Blackbeard's ship case about images returns to trial court

A treasure hunter who accuses the state of North Carolina of misusing his images from Blackbeard's flagship says he'll ask for 10 times the damages he originally sought, now that a court ruling has come down in his favor. John Masters of Florida-based Intersal Inc. says he plans to seek $140 million in damages from the state following the ruling Friday from the North Carolina Supreme Court that the case must return to Business Court. He said an expert witness had put Intersal's losses from the state's use of more than 2,000 images and more than 200 minutes of film at $129 million. He's seeking another $11 million for losses over a permit that the state denied him, which would have allowed Intersal to search for a Spanish ship. Almost a quarter-century ago, Masters' father, Philip, discovered the wreckage of the Queen Anne's Revenge, which ran aground in Beaufort, in what was then the colony of North Carolina, in June 1718. Volunteers with the Royal Navy killed Blackbeard in Ocracoke Inlet that same year. Intersal found little loot when it located the shipwreck in 1996, but tens of thousands of artifacts have been recovered since then. Intersal and the state have reached two contracts, one in 1998 and another in 2013, that gave the company the rights to photos and videos of the wreck and of the recovery, study and preservation of its historic artifacts.

Woman accused of disorderly conduct outside Maricopa court

Authorities say a woman has been arrested for disorderly conduct after creating a messy situation in the courthouse parking lot in the town of Maricopa. Police say Tally Leto allegedly poured alcohol into the vehicle of a court client, let the air out of the man's tires and spat on the windows before wiping them off. The owner of the vehicle didn't want to prosecute Leto. But the court chose to press charges because Leto was on court property in the parking lot. As a result of being arrested last Monday, Leto failed to appear for her two criminal cases scheduled for later that day at Western Pinal Justice Court. The Maricopa Monitor reports that the two charges Leto was attending court for were criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.