Louisiana
Mom held hostage sends daughter to school with SOS
CLINTON, La. (AP) - A Louisiana mother who said she was being held against her will sent her daughter to school with a note that helped authorities come to her aid.
East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Jeff Travis tells news outlets that the 11-year-old showed the handwritten message from her mother to an adult at East Feliciana Middle School in Clinton on Tuesday.
School officials then contacted authorities.
Travis says the note insinuated the mother was being held hostage and asked for someone to call police.
Hours later, authorities found the mother at a rural home. After obtaining a search warrant, they also found the woman's boyfriend, 27-year-old Donald Ray Guy, hiding in a closet.
No one was injured.
Guy faces domestic abuse battery and false imprisonment charges. It's unclear if he has an attorney.
Louisiana
Prosecutor says inmates screamed from jail beatings
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) - A federal prosecutor says handcuffed inmates screamed and groaned in pain and begged for the beatings to stop as sheriff's deputies swung metal batons in an April 2011 contraband sweep at a Louisiana jail.
Multiple news outlets cite Prosecutor Joseph Jarzabek describing the scenario Monday during his opening statement in Sheriff Louis Ackal's trial on civil rights abuses.
Jarzabek said the search for contraband turned brutal after an inmate mouthed off to a deputy.
Ackal is accused of abuse and cover-ups dating back to his first days in office eight years ago. Ten deputies have pleaded guilty; several are set to testify against Ackal.
The sheriff's attorney told jurors they should be wary of such testimony, because the deputies are awaiting sentencing and will likely try to win favor with prosecutors.
Florida
Face-biting teen: 'I ate something bad ... humans'
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - The Florida college student accused of killing a couple and chewing on the dead man's face told deputies, "Help me, I ate something bad" and then admitted it was "humans" as he spit out a piece of flesh, court documents show.
Austin Harrouff, 19, also begged deputies to kill him after they pulled him off John Stevens' body, according to the records, obtained Monday by the Palm Beach Post.
"Shoot me now, I deserve to die," Harrouff said.
Harrouff is charged with second-degree murder in the Aug. 15 attack on Stevens, 59, and his 53-year-old wife, Michelle Mishcon, outside their Tequesta home. Prosecutors say they will ask a grand jury to indict him on first-degree murder charges. That would make him eligible for the death penalty.
Deputies say they found the then-muscular former high school football player and wrestler in his underwear, making animal noises and biting Stevens' face as he pinned his victim's body to the driveway.
The FBI is running tests to determine whether Harrouff was on drugs. Harrouff was hospitalized for almost two months after the attack. His father says his esophagus was burned. Martin County Sheriff William Snyder has said Harrouf may have ingested lawn chemicals found in the couple's garage.
According to the court documents, one deputy ordered Harrouff off Stevens at gunpoint while another used an electric stun gun on him but he wouldn't let go. Snyder has said the deputies didn't shoot Harrouff because they feared hitting Stevens.
Finally, a deputy with a dog arrived and its bites enabled deputies to subdue Harrouff. Mishcon's body was found in the garage.
Less than an hour before the attack, Harrouff was having dinner with his father, sister and a friend at a restaurant about 4 miles from the victims' house when he apparently had words with his father. Surveillance video shows him calmly walking out about 45 minutes before the stabbings, and his family was concerned.
His mother, unaware of the attack, called police to report him missing; she said he had been acting strangely for about a week, claiming to have superpowers and to have been sent here to help people.
The victims lived a short distance from Harrouff's father and were known to sit in their garage with the door open, watching television and chatting with passers-by.
Harrouff's parents issued a statement days after the slayings expressing their condolences to the Stevens family and their apologies to neighbor Jeff Fisher, who was stabbed as he tried to rescue the couple.
North Carolina
Court reopens case challenging prayer at meeting
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - An appeals court has reopened a lawsuit challenging a North Carolina county commission's practice of starting meetings with Christian prayer.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decided Monday that the Rowan County case will be reviewed next year by its full 15-judge bench.
In September, a three-judge panel of the Richmond-based court issued a divided ruling upholding commissioners' right to open meetings with prayer as long as they don't pressure others to participate.
But that ruling is on hold until the full court weighs in.
A lower court previously ruled that the practice of delivering almost exclusively Christian prayers at meetings was "unconstitutionality coercive."
The American Civil Liberties Union is leading the challenge and applauded the new development.
Attorneys for Rowan County argued a new review wasn't needed.
Mississippi
Deputy: Suspect bit off part of man's ear, tweeted about it
KILN, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi man is accused of biting off a piece of another man's ear during a fight and bragging about it on Twitter.
The Sun Herald reports Hancock County sheriff's deputies say 21-year-old Michael Cuevas was arrested Thursday on an aggravated assault charge.
Authorities began investigating after a man went to a hospital Sept. 25 with part of his ear missing and underwent surgery. Sheriff's investigator Gary Hudgens says the victim told deputies a man bit his ear during a fight at a bar in Kiln.
During their investigation, detectives discovered someone had posted a tweet, bragging about biting a man's ear off during a fight. Detectives traced the tweet to Cuevas, who was identified in a lineup.
It's unclear if Cuevas has an attorney.
Published: Thu, Nov 03, 2016
