Man accused of shoving phone down woman's throat; lost cell phone leads to drug arrests

A trial began this week in Independence, Mo., in which prosecutors say a man forced a cell phone down a woman's throat but the defense says the woman swallowed the device on purpose to hide data on whom she had been calling.

Associated Press reports that 24-year-old Marlon Brando Gill is being charged with felony first-degree assault for allegedly shoving the phone down Melinda Abell's throat in December. He was said to be angry and jealous at the time. A doctor at a Kansas City hospital used a "pincher" to extract the phone from Abell's body, Associated Press reports. The woman testified this week that she was too drunk to remember how the phone got inside her.

Separately, the Union Leader newspaper in New Hampshire reports that after a suspected drug dealer lost his cell phone, police detectives coordinated a spontaneous sting, fielding calls from alleged cocaine buyers and making 9 arrests. The nine people, all from Massachusetts, were booked on drug charges and released on $5,000 bail, according to the newspaper.