Vermont
Man who lived modestly leaves millions in gifts
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) - A Vermont man who sometimes held his coat together with safety pins and had a long-time habit of foraging for firewood also had a hidden talent for picking stocks - a talent that became public after his death when he bequeathed $6 million to his local library and hospital.
The investments made by Ronald Read, a former gas station employee and janitor who died last June at age 92, "grew substantially" over the years, said his attorney Laurie Rowell.
Read, who was known for his flannel jacket and baseball cap, gave no hint of the size of his fortune.
The bequest of $4.8 million to the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and $1.2 million to the town's Brooks Memorial Library were the largest each institution has ever received. Read also made a number of smaller bequests.
"It's pretty incredible. This is not something that happens on a regular basis," said the hospital's development director, Gina Pattison.
In addition to cash, he had an antique Edison phonograph with dozens of recording drums that he left to the Dummerston Historical Society, Rowell said.
Read was born in Dummerston in 1921. He was the first in his family to graduate from high school, walking and hitchhiking about four miles each way from his home to the high school in Brattleboro. After military service during World War II, he returned to Brattleboro where he worked at a service station for 25 years then worked for 17 years as a janitor at the local J.C. Penney.
In 1960 he married a woman he met at the service station. She died in 1970.
Stepson Phillip Brown, of Somersworth, New Hampshire, told the Brattleboro Reformer he visited Read every few months, more often as Read's health declined. The only indication Brown had of Read's investments was his regular reading of the Wall Street Journal.
"I was tremendously surprised," Brown said of Read's hidden wealth. "He was a hard worker, but I don't think anybody had an idea that he was a multi-millionaire."
New Hampshire
Policeman uses stun gun used on diabetic driver
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) - An officer feared he was in danger when he twice used a stun gun on a 78-year-old diabetic driver with low blood sugar who crashed into several cars and refused orders to stop, police say.
The incident unfolded Sunday morning in the parking lot of a BJ's Wholesale Club in Portsmouth when the man crashed into parked cars. When a responding officer tried to stop the man, he kept driving, hit another vehicle, then backed into the police cruiser, the Portsmouth Herald reported.
The driver, who was not identified, didn't obey several commands to stop, and when he reached for something on the seat, the officer thought he was trying to get a weapon and used a stun device on him twice.
"This allowed the officer to finally take control of the situation and get the driver into handcuffs," Corey MacDonald, deputy Portland police chief, told the newspaper.
Fire Chief Steve Achilles said firefighters observed that the driver was "weak" after being shocked and determined he was diabetic and his blood sugar was low. Achilles said it is not uncommon for diabetics in that condition to be combative or angry, making responses by emergency officials "challenging."
The driver was given intravenous treatment, and his condition rapidly improved. He was taken to a hospital as a precaution. He was not charged, and damage to the cars was minor.
"Upon initial review, though the incident is regrettable for all involved, the officer appears to have used reasonable non-lethal force to end a potentially dangerous situation," MacDonald said. "Our police officers are not paramedics. They are charged with bringing dangerous situations under control. This driver could just as easily have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or engaging in willful criminal conduct."
The incident, like all use-of-force episodes, will be subject to review by a police committee.
New York
Wrongly jailed man served 22 years, sues NYC
NEW YORK (AP) - A man who spent nearly 22 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of killing his mother, sister and a friend has sued New York City.
Antonio Yarbough and co-defendant Sharrif Wilson were cleared by DNA evidence and released last year. Wilson died in January.
The New York Times reports that Yarbough filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court. The suit doesn't ask for a specific amount.
The lawsuit says the then-18-year-old Yarbough came home in 1992 to find his mom, his 12-year-old sister and his sister's friend "tied up, stabbed and garroted with electrical cords."
The lawsuit says police coerced Wilson into a videotaped confession and had Yarbough sign his name to a written statement.
The city's Law Department said it will review the lawsuit.
South Carolina
Court: Diocese and churches can keep property
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina court has ruled that the national Episcopal Church has no claim on the property of the breakaway Diocese of South Carolina or its parish churches.
Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein wrote in a decision handed down Tuesday that the diocese and its churches are "the owners of their real, personal and intellectual property" in which the national church has no legal interest.
In 2012, the conservative Diocese of South Carolina separated from the more liberal national church over a variety of theological issues. The breakaway churches sued to protect the use of the diocesan name and half a billion dollars' worth of property.
An attorney for the diocese's bishop hailed the ruling.
Nebraska
3 more men enter plea deals in death of girl
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Three more men have entered plea deals in connection to the death of a 5-year-old girl struck by a bullet in her Omaha home last year.
The plea deals entered Tuesday mean the gang members accused in the Jan. 15, 2014, shooting death of Payton Benson will not go to trial.
The Omaha World-Herald reports Jacob Brown pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and Adonus Moses pleaded no contest to the same charge. Kevin Peak, who was not present during the girl's shooting, pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a weapon.
All three men face up to 25 years in prison. Two others previously pleaded to separate murder and weapon charges within the past week. All five men will be sentenced in April.
Published: Thu, Feb 05, 2015
