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South Florida teacher arrested for student sexual assault www.privateofficer.com
According to school district officials, Shedrick Copeland, 29, taught social studies for four years at Robert Morgan Educational Center, at 18180 SW 122th Ave.
Students at Robert Morgan were surprised to hear about the allegations surrounding Copeland. Melanie Donaldson, one of Copeland’s students, said, “I am very shocked because I would never expect him to do something like this. Mr. Copeland, he is a teacher, but he’s a really laid-back person. He’s really sweet. He talks to everyone.”
Another of Copeland’s students, Deeana Menard, agreed. “He’s not the type of person that would do something like that,” she mentioned.
The alleged victim, 17, told police she had consensual sex with Copeland. According to police, the sex acts took place at Copeland’s apartment, on March 6.
A parent of a Robert Morgan student, Ana Mercier, expressed concern about her daughter’s safety at the school. “I’m scared. My daughter comes here, and she’s 17 too. I’m really concerned.”
Copeland was charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor and engaging in a sexual act with a child.
Copeland bonded out of jail, and district officials said Copeland has been reassigned away from students.
Fla. jail guard arrested for helping inmate escape www.privateofficer.com
Rigby, 21, managed to “bypass” a fourteen foot tall fence topped with six rolls of razor wire. Rigby has 9 felony convictions on his record since he turned 18 three years ago, and an open case for attempted murder in June of last year.
Investigators said that after interviewing inmates and corrections officers, they learned that Caraballo knew about the escape. They said Caraballo was offered a large amount of money in exchange for providing assistance, such as a metal binder clip and cell phone access verification.
The metal binder clip was used by Rigby to remove the toilet/sink unit from the wall, but Caraballo never received any money. When interviewed by investigators, Caraballo confirmed that he provided a metal binder clip but claimed it was requested to bind legal papers. He told detectives he was asked to provide a hacksaw, which he refused to do, and he denied calling the cell phone number.
Caraballo was booked into the Osceola County Jail with no bond.
Osceola County Jail officials have been embroiled in the month-long scandal involving not one, but two, inmate escapes, as well as a breakdown of jail security which allowed a group of prisoners to brew homemade alcohol within their cells.
A second inmate, 39-year-old Carlos Rosa, was reported missing March 16th by jail guards. It is believed that Rosa hid under a building while outside of his cell in the jail yard. When everyone else went inside, he scaled a small interior fence with razor wire on top. He then got on the roof of the housing unit and jumped over the outside fence. Rosa was captured a day later following a tip from an anonymous caller.
Chief of Corrections Greg Futch went before the Osceola County Commission in an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss what would be done to improve security at the jail. Following Rigby’s escape, Futch disciplined 26 employees. One worker has since resigned.
“These people have been lazy, looking for ways to shortcut and circumvent policy for years,” Futch said on Wednesday.
A new security tower is the first of several enhancements worth approximately $4 million which are planned for facility. Also included are upgrades to roll-up doors, installation of new cameras and lights, and the relocation of high-risk inmates.
Meanwhile, authorities continue to search for Rigby, described as a black man, standing approximately 5 foot 11 inches tall and weighing 170 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office at (407) 348-2222.
Fired employee disables 100 cars-via internet www.privateofficer.com
All of these annoyances were thanks to a former collection agent for Austin-based car dealership Texas Auto Center, who is accused of taking revenge on his former employer by remotely disabling more than 100 customer cars. Twenty-year old Oscar Ramos-Lopez reportedly gained unauthorized access into the dealership’s remote vehicle immobilization system, which allowed him to stop customer vehicles from starting or cause their horns to honk continuously. Ramos-Lopez is also said to have deleted customer accounts and swapped celebrity names for the names of actual customers, according to a report by Austin NBC affiliate KXAN.
The vehicle disabling technology, powered by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies (PayTeck), is only supposed to be used when someone fails to meet their auto loan or lease obligations. Austin police arrested Lopez on Wednesday charging him with breach of computer security.
Ramos-Lopez reportedly accessed the remote system by using the ID and password of another employee. It’s not clear how long Ramos-Lopez was causing mischief for Auto Center customers, but Wired is reporting that Ramos-Lopez cracked into the dealership’s center as early as late February. Ramos-Lopez began by targeting specific customers, but soon discovered he could access files for every car that had the remote access system installed. From there, Ramos-Lopez went down the list, wreaking havoc on Texas Auto Center’s customers by destroying records, disabling vehicles, and setting off car horns. Many customers complained Ramos-Lopez’s actions forced them to miss work, have their cars towed for repairs, or disable car batteries to stop the honking.
Ramos-Lopez was able to get away with his actions for a little while, but ultimately wasn’t able to evade detection. Austin Police were able to discover his identity by matching Ramos-Lopez’s Internet Protocol address to PayTeck’s login records. Texas Auto Center says it has learned from its mistakes, and has reduced the number of employees who have access to its remote disabling system. The dealership also plans to reset system passwords every time an employee quits or is fired from the car dealership, according to KXAN.
Ramos-Lopez is just the latest person accused of workplace mischief. In May 2009, the FBI arrested an ex-employee of a Texas power company after the man sabotaged his former employer’s energy forecast system. Earlier that same year, a security guard at a Dallas-area hospital was charged with felony computer intrusion after installing malicious botnet software in the hospital’s security system.
Ultimately though, all three of these would-be master cyber criminals were tracked down by Texas-based law enforcement officers. So let that be a lesson to all you budding saboteurs out there, you might get away with this kind of stuff in some states, but you don’t mess with Texas.
Guard arrested for pointing gun during state meeting www.privateofficer.com
Sixty three year old Robert Montgomery of Beaver was arraigned at Portsmouth Municipal Court on Thursday on one count of misdemeanor inducing panic.
He was released from the Scioto County Jail after posting a $1,000 bond following his Wednesday arrest.
The Highway Patrol says Montgomery is a guard at the Ohio Industrial Commission office in Portsmouth in southern Ohio. He’s accused of entering the meeting at the office at about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday and leaving after a short exchange of words. No one was hurt.
TRAVEL ALERT-ALABAMA I-65 www.privateofficer.com
HUNTSVILLE, AL. March 18 2010- The state will close a 16-mile section of northbound Interstate 65 between Lacon and Decatur on Thursday because of a sinkhole found near Hartselle on Friday.
Northbound lanes will be closed at 9 a.m. between Exit 318 at Lacon and Vinemont and Exit 334 at Decatur and Priceville, according to a news release this afternoon from state trooper spokesman Curtis Summerville.
That portion of I-65 will be closed until further notice because of the sinkhole found about two miles north of the Hartselle exit on Friday.
The state Department of Transportation had closed the northbound, outside lane of I-65 north of Hartselle on Friday after finding the sinkhole on the road shoulder.
The DOT on Friday said it planned to repair the shoulder but didn’t know how long the engineering assessment and repairs would take.
During the closure, northbound traffic will exit at the Lacon and Vinemont onto U.S. 31 north. Motorists will follow U.S. 31 through Falkville and Hartselle before coming to Alabama 67 (Beltline Road) in Decatur.
Motorists will turn right onto Alabama 67 south until they reach I-65 at the Decatur and Priceville exit.
All northbound entrance ramps between the two exits will be closed. They are Exit 322 at Falkville, Exit 325 at Thompson Road in Hartselle and Exit 328 at Alabama 36 in Hartselle.
State troopers are encouraging motorists to drive with caution and not to attempt to remove or travel around any barricades.
Motorists can dial *HP (*47) toll-free on their cell phones to report road emergencies to the nearest state trooper post.
Police identify bank robbers killed in shoot-out www.privateofficer.com
The suspect who entered the bank in the outfit was 20-year-old David Christopher Cotton from Brentwood.
Officials said the suspect in the getaway vehicle was 20-year-old Jonathan Ryan Skinner. He was also a student at Western Kentucky University.
The Gallatin Police Department announced that the Santa Clause clad suspect who robbed the Hermitage SunTrust bank in December was the suspect who dressed as a leprechaun to rob the First State Bank Wednesday in Gallatin.
Cotton and Skinner died Wednesday trying to escape police. Police said preliminary investigation indicates Cotton took his own life.
Warrant issued in vehicle death of US Marine www.privateofficer.com
Cobb County police spokesman Officer Joe Hernandez said Thursday that 71-year-old Bruce Joseph Quayle of Villa Rica is charged with homicide by vehicle, serious injury by vehicle, driving under the influence, reckless driving and driving on the wrong side of the road.
Hernandez says Quayle cannot be formally arrested until he is released from the hospital, where he is in stable condition.
Police say Quayle was driving the wrong way on Interstate 20 when he hit a car driven by Lance Cpl. Gregory M. Suedmeyer, killing the Marine and injuring his 19-year-old wife, Katelyn Suedmeyer.
Police say the Suedmeyers were headed home to Huntsville, Ala., from Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Teen chess champ killed during robbery www.privateofficer.com
It happened shortly before 11 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as Anthony Beavers, 19, of Jonesboro. MARTA’s assistant police said he was killed on the southbound platform.
Beavers is a graduate of Jonesboro High School and is remembered as brilliant chess champion.
Police have not established a motive for the shooting and investigators are interviewing witnesses.
Beavers’ parents told Channel 2 Action News reporter Tom Jones that they discovered a man tried to take their son’s new touchscreen phone. They said Beavers wouldn’t give up the phone, a struggle for it took place, and then the unidentified gunman opened fire.
“If he knew the person was armed I think he would have gave it up,” said Michelle Nichols, Beavers mother.
Police are reviewing video surveillance and Breeze card records from the station for clues.
” I’m praying for that person to turn himself in and do what’s right because my son didn’t have a choice to live or die,” said Nichols.
MARTA Assistant Police Chief Joseph Dorsey says there hasn’t been an incident this serious at a MARTA station in four years.
A MARTA representative told Channel 2 Action News reporter Darren Lyn that a MARTA police officer was on duty at the East Point Station, but not at the location where the shooting happened.
Cara Hodgson, a spokesman for the MARTA says train service was interrupted at that station for more than two hours and buses were used to transport passengers between stations.
Ejected bar patron returns with gun www.privateofficer.com
Police say that same man was involved in a confrontation with one of the club’s security guards earlier that night. They say the suspect punched the guard, was detained by security, but he was let go before police arrived.
Employees say he returned with a weapon, but no one was hurt.
Anyone with information should call Eugene Police.
Loomis Armored Car Flips-No One Injured www.privateofficer.com
No one was injured in the 12:40 p.m. crash.
The armored car, owned by Loomis Armored, ended up on the center divider on Whittier at Calmada Avenue, its alarm blaring.
At least six patrol cars responded, surrounding the vehicle. Officers closed off both sides of the boulevard, and traffic quickly backed up for about a half-mile in both directions.
A firefighter, using a ladder, climbed onto the vehicle and disabled the alarm.
Officials with Loomis Armored could not be reached for comment.
Whittier Officer Mike Dekowski said police were looking for the driver of a tan vehicle who may have triggered the crash. That driver fled the scene. Police had no description of the motorist.
The tan car pulled out of the driveway of Polly’s Pies, causing a car driving on Whittier Boulevard to swerve into the lane where the armored truck was traveling, he said.
The truck swerved to avoid the car, hit the center divider and flipped, Dekowski said.
The armored vehicle had a dashboard camera, Dekowski said. The company was expected to provide a copy of the video to police, Dekowski said.
Police cleared the scene about an hour later.
Minnesota man arrested for “pimping” out wife www.privateofficer.com
Clinton Danner, 32, of Rockford, Minn., is accused of forcing his wife to have sex with strangers at locations across the country.
Danner, 32, of Rockford, Minn., is accused of forcing his wife to have sex with strangers at locations across the country, including a downtown Chicago Hotel.
He was arrested Sunday night by Cook County Sheriff’s Police as he arrived to pick up his wife from a downtown Holiday Inn where he made her stay for the weekend, prosecutors said today.
Though he’d planned for her to fly home Monday, he called to tell her he was disappointed by how little money she’d made over the weekend and was personally driving to Chicago to confront her, authorities said.
Seeking help, his wife secretly called the Polaris national sex trafficking hotline, leading to Danner’s arrest by Sheriff’s police, Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti told Judge Donald Panarese during a brief hearing at the Cook County criminal court.
Danner, who’s charged with felony pandering, wore plaid shorts in court Wednesday. He was ordered held on $150,000 bail.
He had pimped his wife out since she became pregnant four years ago, Antonietti said.
He initially forced her to have sex with strangers in Minnesota, but over the last six months “branched out,” sending her to New York, Georgia, Washington D.C. and Illinois, Antonietti said.
He’d often travel with her and their 3-year-old daughter, living out of a van while she was forced to prostitute herself, Antonietti added.
The wife had no credit card or access to a bank account, allowing Danner to control her, she said.
Danner met his wife five years ago, when she was 17 and he was a 27-year-old church youth counselor, Antonietti said.
By then, Danner already had a string of felony convictions in Minnesota, including two burglary convictions in 1996, a 1996 lottery fraud conviction and a 2002 drug conviction, Antonietti said.
Records showed Danner had paid for his wife to fly to Chicago and for her hotel stay, Antonietti said. He gave a written statement following his arrest, she said.
Investigators followed Danner from Florida, where he’d forced his wife to work last week, according to a release from the Sheriff’s office.
The victim was initially apprehensive, but came around to working with the Sheriff’s Department of Women’s Justice Services, which has former prostitutes among it’s staff, the release says.
She told investigators Danner regularly threatened to take her child away from her or harm the child if she didn’t prostitute herself on his behalf, the Sheriff’s office said. He never allowed the woman to be left alone with the child while she was trafficked in eight states, Sheriff’s Police said.
When he was arrested at 10 p.m. Sunday, the child he brought with him was turned over to the victim. Both the victim and child were placed in safe housing, police said.
Dart, who filed a federal lawsuit against craigslist over prostitution ads, plans to notify the Web site owners of this latest arrest. That lawsuit was dismissed last year after craigslist agreed to review every ad for illegal content before it is posted.
Unruly patron attacks casino officer www.privateofficer.com
By Brett Davis/Staff
PRIVATE OFFICER NEWS
http://www.privateofficer.com/ – Authorities took a man in custody in the early morning hours of Sunday for fighting with casino security officers.
Police said that the man was being escorted out of Harrah’s Atlantic City when he turned and attacked the two security officers who were accompanying him.
According to security personnel, Patrick Sunseri was involved in a fight with a female and casino officers intervened. Two officers advised the man to leave the property and were walking him out of the casino when he became violent and all three crashed into a glass picture frame with one security officer requiring five stitches.
Additional security officers and police arrived to assist in getting Sunseri into custody and he has been charged with numerous offenses and transported to jail.
There was no word on any charges pending against the woman.
The security officer was treated at an area hospital and released.
Police seek two who robbed woman on death bed www.privateofficer.com
According to police, two men entered the Toronto East General Hospital on Tuesday around 8 p.m. and began going floor to floor.
Det. Const. Nora Blackmore said the robbers then made off with the jewelry of the woman in her 70s who was in the palliative care unit.
Police say the family had just left the woman’s bedside vigil to get some coffee when the robbers struck. They alerted the police when the family returned and noticed some misplaced items.
By the time the police arrived around 8:45 p.m., the victim had died.
“The family is obviously very upset,” Blackmore said. “But no one was physically hurt during this incident.”
Hospital spokesperson Penny Walcott said it is not believed the men stole from other patients on Tuesday.
“To the best of my knowledge, there were no others,” Walcott said on Wednesday night.
The hospital has security cameras at all entrances and exits, meaning police have video of possible suspects, she said.
“I can’t speak to the hospital security, but we are releasing these security images in the hopes that someone will recognize them,” Blackmore said.
The suspects are described as white, between 20 and 30 years of age. One male has short dark brown hair and was wearing blue jeans, a leather jacket, white running shoes and a black-and-white striped shirt.
The other man had a shaved head and was seen wearing a fedora-style hat and a dark jacket.
Police are also urging any other potential victims to come forward.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-5400 416-808-5400 , Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at http://www.222tips.com, or text TOR and the message to CRIMES (274637).
Spring breakers arrested after accusing security of rapes www.privateofficer.com
The young women — 19-year-old Megan Wheeler of Allen, Texas, and 22-year-old Kimberly Mills of McDonough, Ga. — were arrested in separate incidents Monday, according to incident reports. Initially, both simply were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. The false report charge is a felony.
Each woman made a rape accusation at the Bay County Jail, authorities said. Read ‘Police, deputies charge women with filing false reports’ »
In Mills’ case, deputies said she was making similar accusations before that. A friend said she was kicked out of Sharky’s Beach Club (where she accused a security guard of rape), angrily locked the friend out of their shared hotel room and caused a scene in the hotel as the pair argued about it.
A deputy responded, eventually arrested Mills on a disorderly conduct charge and led her to a patrol car, where she “yelled out, ‘You raped me,’ ” according to an incident report.
After she arrived at the jail, she claimed one of two male security guards who escorted her — a female guard was present, too — also raped her, the deputy wrote. She remained locked up Wednesday on $5,250 bond, according to the jail.
Wheeler, meanwhile, said a Panama City Beach police officer raped her in the back of his patrol car. Police, however, said she wouldn’t consent to an examination and changed her story several times.
Panama City Beach Police Maj. David Humphreys said the false report charge is rare and the agency hasn’t filed one all year. However, if a woman alleges rape after a PCB police officer takes her to the Bay County Jail, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office handles the case.
Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Ruth Corley said that over the last two weeks the agency has arrested five people for providing false information or filing a false report.
Alcohol played a role in several other Spring Break incidents listed in the Sheriff’s Office daily reports, including Tuesday night when deputies said a 19-year-old spring breaker from Alabama reported he might have been robbed but apparently was too drunk to tell. Read ‘Police: Spring breaker too drunk to determine robbery’ »
An off-duty sheriff’s deputy approached the man after watching him stagger into Krystal in Panama City Beach about 10 p.m., according to the BCSO report. The spring breaker said his friends had ditched him and he was trying to get back to his hotel.
Once outside the restaurant, the young man told the deputy he had been robbed by a man at Walmart. He said a man put a “9” to his head, demanded his money, took $100 and ran away.
He then told the deputy he had been robbed near Walgreens, not Walmart. Next, he said it had happened at a gas station.
“It was obvious if something had occurred (he) was too intoxicated to assist in any investigation at this time,” the deputy wrote. “I noted (he) had urinated on himself, and he could hardly stand.”
The deputy told the man there was nothing police could do to help him “due to his extreme level of intoxication,” but that he could contact the Sheriff’s Office once he had sobered up, if he wanted to pursue the matter.
