Category Archives: Crime
Boy Charged with 40 Felonies for SWATting Incidents
March 18, 2019 – Dodge Co., WI – The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has conducted a thorough investigation of the facts surrounding the hoax phone call received by the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office on March 22, 2018 that resulted in a SWAT deployment placing lives at risk in rural Dodge County.
Sheriff’s Office Detective Andrew Rolfs in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies from around the country were able to identify a suspect, a 17-year -old male juvenile from Youngstown, Ohio, however, we are not able to release the name of the juvenile suspect to the public. Investigations by law enforcement revealed similar incidents occurred around the United States and the phone calls originated from Mahoning County, Ohio. As a result, the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office agreed to handle all charges related to these crimes and 73 counts of delinquency were filed in Mahoning County (40 felonies and 33 misdemeanors).
Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt indicated in 2018 that these incidents are very serious and will not be tolerated. While it may have taken time to bring charges, the perpetrator is being held accountable. It is the Sheriff’s hope that the resolution of this case will dissuade others from trying this type of activity. The individual involved believed he would get away with inciting fear in our community and now faces significant repercussions.
The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Mahoning County Prosecutors Office along with all the other agencies who put significant time into this case and helped Detective Rolfs close this case. Additionally, Detective Rolfs deserves a great deal of credit for his hard work in resolving this case.
Posted by Owen at 2136 hours
Kidnapping (Maybe) in Mexico
Mexico City (AFP) – Nineteen passengers who were kidnapped from a bus last week in northern Mexico were migrants, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday, as investigators worked through the murky details of the case.
The men were crossing the violent state of Tamaulipas, on the US-Mexican border, on Thursday when four vehicles blocked the road and forced their bus to stop, according to authorities.
Armed men then boarded the coach and kidnapped 19 passengers whose names they had on a list.
“I can confirm that they were migrants,” Lopez Obrador said, referring to the abducted men, without specifying their nationalities.
The bus was traveling from the port of Tampico to Reynosa, a border city across from McAllen, Texas.
Although the bus driver told authorities that 19 passengers were kidnapped, investigation sources have indicated the real number of victims could be as high as 25.
The president told a news conference that one line of investigation is the possibility the men could have staged their own kidnapping as a way to drop off the radar and then enter the United States undetected.
Posted by Owen at 2108 hours
Massive College Bribery Scheme Exposed
Full House star Lori Loughlin and Oscar nominee Felicity Huffman are two of the 50 parents and coaches charged in a plot to get their children into schools including Georgetown, Stanford, UCLA, University of San Diego, USC, University of Texas, Wake Forest, and Yale.
The scheme was uncovered by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Boston, and involved parents paying bribes of up to $6 million to get their children into these elite schools.
In many instances, the children were unaware that their parents had paid these tax-deductible bribes, according to federal documents.
Posted by Owen at 2035 hours
Smollett is Angry
It is pretty clear what happened here. All that’s left are the details. Smollett has wasted the time and money of law enforcement in one of the most violent cities in America. It’s not a victimless crime. Smollett can take his faux anger and hurt feelings and shove ’em.
The two brothers who were interrogated by police investigating the alleged attack on Jussie Smollett purchased the rope that was found around the “Empire” actor’s neck, sources told ABC News Saturday.
Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo agreed to cooperate with authorities after detectives confronted them with evidence that they bought the rope — allegedly used in an attack that Smollett described to police as laced with racial and homophobic slurs — at a local hardware store, sources said.
Detectives have now shifted the investigation to determining whether Smollett made up the entire story, sources said.
Yet in a late night statement from his attorneys on Saturday, Smollett hit back at the suggestion that the incident was a hoax, and expressed incredulity that the brothers could have been involved.
“As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with,” began a statement from Smollett attorneys Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson. “He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.”
“One of these purported suspects was Jussie’s personal trainer who he hired to ready him physically for a music video,” the statement continued. “It is impossible to believe that this person could have played a role in the crime against Jussie or would falsely claim Jussie’s complicity.”
The statement went on to say that Smollett would continue to cooperate with authorities.
Posted by Owen at 1732 hours
Babysitting was “Secret Study”
Bwhahaha! You have to give the guy props for ballsiness.
Facing allegations that officers under him were baby-sitting his special-needs son, the Chicago police commander gave a novel explanation: He was conducting a secret study.
Grand Central District Cmdr. Anthony Escamilla acknowledged he had on-duty officers pick up his teenage son, who has autism, but insisted he worked as a volunteer in the community policing office.
Pressed by investigators from the city’s inspector general’s office, Escamilla said he wanted to watch how his son did the work and interacted with his officers, taking mental notes he planned to share with the officers later.
“I kind of wanted to just leave it to them, acting out in their job roles, and then him being a volunteer and seeing how it would go,” Escamilla told an investigator. “It’s not about my son and someone keeping an eye on him. This is about kids with his kind of disability and what we can do as a department to help them.”
Posted by Owen at 1051 hours
British Rapper and Felon to be Deported
Well, well… not exactly the “hiding in the shadows” story we usually get.
Atlanta rapper 21 Savage has been arrested by immigration officials who say he is actually from the UK, reports say.
The rapper, Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, came to the US in July 2005 aged 12 and failed to leave when his visa expired a year later, officials said.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesman said he was being held for removal proceedings.
He has previously described a childhood in Atlanta during interviews.
In an interview with Fader magazine in 2016 he said he had first seen a gun at the age of eight – although the article did not specify where this incident had taken place.
The 26-year-old is also quoted in the interview as saying he was expelled from school in Atlanta aged about 12 or 13 for taking a gun to class.
“His whole public persona is false,” a CNN reporter quoted an ICE spokesman as saying.
Other reports quoted ICE as saying the rapper was being held in the state of Georgia for being unlawfully present in the US and for being a felon. He was convicted of drugs charges in 2014.[…]
There are 10.6 million undocumented immigrants in the US, according to the Center for Migration Studies. That represents 3.25% of the US population.
Posted by Owen at 0732 hours
No Motive in Las Vegas Massacre
Sometimes, evil people do evil things for no other reason than they are evil.
The Las Vegas Review Panel of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit determined that Paddock acted alone, and that his attack “was neither directed, inspired, nor enabled by ideologically-motivated persons or groups,” the FBI said.After almost 12 months of analyzing evidence and information, the panel concluded “there was no single of clear motivating factor” behind the attack, and that Paddock’s actions were inspired by obtaining “a certain degree of infamy via a mass casualty attack,” the FBI said.
Posted by Owen at 1426 hours
Closs Gets Reward Money
This is good. It’s not a lot of money and certainly can’t replace her parents, but it gives her a little something to begin rebuilding her life.
(CNN)A company that donated $25,000 to a reward for the return of Wisconsin teen Jayme Closs says it will give her the money now that she has been found.
[…]
Hormel Foods is the parent company of the Jennie-O Turkey Store, which employed Jayme’s parents, James and Denise Closs.The company said the Closses were longtime employees of the Jennie-O store in Barron.
Posted by Owen at 1857 hours
Murders Soar in Mexico
Ouch.
Mexico City (AFP) – Mexico suffered a record 33,341 homicides in 2018, according to official statistics released Monday, breaking the record set in 2017, as violence fueled by a war on the country’s powerful drug cartels plagues the country.
More than 200,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the government controversially deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006. The previous record was 28,866 homicides in 2017.
The new record shows the grim challenge facing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, an anti-establishment leftist who took office in December with a promise to curb the gruesome violence.
His strategy is built on creating a national guard that will officially bring civilian police duties under military control.
It is worth noting that Mexico has very strict gun control laws. It is almost as if criminals and cartel thugs don’t obey those laws.
Posted by Owen at 0945 hours
Man Arrested for Home Invasion and Sexual Assault
Now those are some deep sleepers.
Police said the woman woke up in the bedroom of her Vine Street home in the middle of the night to find a man sucking on her chest. When she realized it was not her husband who was asleep in the bed next to her, police said she screamed, and the naked man jumped off the bed.
The woman then realized her genital area was coated in baby shampoo, police said.
“I woke and there was baby soap all over me,” they said she complained.
Police said the woman shook her husband awake and yelled at him that a man had just tried to rape her. The husband got up and ended up chasing the naked Heredia out of the house and down the street before losing him, police said.
When officers arrived at the home, they spotted a pile of clothing the assailant had left by the bed. Inside a pants pocket police said they found a wallet containing Heredia’s Connecticut identification card and his Social Security card.
Posted by Owen at 2232 hours
Man Defends Castle Like a Boss
Good for the homeowner. I hope he and his family are safe.
Three men are dead after they broke into a home and were met with gun, according to Houston police.
The men reportedly broke into a home in Houston, Texas, around 1 a.m. only to find the homeowner was ready with a firearm and started shooting, Houston police said.
After the homeowner opened fire on the burglars, two of the men escaped in an SUV, another was left dead at the front of the house and the last man, who was wounded, took off on foot.
Houston police said they were able to find the suspect who fled on foot. He was shot in the leg.
The vehicle that left the scene was found crashed into a pole and, police said, a man was found dead inside. Another person that was inside the vehicle appeared to have gotten out and ran but was found down the street and later died.
Posted by Owen at 2209 hours
He Saw Her at the Bus Stop
My goodness. While a stranger attack and abduction like this is rare, it still scares the daylights out of a parent. I wish Wisconsin had the death penalty.
BARRON — A Wisconsin man accused of abducting 13-year-old Jayme Closs and holding her captive for three months made up his mind to take her when he spotted the teenager getting on a school bus, authorities said Monday.
Jake Thomas Patterson, 21, told detectives that “he knew that was the girl he was going to take,” and he made two aborted trips to her family’s home before finally carrying out an attack in which he fatally shot Jayme’s mother in front of her, according to a criminal complaint filed hours before Patterson’s first court appearance.
Prosecutors charged him Monday with kidnapping Jayme and killing her parents Oct. 15 near Barron, about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis. He was also charged with armed robbery.
Posted by Owen at 1719 hours
Yellow Vests Disable 60% of France’s Speed Cameras
Yes, this is vandalism and should be punished, but c’mon… aren’t you kind of rooting for them? Speed cameras are just a revenue-generating abuse by government.
Members of the “yellow vests” protest movement have vandalised almost 60% of France’s entire speed camera network, the interior minister has said.
Christophe Castaner said the wilful damage was a threat to road safety and put lives in danger.
The protest movement began over fuel tax increases, and saw motorists block roads and motorway toll booths.
Some protesters feel speed cameras are solely a revenue-generating measure which takes money from the poor.
Posted by Owen at 1918 hours
Woman Kills Attacker
I’m glad that she was able to defend herself.
The 25-year-old victim was standing at a bus stop in the Fernwood neighborhood about 5:44 a.m. when she was confronted by the would-be robber, police said.
“The victim was standing at the corner when the offender approached the victim, displayed a weapon and announced a robbery,” Chicago police officials said in a statement. “The victim, a concealed carry license holder, brandished a weapon and fired one shot at the offender, striking him in the neck.”
The incident was captured on surveillance video from a drug store in the area and showed the victim, whose name has not been released, getting pushed to the ground at the bus stop before pulling a gun and firing it.
The suspected attempted robber, wearing white, ran from the scene while the victim ran in the opposite direction, the video shows.
Police said the suspected robber collapsed about a block from the bus stop, where officers found him. He was taken to Christ Hospital in Chicago, where he was pronounced dead.
Posted by Owen at 2108 hours
Florida Felons Get Right To Vote
It will be interesting to see how this impacts the 2020 election.
Tuesday will mark an extraordinary milestone for Florida as the right to vote is restored to more than 1 million former felons in the state.
In what’s described as one of the largest enfranchisements of U.S. citizens in the past 100 years, most ex-felons in the state who have completed the terms of their sentence, including parole and probation, can register to vote either online or at their local elections office beginning Jan. 8. The measure doesn’t apply to those convicted of murder or a felony sexual offense.
“It’ll be a joyous day,” a pastor who was convicted of armed robbery as a teenager told The Washington Post.
There are varying rules for felons and voting in different states. Some lose their right to vote forever. Some never lose it. Some get it back after a period of time. What makes this significant is that it is a big change in a big state. Florida currently has about 14 million registered voters, so this is an immediate 7% increase in the pool of voters. In a state where elections are often decided by a few thousand votes, this will make a significant difference.
On the issue itself, I generally think that most non-violent felons should have their rights restored after they have completed the entire sentences – including post-incarceration supervision. This includes voting and 2nd Amendment rights.
Posted by Owen at 1729 hours
Bully Burke
A shakedown as old as government.
The criminal complaint targeting Chicago Ald. Ed Burke reads like a cliched crime novel: Influential alderman squeezes restaurant executives to benefit his law business, delicately at first, over lunch at a private wood-paneled country club. Federal agents locate the alderman via a black Crown Victoria, his riding-around car, in the parking lot.
The alderman is known for his silver coiffure, pinstriped suits and pocket squares. His three-story brick home on the Southwest Side is landlocked by railroad tracks and industry, strip malls and bungalows — but protected by a tall wrought-iron fence with a locked gate.
He is untouchable. Until now.
Burke, of Chicago’s 14th Ward, faces one count of attempted extortion. The U.S. Department of Justice accuses him of holding up city permits and slow-walking a restaurant renovation in his ward until the company agreed to hire Burke’s law firm, Klafter & Burke, for property tax work.
Posted by Owen at 2102 hours
Boulder Moves to Criminalize Bedrock Civil Right
This is a tyrannical attack on civil liberties by American fascists.
The American Civil Liberties Union came to the First Amendment defense of neo-Nazis in Skokie, Illinois. This is worth celebrating, especially today. Lawyers, many Jewish, fought for the rights of repugnant people, many of whom would like to see all Jews dead. Offended supporters of the ACLU left in droves. But the ACLU adhered to principle because … the end doesn’t justify the means.
Progressives have not just rejected that proud tradition, they have remade it into the ugly opposite — the end justifies all: Coercing speech with speech codes and forcing cake bakers to create statements against their core religious beliefs; social justice warfare and identity politics; the nanny state banning everything from plastic straws to tobacco products; and forcing private health insurance products at gun-point.
Progressives wield intolerance like the weapon it is. But are they kidding us or themselves when they smugly assert their tolerance? Do they believe their “Celebrate Diversity” bumper stickers, blind to the hypocrisy?
I find myself thinking about this as I am only days away from becoming a criminal in my tolerant hometown of Boulder. Boulder, which did so much to promote the civil rights of the LGBT community in decades past, when alternative lifestyles were misunderstood and feared, is now leading the charge against people like me whose lifestyle is misunderstood and feared.
I remember a time when, for public safety of course, some conservatives wanted AIDS patients to self-identify, to present themselves to the governmental authority, and be counted. There was an epidemic erupting after all, and “something had to be done.”
In Boulder, if your core beliefs include dressing as the opposite gender or following the teachings of the Koran our city government will bend over backwards to protect you from those who wish to separate you from your community. You’d never be forced to self-identify to government authorities, to submit to inspection, to be registered and made to pay fees to keep your core beliefs.
My strong belief in my Second Amendment rights is core to who I am. I know that is not understood by many today, however I am not asking to be understood. I’m asking to be left alone.
Posted by Owen at 2114 hours
Man Charged with Joining DEA to Protect Cartel
Wow.
A former Evanston police detective has been accused in a sweeping federal indictment of joining the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration so he could protect a vicious Puerto Rico-based drug organization responsible for numerous killings and other violence.
Fernando Gomez, 41, was arrested Tuesday morning at the DEA’s Chicago field office, authorities said.
[…]
Gomez was charged in a superseding indictment unsealed in New York with racketeering conspiracy for his alleged decadelong affiliation with the Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos, a conglomeration of drug traffickers based in Puerto Rico responsible for importing vast shipments of cocaine into New York and elsewhere.
[…]
Gomez began working for the gang when he was a detective for Evanston police, according to the charges. He obtained firearms from drug dealers and provided them to gang leader Jose Martinez-Diaz, also known as “Tony Zinc,” in Puerto Rico, according to the indictment.
“Gomez then joined the DEA so that he could help members of the narcotics conspiracy, including Martinez-Diaz, evade prosecution by law enforcement,” the indictment alleged.
Posted by Owen at 2200 hours
Evers Forms Criminal Justice Panel
Goodness. “Making of a Murder” was a factual train wreck and Butler was run out of office for his soft on crime attitude. I see that when Evers says “prioritizing people,” he means crooks and violent criminals – not the people they victimize.
In a statement Monday announcing the panel, Evers and Lt. Gov.-elect Mandela Barnes also emphasized the state’s racial incarceration disparity and said it’s time “to start prioritizing people, not prisons.”
The new panel includes Dean Strang, who gained international fame for his defense of Steven Avery in the Netflix series “Making a Murderer,” and former state Supreme Court justices Louis Butler and Janine Geske.
Other notable names include:
- Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney;
- Kelli Thompson, who heads the state Public Defender’s Office;
- Matt Frank, former state Department of Natural Resources Secretary and former Assistant State Attorney General;
- Milwaukee County Chief Deputy Sheriff Denita Ball;
- Rick Raemisch, former state Department of Corrections Secretary and former Dane County Sheriff, who now leads the Colorado Department of Corrections;
- Walter Dickey, University of Wisconsin Law School professor and former state Department of Corrections Secretary;
- Angela Lang, director of the Milwaukee-based Black Leaders Organizing for Communities;
- Jim Palmer, who heads the state’s police union.
The announcement Monday said the panel aims to “bring together people from all sides of the criminal justice system” to work on possible criminal justice changes.
Posted by Owen at 1718 hours
Orangutan Rescued From Sex Slavery
There are some depraved people on this planet.
An orangutan kept as a prostitute in an Indonesian village ‘screamed and defecated’ when the brothel madam who kept her captive visited her in a rescue centre.
Pony, an endangered Bornean orangutan, was discovered in February 2003 inside a darkened room in the village of Kareng Pangi, Central Kalimantan chained to a wall and lying on a mattress.
She had been ruthlessly and abhorrently exploited by local palm oil farmers who would come to the village and pay £2 to have sex with her.
The brother ‘madam’ who enslaved Pony was initially allowed to visit her once a month at a conservation centre to ‘reduce the risk of retribution among villagers’ who were angry she had been taken.
[…]
Having been snatched from her mother when she was a baby, her captors treated Pony extremely harshly – shaving her every two days and forcing her to wear perfume and makeup.
She was even taught to perform sex acts on demand for her customers.
Posted by Owen at 2249 hours
