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NYU
requests name protection in public lawsuit
NEW YORK (U-WIRE)
— Lawyers for New York University filed a motion earlier this
month requesting that the University’s name be stricken from
public legal documents naming it in a $20 million sex assault lawsuit,
court records showed.
NYU’s attorneys
filed a motion two weeks ago arguing that the University should
be referred to as “Anonymous” in all public court documents
to shield it from negative publicity surrounding the suit, according
to the motion.
The motion stated
that because a judge allowed the plaintiff, a female student who
was sexually assaulted in a dormitory bathroom, to proceed anonymously
for privacy reasons, the University should be able to do so as well.
If a judge grants
NYU’s motion, all public court records will refer to the lawsuit
as “Anonymous v. Anonymous.”
Hearing-impaired
college students file lawsuit
BERKELEY, Calif.
(U-WIRE) — Several hearing-impaired University of California-Berkeley
and University of California-Davis students have filed a lawsuit
against the University of California system, saying they have not
been provided adequate services.
The university
has denied the allegations included in the lawsuit filed earlier
this month. UC maintains it is in full compliance with state regulations.
“We are
very proud of the panoply of services the university offers to all
of its disabled students,” said Jeff Blair, UC’s attorney.
UC Berkeley
student Lexin Ka said the university’s policies for its Disabled
Students’ Program are “unfair and unnecessary,” pointing
out during testimony that interpreters for hearing-impaired students
would leave if they were more than ten minutes late to class.
Disabled students
are required to explain why they are late to or absent from a class.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit say that rule is “burdensome”
and “intrusive.”
But Blair said
he does not believe “there is any merit” to the plaintiffs’
argument.
Instead, the lawyers for the plaintiffs are “interested in
their own personal wealth” and have refused to work alongside
the university in improving its policies, Blair said.
Guy Wallace,
attorney for the plaintiffs, said the university has done “little
or nothing” to address the complaints.
Wallace also
said the university has tried to recruit other disabled students
to speak in favor of university policies.
The case, which
will be tried in June, already has been drawing much attention from
disabled students on campus.
Nationwide
manhunt begins for Texas prison escapees
MONTAGUE, Texas
(AP) — Authorities launched a nationwide manhunt Tuesday for
two convicted murderers and two others awaiting trial on capital
murder charges who fled the Montague County Jail by overpowering
two female guards.
Two of the escapees
were serving life sentences for the 1996 murder of a 16-year-old
Oklahoma cheerleader. The other man and woman were arrested in November
and charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of an
elderly Montague County couple on whose land they had been living.
The escapees
were identified as Curtis Allen Gambill of Terral, Okla.; Joshua
Luke Bagwell of Waurika, Okla.; Chrystal Gale Soto, 22, of Bowie,
Texas; and Charles William Jordan, 30, of Bowie.
District Attorney
Tim Cole said the escape plan began unfolding Monday night when
a female jailer opened the cell holding Gambill and Jordan to retrieve
a cleaning bucket and they attacked her with a knife.
The inmates
then forced her and another female jailer to release Bagwell and
Soto. The four inmates put the jailers in a confined area, walked
out the back door and stole a jailer’s Geo Chevrolet Tracker
using her keys.
The women, who
were not hurt, ran out and alerted deputies.
Roadblocks were
set up on Texas 59 in between Montague and Bowie about 10 miles
to the southwest. Authorities from several neighboring communities
and counties, the FBI, Texas Rangers and Department of Public Safety
were aiding in the search from the air and across the rolling ranchland
of far North Texas.
Gambill and
Bagwell both were described as 5-foot-8, 160 pounds with blond hair.
Gambill has green eyes; Bagwell, hazel eyes. Soto is 5-foot-4, 155
pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Jordan is 6-foot, 165 pounds
with brown hair and brown eyes.
The getaway
car was described as a silver 2001 Geo Chevrolet Tracker with a
black top, bearing a Texas license plate of 5MB D88.
Hutchins
woman to face five years to life in prison
DALLAS (AP)
— A jury began deciding Tuesday on the punishment for a woman
who pleaded guilty to confining her severely malnourished 8-year-old
daughter in a filthy closet in their mobile home.
Barbara Atkinson
of Hutchins, who pleaded guilty last week to a charge of bodily
injury to a child, faces five years to life in prison.
Closing arguments
wrapped up Tuesday morning in the punishment phase of the trail
of Atkinson, 30. She and her former husband, Kenneth, were arrested
last June after the girl, who weighed 25 pounds at 8 years old,
was discovered near death.
“We have
seen evil like we never knew that evil existed. This is evil,”
prosecutor Susan Hawk said, pointing at Atkinson. Hawk asked for
a life sentence and described the girl’s nightmarish conditions.
“She laid
there naked in her own feces, in her own urine, praying someone
might open the door,” Hawk said.
Defense attorney
Brad Lollar said the defendant herself suffered a traumatic childhood.
He said the first three years of Atkinson’s life she was neglected
by her birth mother, a prostitute and drug addict, then placed with
an adoptive home, where she did not feel loved.
“The person
who did this has to have something mentally wrong with them,”
Lollar said. “She is a victimizer and a victim.”
Kenneth Atkinson,
34, is awaiting a new trial date after a judge agreed to a request
for a separate trial last week. He is charged with serious bodily
injury to a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child.
The East Texas
couple that originally tried to adopt the child at birth is now
her foster family and is attempting to gain permanent custody. Bill
and Sabrina Kavanaugh say the child has gained weight, enrolled
in kindergarten and is doing well in their care.
Austin
Mardi Gras parade canceled due to violence
AUSTIN (AP)
— The Mardi Gras parade has been canceled after police refused
to allow the event take place at night because of concerns about
violence at last year’s celebration.
Police in riot
gear had to push hundreds of people off Austin’s famous Sixth
Street last year when the crowd became unruly. Rioters threw beer
bottles and rocks at police.
Thirty-five people were arrested and one man was stabbed several
times in the back. Wild crowds and fights also marred the 2000 Mardi
Gras weekend.
“This is
not based on what happened on September 11. But there is some consideration
for last year, because the thing just kind of blew up in our face,
as it did there the year
before,” Cmdr. Harold Piatt of the Austin Police Department
told the Austin American-Statesman for its Tuesday editions.
Organizers were
told of the police decision about a month ago, said Bob Woody, president
of the East Sixth Street Merchants Association.
“Some people
will probably be upset about the parade, but I’m not,”
he said, adding he understood the police department concerns.
“Last year,
things escalated into a problem on Sixth Street, and with that in
mind, we need to let a period of time, we need to let a period of
time go by so we can heal the wounds,” he said.
This would have
been the fourth year for the parade. Other events, such as concerts
and a parade for children, were not scheduled. Without the parade,
it was too hard to promote the other festivities, Woody said.
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