Tagged: courts

Federal prosecutors say a 75-year-old woman has admitted collecting her mother's Social Security payments for 13½ years after her mother died.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten says Shirley A. Bunda of Gretna got more than $173,000 to which she wasn't entitled, and pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of theft of government funds.

A news release says Bunda and her mother shared a joint checking account, and her mother's Social Security payments came by direct deposit.

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved the sale of Colonial Golf & Country Club's 88-acre property to businessman John Georges and real estate developer Wayne Ducote.

Judge Elizabeth Magner congratulated the parties assembled Wednesday after confirming the Harahan-based club's Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

The Times-Picayune reports the 87-year-old club closed in January and declared bankruptcy in February, a day before the property was to be sold at a state court-ordered auction.

Two former New Orleans police officers have asked a federal appeals court to throw out their convictions on charges stemming from the fatal shooting of a man whose burned body turned up in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also on Wednesday heard the Justice Department's appeal of a judge's decision to order a new trial for a third officer, Travis McCabe.

McCabe was convicted of writing a false report on Henry Glover's 2005 shooting.

The panel didn't indicate when it would rule.

Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Catherine "Kitty" Kimball says the state's code of judicial conduct prohibits her from meeting with a group of community leaders to discuss their concerns about the court's impending debate over naming Kimball's successor.

Several supporters of Justice Bernette Johnson, who sued last week to block her colleagues from debating and voting on whether she is entitled to become the next chief justice, had asked to meet this week with Kimball.