Troy Graham

A judge refused Tuesday to lower the $1 million bail for each of two Philadelphia police officers arrested last week in a sting operation and accused of attempting to rip off a drug courier. Both remain in custody. Sean Alivera, 31, and Christopher Luciano, 23, from the 25th District, were charged with robbery, kidnapping, and other crimes. - Troy Graham

Camden County authorities arrested two Haddon Township men yesterday and charged them with beating a Pennsauken teenager into a coma during a fight earlier this month. In all, five people have been arrested for assaulting Bret Wilson during a brawl in Newton Lake Park in Collingswood on Nov. 2. Wilson recently turned 18 while in a coma at Cooper University Hospital in Camden. Prosecutors said the investigation was continuing. Yesterday, police arrested Zachary C. Albino of the 200 block of Fern Street and Matthew R. Leiter of the 1100 block of Merrick Avenue, both in Haddon Township.

A 52-year-old Cherry Hill man led police on a morning rush-hour chase through the township, into Camden, and across the Ben Franklin Bridge before being arrested in Northeast Philadelphia yesterday. The man crashed into two Cherry Hill police cars and may have hit a parked car in Camden along the way, but no one was injured other than the suspect. The chase began when the man was pulled over after he drove on the shoulder to bypass an accident. Police said that speeds during the chase topped out at 85 m.p.h.

An officer with the Camden County Suburban Drug Task Force was injured yesterday when a fleeing suspect struck him with his car, authorities said. The officer was taken to a local hospital, and he will recover, Berlin Township Police Chief Michael Hayden said. The officer made an undercover drug buy from the suspect, then attempted to arrest him about 6 p.m. yesterday in the Home Depot parking lot on Walker Avenue in Berlin Township, Hayden said. The suspect drove off, striking the officer.

A 24-year-old West Philadelphia man was found dead in his apartment yesterday afternoon with his 1-year-old son tied up nearby, police said. Relatives who gathered in front of the man's apartment, in the 4900 block of Hazel Avenue, identified him as Raymond Thomas, a barber and father of two. The boy, who was found bound at his feet, was taken to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, police said. The man was found in his bedroom. "I guess he fell on the baby," said Donna Kollock, Thomas' aunt.

Compared with the massive celebrations sparked by Phillies victories in the last two years, the fans who took to the street Monday night after the Flyers clinched the Eastern Conference title were relatively tame. Still, police made five arrests at the two most prominent gathering spots - Frankford and Cottman Avenues in the Northeast and Broad and Shunk Streets in South Philadelphia. Three people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, at Frankford and Cottman, and a 17-year-old was charged with assault on police officers.

An off-duty 22d District police officer was shot early Tuesday near his home in the city's East Mount Airy section after getting into an argument with a man on the street. Marc Brady, 31, a six-year veteran of the force, was treated at Albert Einstein Medical Center for a "through and through" thigh wound, police officials said. The shooting happened about 12:45 a.m. in the 6800 block of Musgrove Street, according to police. The officer was not armed. Brady and a female friend got into an argument with an unknown man on the street, said Lt. Raymond Evers, a police spokesman.

A Philadelphia teacher was left in extremely critical condition yesterday morning after her ex-boyfriend shot her and then turned the gun on himself. Lenin Valdez, 34, was declared dead at the scene in the Rhawnhurst section. His ex-girlfriend, Bexis Matos, 22, teaches African American studies at Frankford High School, a spokesman for the School District said. Matos was taken to Aria Health-Torresdale Campus. She was being picked up by a coworker shortly before 7 a.m. when Valdez approached their car outside the Meadowview Apartments in the 8100 block of Algon Avenue, police said.

Security was added at Camden High School yesterday in response to a Thursday melee that ended with 18 arrests and an injured police officer. School officials blamed the fight on a group of girls who sneaked in through a side entrance and got into an argument with students. That argument exploded into a brawl, police said. The intruders slipped out of the building before police officers could respond, said Bart Leff, a spokesman for the school district. Extra law enforcement officers were in the building yesterday, bookbags were checked, and students were required to pass through metal detectors, Leff said.

An Audubon Park woman was charged Tuesday with kidnapping two neighborhood children and forcing them into her home shortly after they got off their school bus. The woman, who police said was intoxicated, passed out inside her house about 15 minutes after grabbing the two boys, ages 7 and 8. The boys used her stupor to make their escape, authorities said. Eleanor M. Pritchard, 48, of the first block of C Road, was being held in the Camden County jail on $75,000 bail. Pritchard approached three children - the two boys and a 7-year-old girl, all students at Haviland Avenue Elementary School in Audubon - as they got off the school bus at the intersection of C and D Roads around 2:30 p.m., authorities said.

An off-duty 22d District police officer was shot early Tuesday near his home in the city's East Mount Airy section after getting into an argument with a man on the street. Marc Brady, 31, a six-year veteran of the force, was treated at Albert Einstein Medical Center for a "through and through" thigh wound, police officials said. The shooting happened about 12:45 a.m. in the 6800 block of Musgrove Street, according to police. The officer was not armed. Brady and a female friend got into an argument with an unknown man on the street, said Lt. Raymond Evers, a police spokesman.

A judge refused Tuesday to lower the $1 million bail for each of two Philadelphia police officers arrested last week in a sting operation and accused of attempting to rip off a drug courier. Both remain in custody. Sean Alivera, 31, and Christopher Luciano, 23, from the 25th District, were charged with robbery, kidnapping, and other crimes. - Troy Graham

Compared with the massive celebrations sparked by Phillies victories in the last two years, the fans who took to the street Monday night after the Flyers clinched the Eastern Conference title were relatively tame. Still, police made five arrests at the two most prominent gathering spots - Frankford and Cottman Avenues in the Northeast and Broad and Shunk Streets in South Philadelphia. Three people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, at Frankford and Cottman, and a 17-year-old was charged with assault on police officers.

A Philadelphia teacher was left in extremely critical condition yesterday morning after her ex-boyfriend shot her and then turned the gun on himself. Lenin Valdez, 34, was declared dead at the scene in the Rhawnhurst section. His ex-girlfriend, Bexis Matos, 22, teaches African American studies at Frankford High School, a spokesman for the School District said. Matos was taken to Aria Health-Torresdale Campus. She was being picked up by a coworker shortly before 7 a.m. when Valdez approached their car outside the Meadowview Apartments in the 8100 block of Algon Avenue, police said.

A 23-year-old Montgomery County man shot during a late-night argument in Old City remained in critical condition yesterday, police said. Edward DiDonato Jr. of Blue Bell, a former captain of Villanova University's lacrosse team, was shot several times in the chest and abdomen about 2:30 a.m. Sunday after getting into a fight on Market Street, police said. The fight was captured on surveillance cameras outside the Fox 29 television studio. Gerald Ung, a 28-year-old law student at Temple University from Virginia, has been charged with attempted murder, assault, and violation of the Uniform Firearms Act from his alleged role in the shooting.

Security was added at Camden High School yesterday in response to a Thursday melee that ended with 18 arrests and an injured police officer. School officials blamed the fight on a group of girls who sneaked in through a side entrance and got into an argument with students. That argument exploded into a brawl, police said. The intruders slipped out of the building before police officers could respond, said Bart Leff, a spokesman for the school district. Extra law enforcement officers were in the building yesterday, bookbags were checked, and students were required to pass through metal detectors, Leff said.

After his latest court appearance in Trenton yesterday, State Sen. Wayne R. Bryant gave his characteristic blank stare to reporters asking him about the charges of fraud and political corruption facing him. But for the judge, he lodged his first public statement on the matter. He pleaded not guilty. Bryant, who was indicted March 29 while on vacation in Mexico, has been charged with using his influence to collect three no-show jobs with public bodies that nearly tripled the value of his pension.

South Jersey's maddening spree of car window-smashing vandalism is over, Cherry Hill police said yesterday. Police arrested two men and charged them with BB-gun shootings that broke the windows in more than 90 cars in Cherry Hill over the last two months. They said the two also confessed to shooting out windows in cars parked throughout the area, including Pennsauken, Merchantville, Maple Shade, Somerdale, Stratford, Runnemede and Bellmawr. Police said they nabbed the men after a Cherry Hill resident phoned police around 1 a.m. and reported that a maroon Nissan Pathfinder was prowling the Sleepy Hollow and Apple Hill neighborhoods, with its two occupants shooting at the windows of parked cars.

A Camden defense lawyer was arrested yesterday morning and charged with hitting a 17-year-old girl with a wrench and putting a gun to her head, authorities said. Around 3:30 a.m., police officers spotted the distressed girl walking near William Bostic's Morgan Village home and stopped to check on her. She said she had been assaulted a short time earlier in the home on Lakeshore Drive. There was no word from prosecutors on what the 65-year-old lawyer and the 17-year-old girl were doing in his house at that hour of the morning.

Marcus Perkins and April Latta agree on one thing: They planned for weeks to rob Latta's husband, deciding the best time would be after he withdrew money from the bank to pay the monthly bills, police say. Where the two disagree, police say, is on how the robbery turned to murder, with Vincent Latta's body found stuffed in the trunk of his car Friday in South Camden. Police say Perkins, who was arrested yesterday and arraigned on a murder charge in state Superior Court in Camden, told them that April Latta had put a rope around her husband's neck and a knee in his back to strangle him. Latta, arrested Saturday and arraigned Monday, told police that Perkins had killed her husband and then gone to her and said: "Pops is taken care of. Pops is dead.