Courts
Prosecutors set the stage for an awkward courtroom confrontation Wednesday when they called a Colorado resident as a witness against his longtime friend, a Navy SEAL accused of smuggling machine guns and explosives into the country from Iraq.
A dispute over where Sheldon Adelson should give a legal deposition has provided a quirky look at the billionaire behind the scenes. Earlier this week, Adelson’s lawyers filed court papers seeking to avoid taking the deposition at the offices of attorney Don Campbell for what they called security reasons. Campbell is suing Adelson to recover more than $100,000 in overtimefor former Adelson driver Kwame Luangisa.
Medical experts at the state’s mental hospital in Sparks have found Dr. Dipak Desai competent to stand trial on criminal charges in the hepatitis C outbreak, District Attorney David Roger confirmed Wednesday.
A jury spent Tuesday listening to secretly recorded firearms sales, but one voice was absent from the recordings: Navy SEAL Nicholas Bickle. Prosecutors claim Bickle smuggled machine guns, other weapons and explosives into the country from the Middle East. Three other defendants, including two Las Vegas men, accepted plea bargains.
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for one of three people charged with the July slaying of 68-year-old Katherine Cole. Cole’s daughter, Autumn Cole, 44, was one of the defendants spared a possible death sentence.
Instead, prosecutors will seek capital punishment for Joseph Perez, 45, the person authorities believe strangled Katherine Cole with a pillowcase.
A report released Tuesday by the nonprofit Violence Policy Center says Nevada had the highest rate of domestic violence killings of men against women in the nation. Nevada’s rate of homicides per 100,000 people was 2.7. Alabama was second with a rate of 2.64 per 100,000 people.
Without much discussion, the County Commission unanimously approved Tuesday a $225,000 settlement with Roshunda Abney, who didn’t know she was pregnant when she unsuccessfully tried to get treatment at University Medical Center in 2009. The agreement was dated Sept. 9.
The government’s crackdown on Internet poker ensnared two of the game’s best-known superstars Tuesday while a prosecutor accused one website of being a “massive ponzi scheme,” defrauding players of more than $443 million. Poker professionals Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson were added as defendants in a civil money laundering complaint against online gaming company FullTilt Poker, saying the players and executives funneled money to their own accounts, rendering FullTilt insolvent.
If Paris Hilton can make it to about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday without getting arrested, her current Las Vegas legal woes will be over. Barring a midnight malfeasance, the hotel heiress’s one-year probation is up.