QUOTE OF THE DAY “The situation is very grim.” Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots, as the search for survivors in a Washington mudslide swelled Monday Article, this page Discarded cigarette caused motel fire
POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. - A cigarette discarded in a stuffed chair touched off a fire that killed four people at a New Jersey shore motel last week, authorities said Monday.
Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato said the cigarette was discarded carelessly in the designated second-floor smoking area at the Mariner’s Cove Motor Inn, where guests included some people who were previously displaced by superstorm Sandy.
The prosecutor did not immediately say whether authorities know who discarded the cigarette or whether it was one of those killed or injured in the fire. The second floor, built mostly of wood, suffered the heaviest damage in the early morning blaze, which was fanned by a strong wind.
He said the investigation was aided by video recovered from the Point Pleasant Beach motel’s heavily damaged surveillance system. Investigators also relied upon pre- and post-fire photos and interviews with guests and motel management.
The investigation also was expected to look into whether the motel had smoke detectors or alarms and whether they were working. Survivors gave conflicting accounts Friday of whether they heard alarms when the fire broke out.
Internal inquiry got Christie talking
TRENTON, N.J. - Chris Christie was interviewed as part of an internal inquiry into politically motivated traffic jams, a spokesman for New Jersey’s governor said, after The New York Times reported that the probe had cleared the state’s top official of direct involvement in the events.
The governor, a second-term Republican, handed over his own iPhone and provided access to his government and personal email accounts as part of the review, spokesman Kevin Roberts said in an email. Roberts declined to comment on Monday’s Times report, which cited people with knowledge of the inquiry who asked not to be identified.
Lawyers conducting the review were granted “complete and wide-ranging access” as they interviewed more than 70 people, including senior staff and officials at the Port Authority of New Jersey and New Jersey, Roberts said. The review “is not yet complete and therefore has not been delivered to the governor’s office or anyone else yet,” Roberts said.
The Times reported that sources said the internal review found no evidence the 51-year-old governor plotted or directed the lane closings.
Arizona sheriff, aide chided by judge
PHOENIX - A federal judge presiding over a racial-profiling case against an Arizona sheriff’s office chided the sheriff and his top aide Monday for mischaracterizing his findings, telling them he’s unimpressed by what he called their apparent “double dealing.”
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow said he was disappointed with the inaccurate statements that Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, the top aide for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, made about the case during an October training session with rank-and-file deputies.
Sheridan apologized for the inaccuracies. He said he made the remarks out of frustration with declining morale among his deputies after Snow concluded last year that the agency has racially profiled Hispanics.
The judge took issue with a remark that Sheridan made during the Oct. 18 training session in which he complained that his agency was being put under the same kind of court supervision as the long-troubled New Orleans Police Department and added, “That tells you how ludicrous this crap is.”
Sheridan and Arpaio were called into court Monday to answer questions about the training session.
Closing arguments made on al-Qaida role
NEW YORK - After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law became a key player in al-Qaida’s campaign of terror, a federal prosecutor told jurors Monday, while a defense lawyer argued that the government had no evidence against his client and was playing on the jury’s fears.
In closing arguments at the trial of the son-in-law, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Cronan said that bin Laden had recruited the defendant to be an al-Qaida spokesman “to send a message - a message that al-Qaida’s attacks on Sept. 11 were justified, that the United States got what it deserved.”
Abu Ghaith’s attorney, Stanley Cohen, countered in his closing that there was no evidence his client played any significant role in al-Qaida in the aftermath of Sept. 11. He accused prosecutors of seeking to manipulate jurors by showing them a video of the jets crashing in the twin towers and relentlessly referencing 9/11, even though Abu Ghaith isn’t charged in the attack.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 03/25/2014