Police urge care after alleged assault

Police urged caution yesterday after a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted in the North End. About 7:51 a.m., officers responded to a report of a sexual assault in the area of Charter Street. The victim told officers she was walking along Charter Street when a man approached, grabbed, and sexually assaulted her. She fought off the suspect, who fled, police said. They described the suspect as a light-skinned Hispanic male, about 6 feet tall, with short hair, medium build, 25 to 30 years in age, and wearing a gray-hooded sweat shirt and black pants. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 617-343-4400.

Governor Deval Patrick made two appointments to the state Board of Higher Education yesterday, adding Nancy Harrington and C. Bernard Fulp. Harrington is the former president of Salem State College, while Fulp is chairman of the software company GoBiz Solutions. He is also a trustee of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council. They replace Aaron Spencer and Richard Taylor, whose terms had expired. The governor has filed legislation to expand the 11-member board to 13 members, in an effort to advance his education agenda. The board oversees the University of Massachusetts system, nine state colleges, and 15 community colleges with a combined budget of $1 billion. (AP)

State Police have identified the man who was killed on Route 128 near Route 20 yesterday as Robert Turcotte, 44, of Holliston. Police say that Turcotte was heading south at about 5:50 p.m. when he stopped his sport utility vehicle in the breakdown lane. While standing near the white fog line separating the breakdown lane and the right travel lane, he was struck by a tractor-trailer driven by James Glovacki, 55, of Greenfield, police said. The crash is still under investigation. The right two lanes of Route 128 southbound were closed for about three hours.

A Navy Blue Angels pilot who grew up in Massachusetts died in a crash last year apparently because he became disoriented after a high-speed turn and failed to properly tense his abdominal muscles to counter the gravitational forces, the Associated Press has learned. A report blamed the April crash on an error by Navy Lieutenant Commander Kevin Davis, who died when his F/A-18 Hornet went down near a Marine Corps station in Beaufort, S.C. Davis grew up in Pittsfield and Reading, Mass. Because of the crash, the Navy has increased its exercise requirements for Blue Angels pilots with additional focus on abdominal muscles. The pilot's family said they did not want to comment on the report. (AP)

A Ware woman died Sunday night in a two-alarm fire in a five-unit apartment building on Park Street, said Ware fire department officials. No other residents were injured in the fire, which broke out shortly before midnight. The cause of the fire, which started in a first-floor apartment in a complex directly behind the town firehouse, is under investigation. The woman's identity was not released.

A survey of New Hampshire teenagers finds that slightly more are having sex at a young age, but that suicide attempts and marijuana use are down. Those are some of the conclusions reported in a Department of Education survey of risky behavior among New Hampshire high school students. The survey of 1,638 ninth to 12th graders in 58 public school asked 99 questions. (AP)

A young woman who accused her parents of kidnapping her in an attempt to persuade her to have an abortion has pleaded not guilty to a prostitution charge. Katelyn Kampf entered her plea yesterday in a letter from her lawyer, Robert Levine, and did not appear in Portland District Court. The prostitution charge stemmed from a police sting operation at a Portland hotel in October in which Kampf allegedly offered sex for money. She was arrested in December after failing to appear in court to answer the prostitution summons. Nicholas and Lola Kampf were arrested in 2006. The kidnapping charges were dropped last October when the parents pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. (AP)