Archive
Perkins Ohio teacher arrested for sexual misconduct www.privateofficer.com
Source:Ohio onLine According to Perkins police, a teacher at Perkins high school has been arrested for inappropriate conduct with a student under the age of 18.
April Seville was arrested Monday and released on a $10,000 bond. She was charged with sexual battery. She’ll be in Erie County court Friday.
Perkins police were made aware of the complaint by Superintendent Gunner and Principal Gasteier on June 4. The complaint was that the teacher and student were kissing in the teacher’s classroom after school hours on June 2.
The complainants observed some inappropriate conduct by the teacher with the student and contacted school administrators.
During the investigation, the teacher and student admitted that the sexual relationship started sometime in 2009.
Special Police Officer remembered at Holocaust Museum www.privateofficer.com
Special Police Officer Stephen T Johns was killed by a white supremacist gunman on June 10, 2009, while guarding the museum. Two other guard opened fire on the gunman, critically wounding him.
“I wish it never happened,” said Harry Weeks, one of the officers who shot back, wounding von Brunn. Weeks remembered his fallen colleague, who died saving others. Talkback:
Click Here to Comment on this Story
“Stephen Johns is a good man, good man and his family, he was loved,” Weeks said. “He was loved here and he’ll be missed forever.”
The museum has a special display in honor of Johns, inlcuding a book of letters sent in from across America, lamenting what happened to him. That display is staffed by young people.
“The message is not to be a bystander, and I think that comes in to play, especially with Stephen T Johns, because the power of hate is so prevalent in the world,” said Sam Parker, a Gonzaga High School student.
The museum also announced it’s creating an annual seven-week summer internship named in Johns’ honor for 50 D.C.-area youth.
“What this museum is about is teaching the lessons of hate and, obviously, the brutal murder of Officer Johns showed us that we still have a lot of work to do,” said Sara Bloomfield, the museum’s director. “So in his honor, we wanted to do something in his own community. He grew up in Washington, he went to high school here, his church is here. We wanted to reach out to that community and nurture young leader to carry out the ideals for which he sacrificed his life.”
The suspect, James Werner von Brunn, a known anti-Semite, died in January at a prison hospital after being charged with murder.
Johns, 39, was survived by wife and pre-teen son. None of his family members attended a private ceremony where museum honored Johns.
Flags flew at half staff Thursday at the museum in Johns’ honor.
Trinity Catholic High School teacher charged with rape www.privateofficer.com
Kellie Ryan, 26, was charged with 1 count statutory rape and 2 counts statutory sodomy.
Authorities said Ryan had a romantic relationship between Nov. 1 and April. 16 with the student.
Ryan was a physical education and health teacher.
STATEMENT FROM SR. KARL MARY WINKLEMANN, SSND, PRESIDENT TRINITY HIGH SCHOOL:
On June 10, 2010 it was reported that Ms. Kellie Ryan, a first year P.E. teacher, was taken into police custody. Ms. Ryan has been on administrative leave since last April and the school has been cooperating in the investigation relating to Ms. Ryan. As is the school policy, a criminal background check was conducted by the school prior to employment of Ms. Ryan, and there was nothing reported in Ms. Ryan’s background that would render her unsuitable to work with minors.
Paulsboro teacher charged with enticing student www.privateofficer.com
Police say that Furey created a MySpace profile page pretending to be a 16-year-old boy, then arranged an encounter with a girl who was one of his students, after talking to her online for six months in a conversation that grew increasingly sexual, the Prosecutor’s Office said.
The girl recognized Furey when the two met June 3 in Paulsboro, authorities said. She talked with him briefly, left, and told her mother, who called Paulsboro police. He was arrested Wednesday.
Furey, who posted $50,000 bail, has been suspended with pay by the Paulsboro School District pending investigation and court proceedings. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
“There has to be some kind of mistake,” said Jennifer Lovell-Furey, 40, who was married to Furey for 17 years. “I have known him since I was 16 years old. I just can’t see him doing this.”
Fury has taught at Paulsboro since 2001 and before that taught at Willingboro High School for more than a decade, she said.
Paulsboro police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s High-Tech Crimes Unit-Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force were involved in the investigation, which included examining Furey’s computer, officials said.
At least 12 dead in Arkansas flash floods www.privateofficer.com
Floodwaters inundated campgrounds along the normally peaceful Caddo and Little Missouri rivers, swamping hikers and campers sleeping along the rivers’ banks. This area of the Ouachita Mountains includes second homes, hunting camps and a number of U.S. Forest Service campgrounds.
“We don’t know who was in there last night,” State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said. “This is a very wide area.”
Brigette Williams, spokeswoman for the American Red Cross in Little Rock, said that between 200 and 300 people were believed to be in the area at the time of the flooding. She did not know how many of those were campers and how many were local residents.
Williams said the Red Cross would provide shelter for anyone displaced by the flooding.
Sadler said 12 people died in the floods and that officials were setting up a temporary morgue in a refrigerated truck. Searchers worked along the Little Missouri River in Montgomery and Pike counties, while along the Caddo River at Glenwood police and fire crews monitored debris moving beneath the U.S. 70 bridge.
The National Guard dispatched helicopters to help in the rescue because much of the area was inaccessible by land. Tracy Farley of the U.S. Forest Service said the floods eroded some road beds and knocked trees across roads. Crews with bulldozers and chain saws were sent to the area.
Tabitha Clarke, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock, said the water rose quickly between 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. A river gauge at Langley, just south of the Camp Albert Pike area, had a peak reading of 23.39 feet — up from 3 feet deep at midnight.
Between 2:45 a.m. and 3:45 a.m., the river rose 8.08 feet and continued to rise, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors the gauge.
The rugged terrain likely kept some campers from reaching safety, Clarke said. Some parts of the valley are so steep and craggy that the only way out is to hike downstream. Any who had taken cars to the camp sites would have been blocked at low-water bridge crossings that are inundated when the rivers rise, she said.
At that time of night, many campers were likely still asleep when their tents began to fill with water, she said.
Gov. Mike Beebe, in Dumas for an economic development announcement, said the deaths occurred about 5:30 a.m., when the water hit its peak. He said he did not plan to visit the site immediately.
“I don’t want to get in the way,” Beebe said. “There is an intense search-and-rescue attempt.”
Weather service readings showed that 7.6 inches of rain fell in the area overnight.
Counterfeit cigarettes on the rise www.privateofficer.com
Source:Daily Press The average consumer won’t recognize a pack of counterfeit cigarettes, but they might recognize the taste is different.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has been seeing an increase in counterfeit cigarettes, which mimic brand-name products, according to Teresa Merhige, resident agent in charge of the ATF’s Norfolk office. Raids this week targeted those cigarettes or other tobacco-related offenses.
Federal authorities announced Thursday they had made arrests in Hampton Roads involving people charged with counterfeit and untaxed cigarettes. Local law enforcement also raided stores on Wednesday that were believed to be selling untaxed cigarettes after being tipped off by federal authorities.
Eight individuals were suspected in the trafficking operation, which the U.S. Attorney’s office said originated in New Jersey and New York under two different criminal enterprises. The investigation began in June 2009.
Federal authorities said that the groups received the contraband cigarettes in exchange for more than $4 million in cash and other counterfeit goods, such as tax stamps and postage stamps.
ATF believes many of the counterfeit cigarettes might be coming in from overseas. “You’ve got to really be trained,” Merhige said. “Some of these counterfeits are pretty doggone good.”
Mike Campbell, a spokesman for ATF, said on Wednesday that these crimes are on the rise because the profit margin is quite lucrative for traffickers. “The tax on a pack of cigarettes in New York is considerably higher than in Virginia,” Campbell said. Campbell said local law enforcement officials helped in some of the undercover portions of the federal investigation.
“For example, we’ve had people come to Northern Virginia and pay for cigarettes with two kilos of cocaine,” Campbell said, illustrating the worth of the untaxed cigarettes. Campbell said that there is a state tax on cigarettes and different cities also have taxes on them as well.
Merhige said that retailers selling the untaxed cigarettes, which should have a tax stamp affixed to them by the wholesaler, is a regionwide problem that affects all of Hampton Roads
Security officer assaulted, police use Taser to subdue suspect www.privateofficer.com
A man, who officials said attacked a nightclub security guard, fled from police, resisted arrest and fought with an officer, had to be subdued with a stun gun Thursday night.
San Antonio police Capt. Cris Andersen said the man, whose name and age were not released, was kicked out of a club in the 300 block of San Pedro Avenue after 11 p.m. but instead of leaving quietly, he allegedly assaulted the security guard and then ran off. The guard got the attention of a police officer nearby and the two chased the man on foot, blocking him in at the Jack in the Box drive-thru at San Pedro Avenue and Elmira Street.
Andersen said the man then assaulted the guard again and tried to fight with the officer who shocked him with the conductive energy device. Andersen said even after being shocked the man still tried to fight with police, throwing punches. After he was handcuffed, Andersen said the man also attempted to fight with the paramedics who were called to examine his injuries.
Andersen said the man faced multiple charges, including assault and resisting arrest. It was not immediately known why he was asked to leave the club.
Man commits suicide after seriously wounding officer www.privateofficer.com
JuneauEmpire.com – A 24-year-old Anchorage man suspected of seriously wounding a police officer during a traffic stop killed himself late Wednesday night as police tried to arrest him, authorities said.
Kenneth Robinson was suspected of shooting officer Jean Mills, 45, early Wednesday morning as she made a traffic stop in east Anchorage.
Investigators identified Robinson as the suspect and SWAT team officers converged on a house in west Anchorage shortly before midnight, armed with an attempted murder warrant, police spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said.
As Robinson walked outside the home, police tried to arrest him but he pulled out a handgun and shot himself.
“He took his own life when confronted by officers,” Parker told The Associated Press.
The suspect’s death came several hours after Mills, a 12-year veteran, was wounded in the abdomen and arm.
Parker said early Thursday that she is recovering from surgery and her prognosis is good, but she faces a long and difficult recovery.
It was the second time this year a police officer was shot in Anchorage. Officer Jason Allen was wounded Jan. 9 when a car pulled up next to his vehicle and a passenger fired. The 47-year-old officer, hit multiple times in his arms and torso, is recovering and police are looking for the shooter, Parker said.
Police said the Wednesday’s incident began with a routine traffic stop at 3:15 a.m. Parker said he did not know the reason why Mills pulled over Robinson’s maroon Taurus.
He said she approached the car on foot, and “when she was outside the window, the person pulled a gun and shot her.”
Neighbors told KTUU-TV they woke up to gunshots and screams for help. More than three dozen officers, including a SWAT team, rushed to the area.
The suspect’s car was found roughly two miles away near East High School several hours later, Parker said.
Parker called Mills an excellent and respected officer who has worked the same shift most of her career.
Drug Dragnet nets 2200 arrests www.privateofficer.com
The massive takedown, dubbed “Project Deliverance” and executed around the United States, was hailed as part of a nearly two-year, multi-agency operation in the Obama administration’s effort to fight the escalating and murderous Mexican drug trafficking operations.
It remains to be seen, however, what effect the dragnet truly will have on violence along the border, where Mexicans are being killed in record numbers and the White House recently announced the deployment of National Guard troops to bolster the U.S. response there. But top federal law enforcement authorities called it a major attempt at striking back.
“Project Deliverance inflicted a debilitating blow to the network of shadow facilitators and transportation cells controlled by the major Mexican drug cartels,” said Michele M. Leonhart, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, describing how hundreds of cars, buses and trucks have been stopped with cash and drugs hidden in gas tanks, air bags and behind trap doors.
Leonhart said a main focus of the raids and arrests was to “target the transportation networks” of the cartels moving drugs, guns and money, and to identify new “smuggling techniques” such as hidden compartments in automobiles and the use of commercial buses. “There were a number of things that opened our eyes,” she said, such as how heroin now is being smuggled into the U.S. in vehicles in bulk and not by individual couriers anymore.
Large arrests have been staged in the past, and cartel leaders have been extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. But in the past the arrests only ended up frustrating U.S. authorities because younger, more violent cartel leaders immediately stepped into the breach.
However this time, with the large scope of “Project Deliverance,”‘ which included 3,000 agents arresting 429 people in 16 states on Wednesday alone, U.S. officials hope they may be getting an upper hand.
As an example they highlighted the arrest of Carlos Ramon Castro-Rocha, alleged leader of the violent smuggling operation that carries his name along the border.
Also known as “Cuate,” or “The Twin,” he was named in a six-count federal grand jury indictment unsealed this week in Arizona following his arrest May 30 in Mexico. The indictment alleged that last year Castro-Rocha, 36, and his organization based in Sinaloa, Mexico, were a major distributor of heroin in this country, and that he employed smugglers as “cell heads” in the Phoenix area to move the drugs from vehicles to stash houses, where it was packaged for distribution.
Some 45 pounds of black-tar heroin was seized from his organization in Arizona, a value of some $2.2 million in street sales, officials said.
Castro-Rocha was arrested by Mexican authorities on the request of U.S. officials, and is pending extradition to Arizona. He faces a maximum of $4 million in fines and a sentence of life in prison.
A total of 2,266 people were arrested in 16 states, including the Chicago area where nine defendants were charged with drug offenses and 44 kilograms of heroin were seized last month. Many of those drugs were found in a hidden “trap” under a floorboard in a vehicle that had left Laredo, Tex., two days earlier.
“Without question,” pledged Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., “these arrests and seizures will disrupt drug cartel operations and impact the ability of traffickers to move narcotics into the United States.”
Holder also noted that Mexican officials assisted the U.S. in organizing the dragnet, and said that they also “are waging a courageous battle against drug cartels within their own borders.We continue to stand by them and work with them.”
He added, “We are striking at the heart of criminal smuggling operations.
Md. trooper shot-killed while on security duty www.privateofficer.com
Trooper Wesley Brown, 24, escorted a disorderly customer from an Applebee’s on Thursday evening and when he left the restaurant around 12:40 a.m. Friday, State Police Superintendent Col. Terrence Sheridan said that customer shot him.
Mr. Brown, who was wearing a jacket that clearly identified him as a police officer on the back, was talking on the phone in the parking lot of the restaurant and was shot without warning, Col. Sheridan said.
Mr. Brown was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Police closed the road to the shopping center where the shooting took place Friday morning with cruisers, vans and yellow police tape.
Some Applebee’s employees who were at the restaurant when the shooting occurred were just leaving Friday morning after being there all night, but declined to be interviewed.
Mr. Brown’s death has devastated the trooper’s law-enforcement and personal family and the community he protected, Col. Sheridan said.
“These men and women put their lives on the line and when this happens it goes against our society, it goes against everything we stand for,” said Col. Sheridan, who visited the scene with Gov. Martin O’Malley on Friday morning.
Mr. O’Malley said that for now, police must focus on finding the shooter.
“There’s no way to make sense of a murder like this of a dedicated 24-year-old trooper who was doing his job and out there on the streets for us,” Mr. O’Malley said.
Mr. Brown was assigned to the Forestville barracks and was recently engaged to be married, Col. Sheridan said.
State Police spokesman Greg Shipley said Mr. Brown was working off-duty. Many troopers do security work as part-time jobs, but it must be approved by the state police command, he said.
Police were searching the area for the gunman.
Police, security officers injured in deadly fire www.privateofficer.com
The fire broke out just after midnight. The girl’s mother and four other children were in the home at the time. Jada was trapped in a second floor bedroom and by the time firefighters got to her and she was taken to the hospital, it was too late.
“We’re gonna miss her,” her father Damon McElwaine said. “I appreciate everyone’s help. I miss my daughter.”
The mother and other children were treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation. The mother tried to run back into the house to rescue her daughter, but couldn’t reach her and burned her hand.
Three policemen and two firefighters were also treated and released.
Two charged with fraudulent credit card scheme www.privateofficer.com
Officers arrested 37-year-old Christina Smith and her live-in boyfriend, 36-year-old Soloman Williams, at their Gilbert home near Williams Field and Lindsay roads early Wednesday.
Officers say Smith and Williams were making fake gift cards and using them at Macy’s department stores across the Valley. The couple also reportedly sold the cards online.
Investigators say victims have come forward in numerous states, along with Macy’s and Home Depot stores and several U.S. Banks.
The fraudulent transactions date as far back as 2006, but the couple stalled their operation and then started back up in 2008.
In March 2010, with the help of Macy’s Loss Prevention, investigators began to close in on the couple.
During a search of their home, detectives reportedly found credit card making tools including an embossing machine, credit card magnetic stripping, rolls of security labels, blank credit card stock, and computer hardware to write to the magnetic stripping.
Smith faces 13 charges of credit card theft, forgery of a credit card, possession of credit card device along with defraud and forgery.
Williams is charged with eight counts of forgery of a credit card, possession of a credit card device, forgery and fraudulent schemes.
Both are now being held at the Maricopa County 4th Avenue Jail.
Initial losses are at $15,000, but detectives say the financial impact will be much higher.
