Penny Dean and Your Rights

Pennsylvania police officers no longer need a warrant to search a citizen’s vehicle, according to a recent state Supreme Court opinion.

The high court’s opinion, released Tuesday, is being called a drastic change in citizens’ rights and police powers.

Previously, citizens could refuse an officer’s request to search a vehicle. In most cases, the officer would then need a warrant — signed by a judge — to conduct the search.

That’s no longer the case, according to the opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery.

PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Four people were stabbed and another man was assaulted early Sunday morning after dozens of people crashed a birthday party and the celebration turned into a brawl.

Around 3:30 a.m., Pawtucket police got multiple 911 calls about a melee at 981 Main St., where officers found several men who’d been stabbed. Three men from Providence, another from Pawtucket and a fourth from Boston's Roxbury neighborhood had been injured — including some men who tried to break up the fight.

Shane M. Coffey, 19, faces charges of suspicion of attempted murder in Epsom, England. Police there released few details, but one report indicates Coffey went to a home at 4:35 a.m. Friday.

<a href="http://www.wcvb.com/news/Police-in-England-arrest-local-man-in-connectio... story on WCVB</a>

He’s accused of getting into the bedroom of an 18-year-old woman and stabbing her.

Two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies, Julio Cesar Martinez and Anthony Manuel Paez, are in hot water after they were charged with planting guns at a medical marijuana dispensary in 2011 in order to make arrests.

According to reports, both deputies left the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office in early 2013. Their leaving was described the office as “separation” following an administrative investigation.

A report from the state Attorney General's Office called an August drug sting that resulted in the fatal shooting of an alleged drug dealer "ill-conceived," but said the officer who fired the fatal shot will not face any criminal charges.

A 44-page report released Wednesday said the AG's Office was unable to determine if the conduct of Officer Nicholas Nadeau was justified when he shot suspected heroin dealer Alex Cora deJesus, 35, of Manchester at Lanctot's Plaza parking lot on Route 114 in Weare.

<iframe scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen src="http://up.anv.bz/latest/anvload.html?key=eyJtIjoiTElOIiwicCI6ImRlZmF1bHQ... width ="640" height="360"></iframe>

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A man is hospitalized from a stabbing at a restaurant in Springfield early Sunday morning.

According to Springfield Police Lieutenant Thomas Maccini, just before 2:30 Sunday morning, police were called to Piccolo Restaurant at 304 Worthington Street for a fight.

A 10th-grader in Maine has been suspended for 10 days for having a bright yellow squirt gun.

The Sun Journal (http://bit.ly/Qg2BFn) says the teen was suspended in accordance with Lewiston High School policy after the toy fell out of his backpack. The student wasn't identified.

School Superintendent Bill Webster tells the newspaper that the suspension could be reduced and that administrators "will work to balance the discipline with the facts of the case."

He also says that water pistols, even ones that don't look like guns, can be disruptive.

A Nevada rancher has prevailed in a standoff against the federal government over grazing rights for his cattle. But the legal battles are far from over.

Cliven Bundy, 67, attracted the attention of militiamen nationwide after he refused to pay grazing fees to the federal government -- which then seized Bundy's cattle. States' rights protestors and militia members rallied to Bundy's side, escalating tensions until the Bureau of Land Management finally agreed to release his cows on Saturday, reports the Las Vegas Sun.

What legal troubles still await this stalwart rancher?

<img src="http://libertycrier.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/prescription-medicine... align="right" size="300">Today, the ACLU and ACLU of Utah filed an amicus brief in support of a Utah paramedic whose Fourth Amendment rights were violated when police swept up his confidential prescription records in a dragnet search. Law enforcement’s disregard for basic legal protections in the case is shocking.

MURRYSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — The legal fate of the 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing or slashing 21 fellow students and a security guard at his high school will probably pivot more on his mental state than his tender age, attorneys say.

The sheer number of victims won't preclude him from being treated as a juvenile, something that would assure his freedom by age 21, lawyers say.