METRO DIGEST || Newspapers argue to attend Jordan Brown juvenile trial

Newspapers argue to attend juvenile trial

PITTSBURGH

Attorneys for three western Pennsylvania newspapers have argued to the Pennsylvania Superior Court that the media and general public have a constitutional right to attend a juvenile court murder trial for a boy who was just 11 when he was charged with shooting his father’s pregnant fianc e.

But the boy’s defense attorney is trying to convince the same three-judge panel that a Lawrence County judge didn’t abuse his discretion under a law that allows the court to close trials for juveniles under 12.

Attorneys for the New Castle News, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Jordan Brown, the Wampum, Pa., boy who is now 14, spent about a half-hour arguing their positions before the appeals panel in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. A decision isn’t expected for weeks or months.

Man attacked

YOUNGSTOWN

Police reports say a 23-year-old city man was beaten by a group of six men as he walked in the 700 block of Kendis Circle on the East Side early Monday.

The man told police the attackers came from around a building as he walked from his car and began beating him and pulling his jacket and pants off. The group ran off when they heard someone approaching.

Police seek shooter

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are trying to determine who fired shots at a city man who was driving on the South Side on Monday evening.

The man told police he was driving along Sherwood Avenue, leaving a convenience store just before 10 p.m., when he heard several shots and realized his Cadillac Fleetwood had been hit by gunfire. Officers noted a bullet hole in the rear window and driver’s seat of the car.

The man had a small cut on his left ear from flying glass.

Man reports robbery

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are trying to determine who robbed a 21-year-old city man at gunpoint while he was standing in a North Side parking lot.

The victim told police he was standing in a parking lot on West Dennick Avenue around 7:45 p.m. Monday talking to friends when two armed men came from around a building, fired one shot and began waving the gun in his face. The victim said his friends ran off, but the two men made him get on the ground and searched his pockets.

The thieves took $40 and the man’s driver’s license before running off.