THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY MARCH 6, 2009
NEWS
5A
COURT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox is wheeled out of the courtroom on a stretcher after murder suspect David Paradiso attacked her on Wednesday in Stockton, Calif. Lod. Police Detective Eric Bradley shot and killed Paradiso after the assault.
Man attacks judge in courtroom
Suspect shot, killed after allegedly hitting official presiding over trial
BY TRACIE CONE AND GARANCE BURKE Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. — A man accused of killing his girlfriend was shot to death in a Stockton courtroom Wednesday after he attacked the judge presiding over his murder trial, officials said.
David Paradiso, 28, was shot by a police detective after he left the witness stand and began attacking San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Cinda Fox during a break in proceedings, said Dave Konecny, a spokesman for the sheriff's department.
Paradiso took the stand to testify around 2 p.m. and was quickly asked by prosecutors why he killed his girlfriend Eileen Pelt.
He responded: "Cause she deserved to die"
Paradiso's mother, Debra, stood up and started yelling, leading the judge to call a recess. As jurors filed out, Paradiso left the stand and approached the judge from behind
"with an unknown cutting instrument"
"Konecyn said."
Karen McConnell, a county spokeswoman, said witnesses reported seeing Paradiso lift the judge and begin punching and possibly stabbing her when bailiffs ran to her aid and shots rang out. Lodi Police Det. Eric Bradley has been placed on administrative leave while the shooting is being investigated, city spokesman leff Hood said.
"He was going after her jugular, just as he did to the victim in this case," his attorney, Chuck Pacheco, told the Lodi News-Sentinel. "He was not stopping stabbing her, going for her neck. Bradley did the right thing."
Fox, who had a bandage on her left arm as she was carried out of the courthouse on a stretcher, told reporters, "I'm OK," before being taken to a hospital. She was released later Wednesday. Calls to her home were not immediately returned.
The courthouse immediately went on lockdown, although people were allowed to leave after the building was secured. McConnell
said.
Konecny said he did not know how Paradiso obtained a weapon. He said at least two balliifs were on duty in the courtroom at the time of the attack.
Paradiso was on trial for allegedly stabbing his girlfriend, Eileen Pelt, in the neck as his mother drove them in her car. Debra Paradiso told police her son forced her to drive to Amador County, where he dumped the body.
Paradiso's attorney, Charles Pacheco, said in opening arguments last week that his client was high on methamphetamine at the time. Pacheco did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking comment.
Aaron Paradiso, the suspect's brother, told KCRA-TV of Sacramento that his brother was "crazy" and said he had told authorities and attorneys that he shouldn't be put on the stand. He said his mother had warned deputies that the family believed Paradiso had a cutting weapon from some sort of clipper or scissors.
POLITICS
GOP's joke about earmarks not translating well in Iowa
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A commercial market hog stands in a pen in a hog lot near Panora, Iowa. In Iowa, where the 20 million hogs easily outnumber the 3 million people, the rotten-egg-and-ammonia smell of hog waste often waken into homes in no laughing matter.
BY MICHAEL J. CRUMB
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa — On Capitol Hill, a $1.7 million earmark for pig odor research in Iowa has become a big, fat joke among Republicans, a Grade A example of pork. But the people who live cheek by jowl with hog farms in the No. 1 pig-producing state aren't laughing.
They're gagging.
"You hold your breath and when it's really bad you get the taste in your mouth," said Carroll Harless, a 70-year-old retired corn-and-soybean farmer from Iowa Falls.
In Iowa, where the 20 million hogs easily outnumber the 3 million people, the rotten egg-and-ammonia smell of hog waste often wafts into homes, landing like a punch to the chest.
"Once, we couldn't go outside for a week," said Karen Forbes, who lives near a hog feedlot outside Lorimor. "It burned your eyes. You couldn't breathe. You had to take a deep breath and run for your garage. It was horrid."
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa,
She recalls a citywide garage sale held in the town of 420 a couple of years ago that no one attended because of the stink that day.
The proposal to spend money on how to control pig-farm smells is contained in a $410 billion spending bill now making its way through Congress. Among other earmarks that have been criticized; tattoo removal for gang members in Los Angeles; Polynesian canoe rides in Hawaii; termite research in New Orleans; and the study of grape genetics in New York.
Despite the ridicule from Sen. John McCain and other Republicans, Iowa and the federal government have been studying how to control hog odors for years. The latest grant continues efforts under way at the Agricultural Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture labs in Ames, Iowa.
inserted the earmark.
"While we will likely hear about it on Jay Leno or the Letterman show, where they will be yukking it up, it's a profoundly serious challenge," he said. He said the idea is to help the pork industry go about its business "in an environmentally friendly way and be good neighbors."
The federal study is looking at
what hogs eat and how the stench can be reduced. Despite years of work in Iowa and elsewhere, solutions to the problem have proved elusive, though researchers have had success using ultraviolet
"You hold your breath and when it's really bad and you get the taste in your mouth."
CARROLL HARLESS
Iowa Falls, Iowa farmer
road and I try to be conscious of how it smells because it can portray against you and the community, too," he said.
Hog odors have been a perennial issue at the state Legislature, where lawmakers argue over the need to protect quality of life without ruining Iowa's $12-billion-a-year pork industry.
light to remove odors and planting trees and other vegetation to suck up the smell.
Ryan Woebeking, who has about 2,500 hogs near Gladbrook, said he and many other farmers are working to reduce the odor. He said he plans to plant some windbreaks soon to help keep the smell from drifting.
"I have a neighbor across the
Harless, the retired farmer. blamed the small
blamed the smell — a mix of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia
— for headaches that led him to spend two weeks at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Doctors could not conclusively link his headaches to hog farming, but Harless said his symptoms have nearly disam-
peared since he retired and moved into town, away from an operation that housed 7,500 hogs less than a half-mile down the road.
Several lawsuits have been filed in Iowa in recent years by neighbors of hog lots who blame odors for health problems and declining property values. In one case a jury awarded $76,400 to four families over falling property values.
SIGMA PHI EPSILON FRATERNITY SigEp...Celebrating 85 Years at The University of Kansas
SigEps,
GOOD LUCK this weekend with the open house celebrating the completion of your newly renovated chapter house, and with Rock Chalk Revue! Have a great weekend, and, break a leg!
- Moms Club, Dads Club, and, The Alumni Board
"BUILDING BALANCED LEADERS FOR THE WORLD'S COMMUNITIES"