Funeral rites held for 9/11 firefighter
New York A 30-year-old firefighter who rushed to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, was memorialized Saturday at a Manhattan church in one of the last funerals for 343 firefighters killed that day.
Hundreds of firefighters attended as a fire engine carried Keithroy M. Maynard’s remains to the Church of the Master.
Like other relatives of Sept. 11 victims, Maynard’s family held a memorial service two months after the attacks, but years more passed before his family felt that enough of his remains had been identified to hold a formal funeral, officials said.
The ceremony Saturday was the first funeral since 2003 for a firefighter killed at the World Trade Center.
Order blocks arrest over cadet’s records
Denver A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked the military from arresting a civilian counselor for refusing to turn over records of sessions with a former Air Force Academy cadet who said she was raped.
A lawyer for clinical social worker Jennifer Bier said there is a stay in place until Wednesday. The government has until then to file a brief, attorney Wendy Murphy said on Saturday.
Lawyers for 1st Lt. Joseph Harding, accused of raping two cadets at the academy, won a military court order requiring Bier to turn over her records in one of the cases. Bier, director of clinical services for the Colorado Springs rape and domestic violence crisis center TESSA, counseled one of the alleged victims in the Academy’s rape scandal.
She was one of 142 women who reported being sexually assaulted between 1993-2003.
Mormon sect leader facing sex charges
Phoenix The leader of a polygamous sect has been charged with sex crimes for allegedly arranging a marriage between a teenage girl and a 28-year-old married man, prosecutors said.
Warren Jeffs, president of Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was charged with counts including conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor, prosecutors said Friday. If convicted, he could face up to two years in jail.
Jeffs, 49, didn’t have sex with the 16-year-old girl but arranged her marriage, the attorney for Mohave County, Ariz., said.
Officials didn’t know where Jeffs was and hoped release of his name would lead to his arrest. Jeffs has not been seen publicly in more than a year and is thought to be at a Texas church ranch.
Boston school closure sparks parent protest
Boston Parents angry that the archdiocese abruptly locked their kids out of school before graduation ceremonies have started a camp-out in a city square across from the school in protest.
About 50 people stayed in the 10 tents set up Friday night across from Our Lady of Presentation School. The Boston archdiocese closed the school on Wednesday, two days ahead of schedule.
“The intent would be to show we are a school in exile,” said Fiona O’Brien, a parent of twin 7-year-old girls at the school.
Parents held their own graduation for kindergartners on Thursday in the city square across the street. Mayor Thomas Menino, who has criticized the closing, allowed the school to use Faneuil Hall for graduation for older students on Friday.
The archdiocese closed the school ahead of schedule after hearing reports that protesters intended to begin an occupation of the school building as early as Thursday. Similar sit-ins have prevented the archdiocese from closing several churches. About 80 of 357 parishes are scheduled to close as part of the church’s reconfiguration.
Parents had offered to buy the property and start a new school but the archdiocese never put it on the market.