|
|
|
Minn. Supreme Court sides with HIV-positive man
Lawyer Court Feed |
2013/08/22 16:47
|
The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected a prosecutor's effort to reinstate the conviction of an HIV-positive man accused of passing the virus to another man, ruling Wednesday that the statute under which he was convicted was ambiguous.
Groups supporting gay rights said the ruling affirms the need for government to respect the personal and private decisions of consenting adults regarding sexual intimacy. The prosecutor contended the case was never a civil rights issue, but rather about protecting the public from people who know they're infected but practice unprotected sex anyway.
The high court affirmed a Court of Appeals decision that reversed the attempted first-degree assault conviction of Daniel James Rick, 32, of Minneapolis, who learned he was HIV positive in 2006. He had consensual sex several times starting in early 2009 with a man identified in court papers as D.B., who tested positive that October.
A jury acquitted Rick in 2011 under the first part of a Minnesota statute that applies to cases involving sex without first informing the other person that the defendant has a communicable disease. But it convicted him under another section that the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday applies only "to the donation or exchange for value of blood, sperm, organs, or tissue and therefore does not apply to acts of sexual conduct." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ala. courts seek $8.5 million to avoid layoffs
State Law Issues |
2013/08/19 14:34
|
When the state government's new budget year begins on Oct. 1, Chief Justice Roy Moore says he will need assurances that the courts are going to get an extra $8.5 million in state funding or he will have to lay off 150 employees.
The governor and a legislative budget chairman say it's going to be hard to come up with that much money.
Gov. Robert Bentley said he has sympathy for the court system, but the state General Fund is tight. I don't see $8.5 million being awarded. We'll have to see what's available, he said.
The state's $1.7 billion General Fund for the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1 is 0.4 percent larger than the current year's budget.
The budget will increase the court system's appropriation from $102.8 million this fiscal year to $108.4 million for the new year. That $5.6 million increase is second only to the $16.7 million increase given to the prison system. But Moore, who oversees the state court system, said $8.5 million more was needed to maintain court services at their current level.
To help the court system, the budget includes what legislators call a first-priority conditional appropriation of $8.5 million. The budget allows the governor to release extra funding to some state programs if tax collections exceed expectations. The budget requires that if the governor wants to release any extra funding, the court system has to get its $8.5 million first before any other program gets a penny extra. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court hearing expected in RI slayings, abduction
Law Firm News |
2013/08/12 15:00
|
One of two suspects in a weekend double homicide and child abduction was expected to be arraigned Monday in Massachusetts.
Malcolm Crowell, 22, was to appear on a fugitive-from-justice warrant, according to the clerk's office at Fall River District Court.
Crowell and Daniel Rodriguez, 27 or 28, were arrested Sunday in the two slayings and the abduction of 2-year-old Isaiah Perez, who was later found unharmed after a nationwide Amber Alert was issued.
The bodies were discovered about 5:20 a.m. Sunday at a home in suburban Johnston, a town of 30,000 residents less than 10 miles from Providence. The names of the dead were not immediately released, but Johnston Police Chief Richard S. Tamburini said one of the victims was the child's mother.
The boy was found around 8:15 p.m. in Providence after a police officer there spotted him walking around a housing project by himself.
Deputy Police Chief Daniel Parrillo said it was unclear whether the boy's abductor was living in the home, was a guest or was uninvited. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court asked to safeguard NM mental health audit
Law Firm News |
2013/07/26 10:30
|
The attorney general's office says an agreement has been reached for State Auditor Hector Balderas to have access to an audit that identified potential overbillings and fraud by behavioral health providers.
Chief Deputy Attorney General Al Lama said Thursday a state district judge in Santa Fe has been asked to issue an order making clear the audit report will be protected from public disclosure once it's provided to Balderas.
The auditor and Human Services Department support the request.
Balderas said his office needs the information in auditing the department's finances. He obtained a subpoena to try to force the department to provide him with the audit done for the agency.
Lama said public disclosure of the audit could jeopardize the attorney general's investigation of allegations against the behavioral health providers. |
|
|
|
|
|
Law Firm News RSS Feed
