Free Republic

A Lufkin man convicted of resisting arrest in his own home after police mistook him for a burglar was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. Marco Sauceda, 30, entered County Court-at-Law No. 2 Judge Derek Flournoy’s courtroom Wednesday morning wearing a tan button down shirt and navy dress slacks, but by the end of the day found himself in county orange. Following a one-day trial and four-hour deliberation, a six-panel Angelina County jury concluded Sauceda was guilty of resisting arrest on March 15, 2009, while being pepper-sprayed, shot with a pepper ball gun and wrestled...

LOS ANGELES - The family of a former prison inmate who was shot to death during an altercation with Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in 2002 has been awarded $4 million by a federal jury. The panel deliberated for several hours Tuesday before awarding damages to 40-year-old Robert Mitchell's nine relatives in a civil-rights lawsuit filed in 2003. The suit initially sought $30 million. Family attorney Dale Galipo said the case involved "the wrongful death of Robert Mitchell, who was unnecessarily and unjustifiably shot to death by a deputy sheriff working for the county of Los Angeles." Deputies responded to...