■UNITED STATES
Bronze eagles returned
Two bronze eagles stolen from Central Park more than 30 years ago by a drug dealer who used them to store his stash are finally back at home. Prosecutors say the statues were stolen from the City Employees War Memorial at the Mall in the mid-1970s. They say a drug dealer hid narcotics and money in the statues and later sold the bronze eagles to a client for US$200.
■UNITED STATES
Man indicted for murders
A Kansas City, Missouri, man has been indicted in the March killing of his ex-girlfriend, her boyfriend and her two young nephews. Their bodies were found in an apartment with the woman’s toddler wandering among the corpses. Gevante Anderson, 24, is charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bond. Anderson’s home had been searched and he spoke with police shortly after the killings, but he wasn’t charged until Friday.
■UNITED STATES
Contempt costs 14 years
A Pennsylvania lawyer whose 14 years in jail are apparently a record in a US civil contempt case was ordered released from prison on Friday. Beatty Chadwick has been jailed in suburban Philadelphia since 1995 for a charge stemming from a contentious divorce. “He’ll be home in time for the Phillies game,” said Chadwick’s attorney, Michael Malloy. The septuagenarian Chadwick was jailed in November 2004, accused of hiding US$2.5 million from his ex-wife during divorce proceedings. Chadwick maintained he lost the money in bad investments. In 2006, before the economic downturn, experts estimated the money would be worth more than US$8 million. After repeated attempts to have himself freed, Chadwick’s request was granted by Delaware County Judge Joseph Cronin, who determined his continued incarceration had lost its coercive effect and would not result in him turning over the money. The first thing Chadwick wanted to do upon his release was to get a burger and a beer, Malloy said.
■UNITED STATES
Cemetery resells plots
Authorities are closing the grounds of a historic black cemetery near Chicago where four employees are accused of digging up bodies to resell plots after more bones were found on the property. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said on Friday that families can no longer wander through Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip to check loved ones’ graves because more of its 60.7 hectares are now considered a crime scene. Dart says law enforcement and families alike have found more bones while walking around the cemetery.
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