Florida

‘Tigger’ acquitted of fondling teen

A Walt Disney World worker who portrayed the character Tigger was acquitted Wednesday of charges he fondled a 13-year-old girl while posing for a photo with the teen and her mother.

The acquittal came less than an hour following a three-day trial during which the defense attorney for Michael Chartrand donned a Tigger costume in an effort to show jurors how difficult it is to maneuver and see in the outfit.

Outside court in Orlando, Chartrand, a native of England who lost his fiancee and had been suspended without pay after his arrest in the case, said he’d like his job back, but that the experience “has ruined my dream to be a character.”

Jurors found Michael Chartrand not guilty of lewd and lascivious molestation, a felony; he had faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

New Hampshire

Bear literally scares young camper to death

A 13-year-old boy attending a camp for underprivileged children collapsed and died after being frightened by a bear during a hike, authorities said Wednesday.

Antonio Hansell of Boston and a counselor from Camp Hale came across the bear twice Tuesday afternoon on Mount Doublehead near Sandwich, the state Fish and Game Department said. Officials said the two ran from the bear at the first encounter; they saw the bear a second time while trying to retrieve Antonio’s lost sneaker and also ran. The bear did not chase them.

The boy collapsed, and was neither breathing nor had a pulse when rescuers reached him about two hours later, a half-mile from the end of their approximately six-mile hike, the department said in a statement. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

An autopsy was being conducted Wednesday. Goss said he did not believe the boy had any medical problems.

Atlanta

Bishops bar communion for abortion supporters

Roman Catholic bishops in three Southeastern dioceses said Wednesday they would deny Communion to lawmakers who consistently support abortion rights unless the dissenting politicians publicly recant.

The bishops said in a statement that Catholics who violate church teaching in policy-making were “cooperating in evil in a public manner.”

The banned Catholic lawmakers could resume taking the sacrament “only after reconciliation with the church has occurred, with the knowledge and consent of the local bishop, and public disavowal of former support for procured abortion,” the clerics said.

Washington, D.C.

Saudis lavish gifts on Bush, family, aides

For President Bush, the first family and Bush’s top aides, the most generous foreign leader last year — by far — was Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

The State Department’s annual tally of gifts to administration officials shows that Abdullah gave them $127,600 in jewelry and other presents last year, including a diamond-and-sapphire jewelry set for first lady Laura Bush that was valued at $95,500.

The Saudi royal family’s gifts dwarfed those of other world leaders, according to the tally, and easily eclipsed Abdullah’s $55,020 in gifts in 2002. Abdullah has been Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler since 1996 after a stroke sidelined King Fahd.

New York City

Ferry pilot pleads guilty in deadly crash

A Staten Island ferry pilot pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges Wednesday in a crash that killed 11 commuters last October, acknowledging that he passed out at the helm after arriving at work with medication in his system.

Richard Smith made his plea hours before authorities released an indictment charging New York’s director of ferries with manslaughter for allegedly running a system so slipshod that it was “a tragedy waiting to happen,” prosecutors said.

The plea and indictments followed a 10-month investigation in the case. The Oct. 15 crash occurred when the Andrew J. Barberi ferry drifted off course and slammed into a concrete maintenance pier, turning a routine trip across New York Harbor into a nightmare of shattered glass and twisted metal. Dozens were injured in what was one of the worst mass-transit disasters in New York history.