World Series Poker winner sued
Jamie Gold’s win at the World Series of Poker might be only half as sweet.
A Nevada judge has frozen half of the $12 million top prize after a Gold acquaintance sued, saying the two men agreed to split the winnings.
Bruce Crispin Leyser, a Los Angeles-based TV development executive, alleges in a suit filed Monday in Clark County District Court that Gold, a former Hollywood talent agent, agreed in July to split his winnings in exchange for Leyser helping him find celebrities to play in the main event while wearing the “Bodog” label of an offshore Internet gambling site.
Leyser alleges he fulfilled his end of the deal – getting Scooby Doo star Matthew Lillard and actor Dax Shepard to wear the brand – but claimed Gold has refused to hand over $6 million.
Essex, Vt.
Man shoots four, commits suicide
Hours after breaking up with his girlfriend, a man shot four people Thursday, including the girlfriend’s mother and her co-worker at an elementary school, then shot himself in the head, police said.
Investigators said they had been searching for Christopher Williams, 26, since early Thursday when the girlfriend called police to report he had taken her car.
Later in the day, police said, Williams killed Andrea Lambesis’ 57-year-old mother, Linda, at her home, then headed to the nearby Essex Elementary School, where her daughter was a teacher.
When he did not find the girlfriend, he shot and killed teacher Mary Shanks, 56, police said. He also shot and wounded another person at the school. Williams then went to a condominium complex, where he shot an acquaintance, Chad Johansen, 26, before turning the gun on himself, police said.
New York
Man accused of aiding terrorists
A New York man was arrested Thursday on charges that he conspired to support a terrorist group by providing U.S. residents with access to Hezbollah’s satellite channel, al-Manar.
Javed Iqbal runs HDTV Corp., a Brooklyn-based company that provides satellite television transmissions to cable operators, private companies, government organizations and individuals.
According to an affidavit made public Thursday in U.S. District Court in New York, a paid FBI confidential informant told law enforcement officials that Iqbal’s company was selling “satellite television service, including access to al-Manar broadcasts.” The U.S. Treasury Department in March designated al-Manar a “global terrorist entity” and a media arm of the Hezbollah terrorist network.