WASHINGTON

MORE THAN 1,100 ALLEGED SEX OFFENDERS CAUGHT IN FUGITIVE ROUNDUP

More than 1,100 people wanted in connection with violent sex crimes were among 9,037 fugitives arrested in a week-long roundup, top law enforcement officials said yesterday.

The arrests were made as part of “Operation Falcon II,” a 27-state dragnet led by the U.S. Marshals Service and timed to coincide with National Victims Rights Week.

This year’s focus was on sex offenders, a group that Attorney General Gonzales has made a priority in his 15 months at the Justice Department. The operation “targeted the worst of the worst,” Gonzales said at a news conference at the Justice Department.

During the week of April 17-23,federal,state,and local authorities arrested 1,102 people wanted for violent sex crimes or for failing to register as a sex offender after a prior conviction for sexual assault.

– Associated Press

SOUTH

DELIBERATIONS RECESSED IN MOUSSAOUI TRIAL DUE TO ILLNESS

ALEXANDRIA, V.a. – Jury deliberations in the September 11, 2001 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui sentencing trial were suspended yesterday after a juror called in sick.

Deliberations are scheduled to resume today, although the judge said she may wait until Monday if the juror does not recover quickly.

– Associated Press

ACCUSER IN DUKE LACROSSE CASE PREVIOUSLY REPORTED RAPE

DURHAM, N.C. – The woman who says she was raped by three members of Duke’s lacrosse team also told police 10 years ago she was raped by three men, filing a 1996 complaint claiming she had been assaulted three years earlier when she was 14.

Authorities in nearby Granville County said yesterday that none of the men named in the decade-old report were ever charged with sexual assault there, but they didn’t have details why.

A phone number for the accuser has been disconnected and her family declined to comment to the Associated Press. But relatives told Essence magazine in an online story this week that the woman declined to pursue the case out of fear for her safety.

– Associated Press

IN THE COURTS

SNOOP DOGG RELEASED ON BAIL AFTER FRACAS AT LONDON AIRPORT

Snoop Dogg was released on bail yesterday after a fracas over access to a first-class lounge at Heathrow Airport, which injured seven police officers, his lawyers said.

The 34-year-old rapper was driven away from the airport’s police station, police said, while speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. They did not give details of five other men arrested with him.

“Snoop has been released on bail,” said his attorney, Peter Binning. “He will return at a later date.”

– Associated Press