Verdicts

Jurors deliberating in the rape trial of fashion designer Anand Jon told the court Wednesday they had reached verdicts on some of the 23 charges he faces, authorities said. Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley told the panel to keep deliberating but said he would read their verdicts this afternoon, said district attorney's spokeswoman Jane Robison. The announcement follows Wesley's decision earlier this week to deny prosecutors' request to replace a juror who fellow panelists accused of failing to properly deliberate and discuss evidence in the case.

The judge in  Oracle Corp.'s copyright-infringement lawsuit against  Google Inc.  may accept a partial verdict. U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said Friday that he had a "strong inclination" to accept a partial verdict in the case, an outcome that Google opposes. The jury has been weighing whether Google infringed parts of Oracle's Java programming language to develop the Android operating system for smartphones, now running on 300 million devices. The panel heard two weeks of testimony from Oracle and Google executives, including their chief executive officers.

Bringing one of history's most riveting courtroom dramas to a stunning climax, O.J. Simpson was acquitted of two counts of murder Tuesday, verdicts that set the football Hall of Famer free 474 days after he was arrested and charged with a brutal double homicide. At 11:16 a.m., Simpson returned home to his Brentwood estate, embracing his longtime friend Al Cowlings in the same driveway where the two were arrested on June 17, 1994. As night fell, crowds of well-wishers and detractors gathered beyond police barricades while the Simpson entourage partied inside the famous home.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The litany of abuses was chilling: mass murder, rape, sexual slavery. Forcing children to fight. Chopping off victims' limbs. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor's conviction Thursday by an international tribunal in the Netherlands on charges of abetting such war crimes in the West African country of Sierra Leone sent a powerful message to other warlords that they will eventually face justice, human rights activists and prosecutors say. But it also highlights what can be a wrenching tension between pursuing justice or peace first in some of the world's most violent, chaotic corners.

A man tracked down after a video was found of him sexually assaulting a 2-year-old girl was convicted of that attack and another on a 6-year-old. Chester Arthur Stiles, 38, displayed no emotion as guilty verdicts were read against him for 22 felonies, including sexual assault, in a Las Vegas courtroom. He faces multiple life terms at sentencing, set for May 8. Nineteen of the charges stemmed from acts Stiles videotaped of himself with the toddler in 2003.

A former student at exclusive Chaminade High School who was kicked out for alleged drug use won a $20,000 judgment Friday against the school for wrongful expulsion. Cara-Mia Kobzeff, 20, denied any involvement with drugs and accused the school of not following its own procedures. She alleged the school never called her mother, as required by Chaminade policy, and ignored a drug test she passed the day after being accused of using narcotics.

A Santa Ana gang leader was found guilty of federal drug trafficking charges Thursday, capping a two-year investigation that authorities said broke the back of one of Southern California's largest drug distribution networks. Jose Castellon faces life in prison when sentenced March 19. He was convicted of heroin and cocaine trafficking, and manufacturing methamphetamines. The Castellon-led ring, authorities said, was responsible for making $1 million worth of methamphetamines a month.

A San Fernando Valley man has become the first person convicted under a federal law making it a crime to provide material support to State Department-designated terrorist groups. Bahram Tabatabai, 43, who operated out of offices in Encino, was accused of providing phony immigration documents to members of the Mujahedeen Khalq, or MEK, a group engaged in a long-running campaign against Iran's rulers.

Former piano distributor Vernon Schafer Jr. was awarded $10 million in punitive damages Friday by a jury that found the U.S. affiliate of giant Daewoo Group defrauded him and destroyed his business. A day earlier, the jury awarded Schafer $3.62 million in compensatory damages in a case that originally was filed against Schafer by Daewoo International (America) Corp. "I thought I was going to die before the verdict came in," Schafer said in an interview from his Anaheim home.

Robert Hill did not join the Los Angeles Police Department to become a millionaire. And yet, that's what happened in September when city officials cut the veteran cop and his lawyer a check for nearly $4 million. The money was compensation for the snide comments and other abuse Hill suffered at the hands of other LAPD officers after he reported that a supervisor used racial slurs and embezzled department funds. In the last decade, at least 16 other officers have won million-dollar-plus jury verdicts or settlements from the city in lawsuits in which they leveled accusations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination, retaliation and other workplace injustices.

The NBA deliberated for a long time, interviewed Metta World Peace and the player he elbowed, and announced a seven-game suspension without pay for the Lakers forward 51 hours after he sent James Harden crumpling to the court. World Peace will miss the regular-season finale Thursday at Sacramento and the Lakers' next six games, the league said Tuesday. He will also forfeit $347,849 in salary. It was the 10th time World Peace was suspended since 2003, a stunning number for any player in any sport.

The Los Angeles riots were sparked by the acquittal 20 years ago of four police officers in the beating of Rodney King, but civil rights attorney Connie Rice says the kindling for the fire was laid years before, by decades of hostile policing in black neighborhoods. "The reason we had this riot was because we had the total emasculation and humiliation of an entire community," she said. "It was kindling built on kindling built on kindling. " Rice reflected on the riots Sunday at the L.A. Times Festival of Books along with former L.A. County Dist.

The trial of a former Oakland Raiders defensive end accused of murder ended in a mistrial Wednesday when jurors failed to reach agreement on a verdict, according to authorities. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Carlos A. Chung terminated the trial after jurors were unable to reach a verdict on whether Anthony Wayne Smith was involved in the killing of 31-year-old mechanic Maurilio Ponce on Oct. 7, 2008. The jury, which deliberated for nine days, split 8 to 4 for a guilty verdict, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County district attorney's office.

A jury in New Jersey on Friday convicted Dharun Ravi, a former Rutgers student, of hate crimes, invasion of privacy and other charges related to his spying on his gay college roommate, Tyler Clementi, who later committed suicide. Ravi, 20, sat silently and with no visible expression on his face as the verdict was read. He faced a total of 15 counts in the case, which made national news in September 2010 after Clementi, who was 18, hurled himself from the George Washington Bridge in the New York City area after learning that Ravi had set up a secret webcam and captured him in an intimate encounter with a date in their dorm room.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague on Wednesday found former Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga guilty of using children as soldiers, the first verdict in the panel's 10-year history. He could face life imprisonment. After a three-year trial, the court convicted Lubanga of recruiting boys and girls younger than 15 as soldiers during a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002 and 2003. Although his militia was accused of massacres, rapes, torture and ethnic killings by human rights activists and witnesses, the court charged him only with the recruitment and use of children to fight.

Like a grandma dogged by bad luck at the bingo table, federal prosecutors in Alabama have failed for a second time to score any courtroom convictions in the state's high-profile political corruption and gambling case. On Wednesday, a jury found six defendants -- including Milton McGregor, owner of the VictoryLand casino; two former state senators and a sitting senator -- not guilty of charges stemming from accusations that they either offered or accepted bribes related to a 2010 gambling bill, according to the Birmingham News . A casino developer, two lobbyists and a state representative pleaded guilty to corruption-related charges after an extensive federal investigation and testified against the defendants in court.

The son of a prominent Fresno family was convicted Tuesday of murdering his parents and sister with the help of a college dorm mate in a plot to inherit the family's $8-million estate. After 11 days of deliberations, a Fresno County Superior Court jury found that 26-year-old Dana Ewell hired his college friend, Joel Radovcich, to kill his family so they could split the family's fortune. Both were found guilty in the murders of Dale Ewell, 59; his wife, Glee, 57, and their daughter, Tiffany, 24.

A janitor was found guilty Wednesday in the 1997 rape and murder of a popular high school senior, a crime that prompted California legislators to tighten employee screening and prevent hiring felons convicted of serious crimes. Alex Dale Thomas, a convicted felon and Los Angeles gang member, now faces a Sept. 18 hearing to decide if he will be sentenced to death for the daytime slaying of Michelle Montoya at a rural Sacramento County high school.

A former California Highway Patrol officer fell to the floor overcome by emotion in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Monday as a jury convicted her of murder in the shooting death of her husband. In a case filled with allegations of anger management and domestic violence, the verdict in the rare prosecution of a law enforcement officer on murder charges proved to be dramatic. As the guilty verdict was read, veteran CHP Officer Tomiekia Johnson shook, then slid under the table where she had been seated alongside her attorneys.

Six years after Marines killed 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians, an incident denounced as one of the worst atrocities committed there by U.S. troops, the last of eight prosecutions ended as the previous seven had — without a conviction at trial. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who led the assault on homes in the Euphrates Valley city of Haditha, told a judge Monday that he regretted telling his men to "shoot first, ask questions later," and pleaded guilty to negligent dereliction of duty.