Neglect is alleged in toddler's drowning

The mother of a 21-month-old Wellesley girl who apparently drowned last month neglected the girl on the day she died, officials said yesterday. Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Children and Families, said the agency has substantiated an allegation that Kerry Morton neglected her daughter Finley Clare Morton on Oct. 24, shortly before the girl was found unresponsive at home. Goodwin declined to describe the neglect. She said the agency is offering its support for the family, which includes nine children. In general, neglect can range from leaving a child unattended to failing to bring a child to a doctor's appointment. It excludes physical abuse. The Norfolk district attorney's office, which found no evidence of trauma on the girl, said its investigation into the death is continuing. Calls to the Morton home were not returned.

Fifty-one clergymen throughout Massachusetts have signed a petition in support of Question 2, which would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, according to the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative, a Washington group that supports relaxing drug laws. "We're not urging anyone to use marijuana," said the Rev. Marc Fredette of the First Unitarian Universalist Parish in Waltham, one of the initiative's supporters. "But it is worse to have a marijuana policy that . . . disproportionately punishes the most vulnerable members of our community and continues to punish them even after they've served their sentence." Last week, six prominent black ministers from Boston sent a letter to other clergy around the state, calling on them to oppose the proposition, arguing it would send the wrong message to youths and would increase violence on the streets.

P.A. Landers Inc., one of the state's largest paving companies, has agreed to pay $900,000 to settle civil claims brought by US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, the US attorney's office said yesterday. The settlement follows the criminal convictions of Preston A. Landers, president of the company, and Gregory R. Keelan, a vice president, for conspiracy to commit fraud in accepting payments for asphalt on government-funded highway jobs based on fake and inflated invoices, the US attorney's office said. Last year Landers was sentenced to 42 months in prison and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine, and Keelan was sentenced to 30 months in prison with a $10,000 fine, the office said. The civil settlement announced yesterday is to be paid by the corporation, which is based in Hanover and Plymouth. The case was initiated by a former Landers employee, Omar Ali, who as a "whistle blower" will receive 20 percent of the settlement amount, the office said.

A man found with a gunshot wound in a car Sunday morning in Roxbury died later that night in the hospital, police said. Keldrin Pena, 20, of Jamaica Plain, was found in the front passenger seat of a car with two other men at Harrison Avenue and Warren Street about 1:20 a.m. Sunday. He was taken to Boston Medical Center. Police continue to investigate and said Pena and the two other occupants of the car are known to police. The two other men were not identified and were not injured in the shooting, police spokesman David Estrada said.

A man was killed Sunday night when a two-alarm fire swept through his home in Hopkinton. Officials did not release the man's identity. His body was discovered at 9 p.m. by firefighters who rushed inside the home on Meserve Street, said Hopkinton Deputy Fire Chief Ken Clark. The man apparently died from injuries caused by the fire and was pronounced dead at the scene, Clark said. The man lived alone in the home, which was extensively damaged in the blaze. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but it does not appear suspicious, according to State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan. Hopkinton firefighters also battled a three-alarm fire on Hayden Rowe Street, Clark said. The occupants escaped safely. One firefighter suffered a minor injury to his arm. The fire originated in the basement and spread to the attic, Clark said.