Police briefs

Lawrencen Man arrested in aggravated battery case -- A 19-year- old Lawrence woman was hospitalized over the weekend after sustaining what police called a severe beating -- likely at the hands of her boyfriend. Police arrested Shannon Porter, 28, in connection with aggravated battery and resisting arrest following the attack at an east-side apartment. Police said Porter's girlfriend suffered cuts to her right eye and nose and bruises to her neck and chest.

Junction Cityn Trial of man found with child pornography to begin -- A state official charged with transmitting child pornography over the Internet from his office computer is set to stand trial.

Clifford White, 44, of Milford, is charged with four felony counts of transmitting sexually explicit, computer-generated images of children and one real photograph of a child under the age of 16 over the Internet. A jury was selected Monday in Geary County District Court, and the trial is expected to conclude in three days. White was the regional supervisor of unemployment tax collection at the Kansas Department of Human Resources. He was arrested Feb. 18 in his office. Junction City police confiscated White's computer and items including facial tissues, carpet and the pants he was wearing that day. The investigation of White began after Junction City police received information from a New Hampshire law enforcement agency stating that Internet pornography was thought to be originating in Geary County. White was a trooper with the Kansas Highway Patrol from June 1979 to September 1981. Manhattann Judge rejects throwing out jury pool -- A judge Monday rejected notions that a largely white jury pool couldn't produce an unbiased panel to judge a black defendant in the 1997 stabbing and shooting deaths of a rural Solomon couple. Virgil Bradford, if convicted, could face the death penalty. Bradford, 28, and Robert Verge, 24, both of Kansas City, Mo., were accused of stabbing and shooting Kyle and Chrystine Moore after breaking into their home north of Solomon in the middle of the night to steal a vehicle. Verge was convicted of capital murder and four other charges and was sentenced to 59 years and five months. Verge was tried in Abilene, but Bradford's trial was moved to Manhattan over worries that publicity would block efforts to seat a jury. About 180 potential jurors filed into the Manhattan Municipal Building on Monday. The largely white jury pool irked defense attorney Thomas Bartee, who asked the judge to dismiss the pool on grounds it didn't fairly represent Riley County's population, 9.2 percent of which is black, according to a 1997 census, Bartee said. Santa Rosa, Calif. - Alcohol overdose blamed for scores of bird deaths -- More than 100 robins dropped from the trees and were found dead on sidewalks and front porches. The likely cause: drunkenness. It appears they overdosed on alcohol after eating berries that had fermented on the branch because of unusually cold weather. Martha Bentley at the Bird Rescue Center figured out the cause after taking a quick look at the birds scattered near large maple trees Sunday. All had purple stains on their beaks. "They went on a toot with the berries, so to speak," she said. Jasper, Texasn Judge rejects defense attempt to withdraw from dragging death case -- Two defense attorneys lost a bid Monday to be taken off the case of a man charged with murder in the dragging death of a black man. State District Judge Joe Bob Golden rejected a request by lawyers C. Haden Cribbs and Brack Jones Jr. to be removed from the case of John William King, whose trial is set to begin Jan. 25. Cribbs said King has been uncooperative, ignored his attorneys' advice and refused several times to speak with his defense team. King, 24, is one of three white men facing capital murder charges in the June dragging death of James -- From staff and wire reports

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