Supremes nix Apple $ slap at Samsung
THE LOUISIANA driver who shot and killed former Jets player Joe McKnight has been charged with manslaughter, five days after the road rage shooting.
Ronald Gasser was arrested on one count of manslaughter, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said Tuesday during an emotional, rant-filled press conference at which he scolded protesters who demanded an earlier arrest.
Gasser, 54, was initially questioned but not arrested after the Thursday shooting, sparking outrage in Louisiana and across the country. On Tuesday, Normand defended his office’s move to wait to charge Gasser.
“Justice has no time period,” Normand said. “Justice is not a sprint. It is a marathon. These investigators are marathons.” Then, he cut into his critics. “If people don’t think that we know what we’re doing strategically: Tough. I don’t care,” Normand said. I can put my head on the pillow every night knowing that we did the right thing for the right reasons.”
Activists who believed police were not moving fast enough lashed out at anyone who encouraged the public to give investigators time and not jump to conclusions, including several lawmakers and pastors who asked for pause, Normand said. He blamed the protesters for “tearing” the community apart.
“We collectively should be ashamed of ourselves,” he barked, slamming his hand on the podium. “It’s not about the right thing; it’s not about justice and it’s not about the process. It’s about what we want, and what we want now. And we don’t care who we disparage in the process.”
He went on to read profane online threats made against the politicians and leaders who spoke in support of authorities’ extended investigation.
“That’s the tone of what we’re calling our elected leaders?” he asked after rattling off the obscene comments. “Really? And the tone of these go on and on and on and on and on and all we simply asked for was let them do their jobs.”
Normand defended the Tuesday arrest, saying more witnesses came forward over the weekend — people who likely would have not gone to police if they knew a suspect was already in custody — and their accounts helped prosecutors build a strong case against Gasser.
“Our arrest is only as good as the prosecution,” he said. “We accomplish nothing if we make an arrest and we can’t put ourselves in the best posture . . . to reach a successful prosecution.”
McKnight was shot and killed Thursday afternoon outside his car in Terrytown, a New Orleans suburb, after he and Gasser got into a fight.
The argument — allegedly sparked after one of the drivers cut the other off — lasted for several blocks until McKnight pulled
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over and got out of his car.
Gasser fired at McKnight at least three times from inside his own car, police said. McKnight was shot in the chest, shoulder and hand.
Gasser stayed in his car as medics tried to revive the 28-year-old former football player. When cops arrived, Gasser confessed to killing the other driver, police said.
Outrage over officials’ initial refusal to charge Gasser grew when records showed he had another road-rage incident a decade ago — at the very same intersection where McKnight died.
McKnight, a Louisiana native, was drafted by the Jets as a running back in 2010. He later signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, but retired from the NFL in 2014 after suffering an Achilles tendon injury. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with Samsung in its big-money smartphone patent fight with Apple, throwing out an appeals court ruling that said the South Korean company had to pay a $399 million penalty to its American rival for copying key iPhone designs.
The justices in their 8-0 ruling sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings.
The decision gives Samsung another chance to try to get back a big chunk of the money it paid Apple in December following a 2012 jury verdict that it infringed Apple's iPhone patents and mimicked its appearance in making the Galaxy and other devices.
The court held that a patent violator does not always have to fork over its entire profits from the sales of products using stolen designs, if the designs covered only certain components and not the whole thing.