ODDLY ENOUGH | Police: Drunken-driving suspect pulled self over

ODDLY ENOUGH

Police: Drunken-driving suspect pulled self over

SANDUSKY, Ohio

Police in Ohio can’t take too much credit for stopping a woman they say was drinking and driving — they say she pulled herself over.

Officers in the Lake Erie town of Sandusky say the woman stopped because she thought she saw police lights, but it turns out the flashing lights were from a skating-rink sign.

The Sandusky Register reports that the woman’s car got stuck in a snowbank near the sign when she stopped early Monday, and another motorist called police.

Officers say they took 27-year-old Nicole Scott to jail on charges of operating a vehicle under the influence. Police say Scott denied she had been driving. There is no telephone listing for Scott, and it isn’t clear whether she has an attorney.

NJ appeals court rejects 15-year term for bitten fingertip

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J.

A New Jersey appeals court has rejected a 15-year prison sentence for a man convicted of biting off a police officer’s fingertip.

Rafael Pichardo was convicted of aggravated assault for attacking Atlantic City officers during a 2007 confrontation at the Casbah nightclub in the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.

While resisting arrest, Pichardo bit Officer Dean Dooley, severing the top of his gloved left index finger.

A judge imposed the 15-year term.

But an appellate panel ruled Tuesday it was too severe and ordered Pichardo be resentenced. No date has been set.

Pichardo is from New York City. He remains in prison.

Defense lawyer Peter Willis had promised to appeal the day his client was sentenced in August 2009.

The bitten officer was able to return to work.

Ohio jurors want to pay man they quickly acquitted

CLEVELAND

At least three jurors in Cleveland say the evidence was so thin against a man jailed for weeks in an assault case that they want to give him their juror pay.

The jury quickly acquitted 19-year-old Demrick McCloud on Friday. He’d been charged with leading other teens to beat a high school student and threaten him with a gun Oct. 13. McCloud was arrested that day and held in jail until the trial.

The three jurors tell The Plain Dealer newspaper there was a “sheer lack of evidence,” so they’ll each give McCloud the $100 they were paid for jury service if he earns a high school equivalency degree.

A prosecutor’s spokesman maintains in a statement that the victim was steadfast in identifying McCloud as an attacker.

Associated Press