Judge orders prosthetic leg returned

ALLIANCE, Neb., Sept. 4 (UPI) -- A Box Butte County, Neb., judge has ordered prosecutors to return a prosthetic leg to a shooting victim after the artificial limb was kept as evidence.

Muffy Buckles said the Alliance Police Department and Box Butte County Attorney Kathleen Hutchinson refused to release a prosthetic leg belonging to her husband, Val McCabe, after he was shot by unknown assailants in the upper left arm, groin, right buttock, right scapula and the false limb, KSCR-AM, Chadron, Neb., reported Thursday.

Robert Pahlke, an attorney for McCabe, told Box Butte County District Court Judge Brian Silverman that McCabe has an arterial injury that prevents him from using crutches and his home is not wheelchair accessible. He said the shooting victim's doctor is refusing to release the patient until the prosthesis is returned to him.

Hutchinson and the police department argued the leg could not be returned because it was evidence in an investigation. However, Pahlke said the judge ordered police to remove the bullet from the prosthetic leg and return it to its owner within the hour of Silverman's ruling.