NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investigators searching a New York basement for clues about the 1979 disappearance of a 6-year-old boy have ended their digging at the scene after “nothing conclusive was found” from a four-day excavation, a law enforcement source said on Sunday.

Etan Patz was one of the first missing children in the United States to have his photograph printed on milk cartons after he disappeared, and his case helped fuel an intense national campaign in search of missing children in the 1980s.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investigators searching a New York basement for clues about the disappearance of a 6-year-old boy more than 30 years ago found a stain on a wall that is being tested for possible links to the case, a law enforcement official said on Sunday.

Etan Patz was one of the first missing children in the United States to have his photograph reprinted on milk cartons after he disappeared. He was formally declared dead in 2001.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A judge on Thursday dismissed a Playboy model’s lawsuit against former boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya and labeled as frivolous her claims that a night of sex and drugs with him was not consensual.

Judge Paul Wooten also took the unusual step of fining both the model, Angelica Cecora, and her lawyer, Robert Anthony Evans, $500 apiece and ordered Cecora to pay De La Hoya’s legal costs. The judge said the suit, which sought $5 million in damages, sought to “harass and maliciously injure” the boxer.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – When Walter Fortson was arrested in 2007 for dealing crack cocaine, he believed a police officer who told him “your life is over.”

Five years later, he is an honors student at Rutgers University, and learned this week that he won a $30,000 Truman Scholarship, the only New Jersey undergraduate to receive the prestigious recognition. The national award for graduate school costs is given to outstanding students pursuing careers in government or public affairs.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A civil liberties group said on Wednesday it was suing the New York City Police Department for patrolling inside apartment buildings, saying residents are routinely stopped while simply going to check their mail.

Nearly every day police “unlawfully” stop and question residents of apartment buildings enrolled in a program called Operation Clean Halls, according to the lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union and a dozen tenants.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York police detective has been fired and three other members of the department were forced to retire for their roles in the shooting of an unarmed man who died in a hail of bullets after his bachelor party in 2006, a department spokesman confirmed on Saturday.

Sean Bell, 23, who was black, was killed and two friends severely wounded when police fired 50 bullets at them after a bachelor party at a strip club early on his wedding day.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The father of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teen shot dead by a neighborhood watch captain in Florida, said on Wednesday he would join A Million Hoodies March in New York to demand justice for his slain son who “didn’t deserve to die this evil way.”

Tracy Martin said he and Trayvon’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, would join the crowd but would not wear hooded sweatshirts like the one their 17-year-old son wore when he was killed last month in a gated community in Sanford, Florida, by watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey (Reuters) – A former Rutgers University student who used a computer webcam to spy on a sexual tryst of his roommate, who later committed suicide, was found guilty of hate crimes on Friday in a case that put a national spotlight on gay bullying.

Dharun Ravi, 20, faces 10 years in prison on the most serious charge of bias intimidation against Tyler Clementi, 18, who committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge three days after learning his gay encounter was seen by webcam.

NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey (Reuters) – A former Rutgers University student who spied on the sexual tryst of his roommate, who later committed suicide, was found guilty of hate crimes on Friday in a case that put a national spotlight on gay bullying.

Dharun Ravi, 20, faces the possibility of 10 years in prison for using a webcam to watch roommate Tyler Clementi with another man in their dormitory room on Sept 19, 2010.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A jury on Friday began a third day of deliberations to decide whether a former Rutgers University student committed a hate crime when he used a webcam to spy on his college roommate kissing another man.

The case put a national spotlight on gay bullying when the roommate committed suicide days later.