Lawsuit says inmate was shackled during childbirth
Lawsuit says inmate was shackled during childbirth
OLYMPIA, Wash. — A former Washington state prison inmate who says she was shackled during childbirth sued the state Thursday, saying her constitutional rights were violated.
Seattle-based women’s rights organization Legal Voice filed the federal lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections on behalf of Casandra Brawley, who was four months pregnant when she was jailed at the Washington Corrections Center for Women near Gig Harbor in December 2006.
Brawley said she was shackled by a metal chain around her stomach during transportation to the hospital, then fastened by a leg iron to a hospital bed throughout several hours of labor.
The suit alleges her restraints were removed during an emergency Caesarean section only after a physician insisted but then were replaced after the procedure.
Prostitute dismisses Italian leader’s claims
ROME — The high-end prostitute at the center of Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s starlet scandal has dismissed the premier’s claims that he doesn’t know her, saying they spent the night together and shared an “intimate” breakfast the next morning.
Patrizia D’Addario told the left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper that the only way the premier could be confused about her identity was because “there were so many other young women who looked just like me” at the parties he threw at his residence.
Prosecutors in the southern city of Bari have questioned D’Addario and other starlets as part of a probe into a local businessman accused of recruiting and paying women to attend parties at the premier’s homes.
Plane malfunctions probed
WASHINGTON — Federal safety officials said Thursday they are investigating two incidents in which airspeed and altitude indications in the cockpits of Airbus A330 planes may have malfunctioned, including one that took place 10 days before the same type of plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 228 aboard.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement that the first incident occurred May 21, when TAM Airlines Flight 8091 flying from Miami to Sao Paulo, Brazil, experienced a loss of primary speed and altitude information while cruising.
Initial reports indicate that the flight crew noted an abrupt drop in the outside air temperature reading, followed by disconnections of the autopilot and autothrust, along with the loss of speed and altitude information, the board said. The flight crew used backup instruments, and airspeed and altitude data were restored in about five minutes, the board said.
Metro crash investigation
WASHINGTON — The signaling system for the Washington-area transit agency failed to detect a test train stopped in the same place as one that was struck during a deadly crash this week, federal investigators said Thursday.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s test results indicate the oncoming train involved in Monday’s crash that killed nine could have lacked information that another train was stopped on the tracks ahead. A statement by the NTSB did not say whether investigators think the problems were occurring before the crash, which injured dozens.
Investigators are trying to understand how the train control system was functioning when a train plowed into another that was stopped, resulting in the deadliest crash in the rail system’s 33-year history.
Murderer’s appeal rejected
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — A court on Thursday rejected the appeal of a farmer convicted of butchering women and feeding them to his pigs in what police say was Canada’s worst serial- murder case.
Thursday’s decision also means that Robert Pickton, convicted of six murders, will likely not be tried for 20 other murders with which he is charged. Prosecutors have said that if Pickton’s verdict were not overturned, they would not try the other cases because he is already serving the maximum sentence.
Pickton, 59, is serving life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
Hustler loses court case
ATLANTA — A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Hustler Magazine didn’t have the right to publish decades-old nude photographs of the wife of wrestler Chris Benoit, who killed the woman and his young son before committing suicide two years ago.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling found that a notorious death doesn’t give publishers a blank check to publish any images they wish — including those not linked to a newsworthy event. Such a policy, the court warned, would mean that the entire life of any victim of a notorious slaying would instantly be open to public scrutiny.
Associated Press