TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — An apparently inebriated man fleeing police was caught when he was forced to stop, drop and roll after his pants caught fire.

Carl Franklin, 30, was facing a fence on Feb. 13 and about to answer nature's call when Officer Seth Stoughton spotted him, according to police. When the officer shouted, Franklin yanked his pants up and ran off.

Stoughton followed the smoky trail and eventually caught up with him after Franklin's pants dropped to his ankles and tripped him. After a brief struggle, another officer arrived and quickly cut away the burning part of Franklin's trousers.

Franklin had placed a cigarette in his pocket because he couldn't find anywhere else to place it while he urinated, according to a spokesman for the Tallahassee police department.

Franklin was charged with resisting arrest.

CINCINNATI — You might not want to schedule a vacation while serving as a juror in a murder trial. Just ask Christina Fiorini.

Fiorini was sentenced to seven days in jail after she left in the middle of deliberations during the President's Day weekend to go on a vacation to Cozumel, Mexico. The 33-year-old, who began serving her sentence on Feb. 25, also was fined and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service, according to a Hamilton County court clerk.

Judge Robert Ruehlman, who was presiding over the trial that Fiorini bounced out on, said the sentence was appropriate because Fiorini wasted seven days of others' time. Ruehman further stated that he wanted Fiorini to sit with the "other knuckleheads" in jail to see what it's like.

After a week-long delay in deliberations, the defense eventually agreed to let the 11 remaining jurors render a verdict. The defendant, 24-year-old Dorie Terrell, who was accused of luring a man into a parking lot where he was robbed and killed, was convicted of complicity to aggravated murder and complicity to aggravated robbery.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A fight between two men ended after one man allegedly stabbed the other with the bill of a swordfish.

Police arrested Frank J. Ashmus, 46, and Garth Spacek, 42, on Feb. 21 after a quarrel near a dock in Madeira Beach, prompted Ashmus to pick up a swordfish and stab his fellow fisherman in the stomach. Spacek had earlier been beating Ashmus on the head with a beer bottle, according to a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy.

Spacek was taken to a local hospital for a circular wound in his left abdomen. Ashmus received stitches for various head injuries.

Both men were charged with aggravated battery.

MUSKEGON, Mich. — A judge, exasperated by conflicting testimony during a personal protection hearing, ordered an estranged couple handcuffed together until one of them changed their story and told him the truth.

Sabrena and Kirk Smith appeared in front of Muskegon County Judge Gregory Pittman on Jan. 25 and offered contradictory accounts regarding a complaint that Kirk had violated a protection order. The judge eventually became irate and told a courtroom deputy to hold the couple "until one of them decided not to lie to the court," according to Kirk Smith's lawyer Harold Closz III.

The deputy cuffed the couple together and placed them in a holding cell.

About a half-hour later, the couple's lawyers conferred with the judge and Sabrena Smith withdrew her complaint. Outside the courtroom, however, Sabrena said that the complaint was true and she withdrew it to stay out of jail.

Calling the judge's ruling "a first," Closz told Court TV that some criticized Pittman for placing a person who had been allegedly assaulted in such a situation. Pittman said he was seeking the truth and was certain that neither spouse posed a threat to the other. Though Sabrena Smith agreed that she never felt endangered, she plans on filing a grievance against Pittman.

The couple, who have been married for 22 years, are in divorce proceedings.