Man convicted in rape, kidnapping

A Dorchester man is to be sentenced tomorrow in Suffolk Superior Court, where he was found guilty yesterday of kidnapping, raping, and beating his former girlfriend. David Sellars, 44, tied the woman to a bed with two pairs of leg hose and took or cut off her clothes in the attack on March 9, 2001, the Suffolk district attorney's office said. Sellars became angry after his girlfriend told him she wanted him to move out of their apartment. After the attack, he fled the state and was captured in New York in August 2001.

East Boston teen sentenced in beating

An East Boston teenager was sentenced yesterday in Boston Juvenile Court to a year of probation after pleading guilty to an attack on July 4, 2003, that severely injured a woman after a fireworks display. Anita Santiago, 17, admitted to having beaten Lisa Craig, then 35, outside Piers Park in East Boston. Santiago also was ordered to stay away from Craig, to obtain her GED, to be evaluated for anger management counseling, and to pay Craig $65 a month in restitution during probation.

Lawmakers to bolster Open Meeting Law

Acknowledging calls for greater public access to state and local government meetings, Democratic leaders on Beacon Hill promised yesterday to reform the state's Open Meeting Law. Under the law, local governments must keep nearly all meetings open to their constituents or be fined up to $1,000. Two lawyers representing the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, of which The Boston Globe is a member, said that while they hear complaints weekly, there has been no enforcement of the law. There are six bills under consideration that would make it a misdemeanor for lawmakers to illegally close a meeting, would raise fines as high as $2,500, and would levy penalties on state government.

Man allegedly cut cables to extort money

A Chelmsford man was charged in federal court yesterday with trying to extort money from Verizon Communications and Comcast Corp. by cutting their telephone, Internet, and television cables and demanding the companies pay him to stop. Danny Kelly, 50, allegedly cut 18 cables in Chelmsford, Marlborough, Westford, Billerica, and Peabody from November 2004 to February 2005. Prosecutors say he wrote anonymous letters to the two companies saying he wouldn't stop cutting their cables until they set up bank accounts and made monthly deposits of $10,000. Thousands of customers had service disrupted, and the cable-cutting cost the companies more than $300,000, the US attorney's office said.

Moussaoui trial may be viewable in N.E.

New England families should be able to view the expected sentencing trial of admitted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui via closed-circuit television in Boston next year, Massachusetts lawmakers said in a letter to the federal court. Family members who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, cannot afford to travel to Manhattan to view a transmission of the court proceedings, members of Congress said in the letter released yesterday. Moussaoui pleaded guilty April 22 to six counts of conspiring with the hijackers in the terrorist plot, which left 3,000 dead when hijackers flew jetliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Pennsylvania countryside. The letter, signed by all 12 House and Senate members from Massachusetts, suggested that a secure, controlled viewing site could be set up at the Moakley Federal Courthouse. Moussaoui faces a possible death sentence. (AP)

CAMBRIDGE

Judge recuses himself in trial of teacher

The trial of Norman Swerling, a former Newton driver's education teacher accused of raping one of his students, was postponed yesterday because the judge recused himself from the case. The reason was that Judge Charles M. Grabau's children had taken a driver's education course from Swerling, according to Assistant District Attorney Mark Walter and Swerling's lawyer, Thomas Guiney. Swerling, who taught at Newton North and Newton South high schools from 1972 until he was placed on administrative leave in January 2004, was indicted by a grand jury in March 2004 on charges of raping and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old female student. Swerling has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

BEVERLY

Man is sought in slashing at a Li'l Peach

Police are looking for a man who robbed a Li'l Peach convenience store on Essex Street and slashed the store clerk with a box cutter on the neck, forearms, and chest before fleeing. The robber entered the store at about 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The clerk was taken to Beverly Hospital with wounds that were not life-threatening, and the robber made off with money from the register as well as several lottery tickets, police said.