News Roundup

The top story this week is that Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton has been charged with DUI, per this story from the UPI and AP. Retton, 57, became the first American woman to win the all-around gymnastics title at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, where she also won two silver and two bronze medals. Retton was stopped on May 17, 2025, in her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia, allegedly with a container of wine in the passenger seat of her Porsche, and charged with driving under the influence, before being released on a personal recognizance bond. Read on for more criminal law news. Prison Breaks. Authorities in Louisiana and Arkansas are searching for escapees. On May 16, ten inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center in New Orleans, as previously reported here. The inmates removed a toilet and sink and cut steel bars to create a hole in the wall, leaving a message behind, “to easy [sic] LOL.” As of Thursday, eight of the escapees had been apprehended, leaving two still at large, according to the NYT and local sources. In an unrelated incident, Grant Hardin, 56, a former police chief convicted of murder and rape, escaped on Sunday from a high-security prison in northern Arkansas, as reported by the NYT and CNN. Hardin – the so-called “Devil in the Ozarks” – walked out of a controlled gate at the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock about 3 p.m. wearing a makeshift law enforcement uniform. Heavy [...]