A former Baton Rouge police officer was convicted of obstruction of justice and public bribery after being accused taking a cell phone cloning device from the Police Department's evidence room in 1998 and selling it back to the man from whom it was seized. State District Judge Bonnie Jackson dismissed the remaining charges u two counts of malfeasance in office u after finding insufficient grounds against Daryl Davis, 38. He was fired from the Police Department last summer for refusing to answer questions posed by Internal Affairs investigators.

A judge convicted a woman of murder Wednesday, rejecting her claim that an intruder killed her husband. Karen Benoit, 41, was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Andre Gatlin. Gatlin, 39, was stabbed to death in August 1999 inside the Glen Oaks-area home he shared with Benoit. Second-degree murder is punishable by a sentence of life in prison.

Roberto Villar-Grana, a Cuban inmate who with seven other inmates took the St. Martin Parish Jail warden, guards and other inmates hostage in December, has appealed the dismissal of his lawsuit that claimed the government broke its promise to return him to Cuba if the hostages were released.

Copyright 2000 Capital City Press, Sunday Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA.)