EAST

SUSPECT IN HOSTAGE-TAKING SURRENDERS TO POLICE

LOPATCONG, N.J. – A man who abducted his 4-month-old daughter and her mother yesterday, then held them in a car surrounded by police for more than three hours before releasing them unharmed surrendered peacefully to police early last night, authorities said. Almutah Saunders dropped a loaded pistol out the window of the car and surrendered at 6:45 p.m., state police Sergeant Gerald Lewis said.

The surrender came after Mr. Saunders’s mother pleaded with her son to give himself up, authorities said. Mr. Saunders triggered a statewide alert yesterday after allegedly shooting the child’s grandfather and then leading police on a chase across the state. Erika Turner, holding her baby, Jada Saunders, left the driver’s side of the car shortly after 3 p.m., walked to one of the police cars surrounding them and got in. The cruiser left skid marks as it backed away from the scene.

– Associated Press

WASHINGTON

SENATE CONFIRMS CROTTY FOR U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE

WASHINGTON – The Senate yesterday confirmed the first of President Bush’s second-term judicial nominees as senators continued to argue over Democrats blocking the White House’s most wanted candidates.

Senators on a 95-0 vote confirmed Paul Crotty as a U.S. District judge for New York State. With Mr. Crotty’s confirmation, Mr. Bush has put 205 trial and appellate judges on the federal court since becoming president. Senator Kennedy, a Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement that he was an “excellent choice” and that “Mr. Crotty’s nomination demonstrates that when President Bush wants to appoint non-ideological judges to the federal bench, he can get a Senate consensus to do so.”

Democrats have blocked 10 of Mr. Bush’s 52 appeals court nominations through filibuster threats, while allowing Republicans to confirm 34 others.

They have said they plan to keep blocking those 10 if they are brought up for confirmation again. In return, the GOP has threatened to change the Senate rules to ban filibusters of judicial nominees. The Republican plan has been dubbed the “nuclear option” because some say it would blow up Senate relations.

– Associated Press

WEST

MOTHER OF BOY WHO GOT SETTLEMENT TESTIFIES IN JACKSON CASE

The mother of a boy who received millions from Michael Jackson in a lawsuit more than a decade ago told jurors yesterday that Mr. Jackson pleaded with her to allow her son to sleep with him during visits to his Neverland ranch and on trips to Las Vegas, Florida, and Europe.

The woman said that during several months in 1993 she was treated by Mr. Jackson to trips and lavish gifts of jewelry after she agreed to let the boy sleep in Mr. Jackson’s room. But during the woman’s testimony there was no inquiry on whether Mr. Jackson molested her son. She said she saw her son and Mr. Jackson on the singer’s bed but did not indicate that anything improper was going on.

Prosecutors in Mr. Jackson’s trial are trying to support a teenager’s testimony about being molested in 2003 by calling witnesses from the past to show that the singer has a pattern of molestation or inappropriate behavior with young boys.

The woman said that during a trip to Las Vegas, Mr. Jackson left to take her son to a performance of Cirque du Soleil but returned early and knocked on her door in a distressed state, sobbing, shaking, and trembling.

“He said, ‘You don’t trust me? We’re a family. Why won’t you allow him to be in my bedroom?'” she testified. After a 30- to 40-minute conversation, she said, she relented and gave permission for the boy to sleep in Mr. Jackson’s bedroom.

– Associated Press