Sox's Schilling gets save after win

Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling helped police catch a man driving erratically Tuesday night, hours after he led the Red Sox to a win over the Oakland Athletics. Schilling was heading to his home in Medfield when he spotted a car driving unevenly on Route 109 in Westwood. He called police on his cell phone, and police tracked the driver and pulled him over. "We just noticed somebody almost cause two head-on collisions," Schilling said after the Red Sox's game yesterday. "It was obvious they were either hurt or impaired. I have four kids. When I'm gone from home, people like that terrify me." Police responded promptly, Schilling said. (AP)

Boston

US court reinstates negligence suit

A federal appeals court yesterday reinstated a negligence suit that was filed against the government by the family of a man who died at a Northampton veterans' hospital while being cared for by Kristen Gilbert, a nurse convicted in 2001 of killing four patients. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit rejected the government's claim that the family of Michele Cascone waited too long to file the suit and should have known from widespread publicity about Gilbert's case that she might have caused Cascone's fatal heart attack in 1996 by injecting him with epinephrine. The appeals court found that the Cascone family didn't learn that Gilbert was a suspect in Cascone's death until a reporter called his widow in April 2000. Gilbert was never charged in Cascone's death.

Roofer, 32, accused of lottery rage

It wasn't Christopher Rehm's lucky day. The 32-year-old roofer from Hyde Park bought a couple of lottery scratch tickets at his neighborhood Store 24 on his way to work. But when he didn't hit the lottery, he allegedly hit the lottery machine instead, knocking it off the counter. Boston police said Rehm grabbed the clerk by the right hand, then fled after the clerk was cut on the wrist. Rehm was peeling out of the parking lot when his truck almost collided with a police cruiser, police said. Rehm told the officer he was late for work, but the clerk ran out and identified him as the man who assaulted him, police said. Rehm was arrested on charges of assault and battery, malicious destruction of property, and driving an uninsured vehicle. He pleaded not guilty in West Roxbury District Court and was ordered held on $750 cash bail.

DANVERS

Atrium allowed to resume enrollments

State officials yesterday allowed the Atrium assisted living facility to resume enrolling new residents, saying the facility had corrected problems discovered after a resident's death in March. The state had suspended the Atrium's certification in April following the death of a resident who hit his head after he was allegedly pushed by another resident, who had dementia. Yesterday state officials said the facility's management had improved staff training, medication management, and infection control and had resolved other problems.

Fitchburg

2 hurt in plane crash; FAA investigates

A single-engine plane carrying two people crashed in Fitchburg yesterday not far from an airport, authorities said. The plane crashed near Crawford Street at about 2:30 pm, officials said. The passengers were pulled from the plane and taken to Leominster Hospital, then taken by helicopter to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, said Police Sergeant Joaquin Kilson. Their names and conditions were being withheld. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating, Kilson said.

DARTMOUTH

Boy, 2, found dead in fenced-off pond

A 2-year-old Dartmouth boy drowned Wednesday evening after he apparently slipped out of his family's apartment in a motel they run and into a fish pond behind the complex, authorities said. Krishi Patel, whose family manages the Capri Motel on State Road, was found floating in the pond by a family member around 8:15 p.m., Dartmouth police said. A relative jumped the fence surrounding the pond and pulled the toddler from the water, police said. Relatives tried to resuscitate the boy, but he was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford, police said. Roshni Patel, the boy's aunt, said he apparently slipped out a door that was accidentally left unlocked while his mother, older brother, and sister were in the apartment. Police believe the boy squeezed through a small opening in the fence that surrounds the pond, which is about 3 feet deep and 8 feet in diameter. The Bristol district attorney's office is investigating, along with Dartmouth police.