Pennsylvania

Federal judge strikes Pennsylvania ban on same-sex marriage; 19 states now OK such weddings

A federal judge in the Pennsylvania state capital struck down as unconstitutional Tuesday the state’s ban on same-sex marriages. “We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history,” said U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III…

May 20, 2014 8:55 PM CDT

Law firm covers bill for juror whose car was towed during trial of tow truck driver

A Pennsylvania law firm has stepped up to the plate for a juror hit by a double whammy. After inadvertently parking in a Luzerne County Courthouse space reserved for the county manager, Elias Rojas had his car towed Thursday. Luzerne County Sheriff Brian Szumski said the car also appeared to…

May 16, 2014 8:50 PM CDT

Prosecutor who died in fiery chain-reaction crash ‘was an American hero,’ state AG says

A longtime Pennsylvania prosecutor was among three people killed Monday in a fiery seven-vehicle accident on a Pennsylvania highway. Robert Rosner, 52, died at the scene of the Interstate 78 accident after the car he was driving was struck from behind by a tractor-trailer, crashed into several other cars and…

May 14, 2014 10:00 PM CDT

Law students seek license for long-deceased would-be attorney

Seeking to right a 124-year-old wrong, a law student group and two law professors at the University of California-Davis have submitted a bar application on behalf of Hong Yeng Chang. In a well-known case, he was denied a law license in 1890 because he was Chinese, KCRA reports. An 1886…

May 5, 2014 10:55 PM CDT

Widow who lost $280K house for $6 in unpaid interest vows appeal after judge upholds sale

A Pennsylvania widow is vowing to appeal a ruling upholding the sale of her $280,000 home for failure to pay $6.30 in interest on a tax bill paid six days late. “I’m going to fight it until my dying day,” Eileen Battisti, 53, told TribLive. The Associated Press, Forbes, McClatchy…

May 1, 2014 2:01 PM CDT

Lawyer wins reinstatement after suspension for taking upskirt photos

A Pennsylvania lawyer has been reinstated to law practice after a six-month suspension for taking upskirt videos of two females at a Montgomery County store. Clayton Boulware was reinstated by an April 24 order by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the Legal Intelligencer reports. The suspension stems from Boulware’s guilty plea…

Apr 29, 2014 1:48 PM CDT

Appellate panel says trial judge had right to jail prosecutor over his tactics in theft case

Saying that a Pennsylvania judge acted within the scope of his authority by ordering a prosecutor to jail for civil contempt for refusing to answer his questions, an appellate panel has denied a request by Luzerne County district attorney’s office to block the contempt ruling, require the jurist’s recusal and…

Apr 28, 2014 12:25 PM CDT

Prominent attorney now faces AG prosecution of rape case, after charges were dropped in March by DA

A prominent Pennsylvania attorney won a six-week reprieve when a criminal case alleging he had raped a law firm employee was dropped in March by the Montgomery County district attorney’s office. But now the state attorney general has announced that her office has filed a new case against Robert Kerns,…

Apr 25, 2014 4:15 PM CDT

DA says lawyer committed suicide to avoid arrest as mastermind of insurance scheme

A Philadelphia lawyer committed suicide last week to avoid arrest as the mastermind of a slip-and-fall insurance scheme, District Attorney Seth Williams claimed at a Wednesday press conference. He accused Andrew H. Gaber of using runners, many of whom were former clients, to recruit new clients to act as victims…

Apr 24, 2014 11:35 AM CDT

Pa. lawyer pleads guilty to charges he smuggled drugs to jailed client

A Pennsylvania lawyer has pleaded guilty to charges that he smuggled heroin and prescription drugs to a jailed client. Brian Salisbury, 31, of Newell, will be sentenced May 28, according to the Associated Press, the Tribune-Review and the Herald-Standard reports. As part of his plea deal, Salisbury, who is facing…

Apr 21, 2014 5:40 PM CDT

Clients who entrusted money to lawyer who committed suicide were unaware of surrendered law license

Clients who entrusted money to a Pennsylvania lawyer who committed suicide say they were never told that he surrendered his law license in October. The lawyer, Jeffrey Mottern, committed suicide on March 17 in his Hummelstown home, three days after federal agents searched his office. Since then his accounts have…

Apr 11, 2014 3:30 PM CDT

Federal judge says his directive to increase staffing in union prosecution was a wish, not an order

A federal judge in Pennsylvania said Thursday he was only expressing a wish—and not giving an order—when he told the U.S. Attorney’s office to assign additional prosecutors in a racketeering case against union members. U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson appeared conciliatory when he spoke with U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger…

Apr 4, 2014 12:36 PM CDT

Sandusky’s appeal of child-molestation conviction nixed by Penn. Supreme Court

In a one-sentence order, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused on Wednesday to hear an appeal by former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky of his child-molestation conviction. However, other avenues of appeal remain open to Sandusky. They include a state court filing under Pennsylvania’s Post-Conviction Relief Act concerning…

Apr 2, 2014 9:55 PM CDT

Claiming prosecutorial misconduct in Sandusky probe, ex-Penn State president sues state AG’s office

Graham Spanier, former Penn State president. Richard Paul Kane / Shutterstock.com A former president of Pennsylvania State University has filed a federal civil lawsuit against the state attorney general’s office, contending that it mishandled a criminal investigation concerning Penn State’s role in overseeing Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant football coach…

Mar 31, 2014 6:00 PM CDT

Pennsylvania AG defends shutdown of pol probe, says case was mishandled

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane says she shut down a sting operation involving eight targets because the probe was mishandled before she took office last year. In a news conference on Monday, Kane responded to a Philadelphia Inquirer story that said she shut down a probe that ensnared four Democratic…

Mar 18, 2014 5:02 PM CDT