Kentucky

Legal news around the circuit:

From the Courier Journal: 

Louisville defense attorney Stephanie Pearce Burke and Mason Trenaman, an appointed district judge, are moving on to face each other in the November general election for Jefferson District Court's 14th Division seat.

Louisville lawyer Ronald Snyder pleaded guilty Monday to mail fraud for continuing to rent out a dead man's condominium for nearly 12 years after his death and keeping the money.

Six years after its filing ? and still facing severe legal hurdles ? the lawsuit has drawn renewed attention with reports on Pope Benedict XVI's handling of abuse cases when he was a senior Vatican administrator and an German archbishop.

Nearly $1 million in taxes is at stake in a two-year dispute between Ford Motor Co. and Jefferson County over the value of the Kentucky Truck Plant in eastern Jefferson County.

A Jefferson Circuit Court jury found Susan Kay Lukjan guilty of burning down her own business, Cambell's Gourmet Cottage, four years ago in hopes of collecting an insurance settlement.

The ruling, one of the first under the law revised in 2006, leaves in place an injunction issued in 2008, barring Kentucky business owners Victor and Cathy Moseley from using the names at their shop about 45 minutes south of Louisville.

A woman was in critical condition Sunday afternoon after an accident involving an off-duty Louisville Metro Police officer in an unmarked police vehicle Saturday night.

Lawmakers face take-it-or-leave-it choice on austere budget

Klan member released after arrest on drug charges

A lawsuit claiming that a subcontract was awarded illegally for work at the KFC Yum! Center may be headed to trial.

The nation's top coal mine regulator told Congress on Thursday that surprise inspections uncovered "outlawish" safety violations at Massey Energy Co. operations before and after last month's West Virginia disaster that killed 29 miners.

Lawmakers say Toyota failed to probe electronics

An automated telephone service that notifies domestic violence victims when perpetrators are served with protective orders is out of money and in jeopardy of being discontinued, advocates said Thursday.

A Louisville Metro Police detective who has been under criminal investigation in connection with allegations that she made numerous wrongful arrests over the past two years will not be indicted, the Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney's Office and her attorney said Thursday.

Louisville Metro Police Detective Crystal Marlowe will not be indicted for falsely arresting people, the Jefferson County commonwealth's attorney office has announced.

Fen-phen attorney Melbourne Mills disbarred

OMG! Louisville police can take anonymous tips via text

Attorneys for The Courier-Journal have asked the state Appeals Court to rule that Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Susan Schultz Gibson violated the public's constitutional right to access when she closed a juror's contempt-of-court hearing last week.

The Supreme Court took two cracks at one of the law's thorniest questions Monday: When can you lock up a prisoner and throw away the key?

Robert Felner, former University of Louisville dean of education, was sentenced on Monday to 63 months in prison for his role in defrauding U of L and the University of Rhode Island of $2.3 million.

A Jefferson Circuit Court judge told William Seidl that the killing of his wife, Dorene, was a "senseless" crime and called for the maximum punishment of 35 years in prison, despite his attorney's plea for mercy.

Worried about the safety of a toddler they were helping raise, Brenda and Darrel Dutschke called state child welfare officials in December after the boy's mother abruptly took him from their Louisville home.

Appeals court reinstates attack on coal truck tax

FROM LOUISVILLE PUBLIC LAW EXAMINER (Thomas McAdam):

In Justice

Lexington-Fayette County Urban Government seal A federal jury in Lexington, Ky., returned seven guilty verdicts against two former corrections officers with the Lexington-Fayette County Urban Detention Center (FCUDC), the Justice Department

FROM STATE PRESS RELEASES: