ATWATER – Prison officials say a convicted child molester and kidnapper has died after choking on a hot dog.
Frederick Fretz, 45, was serving a 20-year sentence at the federal penitentiary in Atwater. A prison spokesman said medics tried to remove the hot dog from Fretz's throat before taking him to a Merced hospital. He was pronounced dead on Dec. 19.
Fretz pleaded guilty in 2005 to kidnapping an 11-year-old boy from Marion County, Fla., a Florida newspaper reported.
Associated Press
Political donor Hsu gets 3 years in prison
REDWOOD CITY – A judge yesterday sentenced disgraced political donor Norman Hsu to three years in state prison after rejecting the one-time Democratic rainmaker's bid to throw out a 1992 fraud conviction.
Hsu's lawyers had asked Superior Court Judge Stephen Hall to dismiss Hsu's 1992 no-contest plea, arguing his right to a speedy trial was violated because authorities weren't actively pursuing him during his years as a fugitive. They could easily have arrested Hsu, his lawyers argued, at one of the fundraisers he hosted in California for prominent local politicians.
Hsu also faces federal fraud charges in New York.
His troubles began dogging Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other big-name Democrats last summer when news reports revealed he was a fugitive who fled the state before he was sentenced for the 1992 fraud conviction. He turned himself in Aug. 31 – then fled again but was captured in September in Colorado.
Associated Press
