Criminal Investigation

Bob Torricelli tried to change the subject last week. Taking a cue from his confidant and political ally Bill Clinton, the Democratic senator from New Jersey sought to raise doubts about the Justice Department's criminal investigation of his 1996 election campaign by suggesting that it might be politically biased. In calling for the appointment of an independent lawyer to oversee the Republican-controlled investigation, Torricelli used a tactic long favored by defense attorneys: Blame the prosecutor.

The police helicopters flew away, bloodhounds jumped back into the trucks, the elaborate command center closed. The three-day search for little Shanae "Na Na" Burton, 3, is over. Now it is a criminal investigation, Chester officials said. "We've covered every square inch of about a half-mile-square area, even parks a couple of miles or so away and done it at least five to seven times, by land, by air and by sea," Chester Fire Commissioner Joseph Cliffe said yesterday. "There is no indication that the child is anywhere in this area at this time.

When needles, cotton swabs and blue pill casings began washing up on Avalon's beaches over the weekend, borough officials quickly became suspicious. This didn't look like an accident. The medical waste was concentrated along a short stretch of the Cape May County shoreline, making it unlikely that it had fallen from a barge at sea and been carried in by the tide. That left the officials, joined by investigators from the state Attorney General's Office and Department Environmental Protection, with another possibility: sabotage.

Following allegations by the Ford Motor Co. in a wrongful-death civil lawsuit involving an air bag it made, the Cape May County prosecutor said yesterday that he had begun a criminal investigation of the 1997 death of a Middle Township woman. Two years after her death in a car accident, the woman's husband sued Ford, contending that a defective air bag killed his wife, who was six months pregnant with their second child. But soon after Eric Thomas filed his lawsuit, Ford began to fight back with allegations that Thomas had caused his wife's death.

A Chester County lawyer, who was chairman of the board of the Southern Chester County Medical Center for four years, has been suspended from the practice of law in Delaware because $345,000 that should have been paid to a real estate company is missing. Everett P. Priestley has been suspended by the Delaware Supreme Court under a rule that permits suspensions "when there might be some risk to his clients or to the public," said Charles S. Crompton Jr. of Wilmington. Crompton has been named receiver for Priestley's practice.

A Philadelphia police officer was arrested Wednesday on charges that he exposed himself to a woman while on duty. Officer Joseph Harvey, a seven-year member of the force, also has been suspended for 30 days with intent to dismiss. Harvey, 35, is charged with indecent exposure, official oppression and false imprisonment, police said. Harvey was assigned to the 24th District and was working on an investigation with other officers around midnight Oct. 9, said Chief Inspector Anthony DiLacqua, head of the Internal Affairs Division.

A day after an election marred by fighting and charges of fraud, the loser in the contest to represent the city's blue-collar workers began a campaign to get the results overturned. Herman "Pete" Matthews sent a letter yesterday to District Council 33 officials, advising them that he will ask federal and state authorities to begin a criminal investigation into the "fraud that has obviously been committed. " Matthews, who lost to incumbent DC33 president James Sutton in the balloting Tuesday night, also plans to ask the union's umbrella organization, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, to hold an immediate hearing and then declare him the actual winner.

U.S. officials yesterday delayed an FBI criminal investigation into the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 to let Egyptian experts review phrases of a Muslim prayer uttered by a crew member shortly before the plane plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. The decision reflects the sensitivity of the Cairo government to the suggestion that a crew member - possibly a copilot - might have deliberately crashed the plane. It also underscores the enormous importance the United States places on maintaining good relations with one of its key Arab allies.

Authorities searched for clues in the stench and squalor of a Lansdale-area apartment yesterday after announcing a criminal investigation into the death of an emaciated 4-year-old boy who lived in the home. Shawn Seymore, a quadruplet, suffered severe malnutrition and weighed 25 pounds when he died early Thursday. His parents had called police to the condominium in Towamencin Township because their son was unresponsive. Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr., after touring the "deplorable" conditions inside the home and describing the malnourishment of Shawn's quadruplet siblings, said the nature of the case had changed since Thursday.

A hazing incident among members of the Franklin and Marshall College women's lacrosse program has cost head coach Lauren Paul her job and caused a number of players to be suspended. Field hockey coach Melissa Mariano, who is also the athletics department's senior women's administrator, will serve as the interim coach, and a permanent head coach will be selected after the conclusion of the season, Kent Trachte, the dean of the college, said in an e-mail sent from the school. The team, a perennial NCAA Division III power, will continue its season.

Suspect kills self; two girls are safe GUNTOWN, Miss. - A manhunt for a fugitive accused of kidnapping and a double-slaying ended Thursday after the suspect apparently shot himself. The two girls he fled with are safe, police said. Adam Mayes, 35, died Thursday evening after authorities acted on a tip and found him in the area near New Albany, Miss. When they went to arrest him, he shot himself in the head, said Guntown Police Chief Michael Hall. The girls, Alexandra Bain, 12, and Kyliyah Bain, 8, were taken to a hospital for observation, Hall said.

CAIRO - Egyptian authorities have denied permission to eight U.S.-based nonprofit groups to operate locally, including a center headed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter that monitors elections, a ministry official said Monday. The Social Affairs Ministry official said the licenses were denied because the groups' activities "breach the country's sovereignty. " He did not elaborate. He spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. The move comes only a month ahead of presidential elections slated for May 23, the first since the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak 14 months ago. Sanne van den Bergh, who heads the Carter Center in Egypt, said the group has not yet received formal notification of the decision.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Officials on Saturday barred the head of the airline whose jet crashed near the capital from leaving the country, vowing to investigate a tragedy that has revived fears about the safety of aviation in a country saddled by huge economic problems. The Bhoja Air passenger jet crashed Friday evening as it tried to land in a thunderstorm at Islamabad's main airport, killing all 127 on board. The second major air disaster close to the capital in less than two years, the crash triggered fresh criticism of an already-embattled government, which faced questions over why it gave a license to the tiny airline just last month.

A hazing incident among members of the Franklin and Marshall College women's lacrosse program has cost head coach Lauren Paul her job and caused a number of players to be suspended. Field hockey coach Melissa Mariano, who is also the athletics department's senior women's administrator, will serve as the interim coach, and a permanent head coach will be selected after the conclusion of the season, Kent Trachte, the dean of the college, said in an e-mail sent from the school. The team, a perennial NCAA Division III power, will continue its season.

WASHINGTON - The General Services Administration's inspector general said Monday that he was investigating possible bribery and kickbacks in the agency, as a central figure in a GSA spending scandal asserted his right to remain silent at a congressional hearing. Inspector general Brian Miller, responding to a question at the hearing, said: "We do have other ongoing investigations, including all sorts of improprieties, including bribes, including possible kickbacks. " Jeffrey Neely, who asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege before the committee, has been placed on leave as a regional executive in Western states.

RICHARD DeCoatsworth, hailed by some as a "hero" cop for surviving a shotgun blast to the mouth in 2007, has been slapped with a private criminal complaint for allegedly threatening a man on his Port Richmond block. DeCoatsworth, 25, is due in court Feb. 27 to face harassment and simple-assault charges stemming from the complaint, said Tasha Jamerson, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office. DeCoatsworth, who quit the police force in December, has not been arrested or charged by the District Attorney's Office for the incident, but he remains under criminal investigation for a second complaint filed by a woman, said Officer Tanya Little, a Police Department spokeswoman.

Richard DeCoatsworth, hailed by some as a "hero" cop for surviving a shotgun blast to the mouth in 2007, has been slapped with a private criminal complaint for allegedly threatening a man on his Port Richmond block. DeCoatsworth, 25, is due in court Feb. 27 to face harassment and simple assault charges stemming from the complaint, said Tasha Jamerson, spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office. DeCoatsworth has not been arrested or charged by the District Attorney's office for the incident, but he remains under criminal investigation for a second complaint filed by a woman, said Officer Tanya Little, a Police Department spokeswoman.

LONDON - They traded jokes, chuckled, and talked shop about a hacker plot called "Project Mayhem. " But at the heart of the conference call between the FBI and Scotland Yard was a strategy aimed at bringing down the hacking collective known as Anonymous, which has launched embarrassing attacks across the Internet. Unfortunately for the cyber sleuths, the hackers were listening, too - and now so is the rest of the world. Anonymous published the roughly 15-minute-long recording of the call to the Internet early Friday, gloating in a Twitter message that "the FBI might be curious how we're able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now. " The FBI said that the information "was intended for law enforcement officers only and was illegally obtained" but that no FBI systems were breached.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Investigators with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office are reinterviewing current and former employees of Pennsylvania State University's athletic department as part of the criminal case against Jerry Sandusky, a person familiar with the case said Wednesday. The person, who requested anonymity because no one was authorized to speak about the criminal investigation, told the Associated Press that current or former staff members of the football program were among those to be interviewed.

WASHINGTON - The House Ethics Committee said Friday it would continue investigating allegations that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D., Ill.) or someone acting on his behalf offered to raise campaign cash for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich in exchange for a Senate appointment in 2008. The committee also released an initial report from the Office of Congressional Ethics that said there was "probable cause" to believe Jackson either directed a third party or had knowledge of a third party's effort to persuade the since-convicted Blagojevich to appoint Jackson to the seat vacated by Barack Obama in exchange for campaign cash.