Taser Crazed Cop Shoots Up Baptism Gathering

Pregnant Mother Tasered at Baptism Party

Posted by David Edwards and John Byrne, Raw Story, August 3, 2009.

May not be actual officer

A noise complaint to police results in another senseless act of brutality.


Child’s Virginia baptism ended up being a real shocker.

Responding to a noise complaint, police sought to quell the assembled crowd — who they said were making too much of a racket — by firing a Taser at the child’s grandfather and at the pregnant mother of the baptized child.

The officers said they placed a call to the homeowner, who they said was intoxicated and refused to reduce the volume.

The homeowner, 55, is a church family counselor and bible study teacher. His son, Edgar Rodriguez, claims he was Tasered three times after producing his ID for police. The elder Rodriguez was arrested for public intoxication in his own backyard.

The two say police used excessive force to quiet down “a backyard party.” A home video of the scene shows a relatively tame event.

The pregnant mother of the baptized child was also Tasered in the back after officers averred she was assaulting a police officer, and is now being held separately from her family by Customs and Immigration Enforcement.

Polygamist, Jeffs, Tries to Off Self in Arizona Jail

Arizona jail force-feeding sect leader Jeffs
Aug 04 2009

Jeffs shown in happier days with 12 year-old spouse

By JENNIFER DOBNER - Associated Press Writers


Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is being force-fed in jail for the second time in less than a week after again refusing to eat, Arizona officials said Tuesday.

Mohave County sheriff's spokeswoman Trish Carter said force feeding of Jeffs started Friday at the Kingman, Ariz., jail after it was found he was not eating. Jeffs subsequently started eating on his own again and continued doing so until Monday night, she said.

But on Tuesday, Jeffs again refused to eat and is now being force-fed via a tube down his throat that delivers liquid nutrition, Carter said.

"Mr. Jeffs is closely being watched 24 hours a day," a statement from Carter said.

In a letter filed with the Mohave Superior Court on Friday, the jail's medical director said Jeffs had been refusing food and was no longer urinating. Medical Director Kirsten Mortenson said Jeffs' vital signs were worsening and he was suffering peripheral edema _ the swelling of extremities like hands, feet and legs _ brought on by "protein/calorie malnutrition."

"This deterioration will continue to accelerate and become harder to reverse the longer it persists," Mortenson wrote in a letter to Judge Steven F. Conn. "His death could be imminent without immediate medical intervention."

Contacted by cell phone Tuesday by The Associated Press, Mortenson said federal privacy laws prevented her from making any comment.

"I can't even tell you if I've seen him," she said.

Jeffs, 53, is the head of the Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He is jailed awaiting trial on charges related to alleged underage marriages involving sect girls.

Jeffs was moved to Kingman from the Utah State Prison in February 2008. In September 2007, a Utah jury convicted Jeffs of two counts of rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 marriage of an underage follower to her husband. He was sentenced to two consecutive prison terms of five years to life.

On Tuesday, Jeffs' Tucson, Ariz., attorney Michael Piccarreta said he did not know the status of his client's medical condition, but that the situation was not unusual.

"Mr. Jeffs is a deeply religious man and sometimes engages in lengthy religious practices while in jail. When he does, he declines food and beverages and this sometimes occurs," he said. "If you look at other religious and political people who have been wrongly incarcerated, you'll see others have gone through this."

Piccarreta, who represents Jeffs in two pending criminal cases, said he believed Mohave County handled the situation appropriately. Jeffs is more than 6 feet tall and has always been slight, Piccarreta noted.

"There's not a lot of extra pounds," he said.

A former fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted list, Jeffs was arrested in August 2006 during a traffic stop near Las Vegas. While in a southern Utah jail awaiting trial, he suffered from depression, dropped as much as 30 pounds and was hospitalized after an attempted suicide in January 2007.

Throughout his incarceration Jeffs has been known to fast and spend long periods on his knees in prayer.

Earlier this year, Mohave County's deputy jail director Bruce Brown told the AP that Jeffs had not had any significant health problems. Jeffs had been eating three meals a day and maintaining his weight, Brown said.

Jeffs is also facing criminal charges of bigamy and sexual assault of a child in Texas. The charges stem from information gathered by authorities during a raid on a church ranch near Eldorado last year.

The FLDS tie their religious roots to the early teachings of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and practice polygamy in arranged marriages. The Mormon church renounced plural marriages in 1890 as part of Utah's push for statehood. Self-described Mormon fundamentalists such as the FLDS believe polygamy will bring glorification in heaven.

Jeffs, who is revered as a prophet who communicates with God, commands a flock roughly 12,000 strong despite his incarceration. Church members live mostly in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz. The faith also has small enclaves in Texas, Colorado, South Dakota and near Bountiful, British Columbia.

Sect Leader Makes Out With Underage Girls

This photo, entered into evidence by Child Protective Services, shows Warren Jeffs and a young girl, alleged to be his child bride, age 12.



SAN ANGELO, Texas — Photographs surfacing last week show polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs kissing and hugging young girls, one alleged by Texas Child Protective Services lawyers to be a 12-year-old "bride."

The images, dated July 2006 and January 2005, were entered into evidence last Friday in a case stemming from the April 3 raid on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound in Eldorado, Texas. The state is seeking custody of the 1-week-old baby boy born to compound residents Louisa Bradshaw and her "husband," Dan Jessop.

In one set of photos, Jeffs appears with a girl identified as "Loretta" under the label of "First anniversary," dated Jan. 26, 2005. The second set show Jeffs and a girl named "Merrianne," dated July 27, 2006.

Protective Services lawyers would not reveal how they obtained the photos, but are using them as evidence that the culture at the compound is abusive, and forces young girls to become child brides, the Desert News reported.

The photos show Jeffs kissing the girls in a manner that Protective Services lawyers describe as "how a husband kisses a wife."

When asked if he thought the photos were evidence of sexual abuse, Jessop told the court, "I do not consider a girl kissing a man sex abuse," the newspaper reported

Angry Women Assault Male Philanderer

Aborted tryst in Wisconsin leaves man with glued genitals

July 4, 2009

A Wisconsin man who thought he was joining his lover at a motel for an afternoon of frolicking between the sheets was instead blindsided, over-powered, blindfolded and bound while the would be lover and three other women, including his wife, berated and humiliated him over his infidelity, according to a criminal complaint.

Four of the women have been charged with false imprisonment in the romance-revenge scheme and one of them is accused of sexual assault for allegedly super-gluing the man's genitals to his stomach, the complaint says.

The plot for revenge against the two-timing -- or perhaps three-timing -- married man unfolded last week at the Lakeview Motel about 30 miles southwest of Green Bay in the tiny village of Stockbridge near the scenic shores of Lake Winnebago, the Associated Press reports.

"It wasn't spur of the moment, it was planned over the course of a couple days as I understand," Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz said, according to WLUK-TV.

Court records charge that one of the women, Therese Ziemann, 48, took the lead in luring the victim to the motel, then texted the others to join her. They are identified as Wendy Sewell, 43, and Ziemann's sister, Michelle Belliveau, 43, who was the only one of the four not romantically involved with the victim.

The documents indicate that the man -- tied up and securely glued -- was confronted by the women asking "which one do you love more?" and "who do you want to grow old with?"

The AP says that after the women left, the man freed himself from the bed by chewing through one of his bindings and called police.

It was not know whether the man and his proposed lover consummated the tryst.

The media have withheld the man's name, as well as the name and photograph of his wife, because he is the alleged victim of a sexual assault.

Melons Are Melons - There's No Two Ways About It.

August 1, 2009 EP

The Brazilian fashion industry sponsored a "biggest melons" in Brazil contest in Rio de Janiero, to demonstrate the newest fashions in swimwear.

A surprising contest entrant was a paramilitary police officer from Uighur, who declined to answer reporters questions, saying only that he had the biggest melons. He took first place in the contest while a professional Brazilian model came in second. The model and her fashion house both protested the outcome of the contest, but contest officials ruled that melons are melons and nowhere in the contest rules was it specified that only female breasts would be counted as melons.

Getting Up Close and Personal With Your Toilet?

Woman trapped for a week beside toilet

Jul. 28, 2009 AP


BRISBANE, Australia - An Australian woman was rescued after spending a week wedged between her toilet and the bathroom door, an official said Tuesday.

The 67-year-old woman, suffering from dehydration, was taken to a hospital after firefighters in the eastern city of Ipswich ended her ordeal Sunday by removing the bathroom door from its hinges, Queensland state government spokesman Chantelle Rule said. The woman, who is diabetic, was not seriously ill, Rule said.

The woman, who has not been named, fell during the early hours of July 19 and somehow became trapped with her feet stuck on either side of the toilet bowl and her body wedged against the inward-opening door, Rule said.

Neighbor Michael Hibberd said he heard her cries for help as he hung his washing in his backyard Sunday morning. He could not open the door to her house and called police.

Hibberd said it was a reminder that people should look out for their neighbors.

"Just make a note of their movements and whatnot," he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "If anything becomes a bit off - like, you haven't heard or seen them for a week or so - maybe just knock on the door and see if they're OK."

Boardwalk and Park Place Ignite Violence in Michigan

Mich. man jailed for assault over Monopoly game


Jul 30, 2009

FRASER, Mich. (AP) - A game of Monopoly has landed a Michigan man in jail. WDIV-TV reported a 54-year-old man was playing the board game Saturday night with a female friend when he tried to buy Park Place and Boardwalk from her.

When she refused, Fraser police Lt. Dan Kolke told WWJ-AM he hit her in the head, breaking her glasses.

The man was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and battery.