Be careful

Our thoughts and prayers are with the deputy.

Please be careful out there.

Deputy flown to hospital after wreck

From staff reports The Herald-Zeitung

A Comal County sheriff’s deputy and another woman were flown to the hospital Friday evening after a traffic accident.

A 47-year-old woman driving a Toyota Tundra collided into the side of the 32-year-old deputy’s vehicle near the 3000 block of Farm-to-Market 2673, Emergency Services District No. 3 spokesman Captain Jeff Schultz said.

Both women were transported by Air Life to University Hospital in San Antonio with non-lifethreatening injuries, Schultz said.

The names of the two victims were not released Friday night, pending notice of the family members, Comal County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Mark Reynolds said.

ESD No. 3 and Texas Department of Public Safety responded to the scene at 5:07 p.m., and Schultz said they had it cleared by 5:54.

Nearby residents, however, said police were on the scene late into the night.

The deputy had been working at the sheriff’s office for almost three years, and had been a deputy for almost one year, Reynolds said. She was on-duty at the time of the wreck.

As of Friday night, she remained at University Hospital in an undisclosed state.

Special President? Not!

Not a particularly bright thing to say.

I guess his teleprompter went off message.

And before you get all 'huffy' with me about this posting what would you have been saying if president Bush had said this, in this way?

Hmmm?



President Obama Jokes About Being a Bad Bowler: 'It's Like the Special Olympics'
ABC News-- MichaelJames

The first appearance by a sitting president on "The Tonight Show" may well end up being the last.

President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the disabled.

Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he's gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

He bowled a 129, the president said.

"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.

It's "like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.

When asked about the remark, the White House said the president did not intend to offend.

"The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said. "He thinks the Special Olympics is a wonderful program that gives an opportunity for people with disabilities from around the world."

Facing tough questions about the performance of his Treasury Secretary, $165 million in bonuses for AIG officials and anticipating a fight over his $3.55 trillion budget, the president has not had a particularly good week, and it's unlikely this will help matters.

Family tragedy

What a terrible tragedy in any way, shape, or form for the family.

My heart goes out to the family of the girl.


Defense: Tot's death accidental

Stepfather's attorney makes claim; suspect's bail still $500,000
BY STEPHEN PALKOT

The 31-year-old man accused of killing his three-year-old stepdaughter did so by accident, said his lawyer in court Tuesday.

Timothy Morales of Needville was arrested March 11 for first-degree felony injury to a child, serious bodily injury, which carries the possibility of life in prison. Fort Bend County family District Court Judge Ron Pope set his bail at $500,000, and his lawyer asked a different judge on Tuesday to lower that bond.

The request was made at a hearing Thursday where about 30 supporters of the girl’s mother packed one section of the 240th District Court and about 20 people, described as friends and family of Morales, filled another section of the courtroom. Several bailiffs were on hand to prevent mingling between the groups.

Read the entire article HERE.

Rumor has it

The rumor mill was going strong on this.

Our office received e-mail, my kids heard about it at school and no one wanted to go to the HEB with me.

Rumors of gang violence untrue

From staff reports - The Herald-Zeitung

The New Braunfels Police Department is reassuring residents worried about “planned acts of violence” at large area retailers that the rumors are untrue.

Police issued an announcement Thursday afternoon debunking the rumors after receiving calls from several residents who had been warned via e-mail and text messages of violence at the retail stores.

Police said officers had determined the rumors were unsubstantiated and likely the re-emergence of similar rumors that surfaced in 2005 and 2006.

For more information, police suggested that residents visit this Web site: www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/walmart.asp.

Stupid thing to say

What a stupid, stupid thing to say.

Especially when said by a Judge.


Dallas judge criticized for racially charged quote

DALLAS (AP) - The top municipal judge in Dallas faces calls for his resignation over a racially charged column he wrote in a weekly newspaper.

Administrative Judge C. Victor Lander apologized Tuesday for writing in the Dallas Weekly that "black folks have been cleaning up white folks' messes for hundreds of years."

Lander, who is black, said he wrote the column earlier this month to praise reform efforts of the city's first black prosecutor, Craig Watkins.

A member of the Dallas City Council isn't buying the explanation—calling for Lander's resignation. The council appoints municipal judges in Dallas.

Lander has been a municipal judge for 12 years.

Open season in New Mexico?

Open season on the citizens of New Mexico?

You can go on a raping/murdering/robbery spree and then get to live at taxpayers expense the rest of your life.

Some folks might think that'd be cool.

I know, let's ask the gentleman in the photo what he thinks?

New Mexico governor abolishes capital punishment

By DEBORAH BAKER
Associated Press Writer

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- Gov. Bill Richardson, who has supported capital punishment, signed legislation to repeal New Mexico's death penalty, calling it the "most difficult decision in my political life."

The new law replaces lethal injection with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The repeal takes effect on July 1, and applies only to crimes committed after that date.

"Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime," Richardson said.

The American Civil Liberties Union called it "a historic step and a clear sign that the United States continues to make significant progress toward eradicating capital punishment once and for all."

But the New Mexico Sheriffs' and Police Association opposed repeal, saying capital punishment deters violence against police officers, jailers and prison guards. District attorneys also opposed the legislation, arguing that the death penalty was a useful prosecutorial tool.

"I'm worried for our law enforcement officers who are out there courageously doing their job every night. We've lost a layer of protection and it's a sad day in New Mexico," Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said.

New Mexico becomes only the second state after New Jersey to ban executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Fourteen other states do not impose capital punishment.

The repeal passed the state Senate by a 24-18 vote Friday and was approved by the House a month earlier. With Richardson facing a midnight deadline to decide whether to sign or veto the legislation, he said he made the decision in the late afternoon after going to the state penitentiary.

There he saw the death chamber and visited the maximum security unit where those sentenced to life-without-parole could be housed.

"My conclusion was those cells are something that may be worse than death," the Democratic governor said at a news conference in the Capitol. "I believe this is a just punishment."

The governor also caught a glimpse of one of the two men on death row, Robert Fry. The repeal doesn't affect the death sentences of Fry or the other inmate, Timothy Allen, and Richardson said he wouldn't commute those sentences.

Richardson said he has long believed - and still does - that the death penalty was a "just punishment" in rare cases for the worst crimes. But he said he decided to sign the repeal legislation because of flaws in how the death penalty was applied.

"More than 130 death row inmates have been exonerated in the past 10 years in this country, including four New Mexicans - a fact I cannot ignore," he said.

"Even with advances in DNA and other forensic evidence technologies, we can't be 100 percent sure that only the truly guilty are convicted of capital crimes."

Currently, New Mexico allows for the death penalty for certain murders, including killing a child, a law enforcement or correctional officer and a witness to a crime. New Mexico has executed one person since 1960.

The governor solicited input over the weekend from state residents. He said he got to 12,000 responses by phone, e-mail and visits, with more than three-fourths in favor of repeal.

"It was never popular in New Mexico," said Patrick Tyrell, a social worker and longtime lobbyist for repeal whose brother-in-law was murdered in 1984.

Roman Catholic Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of the Diocese of Las Cruces, said the governor "has made New Mexico a leader in turning away from the death penalty with all its moral problems and issues of fairness and justice."

A former congressman and member of President Bill Clinton's cabinet, Richardson said he was disturbed that death rows contain so many minorities. And, from a foreign policy perspective, the death penalty "did not seem to me to be good moral leadership and good foreign policy."

"This is a milestone that will make other states stand up and take notice," said Larry Cox, executive director, Amnesty International USA.

In Montana, a proposed ban has cleared the Senate and is pending in the House. In Kansas, a bill failed to clear the Senate this week.

Pervolated coffee

With all the free porn and crap you can find on the Internet (*ahem* from what Man o' Law has heard) why does one have to go and do this?

How stupid is he? At least stupid enough to have caught himself on his own camera.

LMAO!


Oops: Starbucks Peeping Tom Films Himself For Cops
Police In New Paltz Couldn't Believe Their Eyes When Tiny Camera Recovered In Bathroom Captured Perv In Act - CBS

Police in New Paltz, N.Y. are looking for the man who set up this video camera inside a Starbucks unisex bathroom, but then wasn't smart enough to make sure not to film himself.

It was a creepy version of candid camera at an upstate New York Starbucks.

A snooping device was placed next to the toilet to catch unsuspecting customers.

But you won't believe who got caught instead.

It's a simple story here with an ironic twist.

Last week, at the Starbucks in New Paltz someone put a spy camera inside the unisex restroom, set up to catch intimate video of total strangers. That's the bad news. The good news is the camera was recovered, the police have it and it was running when the guy set it up.

In other words, he took video of himself committing the crime.

The video showed a real artist at work. He positioned the little camera just so to catch what he was looking for.

The device is all of 2 inches long and records up to six hours of video and sound.

But it's easy to turn on by mistake. In this case it was a big mistake. You could call it poetic justice.

"I think its absolutely beautiful," said Lt. Steve Osarczuk of the New Paltz Police Department. "The footage that he wanted to get to hurt somebody else is now in our hands and we can use it to hurt him."

The suspect is 6-feet tall, 35 to 40 years of age, dark hair, bearded, with a mustache, horn rimmed glasses and a ponytail halfway down his back.

The search is on for this real genius criminal.

CBS 2 HD asked around, but nobody seemed to know who he is.

"He's very creepy," Jodi Sheehan said.

When Liam O'Neil was asked is he could fathom something so ridiculous, he said "Yeah. He took his own mug shot."

Police now want to capitalize on their good fortune.

"It was by luck that this employee saw this camera and I don't know how times people have not seen the camera," Lt. Osarczuk said, adding he believed the suspect had set up the camera before.

An employee recovered the camera a week ago Tuesday but the people at Starbucks inexplicably waited two days before turning it over to cops and now they're asking for your help.

If you know the guy's whereabouts, please give the New Paltz Police a call at (845) 255-7123. Police said if the suspect is local they are pretty sure they'll catch him.

Police said the camera was found several hours after it was planted, but not before one customer was videotaped using the bathroom.

I ♥ losers

Ahh, love and hate are end members of the same emotion.

But violence isn't.

Dude, what were you thinking?

Man wearing "I ♥ My Marriage" t-shirt busted for domestic battery
from TSG

--A Florida man wearing an "I ♥ My Marriage" t-shirt was arrested last night for allegedly choking his wife during an argument in their Tampa-area home. Bradley Gellert, a 32-year-old financial consultant, was busted by Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies and booked into jail on a felony domestic battery by strangulation charge.

According to a police report, Gellert, pictured in the accompanying mug shot, got into an argument with his wife and "screamed at the victim and threw numerous items." He then allegedly "grabbed the victim's neck and strangled her," which "prevented the victim from breathing normally."

Gellert's wife subsequently fled the couple's Apollo Beach home and went to a nearby sheriff's office to report the incident. Investigators noted that the woman had been "taken to the ground by the arrestee and suffered an abrasion to her knee and red marks on her neck."

The "I ♥ My Marriage" shirt was a promotional item tied to the 2008 movie "Fireproof," a Christian-themed film starring Kirk Cameron. The movie, a hit in evangelical circles, centers on a fireman's religious awakening and his simultaneous effort to save a failing marriage.

HB 3641

Just an editorial from today's Herald-Zeitung concerning HB 3641, the bill introduced which will give government the right to sue individuals who are vexatious seekers of information from government agencies.

I believe the editorial got it quite correct when they said :

"Furthermore, today’s lawmakers need to remember that the laws they write today will be applied by all governments that follow — both the ethical and vindictive. It may not always be the just lawmakers who seek to “prove we're being harassed” but also those who seek to prevent justified scrutiny of their actions."

Miller’s bill hurts all info requests

From staff reports - The Herald-Zeitung

This week, as part of an effort begun by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, print, broadcast and online news media throughout the country are celebrating Sunshine Week — a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.

As part of Sunshine Week, many newspapers, including the Herald-Zeitung, will be presenting a series of articles and columns looking at the importance of open government and access to public information.

Unfortunately, just as we are kicking off the week, one of the first topics to grab headlines is an attempt — by our own state Rep. Doug Miller — to limit access to public information by establishing a subjective threshold by which residents can be sued as “abusive requestors.”

Miller’s bill, HB 3641, stems out of complaints raised in January by the Comal County Commissioners Court that it had been inundated with public records requests it deemed frivolous from individuals seeking to “harass” county staff by intentionally creating work for them.

HB 3641, filed Thursday, would allow all state governmental bodies to sue an “abusive requestor” and seek to void the legal responsibility government agencies have in responding to requests made under the state public information law. Governmental bodies also could seek a temporary injunction forbidding any future requests for information from the “abusive requestor” under Miller’s bill.

But Miller’s law, broadly written and far-reaching, would attack at the very heart of the Public Information Act, which in its preamble states that “all government information is presumed to be available to the public,” withstanding certain exceptions, and that no government official may ask a person requesting information why he or she wants it.

When commissioners presented their case in January for targeting what they called “vexatious requesters,” they argued that the lawsuits could be used as a fair way to keep a few individuals from wasting their time and taxpayer dollars.

“It's perfect because it would be up to us to prove we're being harassed, and even if it was proven, the only relief that could be sought would be not to fulfill the request,” Precinct 3 Commissioner Greg Parker said at the time. "And we're not talking about someone making one or two requests — it would have to be an overwhelming amount of evidence. We're talking about mountains and mountains of requests."

But here are some of the definitions of an “abusive requestor” included in Miller’s bill:

n That in the seven-year period immediately preceding the date of the suit, the requestor filed at least five public records requests that sought information “excepted from disclosure.”

n That in the seven-year period immediately preceding the date of the suit, the requestor filed at least five public records requests that sought “predominately confidential information.”

n That in the seven-year period immediately preceding the date of the suit, the requestor filed at least five public records requests that “resulted in the governmental body asking the requestor to clarify the request or to narrow the scope.”

By Miller’s definition, in addition to abusive requestors his bill would ensnare not only newspapers scrutinizing government on behalf of the public but also lawyers and even students researching government action.

By attempting to define an “abusive requestor” and prevent harassment of the government, Miller’s bill in essence would transfer the burden of proof from the government to the public in determining what information to release — only that the citizens would need to know beforehand whether information is categorically public lest they be declared abusive. By putting the onus on the public and setting a measure for determining whether a records request is abusive, Miller’s bill also would allow the government to harass the public — through lawsuits and needless delays — in much the same way a few individuals did the county.

To be fair, we share the county’s initial concerns and find it deplorable that any individual would seek to harass government by abusing the rights contained within the public information law. But an avenue toward addressing this abuse already exists in the ability of government to appeal any request it considers questionable to the Attorney General’s Office.

And no law should be written or approved that essentially restricts the rights of the legitimate requester in order to vex the “vexatious.”

Furthermore, today’s lawmakers need to remember that the laws they write today will be applied by all governments that follow — both the ethical and vindictive. It may not always be the just lawmakers who seek to “prove we're being harassed” but also those who seek to prevent justified scrutiny of their actions.

Miller’s bill, regardless of its intentions, would stymie the legitimate pursuit of information by potentially penalizing any member of the public because of the misguided actions of a few. It is a bill that should not become law.

Good intentions could have bad results

Obviously my office is involved in this matter and I won't say anything other than I get concerned for Constitutional reasons.

I believe it is a noteworthy matter for discussion.

Perhaps make folks put up cash bonds for voluminous requests to insure reimbursement to the governmental agencies?

Miller files bill vs. ‘abusive requestors'

By Chris Cobb - The Herald-Zeitung

A bill in the Texas House of Representatives seeks to give local governments legal recourse against “harassing” public information demands.

At the request of Comal County, District 73 Rep. Doug Miller filed the bill, which would allow governments to file suit in a Travis County District Court against individuals whose requests they feel take up an exorbitant amount of time and effort to fulfill.

“There are people out there that, for whatever reason, seek to harass local government, and they use the Public Information Act as a tool to carry out that harassment.” Miller said.

County officials say a few individuals abuse the system, making time-consuming information requests for no reason other than to harass county staff. While governments wouldn’t be allowed to seek monetary damages, having the option to take those individuals to court might stop them from continuing to waste county time and taxpayer dollars, Comal County Judge Danny Scheel said.

“This is not to prevent the public from getting any information they might need — it is simply to deter those who make it a hobby to harass governmental agencies,” Scheel said.

Under the bill, a government could sue an “abusive requestor,” someone it feels has made five or more information requests in a seven-year period that are meant to “harass, abuse, or waste public funds.” The district court then could prohibit that person from making another request for a period of up to five years.

Opponents of the legislation say governments already are sufficiently protected against frivolous information demands and that last session the Legislature gave them the right to charge additional fees to individuals whose requests take more than 36 hours to fulfill over a 12-month period.

“There are already adequate remedies in current law to deal with people who make voluminous public records requests,” said Fred Hartman, chairman of the legislative advisory committee for the Texas Daily Newspaper Association and the Texas Press Association. “The information governments collect belongs to the people, and Rep. Miller's legislation could have a chilling effect on access to information.

“Government shouldn't be judging why people make open records requests and shouldn't be put in charge of determining what is harassment or abuse versus what is legitimate use of information,” he added. “Further, government should not be allowed to have punitive powers of filing lawsuits against people seeking public information.”

The problem with the current laws, Comal County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Tharp said, is that there is no way to guarantee that a person requesting information will pay for the documents they’ve demanded, and many don’t bother to collect the information once county staff has worked to determine the potential cost.

“Normal requests take no time at all,” Tharp said. “The problem is when we get open records requests that clearly seek to harass and waste taxpayer dollars, and those that are solely intending to waste taxpayers’ resources usually don’t follow through with a request once an estimate has been provided.”

County officials have said the need for the new laws stem from a large number of requests made by a few individuals in the county.

One of those individuals the county has identified is Douglas Kirk, a weekly newspaper publisher in Canyon Lake, who has filed more than 20 requests to the county since 2006.

Kirk said it shouldn’t matter how many, or how large a request someone files because government documents are every citizen’s rightful property.

“This seeks to give the government the power to shut up people that they don’t like,” Kirk said. “Every scrap of paper that they have belongs to us, and we’re entitled to see it.”

Miller filed House Bill 3641 prior to Friday’s deadline for legislation to be considered this session. It’s one of 32 bills the freshman legislator filed since taking office in January.

Disgusting behavior!

Jesus Christ! These folks need to go away for a long time.

A seriously long time.

My heart goes out to the families of the children involved.

Baby sitters accused of taping sex with children

VEEDERSBURG, Ind. (AP) - A couple who ran a baby-sitting service out of their home videotaped themselves performing sex acts with children, some as young as 2 months old, police said Friday.

Stephen E. Quick, 31, and Samantha Light, 25, both of Veedersburg in western Indiana, were being held on $100,000 bond in Fountain County Jail. Both faced preliminary charges of child molestation and child exploitation. Jail staff did not know whether either one had an attorney.

Police who searched the couple's home found a videotape depicting sex acts involving Quick and Light and at least four different children between the ages of 2 months and 6 years old, said Fountain County Sheriff's Deputy Bob Kemp.

"In 15 years of doing this job, it's the worst thing I've ever seen or imagined," he told WRTV. "Just horrible, just horrible It's a new low."

Police searched the couple's home after the parents of a 3-year-old girl reported that she told them Quick and Light had touched her inappropriately and photographed her at their home on Feb. 28.

Deputies seized several computers, cameras, a video camera, pornographic materials, drugs and drug paraphernalia. Several sex toys that appeared in the video were seized during a second search, police said.

Quick and Light were arrested March 5. Neither has a criminal history.

Authorities have removed the couple's daughter from their home.

Dude, chill out!

Got an annoying or pushy boss?

Don't do this.

Police: Woman drugs boss's coffee so he'll 'chill'

BRYANT, Ark. (AP) -- Police said a woman has been arrested for allegedly slipping some tranquilizers into her boss's coffee because she felt "he needed to chill out." Police said the 24-year-old woman admitted to detectives that she slipped the drugs into veteranarian John Duckett's drink. Officers said Duckett knew something was wrong shortly after drinking some of the coffee Tuesday morning.

Officers said the woman cleaned the cages at the the Reynolds Road Animal Clinic.

A judge set bond at $25,000 Friday and a jailer said the woman was still being held Friday. Her next court appearance is scheduled for April 21.

Leeches charged

Still not resting in peace, Anna Nichole Smith.

Perhaps leeches is too strong a term. I don't want to make leeches feel bad.

Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend, doctors charged
By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith's death may have been from an accidental overdose, but prosecutors say her ex-boyfriend and two doctors were responsible for feeding the Playboy Playmate's addiction.

Howard K. Stern, her lawyer-turned-confidant, and Drs. Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich were charged in an 11-count felony complaint on Thursday, including conspiracy, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict.

"These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose," California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a statement. His office is expected to release more details about the case at a news conference Friday.

Prosecutors said the doctors gave thousands of prescription drugs - including opiates and sedatives - to Stern, who then gave them to Smith.

The prescriptions were issued between June 2004 and January 2007, just weeks before her death two years ago.

Medical examiners have said Eroshevich, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and friend of Smith's, authorized all 11 of the prescription medications found in the Hollywood, Fla., hotel room where the 39-year-old model was found unresponsive shortly before her death on Feb. 8, 2007.

Stern and Kapoor turned themselves in Thursday night at the Whittier police station and each posted $20,000 bond. Eroshevich was expected to surrender Monday.

An arraignment date was not immediately set and prosecutors were unsure how much prison time the three would face if convicted.

Eroshevich's attorney Adam Braun acknowledged his client wrote some of the prescriptions using fictitious names for Smith, but it wasn't intended to commit fraud.

"It was done for privacy reasons," Braun told The Associated Press. "She did the best she could under difficult circumstances in the best interest of the patient."

Braun said Eroshevich began treating Smith in September 2006 when she suffered a nervous breakdown stemming from the death of her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith, who died of an accidental drug overdose three days after his mother gave birth to a girl.

Eroshevich traveled on several occasions over a six-month period to the Bahamas where Smith was living with Stern and wrote the prescriptions.

The criminal complaint also alleges Kapoor gave her excessive amounts of sleep aids, opiates, muscle relaxants and methadone-like drugs used to treat addiction, knowing she was an addict. Kapoor saw Smith in the spring of 2006 when she was treated at a Los Angeles County hospital for opiate withdrawal and prenatal care for the pregnancy of her daughter Dannielynn, according to the complaint.

Messages left with attorneys for Stern and Kapoor were not immediately returned.

Rumors swirled for weeks after Smith's death, but police cleared those around her of any wrongdoing and medical examiners ruled she died of an accidental overdose.

Documents obtained by the AP after her death showed most of the drugs found in her hotel room were prescribed in Stern's name and none were prescribed in Smith's own name.

The quantity was staggering. More than 600 pills - including about 450 muscle relaxants - were missing from prescriptions that were no more than five weeks old. Ultimately, it was a syrup - the powerful sleeping aid chloral hydrate - blamed with tipping the balance in the toxic mix of drugs and causing her death.

Stern, who initially claimed he was the father of Dannielynn, appeared distraught as he spoke last year at a memorial marking the one-year anniversary of Smith's death.

"Few people who knew Anna might not realize how smart she actually was because unless she wanted you to know you didn't know," Stern said.

Stern later gave up custody of Dannielynn after DNA tests proved Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead was the father.

The little girl has been named the sole heir of her late mother's estate, with Birkhead and Stern as co-trustees. Dannielynn could inherit millions of dollars if the estate wins an ongoing court fight over the oil fortune of Smith's late second husband, J. Howard Marshall.

Gone in 60 seconds?

Man o' Law is scratching his head over this one.

WTF? Maybe it was an organized major joyride?

Police: 81 cars missing from dealership

(CNN) -- The owner of a Nebraska car dealership and two executives were in police custody facing theft charges Thursday after 81 cars were taken from the dealership's lot, authorities said.

Alan Patch, 52, the owner of Legacy Auto Sales in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, was being held in Tooele County, Utah, Scottsbluff police Capt. Kevin Spencer told CNN. Rachel Fait, 37, Legacy's comptroller, was arrested in Tooele County on Wednesday, and Legacy general manager Rick Covello, 53, turned himself in to Scottsbluff officials Thursday, Spencer said.

Police became aware of the case Tuesday, when they received a call from Toyota company officials, Spencer said. Toyota told police they had received a call that all of Legacy's new Toyotas were gone from its lot.

Employees arriving at the dealership for work on Tuesday also found the three executives gone, police said. They had packed up their personal possessions. Some computers were gone, as well. Fait and Patch's homes in Nebraska were on the market and empty, Spencer said.

In all, authorities found, 81 vehicles -- mostly Toyotas but some Fords as well, valued at more than $2.5 million -- had been moved off Legacy's lot over the weekend and on Monday. At least some of them were moved by a Utah transport company that was paid with a fraudulent cashier's check, Spencer said.

Authorities have been trying to track down the cars, he said. Seven of them were found at a Utah auto business; 16 others were sold at a Utah auction. Others were found in Las Vegas, Nevada, Spencer said, but police do not have an accurate tally of how many remain missing.

The FBI has been assisting local authorities in the case from the beginning, Spencer said.

The cars weren't the dealership's to sell free and clear. While they technically belonged to the dealership, they were financed by Toyota, he said.

New cars come to dealerships with documentation called a Manufacturer's Statement of Origin. Police investigating the case found that those statements had been converted to titles, Spencer said. While such conversion is not a crime, and is not unheard of among dealerships, the step usually is seen when a dealership goes under and is trying to expedite the sale of vehicles, he said.

What a dealer can do with cars depends on a dealership's agreement with the manufacturer, Spencer said. Police are attempting to find out details of Legacy's agreement with Toyota, he said, but "normally as part of that agreement, [the cars] are not to leave the dealership."

"We're of the opinion they've committed a crime," Spencer said. Arrest warrants for the three list each as facing one count of felony theft, he said.

The dealership had been facing financial difficulties, Spencer said. The Scottsbluff News-Herald reported a bank had been overseeing Legacy's day-to-day operations for about three months.

According to the newspaper, the owner of a Utah auto auction said that some of the vehicles had been sold at his business, but he declined further comment, saying he was seeking legal advice because he was trying to work things out with Toyota.

Doug Bergener, a manager at Bargain Buggys in Tooele, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, told the newspaper he offered to buy 10 used vehicles from Legacy after hearing they were shutting down. But the vehicles that arrived were brand new, he said. He had sales pending on four before he got a call telling him not to sell them.

He told the News-Herald that he's known Patch and Fait for years, and that Patch told him he had paid for the vehicles and had titles.

"I don't think anyone can prove anything's illegal at this point," Bergener said, according to the News-Herald. "We've known Allen for 15 years and never knew him to do anything underhanded. There's been no reason not to trust him. He's always been honest. It'll all come out in the wash."

Fastest bidder

See? If he had been surfing the Internet while driving his car he wouldn't have to speed.

Man Says He Was Speeding To Make Bid On eBay
KIROTV.com

SEATTLE -- A 46-year-old Fall City man was arrested on charges of reckless driving after he was observed traveling 110 mph, said the Washington State Patrol.

James Garrett told the trooper that he was trying to get home to make a bid on eBay before the auction closed, said Trooper Dan McDonald.

A trooper saw Garrett’s vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed Monday night as he was passing other motorists in the express lanes of eastbound Interstate 90. Garrett was clocked at 100 mph.

While trying to catch up with Garrett, the trooper got a second radar reading of 110 mph, McDonald said.

Garrett eventually stopped and told the trooper he was late placing a bid on eBay. His vehicle was impounded and he was booked into the King County Jail on reckless driving charges.

Garrett has multiple criminal convictions for driving-related offenses, McDonald said.