Georgia

Town holds festival to honor ‘Hogzilla’ legend

Residents of Alapaha gathered Saturday to celebrate Hogzilla, a 12-foot-long wild pig that was supposedly shot by a hunting guide last summer and quickly grew into a worldwide legend.

The festival comes five months after the 1,000-pound hog was killed when it wandered out of swamps along the nearby Alapaha River.

The prodigious porker was remembered with a hog-calling contest and a greased-pig chase, as well as a float featuring a life-size replica of Hogzilla.

The only proof of Hogzilla was a photo showing hunting guide Chris Griffin with the beast dangling from a rope. Ken Holyoak, owner of the plantation where the hog was killed, says Hogzilla was too old to butcher and too big to mount, so he buried the carcass.

Miami

Police review new case of Taser use on child

Police have acknowledged using a stun gun to immobilize a 12-year-old girl just weeks after an officer jolted a first-grader with 50,000 volts.

Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to use a Taser on the 6-year-old boy last month because he was threatening to injure himself with a shard of glass. But Parker said Friday that he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing girl.

According to the incident report, officer William Nelson responded to a complaint that children were swimming in a pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars on the morning of Nov. 5.

Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and was walking her to his car to take her back to school when she ran away through a parking lot.

Nelson, 38, said he yelled several times for her to stop before firing the Taser.

Salt Lake City

Competency request could delay Smart trial

Attorneys for a man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart have asked a judge for additional competency evaluations, potentially delaying a trial already held up for months over the issue.

Heidi Buchi, a lawyer for Brian David Mitchell, argued in a motion filed Wednesday that she has seen a marked decline in Mitchell’s capacity to assist in his defense.

Mitchell’s “delusions have taken an increasingly dominant role in his decision-making process and conversation,” Buchi said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kent Morgan said Friday that Mitchell should be examined briefly to determine if his status had changed but added, “We don’t need to give him all the tests again.”

New Hampshire

Couple accused in plot to sacrifice children

A woman and her boyfriend are accused of plotting to sacrifice the woman’s three children on a church altar.

Nicole Mancini, 29, and John Thurber, 35, were arrested at St. Mary’s Church on Wednesday after workers said they heard the woman say she wanted to sacrifice the boys.

“We could tell this woman was not right,” said church secretary Donna Landolfi. “She said, ‘Let’s go make the sacrifice.'”

Mancini and Thurber were in jail Saturday on more than $25,000 bail. They were arraigned Friday on three counts each of misdemeanor child endangerment. Thurber was also charged with marijuana possession.

The children, ages 9, 7 and 2, were not harmed and were placed in state custody. Police said Thurber was the father of the youngest boy.

Seattle

Judge favors Democrats in provisional ballot fight

A judge Friday ordered election officials in the state’s largest county to turn over the names of about 900 voters whose provisional ballots are in dispute.

Judge Dean S. Lum said it would burden the county little to release the names, and that state law favored openness in government. “No right is more precious than the right to vote,” he said.

A lawsuit by Democrats had sought to block election officials in King County, home to Seattle, from discarding the disputed ballots.

The legal wrangling stems from the closest gubernatorial race in state history. As of Friday afternoon, Republican Dino Rossi led Democrat Christine Gregoire by about 2,000 votes out of over 2.7 million counted. The count could drag on into next week.

State party chairman Paul Berendt said volunteers would work through the weekend to contact the voters. “We’re up to it,” he said, his voice breaking.