Florida Sentinel Bulletin

ATLANTA– Bishop Eddie Long, the Atlanta-based megachurch leader, has reached an out-of-court settlement with four young men who accused him of sexual coercion.

B. J. Bernstein, the attorney representing the men, said in a statement that the lawsuits against Long and his church have “been resolved.”
Bernstein’s two-paragraph statement said that neither she nor the accusers would talk about the lawsuits “now or in the future.”

Art Franklin, a Long spokesman, said Thursday that the pastor settled because it “is the most reasonable road for everyone to travel. This decision was made to bring closure to this matter and to allow us to move forward with the plans God has for this ministry,” Franklin said in a statement.

Long is an internationally known televangelist who crusaded against gay marriage, and the lawsuits against him drew national attention.

The settlement comes eight months after Long, the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia, said from the pulpit of his 25,000 member megachurch that he vowed to fight the accusations against him, with the congregation cheering in response.

ENGLAND — As President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama continue their overseas tour in the U. K., they stopped at Buckingham Palace to meet the newlywed Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are fresh off their Seychelles honeymoon.

Prince William and Kate Middleton had a quick chat with President Obama and Michelle Obama before the visiting Americans headed to a special luncheon hosted by Queen Elizabeth.

It is believed the couples talked about the recent Royal Wedding, and the Brit’s upcoming California visit, scheduled for July.

However, though they are certainly worldwide celebrities, Will and Kate are not working members of the Royal Family and were not present on the steps of Buckingham Palace to officially greet the American President and First Lady with the Queen.

They were also absent from the special luncheon and did not attend Tuesday’s State Banquet, where over 200 royals and dignitaries gathered for dinner.

Will and Kate recently returned from their honeymoon in the Seychelles, which is said to have cost $700,000.

GEORGIA — Central Georgia firefighter Michael Dewayne Jones, 24, died while rescuing three children. Jones drowned at Lake Tobesofkee while saving his two sons, Joshua, 5, and Jarell, 7, and a little girl who was also playing in the water.

“The little girl started drowning,” said Michael’s sister Tiffany Jones. “He saved her. My nephew started drowning; he saved him. My other nephew started to drown and somehow my other nephew got back in the water and started to drown.”

His wife, Tykia Richmond left the family at the lake for a run at a convenient store. She returned to her husband in the water and bystanders holding her children.

Michael had been with the fire department for just a week.

NEW YORK — A newborn tossed down a housing project’s trash chute survived the eight-story fall because he landed on a pile of garbage and the compactor was jammed, investigators said Monday.

A maintenance worker heard  a baby’s cries coming from the trash compactor Sunday morning. The child was taken to the hospital where he remains in stable condition, said Jerry Schmetterer, spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. He said the baby did not appear to have been injured in the fall.

Laquasia Wright, 18, was arrested on charges of attempted murder and endangering the welfare of a child. Police said it appeared Wright had given birth shortly before tossing the baby. She was also being treated at a hospital on Monday and it was unclear when her arraignment would take place.

HOUSTON — Jeffrey Prevost, 51, confessed to police Sunday he shot his girlfriend, Sherry White, 50, and her son, Kyle Lavergne, 20. He has been charged with two counts of capital murder.

Relatives found Sherry and Kyle dead in their home – after not hearing from them over a 36 hour period of time.
“I had to break in through the back window,” relative John Elder said. “I didn’t see her, but I found my little cousin at the door.”

Relatives said they think White was going to end her relationship with Prevost. According to investigators, White and Prevost dated for two months before he killed her out of jealousy.

According to a police report, Prevost shot Lavergne when he trying to leave the home. Both victims were shot in the head. White was also stabbed.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday narrowly endorsed reducing California’s cramped prison population by more than 30,000 inmates to fix sometimes deadly problems in medical care, ruling that federal judges retain enormous power to oversee troubled state prisons.

The court said in a 5-4 decision that the reduction is “required by the Constitution” to correct longstanding violations of inmates’ rights. The order mandates a prison population of no more than 110,000 inmates, still far above the system’s designed capacity.

There were more than 143,000 inmates in the state’s 33 adult prisons as of May 11, meaning roughly 33,000 inmates will need to be transferred to other jurisdictions or released.

CHICAGO — The parents of a toddler and her nanny, injured Saturday when a truck crashed into pedestrians on a Gold Coast sidewalk, have filed suit against the city of Chicago and the city worker driving the truck.

Tyler Jones, 20 months old, was being pushed in a stroller by her nanny, Jennifer Anton, 25, when the crash occurred.

Anton suffered severe fractures to her pelvis, hips and legs, and her condition remains serious. Tyler was released from Children’s Memorial Hospital.

“Witness accounts indicate that Jen Anton was a true hero,” Thomas A. Demetrio said. “She pushed little Tyler out of the path of a direct impact, and probably saved Tyler’s life.”

The driver of the car, Dwight Washington of the 1800 block of North Linder Avenue, was ordered held Monday on $400,000 bond. Washington faces four counts of aggravated driving under the influence and bodily harm, and two counts of misdemeanor DUI.

The 61-year-old city worker also was ticketed for carrying alcohol, negligent driving and failure to reduce speed.

DAYTON, OH — An Ohio woman convicted of killing her month-old baby daughter in a microwave oven was spared the death penalty and sentenced last Friday to life in prison without parole.

Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman sentenced China Arnold, 31, of Dayton, who psychologists testified showed no signs of serious mental illness. Arnold declined to make a statement during her sentencing.

Arnold was convicted last week of aggravated murder by the same jury that recommended her punishment. Jurors deliberated about six hours Thursday and Friday.

Prosecutors say Arnold intentionally put 28-day-old Paris Talley in a microwave and turned it on after a fight with her boyfriend. The couple had argued over whether the boyfriend was the infant’s biological father.

TALLAHASSEE  —  For the first time in more than a year and a half, fewer than a million Floridians were unemployed as the state’s jobless rate dropped for the fourth straight month to 10.8 percent in April, state officials said Friday.

That’s a 0.3 percentage point decline from March.

The April unemployment rate is Florida’s lowest in 19 months but still 1.8 percentage points higher than the national rate of 9 percent. It also means 996,000 Floridians were out of work. The last time that number was below a million was October 2009.

Florida’s April rate is more than a full percentage point below December’s 12 percent figure.