Metro news for Thursday

The trial of Hemy Neuman, who is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity to killing Rusty Sneiderman outside a Dunwoody day care facility last fall, has been delayed.

A court-appointed mental health expert  has yet to examine Neuman, who has acknowledged shooting Sneiderman. Judge Gregory Adams postponed the trial, originally scheduled to start in less than two weeks, to an undisclosed date.

"The issue is not what happened, but why it happened," attorney Doug Peters said of the attack in an interview last month with the AJC. "The facts of this case are not in dispute."

If the defense is successful, Neuman would become a ward of the state mental health system. The jury could also find him guilty but mentally ill, in which case Neuman would become an inmate within the Georgia Department of Corrections, where he would receive treatment for his sickness.

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A federal judge has upheld a Sandy Springs decision to limit the size of a church based on its on-site parking.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Totenberg ruled last week that the city properly administered its parking ordinance in December when it denied a request by the Church of Scientology to expand a building at Roswell Road and Glenridge Drive. The city granted use of the building as a church but denied a request to add a fourth floor by enclosing a basement parking garage, saying there wasn't enough  available parking.

Attorneys for the church said the additional space was needed because Scientology worship focuses more on individual classroom study than traditional congregational-style churches.

The judge will now consider the church’s assertion that its free exercise rights were violated. PATRICK FOX

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The U.S. Department of Justice plans to close it’s anti-trust division in Atlanta as part of an agency-wide plan designed to save about $8 million a year.

Some of the prosecutors and support staff will be relocated to Washington or to field offices in San Francisco, Chicago of New York. Those who don’t have a place in the revamped unit will get severance pay and will be the first choices for positions in other federal agencies.

If Congress approves the plan, the Justice Department also will close field offices in Dallas, Cleveland and Philadelphia. RHONDA COOK

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