Legal News

Delaware Lawmaker Charged With DUI

Police in Delaware have announced that state Rep. Brad Bennett has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Lewes police said they arrested Bennett early Sunday morning. The lawmaker told reporters Tuesday he has been dealing with a lot of personal issues over the past few months.

Bennett did not take questions from reporters, but did apologize to voters and his family. The Dover Democrat, who represents the 32nd District, said he hopes voters can move past what has happened.

“I hope these charges don’t overshadow my service to the community, including being a volleyball coach and volunteering with the boys and girls club through my local church,” Bennett said.

House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf released a statement saying, “Rep. Bennett needs to answer to this charge, and he will have his day in court. He is entitled to due process and we will let that judicial process proceed. If the charge is substantiated, the leadership in the House will look to see what is the appropriate action to take as a legislative body.”

Bennett was elected to office in 2008.

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Lawyer in Whitman flap mum on details, party ties

Republican Meg Whitman's former maid said Tuesday she's not a Democratic pawn in California's race for governor, but her attorney refused again to provide key details about her claims that Whitman employed her for nearly a decade despite knowing she was in the U.S. illegally.

Nicky Diaz Santillan, a Mexican who Whitman says used a fraudulently obtained Social Security card and California driver's license, dismissed claims by the GOP nominee that she was part of a Democratic smear intended to damage Whitman's standing with voters, particularly Latinos.

"I make my own decisions and I am not anyone's puppet," Diaz Santillan said in a prepared statement she read at the Los Angeles office of her attorney, Gloria Allred. "Nobody made me do it."

Allred, who has longtime Democratic ties and donated money to Brown when he ran for attorney general , has yet to disclose details about how she became involved in the case or disclose who, if anyone, is picking up the bill for her legal work.

Allred says Diaz Santillan was referred to her by another lawyer, whom she will not name. Allred didn't answer directly when asked if that lawyer had ties to Whitman's opponent, Democrat Jerry Brown, or his Democratic allies.

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Court strikes down parts of Ohio milk labels rule

Dairy processors can make claims that their products are free of a synthetic growth hormone, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday in striking down parts of the state's rule on milk labeling.

Key parts of the state's labeling rule violated First Amendment rights to commercial free speech, a three-judge panel of 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled.

The Organic Trade Association and the International Dairy Foods Association sued the Ohio Department of Agriculture in 2008 over a state rule on how consumers are informed about whether milk is made from cows that were given a synthetic hormone.

The trade groups argued that the rule is too restrictive. It prohibits composition claims such as "antibiotic-free" and "pesticide-free," violating their free speech rights and impeding interstate commerce, the groups argued.

The appeals court reversed a lower court decision on the free speech issue, concluding that the state's ban is "more extensive than necessary to serve the state's interest in preventing consumer deception." The appeals court agreed with a lower court ruling that the rule does not impede interstate commerce.

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CA officials ask appeals court to allow execution

  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Government lawyers have asked a federal appeals court to let California carry out its first execution in nearly five years.

Lawyers with the attorney general's office want the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a Tuesday ruling by a federal judge to block the execution of Albert Greenwood Brown.

The convicted killer had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 9 p.m. Thursday.

But U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel halted the execution, saying he needs more time to determine if California's new lethal injection procedure avoids imposing cruel and unusual punishment.

Government lawyers argue the new protocol ensures condemned inmates will suffer little pain.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge on Tuesday blocked what would have been California's first execution in nearly five years, giving a death row inmate who was two days from receiving a lethal injection a reprieve that could last months.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel canceled Albert Greenwood Brown's execution after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered him to apply different legal standards than the ones he used last week when he cleared the way for Brown to be put to death.

Fogel said he halted the execution scheduled for 9 p.m. Thursday because he didn't have enough time "to render a reasoned decision and permit adequate appellate review."

The judge said Brown's lawyers had "raised substantial questions of fact as to whether at least some of the deficiencies" in California's lethal injection process that prompted Fogel to halt California executions in 2006 remained.