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Security company owner charged with stealing wages, perjury www.privateofficer.com
Emmanuel Odigie, owner of Northeast Security Guard Services, was charged with second-degree perjury. He had appeared in court on multiple felony charges involving stealing wages from his security guards and filing false business records.
As Odigie left Judge Catherine Bartlett’s courtroom, the Rockland District Attorney’s Office arrested him on new perjury charges accusing him of providing false financial and other information sought by a Supreme Court judge as part of a civil action seeking to release his assets.
Prosecutors had Odigie’s bank accounts and other assets frozen as part of the criminal charges accusing him of underpaying security guards assigned to work at the Clarkstown garbage processing facility in West Nyack.
Odigie’s lawyer, Anthony C. Emengo, rushed back into the courtroom to tell Bartlett that his client had been arrested and detectives had pushed him aside.
Bartlett calmly told a harried Emengo that she didn’t see the arrest and could do nothing for him.
She told him he could file a complaint against the prosecution and seek bail.
“I assume they had probable cause,” Bartlett told Emengo.
Emengo went upstairs to the District Attorney’s Office on the fourth floor of the courthouse. His client was scheduled to be arraigned later today in Clarkstown Justice Court.
Odigie is accused of stealing $291,573 in wages from three workers, as well as providing fraudulent documents that included false names of employees.
The state sets security guard wages at $12 per hour and Odigie is accused of paying $5.50 per hour from September 2004 until July 2008, prosecutor Gary Lee Heavner said.
The charges include second-degree grand larceny, willful failure to pay prevailing wages and falsifying business records.
Before Bartlett, Emengo argued prosecutors and Clarkstown had targeted Odigie because he’s black and won the security contract with the best offer. He also claimed prosecutors committed improprieties and legally should go after the company, not Odigie.
Heavner told Barlett that Emengo misrepresented the facts and misstated the law.
Bartlett didn’t get involved in the charges and countercharges.
She offered Odigie six months in the county jail, plus three years probation, in exchange for a guilty plea to second-degree grand larceny. He also would have to pay restitution.
Emengo said Odigie might take a reasonable plea offer, but he wanted Bartlett to consider his legal arguments. She told him to respond to the sentence offer by Oct. 14 and put his arguments in writing.
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Job applicant becomes murder suspect after background check www.privateofficer.com
Lawrenceville police Capt. Greg Vaughn said Tuesday that 65-year-old Johnny Wright went to the department last week for a routine check after applying for a job as a driver. When police ran the check, they found out he was wanted in connection with the slaying of University of Missouri student Rebecca Doisy.
Doisy was a waitress at a steakhouse when she disappeared on Aug. 5, 1976. She was reported missing two days later. Police had issued a warrant for Wright in 1985.
The Gwinnett County magistrate’s court said Wright had waived extradition and is being held in the county jail awaiting his return to Missouri.
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Security officer charged with threatening principal www.privateofficer.com
Carlos L. Cintron III, 25, of 125 S. Gilbert St., Shenandoah, was taken into custody Thursday by the Shenandoah Police Department and remained in the Schuylkill County Prison on Tuesday under $50,000 bail.
According to arrest documents, Cintron worked for Anthracite Protection Services, which provides security for the Shenandoah Valley School District. He allegedly wrote the threatening statements on a weekly supervisor’s report, which a custodian found lying on the floor near Cintron’s work station.
Police allege Cintron wrote, ”I request time off to slit the throat of the current principal,” referring to junior-senior high school Principal Phillip Andras. Another statement said, ”There will be another Virginia Tech situation, and no one will care. This town doesn’t exist.”
Cintron was allegedly referring to the April 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, where 32 people were killed by a lone gunman.
According to the arrest affidavit, Cintron signed the report with his name and followed it with ”aka The Punisher.”
Police said the custodian turned in the note to the school district superintendent, who forwarded it to Cintron’s supervisor at Anthracite Protection Services. A representative from Anthracite contacted police.
According to the arrest affidavit, police interviewed Cintron, and he admitted writing the notes on the report.
He was charged with two felony counts of terrorist threats and misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and harassment. He was taken to jail following his arraignment in Shenandoah before District Judge Anthony J. Kilker.
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Teen arrested after telling mall security about pot rip-off www.privateofficer.com
Samantha Medina, 17, of Salem now faces a charge of sale of a controlled drug after she called police when the alleged deal went bad about 8 p.m. Saturday.
Police said Medina first told security at The Mall at Rockingham Park and then told a Salem police officer working a detail there that she had sold marijuana to the D’Angelos employees in the mall’s food court.
After Medina handed the bag of marijuana over, the employees slammed the door on her and refused to pay, police said.
Police found a small bag of marijuana and all three were taken into custody.
In addition to Medina being charged, 17-year-old Vincent Brown of Salem and 21-year-old Danielle Fiore of Kittery, Maine, were charged with possession of a controlled drug.
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Private police chief pleads guilty to porn charges www.privateofficer.com
In October 2008, a 14-year-old reported being sexually assaulted by Joe Guarascio.
He was arrested, and an investigation revealed sexually explicit photographs of a child on his phone and more than 3,000 images of child pornography on his computer.
The maximum penalty for the charge is up to 30 years in prison and a life term of supervised release.
Guarascio founded Inter-pol, a private security force, but stepped down as chief last year.
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Hotel robbed, security officer duck taped www.privateofficer.com
Two armed men with towels draped over their heads robbed a Victorville hotel early this morning, officials said.
A security guard and clerk were gagged and bound with duct tape inside the Hilton Garden Inn’s business office about 3:10 am. by a pair of robbers who stole a safe and cash from the register, according to sheriff’s officials.
Deputies searched the area around the hotel on Mariposa Road but could not find the robbers.
One was about 5-feet 9-inches tall and weighed 170 pounds. The other was 5-feet 2-inches tall and weighed 150 pounds.
The men wore gloves. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Al Huff at (760) 241-2911.
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Nashville cop charged with gun trafficking www.privateofficer.com
Federal investigators said Metro Officer Edwing Ronal Morales and the others were charged in a conspiracy to purchase guns to send to two separate drug cartels in Guatemala.
The indictment charges that Julio Cesar Rojas-Lopez recruited Donald Efren Franco, Denis Franco, Luis Armando Monterroso Pineda and Morales to purchase guns from gun dealers in Davidson County.
The men allegedly falsified documents claiming they were purchasing the guns for themselves when the guns were in fact being delivered to the cartels in Guatemala.
Investigators said the defendants purchased 23 firearms and attempted to purchase five more guns, ammunition and falsely stated who the purchasers and recipients would be.
Some of the weapons purchased did end up in Guatemala, said investigators.
“They put them in towed cars, secreted them inside towed vehicles and towed the vehicles across the border. They also put them in secret compartments in the cars,” said agent James Cavanaugh of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Authorities said all five men indicted have citizenship in another country but are in the United States legally.
Morales had been assigned to routine patrol in the North precinct. While Morales was an officer, according to Serpas it doesn’t appear he used his position in any way to purchase the guns.
“I think (Morales) was stupid to be involved in this criminal enterprise and think he could get away with it,” Serpas said.
Morales was fired Sept. 15 from the Metro Nashville Police Department. He had been a police officer trainee since April 1, 2007.
“This community and this police department has no tolerance for anyone involved in this type of behavior,” said Serpas.
Authorities would not say how they were tipped off but said they started piecing things together after two of the men were pulled over after leaving a gun shop in Franklin.
As for the former police officer involved, Serpas said sometimes you cannot keep those who uphold the law from breaking it.
“I think in every walk of life, people get through the cracks, people slip through, and somehow secret what their true motivations and true behavior is,” said Serpas.
All five of the people involved have turned themselves in to authorities. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. district attorney.
Morales passed a background check and had a clean record before becoming a Metro officer
Budget woes have Alabama deputies wearing different badges www.privateofficer.com
Sheriff Mike Hale, Chief A.C. Roper and Mayor Larry Langford met Tuesday morning to discuss the transfers.
“This is the saddest day of my professional career to let go of these fine young men and women, and a day I never thought we would see,” Hale said Tuesday. “These young deputies were recruited, hand-picked and trained to be the future of the sheriff’s office, and protecting the people of Jefferson County is where they wanted to be.”
“I have literally stayed awake at night worrying about their families and their ability to pay their bills,” Hale said. “My goal is to place each and every one of them with another police agency so they endure as little hardship as possible.”
Roper said it’s a win for the city, and for the officers who will have work when just a week ago it looked like there might be none.
“It’s exciting for us but, at the same time, it’s bittersweet because they’re having to go through something that no law enforcement officer should have to go through in a time of an economic recession,” Roper said.
The Jefferson County Commission last week approved a budget that cuts the funding for the sheriff’s office from $61 million to $51 million.
Hale responded to the cuts by announcing he would: close the Bessemer jail and transfer those inmates to the Birmingham jail; pull deputies working courthouse security and place the last-hired employees – 46 sworn deputies and 21 civilians – on unpaid leave.
Roper said the Birmingham Police Department loses roughly 30 to 50 officers a year through attrition. Birmingham police officers can retire after 20 years, and many do.
There are about 100 openings in the department, and money to hire the deputies is already in the budget through attrition and already-funded positions, he said.
We can absorb these 20 officers, put a Birmingham police patch on them and the good thing is they’re familiar with the area and they know how we operate,” the chief said.
Birmingham police recruits complete an 18-week academy, sheriff’s deputies a 15-week academy. The 20 being transferred will undergo a two-week lateral transfer training class.
“We’re not teaching them how to be police officers because they’ve already gone through that training,” Roper said. ” We’re just teaching them the Birmingham process.”
A Birmingham police officer’s starting pay is about $4,000 higher than a deputy’s starting pay.
The cost of training a new Birmingham police officer is roughly $50,000. Hale said normally deputies leaving the department within a certain time period have to repay the cost of their training, but he is waiving that requirement in this process.
“We want to make sure we treat them fairly and there’s no burden,” Hale said. “They did nothing wrong. The County Commission simply underfunded us and we’re having to live within our budget.”
Hale and Roper said they will try to expedite the paperwork and submit it to the Jefferson County Personnel Board for approval within a matter of days, rather than weeks.
As for the remaining deputies facing unpaid leave, Hale said he hopes to whittle down that number through sheriff’s office attrition. About six already are seeking jobs with other departments.
For those who remain, “We’re getting to ramp it up,” Hale said. “We’re going to make calls to every police department, every police chief and we’re going to market these deputies.”
Utica police detective kills wife, himself www.privateofficer.com
After one of Longo’s young sons discovered his injured parents upon returning home shortly before 4 p.m., his father was alive long enough to mutter to a state trooper that he had killed his 38-year-old wife, Kristin Longo, before turning the knife on himself, officials said.
“We will do an investigation and try to determine why he did what he did, but it’s certainly going to be difficult,” state police Troop D. Capt. Frank Coots said during a news conference Monday evening outside the Longos’ 10508 Cosby Manor Road home.
Wisconsin deputy demoted, another resigns over Facebook posting www.privateofficer.com
Wisconsin deputies demoted after Facebook video incident
The video taken last month shows the deputies burning a uniformed effigy propped against a small cross. A woman at one point says the burning cross has a “KKK aspect to it.”
Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel said Tuesday that Deputy Jennifer Bass resigned and Wendy Schmitz has been demoted to dispatcher. Bass had been a jailer and Schmitz had been an investigative sergeant.
The sheriff says both women called the burning a “stress reliever.” Notes bearing names of the sheriff and other officers were affixed to the dummy.
