California

92-year-old jumps to death after jail release

An ailing, 92-year-old man who had pleaded to be allowed to stay in jail jumped to his death from a bridge less than two weeks after he was released.

The body of Coval Russell was found Wednesday under a 40-foot bridge over the Feather River in Oroville. Officials believe he may have been California’s oldest county jail inmate.

Russell had served 14 months while waiting for sentencing on an assault charge for stabbing his landlord. He was put on three years’ probation and released from the Butte County Jail on June 26.

A judge had denied his request to stay in jail, saying that it was not an appropriate place for a man of Russell’s age and health.

The World War II veteran had received four types of medication in jail, was blind in one eye, suffered from prostate cancer and could barely walk several feet unassisted.

Arkansas

Dog owners charged in mauling death

A couple was charged with manslaughter in the dog mauling death of a woman who police believe was attacked by the couple’s three pit bulls.

A sheriff’s dispatcher said Thursday the dogs’ owners, Carl and Kim Smith, were charged with felony manslaughter in Pope County Circuit Court last month. They were released Friday on $5,000 bond, the dispatcher said.

The charges came after an investigation into the Oct. 13, 2001, death of Carolyn Shatswell, 50, whose body was found in woods near the Smiths’ home.

According to court records, an autopsy found Shatswell had multiple bites to her face, torso, arms and legs and died from blood loss. After the dogs were euthanized, an expert compared the wounds to the dogs’ teeth and concluded the dogs were responsible.

Investigators said neighbors had complained the dogs were violent.

South Dakota

College student pleads guilty in AIDS case

An HIV-infected college student whose arrest on charges of having unprotected sex with a woman spread fear on campus and prompted the testing of hundreds of people for AIDS pleaded guilty Thursday and could get up to 15 years in prison.

Nikko Briteramos, a 19-year-old SiTanka-Huron University basketball player from Chicago, is the first person prosecuted in South Dakota under a 2000 law against knowingly exposing someone to the AIDS virus.

Sentencing was set for Aug. 20.

Prosecutors said Briteramos had learned in March after donating blood that he was HIV-positive, and had unprotected sex with the woman in April.

Because Briteramos reported multiple sex partners and many of those people also had several partners, 237 people were tested for the AIDS virus. The woman has tested negative for HIV, prosecutors said.

Philadelphia

‘Antiques Roadshow’ dealer sent to prison

An antiques dealer was sentenced Thursday to a year in prison and ordered to repay $830,000 for staging phony appraisals on the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” and defrauding Civil War collectors.

Russell Pritchard III, 39, pleaded guilty to making the bogus TV appraisals. He also admitted defrauding artifact owners by giving them low appraisals on items, then reselling them at much higher prices and pocketing the profit.

According to prosecutors, Pritchard made between $800,000 and $1.5 million on the fraudulent transactions. He could have gotten up to 135 years in prison and more than $5.2 million in fines.

Pritchard’s business partner, George Juno, pleaded guilty and will be sentenced Aug. 1.

Washington

Odometer fraud cases top 450,000 annually

More than 450,000 people every year buy used vehicles with mileage gauges rolled back, spending thousands of dollars more than they should, according to a federal study of odometer fraud.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study, released Thursday, found the practice is most common with fairly new vehicles that accumulate significant mileage in a short period, such as rental and company cars and leased vehicles.

Consumers pay an average of $2,336 more than they should for vehicles with fraudulent mileage totals.

“You can take a 2-year-old car with 20,000 miles on it, roll it back to 2,000, and you just made $4,000,” said Richard Morse, chief of NHTSA’s odometer fraud program.

Kentucky

Judge refuses to seal lawsuits against priests

A judge on Thursday denied a request by the Archdiocese of Louisville to seal more than 150 lawsuits claiming sexual abuse by priests.

The archdiocese had asked in May that the documents be kept secret, and Jefferson County Circuit Judge James Shake heard arguments in the case two weeks ago.

“From here, we go to the light of day,” said William McMurry, the attorney for nearly all 154 plaintiffs. “Everything the archdiocese does applying to these cases will be under public scrutiny.”