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Mayor apologizes after boy blamed for his own death

 
Published March 3, 2015

Cleveland

Mayor apologizes after boy blamed for his own death

Moving to stem fresh anger over how Cleveland has handled the killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Mayor Frank Jackson apologized Monday for language that the city's lawyers used in court filings to assert that the boy's death was his own fault. Tamir was fatally wounded Nov. 22 by a rookie Cleveland police officer who shot him in the abdomen within two seconds of arriving at a neighborhood recreation center where the boy was playing outside with a toy pistol. The newest controversy was spurred by a filing made in federal court late last week by lawyers for the city in response to a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by Tamir's family. The city's lawyers argued in the filing that the boy died because of his own actions and not because of Police Department errors. But as anger grew Monday over the court filing — and a lawyer for Tamir's family, Walter Madison, lashed out at the city's "incredulous" argument — Jackson called a news conference to apologize for what he characterized as a "poor use of words."

White Plains, N.Y.

Mother convicted of poisoning her son

A woman who blogged for years about her son's constant health woes was convicted Monday of poisoning him to death by force-feeding heavy concentrations of sodium through his stomach tube. A jury in White Plains found Lacey Spears, 27, of Scottsville, Ky., guilty of second-degree murder in the death last year of 5-year-old Garnett-Paul Spears. The defense portrayed Spears as a caring mother and her son as sickly, but the prosecution argued that Spears reveled in the attention Garnett's illness brought her. Spears, an Alabama native, was living with her son in Chestnut Ridge, N.Y., when he died. They moved there from Clearwater in 2012.

Wayne, Pa.

Creepy crawler put nude photos on Web

A man sneaking around on his hands and knees videotaped naked girls and women in dressing rooms at one of the country's largest malls and then posted the clips on pornography websites, police said Monday. Sean Moses, 37, is seen on a cellphone video he recorded at the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia reaching under doors to videotape women changing in dressing rooms at stores including Forever 21 and Express. Police called it one of the largest invasion-of-privacy cases they've seen in the area. They arrested Moses on Monday at the Penn Valley home where he lives with a woman and his daughter, 6. He was charged with 86 counts of invasion of privacy and a count of child pornography.

California

Maybe he thought it was a time machine

A jail inmate was found hiding in a hot tub Sunday in the back yard of a Lomita home. The inmate, a "trustee" worker at the Los Angeles County sheriff's station in Lomita, allegedly walked off the job and later into a Jacuzzi at the home. Arturo Valenzuela's escape Sunday through the station's parking lot sparked a police search into surrounding neighborhoods. Finally, their search led them to a Jacuzzi somewhat filled with water. Valenzuela was arrested.

Elsewhere

Pakistan: Hundreds of parents in northwest Pakistan were arrested and jailed on charges of endangering public security after refusing to give their children polio vaccinations, officials said Monday.

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Cleveland: A judge reduced the prison sentences Monday for the leader of a breakaway Amish group and seven followers after their hate-crime convictions were thrown out in their hair- and beard-chopping attacks against fellow members of the faith.

Times wires