Allegation

Police are investigating an accusation that a USAirways pilot used a cell phone to snap inappropriate pictures of a teenage girl at Philadelphia International Airport last night. The allegation was that a man in his 50s took photographs directed up the skirt of a 15-year-old in a terminal, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore. After a witness complained to a police officer, the man was taken in for questioning and a warrant was sought to view the pictures on the phone, Vanore said.

ANOTHER blame game stone-thrower. Re "Ghost Voters" (letters, Sept. 3) by Thomas Lutek: I challenge you, Mr. Lutek, to produce facts or evidence that ghosts, or, as you imply, dead people, vote in Philadelphia. Come on, put your absurd allegation to the test. Prove it to all of Philadelphia that dead people vote in elections. Losing candidates have made this same absurd and baseless allegation, and were proven wrong in federal court, and the same allegation was made a while back in an opinion piece in this very paper.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Pennsylvania State University police said they had referred a new allegation of sexual assault to the state Attorney General's Office, but did not say whether it involved former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The Centre Daily Times reported Sunday that Police Chief Tyrone Parham said the alleged assault "by a known individual" took place in an outdoor pool building sometime between June 1 and Aug. 30, 2000. The allegation was made to university police on Wednesday by someone who had visited the pool, the Daily Times said.

Two lawyers representing Mets pitcher David Cone have denied allegations by a New Jersey woman that Cone raped her in his room in a Philadelphia hotel Saturday night. "David Cone did nothing wrong," said Steven Fehr, a lawyer in Kansas City, Mo., where Cone lives. "I very strongly believe that. We have retained Philadelphia counsel to assist in this matter. The publicity that this has received, before the police have even made a determination, is very unfortunate. " Cone's Philadelphia attorney, Walter M. Phillips Jr., said, "Our position is that the allegation is without any foundation as the Police Department investigation, with our assistance, will so prove.

Police in Millbrae, Calif., said yesterday that they had completed their investigation into an allegation that a member of the Eagles practice squad sexually assaulted a woman on Dec. 28 at the team's hotel outside San Francisco. A police dispatcher said a routine report had been sent to the district attorney's northern branch Tuesday and a decision on whether to prosecute the case was expected by Monday. The dispatcher, who said he did not know whether police had recommended charges, said the police and district attorney's office often confer.

An allegation of sexual assault by "a handful" of New Orleans Saints players was being investigated yesterday by the La Crosse, Wis., police and district attorney's office. "We received a complaint from an adult female early Sunday morning that involved an allegation of a sexual assault that occurred in the Saints' dormitory," assistant District Attorney Ron Kind said. The woman, who is not from La Crosse but from Wisconsin, was known by some of the players and went to the dorm on her own, Kind said.

PENN STATE University police said they had referred a new allegation of sexual assault to the state Attorney General's Office, but did not say whether it involved former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The State College Centre Daily Times reported yesterday that Police Chief Tyrone Parham said the alleged assault "by a known individual" took place in an outdoor pool building sometime between June 1 and Aug. 30, 2000. The allegation was made to university police on Wednesday by someone who had visited the pool, the Daily Times said.

District Justice Brenda Bicking has refused to work with Constable Richard Legree, and last month her lawyer, Sam Stretton, listed some of the reasons. Now Legree has released a notarized statement from one of Bicking's employees that seems to contradict one of those reasons. Stretton had said that Claudia Palmer, the criminal clerk in Bicking's court, filed a complaint with the District Attorney's Office alleging that Legree sexually harassed her. But in the statement, which Palmer's lawyer, Robert Donatoni, confirmed yesterday was authentic, Palmer states that Legree never made any "sexual advances" toward her. To which Stretton replied, Bicking alleged sexual harassment, not sexual advances, which are not the same thing.

The principal of West Philadelphia High School has been removed from his position while the school district investigates a student's claim that she had a late-night date with him at a restaurant last week. Sources said the 17-year-old senior told investigators that principal Frank Constant took her out for dinner and offered to buy her a cocktail at an area restaurant between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. "There has been an allegation about inappropriate behavior by a principal in a social setting in a public place.

Philadelphia International Airport security chief James B. Golden Jr. has been removed from his duties after allegations of improper hiring practices and lapses in security during his 17-month tenure. The security chief's removal, which was confirmed yesterday, comes as the nation operates under the second-highest alert for terrorism. The alert level was raised to orange Dec. 21 because of what Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge cited as credible new evidence of terrorist plotting.

Months after the FBI began probing allegations against Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), investigators are now looking at whether someone set out to smear him while he was running for reelection last year and then ascending to his new post as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to four people briefed on the inquiry. As part of a wider public-corruption investigation into the senator, the FBI has been examining whether Menendez patronized prostitutes in the Dominican Republic, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

DOVER, Del. - A man arrested in Delaware and linked to an alleged cigarette-smuggling ring that may have funneled money to terrorist groups was being held Friday on $12.5 million bail. State police arrested Adel Abuzahrieh, 47, of Staten Island, N.Y., after a traffic stop Wednesday on Route 1 near Milford. Troopers said they found 201 cases of cigarettes in the box truck he was driving and seized between $15,000 and $20,000 in cash. Abuzahrieh loaded a 2007 Mitsubishi box truck with cigarettes stored at a facility in Selbyville and began driving north on Route 1, said Sgt. Paul Shavack, a Delaware State Police spokesman.

MOSCOW - Russia's capture of a purported U.S. spy made the news for a second day here Wednesday, as the Foreign Ministry handed the U.S. ambassador a formal protest over the affair but otherwise appeared to want to let the matter rest. The sighting of the ambassador, Michael McFaul, fleeting as it was, provided an opportunity for Russian television to dwell at length on images of unkempt wigs, wads of euros (not dollars) and a compass that officials said they found in the accused spy's bag of subterfuge.

OH NO, HE DIDN'T. That's what Debbie Rowe , Michael Jackson 's ex-wife, is saying about allegations that the King of Pop molested dancer Wade Robson . Robson, who Jackson befriended, raised eyebrows yesterday when he said on NBC's "Today Show" yesterday that Jackson molested him from ages 7 to 14, an allegation he denied during Jackson's 2005 molestation trial. Rowe told TMZ, "I was angered that Wade Robson reversed his sworn testimony from court in 2005, and now claims to be a victim of sexual abuse.

LeSean McCoy is being sued by a woman who claims the Eagles running back sprayed her with a beverage on a party bus and then kicked her off the vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike in December, according to court documents. She also claims she was struck during the episode, but no charges have been filed. The lawsuit was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on May 10 by a woman using the name "Mary Roe. " According to the lawsuit, McCoy "invited 15 women to join him on a party bus that went from Philadelphia to a New York nightclub on Dec. 18, 2012.

Friday morning went terribly awry for two Camden schoolmates and friends, boys 11 and 12 years old. The 12-year-old was at his home in the Crestbury Apartments when, around 8 a.m., the 11-year-old, who does not live there, shot him in the face, said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. The two boys, whose names were not released by authorities, both attend the H.B. Wilson Family School, according to school board President Kathryn Blackshear. Only one shot was fired, authorities said.

NEW YORK - A Merck & Co. sales representative is suing the drugmaker for at least $100 million, saying it does not give women equal opportunities for advancement and punishes employees for maternity leave. Kelli Smith, who has worked at Merck since 2004, says in the lawsuit that the company's sales plans create incentives to discriminate against women, that women are discouraged from advancing their careers and are told they have to choose between being mothers and taking bigger roles at the company, and that men get more opportunities to meet senior managers and develop important contacts.

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea delivered its most in-depth account yet of the case against a Korean American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor, accusing him late Thursday of smuggling in inflammatory literature and trying to establish a base for anti-Pyongyang activities at a border city hotel. Still, the long list of allegations included no statement from Kenneth Bae, other than claims that he confessed and didn't want an attorney present during his sentencing last week for what Pyongyang called hostile acts against the state.

A few times a week, Anthony DiPasquale said, he filled his car with recruits for the trip from Port Richmond to the doctor's office in Willow Grove. DiPasquale didn't know their medical histories, or sometimes even their names. But he gave each $200 and talking points - descriptions of their pain, the inability to bend over - and they walked out with the payoff, prescriptions for oxycodone pills he could sell on the street at 10 times their value. The doctor, Norman Werther, grew so busy that DiPasquale sometimes got there before the office opened to beat the rush.

KANSAS ATHLETIC officials are reviewing allegations that the former AAU basketball coach of Ben McLemore received cash payments aimed at steering the star freshman to a sports agent. AAU coach Darius Cobb told USA Today he received $10,000 in two payments from Rodney Blackstock , the founder and CEO of Hooplife Academy in Greensboro, N.C. Kansas athletic director Sheahon Zenger issued a statement Saturday saying that the university had received an inquiry about the relationship between the McLemore family and Blackstock.