Saturday, October 27, 2001
Guard jailed for havingsex with Susan Smith
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A former guard was sentenced Friday to three months in jail for having sex in prison with Susan Smith, who is serving a life sentence for drowning her two sons in a lake in 1994.
Circuit Court Judge Lee Casey Manning also sentenced Houston Cagle to five years' probation and 250 hours of community service.
Cagle pleaded guilty in August to having sex with Smith and another inmate at the Women's Correctional Institution in Columbia last year.
Investigators found out about the relationship between Cagle and Smith last summer when they were looking into a tabloid report Smith had been beaten in prison.
While reviewing medical records, officers found Smith had been treated for a venereal disease. She then admitted she had sex with Cagle. He was fired shortly after his arrest.
The revelations led to a broad investigation into prison misconduct.
More than a dozen Corrections Department guards and employees have been charged with having sex with inmates or smuggling drugs since a state investigation began last year.
Two prison guards, including Cagle, and three other Corrections workers have pleaded guilty to having sex with inmates.
Legislator arrestedin corruption probe
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The former president of Puerto Rico's House of Representatives was arrested on corruption charges Friday along with three doctors and an ex-government official, the federal prosecutor for the U.S. territory said.
Rep. Edison Misla Aldarondo and Jose Gerardo Cruz Arroyo, who was an aide to a former health secretary, are accused of accepting more than $258,000 from the doctors to arrange for the sale of a public hospital, U.S. Attorney Guillermo Gil said.
A federal grand jury indicted Misla Aldarondo on Thursday on two counts of interfering with interstate commerce through extortion and single counts of money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.
In a statement Friday, he said he is innocent.
Misla Aldarondo was freed after promising to post $600,000 bail by Friday. His passport was confiscated.
Authorities said Alejandro Otero Lopez Hospital in the northern coastal town of Manati was sold in September 1997 to the three doctors -- Ivan Ramos Cubano, Jose de Jesus Toro and Alvin Ramirez Ortiz. They said Cubano is a friend of Misla Aldarondo.
Investigators removebodies from submarine
MOSCOW -- Investigators have pulled the remains of 12 seamen from the wreck of the nuclear submarine Kursk, the office of Russia's prosecutor-general said Friday.
Three of the bodies were removed Thursday, and the other nine Friday.
"Exactly how many of our heroes we'll manage to get out of the vessel is still hard to say," Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov said, according to the Interfax news agency.
Ustinov is leading the team of investigators examining the mangled carcass of the Kursk in a dry dock in Roslyakovo, near the Russian Arctic port of Murmansk.
Most of the Kursk's 118 sailors were obliterated by powerful explosions that sank the submarine during naval exercises in August 2000. But at least 23 survived the crash for hours in the stern compartments, according to letters found by divers who recovered 12 bodies from the sunken vessel a year ago.
Meanwhile, investigators entered the reactor section of the submarine, the Interfax news agency said, citing the navy's commander in chief, Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov.
"We saw that everything was in order in the section. There is no water, and background radiation is within permitted limits," Kuroyedov said.
Officer disciplined
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A police officer and a pilot for the department have been disciplined for taking a police helicopter on a doughnut run.
The department gave no details on the men's punishment Thursday. Neither man's name was released.
Deputy Chief Ray Schultz said the men broke departmental rules when they set down in the chopper to get a box of doughnuts from a Krispy Kreme shop in the middle of the night on Oct. 4.
An onlooker reported the incident to police.