Brazil judge sentences Pele's son to 33 years

SAO PAULO (AP) - A Brazilian judge sentenced the son of soccer legend Pele to 33 years in prison after finding him guilty of laundering money for a drug gang.
Judge Suzana Pereira said Monday that Edson Cholbi do Nascimento must surrender his passport to the court this week. She said the 43-year-old can remain free as he appeals, which can take years in Brazil.
"The process is still open. He can still appeal and have another court review the case," Pereira said.
Pereira said she couldn't reveal many details about last week's ruling because both parties agreed to handle the case privately. But she said she found enough proof to convict Do Nascimento.
The defendant's lawyer could not be reached for comment. Do Nascimento previously denied the charges, although he said he had used drugs out of curiosity after he quit professional soccer. He spent six months in a maximum-security prison in 2005 after being arrested with 50 others in a sweep aimed at a gang in the port city of Santos. Prosecutors said he was associated with the criminal group.
Pele is considered the best soccer player ever and in Brazil he is hailed as a national hero. He is currently in the spotlight as the country makes final preparations to host the World Cup in 10 days.
His personal adviser, Jose Fornos Rodrigues, said the sports star was traveling in China and had no comment on the case.
Known as Edinho, Pele's son played as a goalkeeper and is now a coach for the Santos professional soccer team, where his father rose to fame in the 1950s. The club said it would not comment, calling the case a personal matter for Edinho.
It wasn't his first run-in with the law. He was charged in early 1990s with taking part in a high-speed race where the other car hit and killed a motorcyclist. He was sentenced for manslaughter years later and then acquitted in 2005.

Toddler is a cheerleading superstar

For many toddlers, balancing is a difficult task, but not for little 2-year-old Emerson Decker. Emerson and her dad Andrew practice their cheerleading moves on the beach. She pulls off an amazing stunt: her father throws Emerson up in the air and sticks the landing ... on his hands! They even performed the stunt again on 'Fox & Friends.'
 Emerson is clearly talented, and it might be because she started stunting before she could even walk. "We actually started when she was three months old. Before she could walk she would stand in my hand," her father says.
Emerson, the "Little flyer" even has her own Instagram, which is covered with videos and photos of her stunts. This page is filled with a whole lot of cuteness and is co-managed by her dad because ... well, she's 2 years old.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Emerson's dad Andrew has been cheering since he was four.
He's currently a cheer coach at Cheer City United and teaches Emerson her stunts. "We're working on all kinds of new tricks. She likes doing stuff on her own and stuff with me."
A popular cheerleading vine page called Cheer Vine re-vined a sweet stunt Emerson and her dad pulled off. The vine was was captioned, "She's like 2," and naturally it went viral.
And get this! People Magazine points out little Emerson isn't the only famous lady in the family. Fashion model and actress Brooklyn Decker is a relative of hers.
Decker helped the talented Emerson go viral when she posted a video of the toddler and her dad on her Instagram account, saying, "What a stud!" Heck, "stud" might even be an understatement.

Clothing allowance not a perk for first ladies' fashion needs and wants

By NANCY BENAC
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Michelle Obama's fashionable clothing has become something of a given in her five-plus years as first lady. Yet her wardrobe still is the subject of endless public fascination and one long-simmering question: Who pays for those incredible outfits?
It's no small matter. Her high-low fashion choices mix everyday, off-the-rack fare with custom creations from top designers whose gowns can run into five figures.
In recent weeks, Mrs. Obama has turned heads with a forest-green Naeem Khan dress at the opening of a new costume gallery at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. She shimmered in a silver Marchesa gown at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. And her flowered shirtdress for a Mother's Day tea at the White House (recycled from an earlier event) hit the just right note for an audience of military moms.
It takes money to pull that off, month after month. Those three dresses by themselves could add up to more than $15,000 retail, not to mention accessories such as shoes and jewelry.
Is it the taxpayers who foot the bill? No. (Despite what critics say.)
Is it Mrs. Obama? Usually, but not always.
Does she pay full price? Not likely.
Does she ever borrow gowns from designers? No.
The financing of the first lady's wardrobe is something that the Obama White House is loath to discuss. It's a subject that has bedeviled presidents and their wives for centuries. First ladies are expected to dress well, but the job doesn't come with a clothing allowance or a salary.
Mary Todd Lincoln racked up tens of thousands of dollars in clothing bills and considered selling manure from the White House grounds to pay them off, according to the National First Ladies' Library. Jacqueline Kennedy's father-in-law stepped in to finance her Oleg Cassini wardrobe to keep clothes from becoming a political liability for President John Kennedy. Nancy Reagan got grief for borrowing designer gowns and not always returning them or reporting them as gifts.
Laura Bush, in her memoir, said she was "amazed by the sheer number of designer clothes that I was expected to buy" as first lady.
How does Mrs. Obama, a fashion icon with far more expensive tastes than Mrs. Bush, swing it?
For starters, the Obamas reported adjusted income of $481,000 last year, and assets worth $1.8 million to $7 million.
And like most people, Mrs. Obama (mostly her personal aide, really) looks for discounts.
And, for really big events, the first lady has an option not available to every fashionista.
Here's how Joanna Rosholm, press secretary to the first lady, explains it:
"Mrs. Obama pays for her clothing. For official events of public or historic significance, such as a state visit, the first lady's clothes may be given as a gift by a designer and accepted on behalf of the U.S. government. They are then stored by the National Archives."
That saves Mrs. Obama considerable money, although the White House refused to say how often the first lady wears donated clothes and the National Archives declined to say how many such items it has in storage. The White House did say that the first lady doesn't borrow any clothing and, for the most part, buys her own clothes.
The clothing donated by designers includes Mrs. Obama's two inaugural gowns made by Jason Wu, a lesser-known designer before Mrs. Obama turned him into a star in the fashion firmament. Wu declined to discuss how he works with the first lady.
Mrs. Obama and Wu both were there when the first inaugural gown was presented to the Smithsonian in March 2010. The first lady said in her remarks: "The dress I donated today, made by Jason Wu, is a masterpiece." But the Smithsonian lists the gown as a "gift of Jason Wu in honor of first lady" Michelle Obama, making clear it came from him. The first lady's office had no comment on that.
Two other examples of gowns worn by the first lady that were donated by designers: the blue Carolina Herrera gown that Mrs. Obama wore to February `s state dinner for French President Francois Hollande and the gold beaded Naeem Khan gown that Mrs. Obama wore to the 2012 governors ball, now on display at the American Museum of Natural History. Herrera and Khan declined comment.
The first lady's office had no comment on whether the couture gowns worn by Mrs. Obama for her six other White House state dinners also were donated. Nor would it say how many gowns have been donated for the array of other big events for which the first lady is expected to appear in couture finery, such as the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremonies, governors' dinners and White House correspondents' dinners.
Wearing donated gowns represents a change in practice from the Bush administration.
Anita McBride, chief of staff to Laura Bush during her time as first lady, said Mrs. Bush paid for all her clothes, including her two inaugural gowns: a red crystal-embroidered gown by Texan Michael Faircloth and a silver and blue V-neck creation of Oscar de la Renta.
McBride credits the Obama White House with finding a cost-saving way to "keep Mrs. Obama in all those incredible clothes and to have the use of them not once but multiple times."
The costs of a custom couture gown can be phenomenal, particularly if it is highly embellished with something like beading.
New Yorker Sarah Phillips, who designed Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1993 inaugural gown, puts the full cost of that violet beaded lace sheath in the range of $50,000, with the Presidential Inaugural Committee paying $10,000 and Phillips and the workshop covering the bulk of the costs. Phillips isn't sure whether Clinton herself paid anything toward the dress, but the Smithsonian's website describes the gown as a "gift of Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Presidential Inaugural Committee."
Lawyers who served in the Obama and Bush White Houses describe taking care in working with the first lady's office to ensure that arrangements with designers didn't run afoul of ethics rules designed to guard against conflicts of interest and questionable quid pro quos.
Beyond the unknowns about how often Mrs. Obama's clothes are donated, there are questions about how much she pays for those she purchases.
In a 2011 Washington Post story about Mrs. Obama's personal assistant, Meredith Koop, the first lady's office said Koop acted on Mrs. Obama's behalf "in arranging for purchases, including considering the best offered price and buying on discount if discounts are available."
That's still true today, the first lady's office says, without elaborating.
Several designers who have provided clothes for the first lady declined to discuss their arrangements. But given the prestige that comes with dressing Mrs. Obama, it's widely thought that designers are eager to cut the first lady a break. Former White House lawyers said any discounts provided to the first lady would have to be in line with what designers offer other top customers to avoid being considered gifts.
Paco Underhill, author of "What Women Want: The Science of Female Shopping," said the markups on designer clothes are "astronomical" - and the discounts can be steep as well.
"Some of the routine discounts that people ask for are 40 percent off," he said. "Whether they get it is subject to somebody's discretion."
First ladies have tried all sorts of tactics to hold down their clothing costs, including keeping some dresses in rotation.
Mrs. Obama wore the same dress to this year's Mother's Day tea that she'd worn to lunch with Katy Perry in October 2012. She often switches around separates, belts and other accessories to give clothes in her wardrobe a fresh look.
Recycling carries its own risks.
Mrs. Bush, in her memoir, tells of arriving at a TV studio and noticing a picture on the wall that showed she'd worn the same suit to her last interview there.
"Quickly, I exchanged tops with my press secretary, so that it would seem as if I had more wardrobe variety," she recalled.


WASHINGTON (AP) - Sure, living in the White House has its perks. But a clothing allowance is not one of them.
First ladies feel all sorts of pressure to project a fashionable look, and over the decades they have tried a range of cash-saving strategies to pull it off without going broke.
Seven frugal do's and don'ts that first ladies have tried over the years:
1. TROT OUT RETREADS: Even first ladies recycle their clothes. Michelle Obama recently welcomed military moms to a Mother's Day tea wearing the same shirtdress she had worn to lunch with Katy Perry in 2012. Lady Bird Johnson put her 1965 inaugural gala gown, a white peau de soie dress with a beaded bodice, back in the rotation three times over the next two years.
2. BUY OFF THE RACK: Laura Bush experienced the "ultimate in clothing faux pas" when she selected an $8,500 red lace Oscar de la Renta gown to wear to the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006 without modifying the design. "In the book, that red dress had looked perfect. It vaguely crossed my mind that someone else might see the dress and think exactly the same thing," Mrs. Bush wrote in her memoir, "but what were the odds of that woman wearing it to a White House party?" Pretty good, it turns out. Three other women turned up in the identical gown. They made the best of it by posing for a group photo at a White House reception. Then Mrs. Bush ran upstairs and changed into a navy blue dress from the back of her closet before heading to the Kennedy Center.
3. HUNT FOR BARGAINS: Betty Ford wasn't afraid to economize. She shared clothes with her teenage daughter and used scarves to make the same outfit look different. When she read about low-cost designer Albert Capraro, whose dresses retailed for as little as $70, she asked the New Yorker to bring her some sketches. She ordered spring dresses from him and asked him to make some evening gowns using fabric that President Gerald Ford had brought back from Japan.
4. FIND A BENEFACTOR: When Jacqueline Kennedy caught criticism for wearing pricey French fashions, her father-in-law stepped in to defuse the issue. Joseph Kennedy offered to pay her wardrobe bills, if she used Oleg Cassini, a family friend, as her personal couturier. "Jacqueline Kennedy accepted this offer, a move that was greeted with some astonishment by Seventh Avenue, where Cassini was not regarded as a designer of the first rank and something of a vulgarian as well," author Amanda Mackenzie Stuart wrote in a biography of Diana Vreeland.
5. BORROW STUFF: Nancy Reagan raised eyebrows by borrowing high-priced designer gowns and jewelry as first lady, sometimes without returning them or reporting them on her husband's annual disclosure forms. When it came out that Mrs. Reagan had kept up the practice even after she had pledged to stop, her spokeswoman, Elaine Crispen, acknowledged that Mrs. Reagan "broke her little promise." Mrs. Reagan said later: "I was just trying to help an industry that I could help and I was in the position to help. I didn't see anything wrong with that."
6. RAISE SOME CASH: Mary Todd Lincoln ran up $27,000 in bills for clothes and household items without her husband's knowledge, roughly equivalent to $700,000 in modern times, and then badgered Republican politicians to pay up to "help me out of my embarrassment." Some offered money or loans, but Mrs. Lincoln still came up short, according to historian Carl Anthony at the National First Ladies' Library. "At one point, she even considered selling the manure on the White House lawn as fertilizer to pay the bills," Anthony wrote in his history of first ladies.
7. TRY CREATIVE WRITING: Theodore Roosevelt's wife, Edith, would wear the same dress to multiple events, Anthony says, but vary the descriptions in her press releases. In the days before video and 24/7 media coverage, that made it seem as if she had more clothes than she did.

Chance Rides' Success Built on Dedication to Family Values

Ten years ago, Dick Chance and his son, Mike, started meeting every day at 9 a.m. in Dick's office -- a modest windowless room, made cozy by an abundance of family photos. Their company, Chance Rides -- which makes everything from roller coasters to carousels for amusement parks -- was on the verge of

bankruptcy. Part pep rally and part crisis control, the meetings helped keep the business from going under.

A decade later, the company is in far better shape. But the daily ritual has stuck, keeping the two men in close contact as they run America's largest amusement ride maker just outside Wichita, Kansas.

Fly into the city's airport and you can easily spot the Chance manufacturing building from the sky. Situated in the center of a 40-acre facility, the massive white structure is as tall as the Ferris wheels the company makes and large enough to house 50-foot pieces of roller coaster track.

Despite how visible it is, few people -- including many locals -- know what Chance is making inside those white walls.

But since 1961, when Harold Chance, Dick's locomotive-loving father, started producing the now-iconic C.P. Huntington miniature trains, the company has built the rides that are part of our childhoods: like the Zipper, the Trabant, and the Toboggan.

But making huge rides that cost millions of dollars isn't as carefree as it looks. How this company has survived -- and remained in the family -- is a story as complicated as the rides Chance makes.

Chapter 1: Never Give Up

"Treat people right, be honest, work hard. Things will take care of themselves." Harold Chance lived by those words and his son Dick took to them heart when he bought the business, then called Chance Manufacturing, from his father in 1985.

Dick worked hard to grow the company. He renamed it Chance Industries and branched out into a motor coach division and developed new carnival rides, like the 90-foot-tall Giant Wheel and the pendular Pharaoh's Fury. "It was exciting," Dick remembers. "When I bought it we were doing $14 million a year in business, and that grew to $50 million at one time." By the mid-'90s, Chance employed nearly 400 people. Now 149 people work there full time.

When he was a teenager, Mike worked summers in the family shop -- until he and his dad had what they jokingly call "the falling out."

"My friends had different jobs. They would work in restaurants at night, and I would be like, 'Man, this stinks,'" Mike laughs, retelling the story. "So I went to work at Pizza Hut ... and I was good at it!"

Mike moved away to work in Arizona after graduating from Kansas State University. But he had always stayed connected with Chance Industries -- attending trade shows with his father, so in 1997 he came back to Wichita to work with his dad. Traveling carnivals, which had been Chance's main customers for decades, were slowly dying out as more people went to big amusement parks seeking even bigger thrills.

"We needed a 'Wow!' product," Mike says. "And in this business, that means roller coasters." Chance built coasters like the Toboggan and the Big Dipper, but those were small in comparison to the gigantic rides at parks like Six Flags and Disney World.

But just as Mike was putting his plans into place to get into bigger rides, Chance's business model -- helping carnival owners buy its rides by co-signing their loans -- proved to be problematic.

Chance had been growing between 10 to 15 percent a year in the 1990s, helped by the fact that Chance's lender, CIT Corp., was comfortable with the company backing loans by its customers.

"It worked for years and years," Dicks says. "Carnivals were notoriously a little late in paying ... but they always paid. CIT always went along with it, and they always got paid."

But in 2001, a much bigger insurance company, Tyco (TYC), bought CIT and that all changed.

"Tyco came in and looked at our portfolio of business -- around a $30 million portfolio -- there was about $7 million that was 90 days past due," Dick says. Tyco wasn't willing to wait for that money. So to protect the company, Chance filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Chance wasn't alone in its struggles. Even as he was trying to keep his company afloat, Dick got a call from a longtime competitor, Dana Morgan. He wanted to know if Chance was interested in buying his roller coaster company.

Mike had wanted to build coasters before Chance's troubles began. But could they find customers for multimillion dollar roller coasters when Morgan seemingly couldn't?

The father and son drove to Oklahoma City to meet with Gary Story, the president of Six Flags amusement parks. Story told them that he needed to buy two new coasters. "So we asked, would you buy them from us if we could make a deal with Dana," Mike remembers. "And Gary said, 'Well, yeah.'"

But with Chance in bankruptcy, it was tough getting the deal done with Morgan, a public company. Ironically, the problem that got them into financial trouble ended up helping with the acquisition. Chance had helped Morgan when it was small, financing rides for the company. "So it was our relationship that made it happen," Mike says.

"If we hadn't gotten that Six Flags order, or done that deal with Dana ... I don't think we would have made it," Mike says. But there was never a time when the Chances thought about walking away from the family business.

"My grandfather always told me, 'You only lose if you give up,'" Mike says. "That actually got us through the bankruptcy," Dick adds. "You never lose unless you quit ... and we're not quitting."

Chapter 2: The Weight of a Whistle

A few miles southeast of the Chance plant is O.J. Watson Park, a gem of public space, with miniature golf and pony rides. It also has one of Chance's iconic trains, the C.P. Huntington.

Terry Giddeon, Chance's service product manager responsible for the train brand, grew up just two miles from the park. He can still remember hearing the whistle blow from his bedroom window. In a strange twist of fate, the first C.P. Huntington that Giddeon ever built for Chance -- almost 30 years ago -- was the replacement locomotive for that childhood train. "Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd build the train that Watson Park has now," Giddeon says. "Installing it was the best feeling in the world."

The trains needs constant maintenance like any machine, and Giddeon says there were long periods of time when the Watson Park train just wasn't getting it. Last year, the train was shut down more than it was running. But this year, Giddeon is making sure that doesn't happen again.

He has made the Watson Park train a personal priority of his, working with the park's manager to keep the train running. Giddeon believes that dedication sets Chance apart from its competitors.

"The support is always there," he says. Even if a ride is decades old, Giddeon can get parts for it and even provide a service manual. "The Santa Barbara Zoo just bought another locomotive from us. When they get that level of support, they don't shop around."

Giddeon doesn't always see the smiles his work inspires, but just knowing that he's brought joy to children young and old is what keeps him going. "When you see the kids grinning ear to ear, I call it my natural high," he says. "It gives you goose bumps -- makes you feel proud to work for the company."

Chapter 3: An Artist in Kansas

When Julie Boman was a little girl, she decided to express herself artistically -- by drawing a horse on her parents' marriage certificate.

She was in a heap of trouble from the act of childhood mischief, but it proved to be prophetic. Today, Boman is one of three full-time artists in Chance's carousel studio. She paints horses, tigers and dolphins -- even mythical creatures like jackalopes -- for the ride that has been the center of carnivals for more than a century.

Boman, who is self-taught, paints gorgeous animals every vibrant hue of the rainbow, then embellishes them with final touches like jewels and lace. Carousels take an average of three months to assemble, with a single animal taking between 80 and 110 hours to build and decorate.

She also painstakingly adds detail to the center panels of a carousel, inspired by everything from famous works of art to travel photos she spots in magazines. It's that imagination that landed her a job at Chance 15 years ago.

After seeing a mural Boman painted in her church's basement, a fellow parishioner told her boss at a local McDonald's about Boman's artistic skills. He hired Boman to paint murals at a few of his Wichita franchises. "It was my first paying job as an artist," Boman says.

A family friend, who worked at Chance, saw her work at McDonalds's and came to pay Boman a visit one Sunday afternoon. He asked her a question that ended up changing her life: "How would you like to paint carousel animals?"

Boman knows she's lucky to work as an artist in Kansas. "Everyone told me, you better get a backup, you can't do art for a living," she says. "I never thought this would be reality."

But Boman says that Chance being family owned makes all the difference in her work. Both Mike and Dick stop by the studio on a regular basis and Mike often brings his 6-year-old son Carter by on Saturdays to visit the animals. "Oh, he loves carousels," Boman says.

"If you had a corporate board running the company, they'd be focused on the profit and having all of this made in Mexico or China," she says. "And they could have all of this done for less [money]. It's nice to have bosses who let you focus on quality."

In that tall white building in the heart of Kansas, the Chance family has built a company that manufactures magic for the masses. But perhaps even more importantly, they've led a company that, through every twist and turn, has been a place where employees and quality always come first.

Vincent Parker, 16, Admits To Killing Parents With A Crowbar For Taking His iPod

As 16-year-old Vincent Parker's mother came out of the bathroom on Dec. 19, he doused her with pepper spray before stabbing her in the eye and beating her with both a baseball bat and a crowbar. He struck her 25 times before moving on to his father, who he killed using the same weapons.
And he did it all over a series of common punishments, "like my dad taking away my iPod and stuff," he reportedly told police. Parker admitted to the gruesome murders in a confession revealed in a Virginia court on Wednesday, according to WTKR-TV.
"I just remember getting mad," he reportedly told police. "It’s all from my dad. All this stuff like my dad taking away my iPod and stuff."
Parker -- an honor roll student at Norview High School in Norfolk -- confessed to killing his mother Carol, 57, and father Wayne, 55, after his DNA was found on several murder weapons, the New York Daily News reports. Those included the crowbar, the baseball bat and several bloody knives.
He was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.
His grandfather, Allen Taylor, forgave the boy and told reporters that Parker was "smart" and "sane," according to the Daily Mail. A medical examiner says this smart and sane teen smashed and stabbed his mother 25 times in the neck, face and head until she stopped breathing.
He's scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18.

Casey Kasem hospitalized

Sadly, the family drama continues for aging radio icon Casey Kasem. (Via Flickr / Alan Light)

​He was hospitalized Sunday after this scene. A fight erupted between Kasem's wife and his oldest daughter, Kerri, when Kerri said she'd be hospitalizing her father. And KCPQ has the strangest detail.

"Apparently Jean Kasem threw raw hamburger meat at his daughter, Kerri, who called the ambulance to take her dad to the hospital."




Yes, reportedly a pound of raw hamburger meat.

CNN mentions on Friday a Washington state judge gave Kerri Kasem the right to see her 82-year-old dad, who has dementia, and to take him to the doctor. Kerri won temporary conservatorship of Casey in a California court in May.

Family arguing erupted in May when Jean took Kasey from a nursing home in California to Washington, apparently without his children's knowledge.

​The New York Daily News reports they were found at the home of a friend. Kerri has alleged Jean is keeping Casey from his children because she thinks they will try to get him to change his will. (Via

But Jean says her husband's children have ruined their lives by involving the media in personal matters.

KING reports "Shame on these children. Shame. ... He wanted to go out strong. He wanted to leave beautiful memories. That was all torn apart."

Kerri says her dad is suffering from a bedsore and lung and bladder infections, but Jean argued he was receiving proper care. On June 6th, a hearing in Washington will determine if the California conservatorship order holds up. Then on the 20th in California, a hearing to see if the conservatorship will be extended.

Jean and Kasey have been married since 1980 and have one daughter, Liberty. Kerri and his two other children are from a previous marriage. (Via Flickr / Alan Light)
 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/06/02/casey-kasem-hospitalized/20904506/?ncid=webmail2

Beating victim's case against Dodgers underway

BY LINDA DEUTSCH
AP SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers had insufficient security when San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow was severely beaten in a Dodger Stadium parking lot after the 2011 opening day game between the California rivals, an attorney told jurors Thursday in opening statements of the trial of a lawsuit seeking damages from the team and former owner Frank McCourt.
The defense countered that there was more security than at any other Dodgers opening day and that responsibility for the injuries lay with the two men who pleaded guilty to the attack and with Stow himself for being intoxicated and exchanging taunts with the assailants.
Stow's attorney, Tom Girardi, outlined his case in a packed courtroom, but his brain-damaged client was not present.
Stow, 45, had observed jury selection from a wheelchair, but Girardi said outside court that it had been too much for the former paramedic from Northern California. He requires constant care, which his lawyers say could cost $50 million over his lifetime.
Girardi said that the Dodgers cut costs by using more non-uniformed off-duty police officers than uniformed officers, who cost more. "The deterrent effect of having an officer in blue means a lot to everybody," he said.
Girardi described a rowdy atmosphere at the game, with a crowd of 56,000 and tempers running high because of the teams' fierce rivalry.
"There was a lot of hostility," he said. "It's different than going to a night at the symphony at the Hollywood Bowl."
During the game, one of Stow's eventual assailants was throwing food and soda at people sitting near him in the stands, Girardi said. "All of the time there was this yelling and screaming and throwing stuff at these nice people there was no security," he said.
Attorney Dana Fox, representing the Dodgers and McCourt, said a capacity crowd was expected and the Dodgers took it seriously.
"The evidence is going to show in this case Mr. Stow was gravely injured because of a testosterone- and alcohol-fueled flash-fire fight in the parking lot," Fox said. "Some of this was caused by Mr. Stow, who consumed a lot of alcohol. He drank liquor and beer before the game and beer during the game."
When Stow arrived at the hospital, his blood-alcohol level was 0.149 percent, and forensics experts will show that at the time of the fight his level was between 0.16 percent and 0.20 percent, Fox said. The legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.
Girardi earlier told jurors that the Stow's blood-alcohol level as it related to the standard for drunken driving was irrelevant because Stow and his friends had taken a taxi to the stadium and afterward were heading to the street to take another taxi.
Fox, however, contended that "it is not legal to be drunk in public when you can't care for yourself and others."
The defense attorney said the Dodgers had assembled "the largest security force ever for an opening day in their entire history," including 437 officers and security guards, Fox said. The sworn officers included police and California Highway Patrol, and the FBI was also present because an opening day game is considered a potential target for a terrorist threat, he said.
The Los Angeles Police Department and FBI had command posts at the stadium, and the FBI also had cameras, Fox said.
The Dodgers' security cost for that day was $66,604 out of a season-long budget of $2.185 million, he said.
The team's attorney told the jury the only issue was whether the Dodgers acted reasonably or were negligent.
While Louie Sanchez and Marvin Norwood acted criminally and despicably in attacking Stow, the Dodgers were not responsible for their actions, Fox said.
"If they (plaintiffs) do not prove the Dodgers were a substantial factor in causing the injuries, they lose. The standard in this case is whether my clients acted reasonably," he said.
Witnesses at a preliminary hearing testified that security guards were not present in the parking lot where Stow was beaten and kicked by Sanchez and Norwood. The pair wore Dodgers gear, and Stow wore a Giants shirt.
Sanchez pleaded guilty to one count of mayhem and was sentenced to eight years in prison. Norwood pleaded guilty to one count of assault likely to produce great bodily injury and was sentenced to four years. Both still face unrelated federal firearms charges.