Hemera/Thinkstock(SAN FRANCISCO) -- A federal judge in California Wednesday night struck down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as applied to a federal employee who sought benefits for her same-sex spouse.
While this is not the first time a federal court has struck down a provision of DOMA, it is the first ruling to come since the Obama administration determined it would no longer defend the federal law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. Lawyers hired by the Republican leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives are now defending the law in court.
Karen Golinski, a lesbian woman married to her spouse under California law, brought the suit after she was unable to secure federal health benefits for her same-sex spouse.
U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White said, “In this matter, the court finds that DOMA, as applied to Ms. Golinski, violates her right to equal protection of the law under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution by, without substantial justification or rational basis, refusing to recognize her lawful marriage to prevent provision of health insurance coverage to her spouse.”
Lambda Legal Defense Fund, which represented Golinski, praised the ruling.
“We are thrilled,” said John Davidson, legal director at Lambda Legal. “This is a grand slam for us. Judge White agreed that sexual orientation discrimination should be given heightened judicial scrutiny and there is not even a rational justification for DOMA’s discrimination. Courts should regard with suspicion government discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
Comstock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Maj. David McCombs, a U.S. Marine who has served four tours overseas, stood out in the cold early Wednesday morning waiting for one of the few public seats in the Supreme Court hearing room.
McCombs came to the court to hear a case challenging the Stolen Valor Act, a law that makes it a crime to lie about receiving military awards.
"The medal of honor is the highest medal that can be awarded," said McCombs. "I believe the medal itself represents the highest sacrifice someone can pay. To lie about such an honor is a disgrace."
But some high court justices struggled with what Justice Anthony Kennedy called the "slippery slope problem."
Kennedy asked, for instance, about a lie concerning a college degree. Elena Kagan wondered about a law that could be passed to ban lies about extramarital affairs.
Chief Justice John Roberts asked Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., "Where do you stop? I mean, there are many things that people know about themselves that are objectively verifiable where Congress would have an interest in protecting."
The law is being challenged in court by Xavier Alvarez, who, while serving as a public official in California, introduced himself to an audience by saying, "I'm a retired Marine for 25 years. I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor."
Alvarez had never even served in the military.
As one of the first people prosecuted under the law, he was sentenced to three years' probation, a $5,000 fine and community service.
Inside court, Alvarez's federal public defender, Jonathan D. Libby, acknowledged to the justices that his client is a liar. But he said the Stolen Valor Act goes too far and violates the First Amendment.
"The Stolen Valor Act criminalizes pure speech in the form of bare falsity, a mere telling of a lie," Libby said. "It doesn't matter whether the lie was told in a public meeting or in a private conversation with a friend or family member."
The government argued that the law fits into a narrow category of speech that is unprotected by the First Amendment.
Verrilli said the law "regulates a carefully limited and narrowly drawn category of calculated factual falsehoods. It advances a legitimate, substantial, indeed compelling governmental interest, and it chills no speech."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor focused on the harm that a lie about military awards might cause.
"You can't really believe that a war veteran thinks less of the medal that he or she receives because someone's claiming fraudulently that they got one," she told Verrilli. "I'm not minimizing it. I, too, take offense when people make these kinds of claims, but I take offense when someone I'm dating makes a claim that's not true."
Verrilli said the statute is as "narrow as you can get" and stressed the importance of protecting the honor system.
"What I think with respect to the government's interest here, and why there is a harm to that interest, is that the point of these medals is that it's a big deal," he said.
"The honor system is about identifying the attributes, the essence, of what we want in our servicemen and women -- courage, sacrifice, love of country, willingness to put your life on the line for your comrades."
Justice Antonin Scalia expressed support for the law.
"When Congress passed this legislation, I assume it did so because it thought that the value of the awards that these courageous members of the armed forces were receiving was being demeaned and diminished."
Justice Samuel Alito asked why a lie should receive First Amendment protection.
"Do you really think that there is First Amendment value in a bald-faced lie about a purely factual statement that a person makes about himself because that person would like to create a particular persona?" he asked.
"Yes, your honor," Libby said, "so long as it doesn't cause imminent harm to another person or imminent harm to a government function."
A lower court ruled in favor of Alvarez, saying that while society would be "better off if Alvarez would stop spreading worthless, ridiculous and offensive untruths," the law was "unconstitutionally applied to make a criminal out of a man who was proven to be nothing more than a liar."
Comstock/Thinkstock(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) -- A jury found George Huguely V guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder and grand larceny in the beating death of his ex-girlfriend Yeardley Love.
The Charlottesville, Va., jury of five women and seven men reached their verdict after nine hours behind closed doors.
As the sentence was announced Huguely barely reacted, putting his hands to his face a few times near his chin. He looked over briefly at his family and friends in the front three rows of the courtroom.
Huguely, 24, was charged with killing Love in a drunken rage in 2010 just weeks before she was to graduate from the University of Virginia.
The murder charge carries a possible prison sentence of five to 40 years. The grand larceny conviction carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years.
The jury could begin hearing testimony immediately that would affect their deliberations on a sentence for Huguely.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Amine El Khalifi, the 29-year-old Moroccan man charged last Friday in an FBI sting in a plot to bomb the Capitol made a brief court appearance Wednesday afternoon and waived his right to a detention hearing.
The court appearance lasted only a few minutes with Khalifi not seeking bond for his release while the case proceeds.
Khalifi appeared before a federal magistrate wearing a green jumpsuit with "PRISONER" labeled on the back, as he was flanked by his defense lawyers from the Federal Defenders office.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Virginia is expected to indict Khalifi in the next 30 days after presenting the case to a federal grand jury.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Breaking ground on the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, President Obama said Wednesday he hopes the museum will remind future generations of the, “sometimes difficult, often inspirational, but always central role that African-Americans have played in the life of our country.”
The president spoke of what he would like his own two daughters to take away from the long-sought-after museum, which will be the only national museum devoted exclusively to African American life, art and history.
“I want my daughters to see the shackles that bound slaves on their voyage across the ocean and the shards the glass that flew from the 16th Street Baptist Church and understand that injustice and evil exist in the world, but I also want them to hear Louie Armstrong's horn and learn about the Negro League and read the poems of Phillis Wheatley,” he said. “I want them to appreciate this museum not just as a record of tragedy but as a celebration of life.”
The president was joined by his wife Michelle Obama and former First lady Laura Bush at Wednesday’s ceremony. The museum, which is set to open in 2015, will be built between the Washington Monument and the National Museum of American History.
Scott Olson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- When Congressman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., noticed someone left behind change at an airport security checkpoint, he started wondering about all those forgotten pennies. Turns out all that change really adds up: the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reports that about $409,000 was left behind in the year 2010, the most recent year documented.
Miller would like to see that money benefit the United Service Organizations (USO) and has introduced a bill that would do just that.
The USO is a private, non-profit organization supporting the military that, in part, operates welcome centers for returning service men and women at airports around the country. In 2005, Congress gave TSA the authority to use the money on security operations, which it does.
“Travelers’ lost change should be put to good use, and there is no better organization to use this money wisely than the United Service Organizations. Each airport center provides a place for service men and women to enjoy a welcoming atmosphere, connect with family, and utilize the services provided by the USO,” Miller said in an email to ABC News.
TSA does not comment on pending legislation, but a spokesperson did tell ABC News it makes every effort to reunite passengers with items left behind at checkpoints.
“TSA keeps travelers’ change accidentally left at checkpoints as an appropriations backfill for agency activities. There is no incentive for TSA to try to return the forgotten change to its rightful owner,” Miller said. Miller is the chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
The USO says that while it did not initiate the idea to have the money left behind earmarked for its use, the money would “absolutely” make a difference.
ABC News(LOS ANGELES) – A photograph of the California Fish and Wildlife Commission president smiling and holding up a dead mountain lion that he shot has ignited controversy in the state, where hunting the creatures has been illegal since 1990.
Dan Richards, however, shot the animal in Idaho, where hunting the cats is legal.
Richards isn’t supposed to bring it back to California, though, and it was unclear if he had.
California’s Prop. 117, which banned the hunting of mountain lions, also made it illegal for residents to bring dead mountain lions into the state.
“Californians sort of trust the Fish and Game Department and their commission to be the protectors of our wildlife resources, and this person is showing that he really doesn’t care,” Tim Dunbar, executive of the Mountain Lion Foundation, told ABC News affiliate KABC.
One state legislator is even calling for Richards to be ousted.
“He’s thumbing his nose at California law,” Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, told the San Jose Mercury News. “He’s mocking it. Frankly, I think he should face the music and step down. He’s done something that’s a disgrace to his position and to responsible hunters in California.”
Richards did not respond to ABC News’ request for an interview.
Comstock/Thinkstock(BIRMINGHAM, Ala.) -- The judge presiding over the murder trial of accused "Honeymoon Killer" Gabe Watson has openly scoffed at the prosecution's claims and angrily asked the prosecutor if he needs lessons on the rules of court.
The actions by Judge Tommy Nail raise questions about the prosecution's case.
Watson is accused of killing Tina Watson, his bride of 11 days, during their honeymoon in Australia by drowning her while scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef. The motive for the alleged crime was Watson's intention to collect on a $130,000 insurance policy and to sell her possessions, the prosecution argued in its opening statement.
The judge's anger boiled over Tuesday after prosecutor Don Valeska questioned funeral home director Sam Shelton about Watson retrieving his wife's engagement ring from the casket, but asking that her wedding ring remain on her hand.
The judge interrupted the testimony to say, "I took my grandmother's engagement ring when she was buried. I think it's quite common." Nail asked Shelton if most of his customers took their loved one's rings and Shelton responded, "It's quite common."
The sparring between the judge and the prosecutor continued until Nail sent the jury out of the courtroom and posed a sharp question to Valeska.
"You mean to tell me that [Gabe Watson] bought the engagement ring, married her, he and his family paid for a wedding, he planned and paid for a honeymoon halfway around the world, all so he could kill her to get an engagement ring he bought in the first place?" the judge asked.
The courtroom fell silent.
During the prosecution's questioning of Tina Watson's sister, Alanda Thomas, on Tuesday the defense repeatedly objected to Valeska's questions and Nail sustained nearly every defense objection.
When Valeska became visibly frustrated, the judge pounded his desk and pointed at Valeska, saying loudly, "Do you need the definition of hearsay? If y'all can't accept my ruling you know where Montgomery is; take off." Montgomery is the neighboring county from Jefferson County where the murder trial is taking place.
The heated discussions began after prosecutors pressed their witnesses on questions about Watson's character. Throughout the trial, prosecutors have tried to paint Watson as an unemotional, calculating killer.
Valeska later said to ABC News, "I wish we had gotten in the stuff that he ruled out, but I can't do anything but move on."
Watson never received any money from his wife's insurance policy since her father was listed as the beneficiary. Watson had filed a claim for $10,000 in travel insurance to cover what he says would was the total cost incurred as a result of his wife's death in Australia.
U.S. Department of Justice(CLEVELAND) -- An animal activist planned to pay a hitman $730 to gun down a random person wearing fur outside of a Cleveland library. A criteria for any gunmen considering the offer was that they do not wear, "anything that looks remotely like fur," according to a police affidavit.
"I would like to create an online community on Facebook which would allow me to find someone who is willing to kill someone who is wearing fur toward the end of October 2011 or early November 2011 or possibly in January 2012 or February 2012 at the latest," Meredith Lowell allegedly wrote on a Facebook page she had established under the alias Anne Lowery.
Lowell, 27, was arrested Tuesday on one charge of conspiracy to commit murder. According to an affidavit filed by federal authorities, Lowell solicited a hitman to kill the first person he saw outside of a Cleveland Heights library who was wearing fur and, "preferably 14 years old or older but should be at least 12 years old."
The FBI took notice of the posting last November and assigned an undercover employee to correspond with Lowell, pretending to agree to get the job done.
A 14-page affidavit that detailed Lowell's alleged correspondence with her "hitman," which took place over the course of several months, was filed in U.S. District Court.
After exchanging messages on Facebook, Lowell began to open up to the FBI operative and revealed that Anne Lowery was a pseudonym. The two moved their correspondence to email since "it is easier for us to communicate," Lowell wrote.
Lowell sent many of the emails from the Coventry Branch of Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, where authorities claim she planned to have the murder take place. In those emails, she wrote of her desire to escape a home where her family ate meat, wore wool, and used animal products, the affidavit states.
Jennifer Kaden, co-founder of the Cleveland Animal Rights Alliance, said she checked her membership records and found that no one in her organization had ever dealt with Lowell, who she called "misguided" and "dangerous."
Lowell remains in federal custody and faces a detention hearing next Tuesday to determine whether she will be offered bail.
Giuliana Nakashima/The Washington Post/Getty Images(INDIANAPOLIS) -- When most people think of the Girl Scouts -- especially at this time of the year -- they think of Thin Mints and Samoas, of campfires and green uniforms, but one Indiana Republican sees something vastly different: a “radicalized” group that backs abortion rights and in doing so is destroying U.S. families.
That is why Indiana state Rep. Bob Morris -- who represents Allen County, which includes the city of Fort Wayne -- is not only refusing to sign a resolution to honor the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America but actively trying to get his fellow lawmakers to oppose the measure, too.
In a letter to his Republican colleagues at the Indiana statehouse, first obtained by the Journal-Gazette of Fort Wayne, Morris called the group a “radicalized organization” that backs abortion and promotes the “homosexual lifestyle.” Of the 50 role models that Girl Scouts study, Morris argued that, “only three have a briefly mentioned religious background; all the rest are feminists, lesbians or communists.”
Even the White House wasn’t immune from Morris’ criticism. Morris wrote that First lady Michelle Obama’s role as an honorary president of the New York City-based group, “should give each of us reason to pause before our individual and collective endorsement of the organization.”
Morris, who said he had done, “a small amount of Web-based research” on the matter, claimed that, “the agenda of Planned Parenthood includes sexualizing young girls through the Girl Scouts, which is quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood.”
Morris has two daughters who are part of the group but, he said, he sought out a specific troop for them that is anti-abortion. The organization overall, he wrote in his letter, “has been subverted in the name of liberal progressive politics and the destruction of traditional American family values.”
The married father of six and Indiana University graduate is the owner and founder of a chain of retail stores called Healthkick Nutrition Centers.
The backlash from the organization has been swift. Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michigan posted a statement on its website titled “What We Stand For.” “No funds are allocated from either [Girl Scouts of Northern-Indiana Michigan or Girl Scouts USA] to Planned Parenthood,” the group said in its statement, adding that, “issues related to human sexuality and reproductive health are best left to parents or guardians to discuss with their daughters.”
Planned Parenthood of Indiana also released a statement, with president and CEO Betty Cockrum saying, “It was disappointing to read Rep. Morris’ inflammatory, misleading, woefully inaccurate and harmful words about Planned Parenthood, the Girl Scouts of America and the president and first lady.”
“On the national level, inflammatory and generally inaccurate claims about a partnership between the Girl Scouts and Planned Parenthood have been promoted primarily by anti-choice lawmakers seeking to place pressure on organizations to disassociate or distance themselves from Planned Parenthood,” Cockrum said.
Even Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma ridiculed Morris’ stance, spending Tuesday dishing out Thin Mints to other lawmakers and joking that the letter made him buy 278 cases of cookies.
Morris said Tuesday that he is standing by his opposition and his daughters are now joining an alternative group run by conservative Christians.
Hemera/Thinkstock(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) -- The fate of accused murderer George Huguely V is in the hands of a Charlottesville, Va., jury. Deliberations began Wednesday morning.
Two female alternate jurors were dismissed by the judge after being chosen at random, leaving a final jury made up of five women and seven men. The alternates were permitted to leave, but remain under oath until the conclusion of the case.
Huguely, 24, faces six charges, including first-degree murder, in the death of former girlfriend Yeardley Love. He pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Over 10 days in court, jurors listened to testimony from nearly 60 witnesses and saw a video of Huguely's police statement, graphic photos of Love's battered body, and read text and email correspondence between the two.
Though charged with first-degree murder, the judge gave jurors a menu of lesser charges they can choose from: second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. He could also be found not guilty.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense denies that Huguely was in Yeardley's room the night of her death and was involved in an altercation with her. They differ on the severity of the encounter and whether Huguely was directly and intentionally responsible for Love's death.
Over the course of the trial, prosecutors painted a portrait of Huguely as a violent and enraged man who savagely beat Love in her bedroom and left her there to die. Prosecutors claimed that Love died from blunt force trauma to the head.
The defense depicted Huguely as a troubled young man whose problems with alcohol spiraled out of control. They described Huguely and Love's relationship as mutually tempestuous, with both of them jilting and betraying each other. They maintained that Huguely went to Love's bedroom with the intention to talk to her and that, while things got heated and he pushed her around a bit, he did not do anything severe enough to kill her.
Depending on the jury's verdict, Huguely could be sentenced to anywhere from one day to life in prison.
Huguely has been in jail for about 21 months and could get credit for time served, so a sentencing of anywhere up to roughly 21 months could allow him to go free.
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- The mother of the former U.S. Marine sentenced to death in Iran was allowed to visit her son, who she said looked gaunt and terrified on death row.
Amir Hekmati's mother, Benhaz, went to Tehran in late January, according to a report posted late Tuesday by The New York Times, three weeks after an Iranian court sentenced the 28-year-old Arizona-raised Iranian-American to death for, "cooperating for a hostile country...and spying for the CIA."
"While he is disappointed by the circumstances he finds himself in, he is hopeful that the truth will be known and he will be able to come home very soon," Hekmati's mother said in a statement, according to The Times. She described the Iranian officials she met as "hospitable" and "respectful," but said her son looked thinner and shocked by his ordeal.
Hekmati's family has publicly maintained his innocence, as first voiced by his father Ali to ABC News in an exclusive interview before the death sentence came down.
"My son is no spy. He is innocent. He's a good fellow, a good citizen, a good man," Ali said in December. "These are all unfounded allegations and a bunch of lies."
Hekmati, an Arizona-born Iranian-American who served the U.S. Marines as a rifleman from 2001 to 2005, was arrested while visiting his extended family, including two elderly grandmothers, in Tehran on Aug. 29, 2011, according to the family. The family said they were urged by the Iranian government to keep quiet about his arrest with the promise of later release, but then in December, Hekmati was shown on Iranian television allegedly confessing to being an undercover agent of the Central Intelligence Agency on a mission to infiltrate the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.
"It was their [the CIA's] plan to first burn some useful information, give it to them [the Iranians] and let Iran's Intelligence Ministry think that this is good material," Hekmati says calmly in the video.
Contrary to claims made during the initial Iranian broadcast, Hekmati's military record, provided to ABC News, shows that he never had intelligence training and the U.S. State Department said in early January Iran's claims that Hekmati "either worked for, or was sent to Iran by the CIA are simply untrue."
"The Iranian regime has a history of falsely accusing people of being spies, of eliciting forced confessions, and of holding innocent Americans for political reasons," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said then.
With the exception of the rare family statement criticizing Iran's previous lack of cooperation, Hekmati's kin, now represented by a high-powered attorney and a public relations firm, have been quiet in their dogged efforts to free the 28-year-old.
"By remaining discreet, you are not ruling out the option to be more public later," the family's lawyer in America, Pierre-Richard Prosper, told The Times. "A more visible campaign has not been ruled out."
Shortly before Benhaz's visit, Hekmati's lawyers in Tehran filed an appeal with courts there.
Eric Volz, a spokesperson for the family, did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment on this report. A website set up by representatives of the family, FreeAmir.org, posted The New York Times' story in place of a new family statement.
Krista Kennell/AFP/Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) -- With the city of Los Angeles and even the nation outraged at the alleged sexual abuse accusations against elementary school teacher Mark Berndt, his attorney Victor Acevedo asked Tuesday that people not find his client guilty until he's had his day in court.
The lawyer made his request on the same day that Berndt, who has been charged with 23 counts of lewd acts on children at Miramonte Elementary School in south Los Angeles, pleaded not guilty.
Berndt, 61, is alleged to have taken pictures of children who were blindfolded in his classroom and in some cases, reportedly fed them spoonfuls of his semen among other lewd acts. The youngsters were not aware they were being victimized, according to prosecutors.
Acevedo claimed during the arraignment that jail staff announced over a loudspeaker that Berndt, who's currently being held on $23 million bail, was a child molester and in which dorm he was staying.
Child molesters are at particular risk for being attacked in prison.
In response to Acevedo's allegation, L.A. County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Steve Whitmore said, "We don’t do that kind of thing, but we're going to do an investigation of it."
The case against Berndt began in October 2010 when a drugstore photo processor turn over photos he said were from the teacher that showed children blindfolded and gagged.
While Berndt was removed from the classroom in January 2010, there are questions about why it took a year to file charges.
AbleStock/Thinkstock(ATLANTA) -- Several people are dead after a shooting Tuesday night at a health spa in Norcross, Georgia.
Police say the incident at the Su Jung Health Sauna resulted in five fatalities, including the shooter, in what appears to have been a murder-suicide.
Details about the victims and the shooter have not been released. Investigators are uncertain about the relationship between the shooter and the victims.
Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama showed off his vocal abilities once again Tuesday night, singing a few lines of “Sweet Home Chicago” during the finale of a blues concert at the White House.
“We were trying to get you to help us sing that because I heard you singing Al Green,” blues great Buddy Guy urged the president from the stage, referring to Obama’s infamous performance at the Apollo last month when he sang a few lines of “Let’s Stay Together.”
“So you’ve started something. You’ve got to keep it up,” Guy said.
A reluctant Obama ultimately obliged.
“Come on… Baby don’t you want to go,” Obama sang, mic in hand, as the crowd swayed around him and the first lady cheered him on. “Oh come on, baby don’t you want to go.”
The president then held the mic up briefly for the legendary B.B. King to sing the line “… that same old place,” before Obama brought it home, “… sweet home Chicago.”
The president joined the band in the closing moments of a concert by music legends and young stars in the East Room that was part of the White House Concert Series.
B.B. King, “The King of Blues,” dressed to the nines in a shimmery jacket, kicked off the celebration with a rousing rendition of “Let the Good Times Roll” followed by “The Thrill Is Gone.”
The president and Michelle Obama, joined by first grandmother Marian Robinson and members of the administration and Congress, listened to the music of Trombone Shorty, Shemekia Copeland, Keb Mo and Jeff Beck, among others.
Jagger took to the stage roughly half-way through the concert and lived up to expectations, belting out “I Can’t Turn You Loose” and “Miss You.”
Tuesday night’s salute to the blues was in recognition of Black History Month.
“This is music with humble beginnings -- roots in slavery and segregation, a society that rarely treated black Americans with the dignity and respect that they deserved,” the president said.
Earlier Tuesday, first lady Michelle Obama hailed blues music as “deeply American” and “deeply human” at a workshop for several dozen middle and high school students in the State Dining Room -- an event held as part of the ongoing White House music series and in recognition of African-American history month.
“This music wraps all of our emotions -- whether it’s love and loss, joy and sorrow, heartbreak and celebration -- it wraps it all into an art form that stirs our souls and it helps us rise above all our struggles,” the first lady said.
She was joined on stage by singer-songwriter guitarist Keb Mo; vocal artist Shemekia Copeland; and trombonist Troy ‘Trombone Shorty’ Andrews. Mo has won three Grammys, while Copeland and Andrews have both been nominated.
The first lady told the young audience that the career paths of the artists and her husband, President Obama, illustrate what can be achieved through hard work.
“The President didn’t start out at the top either. Neither did I, but let’s talk about him for a little bit since he’s not here,” she said, drawing laughter. “He had to work hard, and get a little focused -- and he wasn’t focused all the time. It was later in life that he got a little focus, right? So even if you mess up a little bit, you can get right on track.”
Comstock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- A 17-year-old boy with Down syndrome and autism fell to his death down a garbage chute Monday night in a high-rise Chicago apartment building. Police discovered the body of Charlie Manley inside the building’s trash compacter.
He apparently climbed into the trash chute and fell 46 floors to his death, according to police. Residents say the chutes are about four feet off the ground and covered with a metal door.
Police say the boy’s parents were awakened by an alarm in their apartment -- set off when the boy left -- but then could not find him during a frantic search.
Neighbors described the teenager as a friendly, upbeat boy who was well known in the building located in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood just north of downtown. "He was always out, talking to everybody in the building," said Carolyn Licata, a building resident.
Neighbor Barbara Georgans wondered how he was able to climb into such a small opening, estimated at less than two square feet. “Maybe they should have had some kind of a shield to prevent something like that.”
The Chicago medical examiner’s officer conducted an autopsy on the boy and ruled his death an accident.
The boy’s father, John Manley, is a Chicago hedge fund investor who has supported the Special Olympics over many years.
Photodisc/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A spurned boyfriend planned to flee the country after allegedly running over his girlfriend three times and killing her, Bergen County, N.J., prosecutors said Tuesday.
Charles Ann, 26, was arrested at a friend’s apartment in Flushing, N.Y., early Tuesday morning with a passport and a large sum of cash.
Prosecutors said Ann allegedly ran over his girlfriend, Aena Hong, 25, three times on a Fort Lee, N.J., road Monday evening and left her for dead at the scene. Hong died an hour later from her injuries.
Hong was seen walking next to Ann’s Hyundai Sonata while the two were embroiled in an argument, Bergen County prosecutor John Molinelli said in a statement. He described the pair’s relationship as “tumultuous.”
“Just before the incident, the vehicle was observed to drive away from Ms. Hong and turn around. As the victim was crossing the road, [Ann] rapidly accelerated his motor vehicle, striking Ms. Hong,” Molinelli wrote.
Ann put the car in reverse, driving over Hong’s body, then drove forward over it for a third time, prosecutors said.
Ann, a native of Korea, has been in the United States since 2009.
He is being held on $3 million bail while he awaits an extradition hearing from Queens, N.Y., to New Jersey.
Dunwoody Police Dept(ATLANTA) -- The murder trial of a Georgia engineer charged with killing his colleague and alleged lover's husband began Tuesday in Atlanta with starkly different tales of romance, betrayal and insanity in attorneys' opening statements.
Hemy Neuman, 48, was a high-level operations manager at General Electric when he shot and killed Andrea Sneiderman's husband Rusty Sneiderman, 36, in the parking lot of Sneiderman's son's preschool.
Andrea Sneiderman worked for Neuman at General Electric and they were allegedly involved in a hot-and-cold affair.
Neither the defense nor the prosecution denies that Neuman pulled the trigger and killed Rusty Sneiderman, but they tell divergent stories of what led to the killing.
Neuman pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Neuman's defense attorney Doug Peters said in his opening statements that Neuman believed he had been visited by an angel and demon in the forms of Olivia Newton-John and Barry White, respectively, that told him that Sneiderman's children were his and that he needed to protect them by killing her husband.
Peters said mental illness runs in Neuman's family and his troubled past could be traced back to his family being taken to Auschwitz by the Nazis, a violent father and boarding school.
Neuman eventually married and became the father of three children -- 21-year-old twins and an 18-year-old daughter.
Andrea Sneiderman worked for Neuman at GE and in May 2010, they took their first business trip together and began having conversations about their personal lives. Peters went on to describe numerous romantic business trips, hours spent on the phone and hundreds of personal text messages exchanged between the two.
The defense contends that although Andrea Sneiderman at times said she would never leave her husband, she encouraged Neuman to envision a life with her and her children. These messages and his troubled background, the defense said, were what led Neuman to hear demons and angels that commanded him to murder Rusty Sneiderman.
Andrea Sneiderman was in court and shook her head and let out sporadic sobs as Peters spoke.
"Marry me," Neuman wrote in a text message read by Peters. "You think I'm crazy and your intentions are clear. Sleep on it. I will give you, Sophia and Ian the world. Together we can make it all work. Marry me."
In an email, Andrea Sneiderman wrote to Neuman, "Desire versus reality is a world I'm trying to ignore because I have to. So sorry, not fair to you, I have other thoughts but not the time right now."
"We know what happened; this case is about why. ... How could this have ever possibly taken place?" Peters asked the jurors. "This man should not be released, he should be confined as the law provides, and held as the law provides. This man is not guilty by reason of insanity."
The prosecution told a very different story.
"It's a case of violence where a man wanted someone else's wife, so he killed her husband," DeKalb County Chief Assistant District Attorney Don Geary said in opening statements Tuesday. "He got caught."
The prosecution painted Neuman as a calculating killer who planned Sneiderman's shooting for months -- going to gun shows, taking a gun safety course, going to target practice, renting a car for the shooting and wearing a disguise.
Geary also painted a picture of Rusty Sneiderman's last morning and how unsuspecting he was as he dropped his 2-year-old son Ian at a Dunwoody day care.
"Ian enjoyed spending time with his father and spending time with his friends at day care, didn't know that shortly his loving father, his hero, would be gunned down," Geary said. "Ian didn't know that he was about to see his father for the last time. Ian didn't know that there would be gunshots and that would be the end."
"As Rusty walks to car, Hemy Neuman approaches him, walking towards him, and shoots him three times -- here, here, and here," Geary said as he demonstrated the motions. "As Rusty falls in the parking lot, dying, Hemy Neuman isn't satisfied. He walks up and at contact puts the 40 caliber on Rusty's neck and fires one last time."
Geary expressed his skepticism at the idea that Neuman, an engineer who managed more than 5,000 engineers and an $800 million budget, decided to kill a man without question after being visited by angels and demons resembling celebrities.
Geary said Neuman "doesn't come close" to meeting the requirements for legal insanity.
Creatas/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- Forget watching the clock, chewing gum, or slouching. At the Noble Network of Charter Schools' 10 Chicago campuses students are on their best behavior-- otherwise it will cost them.
"Students tell us by and large they don't like the whole system as most teenagers would, but the proof is in the pudding," said Michael Milkie, CEO and superintendent of the Noble Network of Charter Schools.
Last year, the schools collected an estimated $190,000 to help defray the cost of having teachers stay after school to supervise detention. Students earn demerits for everything from having flaming hot chips, which Milkie said have been shown to being addictive, to having their shirts untucked.
After earning four demerits, the student is sent to a three-hour detention. Admission fee: $5.
"These are schools of choice. We have thousands on the wait list and we do communicate [this policy] really well with parents," Milkie said.
But Noble's unique approach, which it has relied on for the past 13 years, has drawn scrutiny from some parents and eduction advocacy groups who said it's being used to push out students.
"These extremely punitive, nitpicky programs are not the ones that really work," said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of the Chicago-based advocacy group Parents United For Responsible Education. "The students need to feel they're not like dogs or 2 year olds. They're actually maturing human beings who need some guidance and not someone to jump on top of them."
Donna Moore said her son, who is a second-year freshman, has been hounded at the school for everything from not having his eyes on the teacher at a given moment to having his shoe untied.
"He was retained because of detention. He was told his first year that at that time he had hit 33 detentions and had to retake his freshman year," Moore said, adding that it was impossible for students to keep up on school work when they keep being punished.
But Milkie said the school's unique system of fees -- he doesn't call them fines -- has yielded dividends.
Not only is more money now spent on education and less on paying teachers overtime to supervise detention, but test scores have also improved.
The average ACT score across Noble's 10 campuses last year was 20.3. Chicago Public Schools students scored an average of 17.2. The school's scores have consistently climbed since 2003.
Even though Donna Moore isn't happy with the way her son has been treated, she said she plans to keep him in the Noble school system.
"I send him there because there are not really many choices," she said. "It's the decision to deal with the devil I didn't know versus the devil I did know. Now I want to stay and make it better for all students."
Hemera/Thinkstock(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) -- On Wednesday, jurors in former University of Virginia lacrosse player George Huguely V's murder trial will begin deliberations to decide the 24-year-old's fate -- and two legal experts have told ABC News that it is possible that Huguely could be free by the end of the week.
Huguely faces six charges, including first-degree murder, in the death of former girlfriend Yeardley Love. He pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Though charged with first-degree murder, a Charlottesville, Va., judge gave jurors a menu of lesser charges to choose from: second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. He could also be found not guilty.
Neither the prosecution nor the defense denies that Huguely was in Yeardley's room the night of her death and was involved in some altercation with her. They differ on the severity of the encounter and whether Huguely was directly and intentionally responsible for Love's death.
Depending on the jury's verdict, Huguely could be sentenced to anywhere from one day to life in prison.
Huguely has been in jail for about 21 months and could get credit for time served, so a sentencing of anywhere up to roughly 21 months could allow him to go free.
The jury is made up of 14 people: 12 main jurors and two alternates. There are seven women and seven men, ranging from their late 20s to early 50s.
Court will reconvene at 9 a.m. on Wednesday for the jury to being their deliberations. The two alternates will be released Wednesday morning.
Jurors could reach a verdict as early as Wednesday. If the verdict is guilty, the jurors will reconvene as early as Thursday for a sentencing hearing.
NASA/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Researchers are looking for six able-bodied volunteers and two backups to be cooped up for 120 days and nights in a make-believe Mars base early in 2013.
The experiment is called HI-SEAS -- short for Hawaii Space Exploration Analogue & Simulation -- and would have the would-be astronauts live in a habitat amid the volcanic rubble on Hawaii's Big Island. The researchers are interested in finding out what real astronauts might eat, and whether they would cook and consume enough to sustain themselves on a long mission.
"Anyone eating a restricted diet will soon get tired of it," said Jean Hunter, a professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell University and an organizer of the experiment. "Astronauts on long missions generally don't eat enough. That's good for a diet on Earth, but bad in space, because all the problems of microgravity, like bone and muscle loss, are exacerbated if you don't get enough calories."
The researchers would make the experiment fairly realistic -- the crew members would have limited communications with mission control, and wear makeshift spacesuits whenever they went outside. Inside, they would be limited to the food supplies that had been packed in their habitat -- long-lasting staples such as flour, sugar, beans, rice, olive oil, dehydrated meat and cheese.
Even though NASA has no specific plans for a Mars expedition, it is funding the preliminary research.
Applications for HI-SEAS will be accepted until Feb. 29. Candidates must be nonsmokers in good health, between the ages of 21 and 65, with bachelor's degrees in engineering, math or appropriate sciences. Special consideration will be given to those who could use the four months for related experiments in geology or long-duration spaceflight.
"This could make a difference for Mars missions, or it could be helpful to future astronauts at lunar outposts, who might spend most of their careers there," said Hunter.
Joseph Devenney/Getty Images(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Cops searching for victims of the "Speed Freak Killers" are digging in the wrong well, according to a bounty hunter who says he convinced one of the killers to confess where they hid the bodies.
Wesley Shermantine, who is on death row for his role in the death of as many as 20 people in the Sacramento area, drew a map of two wells for bounty hunter Leonard Padilla after Padilla promised to pay Shermantine for the information.
Police digging in the first site found the bones of two missing women that Shermantine and his accomplice Loren Herzog were suspected of killing in the 1980s and 1990s.
Digging in a second well has turned up 1,000 bones over the past week, but Padilla told ABC News that those bones are from cattle and the police have not read Shermantine's directions correctly.
"We told (the sheriff's officers) you're digging in wrong place. It looks good on television, but actually there could possibly be another body just a quarter mile east of where he dug," Padilla said. Padilla said he had gone over the map that Shermantine drew meticulously to ensure that he knew which well the serial killer was describing. There are thousands of wells in the area, Padilla noted.
The sheriff's department did not return calls for comment.
Since Shermantine began disclosing where he dumped the victims of his drug-fueled killing spree, police have located the bodies of Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, 16, and Cyndi Vanderheiden, age 25.
In 2001, Herzog was released from jail on charges of manslaughter for his role in one of the murders. But he killed himself last month after finding out that Shermantine was preparing to disclose the locations of their victims' bodies.
Shermantine, who is on death row, provided the information first to Padilla and Scott Smith, a reporter for the Stockton Record, leading to the sheriff's excavations.
Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Jonathan D. Libby does not dispute the fact that his client, Xavier Alvarez, told a "whopping" lie when he announced publicly that he had been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Alvarez was one of the first people to be prosecuted under the federal Stolen Valor Act, a 2006 law that makes it a crime to lie about receiving military awards.
He was prosecuted because, as an elected member of the board of directors of the Three Valley Water District Board in California, he introduced himself in 2007 to the audience by saying, "I'm a retired Marine of 25 years. I was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor."
Alvarez had never even served in the military.
But Libby, a deputy federal public defender, argues that Alvarez's speech was a lie, not a crime. The U.S. Supreme Court will take up Alvarez's case Wednesday and his argument that the Stolen Valor Act is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
"Exaggerated anecdotes, barroom braggadocio and cocktail party puffery have always been thought to be beyond the realm of government reach and to pass without fear of criminal punishment," Libby writes in court papers.
He says that unlike other categories of speech such as defamation and fraud, his client's false factual speech is protected by the First Amendment.
The Obama administration argues that the law fits into a "discrete and narrow" category of speech that is unprotected by the First Amendment: "knowingly false representations that a reasonable observer would understand as a factual claim that the speaker has been awarded a military honor."
Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. says the law is necessary to protect the military awards system against claims that undercut its purpose to confer honor and foster morale in the armed forces. He says the law does not chill truthful and other fully protected speech.
"Prohibiting those false statements," Verrilli writes, "poses little risk of chilling any protected speech or allowing the government to punish disfavored viewpoints or act as the arbiter of truth and falsity on matters subject to public debate."
Libby says Congress' effort in passing the law was "laudable but does not warrant the intrusion on speech it causes, and thus goes farther than necessary."
A lower court ruled in favor of Alvarez saying that while society would be "better off if Alvarez would stop spreading worthless, ridiculous, and offensive untruths" the law was "unconstitutionally applied to make a criminal out of a man who was proven to be nothing more than a liar, without more."
The issue of exaggerating military service came to the forefront in Richard Blumenthal's 2010 race to fill the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT). Connecticut's then Attorney General was found to have lied -- repeatedly -- about having served in Vietnam. In actuality, Blumenthal did not. Instead he obtained five deferments, and eventually snagged a spot in the U.S. Marine Reserves at the time of the Vietnam War, which all but guaranteed he didn't have to fight overseas. Instead he helped collect donations for Toys for Tots and performed other duties stateside.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The Supreme Court has announced it will take up another hot button social issue on its docket: affirmative action.
On Tuesday, the Court agreed to hear a case brought by Abigail Fisher, a white student who says she was denied admission to the University of Texas based only on the color of her skin.
The case has been closely monitored because supporters of affirmative action fear the Court might now be willing to curtail or further restrict "race conscious admissions programs" at public universities.
Critics claim such policies stress skin pigment over school performance when student applications are considered.
The Court will most likely hear the case next fall -- around the time of the election -- as it has already filled its final April argument calendar. Justice Elena Kagan will not participate in the case because she dealt with the issue in her previous job as Solicitor General.
"This case presents the Court with an opportunity to clarify the boundaries of race preferences in higher education, or even reconsider whether race should be permitted at all under the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection," says Edward Blum, the Director of the Project on Fair Representation , a non-profit legal defense foundation that has provided legal counsel for Fisher.
In 1997, the Texas legislature passed the "Top Ten Percent Law" which mandates that Texas high school seniors in the top 10 percent of their class be automatically admitted to any Texas state university. In addition to that program, the school considers race along with several other factors for admission.
Fisher did not qualify for automatic admission. Instead, she competed with other non-top 10 state applicants, some of whom were entitled to racial preferences. She was denied admission and argues it was because of her race.
In court papers, her lawyers argue, "Whether a public university can layer racial preferences over a non-racial admissions plan that ensures very substantial levels of minority enrollment is a question which itself warrants review by this Court."
It was only in 2003 that the Supreme Court took up a similar affirmative action case and narrowly upheld the limited use of race as a factor in law school admissions. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote the 5-4 decision -- Grutter v. Bollinger -- and held that the government has a compelling interest in diversity in public universities.
But a lot has changed since then. Most importantly in this instance, Justice Samuel Alito replaced Justice O’Connor on the bench.
"The addition of Justice Alito to this Court adds an element to the case that would not likely have been there with Justice O’Connor. The difference is that Justice Alito has shown himself in other cases to be more skeptical of racial classifications and preferences than did Justice O’Connor," says Blum.
Tyler Clementi/Facebook(NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.) -- Jury selection begins Wednesday in a New Brunswick, N.J., courtroom for the trial of Dahrun Ravi, the Rutgers University student who, with a silent flip of his laptop webcam secretly watched his roommate in a moment of gay intimacy, and unwittingly set in motion a series of events that would make him a national symbol of cyberbullying.
The trial, which will be broadcast live across the country and as far away as India, will culminate a criminal prosecution that many believe would never have happened if not for the fact that Tyler Clementi, Ravi's gay roommate, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22, 2010 -- just three days after Ravi electronically captured him kissing a man in his dorm room.
While authorities were only beginning their investigation, the media and public readily connected the dots, and Clementi's death struck a growing anti-bullying nerve in America and became a blog-driven lightning rod for outrage in the gay community.
Although the court of the public opinion condemned Ravi in the immediate aftermath of Clementi's death, two former New Jersey prosecutors say it will be a much more challenging case in the court of law.
"Pressure from gay rights groups, and global media attention made this case one that had to be prosecuted," former New Jersey prosecutor Robert Honecker said. "Yet the charges themselves are very difficult to prove."
Ravi, now 19, faces up to 10 years in state prison if he is convicted on the multiple counts of invasion of privacy, witness tampering, hindering prosecution and bias intimidation.
He rejected a plea deal in December that would have allowed him to serve no jail time, but require him to perform 600 hours of community service and receive counseling. The state also assured Ravi, an Indian citizen, that they would recommend to immigration officials that he not be deported.
"The fact that the prosecution offered this plea deal in the first place indicates that they are worried that they might have a tough time in court," said John Fahy, another former New Jersey prosecutor familiar with the case.
Referring to why his client rejected the plea deal, Ravi's attorney Steven Altman said, "Simple answer, simple principal. He's innocent. He's not guilty. That's why he rejected the plea."
The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office has declined to comment on any aspect of the case.
Hemera/Thinkstock(WYOMING, Mich.) -- A Michigan man whose son died in Iraq burned the state flag of New Jersey after the Garden State flew its flags at half-staff in memory of Whitney Houston last week.
"They're watering down the term of what a true hero is these days," John Burri told ABC News. "I thought it was offensive to every family's fallen soldier out there, and it cheapens the meaning of lowering the flag."
The 60-year-old's decision to torch the New Jersey flag on his Wyoming, Mich., patio grill came after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ordered flags flown at half-staff to honor the singer Whitney Houston, a Garden State native who was buried in her home state on Sunday.
Burri believes flags should only be lowered for those who died serving their country.
"My intention was not to hurt anyone, especially the residents of New Jersey," he said. "My intention was to show Gov. Christie how offensive it was."
The governor has defended his decision, calling Houston a "cultural icon."
"Her accomplishments in her life were a source of great pride for many people in this state and for the state as a whole, and so on that basis I think she's entitled to have that recognition," Christie told reporters last week.
After seeing Christie's comments on the local news, Burri said he set out on a mission to honor his son, Army Spc. Eric Burri, who died in 2005 when an explosive device detonated near the Humvee in which he was patrolling.
He bought a replica New Jersey flag, tied it to the back of his car and drove around two veteran memorials in Grand Rapids, Mich. He then stopped at his son's burial site before going home and burning the flag.
"Best $12.95 I've ever spent," said Burri. "Sometimes, you have to do something drastic and extreme for people to listen. I just hope it made a point that maybe someone will pick this up and get a new law made for flag etiquette."
Federal law gives governors of American states power to have flags lowered for residents or state officials. There is no law requiring that person to have served in the armed forces.
The Jim Bohannon Show
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