Prosecutor charged in sex sting kills self in cell

Prosecutor charged in
sex sting kills self in cell

DETROIT — A federal prosecutor from Florida accused of flying to Detroit last month to molest a 5-year-old girl committed suicide in his cell Friday in federal prison, authorities said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John D.R. Atchison was found unresponsive, taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, said Felicia Ponce, spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington. A previous suicide attempt was foiled in September, according to authorities.

Ponce declined to say how Atchison killed himself or whether he was on suicide watch, saying the death was being investigated.

Atchison, 53, was arrested last month at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after weeks of Internet conversations between the prosecutor and a detective posing as the mother of a 5-year-old girl, authorities have said.

He was carrying presents for the girl, including a doll and hoop earrings, and also had sexual materials, including petroleum jelly.

Former Duke players
file federal lawsuit

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Three former Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape filed a sweeping federal lawsuit Friday that could return the sensational case to a courtroom, suing disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong, the city of Durham and the police detectives who handled the investigation.

The lawsuit calls the criminal case against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans “one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history.”

It seeks unspecified damages and numerous reforms to the way the Durham Police Department handles criminal investigations — including the appointment of a monitor who would have the power to hire, fire and promote department employees, including the chief, for 10 years.

The suit was filed about a month after city officials met with lawyers for the families seeking a $30 million settlement and several legal reforms, two people close to the case have told The Associated Press.

Prosecutor: Man to plead
guilty to kidnapping boys

ST. LOUIS — A former pizzeria manager accused of kidnapping two Missouri boys, one of whom was missing for more than four years, will plead guilty next week to kidnapping, attempted murder and sexual assault, a prosecutor said Friday.

Washington County prosecutor John Rupp said Michael Devlin will plead guilty to all charges there in the 2002 kidnapping of Shawn Hornbeck and will be sentenced Tuesday.

Devlin was arrested in January after police found Shawn and Ben Ownby at Devlin’s apartment in the St. Louis County town of Kirkwood.

Loyd Bailie, Ben’s uncle, told The Associated Press on Friday that the family had been briefed by prosecutors that Devlin will plead guilty next week in all four jurisdictions where he is charged: three Missouri counties and federal court. He said he did not know whether Devlin would plead guilty to all of the more than 80 felony charges against him, several of which carry life sentences.

Man’s false teeth found
in his throat after surgery

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Doctors in New Zealand lost a man’s false teeth during his back surgery but found them four days later — stuck in his throat.

The 81-year-old entered the hospital in February 2005, and his upper dentures were removed before the operation, a Health and Disability Commission report said Friday.

But somehow, the report said, the false teeth got back into the heavily sedated man’s mouth. A neurological condition allowed him to cope with having them in his throat for days — though not easily.

After the operation, the patient complained of “extreme pain,” nurses noticed his voice was husky and he couldn’t eat very much, the report said.

Doctors put a laryngoscope down his throat, found the missing denture plate and removed the teeth.

Civilians, militants
killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops clashed with insurgents during a raid in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, and civilians as well as militants were killed. In the country’s volatile south, separate explosions apparently targeting NATO forces killed two children and a British soldier.

In central Ghazni province, a U.S. civilian helping Afghan farmers died in a roadside bomb explosion Thursday, officials said.

The joint force came under attack during a raid on compounds suspected of housing militants in Waza Khwa district, in Paktika province. In the ensuing battle, several Taliban fighters, but also civilians — including a woman and a child — were killed, a coalition statement said.

Associated Press