| A Muskogee County Child Abuse Case Isn't Over Despite A Jury Conviction | | Posted Tuesday, November 07, 2006 11:30:30 AM by Blog57 Team | | A Muskogee County mother faces up to 18 years in prison after being convicted in what investigators call one of the worst cases of child abuse they've ever seen. News on 6 reporter Heather Lewin covered the entire trial and she says while the jury reached its verdict, the case isn't over. 26-year old Melanie Smith was convicted late Friday night in a Muskogee County courtroom. The jury found Smith guilty on two felony counts, child neglect and endangerment. But they found her not guilty of child abuse. When authorities took the victim away from his mother in June of 2005, the little boy was badly malnourished and covered in bruises. Recovering in foster care, the boy, now 5, was able to testify against his mother, but it wasn't just Melanie Smith that authorities suspect abused him.... | |
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| | | Killing's gory details shrink jury pool | | Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 11:22:48 AM by Blog57 Team | | The briefest of descriptions of the gory facts behind People vs. Zachary Gibian convinced some potential jurors Tuesday that they wanted no part of the case. Addressing a jury pool of 125 Suffolk residents, State Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle explained that Gibian, 19, of Hauppauge, was charged with nearly beheading his stepfather, Scott Nager, 51, with a samurai sword. Asked if anyone had a problem serving as a juror considering the nature of the case, which will include graphic testimony and crime scene photos, several hands went up. .... | |
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| | | BS Galactica 3.3: "Exodus: Part I" | | Posted Saturday, October 21, 2006 1:10:27 PM by Blog57 Team | | After a powerful two-episode premiere, the writers jump right into another two-part tale, ramping up the tension for the inevitable rescue attempt on New Caprica. Because of the pacing requirements, the episode is largely transitional in nature. Such episodes are necessary, but they are rarely the most exciting installments of a serialized story. As a result, this is probably the least impressive episode of the season thus far. Thats not to say that the episode misses the mark. It does exactly what it needs to do. The pieces are in place for the rescue attempt, with Adama and the insurgency working together towards a common goal. The Cylons are on the verge of a violent reprisal, but their own concerns and agendas continue to get in their way. DAnna, in particular, is distracted by a revelation that will, most likely, complicate the rescue attempt in the next episode.... | |
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| | | Murder-case baby 'had bite mark on face' | | Posted Friday, October 13, 2006 3:17:50 PM by Blog57 Team | | A WITNESS told the Aaron Gilbert murder trial yesterday how the toddler was so badly injured he "looked like the Elephant Man" shortly before he died. Rebecca Thrussell, a neighbour of the two defendants in the case, Aaron's mother, Rebecca Lewis, 21, and her partner Andrew Lloyd, 23, described what she saw in the days leading to 13-month-old Aaron's death on May 6, 2005. She told Swansea Crown Court that on April 28 Aaron had a bite mark on his face and she did not believe Lewis's explanation that he had "banged his head on a cot". On May 2 she saw a bruise on Aaron's head and the following day noticed so much bruising and swelling she said "he looked like the Elephant Man." Miss Thrussell said she told Lewis to take Aaron to hospital immediately "but she did not seem concerned".... | |
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| | | NASA's Vision Takes to the Road | | Posted Sunday, October 01, 2006 7:10:45 PM by Blog57 Team | | There's nothing quite like being able to reach out and touch a piece of the Moon. Knowing that an astronaut (one of only twelve people on the whole planet Earth) had traveled a quarter million miles across the void of cislunar space, landed on a barren and dusty surface, stepped out of his cocoon of the lunar module, picked up that rock, then brought it home again, is a pretty amazing and daunting thought. .... | |
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| | | Hart's work, father's advice; Richards taps into her reserves - IAAF World Cup in Athletics | | Posted Tuesday, September 19, 2006 11:24:41 AM by Blog57 Team | | 16 September 2006 Athens, Greece - With all due respect to her mother Sharon, Sanya Richards sensational 48.70 North American record in the 400 metres tonight at Athens Olympic stadium was clearly a case of father knows best. I talked to my dad today, the 21-year-old explained, and he told me, Youre in lane seven, nobodys in front of you, and you can execute a perfect race today. So before I got in the blocks, I just blocked everybody out and said I was going to run my best race today and break the American record. And I did that and Im so happy. .... | |
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| | | Conservative lawmakers upset law firms made millions off suit | | Posted Monday, September 04, 2006 9:34:31 AM by Blog57 Team | | Some conservative lawmakers weren't pleased that Wichita attorney Alan Rupe's law firms made $1.57 million off a recently dismissed school finance lawsuit against the state. Another firm in Newton made $682,000. Schools for Fair Funding, a coalition of tax-funded school districts that sued the state in 1999, paid the legal fees. But Rupe's hourly rate of pay trailed that of an attorney the Legislature hired earlier this year to represent it in the case. According to data released last week by the group, Rupe charged districts $190 an hour - 35 percent below his typical hourly rate of $300. Stephen McAllister, who was hired by the Legislature in May, filed a brief in the school finance case and argued that the Kansas Supreme Court should dismiss the case. McAllister earns $325 an hour for his legal services, according to legislative staff.... | |
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| | | How the case unfolded | | Posted Tuesday, August 29, 2006 7:38:01 PM by Blog57 Team | | Aug. 3. - Marcus Fiesel's social worker visits Liz and David Carroll Jr. and sees the 3-year-old boy from Middletown for the last time. Aug. 4 - Liz and David Carroll Jr. leave Marcus "restrained'' in a closet in their Union Township, Clermont County, home, and leave for a family reunion in Williamstown, Ky., Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters reveals Aug. 28. Aug. 6 - The Carrolls return home to find Marcus dead, and David Carroll Jr. takes the child's body to Brown County and burns it, according to Deters. .... | |
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| | | Dialogue with a Jewish Friend over Israel in Lebanon" | | Posted Wednesday, August 23, 2006 9:13:41 PM by Blog57 Team | | My liberal academic colleague and I have been debating our government's policies in the Middle East since our graduate school days at Columbia. The current round began back in the spring with the appearance of the Mearsheimer-Walt draft paper on the influence of the Israeli lobby over American foreign policy--"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." However, it was the summer war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and northern Israel that caused the intensity and frequency of our e-mail exchanges to reach new heights. .... | |
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| | | RODRIGUEZ TRIAL: Witnesses describe last contact | | Posted Thursday, August 17, 2006 7:14:43 PM by Blog57 Team | | Jane Amundson, Sharon, N.D., sold Dru Sjodin an expensive black purse moments before the UND student walked out of Marshall Field's and Columbia Mall and met the person who kidnapped and killed her. Amundson apparently was the last person, other than her abductor, to speak to Sjodin face-to-face before she was kidnapped Nov. 22, 2003. Amundson testified Tuesday on the second day of the federal trial here of Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., charged with kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death. She works part time at Marshall Field's, as well as working at the grain elevator in Sharon, N.D., which is about 60 miles southwest of Grand Forks, Amundson said. On that Saturday before Thanksgiving, Amundson saw Sjodin looking at "higher-end" purses in a display case, unlocked the case and sold her a black Coach purse.... | |
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