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LEE COUNTY
Ex-PTO member faces
embezzlement charges
n TUPELO - A former member of the Lawndale Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization has been indicted on embezzlement charges.
Laurie Ann Allori, 50, of Tupelo is charged with embezzling money from June 2006 through October 2008 from the PTO, according to a Lee County grand jury indictment handed down Feb. 3.
The indictment doesn't specify how much Allori is accused of taking, but said the amount was greater than $500, which makes it a felony.
If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Neither school officials nor police would comment on the case. Calls to Allori's home by the Daily Journal were unanswered.
LAFAYETTE COUNTY
Judge dismisses
sorority lawsuit
n OXFORD - Taylor Caroline Winters of Kansas apparently has settled her differences with Delta Gamma sorority.
In 2008, she sued the sorority in U.S. District Court, blaming it for negligence after she cut her foot on a broken beer bottle during a DG party at the Powerhouse in Oxford.
Judge W. Allen Pepper Jr. signed the order Friday dismissing the case because of the settlement. Details were not immediately available, but they usually aren't made public as part of the agreement.
Winters also sued the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, which operates the facility, but last fall they agreed to dismiss her claims against it.
YAC cross-sued the Ole Miss DG chapter and vice versa.
With Pepper's order, it's over for everybody.
The case was set to go to trial April 20.
Prisons designated
in bribery scheme
n OXFORD - Timothy Balducci and Steven Patterson will be in separate federal prisons for their role in conspiring to bribe a judge.
The two men pleaded guilty in a 2007 plot with Richard "Dickie" Scruggs of Oxford to bribe Circuit Judge Henry Lackey of Calhoun City. They wanted his help with rulings in a legal-fees lawsuit against Scruggs.
The Bureau of Prisons said Balducci, 41, will serve his 24 months in an all-male medium-security prison in Estill, S.C.
Patterson, 57, is assigned to serve his 24 months in an all-male, low-security prison on Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.
They were ordered to report to prison by March 25.
Daily Journal reports