Idaho Briefs November 21, 2010
Rape charge dismissed
BOISE (AP) - A judge has dismissed rape charges against two southwestern Idaho men citing a quirk in state law concerning an unmarried women being tricked into having sex with a stranger.
Fourth District Judge Cheri Copsey said what happened was despicable but she had no choice in dismissing the rape and aiding and abetting a rape charges on Wednesday against the two Boise men.
Police said that in July the intoxicated woman was tricked by her then boyfriend, Zachary McGraw, into having sex with a stranger, Cielo Sanchez.
Idaho law specifies that rape can be charged if the victim is tricked into believing the person committing the act is her husband.
Copsey said the key word is husband, and that because the woman thought she was having sex with her boyfriend, she's not protected by Idaho law.
L. Craig Atkinson, McGraw's defense attorney, filed a motion to dismiss the charges, contending Idaho's rape statute didn't apply. An Ada County public defender representing Sanchez joined McGraw's motion.
Declawed cat makes 23-mile journey home
KETCHUM (AP) - A central Idaho couple says their declawed cat traveled 23 miles during a five-week journey to return to its old home in Bellevue after escaping from a condominium in the central Idaho mountain town of Ketchum.
Bill and Margaret Tormey told the Idaho Mountain Express they thought their Himalayan-Persian-rag doll mix named Little Big Man was gone for good after it escaped from their niece's condominium in Ketchum on Sept. 30.
The couple was moving from Bellevue to a new house near Hailey where cats aren't allowed, and so gave Little Big Man to their niece in Ketchum.
On Monday while moving items from their Bellevue home Little Big Man arrived and pawed at the door.
The Tormeys said the landlord at their new house was so impressed the no-cats policy has been lifted for Little Big Man.
Man pleads guilty in oxycodone case
BOISE (AP) - A Twin Falls man has pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone in south-central Idaho earlier this year.
Federal prosecutors said 22-year-old James Toliver Latham purchased the narcotic from an illicit source in Salt Lake City, then sold it in Twin Falls between March 2009 and March 2010.
Latham is one of four men nabbed by drug agents in Twin Falls and accused of operating the ring.
Latham pleaded guilty to the felony Friday and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and fines that could reach $1 million. Sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 31 in U.S. District Court in Boise.