Court Case

The head of the Philippine commission investigating alleged corruption in the regime of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos was robbed of his briefcase, which contained copies of papers related to the inquiry, police reported Friday. Jovito R. Salonga, his wife, Lydia, and their daughter, Victoria, were in a Korean restaurant in midtown Thursday night when a man pointed out five $1 bills under a table, Sgt. Raymond O'Donnell said.

A young woman whose claim to ownership of the sperm of her dead husband made legal history last year has failed in her attempts to become pregnant from the sperm, her doctor said today. Corinne Parpalaix, 22, was artificially inseminated on Nov. 28 after a court granted her permission last August to reclaim a deposit of sperm left by her husband, Alain, with a sperm bank before he underwent cancer surgery.

A felony hearing for Lakers forward Jordan Hill has been rescheduled until June 8, according to a spokeswoman for the Harris County district attorney's office. An attorney for Hill appeared in a Houston courthouse Tuesday and asked for the case to be continued next month. Hill was charged with a third-degree felony Monday for choking his girlfriend on Feb. 29, according to court documents. Hill, 24, was with the Houston Rockets at the time of the alleged incident. He has recently become a reliable rotation player for the Lakers, averaging eight points and 10 rebounds in the first two games of a first-round series against the Denver Nuggets.

Citing press freedom, a court has ruled that the City of Alameda's zoning law restricting newsstand sale of the Spectator and other sexually explicit publications is unconstitutional. "The ordinance clearly is unconstitutional on its face with an abridgement of freedom of the press," said Alameda County Superior Court Judge Joseph Karesh on Friday. "If you do this to the Spectator, you can do it to other publications someone might not approve of."

UC San Diego Chancellor Richard Atkinson agreed Monday to pay up to $275,000 to a former Harvard University professor who had accused him of impregnating her and tricking her into having an abortion on a promise to father her child at a later date. The court-approved settlement between Atkinson and Lee Perry came three days into a jury trial on a charge by Perry that Atkinson had caused her emotional distress by threatening to destroy her academic reputation and encouraging her to kill herself.

A former Westlake pediatrician was sentenced to six months in jail Thursday for molesting three east Ventura County women in his medical office. Stuart M. Berlin, 36, also was fined $2,000 and ordered to continue undergoing psychiatric treatment. A Ventura County Municipal Court jury convicted Berlin of the three misdemeanor sexual battery charges Oct. 30. The jury deadlocked on three other counts involving a Calabasas woman.

Ai Weiwei lost his appeal in his high-profile tax case on Friday, prompting the artist to speak out yet again against the Chinese government. A court in Beijing upheld an approximately $2.4-million fine for tax evasion against the artist. The tax fine had been imposed against Ai's company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development. Supporters of the artist believe that the fine is an attempt by Chinese officials to penalize Ai for his online political activism and fight for free speech. Ai told reporters Friday that the Chinese legal system "still has no respect for the truth, still will never give taxpayers and citizens an ability to justify themselves.

In an unusual display of unanimity, the Federal Communications Commission is expected today to seek a 45-day delay in a court case over telephone competition rules to give Baby Bells and their rivals more time to negotiate wholesale pricing agreements, two industry sources in Washington said. The five commissioners have been bitterly divided over the rules but are expected to ask the Justice Department to request more time from the District of Columbia U.S.

Police in Delaware picked up a clue and some help from the FBI on Tuesday, but appeared no closer to solving the bizarre death of a former senior Pentagon official. A witness came forward, saying John Parsons Wheeler III had been spotted alive in downtown Wilmington, Del., on Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours before his body was found in a Newark, Del., landfill. The case has drawn national attention because Wheeler, 66, lived such a distinguished public life. A Vietnam veteran who became a driving force behind the controversial memorial on the National Mall, Wheeler worked on nuclear, chemical and cyber issues at the Pentagon.

Under pressure from Superior Court judges to end a 4-month-old trial, attorneys representing former J. David & Co. investors agreed Tuesday on the amount of money it would take to settle the case against a law firm and several of its partners who once represented the failed La Jolla investment firm. Plaintiff lawyers as well as attorneys representing defendants Wiles, Circuit & Tremblay and former partner Michael A. Clark huddled separately with Superior Court Presiding Judge Donald W.