Prosecutors: Charges in Jackson’s death to be filed Monday

February 8th, 2010 Stephenville Online No comments

conrad-murrayLos Angeles, California (CNN) — Criminal charges relating to Michael Jackson’s death last summer will be filed Monday, Los Angeles prosecutors said.

The District Attorney’s Office did not say what the charges would be or who would be charged. The lawyer for Dr. Conrad Murray — Jackson’s personal physician, who was with him when he died — has said he expected Murray to be charged.

It was unclear whether Los Angeles police would arrest Murray or whether the doctor would be allowed to turn himself into authorities for booking and a bond hearing Monday.

Charges were expected to be filed on Friday, but they were delayed because prosecutors and Murray’s chief defense lawyer, Ed Chernoff, failed to reach agreement on a surrender deal for the doctor, a law enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the talks said.

A surrender, in which a defendant turns himself in at a police station for booking, would allow the doctor to avoid being seen in public handcuffed and escorted by police.

“An arrest of Dr. Murray would be a waste of money, time and resources,” Chernoff said last week. “We’ve always made it clear: ‘ You tell us where; we’ll be there.’ ”

The doctor traveled to Los Angeles at the end of January from his home in Houston, Texas, in expectation of possible charges, his lawyer said.

Murray used part of his time last week to visit the pop star’s resting place at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

Murray, a cardiologist, was hired as Jackson’s personal physician last spring as the singer prepared for comeback concerts in London, England.

The doctor told Los Angeles police that he was with Jackson at his $100,000-a-month rented Holmby Hills mansion through the early morning hours of June 25, 2009, in an effort to help the pop star fall asleep, according to a police affidavit.

He administered sleep aids, and after Jackson finally began sleeping in the late morning hours, Murray said, he left the bedroom for “about two minutes maximum,” the affidavit says.

“Upon his return, Murray noticed that Jackson was no longer breathing,” it says.

The doctor stayed with Jackson as an ambulance rushed him to UCLA Medical Center.

Efforts at CPR proved fruitless, and Jackson was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m.

The Los Angeles County coroner ruled Jackson’s death a homicide, resulting from a combination of drugs, primarily propofol and lorazepam.

The coroner’s statement said Jackson died from “acute propofol intoxication,” but there were “other conditions contributing to death: benzodiazepine effect.” Lorazepam and two other drugs Murray said he used are benzodiazepines.

The doctor told investigators he had given Jackson three anti-anxiety drugs to help him sleep in the hours before he stopped breathing, a police affidavit said.

Murray had been treating Jackson for insomnia for six weeks at the time of the singer’s death. The doctor told investigators he gave Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol, the generic name for Diprivan, diluted with the anesthetic lidocaine every night via an intravenous drip.

The doctor told police he was worried that Jackson was becoming addicted to the drug and tried to wean him off it.

During the two nights before Jackson’s death, Murray said, he put together combinations of other drugs that succeeded in helping Jackson sleep.

Categories: News Tags:

Lawyer for Americans held in Haiti quits

February 8th, 2010 Stephenville Online No comments

edwincoqPort-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — A Haitian attorney representing 10 Americans charged with kidnapping for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti told CNN Sunday he has resigned.

Edwin Coq said he had quit as a lawyer for the Americans. It wasn’t immediately clear who would replace him.

“I know that they have been looking at other lawyers,” said Phyllis Allison, mother of one of those detained, Jim Allen. “They don’t know what to do.”

The 10 missionaries, including group leader Laura Silsby, were charged Thursday with kidnapping children and criminal association. Coq had said that court hearings would be held Monday and Tuesday for his clients, who have been split up at two prisons.

He has tried to get the Americans released, though he has also blamed Silsby for the missionaries’ legal troubles.

Conviction on the kidnapping charge would carry a maximum penalty of life in prison; the criminal association charge would carry a penalty of three to nine years, according to a former justice minister.

The Americans were turned back a week ago as they tried to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation. They said they were going to house them in a converted hotel in that country and later move them to an orphanage they were building there.

The Americans have said they were just trying to help the children leave the earthquake-stricken country. A January 12 earthquake flattened Haiti’s capital and killed more than 200,000 people.

“Except for Laura — the group’s leader, who took the responsibility to displace these 33 children, fully knowing she didn’t have any legal document that would allow her to do so — the other nine American citizens didn’t know anything about what was going on and I remain convinced that they would not have given their accord,” Coq told CNN.

Coq added that Silsby “said she had no intention to do any harm.”

Some of the detained Americans have said they thought they were helping orphans, but their interpreters told CNN this week that they were present when group members spoke with some of the children’s parents. Some parents in a village outside Port-au-Prince said they had willingly given their children to the Americans, who promised them a better life. The parents also said they were told they could see their children whenever they wanted.

The Dominican consul general has said he warned Silsby about trying to cross the border without proper documents.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN’s “Larry King Live” Thursday that the judge in the case has three months to decide whether to prosecute. “We hope that he will decide long before those three months,” he said. “He can release them, he can ask to prosecute them.”

If a decision is made to prosecute, the case would be heard before a jury, he said.

Bellerive told CNN the Haitian government was open to the possibility of the case being transferred to a U.S. court, but he said the request would have to come from the United States. “Until now, I was not asked,” he said.

Coq told CNN he had been hired by Eric Thompson, husband of Carla Thompson, one of the arrested missionaries, on behalf of the families.

Categories: News Tags:

Haiti Earthquake Pictures

January 16th, 2010 Stephenville Online No comments

hait-earthquake

People After Haiti Earthquake

People After Haiti Earthquake

haitian-girl-crying-after-earthquake

Child Injured after Earthquake in Haiti

Child Injured after Earthquake in Haiti

Categories: News Tags: , ,

Relief Sent to Haiti

January 15th, 2010 Stephenville Online No comments

girl-in-earthquake-rubble-haitiAlthough emergency relief is being coordinated in Haiti, the 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army have received orders to leave for Haiti, following an announcement by the US Department of Defense of Thursday. They will be deploying for Haiti with over 3,500 troops.

The first 100 of the 82nd US Airborn will arrive in Haiti on Thursday to provide “humanitarian assistance, relief and security as required”. The 82nd Airborne Division is from Fort Bragg, North Caroline.

The army will also be sending three amphibious ships, and the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to Haiti, as well as a hospital ship, a destroyer, several Coast Guard cutters and transport planes. There are also plans to send about 2000 marines to provide relief effors after the earthquake according to the head of Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser.

Thousands of men, women, and children have died in the high magnitude earthquake and aftershocks that registered as a 7.0 in scale. Around three million people were directly affected by this earthquake, and the city of Port au Prince has been reduced to rubble. The number that are injured and dead has still not been confirmed at this time as many are still suspected to be trapped beneath the debris.

Categories: News Tags: , , ,

Young crash victim from Arlington recalled as outgoing, unafraid

December 28th, 2009 Stephenville Online No comments

ARLINGTON — When she was in high school, Rhianna Rutledge spontaneously grabbed her mother’s hand as they strolled the shopping mall.

“I said, ‘Rhianna, aren’t you afraid your friends are going to see you holding my hand?’?” her mother, Rose Rutledge, recalled. “She said, ‘I don’t care, Mama.’?”

That was Rhianna Rutledge’s style: expressive, outgoing and unafraid. Her family and friends spent the weekend swapping stories and memories, after her death in a car accident on Christmas Eve. The family’s two-story home was filled with flowers and snapshots glued to posterboards, many of them dropped off before the family got home.

“We have a stronger appreciation for her life and its worth because she touched a lot of people who we hadn’t even expected,” said her father, Reginald Rutledge Sr. “To lose a daughter or son is one of those things you really aren’t even able to put into words. Your heart is just totally broken — all the dreams you have for that kid are just totally thrown out the window. That’s when we have to draw strength from each other.”

The Rutledge family was driving from Arlington to Tennessee when a rainstorm struck outside Arkadelphia, Ark. Rhianna, 18, was asleep in the back seat of the family’s Acura MDX when the vehicle hydroplaned on Interstate 30 and crashed, Reginald Rutledge said. She was ejected.

Reginald Rutledge said he found his daughter 50 feet away and tried to revive her. The rest of the family escaped with cuts and bruises. Rhianna Rutledge’s organs were donated, her parents said.

She was born in Arlington and lived in the same house until she left for Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Reginald Rutledge Sr., an engineer, is also known for building scale models of football stadiums that fit around vintage miniature electric football games. His models have been sold around the country. Rose Rutledge is a financial manager at AT&T. Rhianna Rutledge’s brother, Reginald Jr., is a junior at Bowie High school.

Rhianna Rutledge built close relationships with her family: father-daughter events, movies with her mom and a shared love of anime with her brother.

She graduated in 2009 from Bowie High School’s International Baccalaureate program, played violin in the orchestra, was a setter on the volleyball team and was active in Cornerstone Baptist Church.

“She was an ordinary kid who did extraordinary things,” said her aunt Dovie Coleman.

Rhianna Rutledge was a premedical student at Tech, which allowed her to spend time at the Health Science Center in Lubbock.

Typically, her last days at home were a whirl: She saw the latest Twilight movie with her mother, grabbed lunch with friends and went to a church service project with her family.

“She just had a great spirit,” her mother said.

Her funeral is scheduled for Jan. 2 with Wade Funeral Home in Arlington.

MIKE LEE, 817-390-7539

Categories: Obituaries Tags: , ,

In Southlake accident, all 4 occupants of car have died

December 28th, 2009 Stephenville Online No comments

All four people traveling in a car that overturned in a Southlake pond Saturday have died.

Wendy Akion, 38, of Irving and Sharon Ransom, 56, of Grapevine died overnight at a Grapevine hospital, authorities said.

The other two occupants, identified as Monty Hardy, 56, of Southlake and Vance Hadassah, 35, of Euless, were pronounced dead Saturday, authorities said. The four were riding in a Toyota Avalon at about 11:20 a.m.

Saturday when the car went through a pipe fence at Lonesome Dove Road and Burney Lane, hit a tree and flipped over in about 6 feet of water, witnesses and police said.

Avalons are among the millions of Toyotas subject to a recall. The floor mats can interfere with the accelerator pedal, federal officials say.

Police said it’s too early in the investigation to say what contributed to the accident

Categories: News Tags: ,
SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline