Former Ill. Police Sergeant Found Guilty of 4 Rapes

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Man accused of handing pot to court security

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - A man was arrested after pulling marijuana from his pocket at a security check at a court. The man was visiting the courts section of the Bradley County Justice Center on Monday when he was asked to empty his pockets into a plastic bowl, a standard procedure.
Sheriff Tim Gobble said the items he placed in the bowl included marijuana and rolling papers. When questioned, the man ran from the building, but officers captured him within minutes.
`The man faces charges of having contraband in a penal institution and evading arrest

N.Y. jury rejects lawsuit over rectal exam man didn’t want

NEW YORK - A hospital did nothing wrong when it tried to examine the rectum of a construction worker who had been hit on the head by a falling wooden beam, a jury found Monday.
After deliberating for about an hour, a state Supreme Court jury awarded nothing to Brian Persaud, who sued New York-Presbyterian Hospital for unspecified damages. The panel found the hospital and its emergency room medical staff were not liable.

Persaud's lawyers, Gerard Marrone and Gary DeFilippo, said he might appeal.
"We're very disappointed," Marrone said after the two-week trial. "It's a miscarriage of justice."
The hospital's lawyer, Jeffrey Lawton, declined comment.
Marrone said Persaud, 38, was injured while working at a construction site in midtown Manhattan on May 20, 2003. Persaud received eight stitches for a cut over his eyebrow at the hospital, but denied emergency room staffers' request to examine his rectum, the lawyer said. He said doctors told Persaud the exam could help determine whether the accident caused spinal damage.
When Persaud resisted, staffers held him down while he begged, "Please don't do that," Marrone said. Persaud hit a doctor while flailing around, so the staffers gave him a powerful sedative and performed the rectal exam, he said.
Hospital witnesses testified at trial that the exam was never completed, but Marrone said that when Persaud woke up he was handcuffed to a bed and had an oxygen tube down his throat and lubricant in his rectum.
"He resisted because he didn't know what they were doing," DeFilippo said. "Once he said he didn't want the rectal exam, everything should have stopped."
DeFilippo said he believes the rectal exam was done as retaliation because his panicked client hit the doctor.
A judge dismissed a misdemeanor assault charge that was filed against Persaud because he hit the doctor.
DeFilippo said his client is unemployed and has been unable to hold a job since the accident.

Billionaire Faces $50M Sexual Assault Lawsuit

West Palm Beach, Fl. A woman filed suit Wednesday accusing a New York billionaire of sexually assaulting her when she was underage.
The unidentified woman said she was 16 when she was brought to Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach mansion and paid $200 to give the money manager a massage. Instead, she claims he abused her.
The suit seeks more than $50 million in damages from the billionaire money manager.
Epstein's attorney, Guy Lewis, said the lawsuit is defamatory and the allegations are false.
Another teenage girl made similar claims against Epstein in a lawsuit filed last month. She is also at the center of a criminal case against Epstein in West Palm Beach, where he is charged with one felony count of solicitation of prostitution. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted. A hearing in that case is set for March.
He also faces a similar sex abuse lawsuit in New York.
Epstein was named one of New York's most eligible bachelors in 2003 by the New York Post. He has lavish homes in Manhattan, New Mexico, Florida and the Virgin Islands.

MAN WITH POPCORN LUNG FILES LAWSUIT: Man ate 2 bags of popcorn a day

A Denver man, Wayne Watson, has filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming injury from microwave popcorn. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court names The Kroger Co. and two of its divisions: grocery stores King Soopers’ parent company, Dillon Companies Inc., and food distributor Inter-American Products Inc.Wayne Watson has filed a lawsuit against The Kroger Company and two of its divisions, claiming the butter flavoring on their microwave popcorn made him sick.

Watson says he developed "popcorn lung" after eating two bags of popcorn a day his case of “popcorn lung” and his two-bags-a-day diet gained national attention last year when doctors at National Jewish Hospital diagnosed him with the rare lung condition that has been linked to the flavor chemical diacetyl.

Popcorn lung, officially called bronchiolitis obliterans, generally has been associated with people who worked in microwave popcorn plants mixing large vats of flavors. Hundreds of workers have said they have severe lung disease or other respiratory illnesses from inhaling diacetyl vapors. The chemical has been the subject of hundreds of lawsuits against the companies that that produce or use the butter flavoring.

Diacetyl is a naturally occurring chemical compound that gives butter its flavor. It is also found in cheese and some wines, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and health. It has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a flavor ingredient