Death toll from warehouse fire climbs
The death toll in the Oakland warehouse fire climbed to 36 Monday, and families anxiously awaited word of their missing loved ones.
The laborious job of digging with shovels and buckets was suspended overnight Sunday because of a dangerously unstable wall but resumed midmorning.
Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern said he didn’t believe there would be additional bodies found, but he cautioned that it was “impossible to be absolutely positive” until the entire recovery effort is complete. Authorities had gone through about three-quarters of the building by Monday afternoon.
Flames tore through the building, known as the “Ghost Ship,” during a dance party Friday night. The warehouse had been converted to artists’ studios and illegal living spaces, and former denizens said it was a deathtrap of piled wood, furniture, snaking electrical cords and only two exits.
The warehouse is owned by Chor Ng, her daughter Eva Ng told the Los Angeles Times.
Judge allows Cosby deposition at trial
PHILADELPHIA — Testimony that Bill Cosby gave in an accuser’s civil lawsuit, including admissions that he gave women drugs and alcohol before sex, can be used at his criminal sexual-assault trial, a judge ruled Monday.
The defense has insisted that Cosby testified only after being promised he would never be charged over his 2004 encounter with accuser Andrea Constand. But his lawyers at the time never had an immunity agreement or put anything in writing.
Cosby, 79, acknowledged in the 2006 deposition that he had a string of extramarital relationships. He called them consensual, but many of the women say they were drugged and molested. Cosby is accused of drugging and molesting Constand. He has called her a willing participant but acknowledged that he gave her three unlabeled blue pills beforehand for stress. Constand was 33 at the time; Cosby was in his mid-60s.
N.C.’s Gov. McCrory concedes defeat
DURHAM, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory conceded the governor’s race Monday, clearing the way for Democrat Roy Cooper to be declared the winner nearly four weeks after Election Day.
Cooper is the state’s outgoing attorney general. Republicans retain supermajorities in both legislative chambers.
In a video message from his office posted to YouTube, McCrory said, “Despite continued questions that should be answered regarding the voting process, I personally believe that the majority of our citizens have spoken, and we now should do everything we can to support the 75th governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper.”
With appeals drying up and post-election counts padding Cooper’s narrow lead, McCrory announced he was giving up after Durham County elections workers neared completion of a recount of 94,000 votes.
Unofficial results at the state Board of Elections showed Cooper leading McCrory by slightly more than the 10,000 votes — out of 4.7 million cast — needed to avoid an automatic recount. The state board still must officially certify the results.
Man gets life in son’s hot-car murder
MARIETTA, Ga. — A judge on Monday sentenced a Georgia man to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury found that he intentionally left his toddler son in a hot SUV to die.
Jurors last month convicted Justin Ross Harris, 36, of malice murder and other charges in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper, who died after sitting for about seven hours in the back seat of his father’s vehicle outside the suburban Atlanta office where Harris worked.
Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that Harris was unhappily married and killed his son because he wanted an escape from family life. Defense attorneys maintained that while he was responsible for the boy’s death, it was a tragic accident.
Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark told Harris that she thought about statements Harris made to police about wishing to be an advocate to keep anyone else from leaving a child in a hot vehicle.
“Perhaps not the way you intended, you, in fact, have accomplished that goal,” she said as she gave him the maximum sentence.
A Section on 12/06/2016