Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger posed for a picture with Milledgeville, Ga., police Sgt. Jerry Blash as the NFL star visited nightclubs in the college town. A 20-year-old college student says Roethlisberger assaulted her the same night; Blash took her complaint and wrote the initial police report. (Photo by The Union-Recorder, Milledgeville, Ga.) See group photo below

By Jonathan Jackson
CNHI News Service

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – The police officer who initially investigated the sexual assault complaint against Ben Roethlisberger posed for photographs with the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback an hour before his accuser filed her complaint.

Sgt. Jerry Blash, who subsequently wrote a sparse incident report that did not name Roethlisberger, had a closeup picture taken with the celebrity football player inside a local bar and, later, outside the bar with a group of other officers.

By Ken de la Bastide
CNHI News Service

KOKOMO, Ind. -- The National Republican Congressional Committee is in violation of a 2010 “treaty” among three Indiana political parties to disavow robo-calls.
The state's Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties agreed to ban the unsolicited prerecorded messages.

CNHI News Service

SALEM, Mass. — The long arm of the last reached back into the last century to convict Robin Abrahams of rape.

Abrahams, 46, was sentenced Wednesday to 45 to 60 years in state prison.

It took the jury just shy of three hours to unanimously decide that Abrahams had raped a 15-year-old Newburyport, Mass., girl nearly 20 years ago.

CNHI News Service

SALISBURY, Mass. — A Massachusetts woman who pleaded guilty to embezzling $450,000 as the company's financial officer is receiving unemployment benefits from the business that fired her.

"We received a form noting she has collected two checks, each for $629," said Mike Gouin, who works in sales for White Magic, a company that makes cleaning supplies. "I didn't think people could collect if they were fired and pleaded guilty to charges."

CNHI News Service
PERKINS, Okla. - Two dogs that mauled a baby boy to death had been brought inside to have shelter from a rainstorm, Iowa tribal administrators said.

The baby died Monday after being mauled at a house south of Stillwater, said Stillwater Fire Battalion Chief Rick Hauf.

The attack occurred on land under Iowa tribal jurisdiction outside Perkins, a community of 2,400 people in north central Oklahoma.

Tribal Administrator Stephanie Ramsey said the two adult dogs had been given to the family the day before. She wouldn't identify the family nor specify the dogs' breed.