cash or a high-profile job.

Over the objections of prosecutors on Thursday, defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky suggested in cross-examination that Blagojevich may not have been serious about the directive to call Emanuel.

"Did you know the governor would sometimes say explosive things, rash things and not really mean them?" he said. Judge James Zagel quickly admonished the attorney for the question.

"If you're done with the cross-examination, just sit down, because you are now into your closing argument," Zagel said.

The Chicago Academy eventually got its money and no fundraiser was held.

Prosecutors drastically streamlined their presentation this time after criticism that their case last year was overly complicated. This time, they called fewer witnesses, asked fewer questions and didn't linger on extraneous issues.

Their more cohesive case may put pressure on defense attorneys to call at least some witnesses. If they decide to mount a case, they won't have to begin until Monday at the earliest.

View the original article here

New charges against driver in fatal Va. bus crash (AP)

BOWLING GREEN, Va. – A driver for a low-fare interstate bus service was charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter Friday following a brief court appearance on another charge stemming from this week's crash in Virginia that killed four passengers and injured dozens more.

Kin Yiu Cheung, 37, of Flushing, N.Y., had been free on bond, but he was arrested on the new charges shortly after appearing in Caroline County court Friday morning. Cheung was in court to answer to a misdemeanor reckless driving charge stemming from the Tuesday crash on Interstate 95 about 30 miles north of Richmond.

The new charges are felonies, each carrying a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

"It's never easy to make determinations to bring serious charges, but there was enough evidence to bring the charge," Caroline County Commonwealth's Attorney Anthony Spencer said after Cheung's arrest.

Police say Cheung was fatigued when the Sky Express bus he was driving swerved off the highway shortly before 5 a.m., hit an embankment and overturned. It had departed Greensboro, N.C., Monday night bound for New York City with 58 people, including the driver.

Cheung's lawyer, Murray Janus, called the wreck a "tragic accident," adding he had not had time to talk to Cheung after his latest arrest.

Court records show Cheung had previous traffic violations in Virginia dating back to 2003, including speeding, following too closely, and failing to obey a highway sign and failing to stop or yield entering a highway. It was not clear whether the violations were personal or while driving a commercial vehicle.

Authorities declined to comment on their continuing investigation.

Virginia State Police were on the scene of Tuesday's crash within minutes, arriving quick enough that the bus was still rocking and survivors of the crash were crawling out of the bus into oncoming traffic, Spencer said.

Ben Johnson, a 47-year-old upholsterer from New York City, was riding the bus back from North Carolina after visiting family. He said the bus swerved off the road and hit the rumble strips on the shoulder before the driver tried to get back on the road.

"That's when we started flipping. I was thrown around pretty good ... but not like the rest of them," said Johnson, who broke his leg in the crash and crawled through a broken window in the pre-dawn darkness to get out of the bus, which Johnson called "filthy."

"They did something right. That's good," Johnson said of the charges against the driver. "All he had to do was really just pull over for 10 minutes. We were already late. A few minutes didn't matter, so that could have been between someone else's life, just those few minutes."

A spokeswoman for Sky Express did not immediately comment.

Transportation Department officials were in the process of shutting down the company at the time of the crash, but had given the Charlotte, N.C.-based company an extra 10 days to appeal an unsatisfactory safety rating.

A timeline released by the department earlier this week indicated that without the extension, Sky Express would have stopped operations the weekend before the crash. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has directed the department to stop extending appeals periods for operators found to be unsafe.

Following the crash, federal officials shut down the bus line.

Sky Express is part of an industry of inexpensive buses that travel the East Coast offering cheap fares, convenient routes and, in some cases, free wireless Internet. The industry is in the fifth year of a boom, but a string of deadly accidents also has prompted calls for tougher federal regulation.

According to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records, Sky Express buses have been involved in four crashes with an injury or fatality — it didn't specify which — during the two-year period that ended May 20. The company also has been cited for 46 violations of drivers being fatigued over that same time, ranking it worse than 86 percent of similar companies in that category.

Virginia State Police have identified those killed in the crash as Karen Blyden-Decastro, 46, of Cambria Heights, N.Y.; Sie Giok Giang, 63, of Philadelphia; Josefa Torres, 78, of Jamaica, N.Y.; and Denny Estefany Martinez, 25, of Jersey City, N.J.

Cheung is expected to appear before a magistrate Friday, where prosecutors plan to ask that he be held without bond. A grand jury is to hear the latest charges on July 6.

___

Associated Press researcher Monika Mathur in New York contributed to this report.

View the original article here