Military mother gets honorable discharge

Rindge, N.H.

A New Hampshire National Guard member who went AWOL while trying to gain custody of her daughter has been honorably discharged from the Army, her lawyer said yesterday. Specialist Lisa Hayes is back home in Rindge with her 7-year-old daughter, Brystal. Hayes's lawyer says she got the good news Friday night and brought her daughter home from Fort Dix in New Jersey yesterday. Hayes was serving her second tour of duty in Iraq when she learned of domestic violence in the home of Brystal's father, who had primary custody. Hayes won temporary custody of her daughter in February. Hayes had been given emergency leave from the Army, but it expired in March before a hearing on permanent custody. She failed to return to Iraq because she had no one to care for her daughter. The Army listed her as absent without leave, then charged her with desertion. She surrendered at Fort Dix earlier this week, taking Brystal with her, and Army lawyers helped her re-file for a hardship discharge. A custody hearing is scheduled Tuesday, her lawyer said.

Newton

A Boston Globe delivery truck crashed into a brick planter at a Newton gas station early yesterday morning on its way to a scheduled newspaper drop-off, according to Kevin Donoghue, delivery foreman for the Globe. The accident took place about 2 a.m. at a Mobile gas station on Route 30 near the interchange of Route 128 and the Massachusetts Turnpike, Donoghue said. The truck went off the road, clipping a traffic signal, and continued through a support pole on the gas station's Mobile sign, bending a gas pump support barrier and crashing into a brick planter attached to the station building, Donogue said. The driver, Neal Beberman, 49, of Sharon has worked at the Globe for 12 years and recently acquired the route, he said. In a telephone interview, Beberman said he was treated for a bruise on the head at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and released. The station was closed at the time of the accident, and no one else was injured, Donoghue said.

Boston

An unidentified male was in protective custody after a family said he had attempted to abduct a child yesterday, according to Boston police. Officers responded to a call from the Franklin Park Zoo around 3 p.m. that reported a man tried to lure a 2-year-old child away from his family and toward a basketball court, according to Boston police spokeswoman Sharon Dottin. When family members yelled at the man to stop, he walked away, according to Dottin. Police later found the man near an MBTA bus stop. The incident remained under investigation.

Marshfield

Two Marshfield men were arrested early yesterday and accused of shooting at and damaging a navigational harbor buoy, the Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard and local police responded around 3 a.m. to a report of gunfire from a boat in Green Harbor. The Coast Guard found the light on the buoy was shot out and discovered several men hiding in a boat nearby. One of them was arrested. Another man was arrested by police on shore. The Coast Guard urged boaters in Green Harbor to exercise caution until the buoy is repaired.

Marblehead

Thomas Commeret, head of Marblehead Community Charter Public School, was placed on paid leave yesterday until allegations that he roughed up a 14-year-old female student are resolved, said Kay O'Dwyer, chairwoman of the board of trustees. Commeret will still collect his $96,000-a-year salary, but will not work for the school or attend board meetings, O'Dwyer said . He will be arraigned tomorrow in Lynn District Court on a felony charge of assault and battery and a misdemeanor charge of threatening to commit a crime. Commeret, 55, who has been head of the school since it opened in 1995, denies the charges.

MANCHESTER, N.H.

Mayor Frank Guinta says the YMCA will not take city students on any more field trips to Planned Parenthood. About 40 students in a program run by the city schools and the YMCA were touring social service agencies around the city. But when they arrived at Planned Parenthood on Wednesday, they were confronted by antiabortion protesters outside. The YMCA said the seventh- and eighth-graders were learning about programs and services in preparation for summer, when they won't have support at school or home. Students in the program are considered at risk for dropping out, abusing drugs, or becoming involved in criminal behavior because of troubled backgrounds. YMCA officials said abortion was not discussed. But the mayor, head of the city school board, said it was inappropriate to include Planned Parenthood on the field trip. (AP)