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NEW HAMPTON — A high school teacher guilty of making advances on a student via the Internet received a five-year suspended sentence today and must register as a sex offender. Lee Ayers, 50, initially was charged in October with sexual exploitation by a school employee, a Class D felony. The former social studies teacher pleaded guilty in January. He will be on probation for two to five years. A judge today in Chickasaw County District Court also sentenced Ayers, a former basketball and volleyball coach, to pay a $1,000 fine, seek mental health counseling and to receive a substance abuse...

Former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry was sentenced to three years probation Thursday in connection with charges that he failed to file federal or local tax returns for 2000. Barry pleaded guilty last October under an agreement reached with federal prosecutors which required him to acknowledge his failure to file returns for the years 1999 through 2004. Barry, 70, completed his fourth term as mayor in early 1999. While Barry has said he's unsure how much money he earned during the time period in question, he did not challenge claims by federal prosecutors that his income topped $534,000 during...

LOS ANGELES - A judge on Thursday sentenced Tom Sizemore to three years probation after the actor tearfully admitted he used methamphetamine last month. Sizemore, 44, could have faced 16 months in prison after violating his probation stemming from a conviction for methamphetamine possession. The judge's sentence included a 90-day stay at a drug treatment program. Sizemore also must submit to weekly drug tests the entire probationary term, said court spokesman Allan Parachini. The judge's decision came after a series of hearings to determine if Sizemore's probation should be revoked a second time. Sizemore's probation was revoked in July after...

MALIBU, Calif. - Nick Nolte has successfully completed probation ordered after his 2002 no contest plea to a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of drugs, a judge ruled Wednesday. Nolte was present at the hearing before Judge Lawrence Mira. "I'm about to do `Pride and Glory,' a film in New York with Colin Farrell, and he'll just be coming out of rehab so he'll have a lot of support (from me)," the 64-year-old actor told syndicated TV show "The Insider" outside court. Farrell was being treated for exhaustion and dependency on medication prescribed after a back injury, his...

GOLDEN - A former hospice nurse who molested a terminally ill 10-year-old girl in his care several years ago apologized to the family of the child before he was sentenced Thursday.

In a stunning turn of events, the French Government today promised to put all the rioters on Double Secret Probation if they don't cease and desist their actions immediately. Jacque Chirac, contacted at his underground bunker somewhere on the outskirts of Paris said he's taking this drastic action because of the refusal of the rioters to stop burning stuff even though the government has told them they'll jump up and down and hold their breath if they don't. This reporter (ahem) contacted members of Delta House regarding this escalation of threats by the French and responded that this is no...

E.D. Hill reported that Sandy Berger had been stopped for Reckless Driving in Virginia. This violation is more than simple speeding. He was clocked 88 in a 55mph zone. He will stand before the judge who sentenced him for his "pants-gate" plundering and the charge is such that he could do jail time for violating his probation.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - (KRT) - Satellite tracking technology, a staple of weather forecasting and military operations for decades, is the latest tool California can use to ease its overburdened parole and probation system under legislation signed Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill, written by Democratic state Sen. Jackie Speier, clears the way for the state and its counties to continuously monitor the location of people on probation or parole by using global positioning system (GPS) devices. Although expensive - the cost runs close to $9 a day for each person tracked - widespread use of the GPS system could...

Judge Orders 17-Year-Old Girl Not To Have Sex POSTED: 10:16 am EDT September 30, 2005 SHERMAN, Texas -- No sex. That's part of a sentence imposed on a 17-old-girl by Texas state district judge Lauri Blake. She's ordered the young drug offender not have sex as long as she is living with her parents and attending school, as a condition of her probation. It is one of several unorthodox rulings Judge Lauri Blake has imposed since she was elected 10 months ago in the district court that covers Fannin and Grayson counties. She has also prohibited tattoos, body piercings, earrings...

'DOCS IN SOCKS' BERGER RAPPED By DEBORAH ORIN September 7, 2005 WASHINGTON — The feds yesterday recommended that former Clinton National Security Adviser Sandy Berger get at least a year's probation and do community service — but no jail time — for stealing top-secret memos and lying about it. Berger pleaded guilty last April to taking the documents — and reportedly hiding them in his pants and socks — from the National Archives while vetting them to refresh his memory before testifying before the 9/11 commission. He's to be sentenced tomorrow. The memos were versions of a report that Berger...

I spent two days recently in the Circuit Court for Macon County, North Carolina, waiting to be a witness. The Bailiff called people to order, “This is a Court. Tuck in your shirt.” It’s an indication of folks hereabouts that half the males stood up and tucked in their shirts. At the end of this I have a suggestion for y’all. Here’s what I saw in this Court. First, of a total of more than 200 people, only two non-lawyers were wearing suits and ties. Maybe elsewhere, folks put on their best duds to go to court, but not in...

NEW WINDSOR, NY-August 16, 2005 - Joseph Siragusa 20 traffic tickets in the time it takes some people just to find their car keys. Police in the Town of Highlands, New York, say Siragusa broke just about every rule of the road. He was finally stopped by military police after a chase that topped more than 90 miles an hour. Siragusa was also cited for passing on the right, failure to stay in lane, drunk driving and possession of marijuana. Siragusa might have been celebrating. According to the Middletown Herald Record, Siragusa's three-year probation for grand larceny had just ended.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - US rock diva Courtney Love, who narrowly escaped jail time earlier this year, was in hot water again when a judge ordered her to answer allegations she violated probation by using drugs. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rand Rubin issued a bench warrant for Love's arrest, but agreed to hold it pending a hearing on August 19, which he ordered the 41-year-old widow of grunge rocker Kurt Cobain to attend. "I'm certainly not happy with what's going on," Rubin said during a brief hearing, noting that he wanted a report from Love's drug counsellor. The former...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A retired FBI agent who pleaded guilty to lying about his affair with a suspected Chinese double agent was sentenced Monday to probation and fined $10,000 after apologizing for his behavior. "I have nobody but myself to blame for being here today," James J. Smith said. "I stand before you ashamed and humiliated by my actions, and all I can do is apologize." Standing before Judge Florence-Marie Cooper, Smith added, "I apologize to your honor, to the court and to the citizens of the United States." Smith, 61, at one time faced up to five years...

LOS ANGELES - A prosecutor told a judge Wednesday that actor Tom Sizemore violated his probation by trying to falsify a urine test for drugs. Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney said Sizemore, 43, also failed to report to his probation officer, did not advise authorities of his new address and missed drug rehab counseling sessions. Outside court, Sizemore denied the allegations. "I have been clean and sober and they are pandering to the city attorney," said the actor, who has appeared in such films as "Black Hawk Down" and "Saving Private Ryan." If a judge determines he violated probation, Sizemore...

Elkhart, IN - An Elkhart boy who climbed into a crane machine last week has garnered national attention including an appearance on the Today Show but the media spotlight almost landed his mother in jail. According to our reporting partners at The Truth, the boy's mother, 22-year-old Danielle Manges, violated her probation Monday when she went to New York and appeared on the Today Show with her son. Manges pleaded guilty last year to a felony charge of auto theft and was sentenced last October to 18 months of probation. Her Today Show appearance was her third violation in...

Monday, May 23, 2005 Minister had hope for ex-con in Maine Associated Press ©Copyright 2004 Associated Press. E-mail this story to a friend MONTPELIER, Vt. — The pastor who drove Kent Hanson to Maine after he was released from prison had high hopes for the ex-convict. The Rev. Pete Fiske of The Church at Prison holds services at the St. Albans prison and helps offenders after they leave prison. On the morning of May 12, the 63-year-old Hanson had just served the last minutes of a 20-year sentence for the 1985 murder of Helena Warner. Fiske was taking the man...

BEND, Ore. (AP) — A mother was sentenced to five years probation because her baby ingested methamphetamine from breast milk. Kristy Meialoha Davis, 30, of Redmond is one of three women who have been charged in Deschutes County with this type of offense in recent months. Two have been sentenced to probation and a third is awaiting trial. Prosecutor Victoria Roe said at Wednesday’s sentencing that the baby’s father — who faces drug charges of his own — reported Davis to authorities in November. The baby tested positive for cocaine and methamphetamine. Roe told Judge A. Michael Adler that the...

Nude Man Covered in Cheese Gets Probation 39 minutes ago Strange News - AP MARYVILLE, Tenn. - A man caught by police last summer on his 23rd birthday running naked and covered in nacho cheese pleaded guilty Monday to burglary and four other charges. Michael David Monn of Maryville appeared before Blount County Circuit Court Judge D. Kelly Thomas and pleaded guilty to burglary, theft, vandalism, indecent exposure and public intoxication. In a plea bargain with prosecutors, Monn was sentenced to three years in prison but was given supervised probation. He also was given a judicial deferral, which means if...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 - An estimated 1.5 million former convicts are unable to vote in 14 states around the country because of state policies that make it cumbersome, confusing and difficult for them to return to voter rolls after completing their sentences, according to a new study. Fewer than 3 percent of felons in those states have managed to register to vote after finishing their sentences, according to the study released Wednesday by the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit research group that favors more liberal sentencing policies for criminals. In Mississippi, for instance, just 107 of more than 82,000 felons have...