NEWPORT-Alannah Freeman, the 22-day old baby inadvertently caught up in a double purse-snatching crime on Friday, was in the hospital for two days for "a routine check-up" and is doing fine, Tommy Franklin said Wednesday.

The mother, Crystal Freeman, who is 16, was reportedly visiting her sister in Greeneville and could not be reached by The Newport Plain Talk.

According to a report by Sgt. Stephen Higginbotham, a suspect, Frank E. Cuff, 23, of 325 Lear Way in Newport, first grabbed the purse of Bernice Franklin, 65, of Hartford, and then the purse belonging to Crystal Freeman.

Tommy Franklin, who with Bernice Franklin are guardian parents of Crystal Freeman, said the purse-snatcher's action did not cause Freeman to drop her baby, as described in a police report on the incident and published on the front page of the Newport Plain Talk in its Sunday, Nov. 29 edition.

Tommy Franklin told the NPT this morning that when the suspect grabbed his wife Bernice's purse, he turned over a shopping cart the baby was in, and the baby rolled out of the cart. The suspect then grabbed Freeman's purse.

Cuff allegedly fled into the woods behind Save-A-Lot, and was caught and arrested. He was charged with three counts of assault, two counts of robbery, and reckless endangerment.