Danville man charged with milking trust funds
SAN JOSE (AP) — The ex-boyfriend of a woman who manages trust accounts for private investors has been indicted on charges that he stole $17 million from clients of his former partner.
A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted Danville resident Leo Joshua Kennedy on Wednesday on 10 counts of wire fraud.
The indictment alleges that Kennedy, 60, took advantage of his position as the accountant for Campbell-based Backhouse Fiduciary Services to transfer money from trust funds overseen by Christine Blackhouse, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco said.
Authorities maintain he used the money "to pay for his personal investments and living expenses." The Mercury News said Kennedy bought a $1.2 million home on a golf course in Washington state in 2010, the same year court records show he made unapproved wire transfers from a San Jose bank.
Judge: Psychiatrist fooled mental health experts
REDWOOD CITY (AP) — A once-prominent Northern California child psychiatrist is set to be retried on charges that he molested patients after a judge sided with prosecutors who argued that he fooled mental health experts into believing he had dementia to avoid prosecution.
San Mateo County Superior Court Judge John Grandsaert set a March 2013 trial date for William Ayres, 80, on Wednesday.
Ayres was tried in 2009 on charges that he molested several young boys under his care, but a jury couldn't reach a verdict. He was accused of using physical exams that included the genitals as a cover for the abuse.
Prosecutors attempted to retry him, but Ayres was ruled incompetent and sent to Napa State Hospital.
Mendocino County man sane in murder
REDWOOD VALLEY (AP) — A Mendocino County man is facing 50 years to life in prison after a jury ruled that he was sane when he shot and killed his neighbor.
The jury reached its verdict in the sanity phase of 34-year-old Billy Norbury's trial after deliberating for just over an hour on Wednesday. The same jury convicted Norbury last week of first-degree murder in the Jan. 24 shooting of 30-year-old Jamal Andrews in Redwood Valley.
Prosecutors say Norbury was motivated by jealousy although the affair he accused his estranged wife of having with Andrews was a figment of his imagination.
A psychologist testifying for the defense said he diagnosed Norbury with paranoid schizophrenia.
Arrest for murder of woman in trash can
PLEASANTON . (AP) — A man is in custody on suspicion of murder in the death of a woman whose body was found in a Pleasanton trash can.
Police arrested Javier Prado Sandoval at his Stockton home on Wednesday.
The victim, 25-year-old Ana Flores-Pineda, was discovered badly decomposed in May. She was not identified, however, for months. The cause of death has not been determined.
Stockton police say Flores-Pineda and Sandoval were once in a relationship although investigators don't know if they were still dating when she died.
