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Oklahoma Supreme Court sets hearing in bribery case
Headline News |
2011/08/01 13:05
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The Oklahoma Supreme Court has agreed to hear a former state senator's request to dismiss a bribery charge against her and scheduled oral arguments for September.
Former Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, faces bribery charges along with Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore. Prosecutors say Terrill offered Leftwich an $80,000-a-year job at the state Medical Examiner's Office in exchange for Leftwich not running for re-election and clearing the way for Republican Rep. Mike Christian of Oklahoma City to run. Christian has not been charged a crime and is expected to be a witness.
Leftwich's attorney, Robert McCampbell, filed a motion to dismiss the charge that maintains Leftwich is exempt from prosecution for alleged wrongdoing in the performance of her professional duties under the speech and debate clause of the Oklahoma Constitution.
The court scheduled oral arguments from her defense, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater and attorneys for the Oklahoma Senate for Sept. 13, according to an entry posted Thursday on the Supreme Court's website. The entry also says Leftwich's case is on hold until the court makes a decision.
The Senate's attorneys also will have a chance to express lawmakers' concerns about language in a recent Court of Criminal Appeals decision denying Leftwich's motion to dismiss, the entry said. |
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Paralegal accused of stealing from law firm
Headline News |
2011/07/20 16:22
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Authorities say a South Florida paralegal stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her Fort Lauderdale law firm.
Miami-Dade officials on Tuesday charged 53-year-old Brenda Wilcott-Kelly with more than 80 felonies, including grand theft and forging documents. Records show she's also took money from a lawyer who was on his deathbed.
Employees of Hermelee & Geffin were in court Tuesday as Judge Dennis Murphy set Wilcott-Kelly's bond at $116,000.
Defense attorney Morgan Cronin said his client is innocent.
According to the arrest affidavit, Wilcott-Kelly took $82,472 from the firm to pay off her husband's credit cards. She is also accused of stealing $31,050 from lawyer Steven A. Schultz, while he was in the hospital. Schultz leased space from the firm. |
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Bank of Hawaii settles overdraft fee class-action lawsuit for $9 million
Headline News |
2011/07/20 16:22
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A tentative $9 million settlement with Bank of Hawaii requires the bank to pay each of its customers who had more than one overdraft fee in a day over the last five years.
Bank of Hawaii, the state's second-largest bank, reached the class-action lawsuit settlement in response to claims that the bank improperly charged overdraft fees on debit card transactions, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday.
The lawsuit accused the bank of systematically re-ordering debit card transactions from highest dollar amount to lowest dollar amount, a practice that allowed the bank to deplete customers' available funds as quickly as possible while maximizing the number of overdraft fees.
The $9 million will be put in a settlement fund used to refund customers and pay attorneys' fees, administrative and other costs in exchange for a complete release of all claims against the company, the bank said. It's unclear how many Bank of Hawaii customers are eligible for refunds.
Similar lawsuits against American Savings Bank and Central Pacific Bank, the state's third- and fourth-largest banks, also are pending. |
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Regulators shut 4 small banks in 3 states
Headline News |
2011/07/15 09:22
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Regulators on Friday shut down four small banks in three states, boosting to 55 the number of U.S. bank failures this year.
The overall pace of closures, however, has slowed this year as banks work their way through piles of bad debt. A slow, but improving U.S. economy also has helped stem the number of bank casualties this year. By this time last year, regulators had closed 96 banks.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized High Trust Bank in Stockbridge, Ga., One Georgia Bank in Atlanta, First Peoples Bank in Port St. Lucie, Fla., and Summit Bank in Prescott, Ariz.
The action brings to 16 the number of lenders to collapse this year in Georgia. In Florida, the tally is now seven, while in Arizona it's now two.
High Trust had about $192.5 million in assets and $189.5 million in deposits, while One Georgia had about $186.3 million in assets and $162.1 million in deposits. First Peoples had about $228.3 million in assets and $209.7 million in deposits. |
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Orange County judge to restrict Costa Mesa layoffs
Headline News |
2011/07/06 09:43
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An Orange County judge said Tuesday that she will issue a court order to restrict Costa Mesa from laying off nearly half of the city's workforce and outsourcing jobs.
Superior Court Judge Tam Nomoto Schumann said she would grant the Orange County Employees Association's request for a preliminary injunction. But the city has until Friday to file objections before she issues her ruling.
The union filed suit in May, arguing that the city's plan to outsource municipal jobs violates state law and the union contract.
In March, the Costa Mesa City Council majority voted to outsource jobs to mostly private companies in a drastic move to plug a $15 million budget hole.
Soon afterward, 213 of 450 employees got layoff notices that would take effect in September.
Union spokeswoman Jennifer Muir said the court order would protect employees' jobs until the case against the city goes to trial.
Schumann said the city must follow proper procedures when laying off workers, but she didn't explain what those procedures are.
Assistant City Attorney Harold Potter contends the city has been following procedures while pursuing austerity measures.
The judge's ruling won't stop the city from exploring outsourcing options, he said. |
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Kansas court system works to improve efficiency
Headline News |
2011/06/23 05:39
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Judges and court workers have completed the data-collection part of a study aimed at making Kansas' court system more efficient.
The Wichita Eagle reported that the data will be analyzed by the National Center for State Courts. That national nonprofit group works to improve the justice system and lobbies on behalf of courts at the federal level.
The results of the $200,000 consultant study of how judges and other court workers spend their time will go to a panel that will recommend changes if they are needed.
Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said the panel also is gathering public input on ways to improve the courts. The two initiatives are called "Project Pegasus," after the winged horse in Greek mythology.
The goal is to prevent situations like last year when courts were closed four days.
"When our budget is cut or when we don't have enough money, it is our people who suffer, they're the ones who have to get sent home," Nuss told members of the Wichita Pachyderm Club, a Republican group, this past week. "Unfortunately that also comes at the expense of Kansas citizens, because when we have no money and we have to close the courts, the citizens no longer have access to justice."
Nuss said most of the consultant study is being paid for mostly from salary and benefit savings accrued after appellate Judge Jerry Elliott died in April of last year and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Davis died last August. |
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Toyota class action suit to start with Utah case
Headline News |
2011/06/11 06:54
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The first lawsuit to go to trial in a massive class action against Toyota Motor Corp. over acceleration problems that led the company to recall 14 million cars will involve a crash that killed two people in western Utah, a federal judge said Friday.
U.S. District Judge James Selna told attorneys the case of 38-year-old Charlene Jones Lloyd and 66-year-old Paul Van Alfen, whose Toyota Camry slammed into a wall in Utah in 2010, is scheduled to go to trial in February 2013.
The case — Van Alfen v. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. — will be the first of several bellwether lawsuits, intended to determine how the rest of the litigation will proceed.
Selna wrote in a tentative order that he hoped the selection would "markedly advance these proceedings."
"The Court believes that selection of a personal injury/wrongful death case is most likely the type of case to meet that goal," Selna said.
Toyota said it welcomes the Utah case as the first suit to reach court.
"We are pleased that the initial bellwether will address plaintiffs' central allegation of an unnamed, unproven defect in Toyota vehicles, as every claim in the multi-district litigation rests upon this pivotal technical issue," the company said in a statement.
Toyota has previously argued the plaintiffs have been unable to prove that a design defect in its electronic throttle control system is responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly. It has instead blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals. |
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