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3 PA. firemen charged with arson www.privateofficer.com
Source:Firehouse.com State police have arrested three Schuylkill County men on charges they set a series of fires that caused more than $2 million damage while they were volunteers with the Friedensburg Fire Company.
Shawn Hoy, 21, of Pine Grove and John Eichert, 21, of Orwigsburg were arrested Tuesday and committed to Schuylkill County Prison in lieu of $100,000 bail each after arraignment before District Judge Stephen J. Bayer in Tamaqua.
Hoy was charged with nine counts of arson, and Eichert was charged with five counts of arson.
The third firefighter, Matthew Dixon, 18, of Friedensburg was charged Tuesday with one count of arson and committed to the county jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
All were charged with conspiracy to commit arson, criminal mischief and recklessly endangering another person.
According to investigators:
Nine fires were set between Sept. 30 and Jan. 23 in Washington, Wayne, West Brunswick and East Brunswick townships in Schuylkill County.
The fires were set at seven barns, a vacant house and a field.
Hoy was involved in all nine arsons, while Eichert took part in five and Dixon in one. No one was injured, and no livestock died. The men responded to the fires as volunteer firefighters. None of the buildings was occupied, but one of the barn fires was next to a house occupied by a woman, leading to the charges of recklessly endangering another person.
Investigators said Wednesday that they obtained information while investigating an unrelated case that led to the arrests.
Officials at the fire company could not be reached for comment.
Troopers said fire company officials have assisted in the investigation, which is continuing.
Nashville cabbie charged with rape www.privateofficer.com
Police said the cab driver picked up the 21 year old woman in downtown Nashville.
Officials said the woman had become separated from friends while visiting a nightclub. She hailed a cab to take her to Fort Campbell.
Kheir instead allegedly drove her to Yellow Cab Company headquarters where he raped her.
The victim told police he then took her to the Greyhound bus station and made her get out. Police said she took another cab home, and reported the alleged rape to the Army.
Detectives discovered incomplete log sheets for the cab company. The victim picked Kheir out of hundreds of photographs given by the Yellow Cab to police after a court order.
Kheir is in the Metro jail charged with rape by force. He is being held on a $100,000 bond.
Detectives urge any other women who may have been assaulted or victimized by Kheir to contact the police department’s Sex Crimes Unit at 862-7540.
Substitute teacher charged with inappropriate touching www.privateofficer.com
Hugh Clinton Griffis III, 54, was arrested on Monday at his home on Collinsworth Road in north Coweta, according to Major James Yarbrough of the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office.
The alleged incidents at the school occurred between noon and 1 p.m. on Friday, he said.
The school resource officer was contacted by an assistant principal after two students reported that their substitute teacher had touched them inappropriately, according to the major.
After taking statements from the alleged victims and other witnesses, the sheriff’s office determined that Griffis had touched a female student twice — once bumping into her to make it seem like an accident and the second time by touching her bra strap on her back — and that he grabbed the thigh of a male student, according to Yarbrough.
After talking with teachers and parents, the sheriff’s office decided to pursue charges against Griffis. He has since bonded out of jail, but will not be returning to substitute teaching, Yarbrough said.
Anyone with additional information may contact the sheriff’s office at 770-253-1502 .
Security officer rescued from flooded mall www.privateofficer.com
By: Rick McCann/Staff
PRIVATE OFFICER NEWS
http://www.privateofficer.com
Emergency crews continued their rescue operations as flood waters continued to swamp many areas of the city.
Police said that a mall security officer also had to be rescued from the Warwick Mall because he was stranded inside the shopping center on Wednesday.
Firefighters were able to use a boat to get the mall security officer out.
“He had been there for the last 24, 25 hours or so, and they felt as though it was getting to be a situation where he might have been panicking a little bit, a health issue,” said Bruce Cooley of the Warwick Fire Department.
Water had completely flooded out the parking lot right up to the mall doors.
That guard had refused to leave his post even as the mall area flooded.
Gov. Don Carcieri has ordered the continuation of the state of emergency in effect from the storm two weeks ago.
The Pawtuxet River, which is expected to reach an all-time high of 20 feet, flooded homes and backyards in Warwick on Tuesday. Some local emergency crews evacuated residents and responded to those in need via wave runners.
“We don’t want anybody to be caught in a situation where there is a flash flood or where it rises so quickly that they’re trapped in their property. It puts not only those families but the responders at risk to get them out of there,” said J. David Smith of Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency.
Authorities said that the security officer was in good condition but did not release his name.
9 Yr old boy fakes kidnapping www.privateofficer.com
The little boy had been suspended from Margaret Fain Elementary School in southwest Atlanta, and was trying to avoid paying the piper.
So he called his parents and told them he was kidnapped, Atlanta police spokesman Sgt. Curtis Davenport said.
“He said he was picked up at the corner of Delmar Lane and Hemphill School Road,” Davenport said. “He said the alleged kidnapper drove him to Allen Temple Apartments on ML King Drive and put him out.”
The kid gave police a general description of his so-called kidnapper, noting that the man was wearing a ski mask and Nike Air Force One sneakers, police said.
After two hours of searching, investigators discovered the boy near the apartment complex and questioned him – with his mother present, or course – until police said they noticed holes in his story.
Realizing what was going on, Mom was not amused, Davenport said.
University of Alaska at Anchorage psychology professor John Petraitis offered a quick clinical opinion on the incident.
“I guess he didn’t think that one through, did he?” Petraitis said.
Petraitis, who specializes in evaluating risk-taking behaviors of youth, said kids that age aren’t that good at envisioning consequences.
“This kid probably thought, ‘OK I need to save my bacon,’ not thinking, Mom and Dad are going to call the police, who would then send out a search team,” Petraitis said. “He just opened up a can of worms and he didn’t know what was in there.”
Should the justly ticked-off parental units be concerned such behavior might lead to criminal deviance in the future?
No, Petraitis said.
“This is typical for 9-year-olds,” he said. “That kid’s not good at taking someone else’s perspective. He wouldn’t understand that mom and dad would freak out.”
Davenport urges people of all ages not to try such a stunt, at home anywhere else, because it wastes police resources that could be used stopping real crime.
“I wouldn’t recommend anyone play with the 911 system,” he said.
So what happens to our young falsifier, now?
“He’s just 9,” Davenport said. He won’t be charged by police.
Mom and Dad might not let him off so easily.
Security officer tries saving Empire State Building jumper www.privateofficer.com
The guard shouted “You don’t have to do this!” to Cameron Dabaghi — the son of two doctors from Austin, Texas — but he ignored the pleas and plunged to his death at about 6:30 p.m., police sources said.
The death of the junior, who majored in East Asian Studies at the Ivy League school, stunned pals because he seemed happy.
Cops found a note in his dorm room that said he was “sorry” and that he intended to either jump from the Empire State Building or the George Washington Bridge, sources said.
Dabaghi’s younger sister, Andrene, also is a Yale student.
“It’s so sad. I always thought he was somebody who would change the world,” said Jack Newman, Dabaghi’s former tennis coach in Austin.
$1 million bond for man who shot security officers www.privateofficer.com
Christopher Beatty-Jones is facing four counts of felonious assault for the incident outside the Western Manor apartments on James H. McGee Boulevard. He allegedly shot two security officers after they had stopped his pickup truck after suspicious actions.
One of the security guards, Bill St. Peter, was wearing a protective vest and was not critically wounded. He was released from the hospital on Tuesday after remaining overnight for examination.
Jim Locker, the other security guard, was not wearing a vest and had to be taken by Careflight to Miami Valley Hospital. He’s still listed in critical condition.
