Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Digest

The skinny

By TIMES WIRES
Published August 15, 2007

RIPPED FROM HEADLINES

JUDGE ONLY WANTS JURORS SEEING HER CRIME DRAMAS

Jurors have long been ordered to avoid news reports while serving. But a judge in Butler County, Ohio, has taken that a step further, ordering them to avoid shows like CSI and Law & Order. And with spinoffs and syndication, that's almost like telling them they can't watch TV at all. "So many shows now are pulled in part from cases all over the country," Common Pleas Judge Patricia Oney said. "I don't want jurors watching them while they are in deliberation."

MAMA MIA'S BOY

Mom has enough, kicks son out

"My son does not respect me, he doesn't tell me where he's going in the evenings and returns home late," an Italian mother in Sicily recently told La Sicilia newspaper. "He is never happy with the food I make and always complains. This can't go on." So she just got tired of it and kicked him out of the villa. Took his keys. Cut off his allowances. Even called the cops hoping they could help set "this blockhead" straight. Good for her. Oh, and the son is 61 years old. So maybe it was time. ... Update: maybe not. Police arbitrated the matter, and - for the time being - he moved back in. And got his allowance back.

HE MIGHT'VE DONE IT

Guy in picture likely set up the camera

An employee at a movie theater in Seattle was arrested on charges of placing a videocamera in the women's rest room. How did they catch him? According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, it seems he turned the videocamera on as he was installing it, and the police have good pictures of him setting it up.

UPDATES

Expensive pantsuit

The owners of a Washington, D.C., dry cleaner withdrew their demand that Judge Roy Pearson pay nearly $83,000 in legal bills the business incurred when Pearson sued it for $54-million for losing his pants. Pearson, who lost the case but is appealing the ruling, may soon lose his job. The owners said that supporters had raised nearly enough money to cover the bills, and they wanted the suit behind them. As for Pearson, last week the commission that oversees administrative law judges sent him a letter saying it may not renew his 10-year appointment when it meets next month.

Oliver out again

For the second time in two weeks, Oliver, a 9-year-old capuchin monkey at the Tupelo, Miss., Buffalo Park and Zoo, has picked the lock of his cage and escaped. He escaped on July 31, then was captured Aug. 6, before getting back out on Monday. "This is the craziest thing I have ever seen," park manager Kirk Nemecheck said. "I'm getting titanium locks next time. I'm tired of chasing a monkey."

Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.

[Last modified August 15, 2007, 01:42:14]