Florida Dog "Lover" Charged

Florida Man, 25, Arrested For Strangling, Then Cooking His Mother's Puppy

A Florida man has been jailed for allegedly strangling his mother’s puppy, cutting the animal in pieces, and cooking its ribs in a pot on the stove.

According to Tampa cops, Thomas Elliot Huggins, 25, killed the puppy, named “Bandit,” early yesterday morning and then “cut up the dog into quarters and stored it in the freezer for future meals.”
After a family member learned about the dog’s killing, police were summoned last night to the Huggins home, where officers “found the dog’s ribs cooked in a pot on the stove” and the pet’s head in the garbage. Huggins told cops that he had actually consumed part of the animal.

According to a Tampa Police Department report, Huggins’s mother Margie showed one cop “a pair of full ribs on the stove that appeared to be fully cooked,” as well as “the quartered parts of her dog that were stored in the freezer.” Huggins’s sister told the patrolman that her brother “has not been right” for years, and “goes on and on about religion and the lord telling him to do things.”

Huggins told the cop that he “choked the dog with his bare hands” after the pet “began to be aggressive towards him.” He then described how he dismembered “Bandit” with a steak knife. Huggins explained that he “went about his day,” and then, around 6 PM, “put the ribs in a pot and cooked them on the stove… Mr. Huggins advised that he did indeed eat some of the rib meat.”

Claiming that he did not think his actions were wrong, Huggins told police that he “learned how to clean an animal from his mom as they have done it in the past with squirrels and rabbits.”
Seen in the above mug shot, Huggins was arrested on a felony cruelty to animals charge. He was subsequently booked into the Hillsborough County jail, where he is being held in lieu of $2000 bond.

Man Has Public Sex With Love Seat

JUNE 24--A man who was caught last year having sex with a couch discarded on a Wisconsin street pleaded guilty this afternoon to a public lewdness charge.

During a hearing in Waukesha County Circuit Court, Gerard Streator, 47, copped to a misdemeanor charge stemming from September’s illicit curbside encounter.

Seen in the adjacent mug shot, Streator was sentenced to five months in jail (though the execution of the term was stayed) and placed on a year’s probation. Additionally, Streator was ordered to pay $243 in court costs, directed to “maintain absolute sobriety,” and barred from possessing “pornography of any kind.”

According to a criminal complaint sworn by a Waukesha City Police Department officer, Streator’s 11 PM furniture tryst was interrupted by an off-duty cop out jogging. Officer Ryan Edwards reported spotting “a subject leaning over the couch facing down and it looked like he was having sexual relations with someone on the couch.” Edwards added that he “could see the male’s hips thrusting up and down on the couch.”
When Edwards approached and yelled, “What are you doing?,” Streator dismounted the love seat and ran away. As the suspect fled, Edwards reported, he “could see that the defendant’s penis was erect.”

The officer concluded that Streator--who was alone--“had been thrusting his pelvic area against the cushions and trying to sexually gratify himself by rubbing his penis between the two cushions.”

Streator’s guilty plea came two months after a Circuit Court judge ruled that he was competent to stand trial, a decision that followed the jurist’s receipt of a court-ordered psychologist’s report. (2 pages)

Marijuana Grow House Discovered After Refrigerator Explodes

Exploding fridge leads to pot find in San Diego

Jun 28 2013 

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Authorities say an exploding refrigerator led them to a marijuana-growing operation in San Diego.

City News Service says the fridge exploded and caused a fire Thursday afternoon at a home in the Encanto neighborhood.

It took firefighters about 30 minutes to douse the fire and there were no injuries.

However, police say authorities later discovered marijuana growing at the house and a quantity of flammable hash oil, which apparently caused the explosion.
Three people were held for questioning.

Man Rips Off Own Genitals Outside Middle School

June 28, 2013
Ypsilanti, Mich.

A naked man was found bloody and screaming after he ripped off a part of his penis and scrotum during a drug-fueled craze, police say.

The 41-year-old Columbus, Ohio, native, whose name has not been reported, was found at about 1 a.m. on June 18 after Washtenaw County Sheriff’s deputies responded to an alarm set off by a broken window at Ypsilanti Middle School in Ypsilanti, Mich., according to the Detroit Free Press. Once they arrived, they said they found the man kneeling outside the school, naked and bloody from the waist down, with a portion of his genitals ripped off.

“He mutilated his genitals with his bare hands,” Sgt. Geoff Fox told AnnArbor.com. "He was doing a lot of yelling and screaming."

Investigators say he admitted to taking "magic" mushrooms before flipping out and trying to claw off his own penis and scrotum, according to The Columbus Dispatch. It took at least six officers to subdue him, the report notes.

Parts of his body were transferred to the hospital with him.

“In terms of vital signs, they were as low as they could go without being dead — I could only assume due to the blood loss and the shock and trauma to the body,” Fox told the Detroit Free Press reports.
AnnArbor.com reported an initial toxicology report didn't reveal anything but stated that more extensive testing will be done. He is currently in stable condition. Police will seek burglary charges against him.

Psilocybin is a chemical obtained from certain fresh or dried mushrooms that can cause significant bodily side effects when ingested, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Most noteworthy are the chemical's possible effects on the mind. Some people may experience hallucinations, panic, psychosis and the inability to discern fantasy from reality.

Addicted to Egg Rolls?

US agent was allegedly bribed with cash, egg rolls

Jun 26 2013 07:32PM EST

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — An immigration officer has been indicted on charges that she took cash and egg rolls as bribes from immigrants seeking citizenship and green cards.
Federal prosecutors say 47-year-old Mai Nhu Nguyen was indicted Wednesday on three counts of solicitation of a bribe by a public official.
Prosecutors say Nguyen took 200 egg rolls from a citizenship applicant and received $1,000 and $2,200 bribes from two other immigrants since 2011.
Nguyen worked as an officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Santa Ana where she reviewed immigrants' applications for benefits.
Nguyen was arrested June 6 and released on a $20,000 bond. She is set to be arraigned July 1.
A message left for an attorney for Nguyen was not immediately returned.

Beauty Pageants From Behind Bars

      In a country known for its beauty -- both natural and human -- it appears that even Brazil's convicted killers are easy on the eye.

A prison in Recife, a city in the state of Pernambuco, recently held its inaugural Miss Jail pageant to join a growing global list of contests for beauties behind bars.

"It's flattering that people think I am pretty," said the winner of Miss Jail 2011, 19-year-old convicted murderer Rebecca Rhaysa Suelen Guedesin.

Europics/CEN

Rebecca Rhaysa Suelen Guedesin, 19, second from right, was voted Miss Jail in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco. She's been imprisoned in Recife since December for homicide.

"I don't have a boyfriend at the moment," added Guedesin, who maintains her innocence even though she is serving a life sentence for her crime.

"I am just focused on getting out of here. I never killed anyone, so I hope to return to normal life one day soon."

Twelve contestants were judged for beauty, general knowledge and their good behavior record. First prize included about $1,000 in cash to be deposited in the winner's prison bank account.

"It was a real thrill to be cheered by the inmates and the guards," Guedesin said after her win. "Sadly the dress has to go now and it's back to prison routine."

Brazil's Ministry of Social Development and Human Rights organized the contest within a jail system more known for its ugly brutality.

In one recent reported case, a 15-year-old girl was held for a month in a cell with 20 adult men and subjected to rape and torture.

According to Brazil's Justice Ministry, 40 percent of female inmates are in prison for drug trafficking and 21 percent for theft.

Miss Jail is the latest in a growing trend. Prison beauty pageants have also been held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, as well as in Russia, Colombia and Lithuania.

The winner of Miss Spring, held in an all-women's Siberian jail known as UF 91/9, was awarded early release if she won that contest.

Contestants in the Miss Captivity pageant, held in a Lithuanian jail, were required to take part in swimsuit parades and model designer dresses and wedding gowns.

The Miss Prisoner contest in Rio de Janeiro's Talavera Bruce jail is part of an effort by the jail's administration to reinvent its notorious prison system.

"They used to have riots, but now we don't have more than isolated problems," said guard Andrea Carvalho.

Man Rats Out Mom As Bank Robber

Mich. man recognizes mom as bank robbery suspect

Jun 26 2013 

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BYRON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The FBI says a Michigan man who recognized his mother in surveillance photos of a bank robbery called police to turn her in.
MLive.com (http://bit.ly/18gvfgh ) reports the man told police his mother was at his home in Kent County's Byron Township.
Authorities say 53-year-old Dee Ann Sanders of Martin was charged Tuesday with robbing a Bank of America branch on June 18.
Her arraignment is scheduled Thursday in Grand Rapids.
A teller says the robber handed her a note demanding $2,500 for her children and grandchildren. She got $1,092.
Surveillance photos show a woman wearing a bright red T-shirt with a large American flag on the front.
FBI special agent Adam Van Deuren says Sanders confessed.
It's unknown if she has a lawyer yet. She doesn't have a phone listing.

Mother-Daughter Murderesses Kill Two Family Members - Try to Kill Third

2 Mo. women charged in antifreeze poisoning deaths

Jun 22 2013 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri woman and her daughter confessed to fatally poisoning two relatives with antifreeze and attempting to kill a third over a 14-month period, according to court documents.
Diane Staudte, 51, of Springfield, was charged Friday with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree assault and one count of armed criminal action. Her daughter, Rachel Staudte, 22, was charged with the same counts Saturday.
Both women are jailed without bond. A spokeswoman for the Greene County prosecutor's office didn't immediately return an email Saturday from The Associated Press. It wasn't clear if the women had attorneys.
Diane Staudte initially told law enforcement that her husband, Mark Staudte, 61, hadn't been feeling well and suffered from seizures before his April 2012 death, the probable cause statement said. And she said her son, Shawn Staudte, 26, had been sick with flu-like symptoms before his death in September.
The medical examiner in Greene County at first ruled that the husband died of natural causes and the son as a result of prior medical issues. But an anonymous tip led authorities to re-examine the deaths earlier this month following the hospitalization of Diane Staudte's daughter, 24-year-old Sarah Staudte, the statement said.
A detective wrote that a nurse told him that although Sarah Staudte's condition was potentially fatal, Diane Staudte had visited only a couple times and not stayed long. The nurse described Diane Staudte's actions as "inappropriate," saying she joked and laughed with hospital personnel. The nurse also told the detective that Diane Staudte told her that she planned to go on an upcoming vacation to Florida regardless of her daughter's status.

A doctor told the detective that Sarah Staudte's condition was "very suspicious" and said he suspected the young woman had been poisoned.
Diane Staudte admitted under questioning to poisoning her family by putting antifreeze in their soda and Gatorade over several days, the statement said.
She told the detective that she killed her husband because she "hated him" and her son because he was "worse than a pest." She said she wanted to kill her daughter, Sarah, because the young woman "would not get a job and had student loans that had to be paid," the probable cause statement said.
The Springfield News-Leader, citing the probable cause statement in Rachel Staudte's case, said Diane Staudte originally told police she was the only one involved. But the statement said that when Rachel Staudte was confronted with evidence, she admitted to taking part in the deaths and assault.
During a subsequent interview, Diane Staudte then admitted that she and Rachel Staudte had planned, researched and committed the crimes together, the statement said.

Inmate "Beer Runs" Permitted By Jailers

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa (AP) - October 3, 2012  -- Two corrections officers at American Samoa's only jail are suspected of letting inmates leave to go on beer and food runs.

Officers Fiti Aina and Rocky Tua were charged this week with aiding the escape of a prisoner, permitting escape and public servant acceding to corruption.

A police search at Territorial Correctional Facility in July turned up beer in an inmate's cell.

Police say that while trying to find out how it got there, they learned the officers were sending inmates unsupervised to a nearby store. One inmate allowed out is serving 40 months for assaulting another man with a machete.

Court documents say an inmate told investigators he bought beer for another inmate and chips and cookies for Tua.

Aina and Tua were each held on $10,000 bail.

Nik Wallenda Tempts Fate

Wallenda to cross gorge near Grand Canyon on wire

Jun 21 2013 0

(The Associated Press)

High wire performer Nik Wallenda walks across a wire as he practices Tuesday, June 18, 2013 in Sarasota, Fla. Wallenda, a seventh generation high-wire walker, will attempt to walk across the Grand Canyon on Sunday, June 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) — Nik Wallenda, the Florida-based daredevil, acrobat and heir to the famed Flying Wallendas circus family, is afraid of only one thing.

"I would say the only thing I fear is God," said the 34-year-old Wallenda.

He certainly had no fear of walking across Niagara Falls on a tightrope, riding a bike on a high wire 260 feet above the ground or hanging from a hovering helicopter by his teeth.

On Sunday, Wallenda will attempt an even more ambitious feat, even for a man who was born into a family of risk-takers.

He will bid to walk on a tightrope stretched across the Little Colorado River Gorge near the Grand Canyon. The event, which will be broadcast on live television at 8 p.m. EDT on Sunday with a 10 second delay, will take place on the Navajo reservation near Cameron, outside the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park.

Wallenda will walk a third of a mile across a wire suspended 1,500 feet above the river. (In comparison, the Empire State Building in New York City is 1,454 feet high).

Spotlessly Clean Car - Price: $800

Driver says he was speeding so he could dry car

 Jun 18 2013

BLACK DIAMOND, Alberta (AP) — He was drying off his freshly washed car.

That's what the Canadian man told the Mounties when they stopped him doing 180 kilometers per hour (112 mph) south on Highway 22 south of Black Diamond, Alberta in Western Canada.

The driver, a 67-year-old who lives in the area, was in court Monday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Tuesday the judge fined the man $800 and suspended him from driving for 45 days.

Buddhist Monks Living It Up?

Thai Buddhist monks criticized for lavish behavior

 Jun 17 2013 

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's Buddhism body said it is monitoring monks nationwide for any inappropriate behavior after a video showed monks using luxurious personal items while flying on a private jet.
The YouTube video showed one of the monks was wearing stylish aviator sunglasses, carrying a luxury brand travel bag and sporting a pair of modern-looking wireless headphones. It attracted criticism from Buddhists nationwide.

Office of National Buddhism director-general Nopparat Benjawatananun said Monday that the agency saw the video early this year and had warned the monks from a monastery in Thailand's northeast not to repeat the lavish behavior.
A country with the world's largest Buddhist population, Thailand has attempted to help Buddha's 2,600-year-old doctrine stand the test of time through a variety of means, including banning the sale of alcohol on religious holidays. The efforts, however, are sometimes tainted by the Buddhist monks themselves.

Last year, about 300 out of 61,416 Buddhist monks and novices in Thailand were reprimanded — and several were removed from the monkhood — because of misconduct ranging from alcohol consumption, having sex with women to extortion. The Office also received complaints about monks driving cars, and scams and false claims of black magic uses by monks.
Nopparat said the Buddhist monks in the video were acting "inappropriately, not composed and not adhering to Buddha's teachings of simplicity and self-restraint."

Monruedee Bantoengsuk, an administrative officer at Khantitham Temple in Sisaket province, confirmed to The Associated Press that the monks on the private plane lived at the temple but refused to give details about the trip.
"We can explain this, but not now," she said, saying that the abbot, who appeared in the video, is currently on a religious tour in France.

The images from the video contrasted with the abbot's message on the temple's homepage that read: "The true core of those who preach Buddha's teachings is to not own any objects at all."
"When Lord Buddha was alive, there wasn't anything like this. There were no cars, smart phones or cameras, so the rules were much simpler," said Nopparat. "While the monks need to keep themselves abreast of new knowledge, current events and technology, they are restrained to choose the appropriate
tools."  The monks in the photo are sporting matching, stylish, western style umbrellas.

He said one way to prevent the monks from misbehaving is for followers not to spoil them with valuable objects or vices. "In many cases, it was the followers who gave the monks the luxury. Some bought them sports cars. This is by no means necessary."

Female Worker Banished from Office Whilst Menstruating

June 13, 2013
SILVER SPRINGS, MD—Following reports Wednesday that Human Resources manager Ellen Neely had begun her menstrual cycle, employees of venture capital firm Optima Group decreed today that the woman would be banished from the office forthwith until such time as she became pure again. “We hereby cast you from our sight, Red Ellen. Find a rock outcropping on the outskirts of town; there you must reside for seven days, or until that fateful hour at which you are no longer unclean,” West Coast accounts director Dan Fischer told the 34-year-old Neely, adding that until the crimson defilement recedes, she must “fast while the sun is up and refrain from cooking, worship, and work-related email.” “Take this pack of food, and do not touch your colleagues as you leave. The scent is thick on you, bleeding one. Go! Banished! Banished!” At press time, sources say the sales team was driving Neely from the break room by beating her ankles with sticks.

No Extra Charge For Tour of NYC

NJ Transit probes bizarre bus trip into New York City

Jun 14 2013 

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Some New Jersey bus commuters apparently have gotten an unexpected tour of the New York metro area they'd rather forget.

New Jersey Transit is investigating why a trip that normally takes about 45 minutes took nearly two hours more Thursday when the driver took a circuitous route into Manhattan's Port Authority bus terminal.

A passenger on the ill-fated trip tells Newark's The Star-Ledger newspaper (http://bit.ly/162JhxE ) the driver seemed lost and passed the Secaucus (sih-KAW'-kuhs) train station several times, drove past outlet stores and eventually crossed the George Washington Bridge. Normally, the bus would go through the Lincoln Tunnel, several miles south.

Aileen Iosso tells the newspaper when passengers asked to be let off after the driver passed the bus terminal the driver yelled at them.

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Prostitute in hurry loses trick and is charged by cops

June 14, 2013

A woman who called police to report her “pimp” for harassment was charged with prostitution when she underestimated how long it would take police to arrive at her motel, according to police.

Jennifer Lowery, 34, contacted West Haven police on Sunday to report that her “pimp” was verbally harassing her, according to West Haven police. 

Officers responded to Super 8 Motel, at 7 Kimberly Avenue, and said they found Lowery in a motel room with Richard Burford, who police said paid Lowery $200 for sex.

Nothing happened between them because police arrived to speak with Lowery before they engaged in any sexual activity, police said.

“I thought it would take the police a while to show up, so I figured I would turn a trick,” Lowery said, according to police.

She was charged with prostitution and Burford was charged with patronizing a prostitute.

The accompanying photo shows Lowery and her intended customer, Richard Burford.

Yes....it's Florida Again!

Jun 14 2013 

Stabbing Over Mac and Cheese

DELTONA, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say two Florida brothers got into a tussle over missing macaroni and cheese that ended with one stabbing the other in the stomach.

Volusia County Sheriff's deputies say 47-year-old Edward Zipperer spilled a beer belonging to his 49-year-old brother Randy Zipperer while looking for the missing mac and cheese. That set off an argument inside the Deltona home that led to the older brother stabbing the younger one.

According to the Daytona Beach News-Journal (http://bit.ly/11EKZ4Z ), Randy Zipperer told deputies he didn't mean to hurt his brother, adding he just "poked him a little with the knife."

Edward Zipperer had a small puncture wound. Deputies recovered a 6-inch knife with blood on the tip.

Randy Zipperer remained in the Volusia County Jail early Friday. He faces an aggravated battery charge.

A Podiatrist's Wet Dream

Australian Bigfoot Leaves Fresh Tracks

Friday, June 15th, 2012

Bigfoot news is ripe now that Animal Planet’s “Finding Bigfoot” is reinvigorating the hunt for the apparent ninja-trained mysterious icon of cryptozoology.
On the other side of the world from Idaho’s recent sighting, comes reports of Australia’s version of the creature..the Yowie.

Fresh tracks and sightings of the creatures appearing near the city of Lismore have caused Rex “The Yowie Man” Gilroy (best name ever for a crypto-hunter/adventurer) and his wife Heather, who founded the Australian Yowie Research Centre back in 1976, to leap into action in hopes of capturing evidence that the creature exists.

Lately hikers in the Lismore area have claimed to see what appears to be a male and a female creature along the trails. Reaching out to locals and heading out this time with a team of cryptozoologists, Gilroy is set on collecting new evidence to show people that this strange and elusive creature is absolutely real.
We can’t wait to hear about the further adventures of Rex Gilroy: Yowie Hunter.

Keep Your Pants On, or Up

WAYNE PARRY, Associated Press

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In a June 6, 2013 photo, a young man wears saggy pants on the Wildwood, N.J. boardwalk. Wildwood is set to pass a law Wednesday, June 12, 2013 regulating how people dress on its boardwalk, including a prohibition on pants that sag more than 3 inches below the hips, exposing either skin or underwear. MayorErnest Troiano said Wildwood has been inundated with complaints from tourists upon whose money the popular beach town depends for its survival. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

High Speed Vehicular Sex Interrupted by Crash

Drunk Driver Was Having Sex Before Crash

Man left bloody, naked partner in road, hid in cactus

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Drunk Car Sex Crash

MAY 29--A drunken driver was having sex when he lost control of his car Monday night and crashed the vehicle, ejecting his naked female companion onto a New Mexico roadway, police report.
According to cops, Luis Briones, 25, ran a red light and slammed his Ford Explorer into another car on an Albuquerque street. The impact of the collision forced Natasha Carroll, 21, from Briones’s SUV.

With a bloodied Carroll lying in the road, Briones got back into his vehicle and attempted to flee the accident scene, witnesses told Albuquerque Police Department officers. After one witness confiscated his keys, Briones “then jumped into a bush, landing and attempting to hide in a cactus.”
When cops subsequently took Briones into custody, he was wearing one shoe and “had a pair of black shorts inside out.” A half-empty bottle of vodka was found inside Briones’s vehicle.

Briones is seen in the depicted mug shot.
Investigators concluded that Briones and Carroll--who was “completely naked”--were “having sexual intercourse of some sort while driving.” A criminal complaint also notes that cops received a 911 call before the accident reporting that Briones “was observed to be having sexual intercourse with the passenger” while driving at “a high rate of speed.”

Carroll suffered facial lacerations in the crash and was transported to an area hospital, where she was reported to be in stable condition.

The plastered Briones, cops reported, reeked of booze and was extremely belligerent post-arrest. He allegedly spit on officers, threatened them, and “refused to keep his pants on.”
Charged with drunk driving, reckless driving, and evading police, Briones was booked into the Bernalillo County jail, where he is being held in lieu of $22,000 bond.

Cocaine Instead of Bananas Shipped to Danish Supermarket

 Drugs or Bananas

Jun 12 2013 

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Drug traffickers back in Colombia must be going bananas over how their shipment ended up at Danish supermarkets and not on the streets.

Police say employees at the supermarket chain Coop got a big surprise when they opened banana boxes from the South American country and found about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of what police believe is cocaine.

The powder was discovered last week in Aarhus, western Denmark, when employees noticed that some of the boxes were heavier than others.

Coop spokesman Jens Juul says more bags with white powder were found Wednesday in a separate shipment from Colombia at a central dispatch facility in suburban Copenhagen.

Juul told the Danish news agency Ritzau the company has contacted their Colombian supplier, alerting h/im before s/he can be arrested.

.

Police are investigating, but haven't made any arrests.  It's Colombia!

Follow-Up To Missing Mom Tale - She Went to Florida!

Disappeared Pa. mom who surfaced in Fla. goes to jail

Jun 12 2013

PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A mother who disappeared from her central Pennsylvania home in 2002 and was later declared legally dead before resurfacing in Florida has been sent to jail on a probation violation.

The Pensacola News Journal reports (http://on.pnj.com/11eQTdg ) that Brenda Heist, who's known in the Santa Rosa County court system as Kelsie Smith, was sentenced Tuesday to a year in jail.

She pleaded no contest to failing to check in with authorities in the Tampa area after leaving the Pensacola area following her April release from jail. She'd been on probation for using someone else's identification during a traffic stop.

Heist left behind a husband and two children when she disappeared from her home outside Lititz, Pa., in February 2002. She turned herself in to deputies in Monroe County, Fla., in April and revealed she was a missing person.

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Rape Life-Saving According to Rapist

        Police: St. George man claims he had sex with unconscious woman to ‘save’ her life

A 50-year-old man is charged with first-degree felony rape.

By Janelle Stecklein | The Salt Lake Tribune

Jun 10 2013

A 50-year-old St. George man is in trouble after he allegedly found a female neighbor unconscious on her front porch and claimed he had sex with her to try to warm her.

Rodger William Kelly told police he inserted his penis inside the unconscious 29-year-old on May 19 because "he was trying to save her life," according to court documents.

• 

"He said he did place it inside of her to try and get her temperature up," police wrote in a probable cause statement filed in 5th District Court.

Police told Kelly that his actions amounted to rape. He was charged Monday with one count of first-degree felony rape.

Kelly told officers that he found the woman passed out in front of her apartment and brought her inside his apartment, changed her clothes and put her on his bed. He said he then lay down next to her and hugged her to try to get her temperature up because she had been outside, then attempted intercourse to further warm her.

When police arrived, responding to an unconscious person call, they said they found Kelly inside his apartment giving the woman CPR.

The woman later told police she thought she might have been raped and recalled being dressed in a pair of the man’s underwear and shorts. She told police she had bruising on her pelvic and upper thighs, according to court documents.

The hospital was unable to complete a rape kit because the woman’s vaginal area was cleaned while she was sedated, according to court documents.

Kelly told police that the two previously were intimate, but admitted the woman had told him before the incident that she didn’t want to have sex with him again.

Woman To Stay Away From

Conn. woman crushes her ex with car

Published - Jun 11 2013 

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — A woman has been charged with murder after police said she ran down her ex-boyfriend with her car and crushed him against a cinder-block garage wall.

Cherelle Baldwin, 21, of Bridgeport, is accused of killing her child's father, 24-year-old Jeffrey Brown, on May 18. Baldwin was arrested Monday after a three-week investigation found no evidence to support her various accounts of what happened, police said.

The investigation found that Baldwin's car traveled 100 feet before striking Brown, apparently accelerating the entire time and with no signs of braking, police said. Police spokesman William Kaempffer told the Connecticut Post that the impact pushed the wall back more than 10 inches.

Brown was pinned between the car and wall when police and firefighters arrived. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful, police said. Baldwin suffered a leg injury when the car hit Brown and the wall, police said.

Baldwin was detained on $1 million bail and was expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Bridgeport Superior Court. It's not clear if she has a lawyer.

Police Chief Joseph Gaudett Jr. said it took a few weeks for authorities to determine that criminal charges were warranted.

"Detective Heitor Teixeira interviewed a large number of people to get a clear understanding of what happened, and work by the Crime Scene Unit and accident investigators was key to getting to the truth," Gaudett said in a statement.

Police said they are treating the case as a domestic homicide.

It's About Time

Chicago woman ordered to get help after 396 arrests

Jun 11 2013 

CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago woman who has been arrested 396 times in the past 35 years has been ordered to get mental health and substance abuse treatment in a deal with prosecutors.
Fifty-one-year-old Shermain Miles, who's been in the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln since December for violating parole, appeared in a Cook County court on Monday to plead guilty to charges she attacked a city alderman. She also pleaded guilty to trespassing and public drinking in separate cases.
The Chicago Sun-Times (http://bit.ly/13zt6Yl ) reports a judge sentenced her to time served in all three, because Miles agreed to undergo a mental health evaluation and get follow-up treatment.
Miles, who is homeless, has dozens of convictions for felonies and misdemeanors.
The paper says she thanked the judge for the opportunity to get help.

Man Stabbed to Death With a Stiletto High-heeled Shoe

Houston woman claims self-defense in heel stabbing

Jun 10 2013 

 Officials say a Houston woman accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death with a stiletto high heel told police she was trying to protect herself.

Houston police say 44-year-old Ana Lilia Trujillo told investigators the man was attacking her and she acted in self-defense.

Trujillo was charged with murder in the Sunday stabbing death. In a statement Monday, the University of Houston identified the 59-year-old man killed at a luxury high-rise condominium as Alf Stefan Andersson, a research professor in the university's biology and biochemistry department.

Police say officers answering an assault report found Andersson's body on the floor with multiple stab wounds to the head.
Trujillo remained jailed Monday on $100,000 bail and had no attorney yet.

Witchcraft On the Rise in New Guinea

Witch hunts in Papua New Guinea linked to jealousy

Jun 10 2013 

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

In this Feb. 6, 2013 file photo, hundreds of bystanders watch Helen Rumbali, a woman accused of witchcraft, being burned alive in the Western Highlands provincial capital of Mount Hagen in Papua New Guinea. There is no clear explanation for the apparent uptick in killings in parts of the South Pacific nation, and even government officials seem at a loss to say why this is happening. Some are arguing the recent violence is fueled not by the nation's widespread belief in black magic but instead by economic jealousy born of a mining boom that has widened the country's economic divide and pitted the haves against the have-nots. (AP Photo/Post Courier, File)

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — On a tropical island where most people live in huts, assailants armed with guns, machetes and axes stormed the wooden house by night. They set the building on fire and took away four female relatives to be tortured. Their alleged crime: witchcraft.

Helen Rumbali was beheaded. Her older sister and two teenage nieces were repeatedly slashed with knives before being released following negotiations with police.

Deadly violence linked to witch hunts is an increasingly visible problem in Papua New Guinea — a diverse tribal society of more than 800 languages and 7 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers. Experts say witch hunting appears to be spreading to parts of the country where such practices never took place before, but they and government officials in the South Pacific nation seem at a loss to say why it appears to be growing.

Some are arguing the recent violence is fueled not by the nation's widespread belief in black magic but instead by economic jealousy born of a mining boom that has widened the country's economic divide and pitted the haves against the have-nots.

"Jealousy is causing a lot of hatred," said Helen Hakena, chairwoman of the North Bougainville Human Rights Committee, which is based in the area Rumbali was killed. "People who are so jealous of those who are doing well in life, they resort to what our people believe in, sorcery, to kill them, to stop them continuing their own development."

The United Nations has documented hundreds of cases of sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea in recent years and many more cases in remote areas are thought to have gone unreported. It found the attacks are often carried out with impunity.

Until last month, the country's 42-year-old Sorcery Act allowed for a belief in black magic to be used as a partial legal defense for killing someone suspected of inflicting harm through sorcery. The government repealed the law in response to the recent violence.

Papua New Guinea Deputy Public Prosecutor Ravunama Auka doesn't buy that jealousy has been behind a significant number of the sorcery-related slayings he had dealt with. While he did not have statistics, he said most victims were slain due to a genuine belief that they had killed through sorcery.

Auka had no doubt sorcery-related slayings were increasing, but could not explain why.

"There are all sorts of reasons, not only because some people are wealthy and some are not," Auka said.

Another possible explanation is the spread of particularly vicious sorcery beliefs that before were just seen in the highland province of Chimbu, said anthropologist Philip Gibbs, a sorcery specialist and Roman Catholic priest who has lived in the wilds of Papua New Guinea for the past 41 years.

In Chimbu, people bury their dead in concrete so that the bodies will not be eaten at night by small demonic animals that they believe can possess the living. Villagers pay witch doctors to divine who among them are possessed by these demons, which they believe leave the person's body at night and take on the form of any small animal.

In February, a mob stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of horrified witnesses in Mount Hagan, the country's third largest city. In July, police arrested 29 people accused of being part of a cannibal cult in Papua New Guinea's jungle interior and charged them with the murders of seven suspected witch doctors.

In the case of Rumbali, which took place in April, no arrests have been made, but police said they are treating it as first-degree murder.

Police Senior Inspector Cletus Tsien would not speculate on the motive for the crime.

"We know that this family was wealthy. We know that maybe there were bits and pieces of jealousy. We know they were accused of sorcery ... but there's no concrete evidence as to which factor contributed to the death of the late woman," Tsien said.

When You Gotta Go

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Alligator takes pit stop near Calif. intersection

Published - Jun 06 2013 11:23PM CST

Associated Press

(Associated Press)

This image provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department shows an alligator Thursday June 6, 2013 in Lancaster, Calif. Part of the "Zoo to You" program in Paso Robles that introduces kids to animals, the alligator was being held by two females near a van after the animal urinated inside the van and the females had stopped to clean the the van. (AP Photo/ Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department)

LANCASTER, Calif. (AP) — A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was suspicious. When he heard two women were spotted near a Lancaster, Calif., intersection, and one of them was holding an alligator, he didn't buy it.

"I'm thinking, 'Yeah, an alligator. OK,'" Deputy Michael Rust told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday (http://lat.ms/13IVx4U ). "Maybe an iguana, but an alligator?"

A 911 operator agreed. "Could it have been a lizard?" the operator tells a woman reporting "a couple girls carrying an alligator" on a recording released by the Sheriff's Department.

Rust investigated the report Tuesday morning and found not just a 4-foot alligator, but a kangaroo and a monkey too, all inside the same van.

The women explained that the menagerie is part of the "Zoo to You" program in Paso Robles that introduces kids to animals.

The animals had just visited with students at Quartz Hill Elementary and had begun the nearly 200-mile journey home when they pulled over for some emergency cleanup.

"The alligator urinated inside his cage, and it's a long ways back to Paso Robles with the smell of alligator urine," Rust said. "So they decided to pull over."