L.A. scandal may overturn 71 misdemeanor convictions
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- At least 71 more criminal convictions, all of them misdemeanors, may be overturned because of the ongoing scandal within the Los Angeles Police Department, Tuesday's Los Angeles Times reported.The cases, which involve a number of drug and weapons possession arrests, are in addition to 99 felony convictions that authorities have already identified as being tainted by allegations of police conduct at the LAPD's Rampart station, City Attorney James K. Hahn told the Times.
So far 60 felony convictions have been reversed, including 10 Thursday, amid allegations that anti-gang officers in the city's poor, largely minority Rampart section framed, beat and sometimes shot innocent people, then fabricated evidence and lied in court to win convictions.
At least 30 officers reportedly have been fired, suspended or relieved of duty since the scandal broke last year.
Teen charged with throwing log that killed boy on beach
TILLAMOOK, Ore. (AP) -- A 15-year-old boy has been charged with criminally negligent homicide for allegedly throwing a log off a cliff that killed an 8-year-old boy on the beach below.
Joshua M. Wald of Seattle was looking for seashells north of Oceanside, about 45 miles west of Portland, when the 3-foot-long log struck and killed him April 10. The log had fallen more than 400 feet.
Sky M. Crawford was arrested Friday and booked into a juvenile detention center. He also is charged with recklessly endangering another person, according to the Tillamook County Sheriff's Office.
Jurors to hear from airline, computer maker in crash trial
MIAMI (AP) -- Jurors charged with assigning blame for the crash of American Airlines Flight 965 got a chance to hear from the principals themselves: the airline, an onboard computer maker and the company that made the software.
Opening statements were held Monday as the trial got under way to determine if the airline, computer maker Honeywell Air Transport Systems of Phoenix or software maker Jeppesen Sanderson Inc. of Englewood, Colo., should be held responsible for the Dec. 20, 1995, crash near Cali, Colombia.
American is trying to force Honeywell and Jeppesen Sanderson to pay a portion of the estimated $300 million awards that American and its insurers are believed to have paid to the victims' families.
Both Honeywell and Jeppesen blame American and a series of mistakes by a crew cutting corners to pick up time on a three-hour nonstop flight from Miami running two hours late.
"American's mistakes caused this crash," said Jeppesen attorney Michael Nachwalter. "They did everything you could do wrong on this flight computer."
After overshooting one navigational beacon, the crew entered an incorrect code into a flight computer and unknowingly careened the Boeing 757 into a mountainside, killing 159 people, mostly Colombians heading home for Christmas. Four people survived.
Navy chief says military isn't testing ground for gay issues
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig told an audience at the U.S. Naval Academy that the military should not be considered a testing ground for gay-rights issues.
Responding to a question about gays in military service, Danzig said Monday night that American society "hasn't reached a consensus" on gay rights.
"In the end, the military itself shouldn't be a driver of that, but a follower of the consensus of society," he said.
"It is really much more an issue for society-at-large as it is for the military," he said. "The military isn't essentially a testing ground."
2 are accused of importing, exploiting illegal immigrants
DENVER (AP) -- Two employment brokers have been accused of bringing illegal immigrants to Colorado to work, then skimming their paychecks and charging them exorbitant rents.
A federal grand jury on Monday indicted Bagrat Garamov and Marat Toukhvatov on 36 counts of harboring illegal immigrants.
Toukhvatov is facing 34 counts of harboring female illegal immigrants in the Gold Mountain Village Apartments in Central City. Those who will testify as witnesses are being held at the INS facility in Aurora. The others have been deported.
"This is the kind of investigation the INS should be conducting," said Joe Green, INS director in Colorado.
Airport security firm to pay $1.2 million over lapses
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- An airport security company has agreed to pay $1.2 million in fines and costs to settle charges that it allowed untrained employees, some with criminal backgrounds, to operate checkpoints at Philadelphia International Airport.
U.S. Attorney Michael R. Stiles announced the charges Monday, saying no harm to planes or passengers resulted but the violations of Federal Aviation Administration rules posed "a significant potential for that type of tragedy."
Argenbright Holdings Ltd. and three former employees faced felony charges relating to inadequate training, testing and background checks of employees who staffed the airport's security checkpoints, Stiles said.
Spielberg et al. to take break from fund raising after fall
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hollywood heavyweights Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose largess has swollen Democratic campaign treasuries for years, will take a break from fund raising after the November presidential election.
The founders of the DreamWorks SKG studio have been among the Democrats' most reliable funding sources, regularly tapping their own bank accounts as well as twisting the arms of wealthy Hollywood colleagues.
But Dreamworks spokesman Andy Spahn said Monday that the trio plans to take a break after working fervently this fall for Democrat Al Gore's election as president.
"We remain 100 percent committed to the election of Al Gore in November," he said of the vice president. "We simply said that after the election we just will take a break."
Van of suspected immigrants plunges down cliff, killing 2
EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) -- A van full of suspected illegal immigrants plunged 70 feet down a cliff on the U.S.-Mexico border after a border agent approached it. Two passengers died and more than a dozen were hospitalized.
The van was in reverse, with people still trying to get in, when a Border Patrol vehicle approached Monday, said patrol spokesman Carlton Jones. After agents told the driver to stop, he moved from the driver's seat into the passenger seat, leaving the van still in reverse, and it rolled backward off the cliff.
Seven or eight people were able to get out of the van before it flipped and rolled several times.