State digest 3/22

Retired salesman cops plea to stealing drugs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A retired drug salesman pleaded guilty Thursday to providing stolen drugs to pharmacist Robert R. Courtney, who has admitted he watered down cancer drugs for profit.

An FBI spokesman said Courtney bought $200,000 worth of drugs from Aram C. Paraghamian that were stolen from a Denver area hospital.

Paraghamian pleaded guilty in a Kansas City courtroom to a federal charge of transporting stolen property across state lines. Paraghamian, 72, of Westminster, Colo., faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine for the crimes, which occurred between 1996 and 2001.

Bush nominates two for Missouri judgeships

WASHINGTON -- The White House has officially nominated candidates for federal judgeships in Missouri, naming St. Louis Circuit Judge Henry Autrey to Missouri's eastern district and Springfield lawyer Richard Dorr to Missouri's western district.

The nominations must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Autrey, 50, was a lawyer in the St. Louis prosecutor's office before being named associate circuit judge in 1986 and circuit judge in 1997.

Autrey is being considered for the post denied Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ronnie White in a partisan showdown on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

Raised in Jefferson City, Mo., Dorr went to the University of Illinois on a football scholarship and played in the 1964 Rose Bowl.

He served as a lawyer while on active duty in the Air Force from 1968 to 1973, then served in the reserves until 1990, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Lawyer to file RICO suit against bishop, dioceses

ST. LOUIS -- A veteran lawyer of clergy abuse cases planned to file a lawsuit today against ex-Bishop Anthony O'Connell and his dioceses under powerful federal racketeering laws. Such a lawsuit against priests has never been successful.

A news release Thursday from Jeff Anderson's law firm, Reinhardt and Anderson, said he would announce the lawsuit this morning at simultaneous news conferences in St. Louis and St. Paul, Minn.

Baptist minister held on statutory rape counts

MARSHFIELD, Mo. -- A Springfield Baptist minister was jailed Thursday on allegations he had sex with a 13-year-old female relative.

The Rev. Steven Rear arrived with his attorney about 1:30 p.m. at the Webster County Jail in Marshfield to turn himself in, authorities said.

Rear, who is pastor of Westport Baptist Church in Springfield, had been sought on five felony counts of first-degree statutory rape.

Authorities allege Rear began fondling the girl -- then age 10 -- several times a week in 1991. They allege it progressed to sex shortly after the girl turned 13. The alleged sexual encounters occurred at Rear's Marshfield home, while Rear's wife was at work, authorities said.

-- From wire reports