Thursday, January 15, 2004

 

More news across the country ...

Pedophile Is Slain in Va. Prison

Richard Alvin Ausley, a serial child molester whose brutal crimes led to a Virginia law that allows the state to hold some violent sex offenders indefinitely, has been slain in his prison cell, officials said yesterday.

Ausley, 64, was found dead between 10:30 and 11 p.m. Tuesday at Sussex I Prison in Waverly, Va., Department of Corrections officials said. An autopsy conducted yesterday showed that Ausley was strangled and suffered blunt trauma to the torso, said Evelyn Henson, a district administrator for the Virginia medical examiner's office in Richmond.

In 1973, Ausley abducted 13-year-old Paul Martin Andrews, chained the boy inside a plywood box he had buried in the woods and sexually assaulted him at least twice each day for eight days. The boy ultimately forced the box open slightly and yelled for help, and he was rescued by hunters.

County takes strip-club case to Supreme Court

The county took the battle over strippers showing too much skin to the nation's highest court Wednesday.

County attorney Jim Minix said Manatee County filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision that the county hasn't proven that strip clubs harm the community.

In July, the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta said a federal judge shouldn't have dismissed a lawsuit filed by two strip clubs seeking to overturn county nudity ordinances.

Gag sought in judicial fraud case

U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton wants a federal judge to gag the defense team representing lawyer Paul Minor and four others indicted on fraud and bribery charges.

Lampton filed a motion Wednesday in federal court asking U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate to order all lawyers involved in the case, including federal prosecutors, not to speak to the media. He asked for the gag two days after Minor's lawyers accused him of having a personal and political agenda against Minor.

posted by Anne 1/15/2004 06:04:00 AM