Trials

When he stepped off a plane 16 months ago, David Jassy, a rapper and record producer from Stockholm, planned to make it big in American pop music. On Tuesday, he finally captured the attention of an important audience, but the stage -- a downtown L.A. courtroom -- was one he never wanted. Jassy, 35, took the stand at his murder trial and spoke directly to jurors who will decide whether he spends perhaps the rest of his life in a California prison or returns to Sweden, where he has a successful career, a child and a fashion model girlfriend.

The nation's largest business lobby wants to put the science of global warming on trial. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, trying to ward off potentially sweeping federal emissions regulations, is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to hold a rare public hearing on the scientific evidence for man-made climate change. Chamber officials say it would be "the Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" -- complete with witnesses, cross-examinations and a judge who would rule, essentially, on whether humans are warming the planet to dangerous effect.

Testimony in the historic federal same-sex marriage trial ended Wednesday, with ebullient attorneys for two gay couples expressing confidence and defenders of Proposition 8 conceding they may have to wait for victory from a higher court. Analysts who followed the trial anticipate that Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker is likely to rule for the challengers of Proposition 8. Walker, a Republican appointee with libertarian views, made it clear from the start that he wanted a full-blown examination of the social and political controversies surrounding gay marriage.

As date-rape suspect Andrew Luster watched calmly, Ventura County prosecutors on Thursday showed a graphic videotape of his explicit sex acts with a woman who appeared to be unconscious. Throughout the half-hour tape, Luster, now 39, moves the woman's body around like a doll, placing her in different positions for sex. The woman's eyes remained closed, her mouth open and her arm above her head for most of the tape.

Mexican media giant Grupo Televisa on Tuesday accused its longtime television partner, Univision Communications Inc., of heavy-handed tactics and financial shenanigans during the opening day of a high-stakes trial in Los Angeles. The outcome of the court case, expected to unfold over the next three weeks unless there is a surprise settlement, could reshape the landscape of Spanish-language television in the U.S.

In graphic testimony Thursday, a former security guard at Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch described watching the pop star kiss, caress and perform a sex act on a nude young boy after the pair had showered together. Ralph Chacon's abuse allegation was the most vivid to emerge in the pop star's child-molestation trial, which had focused largely on claims that Jackson groped and masturbated young boys in darkened rooms or under covers. Jackson attorney Thomas A. Mesereau Jr.

Scholars, gay and lesbian partners and opponents of same-sex marriage are expected to testify about the nature of marriage and homosexuality during an unprecedented federal trial today to determine whether gays and lesbians may marry. UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked video coverage of the Prop. 8 trial in San Francisco. Read more. Gay-rights supporters are upset by the court ruling. Read more on L.A. Now. The case, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, is expected to become a landmark that eventually will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Justice Department suffered a major setback in another high-profile terrorist prosecution Monday when its criminal case against five former officials of a now-defunct Islamic charity collapsed into a tangle of legal confusion. U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish declared a mistrial, but not before it became clear that the government's landmark terrorism finance case -- and one of its most-costly post-9/11 prosecutions -- was in serious trouble.

Taking the stand over his lawyers' protests, Al Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui declared Monday that he and Richard Reid, later arrested as the so-called shoe bomber, were slated to hijack a fifth airplane on Sept. 11, 2001, and fly it into the White House. But Moussaoui's bombastic testimony -- seriously doubted by intelligence officials -- was immediately contradicted by the words of the suspected Sept.

Regulators took on the mortgage industry's best-known figure Thursday, accusing former Countrywide Financial Corp. Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo of hiding his alarm about risky loans the company was making at the height of the housing boom while he was reaping nearly $140 million in profits on stock sales.

Reacting to rising criticism from New York officials and both Democrats and Republicans in Washington, the Justice Department on Friday began considering sites for the trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four other top Al Qaeda operatives away from the shadow of the toppled World Trade Center. The alternative locations include an Air National Guard base and a federal penitentiary near Manhattan, both considered safe and secure facilities. Two months ago, the Obama administration had pledged to try Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept.

In a trial that never became the referendum on abortion that some abortion foes wanted, Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old airport shuttle driver, was convicted Friday of murdering George Tiller, one the nation's few physicians who performed late-term abortions. When he was slain in the vestibule of his church last May 31, Tiller became the eighth doctor since 1993 to be killed by antiabortion extremists. In June, his family announced that his clinic would close permanently. The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for only 37 minutes before finding Roeder guilty of premeditated murder.

Before shooting him point-blank in the forehead at church last spring, Scott Roeder considered many ways of killing Wichita physician George Tiller. He thought about ramming his car into Tiller's car, shooting him sniper-style with a high-powered rifle at his clinic, or slicing off Tiller's hands with a sword. He opted against maiming Tiller, he said, because if Tiller survived, he would probably continue to instruct other doctors on how to perform abortions. The problem was, Tiller was hard to get to. He lived behind high walls, traveled in a custom armored car, often with a bodyguard, and wore a bulletproof vest.

French judges on Thursday acquitted former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on charges of conspiring in a campaign to slander French President Nicolas Sarkozy and prevent his victory in the 2007 presidential election. The ruling was expected to boost De Villepin's position as the conservative most capable of challenging Sarkozy's near monopoly of the moderate right that now dominates French politics. "It's been a nasty birthday for Sarkozy," said Gael Sliman, political commentator and deputy director of France's BVA polling institute.

Testimony in the historic federal same-sex marriage trial ended Wednesday, with ebullient attorneys for two gay couples expressing confidence and defenders of Proposition 8 conceding they may have to wait for victory from a higher court. Analysts who followed the trial anticipate that Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker is likely to rule for the challengers of Proposition 8. Walker, a Republican appointee with libertarian views, made it clear from the start that he wanted a full-blown examination of the social and political controversies surrounding gay marriage.

Scott Roeder, the abortion foe accused of the premeditated murder of Dr. George Tiller, is expected to explain to a jury today why he killed the late-term abortion specialist, who had survived years of protests, physical attacks and criminal prosecution before being shot in the head in church last May. "He's enthusiastic, he's eloquent, he's ready to make his case," said Roeder's friend David Leach, who met with Roeder on Tuesday at the county jail....

The head of a think tank on marriage and family testified at the Proposition 8 federal trial Tuesday that same-sex marriage would weaken marriage and possibly lead to fewer heterosexual marriages, more divorces and "more public consideration of polygamy." But under cross-examination, David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, acknowledged that he wrote in a book in 2007 that the U.S. would be "more American on the day we permit same-sex marriage than we were on the day before."

Prosecutors on Tuesday methodically reconstructed Scott Roeder's movements in the days leading up to the killing of Dr. George Tiller, including three visits to a gun shop to purchase a handgun, a visit to a second gun shop to purchase new ammunition when the gun didn't fire properly, and a morning of target practice the day before the shooting. Tiller, one of the few doctors in the U.S. who performed late-term abortions, was killed with a .22-caliber bullet, shot point-blank into his forehead as he worked as an usher in the foyer of his church on May 31. For years, his clinic and his church were the sites of antiabortion protests.

Kristen Spears started getting Botox injections at the age of 6 -- not to smooth furrows in her brow, but to calm spasms in her legs. The girl was born with severe cerebral palsy, and Botox, best known as a face-lift-in-a-syringe, can relax contorted muscles and sometimes help young patients walk without surgery. Instead, Kristen's mother alleges, an overdose of the drug killed her. Opening arguments in a negligence lawsuit by Dee Spears against Botox manufacturer Allergan Inc. are set for today in Orange County.

When he stepped off a plane 16 months ago, David Jassy, a rapper and record producer from Stockholm, planned to make it big in American pop music. On Tuesday, he finally captured the attention of an important audience, but the stage -- a downtown L.A. courtroom -- was one he never wanted. Jassy, 35, took the stand at his murder trial and spoke directly to jurors who will decide whether he spends perhaps the rest of his life in a California prison or returns to Sweden, where he has a successful career, a child and a fashion model girlfriend.