Oddly enough: Mass. man uses fake leg to take down robber

MIDDLETON, Mass. (AP) - A Massachusetts man who used his prosthetic leg to take down a robber says he didn't have time to think, he just reacted.

Stephen Cornell peered through the window of his neighborhood convenience store in Middleton on Wednesday and saw a man pointing a gun at the owner.

He tells The Salem News he intended to tackle the thief when he left JC Grill & Pizza, but instead stuck out his artificial leg and tripped him.

Cornell and owner Edson Andrade disarmed the thief and dragged him back into the store in a chokehold before calling police. The weapon was a pellet gun.

The 55-year-old Cornell lost his leg at age 12.

The suspect, 23-year-old Eric Homen, pleaded not guilty to charges including armed robbery.

Dead man's vote stands

in N.Y. village election

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) - The election was decided by one vote, and both sides agree that a dead man voted. But a judge in New York says the man's absentee ballot can stand because it wasn't challenged before it was counted.

Marc Baum had challenged the vote for village of Manlius trustee.

Arnold Ferguson, the father of another candidate running for the board, had submitted an absentee ballot but died three weeks before the March 15 election in central New York.

Election officials admit the vote shouldn't have counted, but a state supreme court judge on Thursday ruled that any challenge had to happen before the ballot was removed from its envelope and counted.

Baum, who lost the race by a single vote to Harold Hopkinson, says he's through with politics for now.