In the Nation
Ex-Okla. sheriff guilty in rapes
FAIRVIEW, Okla. - A former Oklahoma sheriff was convicted of second-degree rape and bribery yesterday in a case that accused him of coercing sex from female inmates and drug court defendants.
A Major County jury convicted former Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess on 13 felonies, including five counts of second-degree rape and three counts of bribery by a public official. He was acquitted of 23 other felony counts.
The jury recommended that Burgess serve 94 years in prison. He is to be sentenced March 24. Prosecutors alleged that Burgess, 56, used his position as a member of a team controlling a drug court in Custer County to sexually coerce defendants.
Burgess had pleaded not guilty, and his attorney maintained that the accusers were either lying or that the women consented to sex. Under state law, an inmate cannot legally consent to sexual relations with a jailer or anyone else who controls the conditions of the prisoner's confinement.
- AP
Search suspended for couple on ship
LONG BEACH, Calif. - The Coast Guard suspended its search yesterday for an elderly couple believed to have fallen off a cruise ship last week between Long Beach and northern Mexico.
The aerial search for the 90-year-old man and his 79-year-old wife was halted after officials determined that their chances of surviving in the water were slim, Chief Warrant Officer Scott Epperson said.
The couple were last seen Tuesday aboard the Carnival Paradise. Miami-based Carnival said their cabin door was double-locked from the inside with a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the handle. Their belongings remained inside and the door leading from the cabin to the private balcony was unlocked.
- AP
Boy left on bus in subzero cold
CHICAGO - A Catholic school is investigating how a 6-year-old boy was left sleeping on a school bus for more than two hours in subzero temperatures.
St. Malachy School officials said Kinjari Penson fell asleep Thursday on the way to an after-school program at a Chicago church. The first grader did not wake up until the other children returned to the bus.
The temperatures had dropped to 11 below zero. The boy complained that his feet hurt from the cold and was treated for hypothermia at a hospital. Principal Bridgid Miller said the school is working on new safeguards.
- AP
Elsewhere:
Firefighters put out a blaze
yesterday that burned for several hours and destroyed a block of buildings in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Fire Battalion Chief Doug Smith said that winds helped spread the fire that blackened 13 to 17 businesses, including a restaurant and a candle shop.
Four children died
yesterday morning in a mobile-home fire in Lacombe, La., about 25 miles north of New Orleans. Fire officials said that the victims' mother, grandmother and step-grandfather were injured and that a cause had not been determined.
