Ticket to ride

The case is apparently finally winding down.


3 get probation in airline ticket fraud

Express-News -

Three people charged in the Southwest Airlines stolen-ticket scandal were sentenced Thursday to two years of probation.

Lance Williams and Holsey Dewayne Clayton, a former guard at the Bexar County juvenile justice center, each were ordered to pay $40,000 restitution, while David Anderson of Houston was ordered to pay back $60,000 for stolen tickets purchased from former Bexar County Court Bailiff James Jackson and his wife, Althea Jackson.

Althea Jackson was accused of stealing 5,600 special tickets from the airline that she and her husband then sold in San Antonio and Houston. Some were used by judges and other public officials. The Jacksons were sentenced to 30 months in prison.

The rest of the story:

A career ender

Another career shot over kiddie porn.

Get some help before this happens to you.

Yeah, you.



Former music teacher sentenced for child porn

By Guillermo Contreras - Express-News

A former music teacher who at one time had what the FBI said was the largest collection of child pornography in San Antonio was sentenced Thursday to eight years and four months in prison.

Dennis Jasso, 34, taught at Sam Houston High School from August 2006 through May 2007 and was an assistant band director. He also was a church choir leader and gave private music lessons to students at other school districts.

His lawyers, Roy Barrera Sr. and Bobby Barrera, argued that Jasso had an addiction to child porn, but looked at it in private, did not have any inappropriate contact with children and was actively participating in his own rehabilitation.

The rest of the story:

May I steal your credit card information please?

Pretty clever "phishing" scheme ain't it?

It'll probably link back to someone at the hotel or friends with someone who works there.

Hotel guests warned of scam

By Chris Cobb - The Herald-Zeitung

Law enforcement officials are warning hotel guests to be leery of callers seeking credit card information after attempted scams on Thursday.

Police said an unknown person was contacting guests at a local hotel seeking their credit card information, according to the New Braunfels Police Department.

The caller allegedly was phoning guests to say there was a problem with their credit card number during registration, and they needed it again.

Police said the scam worked on a few guests, and are advising guests not to give their credit card information over the phone.

NBPD officers are looking for potential suspects. Hotel guests are asked to contact police if a caller solicits credit card information over the phone. The case is under investigation.

Its a gratuity people

Wow, the police don't have anything better to do?

I mean this seems to be pretty stupid.

The worst that should have happened, IMHO, is they should have received a tcket/summons to appear in Court. Not arrested and hauled down to the pokey.

My guess is the Lehigh Pub will be losing customers over this for sure.

Couple Busted for Refusing to Pay Tip

Patrons claim service was so bad, they had to get napkins and silverware for themselves
By DAVID CHANG

If you’re frustrated by poor service at a restaurant, think twice before you decide to not tip. You may be in for a bit more than just a dirty look from the waiter.

"Nobody, nobody wants to be forced to pay a tip or be arrested for terrible service," Leslie Pope said when her happy hour ended in handcuffs.

Pope and John Wagner were hauled away by police and charged with theft for not paying the mandatory 18 percent gratuity totaling $16 after eating at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pa. with six friends.

Pope claimed that they had to wait nearly an hour for their order and that she had to get napkins and silverware for the table herself.

“At this point I became very annoyed because I had already gone up to the bar myself to have my soda refilled because the waitress never came back,” Pope said.

After the $73 bill came, the group paid for food, drinks, and tax but refused to pay the tip. After explaining the bad service to the bartender in charge, Pope claimed he took their money and called police. The couple was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.

“I understand that, you know, we didn’t pay the gratuity, but it was a gratuity, it wasn’t something that was required,” said Wagner.

The owner admitted that the group waited unusually long for their food, but said the pub was extremely busy that night. He said managers offered to comp the food, a claim the couple denies ever happened.

“Obviously we would have liked for the patron and the establishment to have worked this out without getting the police involved,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Stuart Bedics.

Police charged them with theft since the gratuity was part of the actual bill. However, it is doubtful that the charges will hold up in front of a judge. The couple is scheduled to appear in court next month.

Mow or bust!

Really?

$1,000 fine a day!!!! if your grass grows too high?

Man, I'd be putting in gravel or astro turf.


Fines for too-tall grass could rise to $1,000 a day in Jupiter
The Palm Beach Post-

JUPITER — An overgrown lawn could cost a homeowner $1,000 a day.

A plan to quadruple the penalty from the current maximum of $250 per day for a first violation is scheduled for consideration at Tuesday night's town council meeting.

A repeat violation by the same person would be boosted to $5,000 a day maximum from $500 per day.

If the code enforcement board finds that the violation is irreversible — the unapproved removal of an historic tree, for example — the violator would face a maximum fine of $15,000. The current maximum penalty is $5,000.

"That's outrageous," said Stefan Harzen, a member of the property owners association for the Woodland Estates neighborhood. Increasing the fines will not result in prettier neighborhoods, he said. "This is an easy way for the town to get more money," Harzen said.

Higher penalties are needed to deter flagrant violators, said Councilman Robert Friedman. A landlord who allows too many people to live in a house simply sees the current fine as a cost of doing business, he said.

"Code enforcement needs a larger hammer," Friedman said.

Last year Jupiter's seven-person Code Enforcement Division collected about $39,000 in fines, according to town records.

The increase is being considered because once a town exceeds 50,000 people, state law says it can adopt higher penalties, according to a Nov. 9 memo from Building Department Director Robert Lecky to Town Manager Andy Lukasik. The town's population as of April 1 was 50,275, according to the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

The town code regulates items such as when garbage cans can be placed outside, noise volume, parking of boats, heights of fences, the number of tenants and landscaping. Lawns cannot be higher than eight inches in developed residential areas.

"The higher maximum gives us more discretion in levying the penalty," said Code Enforcement Director Frank Melillo.

Chemistry lessons?

Great location for a meth lab.

Ain't it?


Meth lab busted in Pleasanton

By Vianna Davila - Express-News

The Pleasanton Police Department busted a methamphetamine lab Wednesday afternoon around the corner from two schools.

About two weeks ago, the department got information that the lab was operating out of a home on Grant Street, said Police Chief Gary Soward. They issued a search warrant around 4 p.m. Wednesday and discovered a “full-blown” meth lab in the location and several grams of finished product, Soward said.

Officers arrested residents Ronnie Dale Hershman, 36, and Russell Wayne Trimble, 41, both of Pleasanton. Soward said no weapons were found in the home.

The rest of the story:

The ugly king gets ugly

This was just plain silly and unnecessary.

Why didn't he move out of the fast lane or why didn't she just go around him?

C'mon Folks.


Honorary badge leads to arrest

By Peter J. Holley - Express-News

A prominent member of Fiesta's 2009 royalty was arrested and charged with impersonating a police officer last week after becoming embroiled in what appears to be a road rage incident.

Charlie Garza, who was crowned last year as the 61st Rey Feo, was arrested Friday after he allegedly tried to use an honorary deputy constable badge to pull over a woman in the 7500 block of North Loop 1604 East in Live Oak.

“Mr. Garza displayed an honorary Bexar County deputy constable certificate, which holds no authority,” said W.R. Tomlin, an assistant chief with Bexar County's Precinct 2 constable's office. “It has been explained to the (honorary) officers who we give certificates to, that they are not issued a badge from this office.”

The rest of the story:

This is a shame.

I hope whoever did this is caught and the plaque gets returned.

Skate park deals with vandals

Eric J. Weilbacher - The Herald-Zeitung

Over the weekend, the plaque listing the donors that made the JAWS Skate Park at Ernest Eikel Park possible was ripped from the park’s entrance.

Immediately, a group of skaters were in contact with each other and the police and city parks departments to investigate the case.

They also had leads as to who may have desecrated the park they take so much pride in using and maintaining.

Such self-policing is expected from the skaters that use the JAWS Skate Park.

“Graffiti has been minimal, but what’s happened recently has been vandalism,” said Jim Skinner, who was instrumental in bringing together the groups that led to the park’s creation and completion earlier this year.

“What we believe is happening is that there is one or two individuals that are not skaters (hanging around the park),” Skinner said.

“We try to self-police this park,” he said.

Skinner said while vandalism has become an issue recently, for a public skate park it is cleaner and better maintained than most parks like it in the country.

“We expected about 100,000 skaters to go through it each year, but that number may actually be triple,” he said.

“It’s probably one of the highest uses of a park in the city’s system,” he said, adding that instances of graffiti are nowhere near the level of most skate parks, and that the skaters do their best to keep it clean.

One way of developing the sense of ownership these young (and some old) skaters have for the park was to create the JAWS task force, a group of park users who monitor and maintain the park through an official “friends of the park” contract with the City of New Braunfels. Not only has it developed a sense of ownership for the skaters, Skinner said, but with the contract, the skaters are able to keep the park up more frequently than if they solely relied on parks staff to come by and clean up after them.

The audacity of the obvious

Ya think??!

Okay then Mr. President.

Please tell your party and Congress to stop what they're doing.

Quit piling up the debt and the high-priced, deficit-busting programs.

Thank you.


Obama: Too much debt could fuel double-dip recession

BEIJING, Nov 18 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces a delicate balance of trying to boost the economy and spur job creation while putting the economy on a path toward long-term deficit reduction.

His administration was considering ways to accelerate economic growth, with tax measures among the options to give companies incentives to hire, Obama said in the interview with Fox conducted in Beijing during his nine-day trip to Asia.

"It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession," he said.

Fox News, which released a transcript of the interview, showed that comment by Obama on Wednesday morning and said the full discussion would be broadcast later in the day.

Angel of death or mercy?

I expect a lot of media attention with this trial.

If nothing else but for some who will analogize this to Universal Health Care "death panels".


Trial begins for accused Air Force nurse

By Scott Huddleston - Express-News

Lawyers for a military nurse charged with three counts of murder said they'll expose deficiencies at Wilford Hall Medical Center while proving their client is innocent.

Testimony began Tuesday in the court-martial of Capt. Michael Fontana, who could face a life sentence. In a reversal from a Sept. 1 pretrial hearing, Fontana opted Tuesday to let the military judge, Col. William Burd, decide his guilt or innocence, rather than a panel of officers.

Fontana, 36, is accused of injecting Silvestre Orosco, 83; Ordie Despain, 87; and Dorothy Gray, 74, terminally ill patients, with lethal doses of morphine or fentanyl, a painkiller, at Wilford Hall Medical Center.

The rest of the story:

J'accuse

No excuse for this.

None.


Jail guard indicted in inmate beatings

By Guillermo Contreras - Express-News

The Justice Department on Tuesday obtained a four-count indictment against a Bexar County Jail guard on charges that he kicked and beat two inmates in December 2004 and covered it up.

Daniel Melgoza, 54, was charged with two counts of deprivation of the inmates' civil rights under color of law and two counts of obstructing justice by making a false report of what transpired. The inmates are identified as A.P. and J.S.

Melgoza joined the sheriff's office in 1987. His lawyer, Marilyn Bradley, said he was suspended without pay for nearly four years while the Bexar County district attorney's office decided whether to prosecute him. He was reinstated in September 2008.

The rest of the story:

Shots fired

A drug deal gone bad?

God, I am becoming cynical.

Man shot early Tuesday morning

By Chris Cobb -The Herald-Zeitung

A New Braunfels man was hospitalized and police were still searching for suspects Tuesday after an early morning shooting on Guenther Avenue.

An unidentified 28-year-old was airlifted to University Hospital in San Antonio after he was shot once in the shoulder around 3 a.m., according to a New Braunfels Police Department press release.

Police responded to a report of gunshots on the 600 block of Guenther off of Elliot Knox Boulevard — near both New Braunfels Middle School and Carl Schurz Elementary School.

They arrived to find the victim leaving the scene in his vehicle at a high rate of speed.

He was stopped and transported to San Antonio for treatment of the gunshot wound. His condition was unknown as of Tuesday. Police did not release the identity of the shooting victim.

NBPD Spokesman Mike Penshorn said police did not have any suspects in the shooting and that the investigation is still ongoing.

17 years for murder

Still inexplicable to me.

17 years seems to be very little for a murder sentence however, I except the jury's decision.

Vickers sentenced to 17 years for murder

Charles Agar -The Herald-Zeitung

Three years and 13 days after the Shirley Lindenbaum’s death in Canyon Lake, a jury sentenced Janice Vickers, 48, to 17 years in prison on Tuesday.

Vickers stood motionless and the packed courtroom was hushed as the judge read the sentence.

By state law, Vickers will be eligible for parole when half of her sentence is served, as early as 2018.

Jurors deliberated for five hours — from 9 a.m. until just before 2 p.m., with an hour break for lunch — before sentencing Vickers, who was found guilty on Friday of intentionally running over and killing 86-year-old Shirley Lindenbaum on Nov. 3, 2006.

Vickers was calm during the proceedings, but later slid down in her chair, leaned on her attorney Mark Clark and dabbed at her eyes as those close to Lindenbaum had a chance to speak.

“We loved her very, very much,” said Curt Lindenbaum, Shirley Lindenbaum’s stepson.

“This woman had value to us,” Lindenbaum said as he held up a colorful landscape and a still-life painted by Shirley Lindenbaum.

He read off the names of Shirley Lindenbaum’s family members in Illinois.

Lindenbaum told the jury they had done what they needed to do and blasted Vickers for “avoiding accountability for her crime,” showing no contrition and wasting time and resources in the investigation.

With tears in her eyes, Curt Lindenbaum’s wife, Mary, praised the jury for vindicating the loss of a woman with “love for the arts, love for people and love for life.”

She told how Shirley Lindenbaum faced the loss of two children, both in their 20s, and later her husband with a “courageous heart” and how she planned to enjoy the rest of her days in the home she loved in Canyon Lake.

“But why on earth attack an elderly, defenseless widow who could do no harm?” Mary Lindenbaum asked.

The Vickers family, she said, “must bear this load for the rest of their lives.”

“I hope that those of us who’ve been involved (in the trial) will be able to find some peace,” said Nancy Propst, a friend of Lindenbaum who was a character witness earlier in the trial.

Probst was one of many fellow churchgoers and friends of Lindenbaum who were fixtures in the courtroom throughout.

Court officials said it is likely Vickers, who has been in custody since she was found guilty on Friday, will be transported to the state facility in Huntsville in coming days to begin serving out her sentence.

Trial Background

Janice Marie Vickers, 48, was on trial for murder in the death of 82-year-old Shirley Lindenbaum.

Following a two-year investigation, Vickers was arrested on Dec. 12, 2008 and charged with intentionally running over and killing Lindenbaum with her vehicle on White Oak Drive near Startzville on Nov. 3, 2006.

Vickers pleaded not guilty.

Jury selection was Monday, Nov 2. The trial started Tuesday, Nov. 3, with testimony from the prosecution.

Assistant attorney generals, Ralph Guerrero and Wesley Mau, were deputized as assistant district attorneys in the case and led the prosecution.

Attorney Mark Clark defended Vickers.

207th District Court Judge Jack Robison presided over the trial.

In today’s sentencing, Vickers faced up to 99 years and up to $10,000 in fines after she was found guilty on Friday.

BREAKING: Verdict in Murder trial is in

17 years?

The jury gave her a seventeen (17) year sentence.

I do not know what amount of fine.

Since it is a 3(g) offense she will have to do at least 1/2 of the assessed time at TDCJ before she can be considered eligible for parole. So she will have to serve 81/2 years at a minimum.

I will not comment on the length of the sentence other than to say I was wrong in my prediction and that I hardly think it is a sufficient sentence considering the jury convicted her of murder.

You shouldn't treat a dog this way

Unbelievably cruel treatment.

Why treat a pet this way?


15 pit bulls taken in animal cruelty case

By Eva Ruth Moravec - Express-News

Authorities seized 15 pit bulls, detained two people and were looking for a dog owner suspected of abusing his animals in an East Side town home Monday morning.

Searching for the source of a foul odor reported by a neighbor in the 6800 block of Stockport, Bexar County deputies found two dead pit bulls in a vacant lot across an alley from the home about 11 p.m. Sunday, said Sgt. James Hancock of the sheriff's office.

“They were in pretty bad shape, like they'd been beaten or were fighting,” he said. “There were drag marks, and we followed those to a home and found a large quantity of pit bulls.”

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