#kentucky mother guilty plea

[news-buzz]

Tiffanie Lucas Pleads Guilty To Shooting Of Her Two Young Sons News Buzz

A Kentucky mother has pleaded guilty to murdering her young children. She initially alleged that social media manipulation influenced her actions. In November 2023, Tiffanie Lucas shot her sons, Maurice Baker Jr., 6, and Jayden Howard, 9, at their home. They both later died at the hospital. PEOPLE reports that authorities subsequently arrested Lucas and charged her with the murders. RELATED:…

[rabbitmarrow]

"Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul." - Dave Pelzer

Christian Choate was born December 27, 1995 in Gary, Indiana to Aimee Eriks Estrada and Riley Choate.

By 2004 Aimee and Riley had seperated, and Christian, along with older sister Christina were in Aimee's custody. That soon changed when it was revealed that Aimee had sexually abused Christian. Riley was awarded custody of both children and they went to live with him, his partner Kimberly Kubani, and their nine other children.

It didn't take long for things to take a turn for the worse.

Christian was accused of hitting his niece and from then on as punishment, he was only allowed to be out of his basement room to eat and use the bathroom. Christian was also beaten multiple times a day by his father and step mother.

After months of living this way, Christian had all he could take and broke out of the home to try to run away. Unfortunately, Kimberly and her oldest granddaughter caught him.

A few weeks prior to this Kimberly had made the decision to homeschool Christian just for the fact she didn't want school staff to see the brusies that covered his body.

Kimberly had also bought a dog cage from a neighbor, which would now be where Christian would live.

For months Christan was confined to the dog cage where he would only be let out to clean the house. The rest of the time he was forced to stay in the cage to eat his two alloted packets of noodles, sleep, use the bathroom, and be constantly beaten by Kimberly and Riley.

Older sister Christina was forced to care for Christian, which meant she would also have to physically abuse him or else she too would be beaten.

By April 2009, Christian was 13 years old wearing a size 6 in children's clothes. He could no longer even chew or swallow cereal and had to wear a diaper due to his body deteriorating from the severe beatings he received daily.

Through the five years Christan lived with Riley and Kimberly it was very obvious he was being abused and yet, only one person ever reported it.

A neighbor, Lori Wingard, called child services several times. On one occasion a case worker did come to the home but, they never even went inside the home or spoke to Christian.

After April 5, 2009 neighbors were told Christian ran away. Most people who knew the family believed this or didn't seem to really care.

When Riley and Kimberly moved to Kentucky, it looked as if Christina would take Christian's place of the abused. She was not allowed to use the phone or even go to school. 

But, one day she sneaked away to make a phone call to her step-sister who lived with Aimee.

Christina told her what really happened to Christian. 

Christian had not run away, Kimberly had beaten his fragile body, killing him.

Kimberly called Riley telling him what she had done to which he said, "we'll just bust him up" when he got home.

They buried Christian in a shallow grave which they covered with lye and concrete inside their shed.

Once Aimee was told what had happened, she called the police.

After sadly finding Christian Choate's body, Riley and Kimberly were arrested.

Riley Choate was charged with felony neglect of a dependent for the extreme abuse of Christian, removal of a body from a death scene, and felony neglect of a dependent for the lack of care for Christina. He entered a plea deal and received 40 years in prison.

Kimberly Kubina also pled guilty to neglect and was sentenced to 25-35 years in prison.

[truecrimeqt]

Just like in the movies, a cult of vampires took the lives of a Florida couple in 1996. On November 25, during the week of Thanksgiving, Naomi “Ruth” Queen and Richard Wendorf were brutally murdered in their Eustis, Florida home. Richard was beaten with with a crowbar over his head while he was asleep on the couch. Ruth was attacked with the crowbar as she walked out of the shower. She was hit so hard that her brainstem was severed. The couple both had ritualistic burns in the shape of a “v”. The attackers stop a credit card, jewelry, and the couples car. Soon, the couples 17 year old daughter, Jennifer Wendorf, discovered the bodies of her parents after returning from work.

This brutal attack was perpetrated by a group of teenagers who were in a “vampire clan”. 16 year old Rod Ferrell was the leader of this clan. Ferrel believed that he was 500 year old vampire named Vesago and would practice ritualized cutting and blood drinking. He was also a fan of “Dungon & Dragons” as well as “Vampire: The Masquarade”. He would recruit other teens to be in his vampire clan who came from troubled backgrounds. His clan was made up of Scott Anderson, Charity Keesee, and Dana Cooper. Together the clan met in cemeteries and took part in rituals like drinking each others blood. 

When Ferrell and his mother moved to Eustis, he became friends with Heather Wendorf, who was described as “troubled” and would rebel against her parents. She later became apart of the clan. After Ferrell moved back to his old home in Kentucky, he and Heather would talk on the phone often. When this caused the Wendorf families phone bill to go up, Heathers parents put a stop to the calls, making her angry.

After Heather told Ferrell that her parents were abusing her, Ferrel and the clan drove to Eustis to pick her up. Ferrell dreamed that the clan would move to New Orleans and live as a family of vampires. When the clan got there, they one to a cemetery and had Heather “crossed over” by drinking Ferrells blood to become a vampire.

After the ritual, Ferrell took LSD and went to the Wendorf him to steal their car to go to New Orleans. Before he left to steal the car, Heather told Ferrell to leaver her parents alone. Charity Keessee and Dana Cooper than drove Heather to her boyfriends to say goodbye before the clan would go to New Orleans.

Ferrell broke into the house though the garage and began his attack. He originally had not planned  to kill Heahters parents, claiming that he had lost his self control due to adrenaline and drugs. In his confession, He also claimed that he was going to let Ruth live, but she tried to defend herself, throwing hot coffee on him, making him angry.

After the murders, the teens drove for 4 days, ending up in Baton Rouge. Warrants for all clan members, including Heather, were issues after the bodies were found. The group was later arrested as Charity made a phone call to her mother asking for money. Her mother informed the police about the groups location and helped the police to trick the teens, telling them to stay at a local Howard Johnsons hotel. When the teens arrived, they were arrested by police.

Media attention surrounding this case quickly grew as stories of a “vampire clan” travelled. During the trail, Ferrell claimed that he was being framed by a rival group of vampires and that he had multiple personalities. He would also stick his young out and say “God bless America” when photographed. His defense team tried to argue insanity as he was diagnosed with Schizotypical personality disorder and Asperger Syndrome. Ferrell plead guilty to two counts of first degree murder and at 17, he was sentenced to death, making hm the youngest prisoner in America on death row.

Scott Anderson also received tow life sentences, though he was re-sentenced  to 40 years in 2018. Charity Keesee and Dana Cooper both made plea deals. Keesee was given 10 years and Cooper was given 17 years. Heather Wendorf maintained her innocence and the jury declined to press charges against her. In 2000, Ferrels death sentence was commuted to life in prison after the Florida Supreme Court rule that defendants have to be 17 or older in order to be sentenced death.

[creepingsharia]

A Month of Islam in America: June 2019

Another month, and another step forward for sharia in America as more censorship was exposed. A whistleblower leak confirmed that @Pinterest protects Muslims and censors any reference to “creeping sharia,” and many other non-liberal topics.

Click any link below for more details and link to original source.

Jihad in America in June

Brooklyn: Muslim Immigrant Sentenced to 20 Years for Attempting to Join Islamic State (ISIS) Mohamed Rafik Naji was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by United States District Judge Frederic Block for attempting to provide material support or resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a foreign terrorist organization.  Naji pleaded guilty to the charge in February 2018.

Brooklyn: Muslim Woman Who Helped ISIS Gets 4 Years, But Will Be Out in 18 Months

With credit for time served, Sinmyah Amera Caesar will end up only serving about 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges accusing her of using social media to help recruit IS fighters under the nom de guerre “Umm Nutella.” She had also admitted violating a cooperation agreement with the government a — betrayal that infuriated prosecutors.

Illinois: Bosnian Muslim refugee and mother of 4  jailed for sending money, supplies to ISIS

Mediha Medy Salkicevic, a/k/a Medy Ummuluna, a/k/a Bosna Mexico, 39, was sentenced to 78 months in prison for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

Salkicevic, aka Medy Ummuluna and Bosna Mexico, espoused the ISIS philosophy that infidels should be killed and once said that unbelievers should be buried alive.

At the time of her arrest, she was working for an air cargo company at Chicago O'Hare Airport...

Illinois: Two Muslim converts convicted of aiding Islamic State (ISIS)

Joseph D. Jones and Edward Schimenti proudly waved a terrorist flag during a photo at a Lake Michigan park in Zion, had plotted to attack the Navy’s main U.S. training center near North Chicago and once had their eyes on planting an ISIS flag atop the White House.

Now Jones and Schimenti, both 37, have been found guilty of providing material support to ISIS.

Indiana: Yemeni Muslim who tried to join Islamic State terrorists gets 8 years in prison

U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker handed down the 100-month sentence Friday afternoon in the case against 21-year-old Akram Musleh, U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler announced.

He admitted in the plea agreement that from about April 2016 through June 21, 2016, he offered himself to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known as IS, knowing it was a “designated foreign terrorist organization.”

Pittsburgh: Syrian Muslim Refugee Arrested for Planning Jihad Attack on Christian Church

Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was arrested today based on a federal complaint charging him with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and two counts of distributing information relating to an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction in relation to his plan to attack a church in Pittsburgh.

“Court documents show Mustafa Alowemer planned to attack a church in the name of ISIS, which could have killed or injured many people...”

Ohio: Jordanian Muslim Immigrant Sentenced to 15 Years for Trying to Join Islamic State (ISIS)

A Dayton, Ohio man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 180 months in prison and 25 years of supervised release for attempting, and conspiring, to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). 

Laith Waleed Alebbini, 28, was convicted following a bench trial in November and December 2018 before U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice.

Alebbini attempted, and conspired, to provide material support and resources to ISIS in the form of personnel, namely himself.

Alebbini, a citizen of Jordan and a U.S. legal permanent resident, was arrested by the FBI on April 26, 2017, at the Cincinnati/Kentucky International Airport, as he approached the TSA security checkpoint.

South Carolina: Muslim - twice convicted for attempts to join ISIS and kill Americans - gets 20-year prison sentence

A federal judge has sentenced a South Carolina man who tried to join ISIS to 20 years in prison.

Zakaryia Abdin, 20, pleaded guilty in September 2018. The Ladson man was arrested in March 2017.

New York: Bangladeshi Muslim immigrant arrested in Times Square terror plot

Ashiqul Alam was arrested Thursday after arranging through an undercover agent to buy a pair of semiautomatic pistols with obliterated serial numbers, prosecutors said. Police Commissioner James O’Neill said that development was “a clear indicator of (Alam’s) intent to move his plot forward.”

The defendant, a legal resident born in Bangladesh, moved to the U.S. as a child about 12 years ago...

He talked about wanting to “shoot down” gays, referring to them with a slur; using a “rocket launcher, like a huge one,” to cause havoc at the World Trade Center; and obtaining an enhanced driver’s license so he could walk onto a military base and “blow it up,” the documents said.

Illinois: Muslim Arrested for Threatening to Bomb Aurora Casino for Allah

A recently released affidavit and search warrant claimed that 30-year-old Musatdin M. Muadinov,  while detained by police on Feb. 12, vowed to “pray to Allah” to “destroy the casino.” He further demanded to meet with President Donald Trump, saying that if his demands were not met, “we would all meet Allah,” according to the affidavit obtained by the Daily Herald.

Muadinov — who was dressed in what police described as “Muslim attire” when arrested — waived his right to remain silent.

More Jihad in America in June

Florida: Suspect sent bomb threats to judges ‘for cause of Islamic State’

Nebraska: Heavily armed Marine arrested trying to enter Air Force Base

Arizona: Muslim shared terror propaganda before attacking police officer

Brooklyn: Muslim in Jail for ISIS Support Pleads Guilty to Slashing Correctional Officer

South Carolina: Man who pledged allegiance to ISIS hid explosive device in teddy bear

Arizona: Witness in probe of 2015 Islamic jihad attack on free speech event convicted of lying to FBI

Libyan National Found Guilty of Terrorism Charges in 2012 Attack on U.S. Facilities in Benghazi

Iraqi Muslim who orchestrated jihad attack that killed 5 U.S. troops gets 26 years prison, then release to Canada

Immigration Jihad in America

Minnesota’s first Somali Muslim cop gets 12 years for murdering Australian woman

Minnesota: St. Paul’s first Somali Muslim city council member says criticizing his homophobic comments is… Islamophobic

New York: Brooklyn Mosque Blasts Islamic Call to Prayer to 20 Block Radius (VIDEO)

Somalis have Changed Minneapolis

New York: Thousands of Muslims take over two city blocks in Brooklyn to pray in the streets

Four Muslim ISIS suspects arrested in Nicaragua, likely headed for US

Islamization of America

Pennsylvania: 167-year-old Catasauqua church will become Islamic mosque

Pennsylvania: Former Easton church is now a Sunni mosque

Pennsylvania: Former daycare in residential Salisbury to become Muslim “community center”

Virginia: Residential home in Annandale to become a Muslim funeral home

Education Jihad in America

New Jersey Public School District to Students: “May Allah Continue to Shower You Love and Wisdom”

Maryland school fails Christian student for refusing Islamic prayer

New York: Cornell Univ. Muslim Students Demand More “Prayer Rooms”

Stanford administrators say advertising for conservative event threatens Muslim students

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim Students Association: What Americans Need to Know

DOE Investigating Elite Colleges For Hiding Saudi, Qatari Cash from Regulators

Islamic Slavery & Sexual Jihad in America

Virginia: Three Muslim family members arrested for conspiracy, forced labor, and document servitude 

Detroit Imam: Wife-Beating Serves to Remind Her That She Misbehaved (VIDEO)

Dhimmitude in Elected Office

Trump Admin Sues Greyhound for Banning Muslim Driver from Wearing Full Length Islamic Robe 

Democrat majority passes defense authorization bill that funds transfer of remaining Gitmo jihadis to U.S.

Minnesota: City of Bloomington allows terror mosque to flout local laws (VIDEO)

Minnesota city council votes 5-0 to ditch Pledge of Allegiance (to avoid offending Muslims)

Diversity is our Strength Alert

Minnesota’s first Somali Muslim cop gets 12 years for murdering Australian woman

Minnesota: St. Paul’s first Somali Muslim city council member says criticizing his homophobic comments is… Islamophobic

Boston Police Dept’s First Muslim Captain Put On Administrative Leave Amid ‘Anti-Corruption’ Investigation

Minnesota: First Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar fined by state for unlawful use of campaign funds

Minnesota Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar filed joint tax returns before she married husband

Fraud for Jihad

Connecticut: Muslim Grocery Store Worker Pleads Guilty in $3.2M Federal Food Stamp Fraud

Massachusetts: Muslim Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud Conspiracy

That’s just what we had time to compile for just the month of June.

Far too many steps forward for the sharia, and only a few pushbacks, but worth noting:

New Jersey: School District Scraps Posters Calling upon “Allah” to “Shower” Students with Blessings After Threat of Lawsuit 

Rather Than Go to Trial, Terror-linked CAIR Settles with the Victims They Defrauded 

Tunisian Muslim who swore allegiance to ISIS removed from U.S.

New York: Albany mosque imam convicted of terrorism is deported back to Iraq It’s almost midnight and Americans are losing their first amendment rights to sharia supremacists and the big technology, media and politicians who support them.

Please share this report before it’s too late.

[erhiem]

He starred in the second season of the MTV reality show.

“16 and Pregnant” star Lori Wickelhaus has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for child pornography.

The 29-year-old was arrested in Kentucky last year on 20 counts and alleged that the media featured a minor in a sexual performance.

She was released on $10k bond at the time, and had all her social media disabled.

mtv

Tyler and Kellyanne Baltierra detail communication issues with Carly and her adoptive parents

see story

In September, he pleaded not guilty on all 20 counts; But according to The Sun, he pleaded guilty to his plea in May this year. As part of the plea deal, he will now have to undergo mental health counseling.

He has been in custody since June 30 without any surety since his arrest on charges of contempt of court.

The original warrant for his arrest was first issued on August 13 last year; Investigators received a notification from the Kentucky State Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force that an “unknown subject uploaded images that depict child pornography to a Dropbox account.”

mtv

Catelynn Lowell opens up about ‘painful’ miscarriage just days after telling families about pregnancy

see story

Officers obtained a warrant, confiscated and searched his iPhone and laptop, where they found illegal pornography.

Wikelhaus starred in the second season of the MTV reality show, in which the then-17-year-old became pregnant with her ex-boyfriend. The episode focused on the differing opinions of her family and friends as she decided whether or not to put the child up for adoption – which she eventually does.

Baby Aidan was born on 16 December 2009; The episode claimed that he continued to see her and her adoptive family.

The Wickelhaus also shares a seven-year-old daughter, Rylin Jo, and a six-year-old son, Logan, with now ex-fiancé, Joy Amos.

Coveta County Sheriff’s Office

Teen mother facing murder charge after she slept with 10-month-old baby in bathtub

see story

Source

The post 16 And Pregnant Star Lori Wickelhaus Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison for Child Pornography appeared first on Spicy Celebrity News.

[keepingupwithfundies]

Can someone fill me in on the Willis family drama? When did it come out that he raped his kids? Is there any proof?

Trigger warning: Rape, Child Abuse, Sexual Abuse

Ok, there is a whole FJ thread dedicated to this, it starts here (the beginning of the thread is just normal snark on them as a family):

http://www.freejinger.org/topic/26567-willis-family-including-rape-charges/?page=9

But I will try to make a summary of the events:

10 September, 2016: “According to TMZ, the 46-year-old was taken into custody on Friday and charged with one count of rape of a child. He is being held without bail. […] While Willis and his family live in Nashville, Tennessee, investigators reportedly picked up Willis in Kentucky after he attempted to flee from law enforcement. […] The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations initially began looking into the matter at the end of August.Over the course of their investigation, they claim to have discovered that Willis had a sexual encounter with an underage girl 12 years ago.” Source

September 12, 2016:“Ongoing investigative efforts revealed Willis hitchhiked sometime between Monday, September 5th and Tuesday, September 6th from Shepherdsville, Kentucky, just south of Louisville, to Greenville, approximately 115 miles away. During the course of travel, Agents believe he accepted rides from at least two individuals.“ Source

At this point it was still only a minor, no connection to the victim being a family member.

September 14, 2016:“According to an arrest warrant released on Wednesday, the victim told authorities that when she between the ages of 9-12 Willis performed a sex act on her. The incidents took place in Ashland City.The Ashland City Times does not identify victims of alleged sexual crimes.“ Source 

September 14, 2016:“Toby Willis, the father of a famed reality TV show family, is accused of raping a relative who was a child at the time of the alleged assault, the I-Team has learned. The relative was between nine and 12 years old, authorities claim in Tennessee court paperwork, which the I-Team obtained Wednesday afternoon.” Source

September 15, 2016Brenda’s (mother) statement:http://keepingupwithfundies.tumblr.com/post/150453627699/brendas-statement

His hearing then was postponed several times over winter 2016 to spring 2017.

November 30,2016“Willis’s attorney Michael Shipman told Cheatham County General Sessions judge Philip Maxey that he had come to “question (Willis’s) competence” during conversation he had with his client.The state’s attorney’s objected to the request. Maxey, his patience visibly tested, ultimately sided with Shipman, of the Nashville firm Shipman & Crim, “based on the seriousness of the crimes."We’ve got to move this case along,” said Maxey, “It’s been sitting too long already.” Source

March 13,2017“Toby Willis was arraigned on four counts of child rape on Monday, March 13, in Ashland City after a grand jury heard his case, said Circuit Court Clerk Julie Hibbs.Willis pleaded not guilty to the charges, read by Circuit Judge Larry Wallace. His official plea date is set for July 11, and the trial is set to begin July 18.“ Source

July 11, 2017: He plead guilty to his charges:”Toby Willis, father of the “Willis Clan” and former TLC reality star, pleaded guilty this morning to four counts of child rape. Cheatham County Circuit Court Clerk Julie Hibbs confirmed that Willis received two 25-year sentences on two counts and two 40-year sentences on the other two. Those sentences will be concurrent, and served at 100 percent, giving Willis a total of 40 years in prison.”Source

July 14,2017: More details surface(TRIGGER WARNING!!): “In court papers obtained from the Circuit Court For Cheatham County, Willis was charged with four counts of child rape on March 2017.READ THE BOMBSHELL COURT DOCUMENTS! “Toby Willis on or about January 1, 2002 through December 31, 2002 did unlawfully, knowingly and feloniously sexually penetrate a person less than 13 years old,” the papers read of the victim, who was around 10-years-old at the time.For the second count, he “sexually penetrated” a second victim, who was around 9-years-old at the time, on or about January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2004.He was then charged with a third count for sexually penetrating a 12-year-old on or about February 1, 2013 through February 28, 2013.For the fourth and final count, he sexually penetrated an 8-year-old on or about January 1, 2011 through December 21, 2011.”Source

Here are Toby’s court files:http://radaronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Toby-Willis-Had-FOUR-Victims-In-Child-Rape-Case-docs-.pdf

(Annie)

[ericfruits]

Asleep At The Wheel

The Kentucky Supreme Court ordered a three-year suspension retroactive to the date of his interim suspension

On October 10, 2017, Mark Wickersham, while intoxicated, picked up his minor son from school and fell asleep while driving his son on a local interstate highway. Wickersham’s son had to awaken him. The son then contacted his mother, who in turn contacted law enforcement.

Leading to

The criminal case was resolved by a guilty-plea agreement in Madison Circuit Court on March 8, 2018, providing for pretrial diversion for a period of three years. By operation of SCR 3.166, Wickersham’s license to practice law was temporarily and automatically suspended upon entry of the guilty plea...

Since the alcohol-related incidents in October 2017, Wickersham has reportedly been in, and remains in, active substance-abuse recovery. He acknowledges that he has an alcohol-abuse problem and has accepted personal responsibility for his conduct that led to the criminal proceedings. Wickersham has also reportedly taken steps to address these problems, including in-patient counseling and treatment, which continues today.

He accepted the sanction

After reviewing the allegations, Wickersham’s previous disciplinary record, his willingness to cooperate with KYLAP and other treatment programs, his demonstrated dedication to continuing his sobriety, and the cases cited by the KBA, this Court concludes that the discipline proposed by Wickersham, and agreed-to by the KBA, is appropriate.

The period of suspension could be reduced

Wickersham is suspended from the practice of law for three years, retroactive from March 8, 2018, or until Wickersham has satisfied in full the terms and conditions of his pretrial diversion in the Madison Circuit Court criminal proceedings, whichever event first occurs.

There are severe potential consequences if he violates the dversion

In the event Wickersham violates the terms of his pretrial diversion, the Office of Bar Counsel may seek to revoke the disciplinary suspension imposed and may seek the permanent disbarment of Wickersham.

(Mike Frisch)

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/11/the-kentucky-supreme-court-on-october-10-2017-mark-wickersham-while-intoxicated-picked-up-his-minor-son-from-school-and.html

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/legal_profession/2019/11/the-kentucky-supreme-court-on-october-10-2017-mark-wickersham-while-intoxicated-picked-up-his-minor-son-from-school-and.html

[yarnleo4-blog]

‘Marsy’s Law’ Protections for Crime Victims Sound Great, but Could Cause Problems

By Sophie Quinton

Voters in six states soon will face a ballot initiative that for some seems like a no-brainer: whether to grant crime victims certain rights under the state constitution, such as the right to be treated with fairness, the right to confer with the prosecution and the right to attend key court proceedings.

But even as a coordinated, billionaire-backed campaign spreads across the country, some lawyers and civil rights experts say the push to give crime victims constitutional rights equal to those of criminal defendants could set up a clash over core aspects of the U.S. legal system, such as the accused person’s Sixth Amendment right to due process and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

“It undermines our system of justice as we know it,” said Holly Welborn, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

Since 2008, voters have approved “Marsy’s Law” amendments in California, Illinois, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Montana (Montana’s amendment later was struck down on procedural grounds). This year, voters in Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina and Oklahoma will consider versions of the amendment.

All versions of Marsy’s Law on the ballot this year would make it a state constitutional right for people directly harmed by a crime to request and receive notification when the alleged perpetrator is released from jail or prison, for instance.

The initiatives also list — among other rights — victims’ right to be told about and to attend public proceedings involving the criminal; to be heard in any public proceeding involving sentencing, release or a plea; and in the case of the Nevada and Oklahoma proposals, to refuse interviews or other requests made by the accused person unless ordered to do so by a subpoena or court order.

The Florida, Kentucky and Oklahoma initiatives all say that victims’ rights shall be protected “in a manner no less vigorous” than rights given to the accused.

Under Marsy’s Law, victims generally must assert their rights. For instance, they must ask to be notified of upcoming court dates, rather than be automatically notified. Eventually, the campaign hopes to get rights for victims written into the U.S. Constitution.

All six states with a November ballot measure already have a victims’ rights law or constitutional amendment on the books, but supporters of the initiatives say existing protections aren’t strong enough.

In Nevada, for example, the Republican governor, attorney general, key law enforcement officers and advocates for domestic violence victims all back the initiative.

“As a law enforcement officer, I’ve seen too many innocent people devastated by crime. And when the victims are denied equal rights, they’re victimized again by the criminal justice system,” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo rel="noopener" target="_blank">said in a commercial — set to melancholy orchestral music — that the Nevada campaign released in January. By changing the state constitution, he said, “We can fix this and stand up for Nevada crime victims.”

The overall impact of Marsy’s Law has been hard to gauge because so many variables play into the outcome of criminal cases, legal experts say. Such amendments have led to some legal confusion, and in South Dakota, a deluge of paperwork. In California, some victims’ rights advocates say a decade-old amendment was a good idea, but could be better implemented and enforced.

Giving Victims a Voice in Criminal Cases

Henry Nicholas, the billionaire founder of semiconductor company Broadcom, has almost single-handedly bankrolled victims’ rights amendments in a dozen states through a campaign called Marsy’s Law for All, named for his sister, Marsy, who was murdered in 1983.

Days after the murder, their mother ran into the accused killer, the girl’s ex-boyfriend, at a grocery store, unaware that he had been released on bail, according to the Marsy’s Law for All campaign. He was later convicted of second-degree murder.

Through the end of 2017, Henry Nicholas had spent about $27 million on the campaign to get the six amendments onto the ballot and approved by voters, according to Ballotpedia, an online encyclopedia of American elections.

For much of American history, victims have not had much of a voice in criminal cases beyond answering questions on the witness stand, according to the American Bar Association. That’s because criminal cases pit an accused person not against the victim, but against a prosecutor acting on behalf of the state.

But over the past 40 years, the federal government and every state have enacted laws to help victims, including laws that instruct judges to consider victims’ safety before releasing defendants from custody, and that give victims the right to be notified when a defendant gets out of jail. Heartfelt statements from suffering victims have become a courtroom norm.

Yet in many states, current law isn’t good enough, said University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell, a victims’ rights expert who has advocated in favor of Marsy’s Law. Statutes can be more easily ignored than constitutional amendments, he said, and even some amendments to state constitutions aren’t comprehensive enough.

“Does this take victims’ rights to the next level? Yes, it does,” he said of Marsy’s Law. “That is by design.”

There are countless examples of victims who slip through the cracks of existing law, said Henry Goodwin, communications adviser for the Marsy’s Law for All campaign. For instance, the Oklahoma campaign has highlighted the story of Leesa Sparks, who says she was never told about her abusive ex-boyfriend’s court dates, sentence or release after he spent four years in prison. Sparks disagreed with his sentence, according to a testimonial on the Marsy’s Law for All website, but never had a chance to share her views in court.

Legal Concerns

The American Civil Liberties Union, defense attorneys and some prosecutors say states already are doing plenty to protect victims, and that the proposed amendments could make it harder for the accused to get a fair trial.

Drew Findling, the Atlanta-based president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said he’s practiced all over Georgia and never come across a prosecutor who’s not sensitive to the needs of victims. “I don’t even know what this is doing in this state,” he said of the Marsy’s Law proposal.

Lawmakers in Idaho and New Hampshire declined to put Marsy’s Law measures before voters this year, arguing in each case that the state was already well served by existing law, and that amendments to the constitution are hard to roll back.

Marsy’s Law would interfere with a defendant’s due process rights, said John Piro, the chief deputy public defender for Nevada’s Clark County, by giving people harmed by a crime the right to be present and heard before the alleged perpetrator has pleaded innocent or guilty.

That inserts people who are hurt, angry or grieving into what’s supposed to be a dispassionate process, he said. “Now the prosecutor is going to be unduly influenced by a passionate person who wants to see vengeance — they’ll call it justice — handed out.”

Researchers have found that emotional statements from victims in court can make jurors angry and more eager to punish defendants — particularly when a victim is white, DePaul University law professor Susan Bandes wrote in The Atlantic.

But Cassell, the law professor, said he hasn’t heard Marsy’s Law leading to any systemic problems with increased litigation or paperwork in most states. California, for instance, has had a Marsy’s Law in its constitution for a decade. “The sky did not fall,” he said.

He also questions the assertion that allowing the victim to share more information will create bias in the system. “Instead, the criminal justice system simply gets more information.”

Still, the California amendment led to litigation and a state Supreme Court case over a portion of the law that lengthened the time between parole hearings for prisoners serving life sentences. In 2013 the state Supreme Court ruled against an inmate’s claim that the new parole hearing schedule guaranteed him a longer sentence, arguing that he hadn’t proven that Marsy’s Law had kept him locked up for longer.

The California amendment also gives victims the right to refuse requests for interviews and information made by defendants and their legal team, which “is a very serious problem,” said Robert Weisberg, law professor and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, in an email to Stateline. Victims’ silence could prevent information from coming to light that could prove the defendant innocent or cast doubt on his guilt.

Cassell said that Marsy’s Law doesn’t compromise a defendant’s interests in preparing for a trial, but it does protect victims from having to share information that could put them in danger, such as their home address. “I’m interested (once again) to see the objection made by the opponents without pointing to a specific example — much less, a systemic problem that exists in the big states that currently have Marsy’s Law,” he said in an email to Stateline.

The biggest problems have occurred in South Dakota, where a version of Marsy’s Law approved by voters in 2016 led to longer jail stays while courts waited for victims to be notified and swamped county staff with notification paperwork — even for minor crimes such as vandalism, local officials say.

“It overwhelmed some of our systems, and I think some of the true victims this was intended for sort of got lost,” said Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead.

Interpreting the Amendments

Milstead’s department and other law enforcement agencies also interpreted the law’s privacy protections to mean they couldn’t share information about unsolved crimes with the public, Milstead said. “We use the eyes and ears of the public to help us solve crimes,” he said.

The problem was that the amendment made victims’ rights compulsory unless victims opted out of exercising them, said House Speaker Mark Mickelson, a Republican, in an email to Stateline. Mickelson initially proposed repealing the amendment, then teamed up with the Marsy’s Law for All campaign to write a ballot initiative that changed the language to make the rights “opt-in” rather than “opt-out.” The fix easily passed this summer.

Across the border in North Dakota, where victims must “opt in” to exercise their rights under a 2016 Marsy’s Law amendment, the criminal justice system has experienced no such crisis. But it has caused some confusion, additional litigation and expense, said Aaron Birst, the executive director of the North Dakota State Attorneys’ Association. Counties and the state have spent more than $800,000 updating automatic victim notification systems to cover more criminal proceedings, he said.

Several North Dakota police officers who have shot and killed civilians have claimed they are victims and have invoked Marsy’s Law rights, which has prevented their names from being released — even though North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem has said Marsy’s Law doesn’t shield victims’ names unless they’re victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, a sex crime or are a minor.

It’s also unclear whether courts must change their schedules to accommodate victims. Birst said he recently spoke to a prosecutor working on a rape case that had an out-of-state victim. The victim couldn’t make it back to North Dakota for the scheduled plea hearing, but the court went ahead anyway.

Sometimes a person accused of a minor crime can plead guilty the day after they’re arrested, he said. “Most courts have just taken the plea and hoped that notice was provided to the victim.”

In California, courts have reportedly erred on the side of giving victims more of a voice in some cases than others. For instance, some California prosecutors recently told the news website The Marshall Project that they don’t promptly reach out to victims and their families unless the victim was killed or seriously injured.

It’s important for victims to have the opportunity to have their voices heard, said Mariam El-menshawi, director of the Victims of Crime Resource Center at the University of the Pacific’s law school. But awareness and enforcement of Marsy’s Law rights can be spotty in California, she said. Her recommendation is that courts implement a system for checking in with victims to make sure they are aware of their rights and options.

While some victims’ rights advocates have argued that victims would be better served not by a constitutional amendment but by more funding for victims’ services, such as programs that help victims of sexual violence, supporters of Marsy’s Law say the amendments not only give victims greater ability to participate in the criminal justice system, but also lead to investments in notification systems and victim services staff that will pay off.

“My belief is that today in South Dakota, there are more resources for victims than before Marsy’s Law was implemented,” Sheriff Milstead said.

Sophie Quinton is a staff writer for Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, where this story first appeared.

Image: Marsy’s Law campaign website.

Source: http://witnessla.com/marsys-law-protections-for-crime-victims-sound-great-but-could-cause-problems/

[myraelvira]

Artimus Pyle: Lynyrd Skynyrd Drummer, Victim of The System

Artimus, or Thomas Delmer Pyle, was born on July 15th, 1948, in Louisville, Kentucky. He is most notable for having been in Lynyrd Skynyrd not only as their drummer, but also having survived the fatal crash that killed multiple members. 

In 1993, Pyle was charged with attempted sexual battery and lewd assault on two girls. Pyle initially denied the charges, and claimed that they had been abused by people connected to babysitters from a trailer park that had a grudge against him; and the overall claims were just a way to extort money from the Lynyrd Skynyrd organization. While the allegations were going on, his lawyers tried to ascertain that the allegations were misreported by law enforcement and welfare workers unqualified to perform their jobs. Allegedly, the girls’ mother stated that she had not seen the girls be abused by Pyle. There was a contention that the girls were influenced by self-help books and tapes about abusive fathers. Eventually, Pyle pleaded nolo contendre, no contest, so as not to risk a mandatory life sentence if he were found guilty. Because of this, he was sentenced to eight years probation, and required to register as a sex offender. His official charges were “Sexual battery by an an adult on a victim under the age of 12”, and “Lewd, lascivious acts on a child under the age of 16”.

Because of his status as a sex offender, he had/has to register as an offender when moving to various areas of Florida (where he lived at the time), at least. In 2007, Pyle was charged with ‘Failure to register as a sex offender’. But officials lost his change of address forms when he moved to North Carolina. While a plea bargain was offered, he rejected it and ended up being acquitted in 2009. 

Essentially, when Pyle moved to North Carolina, he didn’t have to register within his old state of Florida. He went back to Florida after to moving to NC so that he could reinstate his drivers license, after the sheriff’s office made a series of mistakes. Apparently, the sheriff’s office never consulted the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Internet site, which would have shown he had a North Carolina address. They lost a document showing Pyle notified the department when he moved in 2002, only to find it again later on; The department also ignored repeated phone calls from Pyle’s lawyer’s office the week of Pyle’s arrest that he said could have resolved the matter.

[NOTE:] I want to clarify, just in case anyone ever talks to me about this, that I do not consider sex offenders to be victims. Pyle is a victim of the Florida Police system that lost his paperwork despite him and his lawyer trying to get into contact multiple times. video:https://youtu.be/mJRc77DRCJI  

[SOURCES] https://www.jacksonville.com/article/20090828/NEWS/801229094 https://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/sops/offenderSearch.jsf

[teeky185]

Matt Bevin has horrified opponents and allies alike with a slew of ‘extreme pardons’ that also disproportionately benefited white offendersIn May 2014, Patrick Baker and two accomplices set out to rob a house in Knox county, Kentucky. Baker knew the hardest part of the home invasion would be getting past the front door, so he devised a plan to dress up as police officers conducting a routine investigation.Once inside the Mills family home, Baker revealed his true colours. He tied up the mother of the family, ignoring the pleas of the three children present, stole money and objects, then turned a gun on the father, Donald Mills, shooting him dead.When Judge David Williams sentenced Baker in December 2017 to 19 years in prison for reckless homicide, burglary and impersonating a police officer, he said he would have given a longer punishment if he could. “I’ve been practicing law for 30-something years, and I’ve never seen a more compelling or complete case, the evidence was just overwhelming.”Fast-forward just two years and Patrick Baker is a free man, released by Kentucky’s outgoing governor in act that has been dubbed “extreme pardon”. The brutal killing is just one of the extraordinary elements of the eleventh-hour move by Matt Bevin, a Republican in the Donald Trump mould who even by his own controversial record has astonished and angered his state with his pardons.It was the final manoeuvre of a governor who was elected in 2016 on Trump’s coat-tails, making Kentucky the last southern state in America to turn Republican, only to be voted out of office last month. What motivated a politician who has spent the past three years waging bitter wars with teachers, trade unionists, voters, liberals, scientists and reproductive rights advocates suddenly display such profuse mercy towards prisoners has become the talk of Kentucky.Even his own previously loyal Republican peers have expressed bewilderment. The top Republican in the state senate has called for an investigation of Bevin’s “extreme pardons and commutations”.Mitch McConnell, the US senator from Kentucky better known as the Republican trying to stymie Trump’s impeachment trial in Congress, has denounced the release of “heinous criminals” in his home state as “inappropriate”.Speculation of what drove Bevin to his action initially focused on money, after the Louisville-based Courier Journal discovered that the family of Patrick Baker had donated $21,500 to Bevin’s political campaign funds before the commutation. Suspicion of pecuniary incentives then turned to moral outrage of a different sort after Bevin tried to explain on local radio why he had pardoned Micah Shoettle after only 18 months of his 23-year sentence for rape.“There was zero evidence,” Bevin told the radio host, adding that the girl’s hymen had been intact.That provoked a whole new chorus of indignation, including from paediatricians who pointed out that rape cannot be proved or disproved by examination of the hymen.That was just the start of it. As intrepid local journalists began to dig into the mountain of pardoned cases, other apparent horrors emerged.They included further sexual offenders. Dayton Jones, who Bevin set free after three years of a 15-year sentence, had pleaded guilty to raping a boy aged 15 whose bowel he ruptured with a sex toy. Charles Phelps had his name removed from the sex offender registry by Bevin having pleaded guilty in 2013 to child abuse images offences and sexual conduct with minors.The gruesome details of the violent crimes committed by some of those selected for commutation did not stop there. Delmar Partin was convicted of beheading a female co-worker and hiding her mutilated body in a barrel; Irvin Edge had hired a hitman to murder his business partner at home in front of his family; Blake Walker had killed his own parents.Most of the lucky 428 singled out by Bevin were non-violent. When the Courier Journal came to analyse the beneficiaries of his largesse, the paper found that 336 of them were on non-violent drug sentences.But therein lay another discrepancy. Within that group, 95% were white. That’s in a state in which 20% of inmates on drug convictions are African American or from some other minority community.The newspaper calculated there were almost 1,000 black or other minority prisoners who would have qualified for Bevin’s largesse. He chose 16.On one level, there is something fitting about the storm of controversy in which Bevin has finished his governorship given that disputes seemed to follow him around throughout his term in office. At the height of a recent measles epidemic, he let it be known that he had exposed each of his nine children to a neighbor’s chickenpox so that they would contract the disease as an alternative to getting vaccinated.“They were miserable for a few days, and they all turned out fine,” he said, while telling the federal government to get its nose out of people’s private business. That anti-vaxxer sentiment expressed by Kentucky’s then governor earned him a riposte from a leading paediatrician who remarked: “We’re no longer living in the 17th century”.Earlier this year, when Kentucky schools were closed to protect children from the -20F (-29C) wind chills, Bevin publicly complained: “C’mon now. I mean, what happened to America? We’re getting soft.”On policy, he followed the classic Trump textbook, ramming through “right-to-work” laws that prevent trade unions gathering fees as a condition of employment, denouncing teachers on strike for exposing kids in their charge to sexual abuse and physical danger, supporting efforts to suppress the vote among minority communities, limiting access to Medicaid and banning abortion at 20 weeks.The toxic combination earned him Trump’s adoration – the US president unsuccessfully campaigned on Bevin’s behalf in the recent gubernatorial race – but it also gained him the mantle of one of the most unpopular governors in the US.Last week Bevin posted a long screed on Twitter in which he sought to explain his pardons. He began by evoking the spirit of redemption and second chances, and the ambition to help offenders seek rehabilitation.He went on to insist that during his years as governor he had invested hundreds of hours to reviewing petitions for pardon. “Contrary to that which has been falsely stated by many, not a single person was released who had not already been scheduled for a specific release date,” he said.He denied any financial motive, calling any such suggestion “highly offensive and entirely false”.The Twitter thread does not appear to have satisfied his detractors, or calmed the widespread shock at a Republican’s last-minute flurry of pardons. The sister of the murdered home owner, Donald Mills, was blunt after she learnt that Patrick Baker was now out.“Matt Bevin can rot in hell,” she said.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/2Q8ljzp

[gyrlversion]

Boy found in Kentucky is NOT missing Timmothy Pitzen

Timmothy Pitzen’s family say they are devastated after the man claiming to be their missing son turned out to be a 23-year-old criminal with a history of lying to the police in a cruel hoax.

‘It’s devastating. It’s like reliving that day all over again and Timmothy’s father is devastated once again,’ the boy’s aunt Kara Jacobs said in a press conference.

The family said that they were elated when they first heard that a boy claiming to be Timmothy had been found wandering the streets of Newport, Kentucky. He told police that he had been kidnapped but had fled his abductors in Cincinnati, Ohio, and run across state lines to safety.

But that hope was cruelly dashed when police ran a DNA test and found that ‘Timmothy’ was actually 23-year-old ex-convict Brian Michael Rini.

‘It’s been awful,’ said Timmothy’s grandmother Alana Anderson. ‘We’re been on tenderhooks… it’s been exhausting.’ 

Incredibly, Anderson said the family didn’t feel anger towards the fraudster, only pity.

Scroll down for video 

‘It’s devastating. It’s like reliving that day all over again and Timmothy’s father is devastated once again,’ the boy’s aunt Kara Jacobs (pictured with his grandmother Alana Anderson at a press conference)

Police said Brian Michael Rini (left) from Medina, Ohio, lied to investigators when he claimed to be missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen (right) when he was found wandering around on Wednesday 

‘I feel so sorry for the young man who’s obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was somebody else,’ she said.

Timmothy vanished on May 11 2011, after being taken out of school by his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen. She committed suicide in a motel room soon after and left a note saying the boy was safe but would never be found.  

‘Although we are disappointed that this turned out to be a hoax, we remain diligent in our search for Timmothy, as our missing person’s case remains unsolved,’ an Aurora Police Department spokesperson said. 

Another of Timmothy’s aunts, Jen West, was even more generous and said that, while she was crushed, there could be a silver lining to the hoax as it has renewed interest in her nephew’s missing person’s case.

Brian Rini’s criminal history

July 2017: Rini pleaded guilty to ‘disorderly conduct’ and ‘criminal trespass’ after breaking into a home and causing $1,250 worth of damage after throwing an elaborate house party. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and released in March this year

December 2016: pleaded guilty plea/no contest to theft charges

April 2016: guilty plea/no contest to ‘making false alarms about law enforcement’

December 2015: guilty plea/no contest after ‘writing a series of bad checks’

November 2015: pleaded guilty/no contest to two counts of theft

June 2015: pleaded guilty/no contest after dialing 911 to falsely claim to police that his ex-girlfriend was going to commit suicide

April 2015: pleaded guilty/no contest to once count of ‘passing bad checks’ – fifth degree felony

October 2013: pleaded guilty/no contest to ‘falsification’

Source: Fox 19 

‘It’s a blessing in that respect, that the more coverage he gets, the better,’ said West, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. 

It is still not clear why Rini pretended to be the family’s missing child. Police have not yet announced any charges but lying about felony offences to the police can result in felony charges, which carry anything from probation up to ten years in jail, plus multiple other charges. 

Rini appears to have a history criminal behavior including charges for burglary, vandalism, using bad checks and giving fraudulent information to the police. He’s only been released from an Ohio jail for the burglary a few weeks before making the Timmothy claim, on March 7.

His own brother, Jonathon Rini, told Fox 8 that Rini should be locked up.

‘He deserves more time behind bars’, said Jonathan, who added that his brother had sometimes given his name to the police to try and avoid arrest.  

‘Once he started using my name for things he was doing, I have no compassion for him whatsoever. He used my name in a traffic stop in Norton and then skipped court and I received a traffic warrant for it,’ said Jonathon Rini. 

‘I’d tell the family that I’m sorry for what he’s done, but for him, I wouldn’t even speak to him,’ Rini said.

Police have confirmed they are investigating Rini’s claims that he had been kidnapped and acknowledged that he had a history of issuing false statements to authorities.  

In 2018, the alleged Pitzner impersonator was arrested and charged by the Norton Police Department on one count of falsification.

Police say he lied about two friends fighting in the back of his car, giving them vague details about the incident using the vehicle’s in-car emergency alert system. He then gave officers false identification and social-security information, which later turned out to belong to his brother.  

‘It’s been awful,’ said Timmothy’s grandmother Alana Anderson. ‘We’re been on tenderhooks… it’s been exhausting’

His own brother, Jonathon Rini, told Fox 8 that Rini should be locked up

He was also arrested and charged in 2017 with burglary and vandalism after breaking into a home in Medina County, Ohio, and throwing an elaborate house party that caused $1,250 worth of damage, The Medina Gazette reports.

Rini had just finished serving an 18 month sentence in Belmont Correctional Institute when he emerged in Newport claiming to be Timmothy. He has been in and out of prison over the past six years, according to WLWT.  

In the wake of the DNA results, Timmothy’s grandmother Alana Anderson expressed the devastation the family is now feeling, following their brief moment of hope.

‘It’s been awful,’ Anderson told reporters. ‘We’ve been on tender-hooks,’ adding that the family has been ‘alternatively hopeful and frightened’ over the last 24 hours.

When asked about Rini and his alleged false statement, Anderson offered compassion, saying the man had ‘obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was someone else, and [I] hope that they can find his family.’

The grandmother said their family would never give up hope that Timmothy may one day be found.

‘My prayer has always been that when he is old enough, he would find us if we couldn’t find him.’ 

According to an officer’s dispatch report from Wednesday, Rini had told police he was born on October 18, 2004, the same day as Timmothy, and also gave his correct middle name of James.

The report also said he claimed that he had managed to flee ‘from two kidnappers that have been holding him for seven years’. He said his abductors had most recently been keeping him in a Red Roof Inn, thought to be in Cincinnati, Ohio.     

Rini claimed that when he saw his chance to escape, he fled and ‘kept running across a bridge’ – the state line – and into Newport, Kentucky.  

Rini (left on after claiming that he was the missing boy and right in a mugshot) has an extensive of false claims to police, his criminal records show . He recently finished serving an 18 burglary sentence, before emerging in Newport

An age processed image released last year predicts what Timmothy Pitzen may have looked like at age 13

‘FBILouisville, Newport PD, and HCSO have been conducting a missing person investigation. DNA results have been returned indicating the person in question is not Timmothy Pitzen,’ FBI Louisville tweeted on Thursday.

‘A local investigation continues into this person’s true identity. To be clear, law enforcement has not and will not forget Timmothy, and we hope to one day reunite him with his family. Unfortunately, that day will not be today.’  

Locals who saw Rini on Wednesday said that his face was bruised and he appeared to be ‘very scared and agitated’.

‘He walked up to my car and he went, ‘Can you help me? I just want to get home. Can you just please help me?” a good Samaritan told a 911 dispatcher. ‘And I asked him what was going on and he told me he’s been kidnapped.’ 

One woman revealed to CBS Chicago that the alleged impostor told her he had been running for two hours and that he had ‘been passed around for seven years’.

  ‘Really you felt bad for him, his face looked like he’d been beat up,’ she said. ‘He had a really big bruise on his face. I was hurt for him’ 

Another resident told ABC7: ‘He looked like he had been beat up, punched in the face a couple of times. You could see the fear on him and how nervous he was and how he kept pacing. He just looked odd.’   

On Wednesday afternoon, Rini reportedly gave police a detailed description of his alleged kidnappers, who he says have held him captive for more than seven years.

He described the two kidnappers as ‘two male, whites, body-builder type build,’ according to the police report. 

‘One had black curly hair, Mt. Dew shirt and jeans & has a spider web tattoo on his neck. The other was short in stature and had a snake tattoo on his arms.’   

He then described his alleged captor’s vehicle as a new white Ford SUV, with yellow transfer paint and a dent on the rear left bumper, registered to Wisconsin. 

Several police departments were instructed to search Red Roof Inns in both Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, but workers at several of the hotels said they couldn’t recall anyone matching the description.

Timmothy vanished without a trace in 2011 following his mother Amy Fry-Pitzen’s suicide (pictured together)

His mother took Timmothy on a three-day holiday, visiting the zoo and several water-parks before she was found dead inside a Rockford motel room, having committed suicide  

Timmothy disappeared on May 11, 2011, shortly after being dropped off at Greenman Elementary School, in Aurora, Illinois, by his father.

The boy, just six-years-old at the time, was later picked-up by his mother, who told the school she needed to take her son home because of a family emergency.

Fry-Pitzen, 43, then took her son on a three-day holiday, visiting the zoo and several water-parks across different state lines.

The last known images of Timmothy and his mother together were captured on CCTV, checking out of the Kalahari Resort, in Wisconsin Dells on May 12.   

The following day, Amy was spotted alone by a surveillance camera in a supermarket 120 miles away near Rockford, having purchased a pen, paper and some envelopes. 

On May 14, she was found dead inside her Rockford Inn motel room with a series of slashes to her wrists. She left behind a note that said her son was safe and in the care of others, but added: ‘You’ll never find him’.

‘I was in total shock at the time,’ Timmothy’s dad James Pitzen said to Crime Watch Daily, back in 2017. ‘They told me where she was found, in a cheap little motel. She had a razorblade knife and she cut herself.’ 

Timmothy’s identification card was found among Amy’s possessions, but her son, the Spiderman backpack he’d been pictured leaving school with and her cellphone were all missing.    

James said just hours before she committed suicide he received a call from Amy saying: ‘Timmothy is fine. Timmothy belongs to me. Timmothy and I will be fine. Timmothy is safe’.

‘She was definitely wrestling with the demons. The demons were winning, and they eventually won,’ James said.    

The mother grappled with depression for the majority of her adult life and had attempted to commit suicide on more than one occasion. She had also disappeared for a series of days-on-end before but never with Timmothy.

Timmothy (shown aged 6) vanished after his mother picked him up from Greenman Elementary School and took him on a three day holiday

A report filed by the Sharonville Police Department on Wednesday details boy’s claims to be Timmothy, and even describes his alleged kidnappers

In an interview with People in 2015, Timmothy’s father, James Pitzen (left), described his son as a ‘little mini-me’ and vowed to never give up searching for him

After Rini allegedly claimed to be Timmothy, the Pitzen family were given new hope. 

Timmothy’s maternal aunt Kara Jacobs told NBC Chicago: ‘We hope it’s true. What’s hard is the story that he escaped from captors. And your mind goes in too many directions that you don’t want to think about,’ .

What happened to Timmothy Pitzen? 

On the morning of May 11, 2011, James Pitzen dropped his son off at Greenman Elementary School in Aurora.

At 8:30am, Timmothy’s mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, appeared at the school telling educators that she needed to remove her son from class because of a ‘family emergency’.

Later that day, James returned to the school to pick Timmothy up, but was told Amy withdrew him from class hours earlier.

For more than a day, he found no sign of Timmothy or Amy, until eventually she called James and his brother on May 12, telling them ‘Timmothy is fine. Timmothy belongs to me. Timmothy and I will be fine. Timmothy is safe’.

The last CCTV images of Amy and Timmothy alive together were captured on May 12 as they checked out from the Kalahari Resort, in Wisconsin Dells.

The following day, Amy was spotted alone on CCTV 120 miles away in a supermarket near Rockford, having purchased a pen, paper and some envelopes. 

On May 14 she was found dead in her Rockford Inn motel room having committed suicide by slashing her wrists. 

 A note found next to her body said that Timmothy was safe, and in the care of others, but added: ‘You’ll never find him’.

Timmothy’s identification card was found inside the room, but workers at the motel said Amy had checked-in alone.

Police say they’ve investigated several false leads since Timmothy’s disappearance in 2011.

The last potential breakthrough came in 2014, when a woman said she saw a boy matching his description at her yard-sale. Police were never able to confirm the sighting.

‘And what I’ve prayed about since he’s been gone is that God will keep him close and take care of him, and that maybe by some stroke of luck, he was with people who would love him. And if that’s not the case, it will be heartbreaking to get through.’

However, the brief glimmer of hope turned out to be another false-lead in the missing child case.

The last breakthrough in the disappearance of Timmothy came in 2014 when a woman hosting a garage sale in northern Illinois dialed 911 to tell police a boy matching his description had been standing in the front-yard of her home.

Shortly before her daughter’s suicide, Alana Anderson received a note from her daughter that read: ‘I’ve taken him somewhere safe. He will be well cared for and he says that he loves you. Please know that there is nothing you could have said or done that would have changed my mind.’   

Aurora Police launched an investigation spanning three states – including Illinois and Wisconsin – after her death to find the person allegedly in possession of Timmothy.

Police say they also explored the possibility Amy may have murdered her son in the midst of her turmoil and hidden the child’s body somewhere.

The razorblade-edged knife she used to cut her wrists with showed only traces of her blood.

But three months after Timmothy’s disappearance investigators found a ‘concerning’ amount of blood in the back seat of Amy’s car.  

However, hope the six-year-old could still be alive was revived when the blood was later concluded to have come from a nosebleed suffered by the Timmothy several months earlier.

Analyzing the exterior of Amy’s SUV, police were able to determine the vehicle had at one stage been parked in a grassy area, near a stream and a road treated with glass beads.

They believed this could have been the location where Amy handed over Timothy to the mysterious third-party, but nothing further came from the evidence. 

James Pitzen has previously said he’s never given up hope that his son is alive and will one day return home to him.

‘I always wonder what she told Timmothy, Why hasn’t he tried to call? We taught him how to dial 911. ‘This is your number, this is your mom’s number, you know where you live, your address,�� all the stuff you do,’ he told People in 2015. 

‘Maybe I’ll see Tim in the morning,’ James said he often tells himself. ‘Maybe tomorrow they’ll find him.’

The post Boy found in Kentucky is NOT missing Timmothy Pitzen appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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[investmart007]

SAN DIEGO | US Rep. Duncan Hunter of California 'excited' to go to trial

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/hCYKYW

SAN DIEGO | US Rep. Duncan Hunter of California 'excited' to go to trial

SAN DIEGO — U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California said Wednesday that he’s not worried about a federal indictment alleging he used campaign money on vacations and other personal expenses and is “excited” to go to trial.

The Republican referred to the U.S. Justice Department as “the Democrats’ arm of law enforcement” and said the FBI and the department are “a politically motivated group of folks.”

“We’re excited about going to trial with this, frankly,” Hunter told KGTV in San Diego. “This is modern politics, and modern media mixed in with law enforcement that has a political agenda. That’s the new Department of Justice.”

The congressman and his wife were charged by a federal grand jury Tuesday with using more than $250,000 in campaign funds to finance family trips to Italy and Hawaii, golf outings, school tuition, theater tickets — even fast food purchases — and attempting to conceal the illegal spending in federal records.

The indictment brings a jolt of uncertainty into the November contest, in a year when Democrats have targeted a string of Republican-held House seats across California.

“People disregard a lot of political issues, but the word ‘indictment’ catches their attention,” Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said.

In the strongly Republican district, “Hunter is probably still the favorite, but not as overwhelmingly as he was before,” he added. Asked for comment, a Hunter spokesman sent an Aug. 6 letter from the congressman’s attorney, Gregory A. Vega, to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein asking him to postpone the indictment.

Vega contended that there was a “rush to indict.” There was “politically motivated” pressure to wrap up the investigation to tarnish Hunter before the general election after he handily won the June primary, Vega said.

Hunter was among the earliest Republican members of Congress to endorse President Donald Trump, and Vega’s letter suggested his outspoken support made him a target for what he described as politically biased prosecutors.

The indictment depicts a couple freely dipping into campaign cash for years to bankroll their personal lifestyle, while their household budget was awash in red ink. The spending ranged from the banal to the lavish, from movie tickets to a $6,288.74 family vacation at a resort in Lahaina, Hawaii.

In a statement, House Speaker Paul Ryan called the charges “deeply serious” and said Hunter will be removed from his committee assignments, pending resolution of the case. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Ryan should call on Hunter to resign. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat and potential 2020 presidential contender, used Twitter to urge her supporters to donate to Hunter’s Democratic rival, Ammar Campa-Najjar, underscoring the race’s new dynamics.

Hunter is a familiar name in the 50th Congressional District in San Diego and Riverside counties — his father held the seat for years. University of California, San Diego, political scientist Thad Kousser said Hunter would be on safe ground if the race centered on the Trump agenda in an area with a Republican pedigree.

Now, the indictment “makes it a race about (Hunter), about corruption and in some ways, ties him to Donald Trump’s biggest vulnerabilities,” Kousser said.

He was referring to the guilty plea Tuesday of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, on campaign finance violations and other charges on the same day Trump former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted of eight financial crimes.

Another early Trump supporter, Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Collins of New York, ended his re-election bid this month, days after his indictment on insider trading charges.

Hunter’s Democratic opponent, Campa-Najjar, stopped short of calling on the congressman to resign.

“I think justice should run its course,” he said.

Campa-Najjar said Hunter was “in it for his own interests” and that it is time to “get rid of the corruption and greed that has held Washington captive for too long.”

The California secretary of state’s office says there is no process in the elections code for Hunter to remove his name from the ballot, and there can be no write-in candidates for the November election.

In a statement, California Republican Party Chairman Jim Brulte said “individuals are presumed innocent” until a jury convicts them. “The congressman and his wife have a constitutional promise to their day in court, and we will not prejudge the outcome,” Brulte said.

According to the indictment, Hunter tried to set up a day tour of a U.S. naval facility in Italy in 2015 to justify the use of campaign funds during a vacation with his family. When the proposed date didn’t work out, he told his chief of staff: “Tell the Navy to go (expletive) themselves,” the documents said.

In March 2015, Hunter told his wife, Margaret, he wanted to buy “Hawaii shorts” but ran out of money, the indictment said. She told him he should buy them at a golf pro shop so they could later describe the purchase as “some (golf) balls for the wounded warriors,” according to court documents.

The couple spent more than $1,500 on video games in 2015, prosecutors said. In April 2015, Margaret Hunter spent nearly $1,000 in campaign funds to fly her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to Poland and later told the campaign treasurer they were campaign trips to New Orleans and Kentucky.

“The Hunters spent substantially more than they earned,” the indictment said. “They overdrew their bank account more than 1,100 times in a 7-year period resulting in approximately $37,761 in ‘overdraft’ and ‘insufficient funds’ bank fees.”

The House Ethics Committee had investigated allegations that Hunter improperly used campaign funds to pay for tens of thousands of dollars in personal expenses. The panel said in March that it was delaying the inquiry at the request of the Justice Department.

His lawyers said in 2017 that Hunter and his wife repaid the campaign about $60,000.

Hunter’s office said at the time that one of the charges he repaid was a $600 fee for flying a pet bunny with his family. There was no intent to stick donors with the cost, then-Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said.

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD and JULIE WATSON,  Associated Press

[blogparadiseisland]

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals http://www.nature-business.com/nature-trump-attacks-democrats-at-rally-but-mostly-steers-clear-of-scandals/

Nature

President Trump’s rally in Charleston, W.Va., on Tuesday is among the many midterm campaign stops he is expected to make over the coming weeks.CreditGabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Trump invoked on Tuesday fears of immigrant crime and angry mobs as he began a weekslong push to try to preserve the Republican majority in Congress as the party braces for midterm losses amid a cascade of scandals involving members of his inner circle.

“A vote for any Democrat in November is a vote to eliminate immigration enforcement, to open our borders and set loose vicious predators and violent criminals,” Mr. Trump told thousands of supporters during a rally in Charleston, W.Va. “They’ll be all over our communities. They will be preying on our communities.”

In a wide-ranging, more than hourlong speech that touched on the potency of his political endorsements, his love of coal and promises to build a border wall — with a paean to his mother’s turkey recipe thrown in — Mr. Trump worked the crowd into a frenzy, repeatedly demonizing Democrats as coddlers of lawbreakers who would take the country down a dangerous path.

“The Democrat Party is held hostage by the so-called resistance: left-wing haters and angry mobs,” he said. “They’re trying to tear down our institutions, disrespect our flag, demean our law enforcement, denigrate our history and disparage our great country — and we’re not going to let it happen.”

On a day that his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of financial fraud and Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations that he said were directed by Mr. Trump himself, the president mostly steered clear of those subjects.

But the rally offered a vivid tableau of an extraordinary period in Mr. Trump’s already tumultuous tenure. The president is growing more defiant by the day even as the scandals appear to pose an increasingly serious threat to him, embarking on a cross-country tour in an urgent push to bolster his party’s chances of keeping control of Congress.

It was Mr. Trump’s sixth visit to West Virginia, and the leading edge of an intensive effort in which officials say he will headline rallies intended to stoke Republican enthusiasm and hold fund-raising events to stock the party’s campaign coffers. The state is home to Senator Joe Manchin III, who is facing a competitive race for re-election despite breaking ranks with his party and becoming the first Democrat to meet with Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court.

As Mr. Trump made his way to Charleston on Air Force One, news of Mr. Manafort’s conviction and Mr. Cohen’s plea dominated Fox News on the in-flight monitors. The president touched only glancingly on the issue in front of his enthusiastic crowd and never named either man. But he did denounce “fake news and the Russian witch hunt,” and taunted the team run by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, which secured the convictions against Mr. Manafort.

“Where is the collusion?” Mr. Trump shouted as his supporters cheered. “You know, they’re still looking for the collusion. Where is the collusion? Find the collusion.”

But he quickly pivoted to border security, which he said was “at the beating heart of this election.”

“Democrats want to turn America into one big, fat sanctuary city for criminal aliens, and honestly, honestly, they’re more protective of aliens — the criminal aliens — than they are of the people,” Mr. Trump said.

He led the crowd in a chant of “build the wall,” repeating his false claim that the wall along the Southwest border was already being built — Congress has banned the allocation of border security funding to construct anything but existing barriers — and promising that it would soon be finished.

“That wall is coming along,” Mr. Trump said. “All of a sudden, it’s going to be finished, and it’s going to be very, very effective.”

When Patrick Morrisey, the state attorney general who is Mr. Manchin’s Republican challenger, led a chant of “lock her up” — referring to Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s former campaign rival — the president egged on the crowd, pumping his fist rhythmically with the shouts.

Mr. Trump repeatedly denounced Democratic congressional leaders and said supporting Mr. Manchin would hand them control of Congress.

“There’s no worse nightmare for West Virginia this November than Chuck Schumer running the Senate and Nancy Pelosi, with Maxine Waters, running the House,” the president said, naming the top Democrats in the Senate and the House, along with Ms. Waters, a 14-term congresswoman whom he has derided as crazy and “low I.Q.”

But Mr. Trump also added new material to his stock of well-worn rally staples. He regaled the crowd with the story of how, he said, he had jawboned NATO allies into paying more for their own defense. In doing so, he confirmed reports — which the White House had previously refused to do — that he had privately threatened to withdraw from the trans-Atlantic alliance at a summit meeting in Brussels last month.

Mr. Trump said an unnamed leader of another country had asked him, “Would you leave us if we don’t pay our bills?”

“Now, they hated my answer,” he said, adding, “I said: ‘Yes! I will leave you if you don’t pay your bills.’”

Then, he added, “you could see those checkbooks came out for billions of dollars.” But while NATO member countries have increased their military spending over the past year in part as a result of Mr. Trump’s relentless focus on what he calls their delinquency, none pledged any additional money after his closed-door outburst in Brussels.

And Mr. Trump’s frequent claim that NATO allies are in debt to the United States for the cost of the alliance is a misstatement. The funding in question is a target agreed upon by all member countries in 2014 that each should move toward spending 2 percent of their own gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

Still, Mr. Trump used the story to underscore a familiar talking point, saying, “We are a country that has been ripped off by everybody, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore.”

Mr. Trump also threw in some bizarre flourishes, at one point comparing the time it takes to cut a good trade deal with the patience required to roast fowl.

“We’ve got to take time — it’s got to gestate, right? The word gestate. It’s like when you’re cooking a chicken,” the president mused. “Time, time, turkey for Thanksgiving. My mother would say, ‘Oh, eight hours.’ I said, ‘Eight hours?’ She made the greatest turkey I’ve ever had. It takes time.”

Before Mr. Trump’s visit to West Virginia, White House officials outlined what they said was an aggressive midterm campaign effort that would capitalize on the president’s ability to draw crowds to rallies — held largely in deeply conservative states where he is already popular — and put his muscle behind the Republican National Committee’s fund-raising efforts.

In a phone call with reporters, multiple senior officials familiar with the president’s plans for the midterms said Mr. Trump would be participating in at least eight rallies over the next six weeks and as many as 16 fund-raisers, which officials said had raised more than $227 million for the Republicans so far this election cycle.

Mr. Trump will visit at least seven states — and as many as 15 — in the next six weeks, the officials said, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Kentucky and Tennessee. Most are not traditional battleground states, but several are home to Democratic senators who face difficult re-election fights. At recent campaign rallies, in stops in places like Indiana and North Dakota, the president has seemed to relish taking punches at those vulnerable Democrats, with the constant rallying cry that they are obstructing his agenda.

On Tuesday in Charleston, Mr. Trump lauded the power of his endorsement, claiming that he single-handedly turned around the fortunes of Republicans whose popularity had been lagging before he announced his support.

“Look, I don’t want to brag about it, but man, do I have a good record of endorsements,” Mr. Trump said.

He cited as an example Representative Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is facing Adam Putnam, the state’s agriculture commissioner, in a primary contest next week for governor.

“I gave him a nice shot and a nice little tweet — ding ding! — and he went from like three to 20-something,” the president said, adding that with “my full and total endorsement,” Mr. DeSantis was leading his primary opponent by about 19 points. In fact, while Mr. DeSantis had opened a lead in the race after Mr. Trump’s endorsement, a poll released by Florida Atlantic University on Tuesday actually showed him roughly tied with Mr. Putnam.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis reported from Charleston, W.Va., and Katie Rogers from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

10

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Skirting Scandal, President Stokes Fear to Stay on Message for Midterms

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/trump-rallies-west-virginia-midterms.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/julie-hirschfeld-davis, http://www.nytimes.com/by/katie-rogers

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals, in 2018-08-22 08:43:57

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Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals http://www.nature-business.com/nature-trump-attacks-democrats-at-rally-but-mostly-steers-clear-of-scandals/

Nature

President Trump’s rally in Charleston, W.Va., on Tuesday is among the many midterm campaign stops he is expected to make over the coming weeks.CreditGabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Trump invoked on Tuesday fears of immigrant crime and angry mobs as he began a weekslong push to try to preserve the Republican majority in Congress as the party braces for midterm losses amid a cascade of scandals involving members of his inner circle.

“A vote for any Democrat in November is a vote to eliminate immigration enforcement, to open our borders and set loose vicious predators and violent criminals,” Mr. Trump told thousands of supporters during a rally in Charleston, W.Va. “They’ll be all over our communities. They will be preying on our communities.”

In a wide-ranging, more than hourlong speech that touched on the potency of his political endorsements, his love of coal and promises to build a border wall — with a paean to his mother’s turkey recipe thrown in — Mr. Trump worked the crowd into a frenzy, repeatedly demonizing Democrats as coddlers of lawbreakers who would take the country down a dangerous path.

“The Democrat Party is held hostage by the so-called resistance: left-wing haters and angry mobs,” he said. “They’re trying to tear down our institutions, disrespect our flag, demean our law enforcement, denigrate our history and disparage our great country — and we’re not going to let it happen.”

On a day that his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of financial fraud and Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations that he said were directed by Mr. Trump himself, the president mostly steered clear of those subjects.

But the rally offered a vivid tableau of an extraordinary period in Mr. Trump’s already tumultuous tenure. The president is growing more defiant by the day even as the scandals appear to pose an increasingly serious threat to him, embarking on a cross-country tour in an urgent push to bolster his party’s chances of keeping control of Congress.

It was Mr. Trump’s sixth visit to West Virginia, and the leading edge of an intensive effort in which officials say he will headline rallies intended to stoke Republican enthusiasm and hold fund-raising events to stock the party’s campaign coffers. The state is home to Senator Joe Manchin III, who is facing a competitive race for re-election despite breaking ranks with his party and becoming the first Democrat to meet with Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court.

As Mr. Trump made his way to Charleston on Air Force One, news of Mr. Manafort’s conviction and Mr. Cohen’s plea dominated Fox News on the in-flight monitors. The president touched only glancingly on the issue in front of his enthusiastic crowd and never named either man. But he did denounce “fake news and the Russian witch hunt,” and taunted the team run by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, which secured the convictions against Mr. Manafort.

“Where is the collusion?” Mr. Trump shouted as his supporters cheered. “You know, they’re still looking for the collusion. Where is the collusion? Find the collusion.”

But he quickly pivoted to border security, which he said was “at the beating heart of this election.”

“Democrats want to turn America into one big, fat sanctuary city for criminal aliens, and honestly, honestly, they’re more protective of aliens — the criminal aliens — than they are of the people,” Mr. Trump said.

He led the crowd in a chant of “build the wall,” repeating his false claim that the wall along the Southwest border was already being built — Congress has banned the allocation of border security funding to construct anything but existing barriers — and promising that it would soon be finished.

“That wall is coming along,” Mr. Trump said. “All of a sudden, it’s going to be finished, and it’s going to be very, very effective.”

When Patrick Morrisey, the state attorney general who is Mr. Manchin’s Republican challenger, led a chant of “lock her up” — referring to Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s former campaign rival — the president egged on the crowd, pumping his fist rhythmically with the shouts.

Mr. Trump repeatedly denounced Democratic congressional leaders and said supporting Mr. Manchin would hand them control of Congress.

“There’s no worse nightmare for West Virginia this November than Chuck Schumer running the Senate and Nancy Pelosi, with Maxine Waters, running the House,” the president said, naming the top Democrats in the Senate and the House, along with Ms. Waters, a 14-term congresswoman whom he has derided as crazy and “low I.Q.”

But Mr. Trump also added new material to his stock of well-worn rally staples. He regaled the crowd with the story of how, he said, he had jawboned NATO allies into paying more for their own defense. In doing so, he confirmed reports — which the White House had previously refused to do — that he had privately threatened to withdraw from the trans-Atlantic alliance at a summit meeting in Brussels last month.

Mr. Trump said an unnamed leader of another country had asked him, “Would you leave us if we don’t pay our bills?”

“Now, they hated my answer,” he said, adding, “I said: ‘Yes! I will leave you if you don’t pay your bills.’”

Then, he added, “you could see those checkbooks came out for billions of dollars.” But while NATO member countries have increased their military spending over the past year in part as a result of Mr. Trump’s relentless focus on what he calls their delinquency, none pledged any additional money after his closed-door outburst in Brussels.

And Mr. Trump’s frequent claim that NATO allies are in debt to the United States for the cost of the alliance is a misstatement. The funding in question is a target agreed upon by all member countries in 2014 that each should move toward spending 2 percent of their own gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

Still, Mr. Trump used the story to underscore a familiar talking point, saying, “We are a country that has been ripped off by everybody, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore.”

Mr. Trump also threw in some bizarre flourishes, at one point comparing the time it takes to cut a good trade deal with the patience required to roast fowl.

“We’ve got to take time — it’s got to gestate, right? The word gestate. It’s like when you’re cooking a chicken,” the president mused. “Time, time, turkey for Thanksgiving. My mother would say, ‘Oh, eight hours.’ I said, ‘Eight hours?’ She made the greatest turkey I’ve ever had. It takes time.”

Before Mr. Trump’s visit to West Virginia, White House officials outlined what they said was an aggressive midterm campaign effort that would capitalize on the president’s ability to draw crowds to rallies — held largely in deeply conservative states where he is already popular — and put his muscle behind the Republican National Committee’s fund-raising efforts.

In a phone call with reporters, multiple senior officials familiar with the president’s plans for the midterms said Mr. Trump would be participating in at least eight rallies over the next six weeks and as many as 16 fund-raisers, which officials said had raised more than $227 million for the Republicans so far this election cycle.

Mr. Trump will visit at least seven states — and as many as 15 — in the next six weeks, the officials said, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Kentucky and Tennessee. Most are not traditional battleground states, but several are home to Democratic senators who face difficult re-election fights. At recent campaign rallies, in stops in places like Indiana and North Dakota, the president has seemed to relish taking punches at those vulnerable Democrats, with the constant rallying cry that they are obstructing his agenda.

On Tuesday in Charleston, Mr. Trump lauded the power of his endorsement, claiming that he single-handedly turned around the fortunes of Republicans whose popularity had been lagging before he announced his support.

“Look, I don’t want to brag about it, but man, do I have a good record of endorsements,” Mr. Trump said.

He cited as an example Representative Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is facing Adam Putnam, the state’s agriculture commissioner, in a primary contest next week for governor.

“I gave him a nice shot and a nice little tweet — ding ding! — and he went from like three to 20-something,” the president said, adding that with “my full and total endorsement,” Mr. DeSantis was leading his primary opponent by about 19 points. In fact, while Mr. DeSantis had opened a lead in the race after Mr. Trump’s endorsement, a poll released by Florida Atlantic University on Tuesday actually showed him roughly tied with Mr. Putnam.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis reported from Charleston, W.Va., and Katie Rogers from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

10

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Skirting Scandal, President Stokes Fear to Stay on Message for Midterms

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/trump-rallies-west-virginia-midterms.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/julie-hirschfeld-davis, http://www.nytimes.com/by/katie-rogers

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals, in 2018-08-22 08:43:57

[captainblogger100posts]

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals http://www.nature-business.com/nature-trump-attacks-democrats-at-rally-but-mostly-steers-clear-of-scandals/

Nature

President Trump’s rally in Charleston, W.Va., on Tuesday is among the many midterm campaign stops he is expected to make over the coming weeks.CreditGabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Trump invoked on Tuesday fears of immigrant crime and angry mobs as he began a weekslong push to try to preserve the Republican majority in Congress as the party braces for midterm losses amid a cascade of scandals involving members of his inner circle.

“A vote for any Democrat in November is a vote to eliminate immigration enforcement, to open our borders and set loose vicious predators and violent criminals,” Mr. Trump told thousands of supporters during a rally in Charleston, W.Va. “They’ll be all over our communities. They will be preying on our communities.”

In a wide-ranging, more than hourlong speech that touched on the potency of his political endorsements, his love of coal and promises to build a border wall — with a paean to his mother’s turkey recipe thrown in — Mr. Trump worked the crowd into a frenzy, repeatedly demonizing Democrats as coddlers of lawbreakers who would take the country down a dangerous path.

“The Democrat Party is held hostage by the so-called resistance: left-wing haters and angry mobs,” he said. “They’re trying to tear down our institutions, disrespect our flag, demean our law enforcement, denigrate our history and disparage our great country — and we’re not going to let it happen.”

On a day that his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of financial fraud and Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations that he said were directed by Mr. Trump himself, the president mostly steered clear of those subjects.

But the rally offered a vivid tableau of an extraordinary period in Mr. Trump’s already tumultuous tenure. The president is growing more defiant by the day even as the scandals appear to pose an increasingly serious threat to him, embarking on a cross-country tour in an urgent push to bolster his party’s chances of keeping control of Congress.

It was Mr. Trump’s sixth visit to West Virginia, and the leading edge of an intensive effort in which officials say he will headline rallies intended to stoke Republican enthusiasm and hold fund-raising events to stock the party’s campaign coffers. The state is home to Senator Joe Manchin III, who is facing a competitive race for re-election despite breaking ranks with his party and becoming the first Democrat to meet with Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court.

As Mr. Trump made his way to Charleston on Air Force One, news of Mr. Manafort’s conviction and Mr. Cohen’s plea dominated Fox News on the in-flight monitors. The president touched only glancingly on the issue in front of his enthusiastic crowd and never named either man. But he did denounce “fake news and the Russian witch hunt,” and taunted the team run by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, which secured the convictions against Mr. Manafort.

“Where is the collusion?” Mr. Trump shouted as his supporters cheered. “You know, they’re still looking for the collusion. Where is the collusion? Find the collusion.”

But he quickly pivoted to border security, which he said was “at the beating heart of this election.”

“Democrats want to turn America into one big, fat sanctuary city for criminal aliens, and honestly, honestly, they’re more protective of aliens — the criminal aliens — than they are of the people,” Mr. Trump said.

He led the crowd in a chant of “build the wall,” repeating his false claim that the wall along the Southwest border was already being built — Congress has banned the allocation of border security funding to construct anything but existing barriers — and promising that it would soon be finished.

“That wall is coming along,” Mr. Trump said. “All of a sudden, it’s going to be finished, and it’s going to be very, very effective.”

When Patrick Morrisey, the state attorney general who is Mr. Manchin’s Republican challenger, led a chant of “lock her up” — referring to Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s former campaign rival — the president egged on the crowd, pumping his fist rhythmically with the shouts.

Mr. Trump repeatedly denounced Democratic congressional leaders and said supporting Mr. Manchin would hand them control of Congress.

“There’s no worse nightmare for West Virginia this November than Chuck Schumer running the Senate and Nancy Pelosi, with Maxine Waters, running the House,” the president said, naming the top Democrats in the Senate and the House, along with Ms. Waters, a 14-term congresswoman whom he has derided as crazy and “low I.Q.”

But Mr. Trump also added new material to his stock of well-worn rally staples. He regaled the crowd with the story of how, he said, he had jawboned NATO allies into paying more for their own defense. In doing so, he confirmed reports — which the White House had previously refused to do — that he had privately threatened to withdraw from the trans-Atlantic alliance at a summit meeting in Brussels last month.

Mr. Trump said an unnamed leader of another country had asked him, “Would you leave us if we don’t pay our bills?”

“Now, they hated my answer,” he said, adding, “I said: ‘Yes! I will leave you if you don’t pay your bills.’”

Then, he added, “you could see those checkbooks came out for billions of dollars.” But while NATO member countries have increased their military spending over the past year in part as a result of Mr. Trump’s relentless focus on what he calls their delinquency, none pledged any additional money after his closed-door outburst in Brussels.

And Mr. Trump’s frequent claim that NATO allies are in debt to the United States for the cost of the alliance is a misstatement. The funding in question is a target agreed upon by all member countries in 2014 that each should move toward spending 2 percent of their own gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

Still, Mr. Trump used the story to underscore a familiar talking point, saying, “We are a country that has been ripped off by everybody, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore.”

Mr. Trump also threw in some bizarre flourishes, at one point comparing the time it takes to cut a good trade deal with the patience required to roast fowl.

“We’ve got to take time — it’s got to gestate, right? The word gestate. It’s like when you’re cooking a chicken,” the president mused. “Time, time, turkey for Thanksgiving. My mother would say, ‘Oh, eight hours.’ I said, ‘Eight hours?’ She made the greatest turkey I’ve ever had. It takes time.”

Before Mr. Trump’s visit to West Virginia, White House officials outlined what they said was an aggressive midterm campaign effort that would capitalize on the president’s ability to draw crowds to rallies — held largely in deeply conservative states where he is already popular — and put his muscle behind the Republican National Committee’s fund-raising efforts.

In a phone call with reporters, multiple senior officials familiar with the president’s plans for the midterms said Mr. Trump would be participating in at least eight rallies over the next six weeks and as many as 16 fund-raisers, which officials said had raised more than $227 million for the Republicans so far this election cycle.

Mr. Trump will visit at least seven states — and as many as 15 — in the next six weeks, the officials said, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Kentucky and Tennessee. Most are not traditional battleground states, but several are home to Democratic senators who face difficult re-election fights. At recent campaign rallies, in stops in places like Indiana and North Dakota, the president has seemed to relish taking punches at those vulnerable Democrats, with the constant rallying cry that they are obstructing his agenda.

On Tuesday in Charleston, Mr. Trump lauded the power of his endorsement, claiming that he single-handedly turned around the fortunes of Republicans whose popularity had been lagging before he announced his support.

“Look, I don’t want to brag about it, but man, do I have a good record of endorsements,” Mr. Trump said.

He cited as an example Representative Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is facing Adam Putnam, the state’s agriculture commissioner, in a primary contest next week for governor.

“I gave him a nice shot and a nice little tweet — ding ding! — and he went from like three to 20-something,” the president said, adding that with “my full and total endorsement,” Mr. DeSantis was leading his primary opponent by about 19 points. In fact, while Mr. DeSantis had opened a lead in the race after Mr. Trump’s endorsement, a poll released by Florida Atlantic University on Tuesday actually showed him roughly tied with Mr. Putnam.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis reported from Charleston, W.Va., and Katie Rogers from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on

, on Page

A

10

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Skirting Scandal, President Stokes Fear to Stay on Message for Midterms

. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/trump-rallies-west-virginia-midterms.html | https://www.nytimes.com/by/julie-hirschfeld-davis, http://www.nytimes.com/by/katie-rogers

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals, in 2018-08-22 08:43:57

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Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals

Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals http://www.nature-business.com/nature-trump-attacks-democrats-at-rally-but-mostly-steers-clear-of-scandals/

Nature

President Trump’s rally in Charleston, W.Va., on Tuesday is among the many midterm campaign stops he is expected to make over the coming weeks.CreditGabriella Demczuk for The New York Times

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Trump invoked on Tuesday fears of immigrant crime and angry mobs as he began a weekslong push to try to preserve the Republican majority in Congress as the party braces for midterm losses amid a cascade of scandals involving members of his inner circle.

“A vote for any Democrat in November is a vote to eliminate immigration enforcement, to open our borders and set loose vicious predators and violent criminals,” Mr. Trump told thousands of supporters during a rally in Charleston, W.Va. “They’ll be all over our communities. They will be preying on our communities.”

In a wide-ranging, more than hourlong speech that touched on the potency of his political endorsements, his love of coal and promises to build a border wall — with a paean to his mother’s turkey recipe thrown in — Mr. Trump worked the crowd into a frenzy, repeatedly demonizing Democrats as coddlers of lawbreakers who would take the country down a dangerous path.

“The Democrat Party is held hostage by the so-called resistance: left-wing haters and angry mobs,” he said. “They’re trying to tear down our institutions, disrespect our flag, demean our law enforcement, denigrate our history and disparage our great country — and we’re not going to let it happen.”

On a day that his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of financial fraud and Mr. Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations that he said were directed by Mr. Trump himself, the president mostly steered clear of those subjects.

But the rally offered a vivid tableau of an extraordinary period in Mr. Trump’s already tumultuous tenure. The president is growing more defiant by the day even as the scandals appear to pose an increasingly serious threat to him, embarking on a cross-country tour in an urgent push to bolster his party’s chances of keeping control of Congress.

It was Mr. Trump’s sixth visit to West Virginia, and the leading edge of an intensive effort in which officials say he will headline rallies intended to stoke Republican enthusiasm and hold fund-raising events to stock the party’s campaign coffers. The state is home to Senator Joe Manchin III, who is facing a competitive race for re-election despite breaking ranks with his party and becoming the first Democrat to meet with Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, Mr. Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court.

As Mr. Trump made his way to Charleston on Air Force One, news of Mr. Manafort’s conviction and Mr. Cohen’s plea dominated Fox News on the in-flight monitors. The president touched only glancingly on the issue in front of his enthusiastic crowd and never named either man. But he did denounce “fake news and the Russian witch hunt,” and taunted the team run by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, which secured the convictions against Mr. Manafort.

“Where is the collusion?” Mr. Trump shouted as his supporters cheered. “You know, they’re still looking for the collusion. Where is the collusion? Find the collusion.”

But he quickly pivoted to border security, which he said was “at the beating heart of this election.”

“Democrats want to turn America into one big, fat sanctuary city for criminal aliens, and honestly, honestly, they’re more protective of aliens — the criminal aliens — than they are of the people,” Mr. Trump said.

He led the crowd in a chant of “build the wall,” repeating his false claim that the wall along the Southwest border was already being built — Congress has banned the allocation of border security funding to construct anything but existing barriers — and promising that it would soon be finished.

“That wall is coming along,” Mr. Trump said. “All of a sudden, it’s going to be finished, and it’s going to be very, very effective.”

When Patrick Morrisey, the state attorney general who is Mr. Manchin’s Republican challenger, led a chant of “lock her up” — referring to Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump’s former campaign rival — the president egged on the crowd, pumping his fist rhythmically with the shouts.

Mr. Trump repeatedly denounced Democratic congressional leaders and said supporting Mr. Manchin would hand them control of Congress.

“There’s no worse nightmare for West Virginia this November than Chuck Schumer running the Senate and Nancy Pelosi, with Maxine Waters, running the House,” the president said, naming the top Democrats in the Senate and the House, along with Ms. Waters, a 14-term congresswoman whom he has derided as crazy and “low I.Q.”

But Mr. Trump also added new material to his stock of well-worn rally staples. He regaled the crowd with the story of how, he said, he had jawboned NATO allies into paying more for their own defense. In doing so, he confirmed reports — which the White House had previously refused to do — that he had privately threatened to withdraw from the trans-Atlantic alliance at a summit meeting in Brussels last month.

Mr. Trump said an unnamed leader of another country had asked him, “Would you leave us if we don’t pay our bills?”

“Now, they hated my answer,” he said, adding, “I said: ‘Yes! I will leave you if you don’t pay your bills.’”

Then, he added, “you could see those checkbooks came out for billions of dollars.” But while NATO member countries have increased their military spending over the past year in part as a result of Mr. Trump’s relentless focus on what he calls their delinquency, none pledged any additional money after his closed-door outburst in Brussels.

And Mr. Trump’s frequent claim that NATO allies are in debt to the United States for the cost of the alliance is a misstatement. The funding in question is a target agreed upon by all member countries in 2014 that each should move toward spending 2 percent of their own gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

Still, Mr. Trump used the story to underscore a familiar talking point, saying, “We are a country that has been ripped off by everybody, and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore.”

Mr. Trump also threw in some bizarre flourishes, at one point comparing the time it takes to cut a good trade deal with the patience required to roast fowl.

“We’ve got to take time — it’s got to gestate, right? The word gestate. It’s like when you’re cooking a chicken,” the president mused. “Time, time, turkey for Thanksgiving. My mother would say, ‘Oh, eight hours.’ I said, ‘Eight hours?’ She made the greatest turkey I’ve ever had. It takes time.”

Before Mr. Trump’s visit to West Virginia, White House officials outlined what they said was an aggressive midterm campaign effort that would capitalize on the president’s ability to draw crowds to rallies — held largely in deeply conservative states where he is already popular — and put his muscle behind the Republican National Committee’s fund-raising efforts.

In a phone call with reporters, multiple senior officials familiar with the president’s plans for the midterms said Mr. Trump would be participating in at least eight rallies over the next six weeks and as many as 16 fund-raisers, which officials said had raised more than $227 million for the Republicans so far this election cycle.

Mr. Trump will visit at least seven states — and as many as 15 — in the next six weeks, the officials said, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Kentucky and Tennessee. Most are not traditional battleground states, but several are home to Democratic senators who face difficult re-election fights. At recent campaign rallies, in stops in places like Indiana and North Dakota, the president has seemed to relish taking punches at those vulnerable Democrats, with the constant rallying cry that they are obstructing his agenda.

On Tuesday in Charleston, Mr. Trump lauded the power of his endorsement, claiming that he single-handedly turned around the fortunes of Republicans whose popularity had been lagging before he announced his support.

“Look, I don’t want to brag about it, but man, do I have a good record of endorsements,” Mr. Trump said.

He cited as an example Representative Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is facing Adam Putnam, the state’s agriculture commissioner, in a primary contest next week for governor.

“I gave him a nice shot and a nice little tweet — ding ding! — and he went from like three to 20-something,” the president said, adding that with “my full and total endorsement,” Mr. DeSantis was leading his primary opponent by about 19 points. In fact, while Mr. DeSantis had opened a lead in the race after Mr. Trump’s endorsement, a poll released by Florida Atlantic University on Tuesday actually showed him roughly tied with Mr. Putnam.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis reported from Charleston, W.Va., and Katie Rogers from Washington.

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Skirting Scandal, President Stokes Fear to Stay on Message for Midterms

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Nature Trump Attacks Democrats at Rally, but Mostly Steers Clear of Scandals, in 2018-08-22 08:43:57