News In Brief

ACLU criticizes Vermont in child-abuse case

The director of the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has charged state authorities with ''massive deprivation of the rights of citizens'' in the case of a police raid Friday on the Northeast Kingdom Community in Island Pond, where 112 children were seized because of allegations of child abuse.

The raid by 90 troopers and about 50 social workers ended when state District Judge Frank Mahady in Newport refused to allow the state to hold the children for physical examination. After questioning, the children were returned to their parents.

Gov. Richard Snelling said the raid was ''an extreme action and in my judgment the evidence and the facts warranted it.''