{Kentucky}...Federal prosecutors said Thursday they have asked the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to require 51 year old Karen Cunagin Sypher's lawyers to file a new appellate brief because her last filing lacks factual and legal grounding. Assistant U.S. Attorney Candace Hill says the brief filed by attorney David Brian Nolan doesn't include legal citations or references to the trial record to back up her claims that her attorney was ineffective and contains repeated errors. In 2010, a jury convicted Sypher of extortion, lying to the FBI and retaliation against a witness. Prosecutors said she sought millions in cash, cars and a house from University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino to stay quiet about a tryst in a Louisville restaurant. She is serving a seven-year sentence at a federal prison in Marianna, Florida. In her appeal, Sypher claims a broad conspiracy involving Pitino, the federal trial judge and Sypher's former attorney to ensure she would be found guilty.
