Sep 29, 2006   | COMMENTS     

RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) — A Rutland Family Court judge will decide after a hearing whether to penalize a Virginia woman who failed to comply with a child-custody ruling that grew out of the breakup of her civil union. More than two years ago, Judge William Cohen found Lisa Miller-Jenkins in contempt of court for failing to comply with his order granting temporary visitation to Janet Miller-Jenkins of Fair Haven, her former partner. Following that ruling, Lisa Miller-Jenkins argued the case should be heard in Virginia. Last month, the Vermont Supreme Court rejected her argument and sent the case back to Family Court, saying Vermont has exclusive jurisdiction. “The Vermont Supreme Court was specific in its remand on the contempt finding of this court to impose a penalty, and that needs to be addressed,” Cohen said in court Sept. 19. Cohen did not set a date for the hearing, although he said he would like to schedule it within the next month or two. Cohen said he would delay the hearing until after the Supreme Court rules on a motion by Lisa Miller-Jenkins’ attorneys asking the high court to reconsider its August ruling.

Alaska judge rules same-sex
benefits too restrictive

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The state’s proposed rule on benefits for same-sex couples are too stringent, according to a ruling by a Superior Court judge in Anchorage. Judge Stephanie Joannides also found the state’s view of an Alaska Supreme Court decision on the types of benefits to be offered too narrow. Hearings on the proposed regulation will be held in Juneau and Anchorage. Last year’s Supreme Court ruling required the state to establish benefits to same-sex partners of its employees in response to an action filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and nine Alaska couples. The high court ruled that because same-sex couples are prohibited from marrying in Alaska, denying them rights extended to married couples deprives them of equal protection guaranteed under the Alaska Constitution. The state’s proposed regulation would require same-sex partners to swear they have been in “exclusive, committed and intimate relationships” for at least a year. In her decision earlier this month, Joannides said that the proposed rules impose requirements on same-sex couples that are not imposed on married couples. For example, married couples don’t have to file annual affidavits reaffirming they are still married, as would be required of employees in same-sex relationships.

Conflict over gays leads to N.Y. church
being ordered to leave property

IRONDEQUOIT, N.Y. (AP) — A state judge has ordered All Saints Anglican Church in Irondequoit to turn over the property and records of the former All Saints Protestant Episcopal Church to the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester. The Irondequoit congregation has been in conflict with the diocese over the Episcopal Church of the USA’s 2003 ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. The Irondequoit church refused to pay $16,000 that it owed the diocese and continued to use the building after it was ousted from the diocese last fall, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported last week. State Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Fisher handed down a summary judgment in favor of the local Episcopal diocese on Sept. 13. The diocese filed a lawsuit March 6 seeking the property of the former church. “I think we’re all pleased that the court ruled in support of the ministry of the diocese. We have to be stewards of our property,” said Rev. Canon Carolyn Lumbard, a spokesperson for the diocese, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. “But it’s still a sorrowful thing that we had to take the route that we have had to take.”

Lesbian Playboy Playmate sues over 
alleged run-in with cabdriver, NYC cops

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who bills herself as the first openly lesbian Playboy Playmate sued a taxi driver, police and the city last week, claiming that officers needlessly roughed her up based on the cabdriver’s false accusation that she was armed and dangerous. “It was a nightmare,” Stephanie Adams, 35, said at a news conference announcing the suit, which seeks unspecified damages. The city had no immediate response. The cabdriver, 40-year-old Eric Darko, denied any wrongdoing. The suit stems from a May 25 incident that began when Adams — Miss November 1992 — caught Darko’s cab on the Upper East Side of Manhattan to take her to her Chelsea apartment. After the pair argued over where to drop her off, ...