Apr 01, 2005   | COMMENTS     

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two Ohio judges have issued differing rulings in the past week on whether the state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage bars prosecutors from charging unmarried people with domestic violence. A Franklin County judge on March 25 decided against dismissing a domestic violence case, disagreeing with arguments that the law doesn’t apply to unmarried couples. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Stuart Friedman ruled March 23 that domestic violence charges can’t be filed against unmarried people because of the state’s recently enacted marriage amendment. Friedman reduced a felony domestic violence charge to a misdemeanor assault charge. Friedman said the ruling applies specifically to the case, but advocates said its impact will be felt statewide because appeals likely will reach the Ohio Supreme Court. Seventeen states have constitutional language defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Ohio’s is regarded as the broadest because it bans civil unions and legal status to all unmarried couples and gay marriages.

Boy Scouts official pleads guilty in child porn case
FORT WORTH (AP) — A former high-ranking Boy Scouts of America official who ran a task force that worked to protect children from sexual abuse pleaded guilty Wednesday to a child pornography charge. Douglas Smith Jr. was put on leave from the Boy Scouts last month. Douglas Sovereign Smith Jr., 61, faces five to 20 years in prison. Authorities found 520 images of child pornography, including video clips, on Smith’s home computer, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bret Helmer said. The images included teenagers under the age of consent as well as prepubescent boys engaging in sex acts. Smith entered his plea to a federal charge of possession and distribution of child pornography without making a deal with prosecutors. During a hearing, he answered the judge’s questions with “yes, sir” or “no, sir” but did not speak otherwise. “He is contrite,” said Jack Strickland, Smith’s attorney. “He has accepted responsibility.” Smith worked for the Boy Scouts 39 years and led the Youth Protection Task Force that aimed to shield youth from sexual abuse. Last September, Smith penned a letter to the Corporate Legal Times defending the Boy Scouts’ ban on gays as necessary to protect the “values” and “culture” of the organization. Law enforcement officials indicated that the pictures did not show boys who were with the Boy Scouts organization, said Gregg Shields, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts. Smith received the images and e-mailed them to people he didn’t know, Helmer said.

Ga. school to ban all clubs to block formation of gay-straight group
ATLANTA — Just days after agreeing to the formation of a controversial gay-straight alliance at White County High School in Cleveland, Ga., administrators now plan to ban all non-academic clubs beginning next school year. The ban would mean the gay-straight club, Peers Rising In Diverse Education, can exist until the school year ends May 27. This proposal follows months of heated debate, including a contentious school board meeting in February in which preachers railed against homosexuality. “I’m anxious to get the club started and do what we can in the little time we have,” said Kerry Pacer, 16, a lesbian student who has been working to form the gay-straight alliance since January. White County School Superintendent Paul Shaw said officials with the high school on March 24 proposed the elimination of all non-academic clubs at the high school beginning in the fall of 2004. On March 22, the ACLU of Georgia announced in a press release that the gay-straight club had finally been approved by the school system. The legal group represented Pacer and other students wanting to form PRIDE.

Ala. judge protests Yale’s limit on military recruiters
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A federal judge in Alabama has announced he will not consider Yale Law students for clerkships to protest the university’s policy of limiting military recruiters’ access to students. William M. Acker Jr., a senior judge with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham and a 1952 graduate of Yale Law School, last month wrote to Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh about his decision. “Please consider this an act of loyalty to YLS,” Acker wrote. A federal judge ruled in January that ...