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(04/24/07 4:00am)
FORT WAYNE – Employees in most of Indiana’s counties have learned how to collect DNA so they can help compile genetic samples from every convicted felon in the state.\nHuntington County Jail Commander Steve McIntyre is one of those doing the work. To take a sample, he takes four cotton swabs and rubs them on the inside of a convict’s mouth, then collects some general identifying information about the person to include with a report.\nThen he sends the kit to Strand Analytical Laboratories in Indianapolis, which has a $2.5 million contract with state police to collect the DNA data.\nThe samples go into state and national databases to help investigators solve crimes. Formerly, state law only required people convicted of felonies involving violent crime or burglary to submit samples. The law now requires samples from all felons convicted after July 1, 2005.\nStrand is working with counties either by showing employees how to collect samples or, in some cases, using its own part-time workers to collect samples if a county requests it.\nLt. Greg Bricker, Noble County’s jail commander, said the job was too important to add to his employees’ workload.\n“People’s lives hang in the balance,” Bricker said. “I’m not sure if I want my staff responsible for something like that.”\nHuntington County’s McIntyre, who does most of his jail’s DNA collection himself, has a different view.\n“It’s not that big a burden,” he said. The rate of sampling has shrunk from an initial eight to 10 a week to one every two or three weeks, he said.\nBigger counties have had to think bigger.\nIn Tippecanoe County, in the Lafayette area, authorities sent out letters to 2,000 felons ordering them to show up at the county fairgrounds one day in February so that 20 of Strand’s part-time workers could collect their DNA.\nIn Indianapolis, four DNA collectors set up office for eight hours per day, five days a week, for six weeks.\n“It has been quite a challenge,” said Mark Renner, Strand’s director of operations.
(04/24/07 4:00am)
BASS LAKE, Ind. – Crews on Monday found the wreckage from a helicopter that crashed into Bass Lake in northern Indiana, killing one woman who was aboard.\nDivers were also looking for the body of a second person aboard the craft that crashed Sunday night in the southern Starke County lake, said Gene Davis, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.\nThe body of a woman that has not yet been positively identified was found soon after the 8:30 p.m. crash. Authorities do not believe she was piloting the helicopter.\nThe pilot might have been a man who owns homes in Illinois and on Bass Lake and frequently flew between the two places, Davis said.\nInvestigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were also at the lake, along with a team from IDEM to check for fuel leakage, Davis said.\nPete Knutel, who lives at the lake, rushed to his pontoon boat to help while his wife called 911 after the family witnessed the crash. Fireman Jeff Risner arrived and jumped into the boat as Knutel and his daughter cast off.\n“We saw it going under,” said Nichole, 12. “I saw two big lights, then kaboom – it sank into the water.”\nThe would-be rescuers thought they heard two people yelling, but found only one woman in the water. The woman was alive at first but quickly lost consciousness, and Risner tried using CPR to revive her. She was pronounced dead shortly thereafter at Starke Memorial Hospital.\nIn the hours after the crash, a Med Flight helicopter hovered over the lake with a search light to help divers look for survivors. But the search was called off because of the darkness, police said.\nBass Lake is just off U.S. 35, about 40 miles south of South Bend.
(04/24/07 4:00am)
UPLAND, Ind. – Taylor University will hold memorials this week for four students and a school employee who were killed in a highway crash a year ago.\nThe parents of two women whose identities were mistakenly switched after the crash are expected to attend one of the memorials in Upland on Thursday, the anniversary of the crash. The families of Whitney Cerak and Laura VanRyn have refrained from public comment since the accident.\nFive weeks after the April 26 crash, authorities announced they had mixed up the identifications of 19-year-old Cerak, of Gaylord, Mich., who was severely injured but survived, and 22-year-old VanRyn, of Caledonia, Mich., who had been killed.\nCerak, a sophomore, returned to Taylor as a full-time student in August and is living on campus.\n“I ran into her on campus recently, and she looks fabulous,” Taylor spokesman Jim Garringer said. “You would never know that she had been through this ordeal, based upon her physical appearance. And I understand from a number of different sources that she’s doing quite well.”\nAs a result of the misidentification by the Grant County coroner’s office, the Indiana General Assembly is considering legislation that would require coroners to be certified in death investigations or forfeit their paychecks. Currently, there are no requirements for coroners other than living in the county where they work and being at least 18 years old.\nThe truck driver accused of falling asleep at the wheel and causing the collision is scheduled to stand trial in August.\nRobert F. Spencer, of Canton Township, Mich., near Detroit, was charged in September with five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness. Authorities say he had driven at least nine hours more than allowed under federal rules before he fell asleep and his semitrailer slammed into a Taylor van on Interstate 69 midway between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis.\nSpencer is being held in Jay County, where the trial was moved after a judge decided in January the publicity of the crash and the mix-up was too great for him to get a fair trial in Grant County, where the accident occurred.\nThe students killed in the crash were: VanRyn, Bradley J. Larson, 22, of Elm Grove, Wis., Elizabeth A. Smith, 22, of Mount Zion, Ill. and Laurel E. Erb, 20, St. Charles, Ill.\nUniversity employee Monica Felver, 53, of Hartford City, was also killed.\n“As awful as that night was, and it certainly was a terrible night, we’ve seen some amazing things that have happened in people’s lives over this past year,” Garringer said.\nThe tragedy sparked a newfound closeness between the school’s sophomores, juniors and seniors who were students last year, Garringer said.\n“The entire group came together in a way that I had never seen before,” Garringer said.\nThe memorials will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at First Missionary Church in Fort Wayne and 7 p.m. Thursday at Taylor’s Rediger Chapel Auditorium in Upland.
(04/24/07 4:00am)
NEW CASTLE, Ind. – Two staff members were injured in a disturbance among prisoners Tuesday at the New Castle Correctional Facility, a prison spokeswoman said.\nPictures taken from television helicopters showed at least two fires burning in the courtyard.\nNew Castle Mayor Tom Nipp told WISH-TV that he was told it was a “full scale riot” at the medium-security prison.\nIndiana Department of Correction spokeswoman Java Ahmed said more than one cell house was involved in the disturbance. She did not release the extent of the staffers’ injuries. \nThe DOC mobilized emergency squads, county police and Indiana State Police to the prison about 45 miles east of Indianapolis, she said. Nipp said the entire city police force had been activated. Helicopter pictures also showed police in riot gear standing outside the prison fence.\nIn March, Arizona and Indiana reached an agreement on housing up to 1,260 Arizona inmates at the prison about 45 miles east of Indianapolis. Bill Lamoreaux, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Corrections, said New Castle is currently housing 630 Arizona inmates, who began arriving in the last two months.\nAhmed said Indiana and Arizona inmates were involved in the disturbance.\nThe prison was established in 2002 and housed an average daily population of 450 in 2005, according to the DOC web site. It has a 2,416-bed capacity. It also houses a psychiatric facility that treats DOC inmates who are bused in from other prisons.\nGEO Group last year contracted with the Indiana Department of Correction to assume management of the prison for an initial term of four years with three two-year extensions.
(04/20/07 4:00am)
MARENGO, Ind. – A gunman accused of holding two children hostage for seven hours in a southern Indiana home faces a dozen felony charges including kidnapping and criminal confinement, authorities said Thursday.\nPolice captured Todd Dunn, 44, of Brownsburg, Ind., late Wednesday after he released the boys, ages 7 and 14, who were being held in their Marengo home, said Sgt. Todd Ringle, a state police spokesman.\nDunn faces three counts each of kidnapping and criminal confinement, two counts of criminal mischief and one count each of burglary, carjacking, residential entry and resisting law enforcement. All charges are preliminary.\nDunn agreed with police negotiators shortly before midnight to unload his shotgun and place it outside the home. He then released the boys, Ringle said, and officers went inside to arrest him. The children were unharmed and returned to their parents, who were standing outside the home as police negotiated, Ringle said.\nDunn was being held Thursday in the Crawford County Jail, where he was taken after having his arm treated at a hospital. He hurt himself when he broke into the home in the community about 35 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky., Ringle said.\nThe situation began Wednesday afternoon with another home invasion in Mooresville, Ind., about 85 miles north. Dunn abducted a homeowner who surprised him after he broke into a house in the town about 15 miles south of Indianapolis, police said. Dunn then drove south on Indiana 37 in the hostage’s truck, but the homeowner escaped and called police.\nA Crawford County sheriff’s deputy later spotted the suspect and truck at a gas station in English, Ind., but Dunn rammed the police car when the deputy confronted him, police said. He then carjacked another pickup truck and fled again, ending up at the rural home on the outskirts of Marengo, a town of about 860 people.
(04/17/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Under a bill now headed to the governor, schools would give parents information about the link between human papilloma virus and cervical cancer – and information about the availability of an HPV vaccine.\nThe Senate agreed Monday with changes the House made to the bill, sending the legislation to Gov. Mitch Daniels for consideration.\nThe HPV vaccine has become a controversial issue in several states that considered requiring sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated against HPV. Some opponents say requiring the vaccine promotes promiscuity and erodes parents’ rights.\nBut Indiana’s bill would simply send home information about the HPV vaccine and does not require girls to become vaccinated.\nGardasil, made by Merck & Co. and approved by the federal government in June, protects girls and women against strains of HPV that are responsible for most cases of cervical cancer. A government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active. The three-dose regimen typically costs about $360.
(04/17/07 4:00am)
Two people with ties to Purdue were among the list of victims from Monday’s fatal shootings at Virgina Tech. Kevin Granata, age unknown, who was an engineering science and mechanics professor, was killed according to Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department. Granata earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Purdue in 1986, the school said.\nIn addition, G.V. Loganathan, 51, civil and environmental engineering professor, was also one of the 32 killed, according to his brother G.V. Palanivel. Loganathan graduated with a doctorate in civil engineering in 1982 from Purdue.
(04/10/07 4:00am)
NEWBURGH, Ind. – A group of veterans is pushing for a POW-MIA flag to be flown over a proposed war memorial despite a committee’s refusal to include it as part of the project.\nVeterans and their supporters plan to ask the Newburgh Town Council to override the committee’s refusal to include the flag, which honors prisoners of war and soldiers who went missing in action during the Vietnam War.\n“One of the things about veterans is that we don’t give up easy,” said Jim Wilkins. “We want to make sure those (POW-MIA) veterans are remembered, too.”\nA six-member committee that was appointed by the council split evenly last week, effectively killing a proposal to fly the flag at the new monument.\nBut Shari Sherman, one of the three committee members who voted against the flag display, said the monument is intended to honor all veterans without regard to any particular war or group.\n“To open it up to any group indicates that we are looking at other groups, too,” she said. “They certainly are a segment of the veterans, and that is a worthy group, but not all veterans were POWs or MIAs. To select out any group opens it up for other groups to say, ‘My group is just as worthy or has just as many members.’”\nThe monument is planned for a small triangle of land owned by the town at Indiana 261 and Bell Road. The project has been in development for almost two years and is being funded with donations and through the sale of commemorative bricks.
(04/10/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Supreme Court this week was expected to listen to arguments on whether state courts should be required to pay for translators to assist defendants who do not understand English.\nIndiana courts require defendants to hire translators on their own if they can afford them. Courts sometimes provide interpreters if defendants prove they are indigent. Nothing in state law requires courts to provide them, said Lilia Judson, executive director of State Court Administration in Indiana.\nIn the case before the justices Thursday, a defendant in a drug case out of Clark County is asking that Indiana provide state-funded translators as Kentucky does.\nIndiana’s approach “discriminates against people who don’t understand English,” Stephen Beardsley, attorney for defendant Jesus Arrieta, said last week. He said it imposes on someone who is presumed innocent “the extra burden” of paying for something that is intrinsic to the legal process.\n“We don’t pay the judge’s salary. We don’t pay for the court reporter,” Beardsley said of defendants.\nArrieta was arrested June 10, 2005, on a charge of dealing cocaine, a felony that carries a prison term of 20 to 50 years.\nBecause Arrieta doesn’t speak English, Clark Superior Court Judge Cecile Blau made sure that a translator, paid by the court, was present at his initial hearing four days after the arrest.\nBut Blau told Arrieta two months later that he would have to pay to have a required certified translator present at the rest of his proceedings. The court would pay for a translator only if Arrieta, who had hired his own lawyer, could prove he could not afford to pay one.\n“Just as if we appoint a public defender, basically there has to be a showing of need,” Blau explained in her ruling.\nArreita appealed to the Indiana Court of Appeals, which upheld Blau in a 2-1 decision in November. Arrieta then appealed to the state Supreme Court. His drug-dealing case is on hold pending the appeal, and he is free on bond.\n“Our legislature has made a policy decision to require trial courts to provide interpreters at government expense only when the defendant is indigent. Any change in that policy is best made by the legislature, not by the courts,” Appeals Court Chief Judge John Baker wrote in the majority opinion.\nJudge Terry Crone concurred. But Judge Nancy Vaidik wrote a dissenting opinion that mirrors Arrieta’s position.\n“Requiring a non-English-speaking defendant to pay for an interpreter, to me, would be tantamount to requiring any defendant to pay for a courtroom, a bailiff, even a judge,” she wrote.\nKentucky courts spent $1.37 million in 2006 on interpreting services, up from $892,700 \nin 2003.
(04/03/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS - A man who police said hogtied and fatally beat his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son for sucking his thumb is being held on a charge of murder.\nChristopher Montgomery was arrested Saturday, a day after the death of Elijah Simpson. The child’s mother, Courtney Simpson, who initially told police the boy’s 5-year-old brother had tied him with a shoelace, was arrested on a charge of neglect of a dependent.\nMontgomery and Simpson were arrested after an autopsy showed 4-year-old Elijah Simpson died from a fractured skull. Both were being held Saturday night in the Marion County Jail.\nThe boy was already dead when his mother took him to an Indianapolis hospital Friday, police said. Doctors contacted police after finding marks on Elijahs wrists and ankles that indicated he had been restrained.\nFollowing the autopsy, Simpson told police Montgomery had injured the boy earlier Friday while disciplining him for sucking his thumb. She said Montgomery struck the child in the head and then used a drawstring from a hooded sweat shirt to restrain him.\nChild Protective Services took the other boy into protective custody.
(03/29/07 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A motorist who police say fell asleep at the wheel struck two Somali siblings who had been in the U.S. a week, killing one of them.\nShukri Mohamed Ibrahim, 9, was pronounced dead at the scene Tuesday. Her brother, Hassan Mohamed Ibrahim, 14, was in critical condition Wednesday at Methodist Hospital.\nThe boy was riding a bicycle and his sister was on foot behind him along a city street, police said.\nThe children’s family – a father, mother and five children – had moved to Indianapolis last week. They came through a refugee program called the Exodus Project that relocates people out of Somalia, which has been wracked by nearly two decades of civil strife, and other areas around the world.\n“The mother was wailing in the street,” said Lori Wells, who stopped at the accident scene.\nIndianapolis Metropolitan Police said Margaret Graves, 42, apparently fell asleep before her car crossed two lanes of traffic, striking the children.\nLt. Douglas Scheffel said investigators do not anticipate that Graves, who was driving with her two children, will be charged because there were no signs of criminal intent. A spokesman for Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said his office had not received the police report.\nScheffel said the children’s parents heard the sound of the crash from their nearby home and ran outside to find their children and the smashed pink bike, which was thrown by the impact into the grass outside a school playground.\nThe family had been living for a week in a house owned by First Meridian Heights Presbyterian Church, said the Rev. Curtis Page. The church of about 400 members makes houses available to families in the Exodus Project for six months at a time until adults get jobs and children are enrolled in school, he said.\nMark Cassini, executive director of the Exodus Project, said the family had just arrived from Kenya, where they had been in a refugee camp for 14 years.\nThe project, supported by community groups, universities and churches, has been active since 1980. The group brings about 200 to 250 people a year from across the world to central Indiana, he said. He said about 100 Somali families live in Indianapolis.
(03/27/07 4:00am)
PORTLAND, Ind. – A judge approved money for an expert to aid the defense of a truck driver accused of falling asleep at the wheel and causing a collision that killed four Taylor University students and a university employee.\nTrucker Robert F. Spencer’s attorney will have $4,350 to hire a crash analyst to study the circumstances surrounding the April 2006 collision, which happened when Spencer’s semitrailer crossed the Interstate 69 median and struck a university van.\nDefense attorney Joe Keith Lewis argued during a hearing Friday in Jay Circuit Court that the review was necessary.\n“We need to reinvestigate this accident,” Lewis said. “The investigation is key to good criminal defense.”\nSpencer, of Canton Township, Mich., near Detroit, was charged in September with five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness. Authorities say he had driven at least nine hours more than allowed under federal rules and had fallen asleep behind the wheel.
(03/27/07 4:00am)
AUSTIN, Ind. – A homeowner pulled two people from the wreckage of a small plane after it crashed into his southern Indiana home Sunday, police said.\nMoments after Don Satterwhite pulled Danny Burns and Barbara Burns from the wreckage of the plane Sunday afternoon, it burst into flames, Indiana State Police said.\nThe Burnses were taken to University Hospital in Louisville, Ky., where Danny Burns was in serious but stable condition and Barbara Burns was in stable condition, a nursing supervisor said Monday morning.\nThe Burnses’ Cessna 150M was taking off from a private airstrip in the Scott County community of Austin, Ind., about 35 miles north of Louisville, a little before 5:30 p.m. Sunday, police said.\nWitnesses said the plane had trouble gaining altitude. The plane clipped the top of some trees, then crashed in the yard of the home, police said.\nOne of the plane’s wings hit a porch post on the house, damaging it, the roof and siding, said Scott County Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Guarneri.\nGuarneri said the house was not damaged by the fire.\nThe Federal Aviation Administration was scheduled to arrive at the site Monday morning to continue the investigation, Guarneri said.
(03/27/07 4:00am)
OGDEN DUNES, Ind. - An archaeological team is trying to determine if a Lake Michigan shipwreck might have had ties to the Underground Railroad, which helped slaves escape from the South during the 1800s.\nA member of the Briggs Project Team said the group has begun analyzing the shipwreck off Ogden Dunes beach and has combed through historical records in LaPorte and Porter counties for information about the role the area played in providing fugitive slaves with an exit route to freedom in Canada.\n“There’s a good possibility you have a big piece of history here in your backyard,” Roger Barski told guests of the Ogden Dunes Historical Society during a presentation on the team’s research Sunday.\nThe team began studying the ship, designated the Alpha Wreck, in summer 2005.
(03/22/07 4:00am)
KNIGHTSTOWN, Ind. – Three students and their families have settled a civil-rights lawsuit over the students’ expulsions for making a movie in which evil teddy bears attack a teacher.\nThe settlement with the Charles A. Beard School Corp. was approved by the school board on a 5-2 vote Tuesday.\nThe lawsuit resulted from a dispute over a movie titled “The Teddy Bear Master” made by four students and distributed on DVD. School officials saw the movie as a threat to Knightstown Intermediate School teacher Dan Clevenger and expelled the four.\nTwo of the students, Isaac Imel and Cody Overbay, sued the school corporation, which is 35 miles east of Indianapolis, on grounds it had violated their First Amendment rights. A third student, Charlie Ours, later joined the lawsuit. The fourth student did not challenge the school’s expulsion.\nThe boys, who are sophomores, completed the movie last summer. In it, the “teddy bear master” orders stuffed animals to kill a teacher who had embarrassed him, but students battle the toy beasts, according to documents filed in court.\nSuperintendent David McGuire said the school district’s insurance company will cover the cost of the $69,000 settlement that will be split among the plaintiffs.\nSchool Board President Mike Fruth cast one of the dissenting votes.\n“I don’t agree with our justice system,” Fruth said.\nThe settlement terms also require the students’ suspensions and expulsions be expunged from their records, that the students be allowed to make up missed work, and that Imel and Ours write a letter of apology to Clevenger and his wife.\nU.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker in December had granted a preliminary injunction against the expulsions of Imel and Overbay, saying school officials had not proved the movie disrupted school. Barker in her ruling described the movie as “humiliating” and “obscene.”
(03/21/07 4:00am)
MUNCIE – An eighth-grader faces expulsion after admitting he put urine in a teacher’s coffee pot, officials said.\nThe Wilson Middle School teacher noticed that the coffee had an unusual odor Friday and reported it to the principal, Muncie Community Schools officials said. A student who overheard classmates discussing it also reported the incident to officials.\nUrine was found in the locker of the eighth-grade boy, who admitted to putting some in the coffee, authorities said.\nThe eighth-grader has been suspended pending a recommendation for expulsion, said Assistant Superintendent Steve Edwards.\n“This type of student behavior will not be tolerated,” Wilson principal DiLynn Phelps and Superintendent Marlin B. Creasy wrote in a letter to parents. “No student will be permitted to deliberately attempt to cause bodily harm to any other student, teacher or staff member.”
(03/21/07 4:00am)
SOUTH BEND – A former city police officer has been accused of threatening to arrest someone during a traffic stop unless the person turned over drugs and money, the U.S. attorney’s office said.\nHaven Freeman, 31, surrendered to federal authorities Monday after being indicted by a federal grand jury. He pleaded not guilty and was released on a $25,000 unsecured bond after making his initial appearance in U.S. District Court.\nHe is charged with extorting money and drugs under “color of official right,” violating the controlled substances act and unlawful use and carry of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime in summer 2005.\nFreeman could not be reached for comment Tuesday by The Associated Press because he has an unlisted telephone number.\nThe indictment alleges Freeman possessed 100 grams or less of a substance that contained heroin. Court documents indicate that Freeman also threatened to separate the person in the traffic stop from a child unless he or she relinquished the drugs and money.\nFreeman resigned in March 2006 after serving 3 1/2 years on the force.
(03/19/07 4:00am)
WEST LAFAYETTE – A Purdue worker investigating a noise coming from a residence hall utility room found a body Monday inside, a campus official said.\nPurdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said it was too early to know whether the body discovered about noon in Owen Hall is that of Purdue freshman Wade Steffey, 19, who went missing Jan. 13.\n“Owen Hall is indeed the last place where Wade Steffey was seen,” she said, adding that the room is not accessible from the residence hall.\nNorberg said she did not know whether the body was male or female. The coroner was investigating, she said, and as of 2:45 p.m., the body remained inside.\nSomeone heard a “pinging” noise coming from inside the room and called the campus utility department, asking it to investigate.\n“The utility worker went in and found a body in this room. It’s a high-voltage area,” Norberg said. “She was traumatized. It’s a very difficult situation for her.”\nPower was cut to the residence hall while the body was removed from what she described as a transformer room filled with high-voltage connections.\nShe also said that the ground-level utility room is not accessible from Owen Hall and is locked with two sets of keys, one each for two sets of doors.\nNorberg said that when the building was searched for clues into Steffey’s disappearance, the utility room was apparently not examined because it was locked.\n“Right now we don’t know how this deceased individual would have gained entry. That’s certainly a question we need to answer, but right now our most important concern is with this individual’s family,” she said.\nSteffey, of Bloomington, was last seen leaving a fraternity party on the north side of campus.\nHe was reported missing after friends returned from the school’s three-day break for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and could not find him.
(03/09/07 5:00am)
ANDERSON – A collie named Lassie roused her owners and enabled them to escape their burning home but died in the fire, relatives said.\n“The dog saved their life,” said Judi Thompson after her parents’ home burned Wednesday morning. “Even the firemen said that. Isn’t that amazing? It gives me goose bumps.”\nThompson said her parents, Robert and Elsie Whitson, were asleep in their bedroom when the fire broke out at the rear of their home in the city about 30 miles northeast of Indianapolis. The dog, which slept at the foot of the couple’s bed, licked and nibbled at their hands until 81-year-old Robert awoke and the couple went outside, she said.\nAnderson Fire Department Battalion Chief Larry Towne said firefighters found the dog’s remains underneath some collapsed roofing.\n“They thought Lassie was out, but she wasn’t,” said Naomia L. Gooding, another daughter of the couple. “They loved this dog, and she was a wonderful dog.”\nThick smoke was rolling from the home when firefighters arrived shortly after 7:30 a.m., Towne said. The fire was still under investigation, but likely was caused by a space heater in a family room in front of the house, he said.\nRobert Whitson had first-degree burns to his shoulders, back and part of his head and his 80-year-old wife had chest pains at the scene. Both were treated at a hospital and released, Towne said.\nNo firefighters were injured fighting the blaze.
(03/08/07 5:00am)
GARY – City police must stop using computers to fill out arrest reports and affidavits and instead write them out by hand.\nThe city has distributed about 150 laptops at $3,500 each to officers over the past few years. But after police administrators met with Lake County Deputy Prosecutor Laura Morrison on Monday about problems with some reports, a memo by Gary police Cmdr. Anthony Stanley was circulated prohibiting the use of computers for official paperwork.\n“No computer-generated arrests or affidavits will be accepted,” Stanley’s order states.\nFraternal Order of Police President Del Stout said many members are upset about the change.\n“It’s easier to type up a report, it makes for a cleaner, more thorough report,” Stout said. “We’re going backwards with technology instead of forward.”\nDepartment spokesman Lt. Samuel Roberts said the memo may not reflect the consensus of the meeting. He said the problem was some officers were not using the correct forms.\n“They were generating their own, and in some cases the required information was not included,” he said.\nHe said one example was a probable-cause affidavit that did not include a place for the judge to sign.\nThe department’s information technology division will develop new computer forms for future use, Roberts said.