Nation briefly
Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 26, 2007
Maryland: Winter storm fades
The storm that pounded the Midwest over the weekend brought relatively light snow to the Northeast on Monday, delaying some commuters but sparing the region a repeat of the Valentine’s Day ice storm. Maryland received three to six inches. The New York City area and Connecticut got up to 4 inches, a fraction of the amount that fell in the Midwest during the weekend.
D.C.: Juror leaves Libby trial
After the judge dismissed one of its members, the jury finished a fourth day of deliberations Monday without a verdict in the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. One juror, an art historian, saw or read something over the weekend about the trial, which disqualified her. The jury proceded with 11 members. Libby, who was chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is accused of obstructing the investigation into the 2003 leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose husband was a prominent Iraq war critic.
N.Y.: Hacker pledges to join military
A former Long Island police officer who hacked into his ex-girlfriend’s online dating account will get no jail time or probation because he is enlisting in the military. Prosecutors said Michael Valentine, 29, sought revenge against a former girlfriend by logging onto her Match.com account, assuming her identity and contacting 70 men. Some even showed up at the woman’s house for dates arranged by Valentine, prosecutors said. If Valentine does not enlist in the military within the next nine months, he will be sentenced to three years’ probation, prosecutors said Monday. The victim was said to have agreed with the plea arrangement.
Georgia: DNA tests in child killings
A judge in Atlanta on Monday ordered DNA testing of dog hair and other evidence used to convict a man linked to two dozen murders. Wayne Williams was convicted in 1982 of murdering two young men and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Their killings were two of 29 black slayings, mostly boys, in the Atlanta area between 1979 and 1981. Williams maintains his innocence. In Williams’ trial, hairs found on some victims were found to be consistent with hairs removed from his family dog; DNA testing was not available then.
From Herald news services
