Judge orders man held over girl's 1957 disappearance (Reuters)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – A judge ordered a Seattle man now in a local hospital held without bond on Saturday after his arrest in connection with the disappearance and death of a 7-year-old girl from a town in Illinois 54 years ago.

At a brief hearing, King County District Court Judge Eileen Kato said she found "probable cause" to detain Jack Daniel McCullough, now 71, and set a bail hearing for Monday.

The judge said McCullough, a former police officer who did not attend the hearing, was at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His illness was not disclosed.

McCullough was arrested in Seattle in connection with the disappearance of Maria Ridulph, who was last seen playing with a friend near their homes in Sycamore, Illinois on December 3, 1957, according to a statement of probable cause posted on the Seattle Times website.

Her decomposed body was found on April 26, 1958, in Jo Daviess County, Illinois.

McCullough was a teenager at the time of the disappearance and had been a suspect in the crime, but had an alibi and was never charged. McCullough has also used the name John Tessier.

According to the probable cause statement, Ridulph's playmate at the time of her disappearance reported that a man named "Johnny" had approached the girls as they were playing and asked if they wanted piggyback rides.

Later, the friend went home to get her mittens. When she came back, Ridulph and the man were both gone, the statement said. It added that investigators tracked down Ridulph's friend last year, and she picked McCullough's photo out of a montage.

"To the best of my memory and recollection of that night, that's him," the statement quotes Cathy Sigman, in her sixties, as saying.

MCCULLOUGH HAD ALIBI

McCullough always insisted that he had been on a train from Rockford to Chicago and could not have abducted Ridulph.

But a former girlfriend told authorities last year she had seen the train ticket and it was not used. The tip prompted police to continue the investigation, which led them to McCullough, the Chicago Tribune said.

The probable cause statement said McCullough joined the Air Force shortly after the disappearance, and then served in the Army at Fort Lewis.

McCullough later worked for the Lacy and Milton police departments in Washington state, the statement said. It added he was fired from the police after pleading guilty to an unlawful communication charge following accusations he had sex with a 13- or 14-year-old runaway girl in 1983.

Four family members of McCullough, including two stepdaughters whose names were not available, niece Jennifer Howton and another niece also not named, each casually dressed, attended the hearing on Saturday. They did not speak in court although one did briefly speak with a television journalist.

Outside the courtroom, a man who had accompanied the family in court and identified himself as a boyfriend of one of the stepdaughters told reporters that McCullough had triple bypass surgery a few years ago.

"He's looking at losing everything," the man said, adding that he did not think police had the evidence to convict him. McCullough was arrested on Wednesday afternoon and booked into King County jail early on Thursday, he said.

The state of Illinois was seeking a $3 million bond although McCullough was currently being held as a fugitive on a "no bail hold," Denny Behrend, the Seattle bail bondsman, told Reuters.

McCullough has been married for about 20 years and has three grandchildren, the family friend said. More recently, he worked as a night security guard at a Seattle area retirement complex, he said.

The family friend said he thought the person who tipped off police to McCullough "is an estranged wife who hates his guts. It's someone he's had a relationship with for a long time."

It is unusual for a case so old to be revived, especially without evidence such as DNA uncovered through forensic techniques not available a half century ago.

(Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston)

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Judge orders ex-ESPN commentator to stand trial (AP)

LOS ANGELES – Former ESPN commentator Jay Mariotti must stand trial on charges he stalked, injured and assaulted his ex-girlfriend, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Windham found there to be sufficient evidence for Mariotti to stand to trial on one felony count each of stalking, corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury. He also faces two misdemeanor counts of disobeying a domestic court order.

Prosecutors say Mariotti confronted the woman at a restaurant Sept. 30, the same day he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery count stemming from an August incident with her.

In that plea, he was sentenced to 36 months of probation, community service and a domestic violence course.

Mariotti, a former Chicago Sun-Times columnist, is also accused of grabbing his former girlfriend outside a Venice restaurant on April 15. He allegedly pulled a chunk of her hair out and took her cell phone from her while shouting at her.

Mariotti's lawyer, Shawn Holley, called the allegations meritless.

"We look forward to trial when we will have the opportunity to present a strong and vigorous defense," Holley said in a statement.

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Judge orders Lindsay Lohan back to court (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Lindsay Lohan, currently serving a home detention sentence, was ordered on Wednesday back to court on an allegation she violated her probation in a drunken driving case, a court official said.

The 24 year-old actress -- who is confined to her home on a separate sentence for stealing a necklace earlier this year -- is due in court on Thursday morning in Los Angeles, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the L.A. District Attorney's Office.

Gibbons said she did not know how Lohan allegedly violated her probation. But entertainment website Radar Online cited unnamed sources as saying Lohan tested positive for alcohol, which would violate her probation in the drunken driving case.

Lohan has been dogged by the 2007 drunk driving case for years and has served several stints in rehab and jail for violating her probation. A judge last year ordered Lohan to court for missing alcohol education classes, and she later went to a rehab center in southern California.

She was released from that facility in January and then landed in trouble, again, for stealing the necklace from a Los Angeles-area jewelry store.

Lohan was once considered one of Hollywood's most promising actresses, but her career has fallen on hard times due to her personal and legal troubles.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Supreme Court orders California to free prisoners (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court ordered California Monday to free thousands of prisoners, saying chronic overcrowding violated inmates' rights.

But one dissenting judge on the top US court warned the ruling was "outrageous" and California said it was disappointed, while tensions in its jails was underlined by a second prison riot in days.

In a narrow 5-4 majority ruling upholding a lower court's decision, the top US court said the release is the only way to address the constitutional violation of cruel and unusual punishment.

"This case arises from serious constitutional violations in California's prison system. The violations have persisted for years. They remain uncorrected," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.

Cash-strapped California has for some years had a problem with prison overcrowding: the western US state has some 148,000 inmates housed in 33 jails designed for some 80,000 people, according to its own figures.

Kennedy said that although the state has reduced the population by at least 9,000 during the appeal process, the decision "means a further reduction of 37,000 persons could be required."

"The state may employ measures, including good-time credits and diversion of low-risk offenders and technical parole violators to community-based programs, that will mitigate the order's impact. The population reduction potentially required is nevertheless of unprecedented sweep and extent."

The order "leaves the choice of means to reduce overcrowding to the discretion of state officials," the ruling read.

"But absent compliance through new construction, out-of-state transfers or other means... the state will be required to release some number of prisoners before their full sentences have been served."

But in a dissenting view, Justice Antonin Scalia said the ruling could translate to the release of 46,000 criminals.

"One would think that, before allowing the decree of a federal district court to release 46,000 convicted felons, this court would bend every effort to read the law in such a way as to avoid that outrageous result," he added.

He warned that "terrible things (were) sure to happen as a consequence of this outrageous order."

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary Matthew Cate said the state needs more time to ease its overcrowding problem, calling for the "establishment of more appropriate timeframes, if necessary."

"It is disappointing that the court did not consider the numerous improvements made in health-care delivery to inmates in the past five years, as well as the significant reduction in the inmate population," he said.

In August 2009, three federal judges ordered 40,000 prisoners freed within two years. Late last year, California appealed to the top US court to annul the ruling, warning that the freed prisoners could endanger public safety.

The ruling came after at least two inmates were stabbed Friday when some 150 prisoners rioted at a maximum security prison in the state capital Sacramento. Guards used pepper spray and fired a live round of ammunition to regain control.

On Sunday evening, a riot broke out in the dining hall at San Quentin prison, leaving inmates injured with slash and stab wounds, according to prison spokesman Sam Robinson cited by local media.

Dissenting Judge Scalia wrote that the vast majority of inmates who may be affected "do not form part of any aggrieved class even under the Court's expansive notion of constitutional violation."

"Most of them will not be prisoners with medical conditions or severe mental illness; and many will undoubtedly be fine physical specimens who have developed intimidating muscles pumping iron in the prison gym," he added.

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