Sheriff arrested over parking space incident www.privateofficer.com

Sheriff arrested over parking space incident http://www.privateofficer.com

RUSSELLVILLE, Ky. April 4 2008
By; Rick McCann
Ntl Assoc. Private Officers
http://www.privateofficer.com
Authorities say that the Todd County sheriff is accused of threatening a man with a stun gun after he asked the sheriff to move his vehicle from a handicapped parking spot.
In an affidavit, Draper says he asked Sheriff Stokes to move his SUV, which was parked in a handicapped spot blocking another such parking space and did not have a handicapped license plate or placard.
Draper said Stokes told him he was there on official business and could park in the space. Draper called police and when he went back to the SUV, he said Stokes threatened him with the gun.But the sheriff disputes Draper’s claims and said that he was the one who was acting disorderly. According to Stokes, he was taking his wife to the Logan County Wal-Mart. He said he dropped her off in front, drove around the parking lot and parked in a striped area next to a handicapped spot. Stokes said that’s when Draper knocked on his window. Stokes said they he began to yell for him to move his vehicle from the handicap parking space and that he returned to Stokes vehicle several times and that’s when he pulled his taser and laid it on his lap to protect himself from Draper.When police arrived at the scene, Stokes was allowed to leave but was later charged with three criminal offenses

Sheriff Billy Stokes has been charged with unauthorized parking in a handicapped zone, menacing and official misconduct stemming from a dispute with Daniel Draper on March 22 in the Russellville Wal-Mart parking lot near the Tennessee border
Stokes is scheduled to appear in Logan County District Court April 16 to answer the charges
There are about a dozen handicapped parking spaces in the area that are used by people like James Rigney.
“If he was only going be in there for a minute or two and it was legal business, OK, that’s fine. But he’s just using it as an excuse to go shopping, I don’t think that’s right,” Rigney said.
Stokes could spend up to 30 days in jail if he’s found guilty of the charges. He is scheduled to be in court later in April and said he plans to plead not guilty.
Draper declined comment about the incident. Draper has been charged with disorderly conduct and contempt of court in the past.

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Shoplifter gets no sympathy from judge www.privateofficer.com

Shoplifter gets no sympathy from judge http://www.privateofficer.com

ANDERSON SC April 4 2008 — A Spartanburg woman found no sympathy in an Anderson city court after pleading no contest to stuffing $600 worth of purses inside her dress at Belk’s in Anderson Mall.
Norvella Brown, 48, was arrested at 2:30 p.m. Friday, according to the Anderson police.
Monday, she pleaded with Judge Ken Mattison to allow her time to pay the $1,087.50 fine so that she could get out of jail and keep her job as a “chef at Hardee’s.”
“You have an extensive record of thievery all over this part of the world,” said Judge Mattison in denying her request.
According to the incident report, Ms. Brown used wire cutters Friday to remove security wire from the purses and attempted to hide the purses in a rack of clothes when confronted.
Monday, Ms. Brown begged the judge to trust her.
“I don’t trust you,” Judge Mattison said. “You’re a thief, ma’am.”
At that, Ms. Brown returned to her seat in the Anderson Municipal Court, sobbing at a level that caught the judge’s attention.
“Ma’am, please be quiet,” he said. “This is not your first rodeo.”

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Detention officer arrested for “inappropiate relationship” www.privateofficer.com

County detention officer arrested for inappropiate relationship http://www.privateofficer.com

PICKENS COUNTY, Ga. April 4 2008

By; Rick McCann

Ntl. Assoc. Private Officers

www.privateofficer.com

Officials say a Pickens County jailer has been charged for having an inappropriate relationship with an inmate.
Authorities say that it is unusual for a female jailer to get involved with a male prisoner but that it does happen from time to time. In the majority of cases like this nationwide it’s the other way around one official said.

Male deputies and detention officers are much more likely to be accussed of having sexual relations or raping female prisoners than a female officer a deputy said.
Investigators said that after an investigation, they determined that a detention officer, 23-year-old Sandra Quadagno had sexual relations with a male inmate inside the Pickens County Jail.
The detention officer was arrested Monday night and charged with sexual assault on a person in custody.
Authorities would not release any further information on this case or elaborate on the number of occurrances or what led them to investigate Quadagno.

They did not say whether they thought that the jailer had been involved with just one inmate or if there could be others.
Quadagno was transported to the Cherokee County Jail pending a bond hearing.

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Dentist arrested for assaulting patients www.privateofficer.com

Dentist arrested for assaulting patients http://www.privateofficer.com

CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. April 4 2008 — It was quiet at a Carroll County dental office Wednesday. The note outside the door said they were gone for spring break.

But a lot of people have heard about the allegations that have been made against Dr. Gordon Austin.
“He’s the one who did my wisdom teeth,” said Brandi White. “He has a really good name here.”
Austin was arrested in 2001 for making false statements and forgery.

More recently, Austin was indicted for nine counts of simple battery, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of cruelty to children.

The incidents were alleged to have happened between 2006 and 2008 at his dental office.
The indictment states Austin either hit patients with his hand on their heads or hit them with a metal object on the head. Another patient alleges the doctor made her put her hand in her mouth after oral surgery.
“He has always been super nice anytime I’ve ever seen him,” said Jeff McBurnett with Turner Pharmacy. “I’m surprised by the allegations that have come up against him.”
White said, “Nice guy? No, not a nice guy. Not nasty but firm, very firm.”
Austin is expected in court for an arraignment later this month.

His attorney said Austin has been an oral surgeon for more than 30 years and has taken care of hundreds of patients.

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Court dismisses 200 cases because cops weren’t certified www.privateofficer.com

Courts dismiss 200 criminal cases because police weren’t certified http://www.privateofficer.com

RAPID CITY SD April 4 2008 — More than 200 criminal cases have been dismissed in Rosebud Sioux tribal court because tribal police officers were not properly certified, a Rosebud Sioux official says.
James Henry, a tribal council member, said many of the officers didn’t have tribal police certification, starting about nine years ago.
At least 217 cases already have been dismissed, Henry said. “That’s probably going to triple,” he added.
The tribe has more than 30 officers, and many of them let their certification lapse, Henry said. The tribe requires recertification every two years, but some officers apparently thought they didn’t have to renew their certificates, he said.
Tribal Chairman Rodney Bordeaux said all but two of the tribal officers now are properly certified and that certification is pending for the other two.
U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley said that tribal courts generally handle American Indian defendants charged with misdemeanor-type crimes punishable by up to one year in jail.
“Federal courts generally exercise felony jurisdiction over offenses on reservations that involve an Indian offender or Indian victim, as well as certain misdemeanor type offenses involving non-Indian offenders,” Jackley told the Rapid City Journal.
More serious crimes usually end up in federal court, and the certification problem also is being used to challenge three criminal cases there.
Henry said there probably are inmates in the federal system hoping to use the certification issue to overturn their convictions.
“I don’t support the rapists, child molesters and aggravated assault people,” Henry said. “I just feel Rosebud Sioux Tribe law has been broken.”
Jackley said his office will continue prosecuting defendants based upon investigations and evidence gathered by federal authorities and Rosebud Sioux Tribe police officers.

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Police charge woman with robbery after assault on security www.privateofficer.com

Police charge woman with robbery after assault on security http://www.privateofficer.com

BRICK NJ APRIL 4 2008
By Rick McCann

Ntl. Assoc. Private Officers

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Police responding to a 911 call for help at a local department store found that female shoplifter had assaulted the loss prevention agent after he questioned her about a shoplifting incident. Police say that a Staten Island woman was charged with robbery because she assaulted the security officer at Kohl’s who had asked her about items that she had put into a pouch in her skirt, police said.
Barbara Curbello, 50, of the Park Hill area of Staten Island was taken into custody by responding officers on Friday after the assault, Capt. John Rein said.

She remained in the Ocean County Jail on charges of robbery Wednesday.
Authorities say that Curbello was in Kohl’s on Route 70 when a loss prevention officer began watching her as she concealed several items and when he confronted her about these items that she was stuffing into the top of her skirt area, that’s when she began to push and slap the loss prevention agent Rein said.
She took some things out from the pouch for the employee, Rein said. When police were called, she started to push, kick and scratch at the employee. She was detained by the loss prevention officer and arrested and charged by Patrolman Thomas Cooney.
Her bail is set at $50,000.

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Casino security and guests nab burglars www.privateofficer.com

Casino security and guests nab auto burglars http://www.privateofficer.com

Biloxi MS April 4 2008
By: Rick McCann
Ntl Assoc. Private Officers
www.privateofficer.com

Security officers and guests of an area casino were able to interrupt a burglary in progress and capture the suspects police say.
Police Capt. Darrin Peterson said the victims came out of the casino and saw the suspects in their car. They were able to detained one of them and the other ran.

Police say that the second one didn’t get far and was soon caught a short distance away, officers on scene said.
The two suspected auto burglars were arrested by police after the early-morning incident in the IP Casino parking garage.
Early notification from the victims and casino security staff helped in the arrests, Peterson said.
Both suspects reside in Biloxi. Police identified them as Thomas Akira Sachleben, 22, of Southwind Drive, and Canaan Dmitri Baum, 24, of Cates Circle.
Police said that they also are checking other reported auto burglaries at other near-by casinos to see if there are any connections and may file other charges against Sachleben and Baum.
Both were transported to the city jail and was being held on an undisclosed bnd amount.

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Mother charged with murder of child www.privateofficer.com

Mother charged with murder of son http://www.privateofficer.com

SAVANNAH, Ga. April 4 2008
By: Bryan Hill
Security News Magazine

 www.privateofficer.com

Emergency workers responded to a 911 call of an unresponsive infant and what they found was a murder. Police in Savannah have charged a woman with murder in the drowning death of her 3-month-old son.
Savannah-Chatham police spokesman Mike Wilson says police arrested Virkisha Warren, 21, on Thursday and after officers determined that she had drowned her baby in the bathtub.
Wilson says police received a report of an unresponsive infant shortly before 11:30 a.m. Thursday.

Officers and paramedics arrived at a home and found a neighbor administering CPR to 3-month-old Brandon Warren.
The baby was brought to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Wilson says the mother told investigators that she woke up and found her son not breathing. Because she did not have a telephone, she started to drive the baby to his father’s house — more than four miles away — to call 911.

But she found the baby’s father along the way, picked him up and then drove to his home, where police were called.
Wilson says that while interviewing the father, detectives began to suspect foul play.
The father told officers he saw a black trash bag sitting on Warren’s lap when she picked him up. When he looked inside the bag, he found the body of his son.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation will conduct an autopsy on Friday.

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Florida man arrested after making Va. Tech style massacre threats www.privateofficer.com

Florida man arrested after Va. Tech style massacre threats http://www.privateofficer.com

From CNN
MIAMI, Fla. April 4 2008 — A 20-year-old with a weapons cache that included four AK-47s was arrested after threatening over the Internet to undertake a Virginia Tech-style massacre, authorities said Thursday.
Oregon authorities learned of a March 25 Internet message allegedly posted by Calin Chi Wong in which he threatened to re-enact the Virginia Tech killings. Two days later, Homestead Police searched the home Wong shares with his parents and found the weapons in stacked on shelves in plain view, Detective Antonio Aquino said.
Wong had 13 firearms in all, more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition, some that could pierce armor, and 100 rounds in a feeding clip with bullets “meant to take down aircraft or military machinery,” Aquino said. He had hidden two AK-47s in his parents’ closet, and his parents said the guns did not belong to them, Aquino said.
Wong was charged with making written threats to kill or do bodily injury via the computer and bonded out for $7,500. Additional charges are pending, he said.
It was not known whether he had a lawyer. A message left by The Associated Press at a phone number listed for Wong was not immediately returned Thursday evening. The phone at his employer, China King, rang unanswered.
Homestead Police first noticed Wong when he went to the department in February to complain he had been robbed of $800 over the Internet after he ordered a gun online using his father’s PayPal account.
He told authorities he had called the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and other agencies about the issue. Aquino said Wong finally reached a boiling point when he posted the message saying he would re-enact the Virginia Tech massacre, in which student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people last year before turning the gun on himself.
“After speaking to him and seeing his frustration, I believe that he had the potential to carry out some kind of threat,” Aquino said.
Wong felt isolated and cut off, authorities noted, saying he had been buying and selling guns for about two years and word was now getting around about Wong’s age. Dealers stopped selling to him, and he was being banned from certain gun-sale Web sites.
“I’m soon to the point to re-enact the whole event,” Wong wrote under the name “thehumanabc,” referring to the shootings last April at Virginia Tech. “This may not seem like a threat to you, but I’m sure others don’t want to see it occur again. It should be a wake up call for All haters out there,” according to an arrest report.
Aquino said Wong told police that making the threat made him feel good because after “he had thousands of people on the Internet paying attention to him.”
But Wong also said he was just upset and frustrated and never actually planned a killing spree, Aquino said.
But authorities also found a school book bag lined with bulletproof vests inside Wong’s home, as well as two handguns.
Wong is not in college, Aquino said. He graduated from an Oregon high school and attended a college for a year before moving in with his parents in Florida, authorities said.
Wong said the weapons were an investment.
“He says it’s a lucrative business,” Aquino said. “He said if Hillary Clinton wins, she’ll put a ban on assault rifles, and these assault rifles will be worth more in value.”

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High school student arrested with drugs, guns on campus www.privateofficer.com

High school student arrested with guns, drugs on campus http://www.privateofficer.com

GUILFORD COUNTY, N.C. April 4 2008 — A Southern Guilford High School student is under investigation for allegedly bringing illegal drugs and two guns on campus on Tuesday, according to Capt. Phil Byrd of the Sheriff’s Dept.

17-year-old Keith A. Love, a Junior, faces charges including felony drug possession and possession of a stolen firearm. School officials found a stolen 38 caliber gun, a semi-automatic handgun and ammunition inside the student’s vehicle.

Officials also found cocaine, marijuana and alcohol in a student’s car, according to Capt. Byrd.

Police say the discovery came about after rumor of a possible drug deal in a bathroom.

School officials investigated and made the discovery in the student’s car.

The school is taking “appropriate action” according to Rules 21 and 24 of the student handbook (see pages 45 and 51), according to a representative with Guilford County Schools.

A letter will be issued to parents today regarding the incident.Love is expected to make his first court appearance later today.

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Police make arrest in college murder www.privateofficer.com

Police make arrest in college murder http://www.privateofficer.com

Columbus Ohio April 4 2008
The Gahanna man accused in an early Sunday shooting in the South Campus Gateway parking garage was charged yesterday with murder after the victim died.
Nevin Cousin Jr., 25, died at 12:15 a.m. yesterday after being taken off life support, police said. He had been in critical condition at Ohio State University Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his neck.
Ricardo Conley, 27, of 503 Hemston Court, was identified as a suspect within hours of the 2:39 a.m. shooting, which police said began as a dispute inside the garage. They have not released a motive for the shooting.
Conley first surrendered to police on Monday night to face a charge of felonious assault. He was released Tuesday after posting bond but was rearrested yesterday morning on the murder charge.
Cousin had two sons. Relatives gathered at their South Linden home yesterday afternoon declined to comment, but a cousin told WBNS-TV (Channel 10) that the family was reeling.
“He didn’t deserve to die over nothing,” Chandra Clark said.
In a campus crime alert this week, Columbus State Community College officials alerted students of the shooting because of Conley’s ties to the school. Conley had attended Columbus State but recently dropped his spring-quarter classes, the alert said.
The Sunday shooting is the second high-profile crime at Campus Gateway since its opening in 2005. Last July 4, Todd Lockett, 21, was shot to death after a fight outside the same parking garage. Dante Jones, 23, was sentenced to life in prison for the crime in February.
The Gateway, just south of Ohio State University on N. High Street, is a shopping and entertainment center built by Ohio State to help improve the South Campus neighborhood.

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Cop pleads guilty to sex crimes www.privateofficer.com

Former cop pleads guilty to sex crimes http://www.privateofficer.com

NEW HAVEN, Conn. April 4 2008 — A former East Windsor police officer pleaded guilty to using the Internet to lure an 11-year-old girl to have sex with him, federal prosecutors said.
Darren Dempsey, 39, of Mansfield, who is also known as Darren Seligman, appeared in New Haven federal court Thursday and pleaded guilty to one count of using an interstate facility to transmit information about a minor.
Dempsey will be sentenced June 18.

The FBI arrested Seligman at the East Windsor Police Department, where he was an officer. Dempsey has been jailed since his arrest in October and resigned from the police department Nov. 9.
U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Connor said the prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood Initiative, which tries to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation.