Summer Colds: Are They Worse Than Winter Colds?

Wednesday, June 12th, 2013, 3:26pm

MORGAN COUNTY, AL (WAFF)- Coughing, sneezing, fever and more...all are symptoms of the common cold. But it's summer. Shouldn't cold season be in the winter?

Why does it seem like summer colds are worse? We asked a couple of people running errands in Decatur. Lindy Smith said, "...the time of the year. Because you're just wanting to be out going and doing and taking part in stuff and when you have to be in and have the sniffles that's not fun."

John D. Sherrill said it's the way it hits you, "Sinus...sinus? Yeah, I think that would be one explanation."

But doctors said the seasons don't matter. Dr. Akram Haggag is an internal medicine specialist. "No. In fact that's the dangerous thing about it, people think that in the summer they don't get a cold...because they think it's due to rain or Winter," said Dr. Haggag.

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Trial for ex-cop charged with child abuse begins Wednesday

Submitted by WAFF Web Staff

Tuesday, June 11th, 2013, 8:13pm

LAWRENCE COUNTY, AL (WAFF)- Opening statements in the trial for a former Moulton police officer charged with child abuse are expected to start Wednesday morning. Tuesday, the prosecution and defense attorneys worked to get a jury in place.

Mitchell Breland was a Moulton officer when the alleged abuse happened. He is charged with two counts of willful abuse of a child involving two girls. Both were seven-years-old.

The alleged abuse happened August 9th, 2012. The investigation was sparked by hospital workers who treated one of the girls.

Tuesday, both sides told potential jurors that they will have to make a distinction between physical discipline and abuse. The Moulton Police Department fired Breland after his arrest for what they called a "violation of city personnel policy."

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Moulton man arrested on sexual abuse charges

Submitted by WAFF Web Staff

Tuesday, June 11th, 2013, 5:07pm

LAWRENCE COUNTY, AL (WAFF)- A Moulton
man is in jail, arrested on sexual abuse
charges, after a four-month investigation by
the Lawrence County Sheriff's Dept.

Deputies
arrested Patrick Lynn Brown on two counts of first degree sodomy, sexual abuse
of a child less than 12-years-old, and first degree sexual abuse.

According to
Sheriff Gene Mitchell, investigators worked
with Lawrence County Department of Human
Resources on the investigation beginning in
February.

Mitchell
said the inappropriate contact was reported
to have happened in February
and that the victims where 10 and 12 years-old at the time.

Brown is
being held in the Lawrence County Jail under $210,000 bond.

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Train crash sends 3 to hospital

Submitted by WAFF Web Staff

Monday, June 10th, 2013, 8:36am

Truck involved in crash with train in Lawrence County.

LAWRENCE COUNTY, AL (WAFF)- A collision between a train and a truck sent three people to the hospital, two of them toddlers.

According to State Troopers, the accident happened around 3:30 p.m. Sunday on County Road 434 in Lawrence County, just south of Highway 20. The investigation into why the 1996 Chevy Silverado was on the tracks at the time of the wreck is still ongoing, but a trooper at the scene indicated the truck may have been trying to beat the train across the track.

The truck was hit on the passenger side, and flipped into a ditch, where it landed on its roof. The driver - identified as 23-year-old Carl Jacoby Reid of Decatur wasn't hurt. The woman in the passenger seat, 22-year-old Kathy Haggamaker, and two children in the back seat, 2-year old Landon Burgess and 3-year-old Haylee Burgess, were all taken to Decatur General Hospital.

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Lawrence Co. murder suspect possibly connected to a dozen murders

Submitted by WAFF Web Staff

Saturday, June 8th, 2013, 2:59pm

LAWRENCE COUNTY, AL (WAFF)-

Police are trying to figure out if a Lawrence County murder suspect is an even more dangerous and busy killer than they thought, behind maybe as many as a dozen murders.

Jose Martinez was locked up for one murder in Lawrence County but authorities now say there's more.

Martinez was arrested in Yuma in Arizona on Monday. Sheriff Gene Mitchell said Martinez had been picked up by police when he tried to sneak over the border from Mexico.

Ruiz was wanted in Lawrence County for the murder of Jose Ruiz back in March.

Deputies arrested another suspect, Jaime Romero, for Ruiz's death shortly after it happened.

Ruiz was shot to death in the Speake community.

Police said a business deal between the three of them turned into a violent dispute and that it was Martinez who actually shot Ruiz.

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Suspects lead deputies on high speed chase in Lawrence Co.

Submitted by WAFF Web Staff

Saturday, June 8th, 2013, 10:07am

LAWRENCE COUNTY, AL (WAFF)-

Two men remain on the run after
a high speed chase Friday.

Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Mitchell said the chase began Friday afternoon when someone reported
stolen property on Highway 24.

According to Sheriff Mitchell, the men were at the scene loading things up and took off when they
saw the deputies.

Speeds reached more than
100 miles per hour during the chase. The sheriff said the
suspects did hit other cars.

Deputies boxed them in at one point but the
men took off on foot.

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Lawrence Co. closing animal shelter

Submitted by WAFF Web Staff

Saturday, June 8th, 2013, 8:01am

Atchison is working to find homes for the more than 40 dogs still here by the time she closes the shelter.

LAWRENCE COUNTY, AL (WAFF)- For more than a decade, Carolyn Atchison has run the Lawrence County Animal Shelter on her property. That will soon change. County Commissioner Bobby Burch said the commission decided not to renew their contract with Atchison.

"They thought they could actually find a place that could take the dogs in cheaper than paying our contract," Atchison said.

Where that place will be is not clear. Burch said the commission is working to get a contract with someone by the end of August. That's when the contract with Atchison runs out, but she is not waiting until then.

"I said, 'Well, I've done this for them for this many years and they don't appreciate it. It's closing down. Once they're all cleared out, the doors will be closed and there will not be an animal shelter in Lawrence County anymore," she said.

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