JUDGE RULES THAT JORDAN BROWN SHOULD BE TRIED AS JUVENILE
from the article by Eric Poole – The Beaver County (PA) Times

In his second turn at ruling whether a teenage murder suspect would be tried as an adult or a juvenile, Lawrence County President Judge Domenick Motto found that most of the defense’s claims went uncontested.

In a ruling issued Tuesday afternoon, Motto determined that Jordan Brown, a former New Beaver resident, will be tried as a juvenile. Brown, who turns 14 on Tuesday, is accused in the Feb. 20, 2009, murder of 26-year-old Kenzie Houk.

When the killing occurred Brown was 11, and Houk was engaged to his father, Christopher. Houk was pregnant with a child who would have been Jordan Brown’s half-brother. The unborn boy also died. Jordan Brown was charged with the murder on Feb. 21, 2009, and has been in custody ever since.

Editor’s Note: As was the case with the article entitled “Diane Schuler: An Interesting Perspective”, an excessive amount of comments about “UPDATE 4: Diane Schuler” has caused a conflict with our WordPress software. The result has been that the page will no longer load properly for most people. To bypass that annoying problem, I have created a reprint of “UPDATE 4: Diane Schuler”, so folks can read and comment on it again. This should solve our problem until we reach 700 comments again….

HUSBAND OF DIANE SCHULER SUES NY STATE AND WARREN HANCE
from the article by Susan Donaldson James – ABC News

Diane Schuler was nearly perfect at everything she touched, until she drove the wrong way down New York’s Taconic State Parkway, slamming head-on into another vehicle and killing eight people, including her 2-year-old daughter, three young nieces and herself.

CIAVARELLA SENTENCED TO 28 YEARS, SURRENDERS TO U.S. MARSHALS
from the article by Dave Janoski and Michael R. Sisak – The (Scranton, PA) Republican Herald

The parents of children locked up by Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. as part of a $2.8 million kids-for-cash racket cheered when the prosecutors who sent the former Luzerne County judge to prison for 28 years emerged from a federal courthouse Thursday.

Several crowded around lead prosecutor Gordon Zubrod to shake his hand and offer thanks. It was Zubrod who had forcefully argued in court Thursday that Ciavarella should receive a sentence “that will keep him in prison for the rest of his natural life” for taking payments from two for-profit detention centers.

LUKE WRIGHT SENTENCED TO 40 YEARS TO LIFE
from the article by the WGRZ-TV, Buffalo, NY staff

Luke Wright, who was convicted last month of raping and torturing his mentally disabled sister, Laura Cummings, was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison on Tuesday in Erie County Court.

Wright did not speak before the Judge Michael D’Amico handed down the sentence.

Laura Cummings, 23, was found dead in her family’s North Collins home in January 2010. Prosecutors say she had been beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted, and scalded at the hands of Wright and their mother, Eva Cummings.

The District Attorney’s office was seeking the same sentence for Wright that had been given to his mother, Eva Cummings, 52 years to life.

APPEALS COURT FREES EX-PRINCIPLE
excerpts of an article by Suzie Schottelkotte – The Ledger (Lakeland, FL)

After 18 months in prison for a child pornography conviction, Scott Lake Elementary School’s former principal, John Stelmack, is about to be a free man.

A three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeal in Lakeland ruled Friday that photographs he had were not child pornography because the nude bodies shown were those of an adult.

Photos of the faces of children, one of them a Scott Lake student, had been placed on those bodies, but none of the photos actually showed children nude.

TROUTMAN PLEADS ‘NOT GUILTY’ IN SKLER KAUFMAN MURDER CASE
from the article by Carl Hessler Jr. – The Times-Herald (Philadelphia)

His eyes cast downward, the Souderton man accused of raping and killing a 9-year-old girl who was his neighbor showed little emotion as his alleged crimes were addressed in court.

James Lee Troutman, 24, through his lawyer, Wm. Craig Penglase, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday during an arraignment hearing in Montgomery County Court to charges of first- and second-degree murder, rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment and abuse of a corpse in connection with the May 9 death of Skyler Rae Kauffman.

Troutman and Kauffman were neighbors at the Souderton Garden Apartments at Second and Chestnut streets.

CHRIS COLEMAN SENTENCED TO LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE
from the article by Jim Suhr – The Carmi (Illinois) Times

A judge imposed a life sentence Monday for a former Marine and pastor’s son convicted of strangling his wife and their two sons in their beds, opting against the death penalty in a state where capital punishment soon will be outlawed.

Circuit Judge Milton Wharton said justice would be better served if Christopher Coleman, 34, spent a lifetime behind bars, where he’d be forced to reflect daily on the crimes prosecutors say he committed to further an affair and keep a high-paying security job with a global ministry.

GERMAN SHEPHERD’S OWNER AVOIDS JAIL IN RIDGEFIELD DOG ATTACK CASE
from the article by Libor Jany – The Danbury News-Times

A 59-year-old Bantam man avoided jail time by pleading guilty in an April 2, 2010, incident in Ridgefield in which his two German shepherds mauled a man and a puppy, according to court records.

Robert Kahn pleaded guilty Wednesday in state Superior Court in Danbury to two counts of allowing a dog to roam and second-degree reckless endangerment for the dog attack on Guy Marchison and his then-15-week-old golden retriever, according to the prosecution.

“We’re grateful that the state’s attorney’s office handled this appropriately, with an interest for protecting public safety,” said Marchison’s lawyer, William Bloss, of Bridgeport. “We’re hopeful that other dog owners will not be forced to confront this type of situation.”