State dept. alternative APster trial.Proof of concept?

[mattd]

State Department Officer Charged With Attempted Murder
The Associated Press
Published: Jan 9, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) - A veteran State Department foreign service officer has 
been charged with attempting to murder her friend's estranged husband.
Police say Margery L. Landry, 48, broke into the house of Arlen Slobodow 
before dawn Monday wearing a black ski mask and armed with a gun.
Slobodow was awakened when the intruder tried to push him off the bed, 
according to police records cited by The Washington Post.
Landry fired two shots at Slobodow, striking him once in the leg. He then 
wrestled with Landry, ripping off her mask, police said.
According to police reports, Landry is a close friend of Slobodow's 
estranged wife and godmother to his two sons.
Police are investigating whether the shooting is connected to an alleged 
threat by Slobodow's wife, Elsa Newman, to hire someone to kill her husband 
and children if she couldn't have custody.
Landry was charged with attempted murder, assault and burglary and was 
ordered held without bond. Slobodow is in stable condition in a hospital. 
Slobodow's children, a 5-year-old boy and an 8-year-old boy, were not 
injured, police said.
As a result of Newman's alleged statements to her attorney in September, a 
judge granted Slobodow full custody of the children, and Newman was allowed 
a supervised visit every two weeks, court charging documents state.
Police said they are trying to find Newman, who lives in the Washington 
suburb of Bethesda, Md., for questioning.
Prosecutors described the two women as close friends and former college 
roommates. Landry, who works in the State Department's Office of Children's 
Issues, and her husband, John, a civilian Army employee, are godparents to 
Slobodow and Newman's children.
Henry Asbill, Landry's attorney, told the Post that his client should be 
presumed innocent. He argued during her bond hearing that she has no prior 
arrest or conviction.
Landry works in the division at State that handles international parental 
child abduction and international adoption matters, an agency spokeswoman 
said. She said officials would follow the police investigation of Landry 
and have not made a decision on her employment.