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Two men found guilty for selling U.S. company’s technology
U.S. Court News |
2014/03/07 15:25
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A federal jury found two men guilty Wednesday of economic espionage involving the theft and sale of a U.S. company’s technology to a competitor controlled by the Chinese government.
The jury returned the verdicts against Robert Maegerle and Walter Liew.
They were accused of stealing Delaware-based DuPont Co.’s method for making titanium oxide, a chemical that fetches $17 billion a year in sales worldwide and is used to whiten everything from cars to the middle of Oreo cookies.
A federal jury found two men guilty Wednesday of economic espionage involving the theft and sale of a U.S. company’s technology to a competitor controlled by the Chinese government.
Prosecutors said DuPont was unwilling to sell its method to China, so it was stolen and sent to a company called Pangang Group Co. Ltd., according to testimony during the diplomatically dicey proceedings. The jury heard six weeks of testimony.
Prosecutors alleged that Pangang’s factory is the only facility inside China known to be producing titanium oxide the DuPont way, which uses chlorination. |
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Ky. high court to hear death penalty appeal
U.S. Court News |
2014/02/13 15:26
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The Kentucky Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case of a death row inmate who has twice won a new trial.
The justices on Thursday will take up the case of 57-year-old Michael Dale St. Clair, who was convicted in the 1991 slaying of distillery worker Frank Brady in Bullitt County.
St. Clair has won three trials in the case, which has lingered for years in appeals.
St. Clair and another inmate escaped from an Oklahoma prison before going on a multistate spree that ended in Kentucky with Brady's death. St. Clair also faces a murder charge in New Mexico for the 1991 kidnapping and slaying of paramedic Timothy Keeling.
St. Clair also received a second death sentence for capital kidnapping from the Hardin County Circuit Court. |
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California teen pleads not guilty in newborn death
U.S. Court News |
2014/02/10 14:44
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A teenager in Central California pleaded not guilty Thursday to killing her newborn baby, who was found wrapped in plastic bag last week under a bathroom sink.
Gloria Santos Mendoza, 17, was charged as an adult on a single count of first-degree murder, said Madera County Deputy District Attorney Rachel Cartier. If convicted, Mendoza could spend 25 years to life in state prison.
The teenager went to a hospital Friday suffering from postpartum bleeding, but she denied giving birth, Madera County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Erica Stuart said. It took investigators hours to learn where she lived because of a language barrier. The girl speaks a dialect from Oaxaca, Mexico.
Authorities found the dead baby under the sink at the girl's Madera home. Stuart said that when the girl was confronted, she changed her story and said the child was born dead. But Stuart said an autopsy determined the baby was born alive.
Mendoza's attorney, Michael Fitzgerald, said that his first impression was that the prosecution's decision to charge her as an adult with first-degree murder seemed excessive.
The teenager came to Madera from her village in Mexico three days before giving birth, Stuart said. Mendoza remains jailed on $1 million bail. |
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Utah asks Supreme Court to block gay marriage
U.S. Court News |
2014/01/02 14:29
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Utah took its fight against gay marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking the high court to suspend same-sex unions that became legal when a judge struck down the state's voter-approved ban.
The heavily Mormon state wants the marriages to stop while it appeals a judge's decision, which said banning gay couples from marrying violates their right to equal treatment under the law.
In papers filed Tuesday, the state asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor to overturn a decision that has led to more than 900 gay marriages in Utah. Sotomayor handles emergency requests from Utah and other Rocky Mountain states.
Sotomayor responded with a request for legal briefs from same-sex couples by Friday at noon. She can act by herself or get the rest of the court involved.
"Numerous same-sex marriages are now occurring every day in Utah," Utah lawyers complain in the filing. "Each one is an affront not only to the interests of the state and its citizens in being able to define marriage through ordinary democratic channels, but also to this court's unique role as final arbiter." |
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