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   ST. LOUIS (AP) - A St. Louis County woman has been found guilty of federal charges for illegally claiming more than $3 million in tax refunds.

   A federal jury convicted 69 year old Nancy Cicero of Kirkwood Wednesday on four counts of filing false claims with the IRS. A sentencing date was not set.

   Federal prosecutors say Cicero claimed false refunds for the years 2005 through 2008 on taxes she claimed to have paid on bond income, and falsified documents as part of the scheme.

   The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Cicero is an adherent of a theory claiming that those with knowledge of proper procedures can obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in their name being held in trust by the government. An IRS investigator called the argument "frivolous."

   

 

   An Imperial, Missouri woman could spend a year in prison for beating her son's alleged heroin dealer with a baseball bat.  

   It took a Jefferson County jury about two hours Tuesday night to find 54 year old Sherrie Gavan guilty of third-degree misdemeanor assault.  

   Gavan admits that in December 2011, she hit Josh Loyd with a bat after seeking him out to tell him to stay away from her son, Clayton.  Her attorney had argued "self-defense," saying Gavan had believed the teen was going to hit her with a brick.  

   Gavan says she just did what any parent would have done, especially a parent who knows what heroin does to their child. "It's like my husband said, there’s two ways out:  you stop or you die," she said.  "And I did not want to bury my son.  I could not bury my son."

   Gavin says even though she could go to prison, she'd do it again, because her son is alive, graduating high school with straight "A's" and getting ready for college.

 

A former Boy Scout troop volunteer will be sentenced in May after being convicted of a dozen counts of sexual abuse involving a teenage boy.

St. Clair County jurors Thursday convicted 55 year old John Demers after less than two hours of deliberation.

The charges involved a teenager who said Demers had inappropriate contact with him between 2005 and 2011.

Demer's attorney says his client maintains his innocence.