Police briefs

Charges upheld in alleged 'Saw' plot

WEST JORDAN — Third District Juvenile Judge Christine Decker declined Friday to dismiss felony charges against two teenagers who prosecutors say were plotting to kidnap and torture others in conduct modeled after the psycho-thriller movie "Saw."

Both boys, ages 14 and 15, were overheard by one of the boys' mothers who listened in on an hour-long telephone conversation and subsequently contacted Murray police. The teenagers are charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping, a second-degree felony.

Defense attorneys have argued that the boys never took the idea seriously and were simply engaged in foolish, but harmless, conversation with each other about one of the "Saw" films they had recently seen.

Prosecutors, however, are convinced the boys planned to carry out a kidnapping and torture plot.

The judge continued the teens' trial to June 11.

— Linda Thomson

Man turns self in for hitting, killing dog

OGDEN — A man who drove away after hitting and killing a dog last week has turned himself in to police.

Ogden police said Joseph Porter, 45, called and turned himself in Thursday after officers had been investigating the incident for almost a week. Porter is a sergeant with the Weber County Correctional Facility.

The accident happened on Gibson Avenue on May 22. Police say Porter hit the dog and the impact pulled the dog's owner, who was holding the dog's leash, to the ground.

Police said last week that the driver refused to take the dog to the vet, even after the owner pleaded with him.

"He stopped to talk to the lady, and they had an exchange of words, and then he just left," Ogden Police Lt. David Tarran said.

The dog's owner received some abrasions from being pulled to the ground. Porter may be summoned to face charges of leaving the scene of an accident, according to Tarran.

— Ethan Thomas

S.L. deputies seek info on small bomb

HOLLADAY — Salt Lake County sheriff's deputies were looking Thursday for the person, or people, who set off a contraption known as "The Works Bomb" inside a bowling alley.