Probation

In further fallout from the grade-inflation scandal that rocked Villanova University law school nearly two years ago, the Association of American Law Schools has placed the school on probation for two years. The association, the main professional organization for law schools in the United States, said it stopped short of imposing tougher sanctions because Villanova had been thorough in investigating the scandal and taking steps to prevent future occurrences. The association has no ability to affect Villanova's crucial academic accreditation, but it could have banned Villanova law school faculty from participating in its conferences, and it might have withheld faculty recruitment services from the university.

SEAN O'NEILL JR. has gotten into a lifetime's worth of legal trouble in his 23 years, and now authorities confirm that he's skipped probation and fled to the Emerald Isle to join his dear deported dad. The younger O'Neill first made headlines in 2006, when he killed his friend while drunkenly playing with a gun at age 17. Then his father, a Northern Ireland native, was found guilty of citizenship, firearms and tax crimes, and deported to...

LINDSAY LOHAN scored a rare bicoastal twofer Thursday, as she was charged with crimes in New York and Los Angeles, making us wonder if "Liz & Dick" would have been better if she played both Liz and Dick. Prosecutors in Santa Monica charged Lindsay with three misdemeanors related to a June auto accident. Hours earlier, she was arrested and charged with third-degree assault, also a misdemeanor, after a woman was punched in a New York City nightclub. And Lindsay allegedly was the puncher.

SEAN O'NEILL JR., the young Delaware County man who killed his friend with a shotgun while drunk in 2006, has skipped out on probation for a driving-under-the-influence charge and may have fled the country, according to the Chester County District Attorney's Office. O'Neill, 23, comes from one of Delco's more notorious families. His father, Irish national Sean O'Neill Sr., was deported after serving 18 months in prison for tax, citizenship and firearm offenses. His sister, Roisin, is serving five-to-10 years in state prison for a 2008 drunken-driving crash on the Blue Route that killed a 63-year-old Massachusetts woman.

The family of Moses Walker Jr., the Philadelphia police officer killed in an attempted stickup in August, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, saying state officials caused Walker's death by allowing his alleged killer to roam the streets when he should have been behind bars. "Officer Walker's murder occurred as the result of a systemic breakdown," said Michael F. Barrett, one of the attorneys representing Walker's family, at a news conference at his Center City office.

THE FAMILY OF Philadelphia Police Officer Moses Walker Jr., who was killed in a botched robbery in August, has sued the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole, its chairman and three parole agents, claiming they missed multiple chances before Walker's murder to jail the confessed killer for violating parole. The board violated Walker's civil rights by "permitting a systemic breakdown" that placed Walker in the path of parole violator and serial armed mugger Rafael Jones early Aug. 18, attorney Michael F. Barrett contends in the federal wrongful-death lawsuit.

The wife of Pennsylvania Budget Secretary Charles Zogby will spend three years on probation for fleeing police and drunken driving after running a stop sign last year. Georgina Zogby was also ordered Tuesday to pay $850 in fines related to the July 2011 pursuit that required police to use a spike strip to stop her car. Zogby was convicted in September of fleeing police, DUI, and two summary traffic offenses in connection with the pursuit in the Harrisburg suburbs. - AP

FAYETTE CITY, Pa. - The mayor of a tiny southwestern Pennsylvania borough will spend a year on probation as part of a first-offender program after he allegedly took numbers bets at a newsstand he owns. Herbert Vargo Jr., 46, maintains his innocence and did not have to plead guilty to enter the program Monday. His record will be expunged if he completes the probation without incident. Fayette County prosecutors allege Vargo took his own bets on lottery numbers and paid out winners.

Two months after the slaying of Philadelphia Police Officer Moses Walker Jr., the state Probation and Parole Board chairman Tuesday declined to answer lawmakers' questions on why the man charged in Walker's killing was on the streets in the first place. At a hearing of the House Democratic Policy Committee in Northeast Philadelphia, Probation and Parole Board Chairman Michael C. Potteiger answered general questions about his office's policies and procedures. But he said he would wait to discuss Walker's case until his staff completed a full investigation.