HAMILTON, Ohio, March 22 (UPI) — An Ohio prosecutor has filed a tongue-in-cheek “indictment” against Punxsutawney Phil, accusing the groundhog of incorrectly predicting the weather.
Michael Gmoser of the Butler County, Ohio, prosecutor’s office said the groundhog, which is called on each Feb. 2 in Punxsutawney, Pa., to predict the start of spring, “did purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause people to believe that spring would come early,” CNN reported Friday.
I woke up this morning and the wind was blowing, the snow was flying, the temperatures were falling, and I said ‘Punxsutawney, you let us down,'” Gmoser told CNN.
John Griffiths, one of Phil’s handlers, defended the groundhog’s predictions.
“If you remember two weeks ago on a Sunday, it was probably 60, 65 degrees,” he said. “So, I mean, that basically counts as an early spring.”
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
