Man pleads guilty in series of rapes
A 50-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to a series of rapes in which he used stun guns and chloroform to knock out the teenage daughters of his friends while they were home alone.
Chien Tai Wu obtained garage-door-control codes by offering to take care of pets for friends who went on vacation, and later used the codes to enter the homes while a teenager was home alone, prosecutors said.
Some victims did not remember the rape, thinking they had dreamed an attack, prosecutors said. One teenager woke up during an attack and later identified Wu.
He faces as many as 102 years in prison when he is sentenced in December.
Canton, Ohio
Friend pleads guilty in disposing of body
A high-school classmate of a suspended police officer who is accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend pleaded guilty Monday to helping dispose of the body and agreed to testify against him.
Myisha Ferrell, 30, quietly pleaded guilty to complicity to abuse a corpse and obstruction of justice - for lying to authorities - just before opening statements were to begin in her jury trial. She was sentenced to two years in prison but will be eligible for release after one year as part of a plea deal.
The plea gives prosecutors a witness with firsthand knowledge of the crime, but it leaves many questions in the case publicly unanswered until Bobby L. Cutts Jr.’s trial on aggravated murder and other charges begins Feb. 4. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
Milwaukee
Jury: No damages for disabled teen
A Wisconsin jury decided Monday that a 17-year-old boy who sued paint makers after ingesting deteriorated lead paint as a baby isn’t entitled to damages. The verdict is a setback for perhaps thousands of young people who say they were poisoned by lead as children and hope to hold paint makers liable.
The Milwaukee County Circuit Court jury unanimously rejected Steven Thomas’ claim that he was brain-damaged by lead.
His attorneys had presented testimony that he suffered mental disabilities after three years of exposure to lead dust and chips in two rental homes.
The jurors decided Thomas had been exposed to lead as a child, but because that exposure did not cause his brain damage, they didn’t address the paint makers’ liability.
Los Angeles
Jury says Dole concealed dangers
Dole Food concealed from poor Central American farmworkers the danger of sterilization posed by a pesticide used in the Nicaragua banana fields, a Los Angeles jury decided Monday.
Jurors awarded $2.8 million to six workers, and held Dole responsible for 80 percent of the damages. The trial will continue today to determine if Dole also should be assessed punitive damages.
The verdict was the first time a U.S. jury has been allowed to decide on the dangers to farmworkers of the pesticide, Fumazone, which has been banned in most places and was removed from use in the United States in 1977.
The chemical fights pests that attack the roots of fruit trees, but also stops rabbits from procreating, and rendered the workers who manufactured it sterile.
Also
South Carolina: Amanda Reagan Smith, a 27-year-old mother who said a carjacker had smothered her 7-year-old son with a pillow, was arrested Monday and charged with killing the boy.
San Diego: Defense contractor Brent Wilkes was convicted Monday of bribing disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham with cash, meals, trips and other gifts in exchange for nearly $90 million in Pentagon work. He faces as many as 20 years in prison.
Seattle Times news services