Riverhead, N.Y.

A woman convicted of participating in the 1983 murder of her husband was freed from prison yesterday after prosecutors agreed she would have been eligible for a battered-wife defense if such laws had been on the books at the time.

Freedom for Marie La Pinta, 69, was especially sweet for her two sons: Anthony, who became a lawyer, in part, to win justice for his mother, and Lenny, a teacher who for years lobbied for a pardon from Gov. George Pataki and operated MercyforMom.org, aimed at winning her freedom. Both sons have said their mother endured years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of their father.

Last month, Anthony La Pinta persuaded a judge to overturn her 1984 conviction and grant her a new trial. Instead of a new second-degree murder trial, however, prosecutors yesterday allowed La Pinta to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter. Because she has served far more than the minimum 8-1/3 years that a conviction on that charge carries, she was set free.

Santa Maria, Calif.

Defense rests case in Jackson trial

The defense rested yesterday in the Michael Jackson child-molestation trial without putting the pop star on the stand.

Prosecutors began their rebuttal. The jury could get the case as early as the middle of next week and begin deciding whether Jackson molested a 13-year-old cancer patient at his Neverland ranch in 2003.

Defense lawyers portrayed Jackson as the victim of trumped-up charges brought by the boy's mother when she realized that the family's days of living lavishly at Jackson's expense were about to end.

Driver rams protesters

at Minuteman speech

At least two people were injured and at least eight arrested yesterday in Garden Grove after a motorist drove into a crowd of 300 demonstrators protesting a speech by the founder of the Minuteman Project, authorities said.

The Minuteman Project is a conservative citizens group that patrols the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to stop illegal immigration.

A man and a woman were struck and injured by the motorist, who had attended the speech by James Gilchrist and was leaving when protesters began hitting his van with placards and other objects. The driver, who was not identified but spoke to a KCAL-TV reporter, said he gunned his engine to get away from the crowd. The man was arrested.

Garden Grove police did not return calls seeking comment.

Los Angeles

Damage weighed from potential quake

Newly developed computer models suggest that a magnitude 7.5 earthquake on the Puente Hills fault, which runs under downtown Los Angeles, could be the most damaging quake to occur in the United States, researchers said yesterday.

If such a quake occurred, it could cause as much as a quarter of a trillion dollars in damage, kill as many as 18,000 people and injure 268,000. As many as 735,000 homes could be damaged severely enough for residents to require other shelter, according to the analysis.

The analysis was done to give structural engineers and emergency planners a better picture of the possible effects of a Puente Hills quake.

Clarksburg, Md.

Sniper Malvo moved to Maryland for trial

Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo was transferred from Virginia to Maryland yesterday to be tried on charges of killing six people there during sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C., area in 2002.

Malvo was serving a life sentence in Virginia for the shooting of FBI analyst Linda Franklin in Fairfax, Va., and flown to Maryland, officials said. He was placed in the Montgomery County jail.

Malvo, 20, and John Allen Muhammad, 44, will be tried in Montgomery County on six first-degree murder counts. Muhammad was convicted in 2003 of killing Dean Meyers in Manassas, Va., and sentenced to death.

Washington

Internet piracy cited for shutting down site

Federal agents yesterday shut down a Web site that they said allowed people to download the new Star Wars movie even before it was shown in theaters.

The Elite Torrents site was engaging in high-tech piracy by letting people download copies of movies and other copyright material for free, authorities said.

"Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" was available through the site six hours before its first showing in theaters, the officials said. The movie was downloaded more than 10,000 times in the first 24 hours.

Also

Lionel Tate: A judge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., yesterday ordered that Lionel Tate, accused of holding up a pizza deliveryman at gunpoint Monday, be held without bail. Lionel, 18, touched off a debate over Florida's practice of prosecuting juveniles as adults when, at 12, he became the youngest person in modern U.S. history to be sentenced to life in prison, for the 1999 killing of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick.

Junk-food ban: Connecticut lawmakers yesterday passed a law that would ban most sodas and many snacks in school cafeterias, school stores and vending machines. Experts have said it would be the strictest school nutrition bill in the country.

Compiled from The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times