Support beam shift forces hall evacuation

A music hall in Portsmouth was evacuated yesterday evening during a Barbara Walters speaking engagement after a support column in the basement gave way, according to Portsmouth Police Lieutenant Dante Puopolo. The column shifted in the basement of the 130-year-old Music Hall on Chestnut Street just before 8 p.m., and the balcony sunk about 4 inches, Puopolo said. There were no injuries, but the theater, which holds about 900 people, was evacuated and the show was cut short. Puopolo said construction had been underway in the basement. City building inspectors were on the scene last night and no one was allowed into the building until further notice, he said.

An Avon man was arrested and charged Thursday with the theft of a Boston police bicycle while an officer was handling a traffic stop. Donald Gallo, 28, was charged with larceny over $250, police said. The incident occurred when the officer parked his bicycle on the sidewalk and went to assist another officer performing a stop at Washington and Essex streets, according to police. Upon returning, the officer discovered his bike was gone. At the same time, police said a detail officer stopped Gallo after he was allegedly seen riding the bike near Beach Street. Gallo told police he had found the bike, police said.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley will begin sending out weekly e-mails tomorrow to Roman Catholics throughout the Boston Archdiocese. The e-mails will include statements from O'Malley, content from his blog, and news releases. The e-mails also will feature links to stories from The Pilot, the archdiocese's newspaper. The initial e-mail will be sent to about 10,000 e-mail addresses provided to agencies and affiliates of the archdiocese. O'Malley hopes the list will eventually include every Catholic household in the archdiocese that has an e-mail account. (AP)

The trustees of Northeastern University have selected insurance executive Sy Sternberg to succeed Neal F. Finnegan as the board's chairman. Sternberg, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is chief executive officer of New York Life Insurance Co. Sternberg will begin his duties as chairman on July 1, and Finnegan, named chairman in 1998, becomes chairman emeritus.

Howard Godfrey, 61, was sentenced to life without parole yesterday in the 1991 killing near Stowe of Patricia Scoville of Boston. In the court session, her parents spoke of the heartache caused by her death. Ann Scoville of Canandaigua, N.Y., speaking in a courtroom packed with family, friends, and others involved with the case, spoke of losing her first child, and the thoughts of what her family would have looked like if her daughter had married and had children. Patricia Scoville died three weeks after moving to Vermont from Boston. She had ridden her bike to Moss Glen Falls, a scenic spot just outside the village of Stowe, when authorities said Godfrey struck her in the back of the head, raped and killed her, and then buried her body beneath pine boughs.

A Mansfield police officer has been acquitted of vehicular homicide but convicted of lesser charges in connection with the death of a 10-year-old girl. Prosecutors say 34-year-old Aaron Fine was behind the wheel of his family's landscaping truck on Dec. 2, 2006, which struck Rose Shatz as she rode her bicycle near her Foxborough home. Fine was off duty at the time. He was found guilty in a bench trial in Dedham Superior Court on Thursday of driving negligently so as to endanger, and unlicensed operation. Fine has been on unpaid leave from the Police Department pending the outcome of the trial. Sentencing was scheduled for June 25. (AP)

The Rhode Island governor's office is looking into whether Governor Don Carcieri is violating a state ethics rule that prohibits state officials from hiring family members. Carcieri's niece, Stephanie Accaputo, works at the governor's constituent services office. She was hired shortly after he was first elected in 2002. Carcieri described Accaputo to WJAR-TV as a "distant relation." State anti-nepotism rules list nieces among the people state officials can't hire or supervise, but nieces were not included in the rules until 2007. (AP)