A former secretary for a Hudson Valley law firm has been sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for stealing nearly $700,000 from her employer over a seven-year span.
  
Mary Merten of New Paltz was sentenced Tuesday in Ulster County Court to 4 1/3 years to 13 years and also ordered to pay more than $600,000 to the Kingston law firm where she was employed as a confidential secretary.

The judge who sentenced the 44-year-old Merten noted that her thefts forced one of the victims out of retirement and looted a child's college savings.

She pleaded guilty earlier this year to embezzling from the law firm of Riseley and Moriello.

The $625,000 she was ordered to repay to her victims was the amount agreed to during a restitution hearing.

The American Civil Liberties Union says school officials cannot reach beyond school grounds to impose discipline. The two school districts argue the postings could be disruptive at school, and say they have the right to maintain order.

In a rare move, all 14 eligible judges on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday.

Legal experts hope the Supreme Court will clarify the rules in these types of cases.

The Supreme Court has ruled that teenagers may not be locked up for life without chance of parole if they haven't killed anyone.

By a 5-4 vote Monday, the court says the Constitution requires that young people serving life sentences must at least be considered for release.

The court ruled in the case of Terrance Graham, who was implicated in armed robberies when he was 16 and 17. Graham, now 22, is in prison in Florida, which holds more than 70 percent of juvenile defendants locked up for life for crimes other than homicide.

"The state has denied him any chance to later demonstrate that he is fit to rejoin society based solely on a nonhomicide crime that he committed while he was a child in the eyes of the law," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. "This the Eighth Amendment does not permit."

Chief Justice John Roberts agreed with Kennedy and the court's four liberal justices about Graham. But Roberts said he does not believe the ruling should extend to all young offenders who are locked up for crimes other than murder; he was a "no" vote on the ruling.

Life sentences with no chance of parole are rare and harsh for juveniles tried as adults and convicted of crimes less serious than killing, although roughly three dozen states allow for the possibility of such prison terms. Just over 100 prison inmates in the United States are serving those terms, according to data compiled by opponents of the sentences.

Those inmates are in Florida and seven other states — California, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Carolina — according to a Florida State University study. More than 2,000 other juveniles are serving life without parole for killing someone. Their sentences are not affected by Monday's decision.

Roman Polanski's request for access to sealed transcripts of testimony by a former prosecutor detailing alleged misconduct should be rejected because of the director's fugitive status, prosecutors argued Thursday in a court filing.

Polanski's attorneys have asked a judge to unseal testimony taken earlier this year by the original prosecutor handling the case, Roger Gunson. They have said it will help their efforts to fight Polanksi's extradition from Switzerland, where he remains under house arrest.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren wrote in Thursday's filing that the request should be denied because Polanski has repeatedly refused to return to Los Angeles for sentencing.

He said allegations of misconduct in the case can and should be dealt with at Polanski's sentencing.

A hearing on Polanski's motion is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Judge David Yaffe on Tuesday rejected a petition from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation that contended county health officials hadn't done enough to prevent sexually transmitted diseases in the porn industry.

The group sued the county in July after data showed there were more than 3,700 STD cases over the past five years reported by a clinic that serves porn actors.

In denying the foundation's request, Yaffe said the county has broad discretion in how it oversees public health. The group plans to appeal the decision.