Around the Nation

CALIFORNIA

Trial begins in Iraqi murder case

CAMP PENDLETON — A court-martial for the suspected ringleader in the kidnapping and execution of an Iraqi civilian began yesterday with lawyers in the case screening potential jurors.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III, 23, the leader of the eight-man squad involved in the death, is charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy, assault and other crimes. Sgt. Hutchins, of Plymouth, Mass., faces a mandatory life sentence if convicted of murder.

Prosecutors say Sgt. Hutchins’ squad hatched a plot to kidnap and kill a suspected insurgent. But when they were unable to find him, the troops instead kidnapped a neighbor, 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad, marched him 1,000 yards from his house and shot him to death in a roadside hole, prosecutors said.

FLORIDA

Father finds body in son’s closet

PALM BEACH GARDENS — A 26-year-old man was jailed yesterday on suspicion of murder and sexual battery after his father found a teenage girl’s body in his closet, authorities said.

Jason Shenfeld’s parents noticed their son seemed nervous and had been locking his bedroom door. His father went into the room Friday night and discovered the body, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

The girl was identified as Amanda Buckley, 18. Investigators found duct tape in her hair, bruises on her body and evidence of rape, and an autopsy revealed the girl was strangled, beaten and sexually abused, according to the report.

The report said Mr. Shenfeld told his father the teen had overdosed on drugs and he panicked.

The younger Shenfeld had been released from jail in February after being arrested and accused of sexually assaulting two other women. Charges in that case were eventually dropped because of “conflicts in evidence,” according to court records.

NEVADA

Storms threaten lightning, flash floods

RENO — Fire managers worried yesterday that lightning could spark more wildfires in the West, where hundreds of square miles of land have been blackened, as thunderstorms also threatened flash flooding in burned-over areas.

A flash-flood watch was in effect for parts of western Nevada and the Sierra Nevada range, with forecasters warning of the potential for extensive runoff in areas stripped of vegetation by the wildfire that destroyed at least 254 homes south of Lake Tahoe and by a large blaze southwest of Reno.

Lightning started many of Nevada’s current swarm of wildfires, which have burned some 730 square miles. Mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for tiny Jarbidge, Nev., within a mile of a blaze that had blackened more than 880 square miles on the Idaho-Nevada line, fire information officer Bill Watt said. The fire was 20 percent contained yesterday. In northeastern Nevada, the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe declared a state of emergency for the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.

NEW YORK

Woman sues utility over explosion

MELVILLE — A woman whose sister died in the September 11, 2001, attacks filed a lawsuit over last week’s steam-pipe eruption in Manhattan, saying yesterday that the explosion brought back horrible memories.

Francine Dorf’s lawsuit accuses Consolidated Edison of negligence, saying the utility didn’t properly maintain the pipe that ruptured outside her office and sent a geyser of steam, mud and asbestos-tainted debris over the neighborhood near Grand Central Terminal. Mrs. Dorf, 52, a legal secretary, is seeking unspecified damages.

Mrs. Dorf’s attorney, Kenneth Mollins, said she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and “a legacy of fear” from the 2001 attacks. He said the lawsuit is intended to force Con Ed to improve maintenance of its infrastructure.

Her sister, Maria La Vache, was an employee of insurer Marsh & McLennan and was on the 99th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when it collapsed. Her body was never recovered.

NORTH CAROLINA

MySpace finds 29,000 sex offenders

RALEIGH — MySpace.com has found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on the popular social-networking Web site — more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago, North Carolina officials said yesterday.

North Carolina’s Roy Cooper is one of several attorneys general who recently demanded the News Corp.-owned Web site provide data on how many registered sex offenders were using the site, along with information about where they live.

After initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests. At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders.

OHIO

Car crash hospitalizes Watergate figure

COLUMBUS — Jeb Stuart Magruder, an aide to President Nixon who spent seven months in prison for his role in covering up the 1972 Watergate break-in, was hospitalized after a car crash, authorities said.

Mr. Magruder was listed in serious condition Monday night at Riverside Methodist Hospital. A hospital spokeswoman yesterday wouldn’t discuss his condition, citing a family request for privacy.

Police said they found Mr. Magruder, 72, inside his Audi sedan, which was against a highway wall on state Route 315 following the accident Monday morning. The Audi had hit a truck and a motorcycle, authorities said. The drivers of the other two vehicles weren’t seriously hurt, and no charges had been filed.

OKLAHOMA

University wins eminent-domain battle

STILLWATER — Oklahoma State University can acquire through eminent domain the final piece of property it needs for a $316 million athletic village, a judge ruled Monday.

The decision by Payne County Judge Donald Worthington was issued after nearly a year of legal battles over the tiny house near campus.

Property owners Kevin and Joel McCloskey plan to appeal to the state Supreme Court, a process that could take several years, their attorney said Monday. If the brothers win their appeal, they could get control of the property back, despite university construction on it.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Treasurer resigns following indictment

COLUMBIA — State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel resigned yesterday, more than a month after he was indicted on a federal cocaine charge.

“I’m deeply disappointed in myself,” Mr. Ravenel, 44, said outside a courthouse where he appeared for the first time to face a charge of possession with intent to distribute less than 500 grams of cocaine.

Prosecutors have said Mr. Ravenel shared the cocaine with his friends and did not sell the drug. He spent 30 days in a rehabilitation program in Arizona before returning to South Carolina this week to face charges. His attorneys entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

From wire dispatches and staff reports