National briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2001

Couple ends fight for Internet twins

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- The California couple who fought a British couple for the right to adopt 8-month-old twin girls bowed out of the fight Wednesday to concentrate on regaining custody of a 2-year-old boy.

Richard and Vickie Allen of Highland, Calif., lost custody of the boy, whom they are trying to adopt, after Richard Allen was accused last week of molesting two family babysitters. Allen, 49, pleaded innocent.

On Tuesday, the Arkansas judge who had approved the British couple's adoption of the little girls nullified his decision, saying the adoption was obtained fraudulently.

The Allens had been battling Alan and Judith Kilshaw of Britain for custody of the girls, who had been put up for adoption over the Internet. Richard Allen said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he and his wife will no longer fight for the twins.

"We would have loved to be able to have been considered as adopted parents of the girls," Allen said. "But with all the matters that are going on here, it would be inappropriate for us to put too much effort into that."

Millionaire buys Aryan Nations site

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- An Internet millionaire has paid $250,000 for the former headquarters of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations and plans to turn it into a museum and human rights center.

Greg Carr, founder of the Internet service Prodigy, bought the 20-acre compound near Hayden Lake from a mother and son who were awarded it after winning a lawsuit that bankrupted the white-supremacist organization.

"We need to know this exists, and we need to know these people advocate and engage in violence," Carr said Wednesday. "Beyond that, we need people to know we are fighting against that message."

Carr said the small outbuildings where neo-Nazis once held annual tributes to Adolf Hitler will be torn down, but the main building, known as the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, will be kept as a museum.

Simpson seeks verdict's dismissal

LOS ANGELES -- O.J. Simpson asked the California Supreme Court on Wednesday to overturn the $33.5-million wrongful-death judgment against him.

Details were not immediately available, but Henry Johnson, a close friend and investigator for Simpson, said the request alleged that Simpson was denied his constitutional right to confront his accusers at the civil trial when attorneys for the victims' families decided not to put Los Angeles police Detective Mark Fuhrman on the stand.

In a civil trial in 1997, a Santa Monica jury found Simpson, who had been acquitted earlier of criminal charges, liable for the June 12, 1994, deaths of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Six weeks ago, the 2nd District Court of Appeal found unanimously that the civil trial court "did not err, and the compensatory and punitive damages are not excessive."

Woman admits she lied about illness

HUNTINGTON, Ind. -- A woman accused of taking thousands of dollars in donations after inventing a story about her daughter's terminal illness has pleaded guilty to 15 counts of theft.

Katherine Stabe, 51, of Huntington was charged with lying to people about her daughter's alleged impending death and spending money collected for the girl's "last wish." She pleaded guilty on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said Stabe raised more than $6,000 in donations so she could take her 10-year-old daughter and other family members to Disney World. Stabe said the child was dying of leukemia. Authorities later learned the child did not have the disease.

Elsewhere . . .

CLINTON PARDONS: The Los Angeles Times reports that federal prosecutors in New York are investigating allegations that former President Clinton's brother, Roger Clinton, solicited payment to help an Arkansas man obtain a presidential pardon in January. The prosecutors initiated the investigation after being told by Justice Department officials that Phillip David Young reportedly had been approached by Roger Clinton seeking $15,000 to help secure a pardon. Young, the owner of a North Little Rock restaurant, was said to have turned down the purported offer. He ultimately was pardoned by President Clinton for his conviction for illegally transporting game fish across state lines.

TEXAS EXECUTION: Former used car salesman Dennis Dowthitt was executed Wednesday night for sexually abusing and killing a teenager he picked up at a bowling alley almost 11 years ago. He became the fifth prisoner to be executed in Texas this year.

CHIEF RESIGNS: Bracy Coleman, 53, the police chief of Jackson, Miss., resigned Wednesday amid allegations that he coerced an interior decorator into sex during a buying trip for a new desk. Stephanie Jackson, 25, said she had sex with him out of fear for her safety. Coleman has denied her accusation. No charges have been filed.

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