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Archive for July 23, 2009

2 NJ Mayors charged in corruption investigation www.privateofficer.com

NEWARK, N.J July 23 2009 – The mayors of two New Jersey cities and a state legislator are under arrest Thursday as part of a major corruption and international money laundering conspiracy probe.
Federal prosecutors say about 30 people have been arrested in the two-track investigation. They include Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell. Federal prosecutors say several rabbis in New York and New Jersey are also arrested.
A news conference is scheduled for noon at the U.S. attorney’s office in Newark.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who has fought corruption in New Jersey’ largest city, says it’s “an unbelievable morning so far.”
No other information is immediately available.

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Correction officer killed in home invasion was suspect www.privateofficer.com

TUCSON AZ JULY 23 2009
An Eloy corrections officer who died during an apparent home invasion last Friday was one of three men suspected of breaking into the home.
It happened last Friday in the 4400 block of East Benson Highway. Pima County Sheriff deputies responded to a 911 call from a neighbor who said armed gunman had entered a nearby house.
Deputies say Danny Torres, 27, and two other men arrived in a dark-colored van, entered the home and pistol-whipped the owner.
Investigators say as the three men were leaving, a man next door confronted the suspects, who started shooting at him. The neighbor’s son fired back, hitting Torres. He was taken to University Medical Center where he later died.
Deputies arrested 19-year-old Manual Moreno and 18-year-old Alejandro Romero on first degree murder charges.
Torres worked at the Saguaro Correctional Center, a private medium-security facility in Eloy for two years, according to a spokesperson with Corrections Corporation of America.

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PA. Special ED teacher charged with molesting teen www.privateofficer.com

Montgomery County PA July 23 2009
A special education teacher at the Pottsgrove High School in Montgomery County was charged today with having sex with a 17-year-old student at the school. Rebecca Ann Harvey, 33, of Stowe, was arrested last Tuesday after an officer on patrol says he found her with the boy in the backseat of her car in Pottstown. Harvey told police she thought the boy was actually 18-years-old and wasn’t aware that he was a student at the high school, according to court documents. “It’s a big school,” she said. According to the district’s website, 1,060 students attend Pottsgrove High School, which is located just outside Pottstown. The court papers say Harvey made repeated phone calls to police the next day to explain that she did not have sexual relations with the boy. That same day, police say they spoke with the boy, who told them he met Harvey last July. He said he babysat her two children and developed a sexual relationship with her in February. He said they also exchanged frequent text messages, some of which were “sexual in nature and flirtatious.” Harvey is charged with two counts of corruption of minors. She’s free on bail. The Superintendant of Pottsgrove School District says Harvey has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal investigation and an internal investigation done by the district.

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Police arrest million dollar lottery winner www.privateofficer.com

TORONTO, July 22 2009 (UPI) — A Toronto-area man walked out of the lottery office with a $4.4 million winner’s check to waiting police officers who arrested him on outstanding charges.
Barry Shell, 45, was at the headquarters of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission Monday to collect his prize, and smiled for official photos with an oversized check, the Toronto Star reported.
However, he was unaware of what the regulator does when processing winners.
“A rigorous investigation process is followed any time a prize is claimed,” said OLG spokesman Rui Brum, adding “any flags that are raised” are passed to the Ontario Provincial Police.
The OLG found Shell was wanted on charges of failing to appear at a 2003 court date, theft under $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime, the Star said. Officers arrested him and he spent the night in jail and made a court appearance Tuesday.
The OLG news release that went out about the most recent winner sounded prophetic.
“The 45-year-old has no immediate plans for the windfall,” it said.

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Security officer knocked unconcious and robbed www.privateofficer.com

Fremont CA July 23 2009
A man working as a security guard at an apartment complex on the 900 block of West Tennyson Road was knocked unconscious Sunday and robbed by three men after he told them they were making too much noise.
Around 8:55 p.m., the guard approached the men in a stairwell and told them they were being too loud, and to either quiet down or leave the premises, police said. The men cussed at the guard as he turned to walk away.
As he headed up the stairwell, the guard was struck in the head from behind and knocked out.
When he came to, he found his wallet, cell phone and money missing from his pants. He had fallen face first and was seriously injured, police said.
Police said they believe the attackers might live in a nearby complex or have an affiliate in the apartments where the assault occurred. They were described as African-American, 17 to 20 years old, and two of them were about 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds, and wore white T-shirts and blue jeans. The third was about the same height and weight, but had 6- to 8-inch-long black dreadlocks with brown tips, and wore a black hooded sweat shirt and blue jeans.
Police ask anyone with information to call 510-293-7000.

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Four teens charged with rape of 8yr old www.privateofficer.com

Phoenix AZ July 23 2009
The summer scene at a west Phoenix apartment complex was tranquil Wednesday evening. Parents and children chatted on their stoops as the sun set. They bought ice cream from a vendor’s push cart.
One week ago, around the same time of day, residents of the complex were startled by the screams of a partially clothed 8-year-old girl who ran screaming from a storage shed at a vacant unit.
Phoenix police on Wednesday announced that they arrested four neighborhood boys in connection with the incident, in which investigators said the group lured the girl into the shed with chewing gum, held her down and sexually assaulted her.
Phoenix police Sgt. Andy Hill, a longtime public-information officer, described the case as “one of the worst crimes we have come across in Phoenix in quite some time,” given the ages of the victim and the suspects, as well as the circumstances of the reported attack.
The girl and the four suspects are refugees from the war-torn West African country of Liberia, which, according to investigators, would complicate authenticating names and dates of birth.
Arizona Child Protective Services took custody of the girl after the July 16 incident at the apartment complex after her parents disowned her.
Hill said the parents blamed her for being victimized and bringing shame to the family.
CPS and the families could not be reached for comment.
Phoenix investigators are requesting that the oldest suspect, age 14, be prosecuted as an adult.
He and the three others – ages 9, 10 and 13 – were taken to a Maricopa County juvenile-detention center late Tuesday on charges of sexual assault. Three of the four boys also could be charged with kidnapping, according to police.
Each of the suspects admitted to the assault, according to investigators. Hill said three of the boys lived with their families at the complex.
He added that they “took turns” in the attack, the shed door opening as different boys entered.
Police said the victim knew her attackers, but they are unclear on how long the families lived in the complex or how long it had been since they fled Liberia.

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Utah teacher arrested for having sex with teens in several cities www.privateofficer.com

Salt Lake City Utah July 23 2009
saltlaketribune
Keith Lorraine Gillins — a Millard High School teacher and former Fillmore mayor accused of having sex with a 17-year-old female student in Millard County — also is charged with having sex with the girl in neighboring Juab County.
Gillins, 61, who is now back behind bars, was charged last week in Nephi’s 4th District Court with one count of rape and two counts of forcible sodomy, all first-degree felonies.
Charging documents say Gillins rented a motel room in Nephi on Easter weekend and invited the girl there to have sex by sending a text message. Motel records confirmed the rental, and Gillins allegedly admitted to police he had sex with the girl there.
Gillins was already charged in Millard County with four counts of first-degree felony rape and 11 counts of second-degree felony forcible sexual abuse. According to a probable cause statement in that case, the girl told investigators she had sexual intercourse with Gillins — the first time in a classroom at the high school.
After Gillins was arrested June 8, he admitted to having a sexual relationship with the girl and confirmed the classroom incident occurred sometime in November 2008, according to the statement. Gillins also told police that sexual intercourse occurred in a vehicle near 500 South and 200 West in Fillmore during the winter of 2009, the statement says.
The charges in that case allege the sex acts occurred between Oct. 5 and April 4 and that Gillins occupied
position of special trust” as the girl’s teacher. Gillins was free on bail until Monday, when Judge Donald Eyre learned the defendant had allegedly violated an order prohibiting contact with the alleged victim.
Juab County Attorney Jared Eldridge said Tuesday that Gillins allegedly had been sending the girl text messages, but he did not know the content.
Gillins worked at Millard High School from 1973 to 1979, according to the Millard County School District. He left the school to sell insurance and was Fillmore’s mayor from 1986 to 1997. Gillins returned in 2003 to Millard High, where he taught English and coached boys basketball.
Gillins has a 2005 shoplifting conviction in Provo, where his misdemeanor guilty plea was dismissed after her served six months probation.
Court records show Gillins’ wife, Constance Gillins, a 61-year-old elementary school teacher, filed for divorce on May 19 after nearly 42 years of marriage. In seeking a protective order against her husband, Constance Gillins referenced an argument they had in April during which she told her daughter that Keith Gillins had “already admitted to an inappropriate relationship,” according to court documents.
An attorney representing Constance Gillins has declined to comment on whether the relationship was with the alleged victim in the criminal case.

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Security guard in court after stray bullet strikes woman www.privateofficer.com

LONG BEACH CA July 23 2009
contracostatimes.com – A 23-year-old Long Beach man charged with a felony after a stray shot fired from his gun hit a woman sleeping in her bed more than a mile away pleaded not guilty to the charge Wednesday.
Gilbert Fonoti appeared briefly in the Long Beach Superior Court Wednesday morning to ask for more time to hire a private defense attorney.
“The public defender isn’t really helping me out, so I need some time to get my own attorney,” the defendant explained outside the courtroom.
Fonoti said he was working as a security guard for a music promoter who had an event at Club Cohiba early on June 26 when a series of fights broke among club revelers.
Throngs of people, many of them drunk, were fighting outside the club on Broadway near the Promenade as the venue was closing around 2 a.m., he said.
“I tried to break them up, but people were ignoring me and would just run away and start fighting (in another area),” Fonoti said. “I just fired the gun in the air figuring it would get people to stop, I never meant to hurt anybody.”
Ballistic tests proved the round fired from Fonoti’s gun traveled more than a mile and struck a 49-year-old Long Beach woman as she slept, police said.
The victim, Mary, and her husband moved their bed out onto the deck next to their bedroom many years ago and never had a problem sleeping outside before, she said.
Even with the stray shot, they still sleep outdoors, added Mary, who the Press-Telegram has chosen to identify only by her first name.
The gunshot, which entered through her forehead and glanced off her skull exiting by her eyebrow, didn’t seem to slow Mary down one bit.
She said brain scans at the emergency room showed no damage and she was given a Tetanus shot and stitches, then sent home.
The day after the incident, Mary spoke to the Press-Telegram as she scrubbed the floors of one the apartment units she and her husband were preparing to rent.
Fonoti and his family said they were extremely sorry for what happened and wanted the victim to know they hoped she was doing well.
Some members of his family and friends were also arrested the night of the incident after they saw police arresting Fonoti and rushed the officers.
“They saw the officers using force on me, so they were upset,” Fonoti said, noting the charges against his family and friends have been dropped.
In the end, he said, he is the only person facing any serious fallout from the chaotic night.
“Everybody who was fighting ran when the cops got there and got away, the only person they arrested was me,” Fonoti said. “And all I was trying to do was break up the fights.”
Fonoti, who is out on $65,000 bail, is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 26.

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Suffolk County teacher arrested for sex assault of teen girl www.privateofficer.com

Suffolk County NY July 23 2009
Suffolk County police have arrested a Long Island teacher for allegedly sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
Authorities say that an officer on patrol in the West Islip area noticed a gray Honda Accord with two occupants in the parking lot of Westbrook Elementary School around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The officer found the car to be occupied by 28-year-old Daniel Rothbard, of Merrick, and the 15-year-old girl.
Rothbard, a math teacher from Valley Stream, was arrested and charged with endangering the welfare of a child
Further investigation by detectives determined that Rothbard and the victim had met online through MySpace and that he had sexually assaulted her. Rothbard was additionally charged with third-degree rape, third-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree sexual abuse.
Rothbard was freed on $5,000 bail after pleading not guilty Wednesday at his arraignment.
Detectives are continuing the investigation. They are researching the possibility that Rothbard had contact with other juvenile females online. He is known as “D to the J” or “DJ.” Anyone who has had contact with him is asked to call the Third Squad at 631-854-8352 or to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.

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