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CLEVELAND (AP) - Authorities have filed kidnapping and rape charges against a Cleveland man arrested after three women missing for about a decade were found alive at his home.

Homeowner Ariel Castro was charged Wednesday. Brothers Pedro and Onil Castro are held but face no charges right now.

The men are in custody and can't be reached for comment. Their brother-in-law has said the family is "totally shocked" after hearing about the women at the home.

The three women disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004 and were found Monday after one of them screamed for help to escape and contacted police.

Police say ropes and chains were among evidence collected inside the house. A city councilman says the women were subjected to prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and suffered miscarriages.

DIXON, Ill. (AP) - The Lee County state's attorney says she decided to drop state charges against former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell because a second trial after her conviction in federal court would not result in additional jail time or restitution.

Crundwell admitted in the federal case that she stole nearly $54 million in public money from the northern Illinois city over some two decades that she served as its bookkeeper.

The Lee County prosecutor, Anna Sacco-Miller, said Tuesday that any sentence in the state proceedings would be served concurrently with the nearly 20 years that Crundwell received in February in the federal case. As a result, she says, the expense to taxpayers of a second trial cannot be justified.

The charges can be refiled if Crundwell's appeal of her federal sentence is successful.

 

ST. LOUIS (AP) - A St. Louis-area fire chief is facing federal indictment for allegedly stealing more than $140,000 in money from the impoverished fire district.

The indictment of Kinloch Fire Protection District chief Darran Kelley was announced Thursday. Federal prosecutors allege he stole money from taxes, grant funds intended for a new pumper truck and donations that were aimed at helping the district keep the truck.

He is also accused of falsely claiming disability.

The district went out of service in December.

Kelley appeared in federal court late Thursday and was ordered to spend the night in jail.

MARION, Ill. (AP) - A man who resigned as a southern Illinois sheriff's deputy after being accused of drunken driving for the second time in five years has pleaded not guilty to his latest DUI count.

 

WSIL-TV reports that 48-year-old deputy Shaunn Curry entered the plea Tuesday in Williamson County Circuit Court. He's charged with driving under the influence.

 

Authorities say the Williamson County deputy was off duty in his own vehicle March 1 when he was stopped near Marion after several motorists called 911 to report a possible drunken driver.

 

Curry was found guilty in 2009 of DUI related to a December 2007 wreck he had while off duty. He was sentenced to two years of conditional discharge.

 

He resigned late last month.

In an effort to clear his name, Ellisville's embattled mayor, Adam Paul has taken a lie detector test, even though the city council has dropped charges of drinking on the job and swearing. Paul says, "I've got thick skin...I can take political allegations, that's fine. But when you affect my livelihood that's a big problem for me and I have to vindicate myself."

The Mayor's attorney Chet Pleban says although the polygraph test is inadmissible in court he tells KTRS' McGraw Milhaven this was the Mayor's only recourse since he no longer has a vote on the council.

Pleban says, "He answered in the negative he had not had any alcoholic beverages under those circumstances and the polygraph examiner determined he was truthful in his response. You can't put the smoke back in the bag last night they (city council) said we're not going to go forward with this drinking allegation well, it's out there. Adam Paul has to live and work in the St Louis area and live in the city of Ellisville and this is the only way right now to clear his name.""

Paul has repeatedly refuted the drinking and swearing charges saying they stem from his disagreements with the city council over a controversial Walmart TIF.

Dyanthony Proudie faces multiple charges, including murder in the first degree for allegedly killing Ebony Jackson.

Police say that he and Jackson had reconnected recently. While Jackson and was running a bath at Proudie's apartment, police say the 40 year old shot Jackson in the head. Proudie then allegedly took her body and stuffed it in the trunk of her car.

Police found Jackson's son abandoned in the hallway of a Breckenridge Hills apartment complex on January 4 and Jackson's body on January 8.

Proudie has previous convictions in 1990 for Burglary and 1992 for Assault in the 2nd Degree. He was also on probation for multiple offenses in 2012.

No word on if Prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. (AP) - Three months after a woman's body was found at an eastern Missouri motel, a man has been charged in the crime.

KFVS-TV reports that 52-year-old Curtis Smith is already in prison for second-degree murder for another killing. Now, he is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Kristi Murphy.

Murphy's body was found in a bathtub at the Microtel Motel in Ste. Genevieve on Nov. 17. Smith was on parole at the time of her death.

Smith is jailed on $250,000 bond.

CHICAGO (AP) - Authorities say they've filed murder charges in the death of a 15 year old honor student who was shot last month near the Chicago home of President Barack Obama.

Chicago police spokeswoman Melissa Stratton said Monday that two young men are charged with first-degree murder in connection to the Jan. 29 death of Hadiya Pendleton.

They also are charged with two counts of attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. Their names haven't been released.

Police say Pendleton was talking with friends in a Chicago park when one suspect ran toward the group and opened fire. The gunman then fled in a car.

The shooting made national headlines after it was reported that Pendleton had recently returned from Washington, where she'd performed during inauguration festivities with her high school band.