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masterofd1saster · 1 year ago

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CJ current events 5oct23

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. – A criminal trial for former Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler will head into its fourth day Thursday as he faces charges that he retaliated against a teacher for blowing the whistle on sexual abuse, and for cooperating with a special grand jury empaneled to investigate the school system following its coverup of a bathroom rape. Former teacher Erin Brooks testified that a 10-year-old autistic student would grab her genitals dozens of times a day while making sexual motions with his tongue, and that when she said her workplace was becoming unsafe, administrators gave her a piece of cardboard to hold in front of her groin and offered to buy her an apron to, as Brooks said, “slow down the penetration.”*** The charges Ziegler is facing this week stem from allegations that the administrator punished a teacher for cooperating with that grand jury, and for talking about another incident of sexual abuse which she feared LCPS wanted to cover up. Brooks said she was a dedicated special education teacher who withstood hitting, spitting, and biting without complaint, but that this was something much worse, and she was concerned for the student as well as herself, but that the school district’s response was “feeble.”*** Mackey read her performance evaluation of Brooks in court, which repeatedly seemed to blame her for her own sexual assault, and said her failure to control her classroom led to a student being moved to a different class, which the evaluation said was the major black mark against her. “Mrs. Brooks displayed rigidity in responding to the needs of a student, resulting in the student being removed from the classroom,” it said. Prosecutors asked Mackey to show the jury what she wanted Brooks to use the piece of cardboard for, and Mackey stood up and held it in front of her groin. “I would have expected her to be professional enough to work with this student,” she said.*** Evidence at trial showed that Brooks was Special Education Teacher of the Year in 2021, and got glowing reviews in early 2022 — only to have Ziegler recommend that the school board fire her, the only teacher he did that to.*** https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-his-criminal-trial-former-loudoun-county-superintendent-blames-sex-assault-victims

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Let's see how the evidence pans out

An exonerated man who was released from jail earlier this year has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Chicago. Lee Harris, 67, was released from Stateville Correctional Center on March 23. Previously, he was wrongfully convicted for the 1989 murder of Dana Feitler, sentenced to 90 years in jail, and spent the last 33 years there. Now, he is suing 10 Chicago police officers over 20 interrogations over a matter of months that put "enormous psychological pressure" on him until he falsely implicated himself in the crime. In addition to allegations of a coerced confession, Harris claims that his rights to due process were violated, that he suffered malicious prosecution, and that emotional distress was intentionally inflicted on him. He also claimed that the officers were negligent during the investigation. Harris is requesting a jury trial out of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. “I’ve been unjustly convicted of a crime I had no part in," Harris said when he was released. "I trusted the wrong people, and that’s what got me a 90-year sentence.”*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/crime/man-wrongfully-convicted-to-sue-chicago-police

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Nobody wants Cuckoo's Nest

Crime and homelessness are big issues in the 2024 presidential campaign, as rising lawlessness brings the topic front and center for Republican voters. Beyond the obvious calls to hire more police and clear homeless encampments, a handful of presidential candidates have resurrected a long-ago idea — bring back the mental institutions that were largely shuttered in the 1980s. "Over the same period that we sought closure of mental health institutions, we have seen a spike in violent crime in this country,” Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur and 2024 GOP hopeful, said in August. “That doesn’t mean drugging up a bunch of people with Zoloft and Seroquel. It means restoring purpose, faith-based approaches and otherwise. But those are politically incorrect discussions right now. Cops doing their jobs and mental health institutions, I say bring both of those things back."*** Advocates say the proposal not only promotes clean, safe cities but could help mentally ill people who are not being done any favors sleeping outdoors or sitting in prison.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/gop-presidential-hopefuls-call-to-bring-back-mental-hospitals

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Step 1, aim at the correct target

The family of Johnny Hurley, the 40-year-old man mistakenly shot and killed by an Arvada police officer after he stopped an active shooter in Olde Town Arvada in June 2021, will settle a federal civil rights lawsuit against the police department for $2.775 million. Hurley’s family and the Arvada Police Department announced the settlement in a joint statement released Thursday morning, and the family hosted a news conference on Thursday afternoon at the law firm Rathod Mohamedbhai in downtown Denver. The lawsuit was set to go to trial on Oct. 6 and was in active litigation until a few days ago, attorney Matthew Cron said. Hurley’s mother, Kathleen Boleyn, said she was relieved to not have to go through the anxiety and stress of the trial and to save her friends, the witnesses and her son’s acquaintances from that stress. Katie Langford writes.*** https://www.denverpost.com/2023/09/28/family-of-good-samaritan-johnny-hurley-settles-2-7-million-lawsuit-against-arvada-police

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Irony in the offing?

An employee who spoke up against workplace conditions at the American Civil Liberties Union alleges he was fired for voicing his opinion in a filing to the National Labor Relations Board . “According to a complaint filed with the NLRB and obtained by Bloomberg, the terminated employee had been complaining about wages, hours, and working conditions from 2020 up until May 2022,” Scripps News reported . There are three other open “unfair labor practice” allegations against ACLU affiliates with the NLRB. The ACLU denies the allegation and reportedly said the employee was “terminated for just cause.”*** https:/www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-irony-aclu-accused-of-firing-employee-for-voicing-his-opinion

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babylon bee

and

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What a Wonderful criminal

A Missouri dad charged with murdering his wife allegedly wrote his name in blood on her butchered, half-naked body — then texted his sister saying it was “way easier and more satisfying than you can imagine.” John Wonder, 31, is charged with first-degree murder for allegedly stabbing and strangling his 29-year-old wife, Ashli Ehrhardt, inside the Kansas City home where they still lived together despite going through a divorce, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The Post. “I keep thinking about how she never screamed. Just took it like a champ,” the accused killer allegedly later wrote a friend on social media. “What a gal.” Wonder had dropped their young children, aged 2 and 4, outside his wife’s parents’ home at 8:40 a.m. Friday, speeding off without talking to them, the affidavit said.*** https://nypost.com/2023/09/28/missouri-dad-of-two-allegedly-murders-wife-writes-name-in-blood-on-her-leg

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When you've dug yourself into a hole, Rule #1: stop digging!

The Tennessee teacher charged with raping a 12-year-old student was rearrested Thursday after she was caught texting the victim — warning him that he would “regret” reporting her to police. Alissa McCommon, 38, was taken into custody at her Covington home and later charged with aggravated stalking, harassment and coercing — just three weeks after she was busted on rape accusations, according to the city police department. The former fourth-grade educator had been released after posting a $25,000 bond under the condition she ceases any communication with the boy she is accused of raping in 2021. McCommon tried to skirt around the parameters by allegedly messaging the 12-year-old from a previously unknown phone number. “The evidence indicates McCommon texted a victim, using a specific code word known to the juvenile as a code word McCommon would previously utilize to confirm that the juvenile was alone, often before sending nude photographs on SnapChat,” Covington police said in a statement. The mother of two then sent a flurry of messages warning the boy he would “regret doing this.”*** https://nypost.com/2023/09/28/outrage-as-12-year-old-rape-victim-is-ignored-as-she-pleads-for-help

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I wouldn't like it if it were my info

A former contractor who worked with the Internal Revenue Service until 2021 was accused of disclosing tax return information of a high-ranking government official and "thousands of the nation's wealthiest people" without authorization, according to criminal information filed Friday in Washington, D.C. Although the court documents do not reveal the name of the government official, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News that it is former President Donald Trump. Charles Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., allegedly obtained Trump's tax return information and gave it to a news organization, the court documents said. He has been accused of one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information, and if he's convicted, he could face a maximum five years in prison. The government also alleges that Littlejohn took tax return information belonging to thousands of the richest people in the country and disclosed it to a different news organization. Prosecutors said the news organizations — which the person familiar with the matter confirmed were The New York Times and Pro Publica — published "numerous articles" based on the information obtained from Littlejohn, according to the court documents.*** https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tax-returns-irs-contractor-charles-littlejohn-charged/

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Some bad behaviors police themselves

LEESBURG, Va. -- A jury on Thursday found a delivery driver not guilty in the shooting of a YouTube prankster who followed him around a mall food court earlier this year. Alan Colie, 31, was acquitted of aggravated malicious wounding in the shooting of Tanner Cook, 21, who runs the “Classified Goons” YouTube channel. The jury was split though on two lesser firearms counts, and decided to convict him on one and acquit him on the other. The April 2 shooting at the food court in Dulles Town Center, about 45 minutes west of the nation’s capital, set off panic as shoppers fled what they feared to be a mass shooting. Colie pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in self defense.*** Colie, who has been jailed since his April arrest, testified in his own defense about the fear that Cook's prank elicited. [Defense lawyer] Pouilliard said during closing arguments that Colie is aware of the dangers that delivery drivers can face as they interact with the public and that he has a license to carry a concealed weapon. Cook’s “Classified Goons” channel, which has more than 50,000 subscribers, is replete with off-putting stunts, like pretending to vomit on Uber drivers and following unsuspecting customers through department stores. At a preliminary hearing, sheriff’s deputies testified that they were well aware of Cook and have received calls about previous stunts. Cook said he continues to make the videos, from which he earns $2,000 to $3,000 a month. https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/jury-decide-fate-delivery-driver-shot-youtube-prankster-103568773

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That's some Yellowstone kind of crime

The body of Colorado mom Suzanne Morphew was dumped in a remote area known as “The Boneyard,” where an aspiring Marine was found dead earlier this year and another woman went missing in May. James Montoya, 26, disappeared in early April after leaving a bar with two men the night before he was slated to meet with military recruiters, his mother Carmen Montoya told The Daily Mail. His corpse was discovered in July near Moffat, Colorado during an unrelated search for Edna Quintana, 55, who went missing in the same area in May. Investigators were continuing to look for Quintana last week when they found Morphew’s remains in a shallow grave in Saguache County — roughly 45 miles from her home. ‘They’re calling it The Boneyard because so many people are being located there, and it’s such a secluded area,” Montoya’s mother told the outlet.*** https://nypost.com/2023/09/30/suzanne-morphews-body-was-dumped-in-remote-colorado-area-known-as-the-boneyard/

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Couldn't happen to a nicer DA

A former bodega clerk who was infamously charged with murder after fatally stabbing an attacker in his store last year in what he claimed was self-defense is suing lefty Manhattan District Attorney Alvin and the New York City Police Department for racial discrimination. Former clerk Jose Alba, who stabbed ex-con Austin Simon to death during a fight at the Blue Moon bodega in Harlem in July 2022, claims he was hit with second-degree murder charges and endured days under lockup on Rikers Island because of Bragg’s pursuit of “racial equity” in the Manhattan criminal justice system, according to the Manhattan Federal Court suit filed Friday.*** Following the public pressure campaign, on July 19, Bragg finally dropped the charges, admitting there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the worker “was not justified in his use of deadly physical force,” his office wrote in a motion. In addition to Bragg, the suit names Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina and other DOC staff, along with the city, as being “responsible for the unconstitutional conditions of confinement and inadequate medical care at Rikers Island.” Alba and his lawyers announced plans to sue in February, but delayed filing the case while attempting to negotiate a pre-lawsuit settlement, which proved unsucessful, said Rich Cardinale, a lawyer for the former bodega worker. *** https://nypost.com/2023/09/30/nyc-bodega-worker-jose-alba-sues-da-alvin-bragg-nypd/

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Why did it take so long?

Nearly three decades ago, Tupac Shakur was riding in a BMW driven by Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight. They passed the MGM Grand Hotel and Caesars Palace on their way to a new Las Vegas nightclub. A white Cadillac pulled alongside the BMW. A gunman opened fire, mortally wounding Shakur. The killing shocked the music world. But the lack of an arrest in the high-profile case gave way to decades of speculation and theories in books, news articles and documentaries about what happened — and why police could not crack the case. Then on Friday, Las Vegas authorities charged Duane “Keffe D” Davis, 60, with murder. Davis has long acknowledged he was in the car that pulled alongside Shakur.*** authorities now say a break came thanks to Davis himself. In his 2019 book, “Compton Street Legend,” Davis detailed those experiences and said he hid the Cadillac and the gun after the shooting and had the vehicle repaired and repainted before returning it to a rental car company. Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference Friday that although detectives have had plenty of evidence in the case, Davis’ own admissions gave new life to the investigation in the last five years. “We knew at this time that this was likely the last time to take a run at this case to successfully solve this,” McMahill said.*** https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-09-30/la-me-tupac-killing-explainer

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One of the worst neighborhoods in a dangerous city

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was the victim of an armed carjacking Monday night in Washington, D.C., Fox News Digital confirmed. The longtime Democratic congressman was in the Navy Yard neighborhood when the incident took place at about 9:30 p.m., according to U.S. Capitol Police. The agency, along with Metropolitan Police Department, responded to the scene at New Jersey Avenue and K Street Southeast. The entire block is closed off as police investigate.*** "As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle," Cuellar's chief of staff Jacob Hochberg said in a statement. "Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement. Thank you to Metro PD and Capitol Police for their swift action and for recovering the Congressman’s vehicle."*** Monday's incident made Cuellar the second Democrat in Congress to become a victim of crime in the nation's capital this year. In February, Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig was attacked in an elevator at her apartment building before fighting off her attacker.*** https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-congressman-henry-cuellar-carjacked-washington-dc

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No flat screen for you!

DENVER (KDVR) — A man was shot and killed by a Westminster police officer at an apartment complex Sunday night. Neighbors say the shooting followed days of escalation, including several recent police visits to the man’s home. According to the Westminster Police Department, officers were called to the 1400 block of 116th Avenue about a man who was being held down by residents.*** The police department said the man displayed a handgun during the struggle with one of the residents, and after ordering him to drop the weapon several times, an officer fired his gun and hit the man. Police said officers began CPR and other emergency first aid. The man was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.*** FOX31’s Vicente Arenas talked to a neighbor who said the man who was killed had been yelling racial obscenities, including slurs toward African Americans and Latinos, for several days, and that escalated on Sunday night. Westminster police corroborated this, saying they’d been to the man’s address five separate times since Sept. 29, including one Sunday afternoon with a co-responder to speak with him. During all of those prior responses, Westminster police say he refused to answer the door or speak to officers.*** https://kdvr.com/news/local/officer-involved-shooting-westminster-apartment

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after tues

Either huffing it, or using to refine drugs, or using it smoke drugs

A California Bay Area store clerk is recovering from grievous wounds after he was lit on fire with stolen lighter fluid by a serial shoplifter. The clerk, identified as Suraj, was lit on fire after he confronted serial shoplifter Kendall Burton on Sept. 22 at an Appian Food and Liquor store in El Sobrante, according to a Sunday report. Video of the incident was posted to YouTube and shows Suraj being dowsed and set aflame before others in the store come to his aid. The clerk suffered second- and third-degree burns on his face, neck, chest, and shoulder, and he remains in a local hospital, the report noted. "It's terrible," Suraj said. "You know, I'm still in a trauma right now. The pain is like 7,8, you know, out of 10, and when we clean the wound, it's like over 10." Suraj has worked as a clerk at Appian Food and Liquor for about five years, and he confronted Burton after a co-worker informed him that Burton had stolen from the store multiple times, each time taking lighter fluid, according to the report.*** https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bay-area-clerk-set-on-fire-confronting-shoplifter

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Does an mugshot better scream "dirtbag?"

both pics Hillsborough County Sheriff

A horrified teenage girl found out she’d been raped while blackout drunk at a party in Florida when another teen shared sick footage of it on social media, according to police. The girl, who was only identified as being between 12 and 18, “became intoxicated to the point of losing consciousness” at the Sept. 23 bash with other underage-drinking teens in Plant City, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “It was during this vulnerable state that Daniel Brown, 17, raped the unconscious victim,” the sheriff’s office alleged. Another partygoer, Ethan Eures, 18, filmed the sex attack and spread it on social media, the statement said. The next day, “the victim became aware of the sexual battery through the video footage that Eures had captured,” the sheriff’s office said.*** https://nypost.com/2023/10/03/florida-teen-learned-she-was-raped-when-saw-video-online/

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It's not the irony that killed him

Josh Kruger, a leftist journalist and activist who was based in Philadelphia, was shot and killed inside his home on Monday. Kruger had a long history of downplaying violent crime in the city, often openly mocking those who expressed concerns about homicides in Philadelphia.*** The 39-year-old Kruger was shot seven times at a residence in the 2300 block of Watkins Street around 1:30 am Monday, reports 6 ABC.*** https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-leftist-journalist-who-downplayed-violent-crime-gunned-down-in-his-philly-home

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in other activist murder news

Graphic surveillance footage obtained by the Daily News on Tuesday shows the moment a social justice advocate was attacked and stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend on a Brooklyn street. The video shows Ryan Carson, 32, and his girlfriend sitting on a bench at a bus stop near Malcolm X Blvd. near Lafayette Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant when, according to police, the suspect walked by them around 3:50 a.m. Monday. After the man passes by, Carson and his girlfriend stand up and begin walking in the same direction until the suspect starts kicking and knocking over parked scooters on the corner. “The f–k are you looking at?” the suspect was caught on camera barking twice as the stunned couple stops in their tracks. “Imma kill you right now!” Carson, a senior solid waste campaign director at the nonprofit New York Public Interest Research Group, repeatedly pleads with the man to “chill.” But the attacker instead lunges at the 6-foot-4 victim, backing him and his girlfriend up toward the bench they were sitting on seconds earlier, the video shows. The suspect punches Carson before running after the victim, who trips over the bench. The attacker then knifes the victim repeatedly.*** https://www.nydailynews.com/2023/10/03/nypd-release-image-of-wanted-suspect-in-unprovoked-fatal-stabbing-of-brooklyn-social-justice-advocate/

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66 arrests?

A man charged in the downtown murder of a prominent Chattanooga businessman has been arrested 66 times, court records show. The most that Darryl Theophilus "Too Tall" Roberts served on any of the cases was a six-month term, the records say. In May, 2010, police said Roberts fired six shots through a bedroom door at an apartment on Hixson Pike. A man was behind the door and four children were in an adjacent bedroom, but no one was hurt. In that case he was charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated burglary, reckless endangerment, possession of a firearm while committing a felony, possession of marijuana for resale and possession of drug paraphernalia.*** Police at the time said Roberts was a convicted felon. His lengthy record included assault, habitual traffic offender, thefts, drug charges and an aggravated robbery in 2000. Apparently the only charges that went forward in the home invasion were the drug counts, and they were dismissed. For a 1997 aggravated assault Roberts got three years suspended with 30 days public work. On a theft charge in 1997 he got 11 months and 29 days suspended. On the 2001 aggravated robbery, the penalty was three years suspended after serving six months. For an aggravated assault in 2000, he got six years suspended. He had a 2017 theft and received four years suspended. Roberts picked up two DUI charges. One was dismissed and the other was 11 months and 29 days suspended. For a 2017 violation of the Motor Offenders Act he got a year suspended.

https://www.chattanoogan.com/2023/10/1/475836/Man-Charged-In-Chris-Wright-Murder-Has.aspx

Christopher Wright, a 38-year-old dad of three is dead b/c Mr Roberts was free to shoot him for no apparent reason. https://news.yahoo.com/tennessee-dad-3-fatally-shot-215419266.html

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Take $32B, and people act like it's a big deal

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday opened the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with a simple message: He deliberately “lied to the world,” leading to one of the biggest financial frauds of a generation. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer advanced a far different narrative. The former crypto mogul, the lawyer said, was simply a well-intentioned entrepreneur who acted “in good faith” to make his firm successful, with no intention to defraud anyone. The dueling arguments are at the crux of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s trial, which has become the highest-profile reckoning for a business executive since the Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of fraud early last year. A onetime crypto wunderkind, Mr. Bankman-Fried, 31, became a tousle-haired billionaire virtually overnight, only to see his company collapse last year and his fortune evaporate. He has been charged with orchestrating a conspiracy to use $10 billion that FTX’s customers had entrusted to him for all manner of personal projects, including venture capital investments, political donations and luxury real estate purchases.*** https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/technology/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-trial.html

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