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Show Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 Page 2 World&NatiOn Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com OarifyCorrect The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at statesmaneditor@aggiemail.usu.edu Celebs &People LOS ANGELES (AP) Nicolas Cage is being sued by his former business manager, who claims lavish spending is to blame for the actor's financial problems. Samuel J. Levin filed a countersuit CAGE in Beverly Hills on Nov. 12, less than a month after the "National Treasure" star sued Levin for fraud and claimed he was leading him toward financial ruin. Levin's suit says he tried to warn Cage when he was hired in 2001 that Cage was outspending even his large Hollywood paychecks. NewsBriefs Mom gave up baby to drug dearer SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Authorities say a Salt Lake City woman told them she gave her 9-month-old daughter to a suspected drug dealer because she was homeless, addicted to methamphetamine and unable to care for the girl. Salt Lake County Sheriffs Lt. Don Hutson says deputies found the child Monday while searching a home as part of a drug investigation. LateNiteHumor David Letterman, Nov. 16, 2009 - Top 10 Surprises In The Sarah Palin Book. 10. Cover photo is actually Tina Fey. 9. All proceeds from the book go toward a bitchin' new snowmobile. 8. Nearly had to pull out of campaign after spraining her winking muscle. 7. Not interested in politics, is interested in joining "Dancing with the Stars." 6. Includes fantasy sequence where she beats Katie Couric with her own microphone. 5. Someone's got a crush on Jon Gosselin. 4. It's a science fiction romance about moody teenage vampires. 3. Favorite Web site: YoubetchaTube. 2. Includes Levi Johnston centerfold. 1. Even Sarah doesn't know what Todd does. Barzee pleads guilty, apologizes in Smart abduction SALT LAKE CITY (AP) —Seven years after she was abducted at knifepoint, Elizabeth Smart finally has an apology — and a guilty plea —from one of her kidnappers. "I am so sorry, Elizabeth, for all the pain and suffering I have caused you and your family," Wanda Eileen Barzee, 64, said Tuesday. "It is my hope that you will be able to find it in your heart to forgive me." The appeal came minutes after Barzee pleaded guilty to federal charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor in U.S. District Court. She also said she was "humbled as I realize how much Elizabeth Smart has been victimized and the role that I played in it." Smart, now 22 and preparing to serve a mission in Paris for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was not in court to hear the apology. But her father, Ed Smart, said outside court that forgiveness was possible. "Absolutely," he said. "We all make mistakes in life ... and if we can't forgive each other, heaven help us." During the hearing, he said he hoped Barzee realized what she did was "absolutely wrong and absolutely horrible." Smart was 14 when she was taken from the bedroom of her Salt Lake City home, sparking a search that riveted the nation. Nine months later, in March 2003, Barzee and her now-estranged husband Brian David Mitchell were arrested after they were spotted walking on a suburban street with Smart. Elizabeth Smart has said that within hours of the abduction, Mitchell took her as a polygamous wife then raped her. Smart said Barzee washed the teen's feet and dressed her in robes before the ceremony. Barzee often became upset over Mitchell's relationship with Smart, but that sentiment would never last, Smart said. Barzee's sentencing was set for May 19. She could have faced a life sentence for the kidnapping charge and up to 15 years for the other count. However, under the plea deal, she is expected to receive 15 years in prison, with credit for about six years already served. Barzee's plea came several weeks after a Utah State Hospital report said 15 months of court-ordered treatments with anti-psychotic medications had restored her competency to stand trial. She also will plead guilty in state court under the plea deal to one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping and will cooperate in state and federal cases against Mitchell. Twice deemed incompetent in state court, Barzee had been diagnosed as delusional, called herself a "mother of Zion" and claimed to have been receiving messages from God through her television. In court, the smiling Barzee looked more like a Mormon grandmother than the wildeyed homeless woman in white robes who was known on the streets by the name "God Adorn Us" and panhandled near the headquarters of the Mormon church. Her defense attorney Scott Williams said Barzee has been transformed. "Wanda is a person who is a different person than the person who was arrested," Williams said after the hearing. "In the state she was in, she didn't know (the kidnapping) was wrong, it was a commandment of God. Now it's horribly wrong." In a statement, U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman touted the plea deal as an appropriate resolution and said the sentence would be just and fair. WANDA BARZEE, Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper, walks to a car following a hearing in federal court, Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Salt Lake City. Barzee pleaded guilty to kidnapping and illegal transportation of a minor across state lines for the 2002 kidnapping of Smart with her partner, Brian David Mitchell. AP photo Relatives of rural Mo. family doubt sex abuse claims LEXINGTON, Mo. (AP) — If the tales they told police are true, a group of children in rural Missouri grew up in a house of horror, where some were raped by relatives, then told to write down their memories in little glass jars and bury them in the ground. Two decades later though, as authorities work to piece together what happened, there's no evidence the jars have been found and other relatives say police have offered little evidence to support their accusations. Burrell Mohler Sr., 77, and his four adult sons appeared in court in western Missouri on Tuesday where they were charged with additional sex crimes including rape and sodomy, and in a bizarre twist, a search warrant claims one of the suspects forced their victims to help kill and bury a man. "These fellas have all had respectable jobs, and for this to come up so many years later," Ron Gamble, a relative of the accused family members said after Tuesday's hearing. "In this country, you're innocent until proven guilty. ... Have they found any evidence? I haven't heard of any." Since authorities began their search of the Mohlers' former rural property outside Bates City on Nov. 10, the case has moved nearly every day to a new and sometimes darker place. One early court record detailed allegations of rape that included claims the children were assaulted with sharp objects and one girl was forced to have sexual contact with a dog. As crews began their search for evidence, Lafayette County Sheriff Kerrick Alumbaugh said he believed INVESTIGATORS WALK AROUND a home as they look for evidence on a rural property in western Missouri Wednesday, Nov. I I, in Bates City, Mo. AP photo they may find a body or bodies and buried glass jars with notes written by children who may have documented sexual abuse. The children were told to write down bad memories and bury them there and "the memories would go away," said Sgt. Collin Stosberg of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Even more shocking claims lay ahead. A search warrant, filed Nov. 9 but released to The Associated Press on Tuesday, stated three of the alleged children observed "several murders" and were forced to help kill and bury a man in April 1988. The warrant said one of the accused, Burrell E. Mohler Jr., and the children followed a large man from an Independence shopping center to his home. They parked outside, then the children lured the man over to their car by telling him that their father was having a heart attack. When the man leaned over to help, Mohler Jr. allegedly "wrapped his arms around the victim's neck" and subdued him, the warrant said. Mohler Jr. then drove the man to his father's property in Bates City. There, Mohler gave knives to the children and ordered them to attack the man and stab him, the warrant said. One of the children then jumped on the man's back and stabbed him, but it was a stab wound from the adult that actually killed the victim, according to the warrant. The children were then forced to help dig a grave for the man and bury him. But the warrant offers no details about the stabbing victim or why he was targeted. Independence police say their department had no information about a person disappearing in April 1988 after driving away from an Independence mall. Nothing in the warrant suggests where the man lived. The Highway Patrol's online "missing adults" Web site lists only one active case from 1988, involving a man reported missing Dec. 11 of that year from the eastern Missouri town of Union about 200 miles to the east. Authorities also have not provided additional details about the alleged stabbing and have declined to say what has been found on the property. Authorities said they are taking all the accusations seriously, but they insist their focus is on the sexual abuse case and refuse to comment on the murder allegation. "We are focusing on the sex crimes investigation," Stosberg said. On Tuesday, relatives of the Mohler family were in the crowded courtroom as a judge read 15 new sex charges against the five men. The charges added to 14 filed last week, accusing Mohler Sr., of Independence, of rape, sodomy and the use of a child in a sexual performance. His four sons, Mohler Jr., 53, of Independence; Jared Leroy Mohler, 48, of Columbia; Roland Neil Mohler, 47, of Bates City; and David A. Mohler, 52, of Lamoni, Iowa, were charged with rape. During their brief court appearance, four of the five men said they still were trying to find attorneys. Jared Leroy Mohler said he had hired a lawyer, who did not immediately return calls seeking comment. This year passing your most difficult test may have nothing to do with college f:ef fi Ya- f 435.753.4870 • 45 North Main (Next to Persian Peacock & across from Tabernacle) f/f /f;177 |