Indiana: Police seek mother in taped child abuse

Police searched for a mother and her 4-year-old daughter Friday after the woman was captured by a department store security camera punching the girl in the head and shaking her violently.

“We want to get the girl the medical attention she needs,” Police Chief Anthony A. Hazen said. “We want to get her to an emergency room and let them examine her.”

Mishawaka Police identified the woman as Madelyne Gorman Toogood, age 24 or 25, and the child as her daughter, Martha Toogood. Toogood was charged Friday with battery.

Her attorney briefly telephoned police Friday, investigators said. Police did not know the attorney’s location.

The video, broadcast nationwide, showed the woman placing her daughter onto the back seat of a sport utility vehicle in the parking lot of a Kohl’s store, then pummeling, slapping and shaking the girl for several seconds.

The Sept. 13 episode happened after the woman left the store angry over being refused a cash refund, authorities said.

Kentucky: Tearful governor admits inappropriate relations

Gov. Paul Patton on Friday tearfully admitted to having an “inappropriate personal relationship” with a woman who is suing him for sexual harassment. He denied he used his influence to assist or damage the nursing home she operates, as she has alleged.

He said he already apologized to his wife of 25 years, Judi, and members of their family.

Patton, 65, a Democrat, initially denied the allegations made by Tina Conner.

Conner alleged she had a two-year affair with Patton and that the governor turned state inspectors loose on her nursing home in western Kentucky after she ended the relationship.

Georgia: Suspicious devices found; town evacuated

Several blocks in downtown Barnesville were evacuated Friday as police and bomb units investigated several suspicious devices.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Rusty Andrews said eight or nine canisters were found in a three- or four-block area in Barnesville, a town of about 6,000 people 50 miles south of Atlanta.

A bomb squad detonated four of the devices, but no live explosives were found. They were described as 4-by-9-inch canisters, with red and white wires and size-C batteries attached.

Several hundred people were evacuated about 8 a.m.

“If they are hoax devices, they have certainly been fixed up to resemble live explosive devices,” Andrews said.