Prosecutor

A former Delaware County prosecutor who left the scene of an accident that injured a Haverford teen was sentenced Thursday to four to eight months in the county jail. Michael Donohue, 32, now of Philadelphia, apologized to Jake Vantrieste and his family, saying the event had affected him in a "profound way. " On Nov. 4, 2011, Donohue, who had been out drinking with coworkers after work, was driving along a busy Upper Darby route talking on his cellphone when he struck Vantrieste, then 14, who was attempting to cross the street.

The NHL's lawsuit against its players was assigned to a relatively new federal judge who is a longtime New York Yankees fan and a former federal prosecutor. The sides did not talk Sunday, the 92d day of a lockout that threatens to wipe out an entire NHL season for the second time in nine years. NHL players started voting on whether to have their union give up collective bargaining rights, a "disclaimer of interest" that could be a precursor to an antitrust suit. The league argued in a 43-page suit Friday in federal court in Manhattan that the union's actions were a bargaining maneuver and asked that the lockout be declared legal.

Imprisoned former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo may well have to pay an additional $800,000 in restitution, judging from the tenor of questioning Friday by appellate judges considering a government appeal of Fumo's financial penalty. The U.S. prosecutors who won his fraud conviction have challenged part of his punishment, in which the sentencing judge ordered a former Fumo aide to pay half the restitution to one of the victims in the fraud. U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter ordered Fumo and the convicted ex-aide, Ruth Arnao, to split evenly the payment of almost $1.6 million owed to a South Philadelphia civic organization once known as Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods.

Imprisoned former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo may well have to pay another $800,000 in restitution, judging from the tenor of questioning Friday by appellate judges considering a government appeal of Fumo's financial penalty. The U.S. prosecutors who won his conviction have challenged part of his punishment, in which the sentencing judge ordered a former Fumo aide to pay half the restitution to one of the victims in the fraud. U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter ordered Fumo and the convicted ex-aide, Ruth Arnao, to split 50/50 payment of almost $1.6 million owed a South Philadelphia civic organization, once known as Citizens' Alliance for Better Neighborhoods.

The Philadelphia district attorney's push to dump cases connected to controversial narcotics officers entered a new phase Wednesday as prosecutors withdrew charges against 37 accused drug dealers in just one courtroom. Court officials said they expected an additional 61 cases to be withdrawn as early as Friday, and one judge on Wednesday dismissed charges against an alleged major dealer who was initially held on $2 million bail. Six members of the Philadelphia Police Department's aggressive Narcotics Field Unit were transferred last week after District Attorney Seth Williams declared that he would not use them in drug investigations in any capacity.

Karel Vas, 96, a prosecutor who came to symbolize unlawful trials during the post-1948 communist takeover of Czechoslovakia, has died. Czech public television reported that Mr. Vas died Saturday in a home for retirees in Prague where he had lived. Details were not available. During World War II, he moved to the Soviet Union where he began to collaborate with dictator Josef Stalin's much-feared secret police. Historians say Mr. Vas one of the state prosecutors who played a key role in show trials that used fabricated evidence to hand out death sentences to opponents of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

The driver charged in the Nov. 13 crash on Bustleton Avenue that killed two men tested positive for numerous drugs, including heroin, morphine, and cocaine, when his blood was drawn two hours after the crash, a Philadelphia prosecutor said Wednesday. Robert Brenzenger, 33, also tested positive for marijuana and the prescription drugs alprazolam and zolpidem, Assistant District Attorney John Doyle said during a preliminary hearing in Municipal Court. Judge Patrick Dugan ordered Brenzenger to remain in custody pending trial.

Raghunandan Yandamuri said he never intended to kill or harm anyone. The Montgomery County man told detectives that he simply wanted to kidnap 10-month-old Saanvi Venna for ransom. What happened next, he said, was "unexpected. " First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele, however, said Yandamuri acted quite deliberately. Motivated by gambling debts, he was carrying a four-inch kitchen knife to kill the child's grandmother and a note that demanded $50,000 and threatened to have the baby "cut into pieces.