Authorities said Friday, that a scond man, identified as Charles Gamble, 24, was arrested and charged with assisting in the murder and cover-up of three people, discovered in a drainage pipe near a downtown apartment complex.

According to Columbia Police Chief Dean Crisp, all three victims had been attacked at a nearby apartment and then moved to the drainage pipe. A woman had been stabbed to death and two men fatally shot. Charles Gamble, was the woman's ex-boyfriend and father of her young child.

Jeremal Doreal Robinson, 21, of Columbia was also arrested and has been charged as an accessory and with obstructing justice.

Crisp said, "We're confident that we have the man that committed the murders. We're confident also that we have the individual who assisted him after the act in moving the bodies."

The victims, now identified as Charlene Octavia Yarbrough, 19, Marcus Antonio Wilson, 26, and Marquis Mitchell, 25. Investigators were reviewing several potential motives including a possible domestic dispute, police said.

A resident of the apartment complex, Rodrena Patrick, 20, said Gamble had been living there until he and Yarbrough got into a fight about a month ago. The couple's child had been taken into protective custody.

Gamble, who was on probation for a stalking conviction, has a criminal record dating back to a 2000 grand larceny charge, Crisp said.

WASHINGTON – (USDOJ) A former Ft. Campbell soldier has been charged with various crimes for conduct including premeditated murder based on the alleged rape of an Iraqi girl and the deaths of the girl and members of her family, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney David L. Huber of the Western District of Kentucky announced today.

Steven D. Green, 21, was charged in the indictment returned today by a federal grand jury in Louisville, Ky., with conduct that would constitute conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit aggravated sexual abuse, premeditated murder, murder in perpetration of aggravated sexual abuse, aggravated sexual abuse on a person less than 16 years of age, use of firearms during the commission of violent crimes and obstruction of justice. The potential statutory penalties for conviction of these offenses ranges from a term of years to life in prison to death.

The indictment charges Green with crimes arising from an incident that occurred on March 12, 2006, in and around Mahmoudiyah, Iraq. The indictment alleges that during the incident Green and others committed aggravated sexual abuse against a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, whose body was burned after the attack. The indictment also alleges that Green and others killed the girl, her father, mother, and six-year-old sister during the same incident.

Green was discharged from the U.S. Army in May 2006 and is being prosecuted in U.S. District Court under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, a statute that gives U.S. courts jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed outside the United States by persons who served with the Armed Forces but are no longer subject to military prosecution. Other soldiers who have not been discharged by the Army are currently charged by the Army with taking part in the incident out of which the charges against Green arise.

Green, formerly stationed at Ft. Campbell, Ky., and deployed to Iraq while serving with the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army, was arrested by the FBI on June 30, 2006, on federal charges of murder and rape pursuant to the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. Green is scheduled to be arraigned on the indicted charges on Nov. 8, 2006, at 10 a.m. in Louisville.

An indictment is merely an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Army. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Kentucky and the Domestic Security Section of the Criminal Division.

On Thursday, the former CEO of Computer Associates International Inc., Sanjay Kumar, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and was fined $8 million for his participation in a massive accounting fraud scandal.

Kumar, 44, after pleading guilty in April to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges, had faced up to 20 years behind bars. The company has been renamed CA Inc.

Kumar could have faced life in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, but the judge called that punishment unreasonable. Noting that Kumar was not a violent individual, U.S. District Judge Leo Glasser said Kumar "did violence to the legitimate expectations of shareholders."

Prosecutor Eric Komitee said Kumar was "the most brazen in the modern era of corporate crime" and he deserved severe punishment as the architect of an elaborate coverup.

Kumar, who is also a co-owner of the New York Islanders hockey team, told the judge at his sentencing," I know that I was wrong and there was no excuse for my conduct." The defense had urged the judge to give Kumar a short prison term followed by lengthy community service.

Said attorney John Cooney, "I hope the court will not lose sight of the good he did for that company," Decribed as one of the "great minds" of the software industry by his attorneys, Kumar is credited for turning Computer Associates into a thriving enterprise.

According to a 2004 indictment, Kumar flew on a corporate jet to Paris in July 1999 to finalize a $19 million deal and signed a backdated contract. The indictment also charged that Kumar along with other executives, instructed salespeople to complete deals after the quarter closing, an industry practice known as the "35-day month" - and "cleaned up" contracts by removing time stamps from faxes.

In 2002, after the FBI began investigating the company, Kumar orchestrated a cover-up that involved lying under oath and trying to buy the silence of a potential witness, authorities said.

CA Inc. is now the world's fifth-largest software provider with 15,000 employees worldwide.

Kumar was ordered to surrender on Feb. 27.

A lawsuit was filed in federal court by the Southern Poverty law Center on Wednesday against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). The lawsuit alleges that over the Labor Day weekend, ICE harassed five US citizens of Mexican descent during an illegal immigration shakedown in Georgia. The civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Center claims ICE, illegally detained, harassed and searched the Mexican-Americans' persons based only on their appearance in a raid on a chicken processing plant, violating the US citizens' Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. An ICE spokesman declined to comment on specific claims in the suit, but said of the accusations, they were "patently false."

The goal of the Southern Poverty Law Center is to certify the lawsuit as a class action. The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, names ICE, its officials and the 30 agents who conducted the raid as defendants. The illegal immigrant population in Georgia has more doubled since 2000.

Sheryl Jones
Breakng Legal News.com
Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - (USDOJ) The Justice Department today settled a lawsuit against a group of developers, builders, architects and engineers who designed and constructed two apartment complexes in Olathe, Kan. The complaint, filed on April 15, 2002, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, alleged that the defendants violated federal civil rights laws by designing and constructing the Ridgeview and Indian Meadows apartment complexes without required features for persons with disabilities. The lawsuit arose as a result of a referral to the Department of Justice by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"Persons with disabilities should not be precluded from choosing where to live because of an unlawful lack of accessibility," said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "The Civil Rights Division is committed to enforcing the federal fair housing laws."

The settlement, which must be approved by the court, requires the owners of the complexes to retrofit parking areas, paths and walkways, public and common-use areas, as well as the interiors of ground-floor units, to enhance the accessibility of the complexes to disabled residents and their guests for an estimated cost of about $1.2 million. In addition, the defendants are required to establish funds to pay for enhanced accessibility features upon request, for a total of $200,000, provide $200,000 in damages for unidentified victims, and pay $50,000 in civil penalties. The settlement also requires the defendants to obtain training on the requirements of the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin and disability. Since Jan. 1, 2001, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has filed 211 cases to enforce the Fair Housing Act, including 97 based on disability discrimination. More information about the Civil Rights Division and the laws it enforces can be found on the Justice Department Web site, http://www.usdoj.gov/crt.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Border Patrol agents working in New Mexico made significant narcotics seizures this week by seizing more than 400 pounds of marijuana and 43 pounds of cocaine through a combination of traffic checkpoint operations and routine patrol efforts. The total value of the contraband was valued at over $1.7 million.

The largest seizure of marijuana was made Wednesday by Border Patrol agents at the I-25 traffic checkpoint. After the occupants of a late model GMC truck granted agents consent to search the truck they discovered a total of 291 pounds of marijuana in numerous hidden compartments. Members of the "Raven Unit" of the NMNG were called up to dismantle the after-market compartments located in the gas tank, rear cab wall, and metal tire rims. The total value of the marijuana is $233,000.

In a separate incident, another seizure was made by Border Patrol agents who were on patrol near Hatch, N.M. Agents spotted a minivan attempting to circumvent the Border Patrol traffic checkpoint on I-25. When agents caught up to and performed a vehicle stop, they were granted permission to search the vehicle. Utilizing the assistance of a CBP canine, they discovered 19 bundles of cocaine wrapped in cellophane and brown packaging tape that was hidden in another after-market compartment behind the dashboard of the van. The cocaine weighed 43.16 pounds, and is valued at more than $1.3 million.

The narcotics, vehicles and four occupants were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration in Las Cruces. The New Mexico National Guards' Raven Unit has provided support for the U.S. Border Patrol since 1995. This unit has specialized tools, training, and equipment to safely and efficiently dismantle compartments where narcotics are hidden.