BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
Tip leads authorities to escaped prisoner
An escaped prisoner accused in the videotaped kidnapping of a lawyer who was grabbed at gunpoint outside her loft was captured Saturday after authorities acting on a tip swarmed an apartment where he was discovered hiding in a closet.
Dedrick Griham, 35, was found in Birmingham, about 90 miles north of the state prison where he escaped Thursday.
Authorities later charged Ovetta Morgan of Birmingham with aiding his escape, the FBI said. Officials also questioned four people who were in the apartment with Griham when he was arrested, authorities said.
An attorney for Griham, Eric Guster, said Morgan was Griham’s girlfriend.
Morgan was not an employee of the state prison system, said Keith Bryars, assistant FBI special agent, but he declined to say how she is alleged to have helped him escape.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.
FBI asks ex-Harris aide about convict
U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris’ former campaign manager has been interviewed by federal investigators as part of an inquiry into her relationship with a convicted defense contractor, a newspaper reported Saturday.
Jim Dornan spoke to FBI and Defense Department investigators in Washington for about 90 minutes Thursday, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
Harris has been in the spotlight for her dealings with Mitchell Wade, a defense contractor who pleaded guilty to bribing a California congressman and admitted funneling $32,000 in illegal donations to Harris. She later said she gave the money to charity.
SALT LAKE CITY
Jeffs’ attorney seeks seized “sacred” files
An attorney for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs demands the return of personal papers seized from the fugitive’s vehicle when he was arrested near Las Vegas.
The “sacred” papers constitute privileged communication between the spiritual leader and his followers in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, attorney Richard Wright said in an emergency motion filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas.
Jeffs was captured Aug. 28 and taken to Utah to face state charges of rape by accomplice, accused of arranging a marriage between an underage girl and an older man.
Wright said the papers, laptop computers and recording devices seized from Jeffs’ vehicle are protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of religion.
NEW YORK
Woman again wins $1 million in lottery
A woman who won $1 million from a state lottery scratch-off game four years ago has hit the jackpot again.
Valerie Wilson, who works at a Long Island deli, said she won another $1 million on a scratch-off game last month.
“The first time I couldn’t believe it,” Wilson told Newsday. “This time I said, ‘God’s on my side.”‘
Wilson, 56, beat some long odds to pull off her double victory.
Overall, her chances of winning both games were 1 in 3,669,120,000,000.
ATHENS, Ga.
Fraternity suspended over nude photos
University of Georgia officials have suspended a fraternity indefinitely because pledges to the group flashed pictures of nude women to passers-by on campus.
The Chi Phi fraternity was barred Friday from holding any social event until an investigation is complete.
Campus police said seven students and a visitor photographed people’s reactions as they showed them photos from a pornographic magazine.
Chi Phi president Matthew Hughes said the chapter is “embarrassed” about the incident, which was not sanctioned by the fraternity.
