Child Endangerment

REDWOOD CITY, CALIF.- A man accused of kidnapping his two children and taking them on a stolen yacht has told a judge that he was trying to protect them from an abusive home. The San Jose Mercury News reports that 43-year-old Christopher Maffei did not enter a plea on Monday to charges of kidnapping, child endangerment and burglary. Maffei is accused of forcibly taking his 3-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son from their grandmother while the children's mother was in court seeking a restraining order against him. Police say Maffei took a yacht from an Alameda marina and headed south along California's coast.

PROSECUTORS will get another opportunity to try the Rev. James J. Brennan, 49, a Roman Catholic priest charged with attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996 and related offenses. A mistrial was declared in June after the District Attorney's Office was unable to persuade a jury to reach a unanimous verdict that Brennan was guilty. Common Pleas Judge Robert P. Coleman met Wednesday with Assistant District Attorneys Patrick Blessington and Mark Cipoletti and defense attorneys William J. Brennan Jr. and Richard J. Fuschino Jr. before setting March 6 as the new trial date.

A Philadelphia judge this morning set March 6 for the retrial of Rev. James J. Brennan, the Roman Catholic priest charged with the attempted rape of a 14-year-old boy in 1996. Common Pleas Court Judge Robert P. Coleman met briefly with Assistant District Attorneys Patrick Blessington and Mark Cipolletti and Brennan and defense lawyers William J. Brennan Jr. and Richard J. Fuschino Jr. before setting the trial date. Coleman also set March 4 for a pretrial conference. Father Brennan, 49, was tried earlier this year with Msgr.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A motorist who saw a man dump what he thought was trash off a Garden State Parkway bridge into the Raritan River said he quickly contacted state police after learning the next day that a baby had been thrown off the bridge. Michael Stephens of Hazlet testified Tuesday at the trial of Shamsidden Abdur-Raheem, who is charged with murder in the death of his 3-month-old daughter. He also took investigators to the site where he saw the van parked and where he saw something go into the river, Stephens said.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A New Jersey man on trial on charges that he threw his 3-month-old daughter off a highway bridge wrote to the girl's mother that he was sorry, but that he blamed her partly for what happened. Jurors in the trial of Shamsidden Abdur-Raheem heard the letter, read Friday in state Superior Court. Abdur-Raheem is charged with murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and child endangerment. "You did cause and have a lot to do with what happened," Abdur-Raheem wrote in the 10-page letter in 2010 to Venetta Benjamin, the Newark Star-Ledger reported.

This story has been updated. It took less than a week for the District Attorney's Office to make good on a promise to refile felony charges against the latest Catholic priest accused of sexually molesting a child. The refiled charges against Father Andrew McCormick, 56, were received Tuesday by the Court of Common Pleas. Municipal Judge Karen Yvette Simmons held McCormick for trial on Aug. 16 on four misdemeanor charges related to an alleged incident with a 10-year-old altar boy in 1997 when he was a priest assigned to St. John Cantius Church in Bridesburg.

A Gloucester County jury has convicted a 49-year-old Woolwich man of molesting two young sisters who thought of him as an uncle, according to the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office. The victims, daughters of a neighbor, were eight and six at the time of the assaults in the summer of 2010. The jury on Tuesday found Juan Lopez guilty of sexual assault, child endangerment and lewdness after a two-day trial. Superior Court Judge Walter L. Marshall Jr. did not set a sentencing pending an evaluation of Lopez at the state's Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center, a facility for sex offenders in Avenel.

DOVER, Del. - A pediatrician who achieved national recognition for his research into near-death experiences involving children may have been experimenting on his 11-year-old stepdaughter by "waterboarding" her, police said in court documents. The possible link between Melvin Morse's research and the waterboarding allegations was revealed in an affidavit for a search warrant for Morse's computers. The document was obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press. According to the affidavit, Morse brought the girl "to a possible near-death state from the simulation of drowning.

A woman who abandoned an infant outside a Norristown human-services center Tuesday has been taken into custody in Philadelphia, police said Wednesday. Chrissie Williams, 28, of the 900 block of Schuylkill Street, Norristown, was arrested on a warrant at 10:54 p.m. Tuesday in the 5900 block of Belmar Street in Southwest Philadelphia. Williams was charged with a parole violation, said a Philadelphia police spokeswoman, Officer Jillian Russell. Williams was being processed Wednesday by law enforcement officials.

DOVER, DEL. - A Delaware pediatrician who achieved national recognition for his research into near-death experiences involving children may have been experimenting on his 11-year-old stepdaughter by waterboarding her, police said in court documents. The possible link between Dr. Melvin Morse's research and the waterboarding allegations was revealed in an affidavit for a search warrant for Morse's computers. The document was obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press. According to the affidavit, Morse brought the girl "to a possible near-death state from the simulation of drowning.