In the news

■ Stephanie Coehlo, a Chicago victim-witness specialist, watched as Hattie, her 2-year-old Labrador retriever, stood on its hind legs and put a paw on a law book to be sworn in by the Cook County prosecutor’s office as an emotional support dog to comfort assault victims.

■ James Stewart Sr., 39, accused of forcing his three children to panhandle on the streets of Albuquerque, N.M., and then using the money to buy drugs, was convicted of human trafficking and faces up to 51 years in prison, prosecutors said. ■ Kim Riley, an Indiana State Police sergeant, said an autopsy has been scheduled after a 36-year-old woman was found dead with an 8-foot-long reticulated python wrapped loosely around her neck in a home in Oxford where about 140 other snakes were being kept.

■ Benjamin Rafael, 30, a former Wells Fargo banker, and film producer Benjamin McConley, 37, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud in a $60 million scheme to steal money from people lured into making investments to finance movies, prosecutors in Miami said. ■ Anwar Ghazali, 30, a Memphis grocery store clerk convicted of using a handgun to fatally shoot a teenager in the thigh as the boy ran away after stealing a beer, was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

■ Tony Munoz-Mendez, 31, mistakenly released from a state prison in Reidsville, Ga., where he was serving a life sentence for a rape conviction, was recaptured five days later and more than 600 miles away in Fort Thomas, Ky., corrections officials said.

■ Michael Racy, a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper, said police are searching for a tractor-trailer driver suspected of causing a crash that killed two people on a Grant County road near Hickok and fleeing the scene in the pickup of a motorist who had stopped to help. ■ Terry Knope II and his wife, Raylaine, both of Amite, La., who pleaded guilty to abusing a 22-yearold autistic woman, including forcing her to live at times outdoors in a cage, were each sentenced to 28 years in prison.

■ Brandon Conti, 25, wanted for failure to appear on a drunken-driving charge, saw a photo of himself on a sheriff’s office social media page and posted “Where’s my costume?” after which Kankakee County, Ill., deputies edited the photo to add a sailor suit and hat, and Conti responded with laughing emojis and agreed to surrender.