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Gault Pleads Guilty; Facing 50 Years In Prison
Legal News |
2008/03/06 04:03
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pA former dog trainer who was accused of hiding a runaway girl in his West Harford home for nearly a year pleaded guilty Wednesday in Superior Court in Hartford to eight felony charges which are expected to net him a lengthy stay in prison./ppAdam Gault, 41, entered guilty pleas to two counts of first-degree kidnapping, four counts of second-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and conspiracy to commit first-degree kidnapping./ppAssistant State's Attorney David Zagaja said the state is recommending a 50-year prison term for Gault, which would be suspended after 30 years incarceration. He would then spend 20 years on probation./ppSentencing was set for May 19. If he had chosen to go to trial, he would have faced a maximum of 160 years./ppJudge David Gold told the defendant he was considering imposing 50 years, suspended after 25 years, but that he would consider increasing the term at the time of sentencing after getting a pre-sentence report./ppGold gave Gault the option of accepting a higher sentence, or withdrawing his guilty plea at that time./ppGault was found competent to stand trial in February. He had faced nearly 40 charges. The bulk of the charges, including kidnapping, unlawful restraint, risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment and sexual assault, were in connection with the Bloomfield teenager who was found in his home. The girl, who was 14 when she disappeared is now 16./ppA second complaint brought by a second woman was lodged subsequent to his arrest./ppAt Wednesday's 90-minute hearing, Gault appeared clean-shaven, with a short-cropped hair. On several occasions, when the judge asked him how he pleaded, he responded with I'm guilty/ppHis other responses were limited to Yes sir or no sir./ppMarc Needelman, the attorney who represents the family of the 14-year-old, said he expected his clients to appear at Gault's sentencing and also make recommendations for appropriate sentences against his co-defendants, Ann Murphy and Kimberly Cray./ppGold said they would attempt to accommodate the family by having the two women appear that day./ppGault, who lived on Newington Road in West Hartford, was arrested last June when Bloomfield and West Hartford police discovered the teenager, who had been reported missing for almost a year, in a locked storage closet behind a dresser in his home./ppGault and the girl's mother and stepfather, who operate a dog day care and kennel in Bloomfield, knew each other professionally. The girl had worked for Gault in his dog training business./ppThe police were executing a search warrant for Gault's house and his DNA on June 6 when they came across the locked, hidden storage space and found the girl inside. At the time, investigators believed they were searching for evidence linking Gault to the girl's disappearance and possible demise./ppAccording to court documents, DNA testing on a fetus that the victim aborted in May showed Gault impregnated the girl.
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US Court Denies Injunction Sought by Verigy
Legal News |
2008/03/05 12:28
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| Chip testing equipment maker Verigy Ltd. said Wednesday that a U.S. district court has granted a preliminary injunction preventing Silicon Test Systems Inc. from selling its integrated circuit product for the next five months.pThe U.S. District Court for the Northern California District of California, San Jose Division, issued its ruling on Friday. The preliminary injunction prevents the defendants from selling, licensing, distributing, transferring or marketing Flash Enhancer and any product based on Flash Enhancer./ppAccording to Verigy, the court found that Flash Enhancer is substantially based upon Verigy's trade secrets./ppVerigy said defendant Romi Mayder was employed by the company until September 2006 and began developing an integrated circuit product for a new business venture while still employed by Verigy. Mayder's brother, Wesley Mayder, is also named as a defendant./ppIn a phone interview, Romi Mayder noted that the judge denied the absolute injunction that Verigy sought. Mayder said the information used to develop his product was publicly available and that his use of it amounted to a five-month head start./ppVerigy sued the defendants in August 2007 for breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation, statutory and common law unfair competition and other charges./ppThe court issued a temporary restraining order against the defendants on Aug. 24, which was still in effect when the preliminary injunction was issued./p |
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Judge Wants Shipwreck Evidence Worked On
Legal News |
2008/03/05 10:01
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| A judge wants Florida shipwreck explorers and the Spanish government to settle their differences over sharing evidence related to an estimated $500 million in treasure the company recovered last year.pIn Tampa, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo told lawyers for Odyssey Marine Exploration and Spain to agree by Friday _ or he will be forced to intervene./ppSpain believes it has a claim to the 17 tons of colonial-era coins Odyssey raised from an Atlantic Ocean shipwreck. But Odyssey has kept most details of the find secret to protect the site from competitors./ppThe two sides bickered in a hearing Wednesday over whether Tampa-based Odyssey has handed over sufficient information about the wreck site and treasure for Spain to determine the extent of a possible claim./p |
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Judge accepts plea deal in Cody Warren's death
Legal News |
2008/03/04 14:21
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| A military judge has accepted the guilty plea from the Marine accused of killing Lance Cpl. Kristopher Cody Warren in Iraq in 2006. pCpl. Douglas Michael Sullivan, 23, pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of the 19-year-old Gordon County native who had been deployed to Iraq with his Marine Reserve unit. pRobin Patterson, Warren’s mother, told the Calhoun Times earlier that she was “absolutely appalled” when she learned of the plea agreement last month. pPatterson planned to go to California for Sullivan’s court martial and is expected to testify during the sentencing phase. pWarren graduated from Gordon Central High School in 2005 and joined the Marine Reserves. pSullivan said that he accidently shot Warren while improperly handling a weapon at Forward Operating base Trebil, near Fallujah, Iraq. /p |
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Yanez beats Criss in Texas Supreme Court primary
Legal News |
2008/03/03 12:31
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span class=vitstorybodySouth Texas appellate Judge Linda Reyna Yanez will be the next Democrat trying to win a seat on the GOP-dominated Texas Supreme Court. pYanez won the high civil court's Place 8 Democratic primary Wednesday over Galveston Judge Susan Criss. Yanez is a judge in the state's Thirteenth Court of Appeals. pCriss lost despite the visibility she earned presiding over recent high-profile cases like the civil lawsuits filed in wake of the deadly 2005 BP refinery explosion in Texas City. /span!-- vstory end --
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Suspect in Ivy League ID Theft in Court
Legal News |
2008/03/03 11:27
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| A woman accused of using a missing person's identity to get into an Ivy League school made her first court appearance Monday, and the victim's relatives said they just want the theft suspect punished.pWhen Esther Elizabeth Reed was indicted last year, Brooke Henson's relatives said they hoped Reed could tell authorities where to find her./ppOf course at first, it was just giving us hope that Brooke was alive, Lisa Henson, Brooke's aunt, said Monday./ppInvestigators have since said they don't think Reed had anything to do with Henson's 1999 disappearance./ppReed is accused of stealing Henson's identity in 2003 and posing as her to obtain false identification documents, take a high school equivalency test and get into Columbia University./ppShe was indicted last year and made her first court appearance Monday on federal charges of identity theft, mail and wire fraud and obtaining false identification documents. If convicted on all four charges, Reed faces a possible $1 million fine and 47 years in prison, time Lisa Henson said she hopes Reed will serve./p |
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