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Nation in brief
Compiled from Times wires INS agents charged in beatingHOUSTON -- Three U.S. immigration agents were charged with beating a Mexican and denying him medical care during a raid that left him paralyzed from the neck down and led to his death a year later. Immigration and Naturalization Service deportation officers Carlos Reyna, Richard Henry Gonzales and Louis Rey Gomez are accused of violating Serafin Olvera-Carrera's civil rights in the March 25, 2001, raid. All three, from San Antonio, Texas, were freed on $30,000 bail Tuesday. Children taken from home after stun gun usedSWEENY, Texas -- After his 8-year-old stepson missed his school bus this week, Theodore E. Moody told the boy to walk. And to make sure he didn't dawdle, he followed the child, shocking him repeatedly with a stun gun. Child welfare officials removed the boy and three other children from Moody's home near this Brazoria County town after learning that he had been disciplining the boy with the battery-powered device. District Attorney Jeri Yenne, who tested the device on herself to understand what the boy felt, said she is awaiting the outcome of an investigation before deciding whether to file charges. Judge rules against U.S. death penalty lawMONTPELIER, Vt. -- A federal judge in Vermont has declared the federal capital punishment law unusable, a decision that could have implications for defendants across the country. U.S. District Judge William Sessions ruled Tuesday that the 1994 law has been rendered useless by a series of recent cases, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that found juries and not judges must hand out death sentences. The decision comes two months after U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York became the first federal judge to declare the federal law unconstitutional. He cited evidence indicating that innocent people have been put to death. The government has appealed Rakoff's ruling. Also . . .GUNMAKERS LOSE SHIELD: Gov. Gray Davis cleared the way Wednesday for Californians to sue gun manufacturers if they believe the companies have been negligent in the advertising or production of firearms. The package of bills Davis signed removes a shield granted to gunmakers regarding negligence lawsuits. Previously, gun manufacturers could not be sued if their products were used in the commission of a crime. MOTHER IN BEATING VISITS GIRL: A woman caught on a department store surveillance tape repeatedly striking her 4-year-old daughter visited the girl for about 95 minutes Wednesday. The visit was Madelyne Gorman Toogood's first chance to see her daughter, Martha, since the girl was placed in foster care after Toogood was charged Saturday with battery of a child. A visit Tuesday was canceled because Martha was ill. EX-PRIEST JAILED: A former priest who was moved from parish to parish after admitting to Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles that he molested young boys was arrested Wednesday. Former parish priest Michael Baker was charged with 13 counts of child molestation in connection with incidents involving several victims from 1977 to 1985, said Sgt. Dan Scott. KENNEDY KIN'S APPEAL: The Connecticut Supreme Court will hear the appeal of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel's murder conviction and denial of bail, lawyers said Wednesday.
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From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
