Saturday, July 31, 2010

Kudos to Hays County D.A. Sherri Tibbe

Although some of you may protest I applaud the decision of the Hays County DA Sherri Tibbe to essentially not prosecute any cases in which Officer Stephens is involved due to his "history for dishonesty".



Re-hired San Marcos police officer forbidden from doing police work, DA says
UPDATE 6:30 P.M. This entry has been revised to reflect that the arbitrator ruled that the charges of dishonesty and excessive force against Officer Stephens were not substantiated, not that the punishment of termination was too harsh.

A San Marcos Police Department terminated for not being truthful on two occasions and a use-of-force violation remains back on the force, but is effectively unable to perform police duties after a decision by Hays County District Attorney Sherri Tibbe.

Officer Paul Stephens was indefinitely suspended last October over an incident where he used a baton against a woman who was not resisting and was not a physical threat, and for later making a false statement about the encounter in his report. However, an independent arbitrator ruled in June that the charges of charges of dishonesty and excessive force could not be substantiated, and Police Chief Howard Williams was bound by law to re-instate him.

But a June memo from Tibbe to Williams says that due to Stephens’ “history for dishonesty,” her office will be unable to call Stephens as a witness in any case and cannot prosecute any case in which he is an investigating officer. Stephens’ credibility problems could endanger cases when they go to trial, Tibbe argued, because her office is bound to disclose his history to defense attorneys.

Williams, who said today that he agrees with Tibbe’s decision, said that this means Stephens will remain on the force but can’t enforce the law or make arrests.

“She can’t put him on the stand,” Williams said. “A defense attorney would tear him up.”

Stephens was also involved in an August traffic stop that garnered national attention.

In that case, Stephens stopped Michael Gonzales on Interstate 35 for driving 95 mph, 30 miles above the speed limit, as he swerved through traffic. Gonzales and his girlfriend were taking their dog, which was choking on food, to a veterinarian in New Braunfels.

The couple said the dog died during the approximately 20-minute stop. Footage from patrol car cameras shows that Stephens chastised Gonzales for speeding, telling the distraught man that it was just a dog and that he could get another one.

Have you seen me?

Please call the local authorities if you have.

They are apparently armed and dangerous.



Three convicted murderers break out of Arizona prison

(CNN) -- Authorities are hunting for three convicted murderers who escaped from a Kingman, Arizona, prison on Friday night.

The Arizona Department of Corrections and the Flagstaff police said on Saturday that the three disappeared from a medium-security facility and are considered to be armed and dangerous.

State and local authorities are searching for the men, who were discovered missing after the 9 p.m. count in prison. All three suspects were serving time on murder convictions.

Early Saturday morning, Flagstaff police said the suspects abducted two people at gunpoint and then released them at a local truck stop in the Kingman area.

The three escaped inmates are: Tracy Province, a 42-year-old white man who is 6 feet 1 inches tall and weighs 184 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes; Daniel Renwick, a 36-year-old white man who is 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds with brown hair and hazel eyes; and John McCluskey, a 45-year-old white man who is 6 feet 1 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.

Province is serving a life sentence for murder and armed robbery. Renwick is serving 22 years for second-degree murder and McCluskey is serving 15 years for second-degree murder and other charges.

Police said the convicts are also with a woman who helped them escape. She was identified as 43-year-old Casslyn Mae Welch, who is 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 135 pounds with brown hair and green eyes.

"Lost time is never found again" - Benjamin Franklin

This is tragic.  A lost life in prison, 27 years gone.

Did the victim knowingly mis-identify the defendant?  Why?  Did the prosecution or law enforcement intentionally or knowingly perpetrate this miscarriage of justice?

If yes, the State should make good for his lost time.


Freed 27 years after wrongful conviction
By MIKE TOLSON and BRIAN ROGERS - Houston Chronicle

As dusk fell around him and the mosquitoes began to forage across his aunt’s front yard, Michael Anthony Green was unequivocal about one thing: He wants to meet the woman whose sudden scream sent him unjustly to prison for 27 years.

Time has passed and much of the anger that fueled his passion to learn the law as an inmate has diminished. But Green, 45, is still as eager as he was in 1983 to understand why a sexual assault victim named him as the perpetrator, an accusation finally refuted when DNA evidence revealed four other men as her attackers.

“She knew I wasn’t the one,” Green said Friday evening, only hours after walking out of Harris County Courthouse a free man. “She shouldn’t have picked me. She had said it wasn’t me a week earlier.”

Green said a prosecutor told him the woman, who isn’t being named, is sorry and promises to write a letter to Gov. Rick Perry urging that Green be granted a pardon as quickly as possible.

The rest of the story:

South of the border down Mexico way

I am glad the folks in Mexco appear to now just becoming aware of how deeply rooted and pervasive the corruption by criminal elements are in their legal and law enforcement systems.

It will be tough to root them out but they really need to press ahead and get 'er done.

Also we ought to lend support and help them if requested.  It is in our best interests to do so IMHO.

BTW enjoy the music, I love this song.


Gangland violence continues to escalate in Mexico
By Dudley Althaus - Houston Chronicle

MEXICO CITY — Official elation over the death of a gangland boss did little Friday to offset outrages that suggest how deeply organized crime has corrupted this nation's security forces.

Thursday's killing by army troops of Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, 56, dealt a “crippling blow” to the Sinaloa Cartel, U.S. officials crowed.

But Coronel's death capped more than a week of dizzying scandals and violence across northern Mexico that included the arrest of the warden and several guards of a state prison for colluding with convicts in gangland massacres, and the kidnapping Monday of four Mexican journalists to force the broadcast of gangster videos.

The rest of the story: 

Okay, I'm back!

 












Newly trained Trial Prosecutors 

Dear Readers

Good morning!  Well I am back from another successful National District Attorney's Association training seminar for Trial Advocacy for young prosecutors.


The folks taking the course were super and I believe, will make a fine bunch of prosecutors putting their knowledge on the line to protect their communities from the degradation of crime.

Man o' Law salutes them all!

Now let's get busy!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Shameful Lies

So how bad will this play-out?

Apparently the Lockerbie bomber was freed without opposition by the U.S. and apparently with the consent of the Obama Administration.


White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi
THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be "far preferable" to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya. 


Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison.

The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer.

The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama's claim last week that all Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry" to learn of Megrahi's release.

The rest of the story:

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Now what?

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do?

Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

Is the Obama Administration is too busy fighting the Arizona law in court to protect our Borders?

UPDATE:  This story is not yet confirmed and many conflicting stories are occurring.  



Los Zetas drug cartel seizes 2 U.S. ranches in Texas
Examiner.com

In what could be deemed an act of war against the sovereign borders of the United States, Mexican drug cartels have seized control of at least two American ranches inside the U.S. territory near Laredo, Texas.

Two sources inside the Laredo Police Department confirmed the incident is unfolding and they would continue to coordinate with U.S. Border Patrol today. “We consider this an act of war,” said one police officer on the ground near the scene. There is a news blackout of this incident at this time and the sources inside Laredo PD spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Word broke late last night that Laredo police have requested help from the federal government regarding the incursion by the Los Zetas. It appears that the ranch owners have escaped without incident but their ranches remain in the hands of the blood thirsty cartels.

The rest of the story:

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Dear Readers;

I will be out of town and pocket until Friday, July 30th.  I am helping as an instructor at the NDAA Trial Advocacy I seminar in Columbia, South Carolina.

Blogging will be sporadic and light until then.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Please be safe out there!

Regards,

Man o' Law

Friday, July 23, 2010

More threats from North Korea

Well. 

If they attack our Naval vessels I think we should return fire, particularly if our ships are in International waters.


N Korea tensions spike at Asian security forum
HANOI, Vietnam – North Korea on Friday threatened the United States and South Korea with a "physical response" to planned weekend naval exercises as tensions with the communist nation rose in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North.

In Vietnam for a Southeast Asian regional security forum, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and a North Korean official traded barbs over the ship incident, the upcoming military drills and the imposition of new U.S. sanctions against the North.

The spokesman for the North Korean delegation to the talks, Ri Tong Il, repeated Pyongyang's denial of responsibility for the March sinking of the ship that killed 46 South Korean sailors and said the upcoming military drills were a violation of its sovereignty that harkened back to the days of 19th-century "gunboat diplomacy."

The rest of the story:

My Bonnie lies over the ocean

They better have started the evacuation already.


This only potentially will mess things up.  However, if the storm stays east of the majority of the spill the prevailing wind direction, due to the counter-clockwise circulation, should drive oil away from the shore.


If  it is to the west of the slick it will potentially drive the oil onshore.


Tropical Storm Bonnie nears, Florida, oil spill
-

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) -- Tropical Storm Bonnie raced toward a strike on southern Florida on Friday, following a course that would take it across the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, prompting a pause in efforts to clean up the disaster.

Rain and lightning raked the low-lying Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas on Friday, and forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was likely to reach the Gulf of Mexico by Saturday.

Bonnie had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), and was centered about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Miami around dawn Friday.

The rest of the story:

Comal County rocks!

Just another reason why I love this County.

God Bless You Corporal Joshua Stein and your family and thank you for your service to this country.


County waives fee for disabled vet
NEW BRAUNFELS — Comal County commissioners reached out Thursday to a local soldier who lost his legs in Iraq, waiving permitting fees for a home to be built for him and his family by a non-profit group.

“It’s the least we could do,” Commissioner Jay Millikin said.

The rest of the story:


Thursday, July 22, 2010

Don't rob doughnut shops!


Go ahead make law enforcement really mad.

Vegas Doughnut Shop Robbers Caught On Camera
Police Say Teens Demanded Money, Sprinkled Doughnuts
Fox5Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas Metro police on Wednesday released photographs of two young men accused of robbing a doughnut shop on the city’s west side.

Both are believed to be teenagers, police said, and one was armed.The robbery happened July 7 in the area of Decatur Boulevard and Washington Avenue.

After taking money from the clerk, police said the two teens demanded sprinkled doughnuts and milk from the cooler.

The three photos released to the media show the teens wearing baseball caps and covering their faces with bandanas.Anyone with information about the robbery is urged to call police at 702-828-3591 or Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.

A more touchy-feely Al Gore

Are you surprised?

Not I.  If he did it once he did it more times.


Al Gore Sex Scandal Shocker police investigate two more!
National Enquirer

The ENQUIRER reports in an exclusive bombshell exclusive that police have investigated charges from TWO MORE WOMEN who claimed they were abused by former VP AL GORE!

The allegations come hot on the heels of an ongoing Portland, Ore., police investigation that reopened after The ENQUIRER exclusively revealed accusations by a licensed massage therapist who says Gore groped her in 2006.

The ENQUIRER recently uncovered shocking allegations, from two other massage therapists.


The rest of the story:

Do arrest warrants no longer mean anything?

This is disgraceful.

But why should I be surprised if Roman Polanski, a confessed child rapist is let go by the Swiss.


France frees fugitive father
By Guillermo Contreras - Express-News

French authorities recently questioned a man charged in San Antonio with kidnapping his son, but let him go.

Jean-Philippe Lacombe, 41, was indicted last year in Bexar County on charges of perjury, interfering with child custody, and kidnapping Jean Paul Lacombe, 10. Warrants were issued in December for the elder Lacombe's arrest.

Local officials said the French government is aware of the Texas warrants, but doubts France will extradite him because he has dual Mexican and French citizenship, and France historically has refused to extradite its own citizens.

The rest of the story:

Please walk through the metal detectors

No complaints here I am glad they're doing this.


Security tightened at Courthouse
NEW BRAUNFELS — Residents, jurors and almost anyone else entering Comal County Courthouse Annex starting Monday have been going through a metal detector as part of permanent changes to county building security.

Other measures include key cards for employees to access the annex building, said Geoff Barr, Comal County district attorney. The building already had metal detectors and has used them at the main entrance in the past but had reverted to not using them, said Lt. Mark Reynolds with Comal County Sheriff’s Office. Moving all entry to the building for non-employees to the front doors is now considered permanent, he said.

The rest of the story:

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Target: Cops

Not a good situation.

Thank God no one has been killed or wounded.

Yet.

Sniper targets Oakland Cops
By Christie Smith - NBCBayarea.com

Oakland police have their hands full. In addition to a shootout on the freeway and a police-involved shooting at a BART station, officers are now on the hunt for an apparent sniper trying to take out officers.

"They hear gunshots and can feel the bullets pass by them," police spokesman  Officer Jeff Thomason said. "They can hear them whizzing by."

The latest incident happened Sunday at about 11:30 p.m. Patrol officers were on a traffic stop near 8th and Adeline Streets in West Oakland when they heard shots. They were detaining people in a car on suspicion of drug-related offenses.

The officers had to get out of the line of fire and get the detainees out of the line of fire. They called for back up.

The officers took cover, and no one was hit by the gunfire.  Thomason said four officers were there at the time.

Police searched the high-rise apartment building from where they believe the shots were fired but they did not find the gun or the shooter.

To make matters worse, police checked the building's security room where cameras might be -- and the room had been vandalized.

Police say its unclear whether that was done in advance by the shooter or if it was a coincidence but they were not able to get any surveillance tape right way which might help in the investigation.

The officers and detainees were not hit.

Color her world orange

Will there be more drama?

It involves Lindsay Lohan so of course there will be more drama.

BTW I think orange is not a good color for Lindsay it makes look all Oompa Loompa-ish.


Lindsay Lohan at same jail as member of 'bling ring' that robbed her home
LA Times -

As Lindsay Lohan begins her sentence Tuesday at a Lynwood jail, she is not the only tabloid subject at the facility.

Alexis Neiers, the 19-year-old Calabasas woman best known for her E! Entertainment reality show "Pretty Wild, is serving a 180-day sentence for felony first-degree residential burglary of Orlando Bloom’s home.

She had pleaded no contest to charges against her in connection with the "bling ring" burglary crew that targeted celebrity homes, including Lohan’s Hollywood Hills residence.

Whether the two women will be in the same module at the Century Regional Detention Facility remains to be seen.

“I am not commenting on who would or would not be in the same module as any inmate in the Century Regional Detention Facility or for that matter anywhere in the L.A. County jail system,” said Steve Whitmore, a sheriff’s spokesman.

Lohan has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating her probation on a drunk-driving conviction.

Neiers began serving her sentence last month and, according to accounts from her family, is having a tough time at jail. Her mother, Andrea Arlington, regularly posts Twitter updates on her daughter. Her mother said family members initially did not get to visit Neiers because of a broken elevator.

Arlington says jail food and conditions have been arduous for the 5-foot-6 Neiers, who usually weighs about 100 pounds. “She has lost 8 lbs. since she is in there from being so sick and from not being able to keep down the food,” Arlington posted earlier this month. “Typically I don't advise candy bars, but I told her she better buy some next time she gets to order commissary and start putting on some weight before she disappears!”


Arlington said Neiers was also struggling to get a razor. “She was not lying when she said that her leg hair was almost long enough to braid and proudly showed us all!,” Arlington reported after a jail visit. “Orange is a great color on her and is the color of her jumpsuit, she added, saying her daughter is still smiling."Orange is the new Black!"

This is not rape

I am not condoning his deception but I hardly think this constitutes rape nor is deserving of 18 months in prison.

Let's try to reach consensus folks and stop the ancient madness and hate.


Arab guilty of rape after consensual sex with Jew

Jo Adetunji and Harriet Sherwood  - The Guardian


A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.

Sabbar Kashur, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after the court ruled that he was guilty of rape by deception. According to the complaint filed by the woman with the Jerusalem district court, the two met in downtown Jerusalem in September 2008 where Kashur, an Arab from East Jerusalem, introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. The two then had consensual sex in a nearby building before Kashur left.

When she later found out that he was not Jewish but an Arab, she filed a criminal complaint for rape and indecent assault.

Although Kashur was initially charged with rape and indecent assault, this was changed to a charge of rape by deception as part of a plea bargain arrangement.

Handing down the verdict, Tzvi Segal, one of three judges on the case, acknowledged that sex had been consensual but said that although not "a classical rape by force," the woman would not have consented if she had not believed Kashur was Jewish.

The sex therefore was obtained under false pretences, the judges said. "If she hadn't thought the accused was a Jewish bachelor interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have cooperated," they added.

The court ruled that Kashur should receive a jail term and rejected the option of a six-month community service order. He was said to be seeking to appeal.

Segal said: "The court is obliged to protect the public interest from sophisticated, smooth-tongued criminals who can deceive innocent victims at an unbearable price – the sanctity of their bodies and souls. When the very basis of trust between human beings drops, especially when the matters at hand are so intimate, sensitive and fateful, the court is required to stand firmly at the side of the victims – actual and potential – to protect their wellbeing. Otherwise, they will be used, manipulated and misled, while paying only a tolerable and symbolic price."

Gideon Levy, a liberal Israeli commentator, was quoted as saying: "I would like to raise only one question with the judge. What if this guy had been a Jew who pretended to be a Muslim and had sex with a Muslim woman?

"Would he have been convicted of rape? The answer is: of course not."

Arabs constitute about 20% of Israel's population, but relationships between Jews and Arabs are rare. There are few mixed neighbourhoods or towns, and Arabs suffer routine discrimination.

Israeli MPs are considering a law requiring prospective Israeli citizens to declare loyalty to Israel as a "Jewish, democratic state". Many Arabs would balk at swearing allegiance to a state which they see as explicitly excluding or marginalising them.

Dan Meridor, a deputy prime minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government, is opposed to the proposal. "Why does every bill need the word 'Jewish' in it – to show the Arab citizens that it doesn't belong to them? Then we're all shocked when they radicalise their stance.

"The majority doesn't need to remind the minority that it is in fact a minority all the time," he added.

Domestic violence call

Alcohol, unemployment and domestic disharmony is a volatile mixture.

Thank God none of the children were physically injured.


Police kill man who cut officer with knife
By Valentino Lucio, Peter Holley and Kevin Cullen - Express-News 

Two San Antonio police officers fatally shot a knife-wielding man at his Southwest Side home early Tuesday after he cut an officer's hand — and his own arms — during a domestic disturbance, police said.

His wife had called police, and the couple's five children were in the home.

It was the seventh fatal incident that included an officer-involved shooting this year, the same as in all of 2009. San Antonio police officers have shot at people 16 times in 2010, already almost three-fourths of last year's total.

The rest of the story:

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Yup he's done and she's done for

I have a buck that says she doesn't show up at or before 8:30 a.m. PST to turn herself in for jail.

I mean we're talking Lindsay Lohan after all.  There will be drama.



Robert Shapiro Already Done With Lindsay Lohan?
by - E Online


So much for Lindsay Lohan's legal Dream Team.

On the eve of her surrender, the jail-bound starlet's incoming attorney, former O.J. Simpson defender Robert Shapiro, stepped down following a private meeting with the judge who's been presiding over Lohan's case, reports the L.A. Times.

Shapiro publicly acknowledged just days ago that he was representing the troubled actress on the condition that she comply "with all of the terms of her probation, including a requirement of jail time."

She's due to turn herself in tomorrow, so what went wrong?!

Last week, she checked into Pickford Lofts, a sober-living house started by Shapiro after he lost his son Brent to a drug overdose in 2005. Shapiro was spotted heading into the building on Thursday, as was Lohan's assistant.

Though ostensibly a positive step, it may have been Lohan's brief stay at the Los Angeles residence that made things worse. A source tells E! News that Shapiro was not happy with her behavior there.

"She was unruly," the source says. "She was having people over at all hours of the night. She acted like she ran the place."

According to various reports, Lohan had a tough weekend, nibbling on her nails and chain-smoking as she dreaded being locked up Tuesday—even though she'll probably only spend about three weeks in jail rather than three months.

As of today, the L.A. District Attorney's Office had no advance knowledge of an attempt on Lohan's part to appeal her sentence, though a source close to her had told E! News that Lindsay wanted to spend her 90 days in a locked-down rehab facility, rather than jail (after which, she'll have to go to court-ordered rehab anyway).

Lohan's expected at the Beverly Hills Courthouse at 8:30 a.m., after which she's due to be transported to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.

It's unclear now who will be representing Lohan in court. Calls to Shapiro and the attorney he was supposed to be replacing, Shawn Chapman Holley, have not yet been returned. Holley never signed the paperwork that would have officially removed herself as Lohan's counsel.

"The only 'bookings' that i'm familiar with are Disney Films, never thought that i'd be "booking" into Jail... eeeks," the onetime Parent Trap star tweeted tonight.

Teenagers will be teenagers

Oh those teenagers!









Teen charged after crash of horse and buggy in chase
The Buffalo News -

LEON—An Amish teen who tried to flee police faces charges of alcohol possession and “overdriving an animal” after he crashed his getaway vehicle— a horse and buggy.

Cattaraugus County sheriff’s deputies reported over the weekend that Levi E. Detweiler, 17, ran a stop sign and refused officers’ attempts to stop the buggy. Deputies chased Detweiler for about three quarters of a mile, and when he tried an unsafe turn into a driveway, he crashed the horse and buggy in a ditch. The teen then fled on foot but was found later in the area.

The Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Bureau completed an investigation and charged the youth with possession of alcohol by someone under 21, overdriving an animal, seconddegree reckless endangerment, failure to stop at a stop sign and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle in the incident that occurred at about 1:30 a. m. last Monday. He is free on $500 bail.

Not much folks to help

I was told several years ago by some AUSA's out of Del Rio there was some 4000+ crossings a month by illegal immigrants and folks in the area.  That was then, how will 250 troops help?


250 soldiers to be deployed along border
By Gary Martin - Express-News

WASHINGTON — Texas will see 250 National Guardsmen along the border with Mexico when troops are deployed Aug. 1 to help battle drug, immigrant and gun smuggling, federal officials said Monday.

“These troops will provide direct support to federal law enforcement officers and agents working in high-risk areas to disrupt criminal organizations seeking to move people and goods illegally across the Southwest border,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

The troops are part of 1,200 National Guardsmen ordered to the border by President Barack Obama in May.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday criticized the president's plan to beef up border security, saying that only 20 percent of the guardsmen deployed will end up in Texas, which has 64 percent of the 1,969-mile border with Mexico.

The rest of the story:

Will the real Perry - White come forward and address the issues?

The silly season is now upon us with only 105 days to go until election day.

Its beginning to sound like an elementary school playground fight.


Gentlemen.  There are some serious issues facing the State of Texas, things like budget shortfalls, transportation needs, border security, just to name a few.  Let's talk about those.


White, Perry accuse each other of lying
By Angela K. Brown - Express-News

FORT WORTH — Gov. Rick Perry and his Democratic challenger accused each other Monday of lying about or trying to hide their profits in the oil and gas industry, the latest escalation in an increasingly nasty gubernatorial race.

Perry, seeking an unprecedented third full four-year term, said former Houston Mayor Bill White lied about profiting from his investment in an oil exploration company he founded.

White confirmed in a published report Sunday that he has made $1.7 million in capital gains and $1.1 million in net profit from the sale of more than 1.4 million shares of Houston-based Frontera Resources since 2006. He still owns almost 96,000 shares, but he resigned his chairmanship in 2001.

The rest of the story:

He left

He left the party the hard way.

Its always your friends who get to you.


Authorities identify teen killed at party
By Eva Ruth Moravic - Express-News

Authorities have released the name of a teenager shot to death at a North Side apartment early Sunday.

Jeremy Garza, 18, died of multiple gunshot wounds at the Castle Hills Apartments, in the 6000 block of Blanco Road, around 2 a.m. Sunday, according to the Bexar County medical examiner's office.

San Antonio police said Garza was at a party at a second-story apartment when the mother of the party's host asked guests to leave. But Garza's girlfriend was sick, according to a police department incident report, and he refused to leave. He reportedly cursed at the woman, and then a guest scolded him, the report states, telling him not to speak to women that way.

The rest of the story:

Monday, July 19, 2010

Not a good sign

This is potentially a huge problem.  If there is seepage around the wellhead then it probably indicates that there is oil and methane seeping out around the outside of the well casing.

That my friends can continue to erode the formations around the casing and then allow the oil and gas to escape outside the well head which will make this truly uncontrollable.

I believe they better get a pipe to the surface and start allowing the oil to flow out of the well again to relieve the back-pressure.

Get those relief wells finished pronto!



Engineers Detect Seepage Near BP's Capped Oil Well
Reuters -

Engineers monitoring BP's damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico detected seepage on the ocean floor that could mean problems with the cap that has stopped oil from gushing into the water, the U.S. government's top oil spill official said on Sunday.

Earlier on Sunday, BP officials had expressed hope that the test of the cap which began Thursday could continue until a relief well can permanently seal the leak next month. Oil gushed from the deepsea Maconda well for nearly three months until the new cap was put in place last week.

But late on Sunday, the U.S. government released a letter to BP Chief Managing Director Bob Dudley from retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen that referred to seepage near the mile-deep (1.6 km-deep) well as well as "undetermined anomalies at the well head."

The rest of the story:

Going going gone sale

Goodbye Mel!  Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

P.S. please take Lindsay Lohan and her family with you when you leave.



Troubled Mel 'leaving the States' after selling his New York mansion at cut price

By Mail On Sunday Reporter

Mel Gibson is poised to quit the US after selling his mansion near New York.

The disgraced Lethal Weapon star, who faces allegations of violence from his Russian former girlfriend, sold the mock Tudor property, known as Old Mill Farm, for £16 million – £10 million less than the asking price.


He has told friends that he will move back to Australia - where he grew up after moving from America when he was 12 - with his ex-wife Robyn, who still supports him.

Gibson, 54, is ready to contest the allegations of Oksana Grigorieva, 40, who claims he punched her and hurt their baby, Lucia, in a drunken rage in January.

Gibson has also put his Malibu home, Lavender Hill Farm, on the market for £10 million, according to a property newsletter.

A source close to the family said: ‘Oksana’s allegations have united Mel and Robyn and this move is her idea.


‘She is shocked and furious at this woman’s lies and their seven children are shocked.

‘Robyn has never seen a violent side to him.

‘She has persuaded him that he needs to get away from Hollywood and find peace on his ranch and she will go with him along with some of the children.’

A friend of Miss Grigorieva said: ‘Oksana has done nothing but tell the truth.’

Gibson and Robyn divorced last year just weeks after he was pictured for the first time with Miss Grigorieva.
A spokesman for Gibson declined to comment.

Best wishes to the new Guadalupe County Children's Lodge

Best wishes to the success of this worthy endeavor.


New children's shelter to open in Guadalupe County
By Vincent T. Davis - Express-News

An emergency children's shelter to serve Guadalupe County is set to open soon.

Board secretary Kari Cato said the Guadalupe County Children's Lodge, funded by local donations, is expected to open next month at an undisclosed rural location after contracts with the state are completed.

Cato said the lack of an area shelter made it hard to serve youths 5 to 17 who have been removed from homes because of abuse or neglect.

The rest of the story:

Please help if you have any information

I hope the family's vigil is rewarded soon. Someone, somewhere, knows something.

Please, if you have any information contact the authorities.  The Wilson County Sheriff's Department phone: 830-393-2535.


Family keeping unsolved case alive
By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

LA VERNIA — When Sylvia Perez Clark didn't show up at her mother's San Antonio home promptly after church on July 19, 2009, — as was her Sunday tradition — her family knew something was amiss.

By the time they arrived at her neighborhood in Wilson County hours later, yellow crime scene tape had already been unraveled to block off her yard. Clark, 50, had been beaten and strangled, authorities told them.

As the first anniversary of Clark's still-unsolved murder approached, her extended family felt it important to spend time Sunday at the church where Clark should have been that day and at the neighborhood where her life came to a violent end.

The rest of the story:

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Another hit and run fatality

I am so tired of the hit and runs.

Why do folks do this?  Were they drunk or did they not have insurance?

Sad to say but in this town the odds are it was both.


Teenage bicyclist dead in hit and run
By Leezia Dhalla - Express-News

A San Antonio teenager was killed in a hit-and-run accident in the city's West Side after the driver of a black Chevrolet failed to stop and render aid, according to a police report.

Mike Anthony Palitos, 18, was riding a bicycle westbound on Old Highway 90, near south Callaghan Road, around midnight Saturday morning when he was struck from behind, the police report states.

Witnesses said the vehicle was driving without its headlights on and fled the scene of the crash without stopping.

The rest of the story:

One picture is worth a thousand words

Okay Champ, you got the picture you pervert.

Now you've lost your job and you'll even get prosecuted for it.


Ex H-E-B employee accused of taking improper photo
By Valentino Lucio - Express-News

A former H-E-B employee was arrested Friday evening after he admitted taking a picture up a customer's dress last month, police said.

Santos Angel Chapa, 28, was charged with one count of improper photography and was free on $5,000 bail Saturday.

The arrest stemmed from an incident June 29 inside an H-E-B grocery store. An unidentified woman shopping told police she saw Chapa walk past her three times.

The rest of the story:

Saturday, July 17, 2010

The streets of Laredo

Except for the fact its drug-fueled violence, and of course only about 150 miles from my house, I thought i was reading about something in the Middle East.


12 dead in Nuevo Laredo shoot-out
BY MELVA LAVÍN-CASTILLO - Laredo Morning Times

Twelve people, including two civilians and a soldier, died in Nuevo Laredo after three separate gunbattles broke out in broad daylight Friday between suspected drug traffickers and the Mexican army, Mexican federal officials said late Friday night.

Nearly two dozen people were injured in Friday's shootouts, including numerous children who were riding in a bus shot up by the gunmen as they tried to escape, said a source close to the investigation.

No identities of the victims were released.

The rest of the story:

Family tragedy

A tragic event for all concerned.


Outrage over ruling that mom who strangled daughter won’t be jailed
By Daryl Slade, Postmedia News

CALGARY — A Calgary mother won’t spend a day in jail for killing her teenage daughter with a head scarf — a decision that has prompted outrage.

A national victims’ group, based in Toronto, is stunned by the suspended sentence given to Aset Magomadova by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sal LoVecchio on Thursday.

“I really strongly disagree. It sends a massively huge message to the rest of the country and the world that her daughter’s life was valueless,” said Joe Wamback, co-founder and chairman of the Canadian Crime Victims Foundation.

“Even though this girl may have been a handful and trouble, that’s not the issue. The issue is human life.
Sentencing is not just about the criminal, but has to speak for the victim and to denunciation.”

In October, LoVecchio acquitted Magomadova, 40, of second-degree murder and found her guilty of manslaughter in the death of Aminat, 14. He placed her on probation for three years with several conditions, including taking counselling for grief, depression and anger management.

The judge rejected an argument by Crown prosecutors Mac Vomberg and Sarah Bhola for a 12-year prison term, instead accepting the position of defence lawyer Alain Hepner, saying a suspended sentence can still meet the demands of justice.

“At first blush (a suspended sentence) may sound like a get-out-of-jail-free card. It is not,” said LoVecchio.

“The court has said the act in question does not merit a period of incarceration. What the court has done is reserved or, to use the word of the statute, suspended judgment on that point for a period of time on conditions. If the conditions are satisfied, then the individual will not be sentenced. If they are breached, the individual will be brought back to the court to be dealt with further.”

Magomadova was charged after the deadly incident at their home the morning of Feb. 26, 2007, after Aminat refused to go to court to be sentenced for assaulting a female teacher at her school.

The devout Muslim mother claimed Aminat came at her with a knife in her sewing room, where she prayed several times a day. She said she reacted by wrapping the scarf around her daughter’s neck and twice told the girl to put the knife down before the teen lost consciousness.

A knife was found in the room, but the daughter’s fingerprints were not on it.

LoVecchio, who rejected a defence of self-defence, deemed the woman did not intend to kill the teen, even though medical examiner Dr. Sam Andrews testified that death as a result of such an act would have taken at least 2 1/2 minutes.

Jennifer Koshan, an associate professor at the University of Calgary’s faculty of law who researches family violence, said the vast majority of fatal family violence cases involve husbands killing their wives.

“It’s relatively unusual to see a mother killing a child, especially an older child,” said Koshan. “So it’s rare for the court to be faced with this situation. Maybe that influenced the judge in his decision.”

Marilyn Millions, one of Magomadova’s sponsors with St. James Anglican Church, said outside court she was relieved “at the compassion and mercy that has been shown” by the court.

“There were lots of tears and emotion,” she said. “If you’ve lived through it and you’ve gotten to know these people, it’s all in the context. It’s a lot different than reading a little bit about it. It’s a very different situation.”

Millions also said it was the wish of the family that “people would know mental-health services for young people and help for their families will be improved, and changes made to the system, so that others who have to go through similar situations do not fall through the cracks.”

Hepner said his client was crying after she learned she’d be free to go home and agreed it was an appropriate sentence.

“The judge considered all the factors and it was a very lengthy decision,” said Hepner, who had sought either a conditional jail sentence to be served in the community or the suspended sentence. “He considered the background, psychological and psychiatric background. What else can a judge do in arriving at a proper decision?”

LoVecchio said he wrestled with the dynamics of the family in reaching his conclusions.

He noted that the woman came to Canada for a better life for herself and her children from Chechnya, where her husband had been killed by Russian invaders and she had part of her foot blown off.

“This was a family in crisis with events spiralling out of control,” he said, alluding to the friction between Aset and Aminat leading up to the deadly confrontation that morning.

“It cannot be reduced to simply a case of mom choosing to kill her daughter as a form of discipline because she misbehaved. Quite simply, the events of that morning cannot be seen as a single isolated event.”

The Crown appealed the conviction long ago and is almost certain to take the sentence to the Alberta Court of Appeal, but Vomberg said he could not comment about such a possible situation at this time.

Both sides are allowed under law to have 30 days to file a notice of appeal.

Fingers, toes and eyes crossed

Here's hoping that the containment cap holds.

Also I hope that the lower pressure is due to the loss of pressure in the oil reservoir due to the uninterrupted oil flow of the past nearly 3 months and is not due to the oil leaking out around the pipe.

I'll rest easier when the relief wells are drilled and they cement off the rogue hole.

In the meantime get those skimmers going before we get another hurricane in the Gulf!


So far, so good at gulf well site
By Tom Fowler - Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON — BP might be able to keep its blown-out gulf well shut despite a day of test results that weren’t as good as hoped, a company official said Friday.

Since Thursday afternoon, when engineers remotely closed a final line that stopped the oil from flowing into the gulf for the first time since late April, the well’s pressure has risen — a positive sign that may indicate few if any leaks below the wellhead.

The well runs from the seafloor almost a mile beneath the gulf’s surface to a reservoir under 14,000 feet of subsea rock.

The rest of the story:

Judge Keller receives a public warning

Time to move on.

There was plenty of blame to pass around including the actions of the defendant's attorneys who couldn't seem to figure out how to get the papers filed and to whom they needed to speak.


Top criminal Judge warned but keeps job
by Peggy Fikac - Express-News

AUSTIN — Nearly three years after convicted murderer Michael Wayne Richard was executed, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct Friday issued a public warning to Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller for her conduct as his lawyers scrambled to file a last-minute appeal.

Keller is “disappointed and shocked” and plans to appeal the sanction, which doesn't interfere with her ability to serve in her elected post, said her lawyer, Chip Babcock.

Those who'd complained of her actions said the punishment didn't go far enough.

The rest of the story:

Friday, July 16, 2010

Don't Taze me Bro! MMX

Wow.  This is a mess isn't it?

Prediction:
The officer who tasered the other officer gets off on a defense of another theory.

Off-duty cop Tasered by other in neighborhood fracas

By Paul Tennant - The Eagle-Tribune

HAVERHILL — Two police officers were in Haverhill District Court yesterday — not as prosecution witnesses, but as defendants in late-night fracas during which one off-duty officer Tasered the other.

Lawrence Patrolman Daron Fraser, 39, of Raymond, N.H., was charged with domestic assault and battery and assault on a pregnant woman outside her home in Haverhill Tuesday night.

Kingston, N.H., Patrolman Joshua Wallar, 26, of Methuen, who subdued Fraser with a Taser issued by his department, was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Haverhill Deputy Police Chief Donald Thompson said Wallar is not authorized to use a Taser in Massachusetts. While police are authorized to use Tasers if necessary, "He (Wallar) is not a police officer in Massachusetts. He's a civilian," Thompson pointed out.

Meanwhile, the woman Fraser is accused of assaulting, Odris Severino, 30, said in an interview with The Eagle-Tribune yesterday that it was not a case of domestic violence, just a "giant misunderstanding."

The rest of the story:

He made him do it

Man I can just imagine the thoughts that went through that Landlord's mind as his renter, pictured in the booking photo on the left, was trying to run him over.

"Don't rent to the devil!"  "Don't rent to the devil!"



Horny Man In Assault Bust
Cops: Oklahoman nabbed after trying to run down his landlord
From: The Smoking Gun

Meet Jesse Thornhill. The Tulsa man was arrested early today after he allegedly tried to run down his landlord with a car. Following his arrest for assault with a dangerous weapon, Thornhill, 28, was booked into the Tulsa County jail, where this booking photo was snapped.

Yes, Thornhill has horns. The jarring cosmetic, um, improvement is noted thusly in the "personal oddities" section of a Tulsa Police Department report: "Horns, neck tattoos, implant earrings on head."

According to cops
, the landlord was in the street when Thornhill "attempted to strike her with his vehicle but missed" due to her "jumping out of the vehicle's path." Thornhill was released this morning after posting $10,000 bond in connection with the felony rap.


"The devil made me do it"

Demon Rum made him do it!

I love that line with its almost classic British understatement undertones.

"Police said alcohol may have played a role in the incident."

How many times can that be said of many of the incidents we run across?


Driver strikes gas pump ---repeatedly
By Guillermo X. Garcia - Express-News

A man was arrested after repeatedly smashing into a gasoline pump at a Northwest Side station and then trying to flee Thursday night, police said.

The driver caused an estimated $20,000 in damage when his blue Dodge pickup smashed into a pump at a CITGO station at Grissom Road and Timberhill shortly after 7:30 p.m.

“I heard a big noise, went outside, and saw the truck hit the pump,” said Sadan Pant, who operates the four-pump convenience store. “Then he backed up, hit the concrete barrier around the pump, then backed up and tried to drive off. All I could think was I hope (the pump) doesn't explode.”

Police said alcohol may have played a role in the incident.

The rest of the story: 

A different drunk driver crashes in gas pump

An indefinite hold?

Infringement by the Feds?

A Tenth Amendment issue?

I would come down on the side that Cliff Herberg and the Bexar County DA's Office comes down on.  The Judge should set a reasonable date for the execution and then the Defendant, Leal, can go seek a longer stay through Federal relief.  I don't believe it should be set off indefinitely.

BTW the teen he brutally raped and bludgeoned to death doesn't get to write letters like the one depicted.

Execution date for teen's killer in limbo
By Craig Kapitan - Express-News


A hearing to set the execution date for death row inmate Humberto Leal Jr. was postponed this week after the judge overseeing the case received a last-minute letter from a high-ranking U.S. State Department official.

Leal, a Mexican citizen who has been on death row since 1995 for the rape and bludgeoning of a 16-year-old San Antonio girl, had already been transferred to the Bexar County Jail for the Monday hearing. State District Judge Maria Teresa Herr had been expected to set the execution for October.

But Harold Hongju Koh, a top legal adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asked Herr for an indefinite postponement as Congress works on legislation that could affect Leal's case.

The rest of the story:

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Three Cheers for National Health Care Systems

Hey!  They have National Healthcare in North Korea and we don't.

Not quite yet.

But folks are still working and hoping to get it here.


Report: Amputations without anesthesia in North Korea
By Hyung-Jin Kim  - My way news

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's health care system is in shambles with doctors sometimes performing amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat and power, a human rights watchdog said Thursday.

North Korea's state health care system has been deteriorating for years amid the country's economic difficulties. Many of its 24 million people reportedly face health problems related to chronic malnutrition, such as tuberculosis and anemia, Amnesty International said in a report on the state of the health care system.

A 24-year-old defector from northeastern Hamkyong province told Amnesty that a doctor amputated his left leg from the calf down without anesthesia after his ankle was crushed by a moving train when he fell from one of the cars.

"Five medical assistants held my arms and legs down to keep me from moving. I was in so much pain that I screamed and eventually fainted from pain," said the man, identified only by his family name, Hwang. "I woke up one week later in a hospital bed."

The rest of the story:

Epic Fail

This is just too funny.

No, really.



Man posts bail with counterfeit bills
By Peter Mucha - Inquirer Staff Writer

Most people post bail to stay out of jail.

Not to risk a lot more time there.

According to Cinnaminson Police, a Camden man included counterfeit $20 bills while paying his $400 bail on July 7.

Lousy counterfeit $20s.

Run off on a color copier, apparently.

"They're pretty poor. I didn't have to touch them and I knew they were bad," said Detective Sgt. William K. Covert.

They were almost as obvious as the copies of $1 bills he's seen created by students trying to fool soda machines.

The paper didn't feel right. It lacked the colored threads. And Andrew Jackson's face was kind of fuzzy.
Ronald White, 35, was arrested for several counts of shoplifting from a Burlington Coat Factory and Shop-Rite on Route 130.

He had $900 in cash on him, not all of it counterfeit.

Cash is accepted at both stores.

Police also discovered he had outstanding warrants from Camden that required $400 for bail.

So, while the shoplifting charges were being processed, White paid the bail.

The next day, Covert discovered that five of the $20 bills were funny money.

Very phony funny money.

No way these bills would ever pass the pen test, where a special marker is dragged across.

Some forgers bleach $5 bills, then reprint them with images from $100 bills, hoping to fool the pen test, Covert said.

Holding such bills up to a light quickly reveals they're fake.

A complaint was signed against White for forgery.

But before police found him, he found police.

On Monday, White turned up at the Cinnaminson Police station, saying he overpaid for the bail and wanted his money back.

In his possession were two more bogus $20 bills, police said.

Today, he was still in Burlington County Jail, in lieu of paying $5,000 cash bail.

"One of my favorite sayings is, you can't teach stupid, because every day something else comes up and you just shake your head," Covert said.