Saturday, April 29, 2006

Cleared by DNA, he's killed by traffic

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- A man who spent 12 years in prison for murder before new DNA testing exonerated him last year was killed in a hit-and-run as he walked on the city's South Side.

The vehicle sped away after hitting Dan Young Jr., 45, Wednesday night, police said. He was pronounced dead Thursday, the Cook County medical examiner's office said.

Young had been released from prison in January 2005 after new testing on DNA evidence failed to link him and another man to the 1990 murder and sexual assault of Kathy Morgan, 39, whose body had been found in a South Side building after a fire.

"He always wanted to talk about his new life and what he would do once he got his clemency money," his attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said after learning of Young's death. "He wanted to know if I would help him get a red brick house."

"He certainly didn't deserve any of this," she said.

Read the complete article at CNN.com

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Calif. Woman Spanked at Work Sues for $1.2M

FRESNO, Calif. - Lawyers for a woman who was spanked in front of her co-workers as part of what her employer said was a camaraderie-building exercise asked a jury Wednesday for at least $1.2 million for the humiliation she claimed to have suffered.

Janet Orlando, 53, quit her job at the home security company Alarm One Inc. in Fresno and sued, alleging discrimination, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress.

Employees were paddled with rival companies' yard signs as part of a contest that pitted sales teams against each other, according to court documents. The winners poked fun at the losers, throwing pies at them, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and swatting their buttocks.

"No reasonable middle-aged woman would want to be put up there before a group of young men, turned around to show her buttocks, get spanked and called abusive names, and told it was to increase sales and motivate employees," her lawyer, Nicholas "Butch" Wagner, said in his closing argument.

Lawyers for Alarm One, an Anaheim-based, 300-employee company, said the spankings were part of a voluntary program to build camaraderie and were not discriminatory because they were given to both male and female workers.

"This is being done for one reason and one reason only — money," said K. Poncho Baker, the company's lawyer.

Alarm One officials ceased the practice in 2004, the year Orlando sued, after another employee complained of being injured, according to court records.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Phony doctor gives free breast exams

76-year-old man claiming to be a doctor went door-to-door in a Florida neighborhood offering free breast exams, and was charged with sexually assaulting two women who accepted the offer, police said on Thursday.

One woman became suspicious after the man asked her to remove all her clothes and began conducting a purported genital exam without donning rubber gloves, investigators said.

The woman then phoned the Broward County Sheriff's Office and the suspect fled. He was arrested at another woman's apartment in the same Lauderdale Lakes neighborhood on Wednesday, a sheriff's spokesman said.

The white-haired suspect, Philip Winikoff, carried a black bag and claimed to be visiting on behalf of a local hospital.

"He told the woman that he was in the neighborhood offering free breast exams," sheriff's spokesman Hugh Graf said in a statement.

At least two women, both in their 30s, let him into their homes and he fondled and sexually assaulted them, the investigators said.

Winikoff was not a doctor, Graf said. He worked as a shuttle driver for an auto dealership.

Read the complete article at Reuters

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Homeless Man Returns Wallet With $900

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A homeless man searching through garbage bins for recyclable cans found a missing wallet and had it returned to its owner.

Kim Bogue, who works as a janitor in the city's government buildings, realized that her wallet was missing last week and doubted she'd ever get back the $900 and credit cards inside, she said.

``I prayed that night and asked God to help me,'' said Bogue, who was saving the money for a trip to her native Thailand.

Days later, a homeless man found the wallet wrapped in a plastic bag in a trash bin, where Bogue had accidentally thrown it away with her lunch. He gave it to Sherry Wesley, who works in a nearby building.

``He came to me with the wad of money and said, 'This probably belongs to someone that you work with, can you return it,''' Wesley said.

Workers at a nearby relief kitchen said the man, who didn't want to be identified, insists on paying for his food.

Read the complete article at Netscape News

Monday, April 17, 2006

Free rent for sex in New York

Wealthy New Yorkers are advertising rent-free rooms to women in exchange for sexual favours.

The New York Daily News reports the trend and lists a number of ads on the popular Craigslist.org website.

One, entitled "Take Care of My Needs and Live Rent Free", offers: "All you have to do is take care of all my urges, and I'll let you live in a one-bedroom apartment I own rent free."

Another ad reads: "All I am looking for is an attractive, playful, and submissive woman who is uninhibited to my proposal... substituting rent for sexual encounters."

In the posting, the 33-year-old man living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, adds that the room comes with a TV, DVD player, internet-ready computer and a phone line.

"I don't need the rent but would like to fill it up with a woman who would love to show her appreciation for my generosity," he wrote.

Read the complete article at Ananova

Easter Bunny Arrested For Beating Woman

Saturday night at the Edison Mall, a 6-foot tall 280 pound Easter Bunny and his assistant were arrested by Fort Myers Police for an altercation. For the Johansson family, it's a holiday memory they'll never forget - even though they would like to.

"It was something like you would see in a movie," Robert Johansson said. "The next thing you know my wife is sucker punched by the manager, she is pulled to the ground by her hair and then the Easter Bunny jumps on top and starts punching my wife in the head."

Arthur McLure, 22, and Crystal Frechette, 25 were charged by the Forth Myers Police with battery and disturbing the peace.

McLure listed his occupation as the Easter Bunny.

Johansson said the incident started because the Easter Bunny decided to close shop 15 minutes early on Saturday night with a line of children and families still waiting. Robert Johansson said his wife, Erin, approached the manager to complain when she was knocked to the ground.

The Edison Mall released this statement concerning the matter: "We have been pleased over the years to make a visit with the Easter Bunny part of the springtime experience at Edison Mall. We were shocked and dismayed at the events of Saturday evening at the Easter photo set, and it is particularly disconcerting that families with young children witnessed the highly unfortunate incident. We have been in contact with the company that operates the Easter photo business at our mall and will continue to cooperate fully with the Fort Myers Police Department as they move forward with their investigation."

Robert Johansson said his wife is still extremely sore from the incident.

Read the complete article at naplesnews.com

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Man Killed Girlfriend With Microwave

UNIONTOWN, Pa. -- A man used a microwave oven to attack his girlfriend, who was fatally beaten after she refused to heat up sandwiches, police said.

Walter S. Fordyce, 58, of Uniontown, told police he began arguing with his live-in girlfriend, Mary McCann, 58, on Thursday, just after midnight.

After throwing her to the floor, police said Fordyce told them he threw a microwave oven onto McCann's chest after she refused to heat up sandwiches for him. Fordyce also told police he stomped on McCann's chest repeatedly then banged her head off the floor until she lost consciousness - but that he also said he didn't mean to kill her, police said.

"It was an accident. I didn't do it on purpose,'' police quoted Fordyce as saying.

Read the complete article at NBC 10

Friday, April 14, 2006

Three-year-old grasses on dad

Three-year-old grasses on dad

A three-year-old gave her dad up to police after being told by her parents never to tell lies.

Dieter Brauer, 33, from Vreden in Germany was hiding from the cops after fleeing when pulled over for speeding.

When officers arrived at his house to arrest him after noting down his number plate his wife Nina said her husband was not home.

But three-year-old Hannah interrupted to tell the uniformed men "daddy is here" and led them to the cellar where he was hiding.

Brauer, who is now facing charges for speeding and driving with an expired licence, said: "I can't be angry with her, she was just doing what we've always told her and that's not to tell lies."

Read the complete article at Ananova

Thursday, April 13, 2006

MySpace page puts teacher back in jail

McMINNVILLE, Tenn. - A former elementary school teacher who spent six months in jail for having sex with a 13-year-old student was arrested again, this time for violating probation by apparently communicating with the victim.

Pamela Rogers, 28, was arrested Tuesday and released on $10,000 bond. A judge Wednesday ordered her to appear at a July 12 hearing.

Last August, Rogers reached a plea deal to serve nine months on an eight-year sentence, allowing her to avoid a trial on 28 charges of sexual battery and statutory rape. She was released from jail in February for good behavior.
Under terms of the plea deal, she was, among other things, ordered not to contact the victim or his family and not to use the Internet.

Authorities said she violated probation by establishing a Web page on the online social networking hub MySpace.com. Her page featured a blog that included what authorities said was communication between Rogers and the victim's 17-year-old sister.

Read the complete article at MSNBC

Monday, April 10, 2006

Man takes 40,000 Pills of Ecstacy over 9 years...

DOCTORS from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person.

Consultants at the addiction centre at St George's Medical School have published a case report of a man estimated to have taken 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years. The heaviest previous lifetime intake on record is 2000 pills.

Although the man, now 37, stopped taking the drug seven years ago, he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression.

He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw that often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these afflictions could be permanent.

The man, referred to only as Mr A in the report in the scientific journal Psychosomatics, started using ecstasy at 21. For the first two years his use was an average of five pills a weekend.

Gradually this rose until he was taking 3½ pills a day. At the peak he was taking an estimated 25 pills a day for four years. After several severe collapses at parties he decided to stop taking ecstasy.

Read the complete article at smh.com.au

Friday, April 07, 2006

Pregnant woman beaten at baby shower

SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts (AP) -- An argument at a baby shower escalated into a brawl in which one man was shot and the pregnant guest of honor was beaten with a stick, police said.

Three people were arrested after the fight, described by police as a "baby shower gone bad."

Authorities said the shooting victim, Aristotle Garcia, got into a fight with a man who is dating his ex-girlfriend. The argument, over whether the woman let their 5-year-old daughter drink beer, escalated and drew in two other people -- Jazz Rivas and Juan Velazquez, said Police Lt. Cheryl C. Claprood.

When the baby shower's hostess tried to intervene, Rivas began hitting some of the guests, including the 22-year-old mother-to-be, with a large stick, she said.

Velazquez fired a gun in the air, then fired it into the crowd, hitting Garcia in the stomach, according to police. Garcia, 26, was in stable condition at Baystate Medical Center. The mother-to-be, who was seven months pregnant, was treated after the incident Saturday and released.

Read the complete article at CNN.com

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Man held as terrorism suspect for listening to the Clash

LONDON (Reuters) - British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday.

Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected."

Mann told British newspapers the taxi had been fitted with a music system which allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had been playing The Clash, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to the driver.

Read the complete article at Yahoo!News

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Brokeback Mountain truck fetches teen $60,000

PINCHER CREEK -- A southern Alberta teenager can't believe that he could get more than $60,000 Cdn for an old pickup truck used in the filming of the Oscar-winning movie Brokeback Mountain.

Matthew Kennedy, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student in Pincher Creek, bought the 1950s GMC truck about a year ago after a friend who worked on the film tipped him it was to be sold at auction.

After the movie won several Oscars, Kennedy decided to put it up for sale on EBay and see how much he could get for it.

Final bidding on Thursday night reached $60,100.

"I wasn't expecting anything close to this," said Kennedy, who paid less than $8,000 for it. He said he plans to use the money to pay for his post-secondary education.

Read the complete article at edmontonsun.com