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Plastic pistol packer files suit 

MINNEAPOLIS — A 72-year-old man has filed a lawsuit over an incident last year in which he was arrested for carrying a plastic pistol while delivering a singing telegram. 

Fritz Herring said he told deputies at the Hennepin County Government Center why he was there and they retrieved paperwork from his pocket that had information about his telegram appointment. 

Still, he was taken to jail and held for nearly 12 hours, he says. 

In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Minneapolis, Herring seeks damages for false imprisonment and defamation, among other claims. 

Man bites pit bull 

NEW YORK — Man bites dog. Really. 

Police said a Long Island man bit a pit bull that was attacking his pet Siberian husky, and may have saved the pooch’s life. 

Richard Robbins, 44, said he was walking his three dogs Saturday morning when three pit bulls dashed from their owner’s side and one attacked his husky, Gina Marie. 

Robbins sank his teeth into the attacking pit bull’s head. He suffered multiple puncture wounds in the attack. 

“I wasn’t going to watch my dog die,” Robbins said. 

Suffolk County Police Lt. Kenneth Fasano said Gina Maria “would have been severely injured or even killed” without Robbins’ intervention. 

Judge finds a jury of ‘Gs’ unfair 

MIAMI — A man who won a new trial on federal gun charges because his jury had too many people whose last names started with the letter “G” has been acquitted. 

Roderick B. Carter, 24, of Opa-Locka, had been charged with possession of a handgun by a convicted felon. U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan granted Carter a new trial after Carter’s attorney argued that his client’s right to a jury of his peers had been violated. 

Federal jury pools in Miami are selected by dividing potential jurists alphabetically by the first letter of their last name and then selecting letters randomly. 

Carter’s attorney, David O. Markus, argued that because the jury pool was full of Hispanic names that started with “G” — such as Garcia, Gomez, Gonzalez and Gutierrez — Carter, who is black, could not have gotten a fair trial because the jury did not have a fair cross sample. 

The judge declared a mistrial in May. The original 12-person jury had seven Hispanic members; last week, Carter was acquitted by a jury of six blacks, two whites and four Hispanics.