Trials

Stanley Chais, the former Beverly Hills money manager under investigation for his role in the Bernard L. Madoff scandal, has more than enough money to hire a lawyer for himself, said a trustee in a Madoff liquidation case. Marc Hirschfield, a lawyer for the trustee, responded Thursday to Chais' claim that he can't pay for a lawyer and has life-threatening medical problems that could compromise his ability to withstand a trial.

Before beginning deliberations Thursday, jurors in the corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona listened one last time to undercover tapes that prosecutors say capture him plotting to cover up a trail of cash and gifts from Newport Beach millionaire Don Haidl. Assistant U.S. Atty.

A real-life soap opera in Spanish-language television -- a saga of family legacy, corporate ambition and allegations of treachery -- is expected to shift today to a federal courtroom in Los Angeles. The civil trial will pit two titans against each other and bring to the witness stand key executives who are accustomed to controlling the media behind the scenes rather than fighting over it in open court.

Attorneys for three men convicted in Orange County 4 1/2 years ago of sexually assaulting an apparently unconscious 16-year-old girl while videotaping the incident asked a state appeals court Wednesday to toss out the convictions. Two of the attorneys said evidence excluded from the trial might have given jurors a different view of whether the defendants, all of them 17 when the assault occurred in 2002, had reason to believe the girl would have consented to the sexual acts. It also could have given jurors a different picture of the victim and her credibility, attorneys Dennis Fischer and Brett Harding Duxbury said.

Former Compton Dominguez High basketball coach Russell Otis paid thousands of dollars in cash to cover his team's expenses to travel and play in tournaments, witnesses testified during a hearing Thursday. The testimony came during the third day of a preliminary hearing for the highly successful former coach, who is accused of stealing $15,000 intended for his team and of the attempted molestation of a player, now 17.

Attempts to place blame for the great financial crisis that sent the economy into a nose dive last year have made household names of top executives such as Angelo R. Mozilo, Richard Fuld and Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. But the only major criminal case to emerge thus far from the global cataclysm involves two lesser-known hedge fund managers who will be thrust into the spotlight today when their trial begins with jury selection in a Brooklyn courtroom. Federal prosecutors allege that former Bear Stearns Cos. fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin -- in a frantic, eventually unsuccessful scramble in mid-2007 to keep their mortgage bond funds from collapsing -- misled investors about the deepening woes in the portfolios.

Before soldiers leave on missions in Iraq or Afghanistan, they often are ordered to do everything in their power to bring their buddies back. "Leave no man behind" is the motto. But does that military ethos apply to soldiers heading out for a rowdy weekend in the United States? That question is being raised at an unusual court-martial on this massive Army base, where a young paratrooper who struggled to bring a combative, drunk soldier back to the barracks has been accused of causing his death.

To her sister, Angie Zapata was a teenage girl in every sense but the biological one. She spent hours spraying her long hair into compliance with Aqua Net, painting her eyelashes with L'Oreal and her skin with Cover Girl. She combed discount stores for clothes that would emphasize her curves. The effect was stunning. When the 18-year-old visited the store where her older sister, Monica, worked, men would make excuses to hover.

A federal judge has postponed the criminal trial of Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III until 2010, a delay the billionaire requested to help him prepare his defense against charges that he secretly manipulated stock options to reward employees. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney scheduled Nicholas' trial for Feb. 9, 2010, in Santa Ana, according to a ruling made public this week.

The U.S. District Court judge who will preside over Barry Bonds' perjury trial next month said Thursday her "preliminary thoughts" were to exclude evidence that Bonds tested positive for steroids three times in the months before his record-breaking 73-homer season of 2001.